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

Once in a Lifetime, along with Depravity and Waifu Academy, is in my opinion one of the best games on this site. It is an absolute hidden gem of a visual novel. My initial expectations were set low since I only came across this game through an accidental click, but I'm glad it caught me by total surprise. While the writing is well done, and presents a story with an interesting combination of humor, mystery and horror, the best thing about the game are actually the characters. The MC is a likeable goof ball whom have great chemistry with his sisters. And the girls, each with their own interesting personalities, are all very cute and erotic. The use of Honey Select by the developer is probably the most interesting I've seen yet. Rather than going for the usual ideal, perfect proportion approach we commonly see, I would say the female characters somewhat resemble the girls from the anime/manga One Piece, with exaggerated features which gives off a youthful yet sexy feel. Thanks to the decent writing, another aspect that the developer does extremely well is the use of tease to great effect, giving the erotic scenes a slow, timely satisfying build up, all the while not ruining the pacing of the storytelling. This is overall an adult visual novel I highly recommend. With a memorable cast of protagonist trio (MC, Lauren, and Judie), I can easily see Once in a Lifetime becoming a successful VN series with sequels of its own. The developer definitely deserves a lot more praise and support. I look forward to future updates.

Girls: 10/10
MC: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Writing: 10/10
Humor: 10/10
Animation: 8/10

PS. Lauren is best girl.

Fantastic game with an interesting mix of laugh out loud comedy sprinkled with horror elements which I never thought I would be a fan of! Just play for 10-20 minutes and you will know instantly whether or not the writing style and comedy is for you!

Can't recommend enough as this is a game I would play and purchase even if it had no sexual content though I am glad that it does and that it has one of my favorite kinks (just look at the majority of games I support and you will most likely be able to guess my favorite kink)

Keep up the good work Caribdis

This game is amazing and while i'm not usually a fan of this kind of art style it's a great looking game. The writing and characters are top notch can't wait too see more I'm surprised this game hasn't got more support it's definitely one of the better ones I have played.

This is a great game! can't wait for more update.
-Renders 5/5 good
-Animation 4.5/5 not that many so far but great quality. great angle!
-Story 4/5 interesting
-Characters 5/5 Each character's so attractive.

This game is actually really good, the developer is a decent and funny writer! This is how porn games should be, it does not take itself too seriously and makes you chuckle once or twice.

Animations are not the absolute best and there are no branching paths but overall I'd say it is a good looking game with attractive renders and an interesting story.

Do give it a try if you haven't already.

Reviewing as of 0.5

Pros
- Unique, engaging and well paced story
- Well written characters with distinct personalities (not cookie cutter as found in most games on this site)
- HQ images with both excellent model work and render quality
- Well developed and funny protagonist (once again a breath of fresh air compared to most MC's)
- Quiz and games aspect is also an interesting feature which adds a bit more depth and novelty to the game, making sense in the context of the story, instead of standard good/bad choice

Cons
- Sex scenes could be developed a bit more in their pacing and length
- Bit of an info dump in the early chapters which could be polished

Overall a really good game with great potential. This dev definitely deserves more patrons than they already have.

Great game . Has humor, visual story telling using comedic timing, and closeups, good character models, game quality, a not overly horny mc, with a more than meets the eye plot and good characterization of the romantic interests. Story is linear and there are no routes or branching paths. Definitely a game worth paying attention too. The only concerning detail may be that some characters might have a perma blush but honestly I find that a positive. Ill give it 5 stars to encourage people to at least try it and to encourage the dev not to abandon this project. Hoping to see more

Overall it's a good game.

The game uses a good quality HS, with very pretty girls. Each of them with different personalities.

It has sounds to give more atmosphere. The story is entertaining, if you like the horror genre. Maybe some puzzles and mini-games can be annoying, but it's not something that ruins the game either.

Looking foward for more content

Very fun game, looking forward to more updates! It has a decent and fresh plot, one that is more than JUST trying to fuck his family and I've been enjoying it so far. Things are more or less believable as well which is a plus!

