VN - Ren'Py - Eternum [v0.8.4] [Caribdis]

Man, this might just be the best game I have played on here. Caribdis, you have knocked it out of the park with this one. I love your previous game but this one is just incredible. I just finished playing the Hogwar--sorry, the Warthogs sequence and I just had to pause and jump on here to review this game before playing any further. I loved that sequence so much.
The characters, the story, the dialogue, everything is amazing in this game. I love the MC as well, which is rare. He is not a wimp and a genuinely nice guy. I also see some people complaining about a lack of sex scenes in the game but in my opinion it has just the right amount in there. I'm so invested in the story and the characters that I don't even care. I can't wait to see where this goes. Good luck Caribdis!

Edit: I had to edit my review because I forgot to mention the music. My god is it incredible. This is truly an S-Tier game .

This is the best game I've played on this site, and I've played quite a few. It takes everything great about Caribdis's previous work, and makes it better. The story of the game really is very good, and the content is very hot!

A boy who return his hometown where the things are started changing . Every body is talking about a virtual game Eternum where you can't diffrentiate a virtual world or real world . Lots of fishy things happening . A combination of Magic , Mystery , Horror very good . There are few sex Scene but they are top level . I enjoyed it a lot . I have never play a such a good game like this .

Coming from this devs previous game i came expecting an awesome story and i have to say it has not dissapointed me in the least. The character development, the story, the world building, you could swear this was made by a proffesional studio.
Sex scenes are few but well rendered, but this type of game is not really made with that in mind. This game is story first with some sex thrown in between. Also the comedy is just like in OnceinaLifetime. Find myself laughing my ass off all the time.
10/10 highly recomend if you are looking for an interesting captivating story.

A game with nice visuals, but that's about it.

The Good:

• Great and plentiful renders with good lighting. Good presentation.
• Animated sequences even outside h-scenes.
• Hints of a more interesting story were left at the end of 0.5

The Bad:

• Game doesn't work as a porn game nor a story game. Because of this split focus the game ends up unsatisfactory and mediocre whichever way you approach it from.
• The text to scene ratio is disproportionate, with said scenes already being far in-between, leading to long gaps.
• Sex scenes themselves are usually too short and repetitive to be satisfying or worth the time investment. Not to mention how little of them there are with this games current length.
• While the game explores different servers, it never takes full advantage of this to feature interesting scenes set in that setting or aesthetic with the main cast. At most you'll get to bang a Side-Char instead or get teased with eyecandy. Even when scenes do occur in these settings, they usually are stripped down to just being a generic normal scene that does not utilize anything for it's benefit.
• The established lore is very restrictive and limited, which might be due to future lore reasons, but it feels redundant to have in a porn game. You should be bold and go wild with what you can do or get away with.
• Servers act more like an excuse to not write a fully fleshed out world, instead treating everything like a rollercoaster ride or an episodic.
• Most interactions in this game can be summarized with: ''I'm not your stereotype! See how I contradict these tropes?'' - which, funnily enough, only makes characters feel more tropey, and ''Wow, you're so different from the other guys!'' - standard Gary Stu stuff.
• There's no *real* conflict with any of the relevant or interesting characters as the protagonist will always have the right move, circumstance or answer, so that everything can be nicely solved and concluded. This also happens with interaction with the women, as everything will usually end with validating them and ending at that. There's no push-and-pull with the characters beyond ''let's not fuck right now''. No lasting dynamics or problems in these relationships that'd make them feel more alive, they simply act as tools to make the MC come off even more perfect. It's hard to care about anyone. As such, you can see through the writing of each character and end up with something painfully predictable. There's just not enough flaws in any of these characters. If there are any, it's just to make them ''cuter'' or ''sexier'' which kinda has the opposite effect.
• Decisions don't matter. There might be big decisions down the line, but pretty much every decision present in the game currently is completely useless. It might as well be a kinetic novel. There's always the right answer and the game's intro even blatantly tells you that. All decisions boil down to whether you want to raise affection or not, no actual dilemma or reason not to. No consequence. Even in the most pivotal moments no matter what you pick - it will play out the same way. There will be no lasting effect on the characters beyond missing a sex scene. No branching, very linear. I guess it's to be harem-friendly.
• The usual plot device of the protagonist having a dark secret that makes him special as well as super saiyan in the most convenient moments. Sure, there's lore building up for the twist - but it's still tiring to see and makes you roll your eyes. Not to mention it defuses any sort of sense of danger and ruins the worldbuilding. Watch it all be solved by power of love at the end.
• Girls are cute, but also very same-y. A bit of a same-face syndrome going on and little body-type variety, usually being a centimeter higher and having bigger tits/ass. If you've seen one girl naked, then you've pretty much seen every girl naked. Nothing about them feels unique to explore design wise. Which is a shame because of the game's restrictive lore and rules set, so characters can barely change their appearance. Ironically enough, the most interesting this game had gotten visually was during a *joke* scene during which the style changed entirely.
• The game's worldbuilding, rules and the concept of the game itself has a lot of holes going for it with silly decisions on top, making the whole thing really hard to believe or buy into. Constantly making you go: ''Who the fuck would want to play this shit?''
• Most comedy scenes are just references with the original humor often being repetitive. Chang and Luna's Dad were fun, though.
• All antagonists are cartoonishly evil and one-dimensional. Leading to not a single decision or conversation having any sort of dilemma or substance to it. The right decision is always plain and obvious. Boring and too safe. The only interesting ''potential antagonist'' is shrouded in mystery for lore reasons. We have yet to see what becomes of that.

