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

If you are expecting nice sound choice, a compelling storyline, and artwork of the utmost quality. I highly recommend this game.

Comedy
Decent story, decent art, and very comedic comedy. 8/10. Would recommend.
The models were a bit weirdly drawn. The eye colour made them look like demonic hell spawns but the characters had good stories. I didn't feel bored through the gameplay but i do wish the story was a little bit more realistic to the character. It felt like the world revolved around as everyone seemed to agree with him.
But anyway, great gameplay. Not like typical daz3d vn's. gg

So this is the ... 4th (?) game I bought on Icht.io. It's the first one I really enjoyed, first one I completed, first game that led me to getting a second game from the same creator, etc.

Just Loved this game. Thanks Caribdis!

(also very much enjoying Eternum)

I played this a while ago when it was finished, but I just remembered again how good of a game it was.
Remember the name stabby mike? Yeah, I still remember when he told the president to get down.
What a lad!

Honestly out of all the VNs I've ever played, this has been the only one I've bothered to write a review for.

So, the story was wild, there was a few twists, while also not taking itself too serious, ive laughed so much during this game,

Spoilers:
This game must be played with music!, the musical choices enhanced this game so much.

My only real complaint is the ending felt abrupt but other than that i loved every second of this, In the end this game truly is Once in a Lifetime.

ALSO

Easily one of the best H-games I've ever played. When I started playing this (not sure if it was v0.1 or v0.2, but it was super early) I had no clue I'd be in for something this great. Hell, I even managed to get attached to all of these characters; something I never expected to happen.

Thanks for making this game, Caribdis. I'm definitely on-board for Eternum, and whatever extra content you've got coming our way.

It is a really good game with a pretty cool story. I laughed so hard so many times. I just want to see more game as funny as this one. Even though sometimes there are part of the clothes that clip through the limbs of the characters, the animation is weel done.

Oh wow, what a journey. I enjoyed the game, the story is solid (albeit a bit fast paced). I laughed a lot (some of the jokes really hit the spot for me, I couldn't stop laughing for couple of minutes). And Stabby Mike is now my favorite male character in all the VNs I ever played.
Character art might feel a bit odd but you quickly get used to it. There are no good-looking males though, even MC is hideous. But that just adds to the comedy portion of the game which is a big plus for me.
Easy 5 outta 5, this is one of the games I'm gonna remember for a long time.

Just finish it today, love this game, definitely should give it a try:
*Pros:
- Interesting plot, good plot, there are a few twist here and there, not too impressive, but not too boring or predictable either, the humor is also good, may or maynot your type of humor though.
-Girls are pretty, they have personality, they wont just suddenly love and jump on ur d*ck right at the start, keep an eye on the "Paths" section tho, as it really easy to pick a wrong option and get cancel out of a girl path forever.
- Animation scene are good, it not gonna be as good as some newer games like Ripple for example, but it is good, animation decently long, there are different camera view and position . A few first animation wont be like that , they're short w/o angle change, but it just a few scene at the start.
*Cons:
- It quite short, some girls have too few scene, some have quite many, story are a bit short, feels like there are many ways to extend it with more activity/path. There are some weird/unfinish/unsolve minor plot, like the monster u encounter in places that may or may not still alive and gonna haunted ppl around,certain girl that u meet at certain town that should affect the plot somehow but just completely vanish at 1 point,etc.
-Graphics : scenery/texture not that bad, but nothing to write poem about either, dont compare it to newer games like Eternum,Ripple, etc, it gonna mostly be the same as older games like Harem hotel.

Damn, what a game!

Let's begin by its strongest point, in my opinion:

The plot is really well-thought, funny, very intriguing, interesting & out of the ordinary.
I really loved the comic of opposition, and was very taken throughout the story.
Stabby Mike is an awesome wing man/secondary character.

There's a lot of content & many beautiful places to discover too.

The girls are sexy & endearing & the scenes are hot. I think we all dream a little to be in the place of this kind of hero very well surrounded .


Hats off to Caribdis for this amazing game !!

I just finished this only a few minutes ago, and fucking hell.
Of course, spoilers ahead in the review.


