VN Ren'Py Eternum [v0.9.4] [Caribdis]

[quorkboy]

Can we take a moment to appreciate the most underrated girl in this game? I haven't seen a single "best girl" poll where Annie wasn't last or second-to-last, let alone top it, but let's look at a few reasons why she should be considered best girl:

Spoiler

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I can totally understand why she isn't a lot of people's favorite. Annie was given the short end of the stick in many aspects, including her lack of compelling backstory/central conflict like Luna and Alex, being the "petite" archetype in a harem porn game, having a considerable chunk of her screentime being scared/anxious/not doing much (The Red Herring, Andromeda date, World War Server... it kinda became a running gag in the game lol).

Hell, even her biggest appeal, being the innocent, "too kind for this world", "must protect" character archetype sometimes get overshadowed by Luny who has the exact same appeal but also with a more compelling backstory (thus a more reasonable/relatable explanation for her slow lewd-scene progression), and also having (what I assume is) a bodytype that's conventionally more appealing to a wider fanbase than Annie's. It also doesn't help that Luny has helped Orion and contributed to the overall plot just as much

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But the next time you forget just how great of a girl Annie is, remember how much she has helped Orion thus far and how much she has contributed to moving the plot forward. Annie and Luny both share the "best girl" crown in my heart, it's impossible to choose just one. And I can't wait until we get the 3some scene with them.

Annie is second only to Alex on my list. 100% she is massively underrated.

I agree with most of your points, but the "never masturbated/had an orgasm" one knocks her down a little for me. I know the characters are all based in tropes of some kind, but that's one which has little appeal for me.

I take the Interstellar choice to mean she legitimately preferred it once she saw it. I'd like to believe that over her changing her preference for a boy. She has too much integrity. Might seeing it with him have made the experience better? Absolutely. But I think the choice would come down to what she thought of the film, not the shared experience of watching it.

I'll also add moments like Nancy talking about how adorable she is, and her face when she was just about to blast their enemies and her moment was stolen. And I'll take Annie's body type over everyone else except Alex. The girl is hot!

I'm rethinking my desire for the next threesome to be Nancy and Annie. Fun as that would be. Alex and Annie!!

I think Annie and Luna are quite different. Luna's more sheltered and has a genuine physical touch problem. Annie's plain romantically shy (though not so shy in other ways). Their appeal is not the same for me. In fact I disagree with all comparisons which see her as very similar to any of the other characters. She is to me quite distinct.

Annie may be the most powerful out of the team, maybe in all of Eternum (except Thanatos and maybe Orion). And she will most definitely destroy you if you mess with her. See the waitress scene, and her obliterating a planet's worth of Xenomorphs. She doesn't show her strength the way Alex does. Doesn't mean she's sweet and compliant all the way through.

It's particularly notable to me that that some who have so far spoken up as not thinking much of Annie's character cite reasons which show in my opinion a misperception of her that closely matches how the in game characters see her. Her being so misjudged by her own team is one of the reasons I find her interesting.

 

[AlexisHot]

Yo, so I heard that dev wants to finish this game at like 0.13 or something. Seeing how we're at 0.9 right now (personally I just started 0.7), I assume we'll be able to choose our ending, right? Like girl 1, girl 2, girl 3, (...), harem (all girls). And each one has an ending of their own. Last time I played a VN, that's kinda how it went and I wanna make sure I'm playing right.

 

[MagnusTempestus6]

Yo, so I heard that dev wants to finish this game at like 0.13 or something. Seeing how we're at 0.9 right now (personally I just started 0.7), I assume we'll be able to choose our ending, right? Like girl 1, girl 2, girl 3, (...), harem (all girls). And each one has an ending of their own. Last time I played a VN, that's kinda how it went and I wanna make sure I'm playing right.

The dev's first game had exactly that. Solo routes for each LI, a harem ending and a secret ending.
Just to be clear: The harem route is the undisputed canon route and is sure to get the most content. Possibly in the ending/epilogue as well.

 

[LDEMGqNhTZVT]

Are you suggest she'd cower in the corner of an Andromeda lab practically peeing herself in fear?

