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

I must say, this game is undoubtedly one of the best on this site. From the well-developed characters to the captivating plot, it truly excels in every aspect, leaving little room for improvement. However, I couldn't help but wish for a more satisfying closure to the individual character endings. Perhaps a collage of multiple scenes showing us what transpired after the conclusion would have been ideal. While it seems that only one ending fully addresses this, likely the true ending, I believe that all characters deserved this level of attention.

Now, I must admit that the graphics and art style didn't quite resonate with me personally. Nevertheless, the game compensates for it so exceptionally well through its brilliant storytelling and gameplay that this minor quibble becomes insignificant.

The developers behind this masterpiece are clearly skilled artisans who have crafted an experience like no other. If you're searching for something great, look no further. This game is a shining example of their dedication to their craft.

If you know me, you know I believe that F95 rating system is fundamentally flawed. The reason is simple, you cannot reasonably review unfinished products. However, this is no longer a finished product, so here it is.

It is quite common for developers to try to produce high quality product that ended up believing they are better than what they are. This is not necessarily wrong, it is absolutely good that these developers are trying hard and having expectations on their work. But, more often than not, their result is lower than what they think it is. Too cliche, too naive. Too average? Well, this is NOT Once in a lifetime.

Once in a lifetime is a fantastic novel. More than anything, because of its witty writing. Caribdis is a fantastic writer. No, he will most likely not make you evaluate your whole life, neither will his product earn him a novel prize or anything. But you will enjoy reading every single line. In once in a life time he takes an standard formula (horny teenager wants to fuck everything that moves, include... close members in his household.. wink wink), but instead of trying to do it with a protagonist that has a dark/tragic past or simply is absolutely awesome in each single way, he is as average as can be. MC, no matter where you see him from, is absolutely forgettable. So.. why is it so good? Well, Caribdis manages to take you on MC's journey from a point of view of comedy and silly happy feelings. This is not to say that there is no drama or tension or even scary parts (looking at you, Mr Hospital). But the overall style makes you forget this is an erotic visual novel and just enjoy a ride next to MC and its beautiful girls, with funny moments all around. And that makes this MC absolutely great.

Ohh.. I did mention beautiful girls, right? Oh yess... girls in this game are absolutely fantastic. Even the most boring ones are absolutely great. And the best ones are top waifu level. So believe me, you will want to spend time with them, and in them. Cause they are freaking hot.

What about overall plot, you may ask? I mentioned OIAL takes a standard formula of a horny teenager that wants to fuck every single cute hole he sees. And that is true. But those are the only standard similarities that you can find. Plot is quite more complex that you would expect at first, with a lot of intrigue and change in scenery. Yes, you will not be stuck at home or school thinking how you can fuck "insert cute name here". You will go to different scenarios, by trying to unravel a mysterious plot. Overall plot might not be the most fantastic and mind blowing plots of all (Legacy of Kain, Netflix Dark except for that absolutely crappy ending), but it will keep you way more interested than you would imagine when you pick the game to have a soo needed release.

What about ambient? Graphics are done in Honey Select engine from illusion. Unlike Blender/Daz, they are more cartoonish and anime style of graphics. While quality clearly inferior to those, given the overall writing style I believe the combination works fantastic.

And music? I am of the mindset that music is not just something good to have, it is essential. Music is key to set the right tone on a scene. And many times it is all you need. Caribdis did a very good job in that sense. That is not to say the music itself is great. I don't believe you will want to hear any of the songs after playing the game, something that would happen playing The House in Fata Morgana. But in terms of music ambientation, the job is well done.

You may be wondering if there is anything wrong. The short answer would be no. Nothing to complain, really. The long answer is still no. Kidding. If anything, a little more drama would have been welcome. But that is just me from a drama loving perspective. Putting more drama in OIAL is not an easy task given the overall style of it. So, I believe we can let this one thing slide by.

So if you get to here reading, kudos to you for reading what I have say. As the future ruler of Earth, you should always read me. Please do remember I am a certified supervillain. And this supervillain overlord strongly recommends this novel. It will not fuck your mind like The House in Fata Morgana does. Neither it will take you over a sci-fi thrilling time shattering multiverse as Muv-Luv. It will not make you scream at the screen (pun intended) like Acting Lessons (which I love, unlike that overrated BADIK) for playing with your expectations. But you will have the best of time. And that is all that really matters.

10/10. Just go and enjoy it.

Overall, my experience with the game was mixed. The extensive amount of text led me to skip through some parts, making it challenging to fully grasp the storyline. The plot involved evil entities, a Japanese town, gods, and an evil book, which felt overwhelming at times.

