VN - Ren'Py - Eternum [v0.8.0] [Caribdis]

Ok, what?

Just finished 0.2. I'm stunned. This is hands down, the best game on this website I have ever played.

I have never seen characters with such unique and interesting personalites. Like I literaly thought multiple times, "Dang. If this game lets me settle down with one girl, this would be the girl I would choose." Except about all of them.

I have never seen such a funny, well written story with so many different elements before. Oh, you want a classic high school trope? Got that covered. Oh, you also want a SAO level masterpiece of a VR game? Got that covered too. But you also want at home romantic/erotic encounters with your family? What do you know, got that covered too. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO ENTERTAINED BY A GAME BEFORE!

Now to the sexual content. This definetly doesn't feel like the point of this game. I think that is a strength. I'm much more turned on by more realistic (if still exagerated) situations than I am by most of the crap in this type of game. There isn't a huge amount of nudity, but it's more than enough to get off a couple of times, and the quality of the characters and animations is stunning.

PLAY THIS GAME. The first thing I did after finishing it was pledge to this genius's patreon, and I hope you will to.

Recommended

Review version: 0.2

Another upcoming masterpiece by Caribdis.

Characters and Story (9/10):
The characters and the world are flushed out with funny easter eggs. The characters feel like they can feel; they seem human and behave uniquely.
The story has mystery and sci-fi elements.

Sex (?/10):
There isn't much in this dept until this point (compared to the story), but that's welcome how the girls have value and are not just dolls for sex.
Not to say there isn't anything, but if your only objective is to see some bonking, you might be disappointed for now.

Enjoyment (10/10):
The humor is ever-present and surprises you pleasantly. The mystery is there, and the story seems to be the main focus. The world looks amazing. The graphics are 'anime-styled,' but that helps me with the story in this case. The music is well chosen and helps a lot with the immersion.

Overall (9.5/10):
I can't wait for the following updates. I want to know what happens next in the story; the fabulous girls and the already foreshadowed sex are just a massive plus.

Fantastic game.

I care more about the plot, characters setting than the porn at this point. If you're into gamelit and VRMMO themes there's a 100% chance you'll love this.

Speaking of the porn, there isn't that much of it in the current version but what's there is good and worth it.

this game is genuinely so pretty and well written, it would be amazing even without all the sexual content. ur doing such a good job on this and i can't wait to see where it goes the characters are so nice and it rly makes me happy that we make them happy too!

like i said, amazing job caribdis

This game is basically perfection, for all the reasons others have listed: the great humor, the wonderful world-building, the subtle but convincing character development, the models, the animations, etc. etc. I never thought I could love any game, let alone a honey select game, so much. I have no hesitations about giving it a five star review.

My only complaint about the game is that it is so good that it is honestly kind of painful to return to real life afterwards. If there is an afterlife, and if we have any choice about where we go, I want to live in a heaven built by Caribdis for whatever time I am given. Thank you Caribdis for giving me a glimpse into what is possible. You deserve all the good life can give you.

Having played the dev's last game, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I thought I would give this one a shot. Holy fuck, what a gem.

First off, ver 0.2 would make you think there's not a lot of content yet huh?
Wrong. There's seriously like 5 or 6 hours worth already! bigger than some finished VN's on here...

The content is pure gold so far. Story is funny, gripping, and sucks you right in along with the great characters. The girls are damn cute...Annie, Luna, Alex...oh my, I am torn who I like the most..

The graphics are great and very stylish, with some nice animations as well.
Music is also great and well timed sound effects add much to the immersion.
This dev is so talented, between weaving gripping stories, interspersed with very dramatic moments but also very humourous interactions.

I would even go as far as saying this is definitely in my top 3 on here.
It deserves more recognition and support. Absolute gem.

Keep up the phenomrnal progress dev, you are doing great!

I totally recommend everyone try this masterpiece in the making.