This game is just...excellent...nothing below it. I can't even explain how great I felt playing this game....The dev deserves a lot more praise and a lot more supporters than he currently has...It is a bit mystery as well as trivia type but a simple walkthrough will get you through it easily and the reward you get at the end is well worth it...The dev knows when to tease us making us want the scene in the future even more...Very underrated..Definitely should be put in the recommended games in the next iteration!!

I would give it a 10 out of 5 if there was an option for it!

One of the best games on this site. Its funny/interesting enough that I would play it even without the H scenes, which are great. Plus the Honey Select models look much better than any of the other Honey Select games that I've seen.

the art may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it works for me. The story definitely held interest and I'm looking forward to more. The scholastic questions could be bothersome to many. I admit I cheated with the walkthru mod. You also might be able to roll back the text and retry until you get the right answer. Might give a few people a sense of accomplishment. Oh and the walkthru mod also helped with the fight.

I just finished, so here we go. Ignoring my old review from over a year ago, and writing a new one.

DESPITE LOVING THIS GAME AND A 5 STAR RATING, THIS GAME DOES HAVE CONS.

So, pros first:
The art is beautiful. I don't know the different programs people use for models for these games, but I do know that I TEND to view games that look like this one (which I assume use the same modeling program for renders) as... not as good, and not nearly as attractive.
This game is a SHINGING example that, if the dev knows what they're doing, they can get the most out of the tools they're working with, and in this case, the women are actually beautiful.

The characters, from love interests, to side characters, were great.
Fat/fit jack was amazing and needed more screen time. Stabby Mike was the hero we needed, but never knew we needed.
The girls and their relationships... well, it's a porn game, so only so much in the way of realism, but it felt earned. Maybe more importantly, it felt like the MC was actually in love with them and not just looking to get his dick wet. In a lot of harem games, we're told how much the MC cares, but don't generally see it. So, well done!

And the writing!
The dev did several thing, all of them very well!
1) character establishment anbd development
2) plot establishment and development
3) romance
4) atmosphere
5) humor
and the pacing for them all was generally good.

In that sense, while hardly as deep as some other works, the fact is, this game hit the nail on the head with good writing.

So, last pro is the story itself.
Enough horror to be captivating without any real fright/tension, enough mystery to make you want to keep playing to experience more of the story. Enough slice of life to be just genuinely fun.
And an MC that isn't brain dead.
I was invested in seeing the whole Sons thing play out, who was betraying who, all of it. And while, sure, some parts could have been fleshed out more, the story doesn't suffer from it not being so. In the end, the driving narrative was very effective and interesting, and not merely a vehicle for porn.

so, what are my cons, then?
I have three. All in spoliers, because all involve late game, endings, or relationships.
Obviously, none bothered be enough to drop a star level, though.

In all, I loved the game. And I'm very much looking forward to your new project!

A simple yet surprisingly engaging game. The visuals are not that impressive but the fun writing with a simple but good character cast, conspiracy mystery story with hints of violence and sex as well as genuinely funny and well-written dialogue and interactions between characters make up for the visuals, including some good intimate scenes and dialogue choices throughout the story mostly regarding specific characters progression and affection.

Good Points
+ Girls/Women looks realy cute, uber cute I mean DAMN CUTE! Jokes aside their bod and face drawings looks pretty good.
+ Render quality looks quite good.
+ Story is well written and realy interesting, gives you feeling you wanna learn whats gonna happen next and i cant say im disappointed with finale or story of game generaly.
+ We have animations and their quality is realy good not best ones but still good. I would love to see better quality animations but at this rate I can live with that
+ Choices matter and that makes our playthrough more meaningful.
+ Main Character is cool guy and he is handsome enough to not kill sex scenes joy
+ This game have amazing sense of humor! In lots of scene i literaly cried while laughing Even we have some movie refferences to and all of them are hilarous LOL
+ In V1.0 we have 6 different ending. Harem, One Girl, Prison, Astaroth, Dead and Secret ending. Some of endings like ''One Girl'' ending is lacking lots of content actualy but all of them was good. Espacily Harem Ending just made my day... It was amazing...