I'm saying that based on what we learn about Annie's character from the game, that reaction would fit her character.

That'd be Penny - I have the biggest tits, where's my free stuff?

That's sorta the impression that is given to us in the beginning. We learn through the game that Penny has made personal sacrifices to help out the family and that she's had to work hard for things too. She also leans into some nerdier stuff like Eternum and studying up on it. These things show us that she isn't quite as one-dimensional as she first seemed.

Again, this is all from the game's POV.

 

[luckyluca01]

Hey guys, so hear me out. in 0.10 a threesome scene with annie and luna. COME ON!!! LETS BOTHER CARIBDIS WITH THIS AND MAKE IT POSSIBLE!!!!

 

[khn8p7]

I think Annie doesn't get very much love because her personality is kinda one note. Like, there's nothing wrong at all with being cute and little and innocent and silly and seemingly weak. It can be very charming! But throughout the game, that's the majority of the view we get of her from Caribdis. We aren't given other interesting winkles, for example maybe she struggles with some addiction, or maybe she experienced some sudden loss that makes her very risk averse, or maybe she learned that love was conditional based on some certain criteria. Elements like these would give her some more depth.

As some previous posters noted, she does many critical things to keep the plot going. So she is absolutely important, she's just a little dull compared to many other characters.

I don't think a lack of backstory for why her personality traits are the way they are makes her any less compelling or interesting as a character. If anything, the fact that so many LIs have a dramatic backstory/conflict (Alex's rejection of the Bardot lineage leading to her being abused and eventually disowned, Luna's vision leading to her guilt and bullying from other children, Dalia's insecurities at excelling in nothing other than physical activities, Penny's childhood lesson about choosing between family and being the popular kid...) to explain their personality quirks while Annie does not makes Annie stand out as someone you, the player, can relate to or imagine existing in real life.

Let's take a look at what we DO know about Annie: She has Russian-Spanish heritage but was (presumably born and) raised in England, more specifically London. Her father is a travelling salesman and her mother is a flight attendant so they are often away from home, so she bonded with Orion over the missing parental figures in their life. From her screentime in the game, we also know that:

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So from these points, we know that Annie is possibly the daughter of immigrant parents, who grew up sheltered and lonely because they were too busy for her. Regardless she worked hard to earn what she wanted in life (money for neural implant, her high level in Eternum, and her EXTREME destruction magic). Before following Orion back to Kredon, her main social circle most likely consisted of her online friends in her favorite Eternum servers, and she prided herself only in her high-level magic in Eternum, but struggled to show off her strong points elsewhere. But the adventure they shared in Kredon eventually brought her out of her shell, increased her self-confidence, made her more honest and proactive with her feelings towards Orion.

I think it's exactly her simplicity and lack of apparent conflict/backstory that makes her a very nuanced character. I say "apparent" because it's not that she doesn't have one, but more that it requires a little bit of reading between the lines, and paying attention to small details to the scenes she's in.

 

[plong]

Okay, unfortunately my nagging feeling about the butterflies didn't pan out, not really. They appear in exactly 4 scenes (at least in past 2-3 days I didn't find any more than that). All of them are imo in some way connected to Calypso and Hyril'ar and have nothing to do with water or rain as the game tells you.

Thoughts?

They also appear in some of the MC's dreams. The Lady that shows up in them are always asking if he will help them and she have butterflies on her dress so they are definitely connected to Eternum and Idriel somehow.

Spoiler: Dreams

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Interesting that she has red eyes, didn't see that really before I increased the gamma.

 

[FatYoda]

I wish he was nude the first time he logged in with Dalia in the dungeon for the first stone. Having her stammer and get confused for a second with his dick flopping around til he changed nude settings or something would have been hot.

 

[bkjk90]

noticed the Eternumite release on kemono is version 0.9.2, does anyone have a changelog or know what was updated?

 

[Khan897]

Does anyone have the 0.8 100% save file for Android??

 

[plong]

noticed the Eternumite release on kemono is version 0.9.2, does anyone have a changelog or know what was updated?

It just says "bugfixes".

 

[Henchmen13]

I think Annie doesn't get very much love because her personality is kinda one note.