I don't even know where to start. All the characters were well down and lovable. Even besides the girls, there was Fat (later Fit) Jack, post-amnesia Tom, and my personal favourites in the whole game: Asmodeus and Stabby Mike.
The comedy was so good.
That whole gang scene with Stabby Mike in the prison had me laughing like a maniac, legit tears in my eyes during that.
Speaking of tears in the eyes...I won't lie, I also had tears in my eyes when we had to kill Asmodeus. Never would have imagined a porn game would make me cry but here we are.
The only criticism I have was that the ending felt a bit sudden, but fuck, I don't even care at this point.
Such a solid game overall.

Welp I just fully replayed this gem after a full one year break, and I gots to say, definitely deserving of top rated. I always liked Once in… ever since my first play through, but if you laugh at the same jokes and enjoy the story just as much on the second, that’s when you know you hit the jackpot.

It accomplishes something I think a lot of visual novels forget, story and relationship progression. MC ain’t boning chicks right off bat, you go through developing the relationship with each heroine, and it’s really fulfilling to reach the end goal. As for the story itself, it’s well written. It’s never forgotten, but at the same time, it’s not overshadowing the casual dating sim aspect. It forms a good balance of romcom and action/adventure, so you won’t ever get too much/ too little of one or the other.

Now, onto my personal favorite aspects: The jokes are funny. Simple as that, the jokes genuinely made me laugh, chuckle, or at least snicker. The dialogue between characters already flows really well, and the jokes make it much more natural and enjoyable. A lot of Mike’s scenes were my top laughs especially during the Prison and killing/arresting the Pedo mayor. Definitely an easy way to make me like an character. As for the countless references to games and other media, they were a really good way at reinforcing the setting/character and was just a great way of making things somewhat relatable even in a porn game. The sex scenes were definitely top notch, and I really dig the 3d but not trying to imitate real life 3d, if you know what I mean. Just makes each of the character look much more appealing aside from MC in the early chpts (I almost skipping out on this game cuz the preview images made the MC look so weird). But Caribdis definitely improved the models overtime, and by the end, even MC looked sharp and polished.

Uhh, I guess I’ll leave one negative note before ending my review. I don’t got much to say honestly cuz it was really good VN by all accounts. My only complaint is how Jas was developed. I think she had the weakest development/story out of everyone. She kinda appeared out of nowhere and was just forced into the MC. Her story arc (if you can even call it that) was really small and rushed. I get she’s not the main star, probably the least important heroine, but she had a really good base for a good story. Instead of just boning her due to something relatively small, I think it would’ve been better for MC to slowly notice her insecurities.And she should’ve discovered her (Spoilers but if you read this far you probably don’t care) dad’s death and led to a better climax between her and MC’s relationship. But all in all, I still grew to like her at the end, so not super big deal.

And that’s all for my rambling. Just felt the need to share my thoughts after replaying. Uhh my review is definitely not fully objective, but it is what it is. If I ever sort out my financial situation, I’ll definitely support the Patreon. This set the bars real high for Eternum so can’t wait!

Basically, I did not like the game.
Story is meh.
Art is HS. While game is pre-rendered, even Real-time 3D games x10 better than this.

Just overrated as hell...

A great game with good characters, surprisingly good plot, and god erotic scenes. A fun read and engaging story with funny moments. I used the walkthrough mod, and without it I proably woul;dn't have gotten the best ending, which was worth the railroading.

A little by chance and out of curiosity, we (yes we are: Brout and Minou) wanted to try this game, but without too much conviction or enthusiasm, and even a certain skepticism. The first 5 minutes of the game shows us a Mc, student in high school living with his mother and his two sisters.... It starts well we said to ourselves. Again and 18-year-old kid who will corrupt his little family with methods seen thousands of times; pills, alcohol, blackmail... And finally no, not at all, at least, the game does not carry all its weight on how the Mc will corrupt his bitchy big sister, his nice little sister, and his too naive mother.

We've read a lot of reviews about this game, good and bad, but we never rely only the game's reading and ratings. We always prefer to form our own opinion, and we're extremely glad we took the time to try this awesome game.

