Review for the version : v0.4
Took me a while to try this game. The art style reminded me of a lot of other AVNs of lesser quality, so I didn't even bother trying it out. Boy was I wrong. I'm still glad I waited that long, though, because that meant having 4 whole updates worth of content right away, and I've got a feeling that waiting for each update from now on will be quite the torture.
Graphics : 9/10
Like I said, the previews didn't excite me a whole lot, but once you're a few minutes in the game, you'll have forgotten all about it. Actually, it's the perfect graphics for this game, because the whole thing feels just like an anime, and the graphics are completing that style perfectly. Of course, that means the textures are less detailed than those of a game with realistic graphics, but Eternum makes up for that with a lot of animations of excellent quality, both for storytelling purposes and for the lewd scenes. It has also a very smart usage of animations, where some animations are used more than once, but it doesn't feel repetitive at all.
Sound & Music : 10/10
Hum... I feel like Caribdis is cheating on that front, so of course it's a perfect note here. I mean, there's literally a song from a Dark Souls game in the first few minutes of the game. The music used throughout the game is absolutely perfect, and greatly helps to sell the emotion of each scene. Its use of sound effects is also quite literally the best I've seen in any AVN so far, which is a much more difficult feat to pull off. Usually, the sound effects used in AVNs are of poor quality, and diminishes the immersion of the player, but not in Eternum; it's quite literally the opposite.
Story : 9.5/10
Eternum's story is one of its strong suits for sure. Firstly, the whole story is quite original for the AVN genre, but it's close enough to an Isekai that you'll feel right at home if you enjoy that genre. That being said, the best part of Eternum's Story resides in its Storytelling. The pace at which the story develops, and its narration are simply flawless. There are many scenes for you to understand who each character is, and all of them are pretty different from each other, making sure that you'll love at least one of them. The game has a lot of hilarious over-the-top humor that you usually find in animes of this genre. It's also the first AVN I've played that uses all of it's parts in such a cohesive way to tell you the whole story. In most games, the story will only be told with the use of the dialog box and with the help of some music to set the tone of the scenes. In Eternum however, every part of the game is used to tell the story; the dialog box and the music of course, but also the sound effects, the scene transitions, the style of the graphics on screen (use of filters), the special effects, absolutely everything works in harmony to tell you the story, and it's really a testament to how great of a dev Caribdis has become.
Gameplay : 8/10
Eternum is a pretty straightforward game, just as the intro of the game acknowledges. There's no cellphone mechanic like in many other popular AVNs, there's not a whole lot of mini games, even if there are some, the UI isn't extremely elaborate, there's mostly just a separate menu that lets you see your progression on every Main Girl & let's you choose the costume for every main girl it displays in this menu (but that feature is a bit janky). The choices you make DO matter, and you don't always know right away when your choice was a good or a bad one; it can take AGES for the consequences of your choices to reveal themselves, and sometimes a very small choice made at the beginning of the game can make all the difference in the end, which is awesome! It's just weird because the UI is so simple, when you make these choices, they often feel without any consequence (which couldn't be further from the truth). For the most part, Eternum's gameplay is great, it's just pretty straightforward, without any « Eternum » punch to it like the story has.
Overall, Eternum has totally earned its place as one of the best AVN you can find around here. It was one of the easiest 5 stars I've ever given. It has a LOT of content for a game only on it's v0.4. If you like animes and mangas, you're bound to fall in love with this game, and if they're not your cup of tea, you should still try this game out; I was very skeptical at first myself, but now I just can't wait for the next update. Like Annie says : Take the Leap of Faith!