The game is simply incredible. The atmosphere is top-notch. The sound effects add a lot to the experience and the game would suffer without them. This game's animations are incredible and the visuals are superb. The story caught me from the very beggining and kept me for the entire game. Waiting for the updates. Hopefully won't be waiting long. If you want to wait until the game is finished to play it: don't. It is enough to experience it right now and wouldn't leave you unsatisfied.

Great settings, art, characters, and a good music, to be honest in the last game I find a little underwhelming the sound, this game fix that and improves every aspect, I'm really surprise the high standarst this game has, the game is amazing, I would recomend to anyone, well is not for a quick shot or something like that but a quality game in every aspect, give it a try for sure you'll have a great time!

Stunning visuals, great humor in all the right places (like their first game) and top notch story telling. MC gives similar vibes to the Once in a lifetime's mc but that's great, nothing better than landing a few good punchlines and being involved in the story around him.
Clear 5/5

What to say to give this game justice... First thing this does not feel like a small team of people doing this. I have been gaming since early 80's and this grabs my attention on all levels and it at the level of game studios that have dozen of employees working full time. This game MUST be played with sound and music on. It is one of the few games out there that the audio is so important on.

I was initially hesitant on the stills being a little cartoonish/anime. Once you get into the game you realize that each still and animation is a work of art. So much love and attention. The characters feel alive with emotion. No dead eyes that some devs seem to miss.

Story while not complete new is fleshed and the Devs truly make it their own. The only issue and it is a small one is the treating of the US college as if it was a Japanese high school. I understand the need to avoid the underage idea but it would have been nice to work it into the story of the difference from all north American post secondary education.

All in all I will await the updates with anticipation.

You want to find a game with a good plot, attractive dialogue, cute, sexy, attractive female character images, ... everything is in this game. The image is carefully invested, the sound is selected to suit each scene, where not every game can have. Everything until now I can only use perfect to describe

I love that Caribdis, you’re reading all of your reviews. For that reason and out of sheer awe for the game, I’ll be writing this as a sharing of experience, rather than analytical of the quality.

I was nervous for the ambition after reading the first teaser. From being a small child I was always imagining myself living in all kinds of worlds. Some of them sexual (I had cosmic sexy love interest from a very young age ) So it was already close to my heart before I even played it. I was expecting a lot, also after OIAL, but prepared for a slight let down. I believed maybe you aimed too high after your success.
After playing the first two releases (0.2 being even more insane than 0.1) I could not have hoped for anyone else than you to make this game. To top that, this setting is just made for you. Like a perfect balance between two ethereal lovers, your game and you go hand in hand to bring out the best in each other. All of your ideas, talents, skills, whatever, can be tested to their max. Nothing will ever be weird or too out there, because within the Eternum-VR anything can happen. The dragon moment could have been too much, but it only made me think “this is what happens when you give Caribdis money and love for all of his/her efforts on his/her first game. He/she will go mad and beyond in the best way”. Crazy but so, so satisfying.

Rather than just making a fantasy game, you chose to blend it with reality. For me this resulted in massive immersion. Both in and out of the VR-world, they accentuate the reality in each other. They ground each other. For instance, I have never been more drawn in with terror from a game, or even a movie for that matter, in the house with the burned mother. This brings me to my next point, your feeling for cinematic experience.

Take the moment with Luna where she shows her gift. Seeing into the future? Done before. Touching makes a power go away? Done before. But something in the way you set it up.. Damn man. The shifts of the right music at the right moments, the lighting, the slightly tilted camera, the beauty of Luna, and of course the writing. It made me feel it as it would feel in real life. Of course you can fantasize about seeing into the future, but in real life, it wouldn’t only be awesome. It would be unsettling as fuck. Dark, mysterious, kind of fucked up. More of a curse for the gifted. It all felt exactly like that. And then the touching. Maybe I could have expected nothing to happen, but I did not. It build up in the most cinematic and beautiful, powerful way, giving me the feeling as if the whole game could explode. Anything was possible. An abrupt and mystical change in the story, the start of a vortex of complex twists. I felt drawn in as if I had never been drawn in by anything ever before, feeling like all the world was stripped away leaving only the moment they touch and the universe turns upside down and then... Nothing happens. I literally stood up and walked that off in my room hyperventilating from all of the energy that moment had. It was absolutely magnificent. It was beautifully intimate. Perfect. Thank you so much. Not just are your many subtle plot twists amazingly fulfilling, the way you built up to them is unparalleled.

