VN - Ren'Py - Our Life: Now & Forever [v1.5.2 Beta] [GBPatch]

It is hard to actually praise a game when it comes to it.
The problem is that we are not actually smart, and most of our knowledge comes from pattern recognition. The more the patterns, the easier the recognition will occurs. Because of that, it is really easy to point out the bad part of most games when you have some hundreds of experiences stacking but good games are scarce and depending on the genre, going through the pattern recognition process is pretty hard.

Our Life: Now & Forever is a one of the kind.
What happen is just random events in the life of normal kids, there is nothing more to it.
Yet, it is great.
I do have a hard time to communicate on the why because of a lack of knowledge on my part, but I'll try my best.
The happenings itself not being the star, it is easy to spot that the writing is the strong of the game.

The writing is actually quite simple when you look at it. It uses dialogues and short descriptions giving insights on the characters feelings in sequences to not give too much of one or the others.
Thanks to this format, it keeps on being fast and interesting while actually being able to explaining why characters are acting the way they are and to convert the feeling a place brings to people actually living in this world.
The insights in the descriptions are sound, being on par with the character and foreshadowing at more than a few instances on coming on outbreak.

I have also seen enough to know the pitfall of describing too much while not giving any true content, and the almost dialogue only format while being fast is really lacking to gives a picture on how are the characters.
As such, Our Life is a good mix, having the strong of both.

As a point, if the writing was always on this level, there would be nothing bad to say. It is just perfect by default.
But obviously, life doesn't go that well and the writing go down hard at some instances.

The main problem here is that this game is really woke.
I'll be honest, Our Life was the first game that introduced me to the woke bullshit. I hated it right away because spending 15 minutes on a character creation just to understand all the gender identities and pronouns sucked my life. I actually thought it was a thing for a moment. And that is the tutorial, so the first slap on the face is from starting the game.
It doesn't get better when you introduced your pronouns to each kid, which really acts like any kids would do: by being understanding and using them right away. For a game with such a stellar writing, completely failing to get brats behavior just on that account is really weird.
I may add that it gets worse on the second step (chapter) with trans and others characters becoming half of the content, and none of them have actual reasons to have turned out his way. It is just how and it is.

I must mention though that it doesn't feel like the writer is actually behind those. The others events make just too much sense for having such a big element of a person life popping out without reason. Felt just like having HR spoiling the work behind.

The other problem there is is with the step.
Basically, no matter on how were your relationship with the characters, they still changed the same way. Because that is what teenager go through: change.
This is bad, because if you have enough insight, you would understand that every changes that happen during your teen, weren't actual changes that happened at this moment but simply the stacking up of events that happened before then. It just takes some years of eating the same bullshit to makes actual changes reflecting on people's personality.
Obviously, with the level of writing, the writer gets it. She (I can't think a guy can nail feelings that well and there was no stupid boy kind) gets it, and yet did not take into account that having close friends being with you nearly every day would never have no impact on their growth.
It just feels weird.

The last one is the choices.
There are a lot of choices in Our Life, but those are pretty bad in design. Those are of mostly 3 patterns: flavor ones with the exact same results used on multiply choices, the general relationship between characters, the ones to remember the development of the event to make the right follow-up afterward.
The flavor ones are a pain in itself since those are a lot and the reactions coming after are in most cases the same. But the problem is on the relationship ones.
Characters actually does not have a true relation with the Mc, it is all fake and only depends on what relationship you choose to have through the choices. Simply speaking, if you choose one to be your friend/crush, you'll become their friend/crush automatically.
This isn't how relationship works obviously and even though the fact that those choices happen at some step stone in the Mc/character's life is great, you don't really need to stack up points to makes relationship works, this really sucked. With the number of choices, it would have been easily doable to makes some points values or choices changing how the character does feel about the Mc and not just how the Mc feel.
Reaching a certain threshold would have been enough to make it works and the same logic could have been applied on liking adults, places, being good at school. It would have been way more natural than just taking a choice "it sucks"/"it's great".
Particularly at the beginning of step 2, they make you chose relationship and dynamic freely without consequences. That completely killed the weigh of those.

I did found quite a bit to criticize but actually only the woke part is really badly done. The rest is more of a shame that it was badly executed. Even though the step change is understandable since it would add too much work.
Nevertheless, the game is pretty fun to read and made me easily engrossed thanks to its writing. It was pleasant to do, is a pretty unique experience and update often happen.

