Once in a Lifetime

This was seriously funny and an incredible amount of fun. Congratulations Caribdis, you are a freakin' genius!

Honestly good game, first time im writing a review too.

Pretty good story for such a game, funny moments that had me actually chuckle a little (love this dumb humor) and Stabby Mike best waifu.

I have a question, because I noticed it. In the game they said after saying I love you, that the moon looks beautiful, is that a Silent Voice reference?

A well made game and story, couldn't be happier with how it was made. Wholeheartedly enjoyed it 

Such a awesome game!! 

The story is magnificent. I truly wished there could be 100 hours of gameplay for it. I was happy to see I got the harem ending. Knowing you can do such a thing where no-one is left behind is very wholesome. A lot of plot-twists and funny moments. This game is truly a masterpiece. I have played Eternum aswell, and I can't wait for that game to be finished. All the best of luck for the future. 

Holy shit, Stabby Mike Best Waifu

thank you for making this game, didn't expect it to be this good

Hey bud 🙋‍♂️,

just wanted to tell you to maybe get this fixed as it confused me big time 😂:

When you click on the Download for "1.0" apk you get a file called "0.10" and in the main menu it also says "0.10" but if you look at the app properties it says "1.0"...

So what is it now?!? 😂

I guess i got the latest version but someone who doesn't know how to look at the app properties might be lost or even decide not to play a unfinished game... (wich would be a shame 😉)

Holy shit dude. This had better content, storytelling, and visuals then any nsfw game should ever have. This is like the golden standard for porn games. I spent way more hours playing this then I should have, and felt genuinely fulfilled by the end. Incredible work. I really hope you still have time to update this game a little more while working on Eternum.

Amazing game bro, great story and sex scenes. Loved it, definitely gonna try out Eternum. Stabby Mike best character btw.

I wish there was an ending sex scene with all the girls in the harem ending. Or something like that. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the game, thx for making it :) 

Hey! What a game! I've already played 4 times by now, and I can agree with Judie; i'll play Eternum after that I have discovered every one of the 27k scenes! ✨

Count on that!

By the way, i can help you translate this to spanish if u want, i'm a latam native speaker; i've tried VNTranslate but i dont like it, and sometimes does not make sense the translation 😂

With that said, see u in Eternum!

Cheers.

I enjoyed playing this visual novel, very much. I'm playing Eternum too and bro, you're killing it! P.S. I request the OST. . .

STORY [9/10]

A mysterious plot that threatens the world as we know it — this premise serves as a compelling framework in which to develop the cast of characters. There's enough meat to the story that it makes for a varied experience throughout — part thriller/horror, at times sinister and gritty, but with plenty of detours for humor, fun and erotic encounters.

CHARACTERS [10/10]

Every protagonist character in this game brings something unique to the experience, and they are all given sufficient backstory and in-game treatment so that nobody feels like a cardboard standup. The key to a rewarding erotica story is to develop reader sympathy for the characters, establish believable motivations, and take us on the journey of their growth, so that their decisions to engage sexually with the main character (or whomever) feel grounded and more satisfying. In this, the author has succeeded spectacularly. In every erotic encounter, I felt vested in the characters and empathy for what led them to that moment. Kudos!

(SEMI-SPOILER: There is one scene early on that almost made me think the game wasn't going to give its characters adequate investment. As I watched it I was thinking, "If this is not a dream sequence, I am so done with this game." Fortunately, it was a dream sequence. Whew!)

The supporting cast brings a lot of fun elements to the story as well. There are some great humorous moments precipitated by many side characters. And look for not-so-subtle shenanigans going on in the background during some of the dialogue. I found some of them hilarious!

GAMEPLAY [5/10]

This game bills itself as a choice-based visual novel, but there are some key deficiencies in the design. The main issue is that the story does not actually have any significant divergent storylines. Consequently, the most keenly felt variations are whether erotic encounters will take place or not — and this undermines the fundamental point of an adult visual novel (AVN), where the reader is engaged specifically for the erotic content. The issue is exacerbated by the fact a decision can end up negating current and all future encounters with a particular character. (The game even has a tracker that depicts this as "Path Lost" for a character. Ouch.) In fact, I discovered the hard way that one can lose the ability to have an erotic encounter with any of the female protagonists, and this is achievable by the time the game is only halfway through (around the time the character returns from Japan). From then on, the game doesn't even feel like an AVN anymore.