Shortly about the girls. They are not just all equally epic. Simply every single one of them is my favorite of the bunch. I look forward to each and every one of their stories and sexy times. Maybe even more epic is their clothing. So elegant, so sexy. Makes it really feel like they themselves choose their own clothing. Not just a doll for the player to lust at.

Caribdis. I read some other reviews, asking you to change some things. The girls blushing too much (I think blushing gives the girls a lot of flavor and extra character); there not being enough sex yet; the pacing being either too slow or too rapid; the MC’s natural abilities being too powerful.
Of course, you don’t have to listen to me either, but please: Stay you. For me, this game is the absolute best idea for a VN ever. With you being the absolute best person to realize it. You don’t have to change, you don’t have to stay the same. You can do whatever the hell you want. You have a crazy, fantastic, magnificent imagination; a deep feeling for cinematography, atmosphere, lighting and music; a powerful respect and “maturity mixed with funny” for the personality of the girls and the MC; a rich, satisfying immersion imploding feeling for story-telling and your edge for both horror and comedy will forever be remembered by me, and probably everyone playing your games. I would not trust anyone else more being the director of your game than you. Eternum is over the top in exactly the most compelling and perfect way it could have been. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me and everyone else the experience of your games.

If I had to say one single thing to contradict what I just said about not changing anything because I just can’t help myself to not say it, it would be that I enjoy kissing a lot, and I would like to see it occasionally in this game For me it makes it feel more like real love, rather than “just” sex.

Cheers!

An overall great game so far, story is good not overly ridiculous but it's just enough/right for an enjoyable adult game. Renders are beautiful and the same goes for most of the MC's love interests. I just hope for the dev to not add excessive sex scenes in the future.
Good luck and keep up the fantastic work you're doing it right so far!

Wow, holy shit! This game was amazing! The quality, phenomenal! The story even better. and all the scenes were outstanding and so pretty! The girls are beautiful and I can not wait to see how their characters develop in the future.

Anyways kudos to you Caribdis for this amazing game and I can not wait for version 0.3 and make sure to take care of yourself! In the meantime, I am excited to try Once in a Lifetime now!

Amazing! I have not been that blown away by any other game on this side since maybe 3 years. The story writing is excellent, the immersion fantastic. It is such a great experience to play the game, I am even missing the proper words. The renders are fantastic, the animations worthy a cinema movie, the story is brilliant, the characters very individual and each of them likable so you just cant pic a favorite. There was a scene of a horror movie and it was really afraid, the were moments of pure joy, sadness, anger and happiness. Also brilliant jokes. I immediately started supporting on patreon as I was half way though - The game is that good! And it felt like an eternity till I was at the end. Its only 0.2, second update, but has already more content then most other games. The developers do an amazing job to produce that much high quality content in such a short period of time. This one is a gem.

Really well put together game with a solid concept (very SAO vibes). The story does feel a bit short/undeveloped atm but I'm guessing it will just take a long time to flesh it out due too the high quality scenes.

I'm really conflicted about this game. Graphics are amazing, it's incredible how much the developer has improved from the previous game. Characters are varied, all very attractive and kind of different, but too over the top sometimes. Writing is not bad, dialogues flows better than the average of these games and there are some genuinely funny moments (I absolutely loved the bit where the MC thought he was being followed). On the other hand the plot is very weak, it seems that the only motor of the game world is the MC, nothing happens outside of him. From the moment he starts playing the game he immediately starts solving mysteries that no one other could, there is no struggle whatsoever from his part. There are hints of him being like a chosen one to justify all this, but frankly that would be just lazy writing. At the beginning the MC is hinted as not being particularly successful with women, and it plays out as a funny scene, going on with the game one could wonder why though, 'cause every single woman in the game immediately falls for him, with no effort whatsoever on his part. I also find an extremely lazy choice to cut out any possible contrast with his best friend by making him fall in love with an extremely unattractive girl, it could have just been a funny scene, but to me it felt childish to get rid of any potential threat from his part dealing with him this way.
Anyway the game is extremely good, really, but there are too many things that makes my eyes roll painfully.

