VN - Ren'Py - Eternum [v0.8.5 Public] [Caribdis]

Sometimes I just want to play a new VN, and I find one that catches my eye. In 20 minutes, I wish I was playing Eternum nearly every single time. I have replayed this game 4 times. That should tell you everything about this game. Caribdis sets the bar.

Also want to add, the music selection in this game is INCREDIBLE. For example in the whole section at Luna's uncle's place, the music complements the tone, the scene so, so well. Pretty much no other dev manages to nail this.

My favorite game by far. The characters are build up well and the story has lots of humor, plottwist and depth to it. There is a good mix of scifi and what (potentially) could be true so that it feels everything that's happening could be true. It really invites you as a novel, and the scenes are very rewarding.

*sigh* What can I say... Quite possibly the best hs2 game today, it has a little bit of everything, romance, mystery, suspense, intrigue, etc. Not to mention the great story and design of the characters. I have accompanied the dev since the 0.5 of OIALT which in the end for the second time in these Games brought me tears, of happiness obviously and I feel that eternum will cause that eternum in me again

Wow.
This is, hands down, THE best game I have played on this site.
Everything about it is immaculate. The models, the story, all of it.
Thank you Caribdis for blessing us with this game.
Waiting for future updates

I got to praise the amount of work made for this game.
A very top tier quality game in term of renders, pictures and cinematic.

The universe and the plot are intriguing that's for sure, remind me of the anime "Sword Art Online" a couple time.

A significant improvement from Once of the Lifetime that's for sure.

I just wish there's more variety on the face of the girls, there are too much similar for most of them (don't mind for Nancy, Penelope & Dalia since they are family, but Nova and Annie are the same shape of nose, eyes etc... than them.)

Sometime the narrative is a little too overwhelming in my opinion, it feels like they are too much stuff telling, and it's difficult to keep interest at some point for reading every word of the dialogue in my opinion.

4,5 for me.

Again, fantastic job Caribdis, very well done.

It's one of the best games on this site.
The setting of Eternum allows the game never to grow old with its constant change of scenery. The girls are gloriously beautiful and have emotional depth to them. Not a single character of the main cast seems like a cardboard cutout.

Oh, and it's hands down one of the sexiest games I've ever played. Well done, I'll be watching this development with great interest.

Good game.
It's quite plain in story and you don't have much choises.
Girls personality is interesting and shown well. Sex scenes are very good and even have decent animation.
There is also some interesting stories and twins from Atomic Heart in one of them.
Waiting for updates.

[Reviewed v6.2]

One of the best games in active development. So much well-developed content, beautiful girls and renders, and engaging dialogue amidst a gripping near-term sci-fi story. The developer Caribdis, between this game and their last one, has to be considered one of the very best in the genre.

The Good ()

• Gorgeous models -- hyper detailed and beautiful
• A number of love interests and paths that don't necessarily exclude one another
• Creative use and inclusion of sci-fi elements that feel pulled from the news (AI, metaverse, etc.)
• Gripping execution in the cinematography and visual storytelling
• An original story that draws from many sources of inspiration but still feels entirely fresh
• Hours and hours of content
• The H-scenes feel "earned" and they are infrequent enough that the build-up creates great narrative tension

The Not-So-Good ()

• This far into the game, it is hard to keep track of some of the plot lines and some of the stakes seem to be moving around. Sometimes, plot events and narrative can feel "rushed".
• Mild horror elements can be a bit disturbing

Overall, an outstanding title with so much care and consideration for the story, renders and dialogue. Can't recommend this enough!

v. 0.6.2

I mean, seriously. How does Caribdis do it? The first version of this I played was filled with such pure joy (Chang, chop chop, fucking TRIVIA NIGHT!!?) and ended on such an incredible high (showdown on Ogygia) that it's still one of my favorite times in games/movies/anything ever. Seriously! I'm already happy! Do you really have to top that? Oh, you do (horror)? Oh, okay, again(magic)? Oh wait, ok, again(party showdown)? Again and again and again(at this point I can just name whatever scene comes to mind because it's all great)?!

I loved Star Wars as a kid, and though I cherish those feelings of childhood wonder, as I grew older it just didn't hold up. Eternum has taken me right back to that place of being enraptured and fully immersed in a story that just keeps on giving and giving.

I can't be more grateful to the person(s) responsible for creating this glorious work of art. So happy to count myself as one big fan among so many others!

Thank you, bravo, congratulations, and etcetra forever.

Version 0.5

I really like this game and it is one of my favorite vn games.
The rendering is very good, in terms of the characters and the place within the eternum game itself.

The story is also interesting, the humor is also funny, and the horror is also quite scary.

I really like the heroines, but so far my favorite female characters are Luna, Alexandra and Idriel (although Idriel is only an AI in the Eternum game).
And for the "Lady" who sometimes seems to haunt the main character, for some reason every time I see her, I feel that the "Lady" although scary but looks beautiful.