Other people said a lot of things but i just wanted to mention Eternum. Her personality and role on the story, most revolves around Eternum where she had spent playing. If we consider the angle of addiction, then she is addicted to video games, but even then she isn't too deep into it. I think her main involvement was early on, that she was supposed to push Orion towards playing more, but the dev used Luna for that instead, with both the implants and the Red Herring server happening due to her.

It would be interesting to see how she would react now that she can't play eternum safely, the place that was cornerstone of her life for quite a while. I can potentially see her thinking how "she has spent so much time inside and is such high level that nothing will go wrong so long as she doesn't go to horror server or one that block magic".

On the note about magic, i think if the Elfs become important that she would play key role regarding them. Specifically, she would possibly blow up the opposition that Caly faces, leading to the survivors deciding that antagonizing the humans may not be good idea if they have another Annie waiting for that.

I think if we are going to see character grow for Annie, it will involve her initiating the threesome with Orion and one of the other girl's. Luna know that it will happen due to her vision, so she would probably expect something like this. Dalia with Annie looking at her butt, and Nova with everything happening at the collectors house, seem likely as well. Nancy seem possible as well. I can see her having talk with either Luna or Nova regarding sharing Orion next update.

 

[GoldenEyeDrake]

Spoiler: Some thoughts on the update

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[friedkeenan]

Ok I'm replaying the game because the latest update hit my heart like a truck and I need to feel alive again. But anyways, just from the very first scenes:

1. I wonder what makes Kredon in particular special and why Ulysses decided to headquarter here. Plus the rain, the weird rain has to lead up to something. My guess is that the ouroborous doors that we saw in the latest update in Hyril'ar probably lead to Earth, and they probably specifically lead to somewhere in Kredon. Maybe the Founder is trying to open them or something and it's making the weather sad? Or something like that, don't know. But particularly in the latest update, there's been greater emphasis on how there is in fact magic in our world of Earth, with our powers and with Luna's powers. I feel like it's going to be a plot beat that recontextualizes our world into being just as exciting and dangerous as any other world in Eternum.
2. We left Kredon just over a decade ago, supposedly because our dad had to relocate to the UK for work. Surely totally unrelatedly, Ulysses was also created just over a decade ago, and Eternum was "created" with it. But I bet the latter prompted the former somehow, either by our dad being in on whatever secret of why we're different, or maybe Idriel hacked his employer or something and submitted the relocation. I guess it'd be in order to hide us/protect us until we're ready to face the challenge. Our acceptance into the exchange program, along with randomly two other slots so we could just bring Chang and Annie along, which we said we would never have come if Annie couldn't come with us, could also probably be explained in a similar way. That Idriel or whoever is making things happen to place us where we need to be.
3. I completely forgot about the phone call after getting off the train. We need to find Calypso and use her to open the doors of Acheron. Wonder what doors those could be... I'm sure it's nothing. Though. I really don't like that the Acheron is the river which serves as the entrance to the underworld in Greek mythology. And that in this latest update we were talking to Luna about how if she died we'd be a complete wreck, but Luna would instead find some necromancy shit to do since the world is so fantastical already. And then this update ended with the fear of one of the girls dying permanently in Eternum. Which would make them into an NPC. And this group that called us seems associated with wanting to free the NPCs. Maybe opening these "doors of Acheron" would somehow free the NPCs from their Eternum-bound afterlife? And if one of the girls did die, then they could be necromancied back that way? Maybe Calypso could bring them to Hyril'ar through a portal and then they could come through the ouroborous doors to get back to Earth and be resurrected?

Yeah, this is a good game. I suspect that next update we're probably going to be able to get all the girls back safe initially, but then of course we'll still have work to do in Eternum, and will have to go back in to accomplish it. And then maybe during that work, maybe after we get our fifth gem of doom from the Japan server, there's some confrontation, maybe with Thanatos, and one of the girls die in-game, and thus in real life too. Maybe at that point we would be so angry that we go full demon mode and end up killing Thanatos, getting the rest of the gems of doom from him, but still having lost one of the girls, which is not a good trade, cliffhanger. Then in the update after that we connect back with Calypso, figure out those doors, and resurrect whoever died. Then in the update after that, I guess we try to take down the big bad Founder who is probably also an Immortal or something.

