Best FUCKING high quality game i ever seen!
Ripples is Just as good TBH and beats Eternum in the music department. New Horizons, Sicae, and Companions of Darkness have way better action. Harem Hotel's world building is just as good but has way more adult themes and topics than the name of the game suggests and is far more mature than Eternum.
I'll agree ripples is top tier, love the homage to Dark one of the best shows of all time. It has story, character, worldbuilding, mystery down. Idk, music in Eternum is solid as hell, with Luna and dalia. Harem hotel has great story and cast sure, and the largest amount of scenes. CoD is awesome but nowhere near as polished as Eternum and 40% of the writing really needs proofreading. I love the action too, the fight scenes in the later updates are incredibly well done. But the models and scenes aren't the best until very recently, though it's still in the top 5 for sure.
Sicae and MBIML are up there with the best, absolutely, but can get a bit self indulgent and derailed with rambling sometimes, especially the recent mbiml, but it does excel at times with some serious weight and intensity you don't see with a lot of the stories written by people without life experiences..
But it's not glazing to give Eternum fair dues. Its the S tier gold standard for a reason, writing, mystery, story, characters, hot scenes, gorgeous design, no notes. The writing is natural and not awkward, it doesnt rely on the tired cliches of just having a big shwanz and everyone's an awkward virgin.
Pale carnations is good but not everyone's cup of tea.
Wildcats, Cosy Cafe may not be the flashiest but has some of the best writing and earned its spot, house in the rift, the one in the cabin with the mist, the epic kung fun magic one, all great.
(I think realm invader is a rambling mess with almost zero scenes and is clunky as hell, it usually gets brought up)
Projekt passion is also one of my favorites, and is great in all categories.
But there's nothing wrong with everyone always pointing to Eternum, the scene with Alex in the shower is one of the best in the genre, and everyone is so well fleshed out, plus the story is as compelling as a novel, it and his earlier game got most people into the genre, so many people would love it even if it was just the story.
It's the F1 car to compare every other to, it's The Thing to compare horror movies to, no need to act like it's hyperbole it's been the top of F95 for years
It's honestly shocking to not see Desert Stalker, Oppai Odyssey or Artemis in the conversation. Those are also S tiers I'd put up there with Eternum in every conversation, albeit how they're ordered would be down to preference. For example Oppai Odyssey is undeniably a stellar game all around, but it does remove player agency for the sake of the story. While this would lower it's appeal or some people, I'd say it's undoubtably a very clear cut above 90% of AVN's out there due to every other factor. I've also never put tremendous weight on music, although I understand it's appeal. It's all subjective after all.
There's also games like Unraveling August, STWA Unbroken, The Missing Part and very recently Artifice; among others, that I think are and will continue to be incredible games as long as they maintain their consistency and actually get updates.
I've dropped Sicae, MBIML and New Horizons previously due to their writing, but I find myself coming to try again since I'm struggling to find new gems. From what I understand, there's a good story here, but something about the writing and dynamics makes it hard to get through for me. Can't say the same for any of the aforementioned projects.