And for the newest version, I haven't had the chance to play it, even for version 0.5, I actually downloaded it a long time ago, but I only had time to play it recently.

Sorry for my bad English, and thanks for the game.

v0.6.2

People seem to be heralding this as if it’s the greatest adult VN ever made, and while I do think it’s a solid game, I really don’t see where all the immense hype is coming from, from what I’ve played so far.

Don’t get me wrong. The renders, character models, and animations are all great, especially for Honey Select. A lot of the music choices are solid as well, albeit a few extremely overused royalty-free music/sound effects. The game is also very well-coded, no bugs or glitches encountered. But that’s honestly where the majority of my praise ends.

The story, dialogue, and overall writing is… simply serviceable; I’ve seen way better. Caribdis is by no means a bad writer, but the entire game just feels so tropey. The main plot is heavily Ready Player One inspired, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it certainly plays into a lot of the cliches seen within a “secret/virtual world” story. Excluding the first hour or two of introduction, the narrative digs into an extremely predictable and formulaic cycle: protagonists go to a certain world in Eternum to find one of the macguffins/infinity stones/whatever, something goes wrong and they have to escape or fight, MC does something cool and then maybe gets his dick sucked/fucked during or afterwards. Rinse and repeat for a majority of the runtime.

Obviously the point is to use these scenarios to help MC grow closer with his love interests, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get interested in much of the Eternum plot stuff whatsoever. It’s clearly trying to drag out the climax for as long as possible in order to just throw the characters into some random world inspired by pop culture that Caribdis believed would be entertaining enough for an update while the player is continuously teased with sexy time. You’ll get maybe one lewd scene with a love interest every 20-30 minutes and most of them - I repeat, most of them - don’t even go that far in terms of intimacy until many hours into the game. It doesn’t work for me.

I feel like the amount of time used in this game to explore cliche tropes and scenarios within Eternum could instead be used to cultivate some legitimate character development in the main cast, which there isn’t a whole lot of. Really, the only way that the characters grow at all is with their relationship with MC. And even then, the relationships grow at such a snail’s pace at times because so much time is spent on other things that I couldn’t bring myself to care about.

I also don’t find much of the attempted humor that funny. Just generic and predictable comedy/pop culture references for the most part, although it’s not insufferable.

Overall, I can’t deny that Caribdis is one of the hardest working adult game devs out there and actually tries to make good games, but aside from the quality visuals and coding, Eternum has surprisingly not done a whole lot for me so far. Certainly a serviceable adult game experience and even has moments of brilliance, but not at all one of the best ever.

A very high quality and simply marvelous VN!

Well written plot with light and not intrusive humor. Lots of different references and easter eggs.

The sex scenes are very good. The animations are done at a pretty high level.

All the girls are very hot and have quite different characters.

Nice soundtrack and ambient.

Caribdis is one of the few developers here that always puts out high quality content and never disappoints!

I'm not generally a fan of visual novels as I like something more interactive but this game is something else. I've been glued to my screen getting through it. The sex scenes are excellent but the story is actually meaningful and got me hooked. I don't usally leave reviews but I felt like I had to for this one.

first played the game about 1.5 years ago and loved it. i always stick to waiting a few updates before going back so it dont ends so fast. and i had a blast i had playtime of prob 10+ houers for 2 updates or something like that. might be alot for some but i like to rewind and check other roads to go and scenes or chat options to pick and sometimes like to admire details and stuff. loving the game even more. and im gonna check out the first game made by
Caribdis later this weekend after a long week of working myself. dont want to post like all others by that and by that. just want to give my support and saying this game is 100% worth playing. loving the fairness. the qulity. the god damn pog memes. and the story. ( the memes are amazing ) darksoul. the twitter. the meme from other movies-books-memes. the goddamn changs girls mucsle face. and the jealus faces of girls to man C. well Caribdis cant wait to see what you come with next. till we meet agian. <3

This game is what Ready Player One should have always been, why make a fantasy-themed game, or a sci-fi game, when you can do all and both at the same time?

The girls in this game are beyond gorgeous and sexy, but more than that, they are well-written and each has their own strengths and storylines that make me care more and more for them.

My favorite girls are Alex and Penelope. and as of 0.6, that last scene might be the best sex scene I have ever seen in a VN.

The story and characters are sublime, and the MC goes from a not great modeled one with a dumb haircut to a much more attractive one. I am not a huge fan of purposefully hurting your MC by giving them dumb hair as character growth, but games like this and Pale Carnations do it and it works well, and you can see why they are the top-rated games on this site. I enjoy the art style a lot and I can't wait for the next update, this game has tons of content and I recommend it to anyone who has not played it.

one of the top 5 visual novels I've read/played. Fantastic story and character depth. Proof that you don't need to have a sex seen every 5 minutes but still spicy enough to make it worthwhile. Animations are on another level! Thank you so much for your creation. I cannot wait to finish this one off. This may be in my top 5 but it will probably be the first time I actually head over to Patreon and chip money in due to the quality of the product.

