VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Once in a Lifetime [v1.0] [Caribdis]

What an amazing experience. This is the only visual novel that isn't entirely one emotion. I like how multifaceted it is with its emotions. The characters are great (especially Mike, love that dude). The story is in the top one percent of visual novels. And the experience doesn't feel rushed or too long, it's perfect. If there's one game on this platform that I could experience again for the first time, it would be this. Thank you Cardibis for such an amazing masterpiece.

Once in a Lifetime is the first VN I ever played, and holds the standard to which I rate others. Caribdis is phenonenal, stitching storylines together immaculately, with perfect recipe of humor, mystery, thrill and naughtiness that captures your imagination and keeps you engaged throughout. The sex scenes never feel forced, the audio and background music are perfection. I can't recommend this game enough.

As a person that doesn't usually enjoy VNs, this one kept me wanting for more the whole time, its just that good. The combination of characters, humor, mystery, story, and i have no idea what else just kept me hook all throughout.

Overall amazing, had very very few experiences like this

Pros
A LOT, very hard to describe, I recommend just giving it a shot

Cons
The art / renders though not bad, are probably the weakest part of this amazing game

An excellent VN. Maybe the best I played so far. The story is interesting and also funny at parts giving some relief after darker moments. The scenes feel EARNED, which is important for a story driven game. The scenes are also fantastic (even if a bit dated). Characters are diverse enough, and the story tries to give each of them enough limelight, allowing you to care for them. It deserves this unanimous high rating from loads of people.

Jasmine is best girl btw, and has the best scenes imo. Judie is 2nd place. All of them are good though.

i love you caribdis T-T thanks for making great games, I wish there were more creators as good as you. I keep coming back to this game because its so good and because I cant wait for the next eternum update. Keep doing your thing!

Its a good game the storytelling is great and several parts of the game had me laughing a little at how ridiculous some parts of the story is the cgs are okay nothing to write home about but overall does well enough job the only real downside in my opinion is the somewhat lack of scenes like how none of the endings have sex cgs and the harem ending is really missing out and left me a bit disappointed but that cant take away the fact that I would still recommend playing it.

GREAT VN. I wanted to give this a shot since it was made by the same dev as Eternum. Having played eternum I can say that the dev has immensely improved in renders and animations since this first piece. But oh boy is this piece a BANGER or what? Captivating plot, multiple endings, plot twists, funny characters, and oh boy relationship building was nicely done. Play for the story and get amazed. Best of luck to dev <3

It was simply amazing - as if someone had mixed all film genres together and created a masterpiece. I haven't laughed so much to tears in a long time. The person who created the Jasmine model should be awarded the Nobel Prize in art.

We need more friends like Mike

Somehow I missed this game over the past few years being here, but I'm glad to finally have played it.

I really enjoyed the relationships formed in this game, the dialogue, the storyline and the animations were all top-notch.

I'm also not one for horror games, but I admit that even the horror aspects of this visual novel were captivating and made me want to learn more and experience more with this cast of characters and their journey.

The dialogue was spot on thoughout, and they seemed to be mostly consistent across the characters without becoming stale or overlapping with each other too much.

It was also able to thread that line between serious (horror) tones and comedic highlights. Just like with Projekt Passion and Ripples I found myself laughing quite a bit because the comedy was familiar but entertaining; it kept me on my toes without being overly crude or distasteful.

Some of the progression the side characters make were pretty interesting as well. Love what happened to Jack and even to Tom.

I also love the fact that we're never forced into making poor choices or to using less-than-noble/ethical means (even though the opportunities existed).

The overarching story itself was also very engrossing and never felt as separate from the relationship/character arcs.

And even though (as a VN) we only got some animation what we ended up getting was quite well done.

Overall I'm very impressed with this gem from a few years ago. Well done!

quick rating -/
Reading other people's ratings, I must agree with many about how amazing the story telling is. If this was indeed a first go at Renpy/HS, then I must tip my hat to you. Well done on a great job.
/- end quick rating


Personal view.
At first glance, I wasn't really excited on the choice of HS assets, but your use of artistic framing coupled with superb writing really knocked this one out of the park. I'm so glad I gave this title a chance because I got sucked into the story almost instantly. I really respect the modest usage of the lewd scenes. As I'm not one who reads/plays VN's for lewds, and even less when it comes to taboo subjects like incest. But let's be honest here, having 'step siblings' with zero blood relations isn't really considered 'taboo' in my opinion. How you tap danced your way around that was brilliant.

