VN Ren'Py Eternum [v0.7.5 Public] [Caribdis]

[Deleted member 5730975]

Man, you guys are brave souls, I hate horror, and for me it made no difference AT ALL that Once in a Lifetime's danger was real-world while Eternum's has been in a game. On that note, Once in a Lifetime's dream sequence was one of the scariest parts of all for me, lol. Overall, Eternum has probably been scarier for me.

I was yelling out loud at Caribdis during Red Herring for putting in more scary parts and begging the game not to give me nightmares, lol. I was REALLY tempted to let Luna go to the house and really had to pep myself up to make the brave choice

I love the horror sequences in OIALT/Eternum. The reason is because outside of JVNs I have not played a western VN where I really liked the horror scenes - maybe its because developers dont feel comfortable enough to add horror in their games because of patreon but OIALT managed to do horror well without adding anything too gross/disgusting (the body horror with characters like Lilith was kinda tame yet that was a great scene). So when the horror is good in a game, it sticks out and becomes immediately memorable to me.

I am absolutely hoping for more horror scenes in Eternum because there is not a lot like it. Even high rated dark games on this website that focuses on eldritch abominations like Superhuman are not scary. Mist does the suspenseful mysterious atmosphere well and I love it for that but it is not scary. JVNs are your only option for quality horror VNs.

 

[Dorfnutter]

That's pretty interesting. I felt like the action began immediately in Once in a Lifetime, even with the fight with Tom. Especially how the internal thought was fearing a fight with Tom, but then confidently and fearlessly destroying Tom even with Tom pulling a knife. Add to that refraining from talking about it with Lauren afterward, and you quickly get a sense of the player character's character beyond just a guy who doesn't study).

For me, stakes were already as high as they could be upon attending the Sons of Astaroth meeting.

There was action in 0.1, yes (if you can call it that, because to me all that adrenaline pumping was spoiled by the trial-and-error choice system for the combat. Can't believe switching to QTEs in Eternum was actually better, considering how much I dislike them (or more specifically, how much I dislike devs using them after a tough fight where a cutscene in between fights should serve as breathing room for your hands before you subject it to more torture. Thankfully that's not the case in this VN)). But the thing is that other than establishing the animosity between Tom and OIAL's MC, it never contributes anything to the main plot.

Which is kind of my point with OIAL's early hours/chapters - it meanders through stuff that would be first in the editorial chopping block had Cari submitted this to a publisher or a competent editor. Compare that to the first chapter of Eternum, where no moment felt wasteful and the pacing allowed you to quickly get to the point of the plot (i.e meeting most of the girls, achieving a way on how to play Eternum, being introduced to the contest and some of the rules of the world, meeting principal characters like the Founder and Thanatos, etc.) while foreshadowing plenty of stuff that are likely to be addressed in the future (i.e. the first dream in Kredon, the telephone call about Calypso).

For me, stakes were already as high as they could be upon attending the Sons of Astaroth meeting.

Yeah, but it took until 0.3 for us to get to that point. And then we meandered AGAIN in 0.4 up until Moloch showed up and is revealed to be Jasmine's dad and shook OIAL's MC so much that he remembered the plot (kidding about that last thing but...you get the point). Meanwhile, in this VN we managed to jump to Eternum as early as 0.1, witnessed first hand what happens when you fuck around with Eternum's rules, managed to get ourselves in our first gem hunt (with introduced us to the storm that is approachingImean Thanatos), AND realized the real-world consequences of fucking around with said rules.

I dunno, I see more courage being involved than just sheer boredom. After all, Dad had always been mysterious and only intense about that room to where he yelled at innocent-and-perfect-kid Judie enough to make her cry just because she got too close.

Except the man wasn't around to yell or go Omniman on him if he so much as entered the room (as opposed to poor Judie, who tried to do so while the dad was at home). Can't really call that courageous or anything. Had the dad been there though and he still went with it, then maybe you could call it that.

 

[Takkatakka]

OiaL ist pretty good, but it also has a lot of problems. Starting with some characters and one LI especially being pretty much not integrated into the actual story AT ALL. Also the whole ending feels rushed. I might be imagining things but it really feels like Caribdis couldn't wait to start over with a new game that leaves all the "old baggage" of the beginning of OiaL behind, right down to actually mentioning it in OiaL.

In Eternum everything is much better integrated. All the LIs have their "place" in the main story. The graphics are on a very high level right away. Everything feels better thought through and planned so far...sure, in the end it comes down to personal taste so some people might very well prefer OiaL, but for myself it isn't even a contest. OiaL is good and for a first game even impressive, but it also has very large flaws. Eternum is...for what it wants to be...almost flawless so far.

 

[Jeycii_]

Yep yep, thats right. But it still feels great to play OIAL, even tho I already finished it like a month ago, i was able to play it again.. well tbh i skipped quite a bit, but still amazing. I like the chars, even tho some didnt get enough spotlight in the right places haha.

