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

I actually only played this game a month ago, and had to do some digging to check how the development was, well:

Are there any adult games with better story than this one? Yes.
Are there any adult games with better models/animations? Yes.
Are there any adult games that were finished faster than this one? Yes.
Are there any adult games out there you can say Yes to all these 3 questions above? I don't think so.

This is a really solid, high standard VN, and people who might read this may be disappointed with my praising not being very flashy, but there isn't much to say. Just didn't expect a first project (afaik), especially one that was finished that fast, to be that polished and lacking major flaws in it. It is what it is.

5/5 Dev is a fucking unit.

One of the most entertaining games out there. Story is great, choices matter and the characters are well crafted. And there are a lot of funny encounters here and there. It is definitely worth checking out

An excellent, well-written game. The narrative style and pacing more than make up for the offputting models and, let's be honest, rather two-dimensional female characters.

My one real gripe is that there is very little meaningful player choice other than locking out girls; a few menu options are meaningless, and the rest boil down to one correct and various incorrect options. Most of the time it's immediately obvious which is which... but that makes it all the more unexpected when you run into one of the few "wrong" choices don't manifest until much later. For example, you can break Rebecca's ending with very little explanation what you did wrong and no warning in the "on path" system (and almost no other negative effects). I followed along with the source code through most of the game, which is completely fine with me--that's one of my favorite parts of RenPy games, to be honest--but it might be very frustrating otherwise.

This is pod racing!

This game has been reviewed in enough detail already, but fwiw, the graphics are serviceable, the models are adorable, the animations are amazing, the h-content is hot and not cringey, and it's FINISHED, which should earn some kind of medal on its own.

However, what makes this game (and its sequel, btw) really unique (I'd guess I've tried a hundred games and VNs in this genre, and this is top 2-3 for me, if not #1) is the really great storytelling. Lots of games get called "well-written" for having an interesting plot, or characters that make you warm inside, or (rarest of all?) decent grammar, but there's really a joyful, self-aware playfulness to great storytelling that casts a big shadow across all those other stories. And this game has it! From the snarky dialogue to Hollywood-comedy-level camera cuts to silly gags happening in the background of scenes, there's stuff happening here that just doesn't happen at all in most games.

Nobody is going to win literary prizes for an h-game, but as a professional writer, I recognize the effortless energy of someone in the groove. My biggest complaint is that I didn't get to be part of making this!

played this game a couple months ago, just newly discovered this site, this game is as lit as it gets, it is way more than just fapping the story is actually really nice and the characters like stabby mike are funny.

Finally got around to finishing this, and enjoyed it enormously.

There's a lot going for this VN, especially if you like cosmic/supernatural horror -- which I don't, particularly, but didn't mind here. There are elements of school dramedy, mystery, and of course romance. The protagonist grows in interesting and more or less believable ways, and I liked his sense of humor. The girls are varied, though they do fall into fairly standard h-games/anime categories (milf/waifu, sexy teacher, bodere, yandere, tsundere, etc.). The incest and harem paths are fun and relatively believable. The follow-through on secondary plot threads and minor character arcs, reintroducing minor bits from earlier in the story, are a lot of fun. The sex is plentiful and varied.

As a visual novel, it's actually got enough choices/game elements that your decisions make a difference in how the story turns out. (I used the mod, and checked all of the possible endings, which are well thought through. I wish the epilogue montages were a bit more involved, though!)

On the slightly less positive side, the visuals are... okay. It's standard, low-res Honey Select models, which mostly bothered me once I figured out that the story was supposed to be happening in Europe (England, maybe?), at which point the fact that the characters mostly looked vaguely East Asian was a bit distracting. (It didn't help that they actually visited Japan. The sequence was fun -- but the fact that the main characters looked just as Japanese -- clothing and hair color aside -- as the Japanese characters was a bit silly.) The female characters are mostly distinguishable by hair and eye color. Pretty old-school, but this isn't a new game.

Honestly? It's a really good, well constructed VN, with literally hours and hours of fun storytelling. It only suffers in comparison to the developer's next game, Eternum, which has (so far) all of the strengths of Once in a Lifetime -- but Eternum has much better graphics, more varied characters, a more compelling plot (the themes are similar, but the world is sci-fi rather than cosmic horror). If I could give it 4.5 stars I would.

