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

[sageproduct]

It's 7 actually*...

-Annie
-Nancy
-Dalia
-Penelope
-Luna
-Alex
-Nova

...though it could still go up to 8 if Calypso ends up being a hidden main LI that gets unlocked once we reach a certain point in the story.

(*Unless that wasn't a joke and there's someone on the list that you're not counting as part of the harem)

But yes, the way Caribdis tied LI progression to the main story and the fact that there's too many of them (which necessitates to rotate through 3-4 at a time per update) is why their progression feels accelerated compared to OIAL where the main focus is actually on the first 4 girls that were introduced right from the start (Judie, Lauren, Carla, Rebecca) while the others (Iris**, Jasmine, Aiko) are just filler that are just there to increase scenes rather than add anything substantial to the story (and yes, I say this even knowing that Aiko basically saved our bacon during the Japan trip...but after that she was just kinda...there).

**This one hurts because she's the one whose design I kinda liked the most, but I stand by what I said

It's also why the time skips are necessary because of the plot-first nature of it all. Had it been the other way around (romantic progression over main story progression yet still keeping both tied for chronological reasons), I can already see the same people complaining that this update did nothing from a story perspective (which is objectively wrong because stuff still did kinda happen) to also complain when we get 2-3 updates of nothing happening but LI progression (which again, was what happened with OIAL 0.1-0.4 for the most part, with 0.3 being the only update where major plot progress actually happened).



Personally I think Caribdis also shares some blame. He didn't had to hype that Eternum was going to be bigger and better compared to OIAL, but he did (even did so at the end credits of OIAL). And the only way to say that Eternum is indeed "bigger and better" is to up the ante when it comes to LI focus (no more "only focus on 4 main and keep the rest as side hoes," now ALL of the 7 main LI's are going to get focus), main story (length is certainly longer this time around, and the writing seems to have more thought put into it other than "there's an evil cult trying to summon a demon who seeks to - you guessed it -

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and only an almost-failure of a student and his ridiculously attractive stepsisters (sisters if you install the incest patch) are the only ones who could stop them"), and overall quality (switch from HS1 to HS2 renders, area navigation segments actually feeling like area navigation and not "choose where you want to go from this list bitch," ACTUAL FUCKING MUSIC being used in scenes).

To his credit though, he succeeds for the most part in keeping his promise (IMO, some people might disagree) so not much complaints really. Though it would be nice if his next game is a bit less on the grand scale and something that's more localized ala OIAL (though with the lessons learned and the lore revealed for this game utilized to great effect in said next game). Maybe also cut back on the number of LIs in favor of fleshing them out more, that sort of thing.



I wouldn't go that far, personally. It would be a sad day (and I mean a VERY sad day) once Caribdis abandons or retires from the Western Adult VN market the same way that former writers/devs of the same genre on the JP side did (looking at you, Type-Moon and Nitroplus). In fact I think that's what drove me to check out the indie WEG (Western Erotic Games) scene in the first place because the JP side no longer cares in making the next "Saya no Uta" or the next "Grisaia" or the next "Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa." Whatever's left there is either Nukige or Highschool Romance schlock or NTR. And if you want the interesting stuff (story-wise) you'll have to jump ship to the Non-Eroge section. Or pray that localizers actually pick up something that's reminiscent of the old-school Adult VNs of old (which they won't).

Shit's depressing, really.

Well said, dear scholar.

I would say that Eternum is indeed bigger and better than Once in a Lifetime, in just about every way, even if I prefer some aspects of Once in a Lifetime. Its scope is absolutely massive, in a way that dwarfs that of Once in a Lifetime.

I don't necessarily want Caribdis moving to a low-stakes story next, even though I'm sure he could. I'm loving the "save the world with your best friends" epics. He's clearly shown himself to be somewhat of a formulaic creator, which is AWESOME. Some of the greatest and most prolific authors have been described as formulaic - such as Agatha Christie and Stephen King (also fitting I suppose, given Caribdis's fondness for mystery and horror). His favorite women are strong and confident and a bit cocky, but he also likes the cute and sweet ones, he has a heart for girls (and people in general) with shitty dads or none at all, he believes fiercely in personal freedoms, and he observes that if you don't take what you want in life, others will.

