It's a cest story, it's just not overt, it's pretty obvious. It's just been de-cested for Patreon. The story would only need to remove a couple of lines and change a couple more and it's one at it's core. Annie would be a cousin, and Penny and Dahlia are the sister's with Nancy being the mom. The writing in the story even implies it to me. Me, or any man I've ever met has ever had reservations about seeing, or wanting to see, a woman naked that isn't related to them.
Remove the line about MC's mom leaving, Dad divorces Nancy and moves to Europe, Dahlia an MC become twins basically, I think they are the same age, or they are just born close together, it happens.
Nothing about the way the story is written says it isn't one to me, to me the most of the writing even implies it, or I could just be a perve.
And if you look really close, you can see what Nancy is searching for on the web when the MC catches her.
Either way, the story is good.
I'm pretty sure Caribdis would have come clean about having to strip out anything offensive to Patreon. Changing and removing lines as it is now is less changing the core back to what it was meant to be and more changing the core just to appeal, it wouldn't fit unless there was already something there, which again, I am pretty sure Caribdis would have come out about, I mean, just mentioning there was supposed to be incest and it got struck from the plan because of Patreon isn't putting the game at risk of Patreon coming after the game, so he's in no danger just mentioning it as stuff that would have been had Patreon not been involved.
Removing the line about the MC's mom leaving automatically sounds like a change from the original plan on context alone. If a line needs to be removed entirely, that's an automatic red flag that the content the removal would facilitate adding was never part of the design. Now, changing titles like 'landlady' is a definite sign that it was supposed to be incestuous, but outright removing lines just screams 'change the story to suit fetish A' to me and would make the incest seem forced in for appeal.
To me, the very line you suggested needs removed tells me this was never meant to be incest based. Caribdis isn't exactly one to make things difficult for people to patch in forbidden content that was supposed to be there, such as the incest in the previous game, which eventually did get a patch to restore it and which was in at first on top of said patch, unlike this game from what I am hearing in the comments about this subject.
I have heard great things and I have experience with this developer that tells me he won't disappoint, so I was hoping it is good. I think I'll wait until 0.4 just so I have a solid base of content to work with. When it comes to Caribdis and a couple other developers, I like to take my time and savor the story.
It's barely been any time since the release and I'm not sure if there is even incest to patch, both in the sense that I'm not sure any sex scene would qualify and in the sense I'm not sure if ones that could have happened yet.
Don't think I've seen it mentioned, but there is something that is a bit of a mess up?
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Seems like the shadows are coming from the leaves from the outside?
I could be wrong, but that looks like a shader issue, potentially in the studio program used for the graphics. Considering I believe this to be using an Illusion game's studio, I'm not surprised.
dev explicitly has said it's not a cest story, and was not written with that in mind at all
https://f95zone.to/threads/eternum-v0-2-caribdis.93340/post-6567175
I see, so I missed that comment, thank you for the clarification.
He can say that all he wants, the writing is telling me otherwise. Lines like "they are pretty much like family, so I don't mean it like that", implying guilt from the MC for looking at them that way, there is no need for lines like that. Patreon will look at other places to boot people from their site if they want to, it's CYA to me. Believe what you want.
I just may be an anomaly, but I feel no guilt thinking a woman is attractive that isn't a member of my family, no matter her relationship to me or anyone else, beauty is beauty.
If the developer himself is saying he didn't write it with the content in mind, then it just isn't there. That line isn't an implication, it is telling the player that they are as close as family without actually being family, which is entirely possible to do outside the context of censoring the incest of a game that says that. The others could easily be close friends of the family, some childhood friends in other works are said to be like siblings to the MCs of those works, but in none of those cases are they actually related and it is therefore not incest.
As much as I would love to see more incest from Caribdis since he writes it so well, I just don't see any room for it in this game. Maybe his next game will leave that needed room in a subtle way so that people can patch it in, but for now we just have to wait and see.
How are you going to tell the developer, creator, and writer of the game that he’s wrong? The words came straight from the man himself, incest is not canon in this game. You can try to over analyze things and look for things that aren’t there, as with anything really, but at the end of the day it’s not an incest game.
You, or anyone else, are always more than welcome to mod the game yourself and alter the dialogue to fit your needs, but that was never the intent when the game was envisioned. Just because people say they see them “like family”, doesn’t always automatically mean they’re meant to be family.
I’m a big fan of that theme too, don’t get me wrong. All I’m saying is that it’s not in this one.
Sincerely,
Eternum Editor/Co-Writer
Agreed, I am all for making subtle hints to patchers if there was meant to be incest in the plan with no Patreon involvement, but incest forced in by modding alone just feels unnatural and I totally agree with the decision not to write it in if he doesn't want to include it. If patchers still want to change the game even with no provisions within the official story for the patch, so be it as long as Caribdis says it's okay, I just won't use the patch. However, I do have to disagree with any attempt to make it sound like the game was supposed to have content that even the developer is saying was never meant to be put in.
The shadows are a complete mess in this game.
There are much worse examples in Chapter 1.
I do believe this not to be a 'his game' issue and instead to be a 'this Illusion product just doesn't do good shadows' issue. I forget which one was used for this game, but if he went with Honey Select 2 or AI Shoujo, both using the same graphics so characters and other player created assets can be swapped, then I see why he is having this issue.
I never said you or he was wrong, I also don't believe you or him is going to scream from the rooftops he is creating an cest game while being on Patreon, that would just not be smart at all, and would be a detriment to your proliferation.
Cest may not be cannon in the game, but it's sure written like one, with the guilt and insecurities that come with it, to me. Nancy's web search really didn't help the case either, it could just be a kink, but "MILFs" would've been a better search term to corroborate your assertion.
I'm not knocking it either way, it's a good story, I like it the way it is, or if someone mods it, fine.
Either way, I should've known better to have an opinion about something, to each their own.
"Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe."
There may be an implication you are seeing, that is actually there, but that was never intended, which both the developers and I missed, which leads to a discrepancy because one side is seeing something entirely different. The way I see it, there is no implication that they actually are family, these are just people he's that close to without being related, and that's also the way Caribdis and NebulaX see it.