Bad Points
- Sex scenes and general quality could have been little bit better. But thats not big bad point.

For The End
This is one of most amazing games i played in VN and Adult Game category... I realy loved all scenes, story and everyting... I do wish DEV never stop making games and always makes games like this. Totaly worth every second of time... Thanks <3

Good renders as far as Honey Select goes -not quite upto Depravity and The Inn levels, but good nevertheless. The characters themselves are interesting enough. The sisters primarily, since we haven't really seen too much of the others. Rebecca's an interesting enough character, especially with her fiance, from a story point of view.

The interesting part for me, is the story. I have no idea where the dev is going to go with it though. If they are actually going the fantasy route or if they will keep it realistic, but I'm interested in the story either way.

The lewd scenes are rather nice too, with the HS animations but from rather nice angles. I'm giving this a 5 based on what I've played so far, as this has me intrigued. Keep up the good work Caribdis and all the best for the future.

I'm gonna be honest, I really hate annoying mini-games, BUT the rest of the game makes up for it. and you can easy get past them with a little search.

The story and the scenes are both fun and naughty, the same goes for the chars. + they look yummy. Also the animations is very well made cause the Dev got the cam angles just right, which I really like!

So I'm giving 5 stars, even tho of mini-games, cause I really enjoy playing this!

[0.4]

This is quite a good little VN. The only thing barring me from giving it 5 stars is that there are no real choices to be made or branching paths as far as I can tell. The way the game works is that there are a number of scenes as the plot progresses in a linear fashion. You make choices that affect each girl's affection along the way. Having low points means you skip the scene and continue onwards. There is no reason whatsoever to not increase your points with everyone. This is quite frustrating because some of the situations and dialogues which result in loss of points are quite funny and matches what I would rather do. Instead, you are forced to roll back until you get the points which are usually just the general compliments and romancy choices.

The good thing about this type of gameplay is that it makes developing the plot much simpler (and I guess the coding too). There isn't much player agency when it comes to affecting the plot, but at least the story itself is quite interesting in this game. It seems like a typical incest romance type story at first, but an underlying mystery and higher stakes are laid out eventually.

My favorite thing about this game is actually the art. We've all seen honey select games a million times by now, but the dev somehow makes it look unique. Some proportions are exaggerated, but it kinda captures a sort of youthful sexuality. The eyes also draws you in in a weird hypnotic way lol.

The sisters are quite cute and the other characters are interesting in their own right. The sexual content is pretty satisfactory. It progresses at a different rate depending on the characters and it tends to fit their personality and situations rather than some strict adherence to the typical stairway to heaven system.

There is a bit of humor in the writing which made me chuckle a few times. [Edit: this game is funny as fuck in the recent updates v0.6]
No Engrish which is half the battle won already.

All in all, this is a game that most people could enjoy. It's pretty lighthearted and doesn't have any divisive or heavy tags that might put people off (at least so far).

Edit: Easiest 5 star rating for me. The game is really good. The dev adds a lot of humor not only in the writing, but the expressions of the characters. Spend a lot of time laughing at the game which is an achievement in and of itself.

The story is interesting and the girls are hot. There's a great balance of serious story, silly writing, and relationship building + sexy times. It's really a fantastic game.

Original Rating:

Pretty good game. Lots of humor tossed in and I like all the characters. I feel that you need a walkthrough or else the game would be kind of painful to play.

The game is still in its early stages though. Very little sexy stuff going on currently and needs more time for the plot and relationships to air out. Looking forward to new updates.

Would recommend.

The game is good looking for starters. Renders and animations are very good in quality. Story is also noicee. A lot of humor and fun in the game and the mc is funny dude overall. Enjoyed the game verymuch addding to my fav. list . Looking forward for more content ( execute plan B)