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

[Review Version V0.8 - Windows]

This is an absolute gem of a game. It has charm, wit, great humor and a plot that's completely bananas (in a good way). Save the world form a centuries old cult with the aid of your two high-school sisters - what's not to love?

All the girls are likable and the animations gets better as one progresses further but what needs special mention is also the little things and attention to detail in this game. For example, I was absolutely astonished to hear the sound of a Shishi-Odoshi working away in the Japanese temple scene. Considering that very few people who haven't been to a Japanese temple would even know what it is let alone recognise the sound, that the dev bothered to find that sound (rather than easily available wind or birds chirping sfx) to put in the game speaks to the care the Dev has put into his product.

Highly Recommended.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game. The humor isn't overt and the developer manages to put it into situations when least expected at various times. A few things are a bit off the wall, but altogether it is an excellent game.

The characters are memorable and the scenes interesting. Definitely a good one to try out, at the very least.

I just love this game fuking love it A true master piece

If you want a VN for story comedy and romance definitely gotta try this one out. You won't regret it.

One of the best written novels out there very well written
and the Humor oh yeah it never gets boring
humor in character's expression in render and in dialogues are just pure gold made me chuckle a lot.
The story is engaging and it is well written and presented not to mention how the romance takes place there is relation building as the story unravels twirling in mysteries rather than creeping on your family like most incest VNs,
one of the best incest romance VN ever made in my opinion.

Love the story love the humor love the romance

Just like the title says "Once in a life time" you get to enjoy this hidden gem there will be something better and worse than this afterwards but unlike this one.
The humor the story and the romance all in one package
And topped off with a nice ending.

Keep up the good work dev. GOODLUCK.

its my first game downloaded from the site. In the past, i am not into these kind of question answering game but this one surprisingly good and i cannot stop playing it.

I enjoy the content and the characters design. However as i am too impatient, the firs time i played this game i lost all the girls' lines.

I wonder what's the difference of getting full marks vs high marks in the girl line. is there any hidden scene for full marks?

I found myself in a beautiful house, with some beautiful step-relatives. Once in a Lifetime is one of those games that really makes you feel the relationships with the different love interests, and it has pretty good sex scenes. Before long I was letting the days go by. I found myself in another part of the world. But I never asked myself "how did I get here?" because the story is pretty solid even though it's silly and fantastic.

God, for some reason this has made me chuckle out loud several times and I honestly don't know how to feel about it. I can't express that enough, this never happens to me. The humor in VNs is usually worse than in bad American comedies starring Adam Sandler. Caribdis, well done and thank you!

The thirst won't get bad either since there's a good amount of sexy scenes. I'm kind of fed up with Honey Select graphics, but I really don't mind them thanks to the writing. They might actually even fit the overall style.

In summary: Such comedy, much laugh, so amaze, wow.

very good me likey a lot. Story quite interesting, waaay more interesting than normal H-Games. Parts of the story actually spooked me, creator of the game has good comedic timing, story/world building, suspense/fear building. Animation very good, fluid, clean, satisfying to look at. I am quite excited to see how this project turns out.

This takes a while to get into. It suffers from what a lot of these do, too much mundane dialog. Too many instances explaining to the reader what is happening through dialog which comes off as expository and unnatural.

It has too many long loading frame transitions and my index finger is going to need ice for all the clicking. Entire passages could be reduced to a simple transition to the next day.

I only kept clicking because I've tried so many games there isn't much left on here to play and frankly, I just have too much time...

But something started happening... I started getting into the characters. Some lines of dialog started hitting. An occasional chuckle became a hearty laugh.

I'm not a fan of anime but I don't have anything against it... I'm not hip to geek culture but I admit cosplay has it's sexy moments... but frankly there's too much in here and I'm really getting sick of seeing it in every porn game.

But even that wasn't bothering me anymore.

The choice system might as well not be in here because it's always a matter of roll back and choose the right path that gives you points.

And yeah, that stopped bothering me too. Because eventually the charm gets you. This is like the annoying best friend of the hot chick in school... he has the crush on the girl but she's not going to be with him until his charm has won her over. This game is that. The overachieving try-hard that eventually wins you over.

