Our Life: Now & Forever

I am going out on a limb here and saying that Our Life: Now & Forever is the greatest first chapter/demo of a game that I have ever played! This is a gorgeous LGBTQ visual novel and it completely grabbed me right from the title screen and did not let go. The setting, the characters, the choices, and the incredible art all add up to make this a game that is truly unforgettable. This is a game that is fun to talk to others about too as it has so many different ways to experience it.

The New Kid In Town

The premise of Our Life: Now & Forever is that we play through the life of a main character that we create (more on that in a sec) We along with our mother have just moved to this new sleepy little town where we meet two neighbors, Tamarack who is a girl and Qui who identifies as gender fluid. We first meet these two at the age of ten and that is where the story is set during the build of the game I played. However, we get to experience them as teenagers, young adults, and full grown adults too. Even with just the first chapter being done, the story is beautifully told.

An MC Of Your Own Making

I cannot think of another visual novel where the character creation is as good as Our Life: Now & Forever. I am not just talking about appearance, your personality is completely shaped by you. You can be shy, more outgoing, and so on. It makes for a very personal kind of gameplay experience. I put myself into the character and tried to make them an extension of my personality. However, I am sure it would be fun to try other personality types as well to see how things would change for me and the other characters. The game even lets you tinker with the design/personality of the mom as well.

The Beauty Of Choice

We all know that a visual novel is about making choices, but Our Life: Now & Forever takes things to a whole new level. The amount of choices that this game gives you is stunning. How many visual novels have you played where you get like four max choices and none of them reflect the way you feel? Well, with this having so many choices, chances are very high that there will always be one that captures how you feel at that moment. It is truly excellent stuff and the way the choices happen and are implemented gets you invested in this story even more.

A Cozy Autumn Day

The art in Our Life: Now & Forever is just breathtaking. The autumn setting is something that makes the game so appealing to me, the use of orange and yellow gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The characters are very expressive too as the way their faces are drawn shows a ton of personality. The UI is great too and has a kind of “book” like look to it when it asks you to make a choice. I am very excited to see these characters grow as the chapters are added to the game. At the moment it has a very wholesome look to it all, kind of reminds me of growing up actually.

Pros:

• The trio of characters are all awesome
• I loved how much say we had in the creation of our MC
• There are way more choices than you usually get with a visual novel
• The art is some of the best I have seen

Cons:

• I wish the game was completed already!
• I have zero other “cons” to gripe about with this game!