But as much as I love Eternums world right now... i will forever miss Carla.. i just love her every thing and its just too bad she "only" got 2 sex scenes. Really wished to have had one in the master bedroom where she tells the MC he was so much better than her husband/his father...
or a hot kitchen scene
or a steaming bathroom scene
or a sexy couch scene
or a lewd scene in school for student/parent day
or a good ol fancy dinner - love hotel scene

*kink alarm triggered*

.. oh boi the possibilities for Carla are just..

 

[RandoCard3]

I'm tempted to start a new game to avoid the side girls, so Nancy can be MCs first. Are we likely to be locked out of content for not boning the two current side girls? Am I going to be losing much by focusing on the Main Girls?

 

[Dorfnutter]

...some weebs love spiritualism.

And since you used the word "weeb"

PS: as an advice, try to avoid the use of weeb, it's a slang to refer to those outsiders of Japan that are obsessed (to the point of being sick) with that country, the ppl, general culture, goods and services; commonly used as derogatory.

My interpretation is that he used that term due to how prominent "spiritualist" elements are in recent LN, manga, and anime-related media (i.e. the entire "isekai" genre, XC3's main and final DLC story focusing on the idea of "eternal recurrence") and how "weebs" seem to lap that up (basically accusing me of being one since I'm attributing said elements to this VN when he thinks that this is a cyberpunk story). Personally I find this funny because even if you hadn't played the dev's past game (which I think pretty much spoils one to the idea that the setting has "spiritualist"/fantasy/occult elements to it), there's a lot of stuff that has happened in the real world segments of the story so far that veers into "spiritualist"/fantasy/occult territory...

(WARNING: MASSIVE IMAGE DUMP AHEAD)

Spoiler: 0.1

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.3

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.4

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.5

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[hitmebaby]

As far as i can be agree that cyberpunk is heavily materialistic in it's fundamental base, there are shit dualistic in this game, considering the fact that MC is called to help this ppl trapped in "Eternum", what was shown "in-game" as a whole make suspect in the possibility that "the servers" works as dimensions, with mankind having a real experience as they are playing because their information is being transmitted and reconstructed in those universes. Calypso could end at some point opening a portal to the reality of MC, as being him even experienced a connection to Eternum without the technology into it. The problem is, Calypso is a "magical being", her abilities cannot be done in the normie reality of MC to save the ppl trapped in Eternum but it can be performed wherever she is, if by any circumstances the plot or just a path that makes canon Calypso help to save those ppl or even put a step in the normie universe of MC, she would be the living prove of the rape of the entire physics laws. But don't worry, according to the Quantum Mechanics the atom is compose in a 99% of just fucking empty space, in a sense, the fucking universe is very idealism, as we see and touch things having a sense of security that matter is solid, but Quantum Mechanics says "not exactly" and there's a probability for any object to trespass another, lil (to the point to disqualified it in normal conditions) but exist...

PS: as an advice, try to avoid the use of weeb, it's a slang to refer to those outsiders of Japan that are obsessed (to the point of being sick) with that country, the ppl, general culture, goods and services; commonly used as derogatory.

Yes, this game may very well be dualistic.
No, thank you. I don't take advice from weebs, specially not from the ones that have no sense of humor and preach about things they don't know. Subatomic space is not necessarily empty, the electrons and neutrinos are everywhere and even "vacuum" is perpassed by fields but more importantly none of this nor relativity deduces dualism in any way.

 

[FanFFFFF]

nice game

 

[hitmebaby]

My interpretation is that he used that term due to how prominent "spiritualist" elements are in recent LN, manga, and anime-related media (i.e. the entire "isekai" genre, XC3's main and final DLC story focusing on the idea of "eternal recurrence") and how "weebs" seem to lap that up (basically accusing me of being one since I'm attributing said elements to this VN when he thinks that this is a cyberpunk story). Personally I find this funny because even if you hadn't played the dev's past game (which I think pretty much spoils one to the idea that the setting has "spiritualist"/fantasy/occult elements to it), there's a lot of stuff that has happened in the real world segments of the story so far that veers into "spiritualist"/fantasy/occult territory...

(WARNING: MASSIVE IMAGE DUMP AHEAD)

Spoiler: 0.1

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.3

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.4

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: 0.5

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Every one of these phenomena could possibly be explained with mental illness and technology.

 

[Cherubin25]

I'm tempted to start a new game to avoid the side girls, so Nancy can be MCs first. Are we likely to be locked out of content for not boning the two current side girls? Am I going to be losing much by focusing on the Main Girls?

Not sure about the second woman, but the first one is not really lost content. You just skip the part.

But overall, Nancy will not be MCs first anyway. From what I remember it was never stated that MC is a virgin.

 

[Dorfnutter]

Every one of these phenomena could possibly be explained with mental illness and technology.