That apart, Tamarack is really fat on the CG even though she isn't fat anymore in the step 2 writing.
That is weird.

Seriously, im not talking shit on otherNSFW games here but this game is better than lotta games here. The concept and the plot definitely worth 5. Never expected to find a game so... heartwarming...? here

Awesome but I wish the poster of this would update faster like sometimes they bring out the demo around 27th of the month but this one updates like 31st but aside from that it's good and fast download

Fully in love with the concept of a game where the MC and LIs grow up and get to share experiences across multiple points in life. Then you add the excellent quality of the art and the very wide set of options you are given to every single interaction and come out with this masterpiece.

This game is so sweet and wholesome it makes me *not* give another playthrough a try. And the reason is that even though not every moment of that first playthrough was a happy one, the whole story was amazingly enjoyable and a salve for one's emotions and I don't want to ruin my memories of that playthrough by testing other routes simply out of curiosity.

However, the amount of options this game offers in various situations is way above average and it all works (despite some really really minor details) even if one sometimes does things rather differently from how one's character tends to behave, so this game offers more freedom than most sandboxes.

In short, this is a SFW game that's IMO still better than most NSFW games here.

This VN is insanely cute and super interactive, with choices that actually matter! The art, writing, and music are top-tier. I had to sub to their Patreon—gotta support good devs, and this game is damn good! Hopefully this turns out well!

Honestly, I adore everything GBPatch puts out. It's wholesome fluff and adorable characters with great customization and care put into the game. Our Life: Beginnings & Always was the game they put out before this one, and it was also really great. Sometimes they put out 18+ DLCs, but they're not... raunchy, for lack of better word, so I definitely wouldn't recommend this if that's what you're looking for.

But if you're looking for a story where you can play from kiddo to adulthood and find cute little love along the way, this is for you!

I feel like if this was posted anywhere else a 4.5 would be more fitting but even considering the lack of 18+ I'd regret giving this game anything but a five. The qualms I have are all minor which are outweighed by the generous amount of customization and cute storytelling.


I love the character customization of the MC, the way height and such were referenced as well as colors. It being told as first person also allowed the paper doll MC to not clash against the more handcrafted characters of Tamarack and Qiu; who, both are incredible in the Part 1. I enjoyed how some traits were obvious and others were more subtle without trying to allude to or show the entire hand right away. Qiu for example is always moving around, bouncing on his feet, which not only helps paint a picture narratively but also is a reference to his later ballet interest. Which I liked. Though feels like the story makes a point to let you know at every turn how popular Qiu is, which is cool I guess but I feel like after the first couple times I don't need to be told. But not going to dock points on that since given the story takes place over 12ish years I assume it could just be leading into something more. Plus, the envy/jealous system being there could make it where if you want there to be that extra drama it can be.

Which kind of leads me into the -.5 star I'd normally consider, which is at least in the version I played the tutorial gives me way more information than I'd have wanted on what can/could happen. I feel like the main draw over a story like this is to see how the characters change. But straight up telling me a character before I meet them is going to become gender fluid, or what couples/crushes/pairings exist so far in advance makes me feel like with all the possible paths and roads there are I already have an idea where I'm going. I guess it's to make sure the audience knows what they're signing up for, but personally for me it just kind of dampened the appeal.

Also, at least from what I've seen so far, I feel like the Part 1 character design/story feels a lot better what little I got to witness of Part 2. Part 2 (I believe) is four year time skip which hits you with so much info on what happened that, all the comradery I built with the characters in Part 1 I feel like I immediately lost half of and have to relearn. Who knows though, perhaps parts 2-4 once complete will make those missed developments minor in comparison. Maybe I just missed it in my Part 1 playthrough but with Qiu's development of their identity (Start of Part 2 they no longer use he/him pronouns), I didn't really see much that lead me to believe anything than they were just an eccentric 10 year old boy back then. The designs in part 2 also wasn't so much a fan of; but if you asked me why I don't know how I'd describe it other than they just feel less polished. And no, for me I don't see it as an allegory of that period of our lives being unfinished.

