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!