 

[misfolk]

The story apologists and rationalizers will tell you it's all very serious, very revealing, that there's an underlying plan, and a simple explanation for everything that is both logical and forward-thinking. Still, obvious lapses aside generally it's a fairly decent storyline. You need only be comfortable in suspension of disbelief mode for certain aspects of it.

It's the "porn discount" in action. People won't play a decent VN or an RPGM game just because it's decent. It must have something to offer, something that sets it above the competition. But if it's a porn game, people will play everything that is below average or better.

Of course, Eternum is way above average for a porn game. It actually has a plot and memorable characters. Production quality-wise it's better than most non-porn VNs out there.

 

[Yeorman]

Only if anyone struggle

song in the heist is Glitz at the Ritz by Jules Gaia
song on the beach is I’d Rather Stay on Earth by Cassinello

both are great thanks for another piece to the playlist

 

[Blahxxx]

Spoiler

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Darn I seldom read about the discussions and I did not noticed what those hints pointing at when I finished 0.4

 

[Dorfnutter]

People won't play a decent VN or an RPGM game just because it's decent. It must have something to offer, something that sets it above the competition. But if it's a porn game, people will play everything that is below average or better.

In this site where people are ready to crucify devs if they release a game with little to no fap material (the exception being if the renders are above average and/or the dev has a decent track record), then sure.

If you're a game-first/story-centric porn game dev though, you might have more luck in places like Steam where they value the game part of the porn game more (i.e. the case of Subverse's Early Access release where it got 2/5 star average rating in this site and a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, with most reviews on the latter citing that the space combat was fun but found the ground combat and sex scenes "eh").

I don't necessarily want Caribdis moving to a low-stakes story next, even though I'm sure he could. I'm loving the "save the world with your best friends" epics. He's clearly shown himself to be somewhat of a formulaic creator, which is AWESOME. Some of the greatest and most prolific authors have been described as formulaic - such as Agatha Christie and Stephen King (also fitting I suppose, given Caribdis's fondness for mystery and horror). His favorite women are strong and confident and a bit cocky, but he also likes the cute and sweet ones, he has a heart for girls (and people in general) with shitty dads or none at all, he believes fiercely in personal freedoms, and he observes that if you don't take what you want in life, others will.

If by formulaic you mean writers who know when to use tropes they've used before to full effect, then yes.

But I get why King and Christie got formulaic though: they're prolific as fuck (I mean, have you seen how many books they've published? Kee-rist). It's like it doesn't matter to them that what they're writing is reminiscent to what came before. What matters is the love for the process, that desire to just write and get something out of the door, originality and artistic aspirations be damned.

(I wish they could pass some of that must-publish-no-matter-the-quality energy to GRRM though. Like, c'mon George, it's been years. No amount of rewriting is going to wash away the pain inflicted by the show's damnable last season but I'm still invested in knowing if Tyrion will ever find his ex-wife or not. Just...just release Winds you're not getting any younger please don't follow in Robert Jordan's footsteps ffs-)

/clears throat

Anyway, I'm getting off track. At the end of the day, I suppose it's up to Caribdis if he wants to escalate or scale back a bit in the next game (at least I'm hoping there will be a next game). All I'm hoping is that he doesn't just rest on his laurels like some devs often do when they become popular enough, and instead try to continue to do better in terms of quality and not just quantity (I mean he's already better than most devs IMO and I have not much complaints in his storytelling...but there's always room for improvement). And if doing that means that he has to scale back or scale up, then I'm all for it I suppose.

 

[dreamgoat]

Everything is perfect Caribdis as usual, I had a blast like usual. You're great as usual Caribdis. Hey, try to make some mistakes I'm getting bored writing the same thing after every update feels like I'm spoiling you . Keep up the great work!

 

[saynotoNTR]

I'm not going to lie...

My expectations were very low for this game, I have a certain prejudice against games that use Honey Select models, AI Shoujo, Koikatsu Party and etc... But how wrong I was about “Eternum”.

The writing is just perfect, both in terms of the plot and the characters. The humor present in the game is very intelligent and creative, it is like no other. However, if it follows the same pattern as “Once in a Lifetime” it may not convince me to play until the end.

