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This is my review before i play this game, future me, please, let me know if my opinions are still the same.

I'm truly amazed by how much different, yet equal, both GBPatch (Our Life) games are, i had saw this game about months ago, but only actually came here to read the description and see how it's going now, after playing Our Life: Beginnings And Always.

I'm sure this game will be just as amazing as every Visual Novel i've already played on Itch Io, yet with that special touch that only a GBPatch's game has.

Still didn't play it as it is still on Demo and i get too anxious when waiting for a game to be fully published after playing it's Demo, which is why i'll wait until the full game gets published.

Now for my current views of the characters and what i think and like about each one.

Qiu “Autumn” Lin

YOU STOLE MY SURNAME, lol, normally i would use ''Autumn'' as the surname of my OC in every game possible, first time there's already a character with this surname, i'll have to think about a new one just so i can play it whithout sounding strangely like i'm related to Qiu :'(

Who knows, maybe i'll use Holden :>

Jokes aside, i found they/he extremely cute, i absolutely love how he's always using a fur coat in each of theirs/his clothes.

For me, they/he looks like a social butterfly that end up more distant and introvert as the years went by or get trought a ''mom leave me alone'' phase, either one, i absolutely adore they/him.

He strongly reminds me of Jacob(The Twilight Saga) and i don't know why.

Tamarack Baumann

I just feel like she's the main character, dunno why, she's just as cute as Qin, yet she gives me Willow(The Owl House) vibes.

From the description i'm sure she was bullied, i'll make sure to make those bullies eat dirt as soon as i play the game, she's just so precious...

I absolutely love her hair color, reminds me strongly of the sunset(idk why, her hair is orange).

She reminds me of my real life crush, fr, i'll conquer you heart Tamarack, just wait for it.

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I love that we have the option of polyamory, i myself never played much games that allowed the MC to stay with more than one person, you should always choose one, which would end up with me playing all the routes with each character :')

From the description, i believe, but ain't sure, that Qin and Tamarack aren't the only characters you can romance, but the main ones, which is also something i love.

As i said before, this is a review before playing the game, so my thoughts may be wrong or may change after playing it, looking foward to do my next review after i play it, for now, as i didn't played it, i give it a 8/10 from what i currently think, but for sure it will change when i play it.

GBPatch, your games are absolutely fine, charming may suit better, i love it, please continue developing these lovely pieces of art. <3

For the sake of you, who loves me, i won't <3

Things i've realized after playing the whole thing 5 times and my opnion about the game.

1st - You can choose to tell Cove the truth about his dad offering you money to be his friend in step 1 or 2, they will both give you an image, if you say it in step 1, while you're still lil kids the image will be his dad comforting him about it, if you choose to say it in step 2 the image will be the whole family in an embrace. I feel like Cove understands it more in step 2, maybe since he's already grow up, yet he stills runs from his room and confront his dad. In step 2 you'll get this option when you have a dinner with Cove's family and you go to his room, in step 1, i believe it was either when the summer ended or in one of the five special moments, also, you'll only get one image, either choose to reveal it earlier or later, i think you can also get it by revealing it in step 1, then go to a save before you revealed it and let to say it in step 2.

2nd - In step 2, when Elizabeth asks about her biological parents and you gain the option to ask about yours too, if you do ask about it, either if you go to your room or go outside searching for Cove to comfort you, he'll appear, if you go to your room later he'll jump in by the window saying that you moms didn't let him come in and he felt worried about you, FR such a baby boy... also, if you choose to make a show with Lee earlier, either singing, playing an instrument or both, when you walk back down to the living room after talking with Lizzie you'll get an option to finally make your show, with your family and Cove as your audience, or watch a movie if you didn't.

3rd - Still in step 2, IMPORTANT, at the trip with both your families in the RV you will want to talk more with Cove, despite him being a little uncomfortable, if you insist at the talk with him on the couch he'll end up saying he likes anklets(REMEMBER THIS) and if you ask what he thinks looks good on someone he'll kind of flirt with you, i mean, he says he likes people with (your eye color) eyes, which is really cute.