But then that only gets us to 0.12, and 0.13 is planned. I guess 0.13 could be an "epilogue"/wrap-up update, but I feel like I'm still missing something. Or everything. I could be missing everything. I guess I'm leaving out whatever resolution there would be with the Syndicate and with Idriel, but that seems like it could be folded into one of the speculated updates I laid out. Dunno. I love this game, though.

EDIT: Oh shit, and I just realized Idriel's parable of the man knocking on the door and it not opening from this latest update is probably related to the ouroborous doors too.

 

[quorkboy]

The difference between Annie and Alex is this:
If Orion pokes Alex, he'll get mauled.
If Orion pokes Annie, she'll laugh.
If Orion gets mauled, Alex would laugh.
If Orion gets mauled, Annie

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I get what you're saying and I am on board with it, except one thing...

If Orion gets mauled, Alex would laugh.

This may once have been true. But now

Spoiler: Alex when Orion is missing

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[LDEMGqNhTZVT]

Good, detailed comments.

This is a good post, and I appreciate you taking the time to write it. It provides some nice food for thought. I wrote my post fairly quickly, but as you and others have said, you have to dig for Annie a bit more. I'm not sure I would have gotten all the way to where you are in this post, but I probably could have pulled out some more details with some more time.

Thanks for the good discussion!

EDIT: Thinking about it, this exchange could be a good example of why Annie polls the way she does. You have to dig quite a bit more to get at core of Annie, vs. some other characters where the core is put more squarely in your face. So to average joe player who might not be analyzing stuff to this level, she could seem one-dimensional, even though she's not. That leaves her looks and the sexual acts, which are awesome, but they might not be everyone's cup of tea.

 

[Synful]

I loved this update, the only thing I couldn't do was play the Lyre because it's something that's never been discussed before, it's impossible to figure out which notes to press to play music. Does anyone know what can be played and what the sequence is?
View attachment 5597432

Well.. It's not Happy Birthday: GGAGCB GGAGDC GG G' ECBA FFECDC
or Auld Lang Syne: G CCCC EDCD EDC CEG' A' A'G' EECD CDEC AAGC A'G' EECD CDA'G' EEG'A' A'G' EECD CDEDC AAGA
And so i gave up and kept on reading

 

[Ashira13]

Well.. It's not Happy Birthday: GGAGCB GGAGDC GG G' ECBA FFECDC
or Auld Lang Syne: G CCCC EDCD EDC CEG' A' A'G' EECD CDEC AAGC A'G' EECD CDA'G' EEG'A' A'G' EECD CDEDC AAGA
And so i gave up and kept on reading

did you try "the neverending story"?

 

[FRVN]

Finally finished the update. Fantastic work as always.

Spoiler: That cliffhanger tho

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[khn8p7]

Thinking about it, this exchange could be a good example of why Annie polls the way she does. You have to dig quite a bit more to get at core of Annie, vs. some other characters where the core is put more squarely in your face. So to average joe player who might not be analyzing stuff to this level, she could seem one-dimensional, even though she's not. That leaves her looks and the sexual acts, which are awesome, but they might not be everyone's cup of tea.

I completely agree with this take. In a similarly long-winded post from yesterday I also concurred that Annie might not be everyone's cup of tea for a few different reasons.
https://f95zone.to/threads/eternum-v0-9-2-caribdis.93340/post-19100516

She's 1000% mine though. Even leaving aside how long she has loved Orion and how much she has done for him (which was her strongest impression on me), she has also done so much for the group, and the dynamic between her and other LIs (especially Luna) always seem so sweet and wholesome to me. Even if you completely disregard the notion of "best girl" and proudly identify as a harem enjoyer, you just can NOT do without Annie in your harem.

The one character in the whole group she has not had any direct conversation with yet, at least from our POV, is Alex. This was literally the only render in which they were in the same frame, and during Orion's return from Hyril'ar they were both physically present in Nancy's living room. Hopefully we'll get more in the future, especially now that every LI (except Nancy and Calypso) is figuring out how much of a manwhore our main man Orion is