The “Once in a Lifetime” game was an extremely large game, but with very few adult scenes... even though it had an exciting story it wasn't enough to keep me entertained (I couldn't finish the game). I hope that with “Eternum” the developer does not follow the same pattern, although I am already worried since the first sex scene (penetration) with the main girls happened only in version 0.5;

Regardless of where the game goes, I want to take this opportunity and thank the developer for making such a positive contribution to our community. We need more committed and talented developers like you. May you have all the success in the world, Caribdis.

 

[Monstrous Moonshine]

I'm not going to lie...

My expectations were very low for this game, I have a certain prejudice against games that use Honey Select models, AI Shoujo, Koikatsu Party and etc... But how wrong I was about “Eternum”.

The writing is just perfect, both in terms of the plot and the characters. The humor present in the game is very intelligent and creative, it is like no other. However, if it follows the same pattern as “Once in a Lifetime” it may not convince me to play until the end.

The “Once in a Lifetime” game was an extremely large game, but with very few adult scenes... even though it had an exciting story it wasn't enough to keep me entertained (I couldn't finish the game). I hope that with “Eternum” the developer does not follow the same pattern, although I am already worried since the first sex scene (penetration) with the main girls happened only in version 0.5;

Regardless of where the game goes, I want to take this opportunity and thank the developer for making such a positive contribution to our community. We need more committed and talented developers like you. May you have all the success in the world, Caribdis.

I'm fairly certain there is more sexual content than that, unless you're only classifying sex scenes as 'penetration that involves harem members'? In which case, I am unsure, as I hadn't played Eternum until 0.5.

 

[Prolko]

I'm fairly certain there is more sexual content than that, unless you're only classifying sex scenes as 'penetration that involves harem members'? In which case, I am unsure, as I hadn't played Eternum until 0.5.

Well ofc he’s talking about a penetration involving harem members, first one was literally an prostitute and honestly I skipped that in every one of my gameplays. Just feels gross -not saying anything about people who like them, but c’mon, in a game? just watch porn instead- and kills my libido.

 

[Monstrous Moonshine]

Well ofc he’s talking about a penetration involving harem members, first one was literally an prostitute and honestly I skipped that in every one of my gameplays. Just feels gross -not saying anything about people who like them, but c’mon, in a game? just watch porn instead- and kills my libido.

Spoiler: Eva

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[Dorfnutter]

The “Once in a Lifetime” game was an extremely large game, but with very few adult scenes... even though it had an exciting story it wasn't enough to keep me entertained (I couldn't finish the game). I hope that with “Eternum” the developer does not follow the same pattern, although I am already worried since the first sex scene (penetration) with the main girls happened only in version 0.5;

OIAL was pretty backloaded though, in that most of the actual penetration scenes started around 0.6 onwards (though penetration scenes started as early as 0.4 with Jasmine and followed up in 0.5 by Rebecca). To Caribdis' credit, he tried to mitigate the issue in Eternum by having optional penetration scenes with Side Girls in 0.1 to 0.3, but it's likely that penetration content for the Main Girls is going to be relegated to the latter chunk of the story again (with Nancy being the opening salvo in this update).

But who knows, maybe next update he'll change things a bit considering that there are 2 girls in the roster right now who have a high probability of getting penetrated (Dalia, if her scene of having Orion eat her out as was hinted in this update is going to go the way of Lauren in OIAL 0.6, and Annie, assuming that Caribdis sticks with the roster schedule and those who weren't the focus of this update gets a focus in the next).

 

[Monstrous Moonshine]

OIAL was pretty backloaded though...

Just like the girls!

 

[Monstrous Moonshine]

Is it me or is Mr. Hernandez really intent on setting you up with his daugther?

 

[ArDZer]

Is it me or is Mr. Hernandez really intent on setting you up with his daugther?

He might be onto it. He's also noticed how Luna's been smiling more often (also teasing her whenever the opportunity arises). Not to mention he's also stated what he'll do if the protagonist dares to break his beloved daughter's heart.

Spoiler: In case the protagonist has forgotten

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[Dylan741]

Dang, I just replayed the lunch scene and now I want to see Desperado once again, Caribdis is a genius!!!

 

[deapfoo]

I just "finished" the game, cant wait for next update... God damn what ive been missing..

