I have played adult games for around 10 years in various forms. Every time I've downloaded a story VN I've quit and deleted it after 30 - 60 minutes. They simply aren't good. Non-participatory porn is best in movie format and non-participatory love is best in book format . There is simply no point in creating a game that tries to emulate those two in an inferior medium. Or so I thought...
Over the years I have tried about 50 story VNs or so, and not a single one interested me. Until I downloaded Eternum by accident (I thought it was something else). Due to the great introduction I kept punching away at the spacebar even after realizing that there would be no sandbox mechanics included. I got hooked within 20 minutes and I played that all the way through in one go. When that ran out, I eventually downloaded Once in a Lifetime. That was yesterday. I spent the entire night playing it through in one sitting, ignoring everything except the mouse in my one hand and, well, you know.
So what is there to say about the game?
The comedy is fantastic and I found myself laughing out loud many many times. The relations feel organic in all the cases that matter (all the younger girls minus Aiko), and the pacing is perfect. After spending an entire night playing through the game I am considering starting it up and reading it through again for one simple reason: the game really, really, REALLY, manages to create a sensation of slowly growing feelings between the characters, and that quality far outshines any problems you might have with graphics, animation, interactivity, or being able to figure out who's who when looking at the path menu.
Don't get me wrong, it's not without faults. The graphics (girls) can definitely look less generic (most of them I can only tell apart by their hair color), the adult animations are far from the best, and the introductory phase (approx. first 20 min) needs more relief for all that exposition, but damn is the story good (structure, pacing, escalation, relief, twists and surprises, girls, fetishes, romance, the whole damn deal). After you get into the story, you simply stop caring about the details.
There is one thing that really made it stick with me. The culminating scene towards the end with Lauren and Judy really is perfect, it actually made me feel the love and emotional connection between the characters, and that's pretty damn rare. The music, the scenery, the placements, the buildup - it's extraordinary. The entire game progressed flawlessly towards that scene, and it really shows.
This is the first story VN, out of around 50, that I have actually wanted to finish (and wish there was more of), and I cannot recommend it enough.