Outside of Tamarack and Qiu there's several other characters as well, which judging from the interactions we have with some of them look like they may fluctuate in prominence in parts 2-4. Liked how our relationship with our mother wasn't forced at all, you can be a brat, an absolute momma's child or almost outright malicious. If you have a personality in mind for your main character, at least in Part 1 I can say you'll likely have no problem acting that out completely; and at least in the playthrough I did it really did feel like the characters reacted to that as well.

I know I may have maybe put too much focus on the minor aspects I didn't like, but I feel like whether you agree or disagree with them you'll like the game so long as you aren't looking for the normal +18 stuff normally on here.

If you’re in here reading this, do yourself a favor. Go into the thread, find the most recent version, and download the game. This game is one of the most heartwarming, cavity inducing, And beautiful games I’ve played. I am not ashamed to say I have begun to tear up when playing this game. Music is a 10/10. The game actually values your choices and has the characters react accordingly. You don’t need to worry about anything like bad ends or good ends, just play it how you want. It’s getting monthly updates and even with having less than 1/4 of the actual content the full game will, it’s already something that has had my life in a chokehold for months. The demo is 9/10 and only isn’t a 10/10 because it isn’t even completed.

Writing this as of the 1.44 Beta Patch;

This game was my sole reason for coming to this site and as such I found the small corner of this community that enjoys wholesome games like this, and for that I'm thankful! But I digress, onto the actual game review.

Choices Matter!

This is by far one of, if not the best VN I've ever played. I think I lost track of how many times I've played through the beta just to see how different choices and attitudes impact your relationship with all of the characters, and how the characters around you interact with you based on those elements.

This game handles things like that beautifully, and as opposed to how the last game handled things, while this game is very wholesome it's not without it's confrontational moments, which is a nice change of pace. That's as much as I can say without spoiling anything about the story.

Customization!

The customization options for your character are plentiful as of right now, lots of hair/face/clothing options you can choose from, and you're free to choose the color for them. There's options for things like heterochromia, unnatural hair/eye colors (to a certain degree) by way of a color slider.

You also get the option of choosing your height/weight (which does come up in certain dialogues of the game), your current gender, what gender you were born with, what hand(s) you write with, pronouns etc. All of these things come up in the dialogue at some point or another which is really pleasant to see.
--Edit-- Forgot to mention! Even with all of these current customization options, we'll be getting lots more in the future thanks to those who backed on kickstarter having their custom options added in eventually. There'll also be voiced names (Also backer choice) for an extra personal touch.

The storytelling of this game is absolutely phenomenal, and it's such a cute and sweet slice of life game, and anyone looking for a wholesome visual novel to experience, I strongly encourage you to give this one a read! Even if you haven't read the first visual novel, you're able to get into this without knowledge from the prior title.

This is not what I expected and I'm so glad for that. As with most VNs on F95, I expected this to take a hard turn from it's slice of life beginnings. Thankfully, it doesn't. This is an absolute joy to read from the very start. If you're looking for a sweet story this is for you.

If you're looking for something with corruption, sex, and violence ... this ain't it. Everything in this is a story of friendship and love. The fact that the start shows the main characters as grade schoolers is a great way to establish their history and developing personalities. If all of that sounds like a good break from the norm, then I'd recommend giving this a try.

Additionally, the art work speaks miles to establishing the tone and that's only helped by the score. This combined with the writing all comes together in building a grounded and cushy slice of life. I cannot speak highly enough about what a breath of fresh air this is to experience.

If you like this, hate it, or just sit somewhere in the middle do the dev a favor and leave a review. Tell them what you like and what you may not like. Remember this was uploaded on F95 for us to try for free, so if you enjoyed it try to contribute to the dev in any way you can. As always, I wish this dev all the best and hope they've found their audience with this one. Cheers.

v1.3.4 Beta

This game is wonderful. I love the amount of nuance and customization you can add to your character with how you can set the base attitude your character has like whether they go with the flow, like to be the leader, have a teasing personality, or a doting one. You don't have control over the other characters personalities in Step 1 but it looks like you can set them how you want going into Step 2. I especially liked how sometimes there's more than the usual 3 or 4 choices in dialogue like most other games usually give you. Really a nice feeling if you're the type of person that usually thinks the options given don't fully describe how you actually want to react.

Only the step 1 part of the game taking place when you're all 10 years old is available in this version with a small preview of step 2 and it was still very nice interacting with the different people in the small town.