This game is not for those seeking mindless explicit content, as the focus is primarily on lengthy dialogues, accounting for about 80% of the gameplay. Personally, I didn't find the story engaging, and I ended up using the skip button through almost the entire game. However, I recognize that my expectations might have influenced my perception.

In hindsight, I believe I approached the game with the wrong mindset, expecting a simpler experience. I might consider giving it another chance in the future, taking the time to fully comprehend the story and its intricacies. A deeper understanding of the plot could potentially enhance the overall experience.

This is an absolutely stellar VN, so much so that I actually broke my vow of silence on here and decided to actually make a post.
I dare say it's the most enjoyable VN I've ever had the pleasure to play. The humor is right up my alley, got quite a number of laughs out of me but wow the real magic is how somehow, someway the dev managed to make some of the hottest girls in the media, and believe me when I say I've played my fair share of H-games and VNs (hardly the greatest thing to brag about...).
I'm so used to games having like 1, maybe 2 decent girls, but this one had them all be absolute knock outs, so major kudos in that department. Not only do the girls look hot but they're extremely likable and well written too. Relationships with them develop in a natural way, I didn't feel like things went too fast and this game didn't make the mistake that plenty of others do where they blue-ball you for way too long to the point where you lose interest or the payoff doesn't feel worth it, I feel like this VN hit that absolute sweet spot which isn't easy to achieve.

This is definitely a VN I won't forget. Highly, highly recommended. Great work and I look forward to any and all future work from this dev.

What an amazing experience. This is the only visual novel that isn't entirely one emotion. I like how multifaceted it is with its emotions. The characters are great (especially Mike, love that dude). The story is in the top one percent of visual novels. And the experience doesn't feel rushed or too long, it's perfect. If there's one game on this platform that I could experience again for the first time, it would be this. Thank you Cardibis for such an amazing masterpiece.

Once in a Lifetime is the first VN I ever played, and holds the standard to which I rate others. Caribdis is phenonenal, stitching storylines together immaculately, with perfect recipe of humor, mystery, thrill and naughtiness that captures your imagination and keeps you engaged throughout. The sex scenes never feel forced, the audio and background music are perfection. I can't recommend this game enough.

As a person that doesn't usually enjoy VNs, this one kept me wanting for more the whole time, its just that good. The combination of characters, humor, mystery, story, and i have no idea what else just kept me hook all throughout.

Overall amazing, had very very few experiences like this

Pros
A LOT, very hard to describe, I recommend just giving it a shot

Cons
The art / renders though not bad, are probably the weakest part of this amazing game

An excellent VN. Maybe the best I played so far. The story is interesting and also funny at parts giving some relief after darker moments. The scenes feel EARNED, which is important for a story driven game. The scenes are also fantastic (even if a bit dated). Characters are diverse enough, and the story tries to give each of them enough limelight, allowing you to care for them. It deserves this unanimous high rating from loads of people.

Jasmine is best girl btw, and has the best scenes imo. Judie is 2nd place. All of them are good though.

i love you caribdis T-T thanks for making great games, I wish there were more creators as good as you. I keep coming back to this game because its so good and because I cant wait for the next eternum update. Keep doing your thing!

Its a good game the storytelling is great and several parts of the game had me laughing a little at how ridiculous some parts of the story is the cgs are okay nothing to write home about but overall does well enough job the only real downside in my opinion is the somewhat lack of scenes like how none of the endings have sex cgs and the harem ending is really missing out and left me a bit disappointed but that cant take away the fact that I would still recommend playing it.

GREAT VN. I wanted to give this a shot since it was made by the same dev as Eternum. Having played eternum I can say that the dev has immensely improved in renders and animations since this first piece. But oh boy is this piece a BANGER or what? Captivating plot, multiple endings, plot twists, funny characters, and oh boy relationship building was nicely done. Play for the story and get amazed. Best of luck to dev <3

It was simply amazing - as if someone had mixed all film genres together and created a masterpiece. I haven't laughed so much to tears in a long time. The person who created the Jasmine model should be awarded the Nobel Prize in art.

We need more friends like Mike

Somehow I missed this game over the past few years being here, but I'm glad to finally have played it.

I really enjoyed the relationships formed in this game, the dialogue, the storyline and the animations were all top-notch.

I'm also not one for horror games, but I admit that even the horror aspects of this visual novel were captivating and made me want to learn more and experience more with this cast of characters and their journey.

The dialogue was spot on thoughout, and they seemed to be mostly consistent across the characters without becoming stale or overlapping with each other too much.