The characters are written in a somewhat superficial way, and I think that's on purpose! Just as this whole story is written with lightness, but great finesse. Here, the goal is not to drag us into some family drama, or into some heavy and dark conspiracy, no. I think the goal here was to create an entertaining story with a lot of humor and a good dose of sex, and I think it's perfectly successful.

Well-written dialogue that doesn't make your eyes bleed, imaged by the characters' facial expressions in some really hilarious situations, and if the renders seem a little outdated (although you can notice a nice improvement as you progress through the different episodes) the girls are really sexy, fun like the rest of the characters by the way. Iris who is an electric battery on legs made us laugh a lot, Fat\fit Jack with this girl who harasses him, Tom who becomes the Mc's personal fly killer, Oliver! Ahh Oliver... Poor boy, but what a laugh with this one, and I won't name them all but all the others of course. The whole staging is based on a burlesque tale with hilarious interactions and a main plot that keeps its commitment despite everything. The Mc crosses paths with many weird and funny characters at the same time, who lead us through adventures full of twists and turns.

So, for that, we both thank you from the bottom of our hearts Caribdis! We went from skeptics to completely addicted in 10 minutes of play, and we really couldn't get away from your game until the end. In short we had a great time, an genuine and pure moment of happiness.

Well i dont usually give my review to these games its the first time actually, but i think this game deserves it.
I enjoyed it so much tho i skipped a lot of text, the plot with girls was fantastic and comedy too (i laughed so hard when the MC started to watch youtube videos when he was infiltrating a house)
totally worth the time thank you
(team lauren)

Incredibly overrated.

Pretty bad character writing. Story that nobody could possibly give a shit about regarding magical occult shit that is barely explained.

The "humor" is okay at best and definitely cannot carry the writing as a whole.

Decent animations, pretty terrible models.

That's it, really. F95 tends to overrate pretty normal shit.

I finished it a while ago but I never left my review of the game... what can I say about this game that others haven't already said, simply excellent in every aspect, don't waste time and play this wonder of VN.

I'm very disappointed due mostly to going in with high expectations due to the average rating on the site. At the time I downloaded this, this game was the #1 rated game here and is still top 5.

• I thought the characterization was very simple and most of the characters underdeveloped. But for what they are most of the girls are quite cute.
• It relies heavily on humor to get through many of its scenes and never managed to elicit any dramatic emotions. You will never fall in love with any characters nor care about them, the deaths feel silly, like pointless filler instead of being affective.
• The plot was terrible and boring. There's no attempt at actually having anything interesting happen.
• By the end it's just throwing rote sex scenes at you to fill up a quota and completely dispenses with making them make sense in the world. The relationship building is bad and unbelievable.
• The sex scenes are not creative in either writing or art. The animation and overall production values feel somewhat dated.

By the standards of absolute garbage porn this writing is slightly better than that, but by any regular media standards the writing here is pretty awful. You can have a VN that's sexy and have great writing guys. It's so bizarre that this site's standards are this low.

With all the disappointments out of the way let's talk about what this game does well.

• It's a solid VN with choices that matter enough and no nonsense.
• Dialogue is good, never felt out of place nor copy-paste between different characters. The dev should've leaned into this more, but instead, interactions with characters are spread thin amongst too many flat characters and far too much time is taken by the bad plot.
• While the sex scenes aren't the best, the characters are written in a fun and consistent way that will still get you to enjoy them. It's still quite good.
• It's finished! As a game product it's competently produced, is long enough but not too long, and everything wraps up cleanly.

Ultimately I didn't enjoy this VN nearly as much as I wanted to and prefer many other VNs here. Thanks for reading.

This is hands down one of THE BEST games I have played on this site. It won't let you down in terms of humour, amount of content, player choices, character models, storyline, etc. This game has made me laugh soooo much which I did not expect at all, and the art quality is visually amazing. Must play game IMO if you are into such visual novels. Late review because I wanted to wait for the game to finish before playing the rest of it, and the ending was very satisfying.