Introduction:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a heartfelt visual novel that offers a uniquely comforting and customizable life simulation experience. It stands out by focusing on positive emotional growth and the deep impact of everyday moments.
Key Features and Highlights of Our Life: Beginnings & Always
Experience life across four distinct stages: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and full maturity.
Enjoy extensive character customization, including appearance, personality, and pronoun selection, which can evolve over time.
Build a deeply personal relationship with the sole love interest, Cove Holden, whose personality and story develop uniquely based on your choices.
The narrative of Our Life: Beginnings & Always is designed to be replayed with different character traits and dynamics.
The game offers a significant amount of content, with hundreds of thousands of words providing dozens of hours of gameplay.
Optional voice-acted DLC allows the main character's name to be spoken aloud, enhancing immersion.
Advantages
The core strength of Our Life: Beginnings & Always is its profound focus on emotional well-being and supportive relationships.
The game provides an exceptional degree of player agency, making every choice feel meaningful and personalized.
It is a complete and generous experience, with the base game being free-to-play and offering substantial content.
The inclusive design for character creation and pronouns is a significant and commendable advantage.
Players seeking a calming, nostalgic, and wholesome experience will find Our Life: Beginnings & Always to be a perfect fit.
The replay value is high due to the numerous branching paths and customization options available.
Disadvantages
As a story-focused experience, Our Life: Beginnings & Always lacks traditional gameplay mechanics or minigames.
The narrative centers on a single, predetermined love interest, which limits romantic options compared to other visual novels.
The slow, slice-of-life pacing may not appeal to players looking for more dramatic or fast-paced stories.
The extensive customization in Our Life: Beginnings & Always can feel overwhelming to some players at the start.
The game's specific, gentle tone is its greatest strength but also makes its appeal somewhat niche.
Tips for using Our Life: Beginnings & Always
Don't rush. Savor the small, everyday moments, as they are the heart of the experience in Our Life: Beginnings & Always.
Experiment with different personalities and dynamics with Cove in subsequent playthroughs to see how the story changes.
Utilize the game's feature to change your character's details over time to reflect personal growth.
Explore all the dialogue options to see the wide range of supportive and understanding responses.
Consider the optional DLC if you want the added immersion of hearing the love interest say your name.
More similar apps
Monster Prom (For its humor, multiple romance options, and high replayability)
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator (For its focus on building relationships and inclusive themes)
A Summer's End: Hong Kong 1986 (For its rich, story-driven narrative and nostalgic atmosphere)
Conclusion and Personal Opinion
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a rare gem in the gaming landscape. It is less a game and more a therapeutic experience, masterfully crafting a narrative that is both deeply personal and universally relatable. Its commitment to player choice and emotional validation is unparalleled. While its specific focus means it won't be for everyone, for those it resonates with, Our Life: Beginnings & Always offers a genuinely memorable and heartwarming journey that celebrates life's simple yet profound moments. It is a highly recommended experience for anyone seeking a comforting and inclusive story.