> If he did talked with you about the anklets when the summer end you can use one or lots on them before he comes over to your room, which will get a cute reaction from him.

4th - Still in the trip, IMPORTANT, if you do ask him to get in the loft with you, you can try and kiss him, which will go wrong as the poor boy will smack his head in the roof of the RV, his dad will alert the whole family and he'll get all embarrassed. BUT if you do try to kiss him later you'll wake up to his mom scolding him and she'll give you the sassy milf look, AND, when the summer end HE will talk about the kiss and you can offer to try it again, which will end up with him confessing his feelings for you. You'll get the image of him all embarrassed after you kissed.

> If you didn't kiss him, which i doubt you didn't, in the end of the summer you will get the option to confess your feelings either by talking about them or kissing him. You'll get the image of him all embarrassed after you kissed.

5th - Still in the step 2... When you go and eat with him and his mom you will get the option to choose a drink, fr, don't think it's just a silly lil option, IT MATTERS A LOT, later in step 3, in the farmer's market moment, the gift he buys you will be according to your choosed drink in step 2, first time i played i choosed water with lemon and later in step 3 he gave me the same thing, but fancy, second time i played i went for a coffe, later in step 3, he gave me fancy coffe. FR i love these details.

6st - In step 3, after the Orca event i myself always choose to sneak into his room, which is super cute as we end up sleeping there and getting discovered by Cliff, later when he remembers about this moment in step 4, despite you choosing to be the one sneaking into his room, he'll remember that he was the one sneaking in your room, which i believe to be a lil mistake, but it doesn't change anything at all, just something i wanted to talk about. 7st - Later when you reach adulthood, choose Cove to still be your boyfriend, don't jump right to be his fianceé, there's great changes which each one.

> If you choose to be his fianceé right away, in the dinner of your mom's aniversary the'll make a silly comment about your future marriage, which is all i really payed attention to.

> If you choose him to still be only your boyfriend, despite not getting any comment later in your mom's aniversary, later near the end of the game you'll go to the hills and he'll remember events from the past, such as you ding donging the mean grandparents(if you did), you protecting him from Jeremy(that stupid lil shit), etc, lots of thigns that i won't totally spoil to you, if case you still didn't played, then he asks you to marry him, which is one of the scenes that most made me cry, it's just so charming....

After all you won't want to leave the game after it ends, which for me, who still don't have the DLCs, cost about 13 hours when i first played, started 1p.m and ended it about 2a.m, i fr cried loudly 'cause it just went by so fast, i couldn't bring myself to stop playing it and i literally spent my whole vacation this year playing it over and over again, i never get tired of it, only seeing more details in the game and falling in love with Cove over and over again...

Now talking about the DLCs, unfortunately i don't have any, probably one day i'll manage to, but lets talk about them.

First the DLCs that give you more moments trought the roleplay, all have the same price, buying the childhood one will give you acess to 5 more moments and the teenage years and early adulthood will give you 10 moments each.

> Despite being less moments, childhood moments will give you one more image and teenage years too, despite having more moments, early adulthood is the only one that gives you two more images. Buying all gives you a total of 4 new images, with more details...

A total of 3 free images in your chilhood, 4 with the DLC one.

A total of 6 free images in your teenage years, 8 with the DLC one.

A total of 4 free images in your early adulthood, 6 with the DLC ones.

Maybe the five moments in your childhood are longer to compensate being less, unfortunately i'll have to ask one of you with the DLCs to answer it, but even if they aren't, it doesn't make these moments less special.

If you're short of money or don't really have any(like me), i would say you could first enjoy the game as it is, after all it's still an amazing play trougth, a game that engages you and surprisely doesn't look like a free game at all, the total of attention and details the game and characters gave is amazing, feels like a reality you really live in. After all, you don't need the DLCs to still enjoy the game, it is already amazing as it is, yet indeed, having the DLCs is a dream come true, and if you do have money to buy them, do it, enjoy these extra moments with Cove or whoever your love interest is, also supporting the amazing creators of Our Life, who really deserve it and more.