Eternum is a rare breed of visual novel. Not often is a story so enticing that it keeps me engaged between the "good parts". The following review is based on the entire game up to 0.6.

The story is well written It is an adult visual novel, and it delivers on that, but it is so much more. The narrative has me so enamored that I could easily enjoy it, even if it didn't satisfy the "A" in "AVN". It does have some slapstick humor moments, but they are very well placed and fit naturally. As a huge fan of the sci-fi genre, specifically around technology and gaming (gaming within gaming? Yes please!), this ticks many of my boxes for what I want in a video game plot.

The visual art has a unique style compared to the frequently reused artwork across many novels. Are there similar models used in renders & animations? Yes, but that is pretty standard across the gamut of visual novels. The novel takes those common assets and makes them unique. The differences can be subtle, but they truly differentiate Eternum from other visual novels. One thing that is specifically refreshing, is a range of character body types. It is not all "barbie-type" bodies - there is a range of body types to appease all tastes.

One place where I have not seen a lot of recognition is in the music. The music is paired extremely well. It sets the tone for not only the scenes, but also each characters unique personality. I have found myself frequently playing the music in the background such as when I am working, doing housework, or even playing other games. (In fact, I have been listening to the music while writing this review). My only qualm about the music, is there is no way to just play it inside the game!

The characters develop organically within the confines of three main pillars: self, environment, and interactions with others. There are no sudden leaps or growth of characters that cannot be traced back to one of the three pillars. As in many games (VNs or otherwise), the main character has the most growth overall, but it can still be linked to something about himself, his environment, or the others around him. Even when he does exhibit a large step forward, it is not a sudden "power crystal in the plot hole" ex machina situation.

While there are choices within the game, I have found that they largely have either one good choice, or the choices don’t matter. That makes Eternum more of a kinetic novel, but that does not diminish the story (nor does it make it any less fun trying to figure out what choice is the best or right one).

Overall this is one of the best examples of what a visual novel can be. It combines well written narrative and dialogue, beautiful and unique artwork, and perfectly selected music to drive a compelling, organized, and downright fun story.

I look forward to future chapters & updates, and could not be more eager to continue playing!

As per 0.6

This review will be short but I hope this count
Tbh no long words needed as if you jump to the game you will get the awesomeness vibe to it and even more the deeper you play.
To make it short this game is truly a not only triple A but quadruple-A avn that anyone should try

A for arts
A for story
A for humour
A for music
A for spice

9.9/10

If only this game has girls sfx/voice over it will be a 10/10
I know giving sound can give polarizing opinion as it attached to girls personality
But given how devs work is so well done I know you'll make it work

This game deserve love.
If you hesitate to try this because for example you only play completed game, you only miss out the good stuff in life.

As with the previous game by Caribis, this game is well made with a proper story, fun characters, none of the "stupid boyish MC having all girls fall for him for no reason", and of course, amazing scenes. There is genuine good writing and humour here, which is getting rarer by the hour.

The only thing that made this a 4 and not a 5 is that it's pretty simple to create the harem and get all the scenes. In the previous game by the dev, you had to make specific choices to unlock points with a character and get some scenes. Here, the throbbing heart icon is a pretty straightforward giveaway of what to choose. That's my only issue with this game, which I guess says more about the overall quality and the expectations on the back of the previous game. Also, would be amazing to see more of the silly recurring characters in eternum as well, like the nod to President Stab in the beginning

(Review is as of v0.6.2 Public)

Eternum should feel pretty familiar if you've gone through Once in a Lifetime, as the foundation of both are the same: you play as a guy with a stupid haircut and a (honestly, maybe a bit too) huge dick, and you'll have your pick of a wide variety of girls, several of whom seem to have made a daring escape from the cantaloupe factory. And as before, supernatural elements and shenanigans ensue. Whereas Once in a Lifetime featured a supernatural cult, Eternum is a world-within-a-world virtual reality that...probably...isn't run by a supernatural cult.

The similarities don't end there. The characters have their own quirks and personalities, the MC doesn't suck in every way imaginable, and the jokes are actually funny. Furthermore, the choices seem more geared toward you enjoying yourself than trying to kick you in the dick because you did something wrong.

I really like the virtual setting. If I had to nitpick one thing about it, it's perhaps that the MC seems to have learned to tap into his powers a bit too easily. It kind of feels like Shirou Emiya in Fate/stay night: he doesn't know what he's doing and he's supposed to suck at basically everything, but whenever he needs to do "the thing", he's somehow always able to do said thing. But again, this is a minor nitpick.

It's well-written. It's funny. It seems to want you to enjoy yourself as you go through it. Isn't that what it's all about?