I'm not sure what an "adequate Path B" would be. Yes, you would miss sexual content with girls if you avoided their paths. But that's the very point of giving you those choices. What else would you miss? Not story progression. That is independent of what happens sexually.
Do you mean having sex with Girl A INSTEAD OF Girl B? That IS what non-harem stories do, not this game. Try this though: make a playthrough for every girl. Concentrate on one girl for each route, ignoring all others. There - you have created a non-harem game out of this one.
If you're not on Annie's path, you don't even go to Andromeda.
If you're not on Luna's path, you don't see her experience with her mother in Warthogs, and you don't even go on the trip to meet her uncle.
If you're not on Nova's path, she
doesn't even go to the Halloween party. Which doesn't just affect her - it makes you miss out on some of Nova and Penny's relationship too.
As the relationships developed, Once in a Lifetime featured more and more content that was path-specific. You'd eventually get to large time skips where, even on a blind playthrough, you can
tell you just missed tons of content from not romancing someone.
But, no, you're not going to get situations where if you romance Girl A, she marries you, if you don't, she joins a convent or commits suicide or kills your puppy or some other path that completely changes the story. I say, thank goodness!
Forgive me if I am misunderstanding you, but you seem to be boiling everything down to what happens with potential LIs, which gives disservice to the actual game, which is almost worth playing without any sex.
Once in a Lifetime very clearly yields bad or worse outcomes for several of the love interests you don't romance. They live less happy lives with people who love them less.
It is abundantly clear there is a right way, and there is a wrong way. Not a "choose your one and only" story.
one example would be we don't go to Andromeda Space Resort with Annie if not on Annie Path.
I would want to see the MC experience Andromeda Space Resort even if the MC isn't on Annie's Path.
I don't care about the adult scenes. Not for this game at least. Not for most games for that matter.
But I want to see the story.
Dropping off someone's path means not seeing their story events.
"Path B" as in, still go, but as a friend.
Anyway, it's minor.
I can live with it.
+1
Going to Andromeda with Annie as best friends, like you've always been, would be pretty awesome
Agreed, but as I said, imho, it's a cultural issue first and foremost in real life and it can reflect on how you perceive a fictional work that goes against it.
If you are accustomed by everything around you to see polyamorous relations as wrong, and be frowned upon and considering all the other psychological pressure to get your mindset on the monogamy as the only positive value, you will get that issue ( and girls and women are especially forced to undergo that from young age).
Yes, I agree.
However, the reality is that most people, in most societies, have been mostly monogamous. I'm sure even
Dragon59 , who has discussed living the poly lifestyle for decades and is an active proponent of it, would still agree.
Counterculture is by necessity a response to mainstream culture. So naturally, it feels off if mainstream culture
isn't even acknowledged.
Granted - I wouldn't change this. Even touching this topic would instantly telegraph an agenda being preached in Eternum here, which would really dilute the message it's
really focused on and change its tone.
Eternum's focus isn't about promoting poly. It's about manhood. It's about living with courage, kindness, and generosity. It's about loving with all your heart, by protecting your lover, caring for her, desiring her, accepting her unconditionally, always seeing her as beautiful, risking everything for her, being ready to sacrifice yourself for her. It's about being a man, when you didn't have a good male role model to teach you.
The weirdness remains a natural consequence of this choice however.
Sure there are some unrealistic things like the girls not being jealous, no relationship drama, a group of supermodel tier girls all being interested in one man etc but thats just the nature of harem games and it does not impact my enjoyment of the game in any way. There are far more unrealistic things in the game after all such as the following:
Gas prices being 1 dollar:
View attachment 2565316
ez. The price of oil plummeted worldwide after Eternum was so astronomically successful that transportation and industrial production plummeted. Also, President & Philanthropist Mike Stabby funded breakthrough research on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and also discovered a Reptilian lair harboring already-distilled oil in the amounts of 10x the world's previously known supply, as well as highly advanced energy harnessing technology that made oil refinement 50x more efficient
Nancy's house being cheap. It is a big house located near a good school/college and near a major tech company like Ulysses. It would be really fucking expensive in real life.
View attachment 2565324
A bunch of supermodels throwing themselves at you and agreeing to be in a harem seems extremely realistic in comparison
There's a major plot reason for houses in Kredon being pretty cheap all factors considered. But to say what it is would be huge spoilers.
Son of Durin already knows.
Isn't it interesting that some people who readily accept the fantastic premise of this game itself, find accepting polyamory/harem troublesome?
Not wrong, just interesting.
Yeah, just like how when adults were scrunching their noses at Harry Potter hitting the theaters, until the director for Goblet of Fire explained that it was a great portrayal of pre-WWII fear and denial
Wands, wizards, corporate suits, swords - irrelevant. Those are just the clothes a story wears. The poster who said realistic characters are necessary, not realistic settings, nailed it.
I'm also of the opinion that missing some events if you're not on a girl's love path is a shame. Why bother giving a choice to refuse a girl then, just write a linear harem story.
Could work with not much work, a few dialogue changes and minus sex scenes. With Annie they could still go on the server as friends. You miss quite a big part with the alien invasion and other girls helping. Same with Dalia you miss her sport event
Completely agree on the observation and sentiment but disagree on the prescription. Eternum's perfect the way it is.
The choices do serve a purpose. It's just that that purpose is not branching storylines.
The purpose is to put focus on those key decisions, actions, and words that makes a man who he is.
The choices and their outcomes show you the difference between a man who takes action to do what is right, and a man who is controlled by fear. Between a man who truly understands what loving a woman means, and a man who is too self-absorbed to truly receive her.
Orion's special abilities and plot-crucial attributes are his LEAST extraordinary features. What
actually makes him extraordinary is his character, which is larger than life (for a teenage young man, at least).