Moving on to buying the DLCs, as a great observer, if you aren't able to buy all of them, choose which one suits you better first, i myself will go for teenage years, as i find it the most charming moment in the game, but we can also judge it by what you want to do most.

> If you want to interact more romantically with Cove, i would go for the DLC of early adulthood, as we are already old enough to engage in more romantic touching, etc, besides the fact that is the moment you ''start'' dating Cove, it makes more sense, as even in the free moments, the only steps you have more intimate choises is step 3(early adulthood) and 4.

> If you're going for a platonic relationship, I would go for any of them, in step 1, it's when your friendship start, as kids, in step 2, it develops, you can do more things, in step 3, you have even more friends to join you in these moments. Yet i do am more inclined to the DLC of step 1(childhood), as i think it would be great to have more moments in the start of your friendship, making it more solid.

I myself am going to buy the DLC from step 2(teenage years) first when i have the money to, looking trought the moments and their proposals, i just find myself enamored especially with the thought of the escapade... besides the fuzzy feelings in my chest everytime there's tension between us and Cove, also 'cause no matter if you choose crush or love in the beginning of step 3, you'll be dating Cove, only choosing if it started recently or not, probably if you stayed fond and choose crush only on the step 3 you woudn't be dating, idk, i still didn't played with those options, despite playing it 5 times already, it seems like i can't help myself but always choose crush in step 1 or 2, next time i'll hold myself back and come back to confirm if my thoughts are right or not... Now talking about other DLCs, the wedding one is a yes, there's no need to explain why, it explains itself as it is, especially if you love interest is Cove.

Now moving to Derek and Dexter DLCs, i myself am more found of Cove and would like to have the moment DLCs and finish my story with Cove with the wedding DLC first before moving on to other love interest, yet i can't deny that they're adorable too and their DLCs are just as amazing as the others.

I didn't think much about having two moms, as Ma and Mom are absolutely perfect parents, i loved how instead of going on and setting your height or describing your body right away you get to say it trought the game, such as when you look at yourself in the mirror or grab something in the shelves.

The fact that Cove was autistic was a lil shocking, i mean, it sounded a bit forced but it didn't change anything major at all, and it doesn't bother me that the game creators tried to include it, i mean, it didn't change how amazing the game is or how Cove is a well written character.

Something that made me pretty happy is how the game gives you the option to change your gender, name and explore your sexuality, i myself am i girl, identify as a girl and don't really care about gender, still didn't think much about my sexuality, but i love how the game allows you to explore it, as i know that there's people who'll relate to it and it just makes the game more real, as indeed, some girl do surgery to remove their breasts, be it 'cause they want to or 'cause they need, as much as some want it bigger and make a surgery to get it bigger, it just gives more detail to your OC, choosing your pronouns and sexuality and even deciding if you don't identify as your gender of birth.

But it just went all together, it really looked forced, but there was no other way to it, since after all, the game has a limited time for each step, also remembering that we start with 8 years at step 1 and for each step we skip around 5 years, which means we didn't saw it all happening at the exact same time, especially thinking that the time we play is summer break, about a month, which means that the whole game, at least what he played of it, it's a total of 4 months, since we had the need to skip the years to advance in game and relationships.

Sincerely, i wouldn't want it any other way, as much as informations were rushed and may have looked forced, it is the way it is, remembering that the game is free and it already gave so much more then i expected it to, i mean it.

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After all this talk, better saying, typying, i'm tired, taking a look at the clock i've spend more then an hour in this review, which i'm not regretful of, as this game deserves more then it.

For me, Our Life: Beginning and Always, made my boring summer turn into passionate nights of staying awake and trying to not wake up the whole house with my giggles of joy as i played it, i'm grateful for having the chance of playing such a great story, i really developed a thing for Visual Novels, yet, since A Date With Death, this has been the only one who captivated my heart so much, being honest, even more then A Date With Death. This game is a straight 10/10, if you're still thinking if you should or not play it, don't think too much, just play it, i'm sure it will captivate you just as much as it did with me. Also, sorry for any typo, as English is not my native language, neither am i fluent in it.