I had read the reviews and I was skeptical... I started playing and I was certain it was hype. And if you've read this far, it certainly has it's share of faults. But if you keep clicking, it wins you over.

I'll say specifically when I knew this went from bad to good in my book... when he visits the shrink and changes the email (and the mysterious guy showing up at both Judie's date and the doc... funny). At this point I had seen enough to be on board.

I'm not done with this and I might come back and change my review but I think I've played enough to recommend this... the author doesn't always have something to say and some passages could be edited down with less mundane dialog... but there is no doubt that this author is trying like hell to entertain us.

Oh...and I give the author props for not having any of these chicks wink (yet)... that Honey Select wink just makes games feel like a sea-faring pirate simulator.

(added later) The prison sequence is brilliant... it's hillarious, well paced... and best of all, it takes advantage of the weakness described above, in that it's all a matter of roll-back to get the right path... this sequence depends on that and the roll-back actually becomes the story. Brilliant.

And the shrine maiden... the hype is real on this one... give it a chance. The author really finds a groove and it's non-stop hilarity after that. There are a lot of standout scenes.

Plot:. The game actually has a story that I dont just skip like with most games because I think it is quite interesting.
Characters: All the girls are pretty likeable and very very hoy, especially Lauren.
Renders: Pretty nice renders and they have become even better with time.

Overall a pretty solid game, not really anything to complain about, will help you have a nice time if you are bored and horny ofc.

Im not usually a fan of art work thats like whats in this game. That being said, I love the renders, the story is great, and I like the flow of the game. I was very hesitant of playing this because of the graphics but if you are like me you should still give it a try because it grows on you. I really enjoyed this game and recommend playing it!

This game immediately jumps to the top of the list when a new update comes out.

Pros:
-Writing is great. I actually read all of the text instead of skipping. Coherent plot that flows well. Plenty of humor.
-The girls are different, and I like all of them
-Numerous sex scenes.

Cons:
-Although a walkthrough isn't needed, there are many opportunities to miss points/scenes. It would be somewhat obnoxious to play through without the walkthrough.

The game delivers at every turn, from the scenes with the main characters to the music and even the CGs and animations. Even the MC who takes an active role in the plot stands out with his actions. Filled with an interesting story, where at times may seem confusing, but rewards your choices well, the story makes you feel for the characters and at times laugh out loud at the hilarious scenes. This is definitely a VN not to miss.

At first, I wasn't sure if I would like this game, because I thought I didn't care for Honeyselect models. But after playing this for awhile, I began to find this game super HOT! One the the most enjoyable games I've tried in a long time. The animations were really very good! I enjoyed the story, and found the development of relations with the girls to be quite fun.

The character models of all the women are hot and nearly everyone has their own personality, the story seems good, and their are epic anime like funny moments as well. A solid 5 from my side. I don't know if we can get harem ending or not, but it will be even more amazing in case we do.

Enjoy the humor as well as the story. One of those games I will be waiting for each update.. Absolutely hit the Patreon button so I could stay in the loop. Cliff hanger ending was awesome so excitement level is high for the next update!!

Fun read, very good story 5*s for sure.

I really like the humor of the author. I even think that there could be even more sounds in some scenes though that might be controversial. Everything else (models, characters, story, writing and spelling) are nice too though.

It's definitely one of the top 10 erotic games that I've played (the other are Peasant's Quest, Being A DIK, Pale Carnations, What a Legend, My Pleasure, Where the Heart is, Melody, Sisterly Love and Unleashed) and by far the funniest. I don't know how author does it but dialogues and characters here are top notch - they're witty and hilarious at the same time and even without erotic content it's a great game. If you're only interested in lewd scenes and hot chicks though, this game delivers 100%. Models look beautiful (although they are a bit too similar if one looks closely - which doesn't affect my judgment in any significant way), animations are great and sex scenes are just exquisite.

All in all it's an underappreciated gem (much worse games and with much worse developer support get way more money and praise) which I recommend to anyone who wants to relax and have tons of laugh as well as high quality erotic content. 10/10 from me.

This game is extremely hit or miss. It's either the best thing in the world, or the worst thing in the world, no in-betweens. It has some incredibly good parts, and it has some ragequit-inducing parts.