 

[ArDZer]

Dang, I just replayed the lunch scene and now I want to see Desperado once again, Caribdis is a genius!!!

If you mean the lunch at the mountain, then I can't get that song from out of my head.

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What would've happened if the tacos had Pepper X instead? It's said those are 2 times even hotter than the Carolina Reaper. Pretty sure his head (and the rest of his body) would've been like this

 

[Dylan741]

If you mean the lunch at the mountain, then I can't get that song from out of my head.

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What would've happened if the tacos had Pepper X instead? It's said those are 2 times even hotter than the Carolina Reaper. Pretty sure his head (and the rest of his body) would've been like this
View attachment 2355152

Yes I meant the lunch at Luna's Grandma and 'Pa and I agree with you, I'm sure Orion seen something similar if not worse, those tacos are a myth already!!

 

[talion777]

It's the "porn discount" in action. People won't play a decent VN or an RPGM game just because it's decent. It must have something to offer, something that sets it above the competition. But if it's a porn game, people will play everything that is below average or better.

Of course, Eternum is way above average for a porn game. It actually has a plot and memorable characters. Production quality-wise it's better than most non-porn VNs out there.

Very true. You have to manage your expectations and bear in mind that it IS a porn game, and as such most other shortcomings will be dealt with tolerantly and even affectionately if there are enough high quality lewd scenes. You're also right in that Eternum is definitely above average within the AVN genre. Still, it's not an original storyline even though the story has largely been well executed so far, and it's too easy to fall in the trap of quality dilution for the sake of easy gratification. The genre is relatively new as well, and the age of quality models is even newer. It behooves us who are going to be using the product to set up our expectations and ask that devs continue to improve the genre by demanding higher minimum standards and voting with our feet/wallets if they aren't being delivered. Of course, it's also necessary to distinguish between the true AVNs, which I don't really view as a "game" and the hybrids that have both story and gaming elements. Priorities will be different depending on which we're discussing. Everyone is demanding better porn, animations, voice acting etc, and they're getting it. Why shouldn't there also be better writing and game features?

 

[talion777]

In this site where people are ready to crucify devs if they release a game with little to no fap material (the exception being if the renders are above average and/or the dev has a decent track record), then sure.

If you're a game-first/story-centric porn game dev though, you might have more luck in places like Steam where they value the game part of the porn game more (i.e. the case of Subverse's Early Access release where it got 2/5 star average rating in this site and a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, with most reviews on the latter citing that the space combat was fun but found the ground combat and sex scenes "eh").



If by formulaic you mean writers who know when to use tropes they've used before to full effect, then yes.

But I get why King and Christie got formulaic though: they're prolific as fuck (I mean, have you seen how many books they've published? Kee-rist). It's like it doesn't matter to them that what they're writing is reminiscent to what came before. What matters is the love for the process, that desire to just write and get something out of the door, originality and artistic aspirations be damned.

(I wish they could pass some of that must-publish-no-matter-the-quality energy to GRRM though. Like, c'mon George, it's been years. No amount of rewriting is going to wash away the pain inflicted by the show's damnable last season but I'm still invested in knowing if Tyrion will ever find his ex-wife or not. Just...just release Winds you're not getting any younger please don't follow in Robert Jordan's footsteps ffs-)

/clears throat

Anyway, I'm getting off track. At the end of the day, I suppose it's up to Caribdis if he wants to escalate or scale back a bit in the next game (at least I'm hoping there will be a next game). All I'm hoping is that he doesn't just rest on his laurels like some devs often do when they become popular enough, and instead try to continue to do better in terms of quality and not just quantity (I mean he's already better than most devs IMO and I have not much complaints in his storytelling...but there's always room for improvement). And if doing that means that he has to scale back or scale up, then I'm all for it I suppose.

Amen to the GRRM thing. He truly comes across as a self centered, self important man at times too. He repeatedly breaks promises and then tells everyone to fuck off if they don't like it. He goes off and does whatever project tickles his fancy without giving a thought to ASOIF and is addicted to fan conferences. He's having a grand time. It's been 10-11 since the last book and most authors could have written the entire series in that time. Of course we forgive him because the books are brilliant, but he still pisses us off. lol. I haven't forgiven David Gerrold either. He's even WORSE than GRRM, unbelievable as that is.