A nostalgic visual novel where you design your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable, choice-heavy story.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a feel-good simulation, as well as a...
A nostalgic visual novel where you design your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable, choice-heavy story.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a feel-good simulation, as well as a “feel-better” one, where painful emotions such as sadness, anger, stress, and worry can all be expressed, then met with reassurance, understanding, and support.
It’s a wholesome experience that faces large steppingstones of life, while having a focus on familiar everyday moments. With notable amounts of customization for even tiny details, you can enjoy pleasures as simple as having a preferred type of drink and a neighbor who cares enough to remember what it is.
4 different periods of life to experience: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and fully grown
Name, appearance, personality, and pronoun (he, she, or they) customization for your character
Change your character's details however you like as you grow, including transitioning to new pronouns
Shape your personality, feelings, and preferences, then see them reflected in the story as characters remember who you are
1 love interest, Cove Holden, whose personality, interests, and appearance will develop in a custom way over the years based on his experiences with you
Decide for yourself how quickly or slowly the relationship with Cove develops by setting a unique dynamic; from love at first sight to last minute confessions to always being friends and more
A welcoming, sentimental story that can easily be enjoyed over and over using new main character qualities or different connection types with Cove
Font style and size customization. Hit the "A" key to open a screen that has text appearance options
397,000 words, 16-24 hours of content in total
Jamie Last (changeable name) has spent the last couple weeks on a summertime high. At eight-years-old, nothing is better than what feels like endless days of school-less adventures, especially when you live walking distance from the beach. While coming home under a scorching sunset one fine evening, Jamie is approached by a stranger. The man is looking for a kid who can do him a favor, and he’s even offering to pay for it. He wants Jamie to please be friends with his only child. The person is Mr. Holden, Jamie’s new neighbor, as well as the father of the odd, and oddly named boy, Cove. Whether Jamie wants to play along or not, Cove isn’t going anywhere. He's present in Jamie's life for far longer than they ever would've guessed.
And then the long days of vacation finally come to an end. Summer may not be able to last forever, but Jamie can take comfort in knowing it will come back again someday…
Even without the DLCs I'm enjoying the inclusive, imersive, story telling. Every decision shapes the future in the game. I'm saving up to get the DLCs to playthrough it all over again to see where my different choices lead.
I really love this game :) I don't play dating sims much (I've only ever finished Hatoful Boyfriend, a parody about pigeons lol) but I really enjoyed this one and was hooked immediately. It helps that the base game is free and complete even with no paid extras!
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Pros:
* STORY - This game is a simulation of growing up and (optionally) falling in love with your best friend, Cove Holden. You can realize your feelings as early as childhood or stay platonic forever. No matter what you pick, the story is sweet and the friend/love interest is fun to hang out with. You can play as many or as few "moments" in each step as you want to. There are other characters too, like your family, Cove's family, and various friends and side characters. I despised at least one upon meeting them, but by the end I was fond of them all to one degree or another.
* CUSTOMIZATION - Four steps/chapters with customization options at the beginning of each. The game tailors each step based on your previous step choices, but you can change them as you like before starting the next step. There are customization options for the looks and personality of both yourself and Cove.
* LGBTQ+ REPRESENTATION - This game has great representation. You get to choose and change your first name and pronouns at the beginning of each step (many voiced names to choose from with the free DLC!). As you get older you will also have options to describe your physical body, how you dress (including chest binders, bras, etc), and your sexuality or lack thereof. Again, the game is very good about giving you the option to change your character as they grow, providing a lot of flexibility to choose when, how, and if your character transitions, discovers new parts of themselves, makes new revelations, etc.
* ART - The set pieces are really detailed and vibrant. I was glad to see plenty of variety. Sometimes the art style wasn't consistent between the CG graphics and the rest of the game, but it isn't much to adjust to and the style is still nice, just different.
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Cons:
* MUSIC - DON'T GET ME WRONG, the music is great, but I wish there was either more variety, or less of a harsh end to the track when it starts to loop again. You listen to the same 4 or 5 tracks for the entire game, and it gets old.
* REPETITIVE DIALOGUE - There are certain quirks the writers have that you will notice. Repeatedly fidgeting with hem strands as a way to show anxiety, constant references to anklets (if you know you know), and other phrases and such that seem to be go-tos. It was a bit distracting when your mind wanted to keep track of how many times you had seen a certain word used in the story.
* CUSTOMIZATION DOESN'T ALWAYS MATTER - you can choose a lot of different customization options for your character, but it feels like most of them are just for your own headcanon. I didn't see many of them get used. There was one scene where I saw the hint of my character's lower chin, but that was it as far as their face went. The time you spend on a hairstyle will likely be reduced to short/medium/long and one of the colors you picked being mentioned every so often. You can select to have scars, freckles, tattoos, accessories, and other customizations that, at least for me, didn't come up at all. And I played every "moment" in the base game.
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In Summary:
Worth a play to see what you think, especially since the base game is free :) I plan to purchase the DLC because I enjoyed it enough to want to see more.