It was also able to thread that line between serious (horror) tones and comedic highlights. Just like with Projekt Passion and Ripples I found myself laughing quite a bit because the comedy was familiar but entertaining; it kept me on my toes without being overly crude or distasteful.

Some of the progression the side characters make were pretty interesting as well. Love what happened to Jack and even to Tom.

I also love the fact that we're never forced into making poor choices or to using less-than-noble/ethical means (even though the opportunities existed).

The overarching story itself was also very engrossing and never felt as separate from the relationship/character arcs.

And even though (as a VN) we only got some animation what we ended up getting was quite well done.

Overall I'm very impressed with this gem from a few years ago. Well done!

quick rating -/
Reading other people's ratings, I must agree with many about how amazing the story telling is. If this was indeed a first go at Renpy/HS, then I must tip my hat to you. Well done on a great job.
/- end quick rating


Personal view.
At first glance, I wasn't really excited on the choice of HS assets, but your use of artistic framing coupled with superb writing really knocked this one out of the park. I'm so glad I gave this title a chance because I got sucked into the story almost instantly. I really respect the modest usage of the lewd scenes. As I'm not one who reads/plays VN's for lewds, and even less when it comes to taboo subjects like incest. But let's be honest here, having 'step siblings' with zero blood relations isn't really considered 'taboo' in my opinion. How you tap danced your way around that was brilliant.

Furthermore, I also really appreciated how you added so much nuances around how to romance some of the LIs really threw me through a few hoops. How some results wasn't only reliant on 1 answer or choice, but an accumulation of choices was so well thought out. Judie for example, while in Japan, I expressed love for her and how important she was (affection score reached 21 at that scene), yet if I recall correctly, the choice following that scene made it that her path was lost. I'll admit that ticked me off, but got me thinking about how you thought out the mechanics for each path.

If one pays enough attention to all of these little details and nuances, one can quickly tell you cared deeply about story quality over "bling", and makes me respect the work that much more. Your writing was clever, witty and original. Characters do not feel superficial but instead feel organic and natural and each had distinct and unique personalities, and didn't feel 'repeated'. Of course some things could perhaps have been done 'better', but that is a very subjective observation. Because even true works of art have flaws in them, and I'm kinda glad you left them in the final product. None of the scenes felt as though they were "rushed".

Thank you for sharing your talent and imagination with the rest of us. It was/is inspiring. And I cannot wait to give Eternum a try, but I am glad I played this one first. Because knowing what you can accomplish with HS, I think I'm going to be blown away with your second attempt. Once again, thank you and well done.

Since I have nothing better to do I decided to say something about this game. I already completed this game ages ago but still it stands as one of the best INCEST game on this site. Story, characters, pacing, progression, all of it are over 9000. If you're having second thoughts about this game, don't , because the feeling when you started playing this game is simply once in a lifetime.

I just found this gem and played it all through in 2 night sessions. Holy moly. I loved the style, the dialogues, the renders and the naughty scenes. Unfortunately there was too much effort into the world building and that main story thingi, that could have been put into more naughty scenes instead but whatever lol.
Great game, great (sexy) chars.
Favorite girl is Carla. Best scenes are with her...
Anyways, it was a great game. Now im trying to try out the name game of the creator, lets go!

It's another one of the most beautiful games on this site.
I think the charm of Once in a Lifetime is not the sex scenes, not the graphic quality, but the story. It's so beautifully written that I was never bored until I finished it. The jokes and references were of the highest quality. The developer is a very talented person. My only problem was that the ending was too fait accompli and ended too quickly. I don't know if it's really me or if the ending was too quick.

Thank you to the developer.

11/10

Just finished the game holy shit man what a plot, the female are cute, the writing is good, the sex is good, animation is good too and iam always entertained with mike and hiromi

crazy good game.

keep up the good work sir

While this doesn't always compare favorably to Eternum, Caribdis's second game (which is the best adult game I've played), it still compares extremely well to almost everything else. The animations can be a bit technically lacking at times, but all the scenes are still great. The story is decent, and at times quite funny, and the girls are interesting. I find it difficult to think that someone could regret playing this game.

I thought I already gave a review, but it seems like I didn't, so let's do it:

This Game is still (after 2 Years) one of my absolute favorites on this site, even nowadays, while searching for other games, I still catch myself comparing games to this one. The humor, the girls (especially the sisters), the story, the world, everything was an experience.

To be honest, I came for a quick wanker, but I stayed and i not only touched my noodle but also my soul.

I know he has a new project and I wish him only the best with it and that he has even more success, but I am a complete degenerate, who only plays games that have incest in it, so I will probably not play it.

But I heard it's good, so check it out guys, NOW