Furthermore, I also really appreciated how you added so much nuances around how to romance some of the LIs really threw me through a few hoops. How some results wasn't only reliant on 1 answer or choice, but an accumulation of choices was so well thought out. Judie for example, while in Japan, I expressed love for her and how important she was (affection score reached 21 at that scene), yet if I recall correctly, the choice following that scene made it that her path was lost. I'll admit that ticked me off, but got me thinking about how you thought out the mechanics for each path.

If one pays enough attention to all of these little details and nuances, one can quickly tell you cared deeply about story quality over "bling", and makes me respect the work that much more. Your writing was clever, witty and original. Characters do not feel superficial but instead feel organic and natural and each had distinct and unique personalities, and didn't feel 'repeated'. Of course some things could perhaps have been done 'better', but that is a very subjective observation. Because even true works of art have flaws in them, and I'm kinda glad you left them in the final product. None of the scenes felt as though they were "rushed".

Thank you for sharing your talent and imagination with the rest of us. It was/is inspiring. And I cannot wait to give Eternum a try, but I am glad I played this one first. Because knowing what you can accomplish with HS, I think I'm going to be blown away with your second attempt. Once again, thank you and well done.

Since I have nothing better to do I decided to say something about this game. I already completed this game ages ago but still it stands as one of the best INCEST game on this site. Story, characters, pacing, progression, all of it are over 9000. If you're having second thoughts about this game, don't , because the feeling when you started playing this game is simply once in a lifetime.

I just found this gem and played it all through in 2 night sessions. Holy moly. I loved the style, the dialogues, the renders and the naughty scenes. Unfortunately there was too much effort into the world building and that main story thingi, that could have been put into more naughty scenes instead but whatever lol.
Great game, great (sexy) chars.
Favorite girl is Carla. Best scenes are with her...
Anyways, it was a great game. Now im trying to try out the name game of the creator, lets go!

It's another one of the most beautiful games on this site.
I think the charm of Once in a Lifetime is not the sex scenes, not the graphic quality, but the story. It's so beautifully written that I was never bored until I finished it. The jokes and references were of the highest quality. The developer is a very talented person. My only problem was that the ending was too fait accompli and ended too quickly. I don't know if it's really me or if the ending was too quick.

Thank you to the developer.

11/10

Just finished the game holy shit man what a plot, the female are cute, the writing is good, the sex is good, animation is good too and iam always entertained with mike and hiromi

crazy good game.

keep up the good work sir

While this doesn't always compare favorably to Eternum, Caribdis's second game (which is the best adult game I've played), it still compares extremely well to almost everything else. The animations can be a bit technically lacking at times, but all the scenes are still great. The story is decent, and at times quite funny, and the girls are interesting. I find it difficult to think that someone could regret playing this game.

I thought I already gave a review, but it seems like I didn't, so let's do it:

This Game is still (after 2 Years) one of my absolute favorites on this site, even nowadays, while searching for other games, I still catch myself comparing games to this one. The humor, the girls (especially the sisters), the story, the world, everything was an experience.

To be honest, I came for a quick wanker, but I stayed and i not only touched my noodle but also my soul.

I know he has a new project and I wish him only the best with it and that he has even more success, but I am a complete degenerate, who only plays games that have incest in it, so I will probably not play it.

But I heard it's good, so check it out guys, NOW

TDU.

Tear jerkingly (hehe) beautiful.

I didn't really know what to expect when I first downloaded the game; I just wanted an incest visual novel with impregnation content, but what I got was so, so much more.

The visuals were absolutely stunning, the characters were beautifully designed and written, and the soundtrack of the game was actually an amazing score for it. But the story was without a doubt one of the best I've ever read in a VN. It's engaging, it's quippy, it's at times actually quite scary, and absolutely Fantastic. It's more than a bit cheesy at times but the good thing is that it's self aware, and very meta in its quips and jokes.

I will keep this on my PC for years to come.

This is my favorite game on this site. yes the "content" is great...but the story is so good that it would've won an emmy as just a normal tv show. The good end actually made me feel connected to the story and its characters in a way i haven't felt since I was a kid wondering what was gonna happen to my favorite cartoon character every week

Excellent game, great, witty writing all along.
Awesome character design and visuals in general.
This is a really fun game that hooks you with a great story and just keeps on giving.
At first it feels like a basic, but fun story with not that much sexual content, but eventually leads you to a lot of interesting plot twists. The major secret in this game blew my mind, I didn't really expect it, and the story is just amazing. Maybe one of the best out there, IMO, maybe even better than Eternum. It has so much humor, witty lines, and unexpected events. I wish I could play it again without knowing anything. D
Highly recommend this game to everyone! Thank you Caribdis!

I started playing Eternium first before touching this, I wish I did this first! But in either case both games are masterpieces, and the developer has clearly taken lessons learned from Once in a Lifetime and refined it in their newest game.