5th episode (0.5). We discovered Thanny was a dead man (still) walking in the 5th episode.
Also, a little directionless how? Going through with the gem hunt is pretty much the only thing they could do that would give some sort of progress to one of their goals which is to stop the Founder from doing whatever he's doing in Eternum.
As for other issues, well...they can't do jack shit with the Syndicate since they only pop whenever they feel like it, same with Wyatt who seems to only pop whenever there's a gem close by and he seems to always be a step too late when it comes to Orion unless the latter is not on the move. Caly is way too focused in getting back to her home and there's likely very little the team could do to help her on that other than just letting her do her thing (plus prior to the end of 0.8 Orion was under the impression that she was similar to the other NPCs that were under Ulysses' control and had false memories, hence why he's prolly just humoring her and letting her do her thing).
So yeah, other than gathering the gems, investigating incidents when they pop up like the rogue NPCs in Ekabar, training, and spending downtime with the girls there's little much Orion could do to move forward really.
Chang's Nine got 2 new gems after the Wyatt revelation; new allies in the form of El Coyote, the Vampires, and the Werewolves; Idriel had that Limbo infodump which will likely come into play later on to explain her and the Syndicate's prescience; Orion's powers advanced and he sort of got humbled; Plus Caly's backstory got revealed and as of the end of 0.8 is finally getting somewhere.
If all that's considered as the plot not moving forward then I'd rather have all of that than the first four updates of OIAL (like I still enjoyed that game but JFC are those early eps really, REAAAAALLY slow as far as the cult plot was concerned).
Episode 5, sorry. It has been a while since I have played the earlier chapters.
I haven't played OIAL, so I am unsure how much slower it is than Eternum. I am not saying that Eternum is bad, but your explanation bolsters my point by asking "What else can they do?". If you have to ask that, something has been written wrong.
Cali keeps adding plot points but does not resolve any of them. It looks like we are heading to a point where everything will just come together too quickly at the end, and he might have to make it a double episode because there is far too much to wrap up neatly in a single update, as pointed out by someone else
here and
here.
As my example earlier, we spent all this time learning that NPCs are dead humans, we tracked down Wyatt's family and discovered that he is alive in Eternum. Excellent setup. I have been waiting for the next encounter with Thanatos to see where this would lead. He finally shows up at the end of the last episode, Orion attempts to explain the situation to him, and Thanatos shrugs, says "Who cares?" and does whatever he wants anyway. 2 years for this and nothing.
Yes, we are gathering Gems, but they are just MacGuffins which, on their own, do not accomplish anything - the only advancement of the plot will come from acquiring all ten. We have all these awesome new allies which were fun to acquire, but they have not paid off or come to aid in any way yet. We have been getting mysterious hints from Idriel since the start but still have no answers. Orion has new powers but all it gives him is the ability to reach Eternum, something he could already do, from a different path - big deal.
This "line up all your plot points and knock them down at the end" works for a 2-hour movie with three Acts, but it tends to drag on when it is stretched over 13 updates in six years. A steady flow of questions and answers would better suit this medium, but that is just me.
I am excited to finally visit Caly's homeworld because I can see us getting some good lore and answers there. Not only to learn information either but for our heroes to
do something with it. Have it change the way they approach problems or existing issues.
Again, before you get all hot under the collar, I am not saying that Eternum is poorly written. It is the best AVN I have played. The characters are fun and gorgeous, and the setting is awesomely interesting! I feel like we are just in a lull right now where nothing is happening. We keep adding questions but receive no answers.
somehow i really think Annie is Thanatos, that would be wild