All in all, the game's alright. But that's about it - average. The game could've done so much more with what it has going and the visuals are gorgeous, even if I'm not a fan of these style of games to begin with. So it's pretty high praise. But, sadly, they just chose to make it very safe - leading to a very average cookie-cutter game similar to what we've seen countless times on here already, even including the story.
You might be thinking that I'm looking too deep into it and what not, but let me remind you that this game is trying to come off as something to take seriously. It's trying to make these characters feel real and it's simply not succeeding.
To me, there's nothing stand out about this game besides visuals, and even that isn't enough for it to stand on it's own as there's plenty of competition when it comes to visuals and good presentation. The game simply does not play to it's tools, strengths or concepts. Ocean wide, shallow as a puddle.

I'll still keep track of this game, but at it's current pace I feel like it'll take years for it to reach a point where I'd start recommending it. I feel this way about a lot of games yet I still always return to them to be pleasantly surprised, sometimes. So I have faith and, in the same vein, I hope this review is found in good faith as constructive criticism as well.

May we all see to an eventually good game and if not - then let's help direct creators towards one.

I'm usually not into these kind of games, but in all honesty, the game is great. The writing while basically a Ready player one Parody, is still good, there are parts that legit made me laugh, and while i think the PC design is kinda 'douche-e'; Seriously guy looks more akin to a rich snobby role than the role he fills, the over all character design is awesome, each girl is unique in their own way and their parts don't feel like copy pasted clones. I do hate the 'omg mega big dick lul on the PC' trope i recognize it's a porn game so it's not terrible. The sex scenes are honestly top notch too.

Once in a lifetime is great, but Caribdis has really outdone himself on this one.
It feels like there is more variety to the characters, and the story is extremely well planned and executed.
The kinky scenes are also great, and the unexpected comedy all over the game makes it shine.

Amazing VN with really interesting and beautiful characters.
The story is amaizing, there are intense moments, some jokes.
You'll fall in love with all the different charaters.
You can see the dedication of Caribdis, one of the bests.

Good game is good. It's ambitious enough to gather interest, but not ambitious enough to become one of those game that milks patrons for money.
Excellent story.
Funny jokes
Good looking model
Shadow rendering needs more work, but honey select can only be pushed so far.

I can understand all the fuss about this game since it has great visual, great soundtrack and soundeffects and great concept.
But I have 1 issue that bugs me, especially with the people that say "if you take the porn out of the game it's just as great". Sorry but no, not at all. The story, if you try to go the 1 girl route, it just becomes kinda boring and non-sensical.. Don't get me wrong, if you play it like the harem game that it is, the game's great 10/10! But if you try to go for a more "realistic" way about it and focus on one of the girls.. it's just kinda meh. The over the top MC that gets all the girls trope is just a little bit overdone for me with all the anime and other porn games around, it's like that music that you really like but it gets repeated over and over again on the radio that you just become numb to it at some point, ya know?

I still give it a solid 8/10 though

TL : DR - Great harem game, most likely the best around. But if you take the harem from this game .. it's just not that great.

This game is a fucking great work of art. The renderings and attention to detail is absurdly incredible. Best game here without a doubt. The romantic interests are nothing to quibble about, you just can't decide between them, their supporting characters aren't empty shells. The story is sublime, the humor on point and well achieved, the music very consistent for each moment. The only bad thing about this game leaves you wanting for more, that you wouldn't think much about replaying it, it deserves the place where it is, a creator that is worth supporting. Hoping that this will improve even more with each update and looking forward to reaching the end of this wonderful journey.

This is the first review ever I have written about a porn game, or a game in general really, but Eternum really deserves that I take a little of my time to express how much I love the game. The characters, dialogue, story, scenarios, the music! BLESS THE MUSIC! The comedy, the suspense, everything! I fucking love everything,. There isn't a single moment I've regretted playing Eternum and I hope to continue playing it and enjoying it. When it is available to me I'll be sure to support this game in the means that are possible, because Eternum, deserves it totally.

Hands down the best Visual Novel I've ever played, I don't have anything to say other than that because other reviews already express how I feel on their review. I just wish Caribdis would drop more updates and I hope this game has a long way to go because I enjoy it so much I don't know what happen if theres no more of it.

I didn't have any expectations when I started the game. It was surprising how good it's with all the references from movies, tv-series to games. The quality of the renders and models are really nice. There is some heartwarming moments to scary moments and the music adds the atmosphere to game which make the experience of the game very unique.

I'm glad I tried it!