This is my absolute favorite VN. There's a lot to appreciate here:
* An interesting and meaningful plot. Wow!
* A loser protagonist with real character development.
* Girls with fun personalities and great interactions, not just cookie-cutter sex dolls. (Not that they aren't hot. But definitely precious.)
* Humor that still made me laugh after multiple playthroughs. ("Can you please turn down the music?")
* Mike.
* Some actual emotional moments. (Including a long-awaited title drop in the best possible way.)
* Pregnancy routes that aren't gross or a weird afterthought. I usually skip them in games, but I did a second play with 'em on and the added interactions were delightful.

Cons(?)
* Quizzes can be a pain without walkthrough or wikipedia, but I'm fine with "cheating" a bit to sell the "accumulates useless trivia" personality.
* Many early animations still have some clipping and stiffness, I hope these can be polished up a bit in the future.
* A main menu gallery would be nice, but it's simple enough to keep an epilogue save for that.
* No MC/Carla/Rebecca scenes. (Yet? )

Pretty solid but I found it underwhelming for how well received it is on the site.

• I found the story kind of generic, and the humor hit or miss.
• There are some animations, but there's basically no audio during sex scenes.
• The models have expressive faces, but somewhat unrealistic proportions, which I don't care for. Mainly in the crazy skinny waists and hourglass figures. It's not as bad as some games on this site with balloon breasts, but it took me out of it.
• It's also a bit wholesome for the tags it covers - harem ending involves saying "I love you" with every single girl. Loving relationships are great IRL, but in a sex game with a plot this thin and silly, it does nothing for me.

at first when i saw this game i was surprised by how well it was received, after playing the game, i'm still surprised. let me start off by saying i don't hold a grudge against caribdis or anyone involved in the making of this game, this is just my honest opinion about the game. the renders and cgi in this game are quite good, the girls are expressive and sexy, but the male characters are hideous especially the mc. i have no problem with how the game looks, my problem lies within the storytelling. going into this game i was hoping for something sexy, funny and sad at times, what i got was a story with 0 character development, loose threads and bad humour. the characters are lifeless and there's no sense of development in them. one day they get flustered when they see your cock and the next they're jumping on it like wild animals, it has no consistency. this game could've been a simple family corruption story, but we are forced along this mess of a main story. the cult part of the game seems totally unnecessary and it's a slog to go through. the humour is horrendous, it consists of cheap memes that catch you off guard and try to hard to make you laugh. unless you still browse reddit i don't see how you can find this funny, it just comes off as annoying. this style of writing somehow made it into the creator's new game and people are still eating it up. i honestly have no idea why people like this game so much, if i had to sum it up: an overrated, overly ambitious failure.

I started playing this game right after finishing Eternum just because its the same creator, and let me tell you that they do not disappoint. Although the game does not have high level graphics like other games, it doesnt affect the experience. The game is very entertaining, funny and it has a great story. for some the story may be slow paced, but it still is insanely good. the way that some decisions feel like its something trivial but affect the story in a very important way give realism to the story since we never really know the consequences to our actions . if i had anything to criticize it would be how it had so much potential to have free roam parts, or even different endings due to how much was happening but doesnt matter what you do you always end in the same place when it comes to the ending. When it comes to the free roam it doesnt have to be something like GTA or CoD, but it could have a little free roam like (Just FYI i hate to compare Both Once in a Lifetime and Eternum with these games but they are the only ones that i have played that managed to do it just right) Being a DiK or Milfy City. besides that my one other critic is how short the game was

All in all it was a very good game, i loved every minute of it 20/10

Incest games are supposed to be about taboo relationships and how they develop, despite the immense pressure not to cross that line through escalating sexual tension. Once in a Lifetime does not concern itself much with relationships, it focuses instead on some confusing yet cliché fantasy story about a big bad who wants to become immortal and a shady underground society that may or may not involve MC’s dad. This game is best when it momentarily forgets about the stupid fantasy plot and relishes in the relationships. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between in a slew of fake Latin bullshit and failed intrigue.

