The pixel art in Now & Then is rough, like someone's first RPG Maker project they never bothered to polish. But somehow that works for a story about the world ending. Jack's face barely changes expression when his adopted daughter Carol starts calling him daddy in ways that have nothing to do with parenting. The animations are simple, almost crude, but when Carol drops to her knees in that abandoned apartment building, the blowjob scene hits different because you've spent hours watching these two scavenge for canned goods and avoid infected.

The femdom stuff creeps in slowly. First it's Carol taking charge during supply runs, then suddenly she's the one deciding when and where things happen. There's this moment in a ransacked pharmacy where she pushes Jack against the counter and the power dynamic just flips completely. The spanking scenes feel almost the***, like she's punishing him for all the times he couldn't protect her. Or maybe that's just me reading too much into pixelated butt slaps.

The futa content comes out of nowhere around the midpoint. No warning, no buildup, just Carol with something extra during a scene in their fortified basement. The game treats it like it's the most natural thing in the world, which honestly fits the whole anything goes after society collapses vibe. The sound design is mostly just footsteps and ambient wind, but during the intimate scenes there's this low humming noise that made me check if my phone was vibrating. I wish the text moved faster during dialogue, you can't skip it and some conversations drag like crazy. The female protagonist tag is misleading since you play as Jack, though Carol definitely drives the story. The RPG elements are barebones, just basic inventory management and occasional choices that mostly lead to the same outcome.