So you're saying Luna's powers are just bunk, then? That she's just mentally deranged and her seeing many people's futures (including her mother's death) to the point that she has to wear gloves through most of her life in the real world is just her lying, then?

 

[Deleted member 5730975]

I'm tempted to start a new game to avoid the side girls, so Nancy can be MCs first. Are we likely to be locked out of content for not boning the two current side girls? Am I going to be losing much by focusing on the Main Girls?

Nancy being MC's first really does not matter. You dont get bonus or extra content. You only get very minor dialogue changes. Below is the dialogue change from the last update. It is just a 1 line dialogue change.

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There is another dialogue change when you meet Nancy in the bath in the roman server, you get a couple of different lines this time but thats about it.

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

And thats basically it. Play however you want but just be aware that there is nothing new/extra for not following the path recommended in the walkthrough.

As for content you are going to miss - you probably already know the scenes. At the beginning of the game you are simply not going to go see the prostitute. Other than not having Eva's scene, there is no advantage/disadvantage of fucking her so far since she returns your money to you after you have sex with her (I personally thought that was bullshit and that choice should have had consequences but whatever).

In the Egyptian server, you can leave after getting a blowjob from Nova and leave before fucking Maat. Other than not having Maat's scene you will not be able to steal Maat's money (250 eternals) after the sex scene is done if you decide not to fuck her.

 

[hitmebaby]

So you're saying Luna's powers are just bunk, then? That she's just mentally deranged and her seeing many people's futures (including her mother's death) to the point that she has to wear gloves through most of her life in the real world is just her lying, then?

...and it was nothing but a dream. or drugs

 

[Sir Weshmish]

Just started the game. Loved it and every moment and I just wanna say. Alex and Luna best girls.

 

[Takkatakka]

So you're saying Luna's powers are just bunk, then? That she's just mentally deranged and her seeing many people's futures (including her mother's death) to the point that she has to wear gloves through most of her life in the real world is just her lying, then?

Well...so far we have seen nothing of her power. She only CLAIMS to have it. If Eternum would be a game set in reality I would suggest that her "power" is probably a traumatic way of her child's brain trying to cope with the death of her mom in a very fucked-up way.

But considering this is Eternum with all kinds of weird shit going on, it could really be anything. She could just imagine it or have a false memory about it. She actually could have the power or could be some other weird effect which also depends on what Eternum actually is. Like is it really even a "virtual reality" or is it some form of alternate or parallel dimension? We really still know too little to even make an educated guess here.

 

[An known]

So you're saying Luna is just lying, then?

Mr. Hernandez after hearing this rumor:

 

[Yvier the Duck]

Who is saying that Luna is a liar? WHO!!!???

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Dylan741]

i bet you have a nice collection of gifs like this you would love to share... right?

I wish I had a lot of them, sadly I have only two...

But I'm working on making more, that I will gladly share with whoever want them as soon as I will have them ready...

 

[Jeycii_]

I wish I had a lot of them, sadly I have only two... View attachment 2764380

But I'm working on making more, that I will gladly share with whoever want them as soon as I will have them ready...
View attachment 2764388

oh, another hero was born, great thanks for that !

 

[Dorfnutter]

Well...so far we have seen nothing of her power. She only CLAIMS to have it. If Eternum would be a game set in reality I would suggest that her "power" is probably a traumatic way of her child's brain trying to cope with the death of her mom in a very fucked-up way.

But considering this is Eternum with all kinds of weird shit going on, it could really be anything. She could just imagine it or have a false memory about it. She actually could have the power or could be some other weird effect which also depends on what Eternum actually is. Like is it really even a "virtual reality" or is it some form of alternate or parallel dimension? We really still know too little to even make an educated guess here.

If we take this game on its own, then sure, I suppose you could make the argument that there are multiple ways to explain Luna's "powers" (and, as the above poster said, could be just dreams or drugs, or as you say, cope). Same with the nature of Eternum.

However, all of the non-magical explanations become headscratchy once you take into account that Cari himself confirmed a long while ago (and he keeps doing so in

You must be registered to see the links

and in

You must be registered to see the links

) that this takes place in the same universe as OIAL...

Spoiler: ...and that game sure as hell had weird stuff happening in the real...

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: Hell, Luna's power isn't even unique, considering Cari's past game (which shares the same setting) ALSO has a character that can see into the future...

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Anyway, the point is: it'll be weird if Cari went out of his way to reiterate that this shares the same universe as OIAL only for him to end up not utilizing or downright ignore the rules that're already established in said universe. Like if LP stated that Godzilla and King Kong share the same universe but there's no actual acknowledgement of it in any of the recent films. Hell, even Fate/Extra's timeline was set in a virtual simulation of sorts, but despite this magic (or the concept of it) still exists within and outside the simulation (well, USED to exist outside anyway) as per the rules established in the Nasuverse (where despite the entire thing being composed of multiple alternate realities, certain truths such as magic still exists throughout all of them).