Excellent game!!!
Can't describe by word
I'm following you since OIAL v0.1
It's a great games too, and also the bg music is always in my head tho
But i just want you to know that I love your games
In the future i'll support you when i'm on top

Easily the most exciting AVN I've played. The models are are out of this world, and the story development is very organic. It reminds me of many of my favorite anime shows.

The sex scenes are some of the hottest I've seen, and it still feels like the game is barely getting started. Besides that, my favorite part is exploration of different genres in the Eternum game. The amount of thought and excitement the creator put into this game really shows.

The creator really understands how to construct a scene. The poses, use of light and shadow, facial expressions, and the scenery are masterful. I've never seen a honey select-based game reach this level in such a consistent way.

I finally decided to try this game based on the reviews, but when I first opened it I was still expecting "Ready Player One: a XXX Parody." I was quickly disabused of that notion. Sure, the baseline premise is there, with a little bit of The Matrix thrown in. However, Eternum wastes no time establishing its own identity, and in my opinion a far superior one at that.
I'll get the porn aspect out of the way first. This game could easily get away without it and stand on its own as a masterful piece of science fiction. That said, the erotica in it is well done and well earned. The character development with all of the romantic interests is excellently paced and authentic in feel. There are a few corny moments but not many. The, at time of writing, two random encounters less so and they could almost be called "tacked on". But they were still hot and had good setups. The developer understands that stimulation happens in the mind. In my opinion, so far the hottest part has been the discussion between Nancy and the yoga instructor where she's asking about whether or not to reveal her feelings to the MC, which might seem an odd choice because it was a joke in the story. Still, it was hot. Which leads us to the humor.
A hypothetical film or book critic might call the tone of Eternum uneven or even schizophrenic. And lets face it, with a lot of VNs here, that criticism would be deserved. But the comedy here does a fantastic job of pulling us back from the edge time and again in this game. 95% of comedy is in the timing and that's expertly displayed here. Also, the humor here is actually witty, reminiscent of Futurama or Archer at their best high level IQ jokes.
Whereas the humor here can give a much needed and unexpected break in a tense moment, one of the main aspects that gives this game its aforementioned identity is its dark tone, and it can just as suddenly push you over the edge as pull you back. Eternum is eerie, creepy, and downright mystifying. It delves into the philosophical and the metaphysical as you explore both the main plot and the supporting lore. A true mystery, with lots of players and threads. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? The trail of breadcrumbs is as maddening as it is engaging. What even is this game (the game in the game I mean)? What is even real?
I like that the main character is not a loser. I'm tired of loser protagonists. I also appreciate that the tsundere in this game is dialed back to mere banter. Tsundere is overdone. If disrespect turns you on, seek therapy.
The various tones you experience in Eternum are supported by excellent sound design and music selection, which in itself is not easy to do. Finding that perfect song to convey the mood you want.
There's no denying that this game is all over the place. Comedy, horror, intrigue, conspiracy theory, school drama, and others all while having sex scenes in the mix and still feel cohesive. You go from historical roleplaying to a heist to learning magic at a (ahem) totally original magic school to sci-fi survival horror that brings up an entirely new and compelling mystery. A lot of developers seem to adopt this scattershot approach with varying degrees of success. Using the concept of an expansive, VR game facilitates this much more organically. But that brings us finally to the knife edge the developer now walks.
So many on here adopt the "soap opera" VN model. They start off so strong and gain a following only to string their projects, and of course their supporters, along with no plan or even idea of how to bring their works to a satisfying conclusion. The fact that this developer already has one completed VN under their belt gives me hope that this will not be the case. That said, you've created a monster. I have faith, but you definitely have your work cut out for you.
Final note- As I got to the end of v0.5... chills.

Yes, this is a tier 1 effort, go play it.

The gameplay is much like it's predecessor but everything's been cranked up a notch. The colours are more vibrant, the pacing is faster and it feels much more like a romp than the gentle stroll of OIAL.

The main strength here is also it's weakness. The story is movie worthy. I'd watch it today. There's much worse efforts on Netflix and dozens of movies have pinched the same amount or more from the Matrix, which doesn't have dibs on the concept of VR.

Dev has created a universe of unlimited possibilities. Once you get into the game, you'll be imagining crazy future plotlines. Like Game of Thrones, as the story reaches it's conclusion, the possibilities need to narrow and people may get frustrated their idea didn't pan out.

Still, worst case scenario, just like Thrones, there seems to be a lot of room for spin offs.

Played this game for about 2 hours and I just can't seem to get into it. The art style isn't really for me. You can tell the author has put a lot of effort into it, though, and it's quite popular. Hopefully future players get more enjoyment out of it than I did.

Thank you, this is such an amazing VN!
The story is great! The humour in it is both ridiculous and hilarious! There aren't a lot of sex scenes (not as many as I would like ), but they certainly are entertaining!
The characters are an interesting mix of people, some funny, some strange and all of the LI's are so gorgeous that it is very difficult to choose who is the most attractive! Thankfully it is a Harem game, because I really would struggle to pick just one.
So please, Caribdis, keep up the great work and I can't wait for the next update!