After their last fantastic game i have high hopes for this one. The story seems really promising and has the same level of strong writing. Always makes me laugh and it's a game where you don't feel you're just skipping through terrible dialogue to get to the renders/scenes. Still early but really enjoyable so far!

This game is amazing.
The story is so interesting with love, fantasy and horror elements,
chacracter designs are so unique and beutiful, easily top 1 for me. Also, developer is hard-working, always delevered the next version of the game in short times (about 3 months per version). If you looking for some high quality 18+ game, this is the game game for you. His sneek peek photos in patreon is also nice. It's worth it, check it out.

It is rare for a visual novel to blend humor, characterization, plot, artwork, gameplay, and (obviously) sex, as flawlessly as Caribdis did in Once in a Lifetime. It is rarer still to do it TWICE: as of this writing, Eternum is being kept out of the top 3 games by weighted ranking on F95 by none other than Pale Carnations and Once in a Lifetime. Cari's own game won't let him enter the top 3. Through some indescribable-and-wholly-unbelievable means, Caribdis has somehow managed to improve upon every one of the above aspects in his follow-up game. Every dial has been pushed to 11; all the engines were ready to go, and now they're almost ready to blow. It is somehow an improvement at every fundamental level.

I'll start with the lowlight. In my opinion, the weakest aspect of OiaLT was the lewd element: a few of the girls looked similar, with common body types, and the sex scenes were kind of lackluster. That was it; that was the literal one flaw I had with the game. And now, Cari has somehow blown that door wide open: Annie, Penelope, Nancy, Luna, Idriel, Alex, Nova, and Dalia are instantly some of the best HS2 models in an AVN right now. The girls are superbly well-designed, both in how they look and how they speak. Caribdis's dialogue once again shines as one of his great talents as a developer. The girls are engaging, their backstories are intriguing, and their looks are staggering. The only note I'd give here is for Cari to consider adding more dirty talk as he works on these scenes; I think it would be the real cherry on top and cement the lewd aspect as an element that is as strong as Eternum's other qualities.

The characters of Eternum grab the player from the very beginning. Not only because of the aforementioned incredible aesthetic, but the writing: the guys and gals spur immediate emotions in the reader. The cute Annie, the bullied Luna, the abused Alex... the reader is forced to quickly identify with these characters due to the charm of Cari's writing. Of course, empathizing with the characters is easier to do when dialogue keeps you laughing throughout, and Cari's timely jokes and references ensure the reader is thoroughly entertained. There will never be a dull moment, yet the game manages to thread the needle such that the humor and winks and nudges are not excessive.

However, Cari doesn't really need to rely on distractions like that to keep the reader hooked: his plot does that on its own. Eternum's story is prime ground for theorizing. The world-building has been extensive, and there's been more care put into lore than one would expect. There are mysteries abound, and Cari is committed to revealing answers in a satisfying and compelling way. One of the ways he does this is through gameplay. There is interactivity forced upon the reader by the quiz game in 0.1 and the haunted house in 0.2, which causes the player to become an active participant in the story. This immersion is ridiculously difficult to do, and even more difficult to do well. It's one of the great things about AVNs and gaming in general, and I have the feeling that Cari has been having (and will have) an absurdly good time developing sections like the haunted house.

Eternum, in my opinion, will indisputably be Caribdis’s best work. Its spot in the rankings is well-deserved, if not insufficient. It has checked as many boxes as one could hope for in a lewd VN, and it’s only on 0.2. There’s so much potential and so much to consider; the game is an absolute treasure. I cannot wait to see where Cari goes next with the game, and I am willing to bet several Eternals that he can’t wait to reveal what’s up next either.