Kind of excited to see how the complete version story can play out and the choices for developing the relationship between everyone through all steps.

Very much unfinished [1.3.0] (and not your average cup of tea for F95), but absolutely gorgeous and oozing with charm. The breadth of choices is amazing, and while not all of them can possibly affect the story too much, they do wonders for character expression, allowing you to direct how your character would react to any given situation.

Being able to change clothes before going out is a lovely little touch, but I wish there was a bit more leeway in changing the preset colors (not just clothes, in general; my eyes are a blue-green, and I wasn't able to come close with the somewhat limited base options).

I'm also fond of being able to dictate how your character feels about others, and that it seems to be taken into account in reactions by your character that you don't specify (e.g., if you have a crush on someone, you might blush when they compliment you).

Music's great. Nuf' said.

The story isn't a groundbreaking telenovela, but it doesn't need to be. This is firmly a slice-of-life game, and so far the "moving to a new town and meeting new people" plot serves that perfectly.

If they keep going like this, I'll happily put money into the game. The world needs more gems like this.

*edit: I am currently backing this game on Patreon. Progress is slow, but every time I finish playing an update I want more.

Too wholesome for this site. Adorable art, in-depth character customization, and such a cute story with even cuter characters. Oh, and the sheer number of choices was unlike any game I'd ever played before. I loved this, and I'm so excited to see how it turns out. Wholesome perfection.

5 stars.

It's perfect.

The developer has already shown that they have the skills to make such a game (Look up their previous entry, Our Life: Beginnings & Always), and from what I've seen I have full faith that this will be even better than Beginning And Always, which is a feat considering how good that was.

The characters are adorable and their interactions fun and fluffy, the art is beautiful, and the music is a huge improvement from Beginning and Always (and with how good that was that's saying something).

Though it's in early development I have absolute faith that GB Patch will absolutely knock this game out of the park, and I highly recommend those who read this to support them on Patreon.

Cute little game, with fun characters. very promising. Definitely worth watching the development of if you enjoy what seems to be a story about growing up in a new town with a really well created characters

updating for the 1.3.4 which will likely be the extended version the public is getting

Original review was around its second update which I gave 5 stars. This game has not only managed to maintain that quality but improve upon it adding even more small things that while not needed add a lot in making the experience more personal.

Characters are great, music is amazing, art is top notch.

I honestly believe this has the potential to be one of the best VNs ever made and will probably set the bar for interactive fiction.

super cute

The design is beautiful and the decisions do feel like they matter.
all the characters with what I have seen in the beta, they are very warm and the game itself is very relaxing


the music is just lovely

It has wonderful graphics and the whole environment is very nice, the options it offers are very varied and I feel that my decisions or the way I act if it is reflected in the game.
the two eligible characters are very adorable :3

This is the first and probably/hopefully only time I will rate a game this way, this early in it's development, and then 5 stars, of all things...
I do this for two reasons:

The Developers already created a very similar game before which has lived up to (in my opinion, of course) any expectations early stages could have let to. I therefore have no doubt that they are up to the task of creating such a complex, deep and adaptable Visual Novel, that (again, my personal opinion) could function as a prime example for what a choice based Visual Novel could be at the absolute peak.
This new story, although just in it's prologue state, already comes with a touching, amazingly varied narration. It shows how the system actually works, the game taking into account many details (character design, player choices) in ways that felt very natural.
The cast of characters the player meets is very likeable and the whole sequence reminds me of my own childhood and does a fantastic job of capturing how a kid might see the world we get a first glimpse at.

The second reason is the quality of the writing, the multitude of options to pick for the player character's reactions & their nuances. Then there is the degree of control the player has over the flavour of things by picking certain behavior patterns and relationship levels at certain key-points (e.g. at the start of a "Step" as the segments of the game are called.
This leaves the player with the option to shape the nuances by their choices in the scenes, while not having to worry about picking the exact right options just to follow a general path they wish to walk down.

Furthermore, personally, I never really was interested in the romantic side of the first game, due to my own preferences, but it is still a contender for the best visual novel I know. This game comes with 2 different potential loveinterests right from the start. At the same time the Devs are still actively working and expanding the first installment of the series, continuously proving that their games & the player community are a matter of heart as well. Since they also seem to do well in regards to sells this is an occasion where it seems much more likely for this game to get finished and be great, than not.