OIALT is a straightforward visual novel with a few choices that impact the outcome. Come for the cute women, stay for the story, and rejoice in a well-formed and complete package. It is not without flaw, but still worthy of a 5-star rating.
Story and Gameplay
The story is a pretty standard "something weird about your missing father" beginning that evolves into a journey against the occult and supernatural. This was somewhat expected from the "horror" tag, but the execution was not quite what I expected. The plot isn't the greatest, but the characters are what completes the story. Each character has a development that they go through, most of which are predictable but resolve in a satisfying manner. The pacing is consistent, but maybe a bit slow overall. The use of timing on scene progression adds to the ambiance if you like, but can feel like extra clicks that need pressed through if you are on a mission.
Speaking of, the gameplay is little more than a decision here and there on your responses or actions. No great variety of choices, and some are just plain obvious. As others have said, a guide or mod can be useful if you want the easy results. Making a save at each decision point is also helpful, but you cannot always know what is coming down the road. However, I think that this all adds to the charm and meaning of the game, that you really only have one shot to make the most of what you have. It plays very linearly, but that is fine by me. If you do want a mod, I recommend Causality, it is a bit less in-your-face.
The Sexy Stuff
The character models, lighting, and animation show their age. That being said, the use of text, story, teasing, and character interactions make all the sexy scenes very hot, even if what is on screen isn't the highest quality out there. There are some sound effects during these scenes, and choices to view different angles and proceed at your own... pace. The lewd content in this game is well done and feels tasteful and intentional to either offer a nice scene or progress the story (sometimes both!). This game does a good job balancing the story experience and what we all originally cum here for. There are some kinks explored like Anal and Incest, but most things are pretty vanilla. Pregnancy is mentioned only and doesn't impact lewd scenes.
Art and Sound
The art is slightly above average for this visualization engine, as the dev has used things like lighting, simple background animations, and great detail in almost every scene to emphasize tone and make environments believable. The music can be slightly repetitive at times, but at least changes with the mood of the story when necessary and has some real impactful moments emphasized by it. Sound effects of lewd scenes are just okay, but the sound effects in the story do a great job of adding depth to the scenes they appear in.
My Notable Highlights
- Good story that doesn't take itself too seriously but still makes the impact on characters important
- Lots of cute girls, even if you don't want them all (but you can if you want!)
- Again, the characters and situations that make you laugh and feel emotions
- The game feels like a complete package and thought from the creator. It is nice to play something to a resolution that is meaningful.
Potential Flaws
- Art and sounds are not the greatest and show some age
- Decisions may be sometimes unfairly punished, or make it hard to know if you are seeing all the possible content without a mod
My Conclusions
Once in a Lifetime is a good game and you should give it a try, unless you are absolutely allergic to visual novels with mostly linear stories. It brings the lewd content into a game that has a little bit of all the elements of any video game worth enjoying, like art, sound, character growth, and a few interactive decisions. Pick it up, and give it a chance. Gems like this only happen... OIALT.