The very bad:

1. The intro. My fucking god, the intro. I only made it through the intro on my third try. It's long, it's a massive infodump about things you'll never wanna hear of again, and it's so. damn. boring. Like it's at least 100 screens. Pro tip if you're picking up this game - set up a timer for 15 minutes or so, and force yourselves to sit through the intro until the timer rings. By that time you'll be at least a little bit invested in the story and won't wanna ragequit as badly. This game is like Fallout 3, would be incredible with a skip intro mod.

2. The tone. The game has a tonal dissonance - it tries to be too many things at once. In particular it tries to be both a comedy and a thriller. That kind of just doesn't work too well - you have one part of the game that is all about creating tension, and another that is all about relieving tension, and in the end instead of an overall structure of the story you have a rollercoaster. Both a comedy and a thriller would have been fine, but you gotta pick one and discard the other, can't keep both - too many a scene have been ruined by either building too much tension where there really shouldn't have been any, or by ruining the scenes which should have had a lot of tension.

I can see definite influences of British comedies like Hot Fuzz here, but if we take Hot Fuzz as an example, it doesn't like, actually build tension all that much. Its antagonists are all laughable, their goal is a joke, and their methods are more funny than anything. Hot Fuzz doesn't build too much tension, whereas this game kinda does.

The either very good or very bad:

1. The jokes. My or my, the jokes. A few of them hit really well. Some are funny jokes, but used a few dozen times too often to still be funny. Too many of them fall flat on their face from the start. An unforgivable amount of them uses the "Any reference is a joke, and they must be pointed out" sort of joke - at least, unlike some games, it doesn't highlight them in cursive so that you know that this is a reference and you must laugh.

2. The story. The synopsis is a tired old "ancient conspiracy is trying to dominate the world, and only this unassuming teenager with no discernible qualities can possibly save it", but hey I'm not complaining. Sometimes the story works surprisingly well, quite a few times actually, which is more than what can be said for most naughty games. And sometimes, the story shits the bed, some sort of divine intervention happens, and MC and his crew is allowed to essentially bypass/dodge a problem.

I gotta give the story credit though - it doesn't make MC a total dick and make him abuse his power too hard (leaving it to player's choice to abuse it), and it doesn't make him a total cuck and take away any agency he might need in order to proceed in the story - he does have agency and feels like a character, not a puppet.

On that note, the consistently good:

1. Characters. They feel surprisingly deep and refreshing, despite being pretty archetypal - keeping their number relatively low, and letting us spend time with them, allows them to flower. Their dialogue feels great (at least after the damn intro), and their personalities make them easy to attach to and like. Consistently good.

Which feeds into...

2. Sex, the part we're all here for. Consistently great. Even the tamest scenes, great. Even the cockblock scenes, great. All girls are attractive (even if a little too conventionally attractive, without too much variance between their bodies), all of the renders and motions are great, all of the situations are hot, and their personalities existing make all the scenes even hotter - because you actually care about the girls. Definitely worth a few wanks.

Overall verdict: do try this game. It's alright, if you soldier through the damn intro, definitely worth a download, and I will be keeping an eye on how it progresses.

This will be my first time rating but after playing the game all the way, I just had to do it. Firstly, the dev's humor is just too good, such great comedic timing and concepts mashed together with the visual novel element. The art style is nice and the animations are solid. The story overall is one of the most intriguing one yet and I have read quite my share of visual novels. Looking forward to new updates!

A golden gem, a game you would be missing out if you didn't play. Kept a boner while laughing throughout the game.

Pros:

- the plot is insanely well done, from the humor to the twists, every scene has an effect, every event, a purpose
- sex scenes are VERY good, though I have a bias towards this sort of art style, the transitions and words really fleshes out the eroticism
- characters have depth, and interactions between them make sense
- realism with valid touches of fantasy. perhaps the only game so far to have been able to strike a balance between believable (just barely, though) scenerios and fantastical ones
- appropriate music fitting for scenes
- a protagonist with actual balls, whose character depends on player choice
- branching plot with a multitude of impactful choices

Cons:

- not a lot of rape as I would've liked, and was hoping for pregnancy scenes as well
- the game is reaching its finale and i feel empty and depressed. please make a part two or a game similar to this or i may never be able to fill this void

Please read the cons, game dev. Please.