PROs:

• Nice renders
• Nice animations
• Writing is okay.
• Dialogue is okay.

CONs:

• The protagonist is an annoying caricature of an unlikeable nerdy guy who likes gaming. I guess this is supposed to be relatable, but it's just cringe.
• Teenage girl has 2 pairs of night vision goggles because reasons. Also, his sisters know how to make a memory erasing serum out of the blue…
  • I get that it's supposed to be a semi-fantasy world, but it just comes off as lazy.
• MC randomly decides to stalk his mom and sister. Are we supposed to view this as normal?
• Cousins try on each-other's underwear for fun…
• Author thinks a date is naming a bunch of TV series.
• The Resident Evil/Outlast parody section.
• The whole fantasy sub-plot is more annoying than interesting.
• The entire game show thing to get tickets: when did porn games plots get so convoluted.
• “Penetrate her”, “Faster”: A very poor replacement for immersive sex scenes.
• All the girls have pretty much the same face.

TL;DR: It is painfully clear that this game was trying to be more than just an incest porn game, but unfortunately, it falls very far short of having of actually having a captivating and engaging story while neglecting what it does best.

Look, it's not terrible by any means, it's just incredibly overrated. If you are looking for something engaging and immersive, do yourself a favour and skip this one.

Very funny, very good flow of content, and I was a fan of the hidden ending. I had played 0.9 and replayed at 1.0 and still was able to appreciate how fun the writing was. I am looking forward to updates to Caribdis's content

The absolute best VN on this forum.
Rich, beautiful characters, good writing and story, amazing renders and animations. Simply had a blast while playing this game. I actually finished it twice. Very good job, Caribdis. Wish you the best on Eternum and future projects.

It's weird, it's funny and it works.

The story feels well done, if, as I said, weird at times.
Models are good, textures are as well.
There are multiple endings, which is a bonus, but we all know everyone aims for the harem ending.

Man, another engaging and memorable story wrapped up in the guise of a sex game.

First off, whatever models they use for this game ( the same as in Harem Hotel ) are the absolute best. I love the eyes and lips, the bodies and legs....just the sexiest models I've seen in a game.

Thankfully most of the characters are awesome as well, so it's not just eye candy. Some of the personalities do seem shallow and unfinished, but overall everyone has their quirks and I don't see anyone playing it NOT finding a favorite 'waifu' candidate among the cast ( mine's Iris ).

The only place the game lacks is in the audio department. Few musical tracks, few sound effects...so few, in fact, that when you suddenly get some audio it's jarring and weird. Still, this is a minor complaint, the game is still fully enjoyable without.

Lastly the story....I've played quite a few really good VN stories in the past few months, but none of them actually finished, so it was quite nice to get a full conclusion to a story that I was so heavily invested in. The MC is a bit of a moron, but the girls are all great and help the story of occult intrigue flow along nicely. The comedy is also there and timed great, resulting in quite a lot of laughs, especially with the models and their fantastic expressive faces.
Overall this is a great game, and definitely worth playing for people who like their porn to have a storyline.

Not perfect, but great otherwise. The great unique character art style, even the extra characters. Animations are great. The story is what does it for me though. Felt a bit short. I wouldn't have minded if there was more story with the relationships to explore. Either way, good stuff.

Just wow overall the game was engaging and these scenes where fantastic, usually a porn game just feels like a porn game but this game if you did everything correct, just feels so satisfying at the end, good job with the story and everything, and the funny twist with some characters was well appreciated as well, overall i give this a 9/10.

Came for the porn stayed for the plot. Honestly there were some situation of which I wasn't so much fond of. For example some emotional manipulation of the main actor. But in overall I started to like every single dateable character. They had all lovely personalities.

Plus all those enjoyable comicly relief situation. It was an amazing experience. It took me around 18 hours to finish the game.

I just personally wish to know how it played out at the end of my harem run.

My review doesn't contribute anything to this game. It's just that great of a game and you'll get sucked in right away. It took a few weeks to complete and I regret nothing. Great models, humor, story, sex scenes, and more. This VN is a "Must play".

One of the classics in my mind, actually one of the first games of this type that I played through and got me into all this. Good art, a story that's got some actual substance to it, not much more that you could want in a game like this.