Further confounding the experience is the fact that the game also employs a dating sim-style relationship scoring system, which also governs whether many erotic encounters will take place. This system does not jive well with the "path" system described above. It is possible to accumulate relationship points with a character even though their "path" (the possibility of future erotic encounters) has already been lost; and the points don't offer any "redemption" pathways to put the main character back in the good graces of his romantic interests.

Ultimately, then, this game is more of a Kinetic Visual Novel with an illusion of choice — insofar as the only consequences of your choices are the suppression of the erotic scenes that constitute the primary reason for consuming the content. Choice-based mechanisms are only worthwhile if they result in meaningful variations in how the story plays out. For an AVN, choice-and-consequences design must focus on alternative erotic opportunities — if a choice is going to close a door, it should open a window somewhere else. Since this game only takes away erotic opportunities without offering anything in return, there is really only one choice.

Consequently, players are advised to either consult the included walkthrough document (which basically tells you exactly what choices to make to retain access to all of the scenes), or they must keeping using the Back navigation to rollback their choices once they see the impact — if the impact is even immediately evident. Neither option is conducive to an immersive experience, nor do they leave the player feeling comfortable to RP their character in any way.

VISUALS [7/10]

First of all, props to what I assume is a sole author for the incredible number of scenes that this game has. There's a lot of assets that were modeled for this game (hence the 5GB download size!), and the sheer volume is impressive.

That said, overall, the scenery tends to look pretty flat, and evokes a feeling of GTA3-era graphics. I believe lighting is key to giving a scene depth and character, and the use of lighting in the game is pretty simplistic. Water effects are also simplistic and not terribly believable. On a technical level, I expect that the scenery is mostly texture-based with minimal use of shaders, which would explain the very flat feel.

The character models benefit from more attention, which is arguably key in an AVN. Here too, though, some shortcuts have been taken. Hair has been modeled somewhat simplistically, which leads to some jarring artifacts in some poses and camera angles. For the most part, though, the character models work well and provide the requisite pleasing aesthetics.

Animations are mostly well-done, again with some shortcuts taken. This is especially noticeable in water scenes, where increases in the speed of copulation also causes water ripples to move faster, suggesting that a separate animation was not built to maintain consistency in the water's behavior even as the character's movement speed increased. Points of coupling between characters are usually modeled just well enough to get across the point, without devoting a lot of attention to detail in the physics of two surfaces rubbing against each other.

Where the animations might lack some attention to detail, they make up for in sheer energy. As the story progresses, the erotic encounters become increasingly complex and stimulating, and the animation manages to keep pace. In later encounters, more camera angle options are offered; there is  more variation in camera angles between stages; and the character's poses are adjusted between stages in ways that help avoid a repetitive "same motion but faster" vibe.

SOUNDTRACK [7/10]

The game does not have a huge amount in the way of sound assets. What's there is reasonably well done — mostly background sounds for select scenes, a few basic music tracks, and key sound effects such as gunshots or knockouts. Some erotic scenes contain sound effects to depict the sounds of physical contact (or, in one scene, squeaky bed springs). There is NO voice work for this game, and the erotic scenes do not contain even generic sounds of the characters' pleasure. Use your imagination.

INTERFACE [8/10]

The interface is rightfully minimal and mostly consists of click, click, click. My main gripe is that keyboard shortcuts were not spelled out anywhere that I could find, and it took me a while to figure out that I could actually use keyboard keys to advance or back up the story. Everything about the interface is probably standard Ren'py; but as the game engine itself does not self-document its keyboard shortcuts, it would be helpful for the game to offer some documentation, if not fully configurable keyboard shortcuts. (Case in point: "Tab" apparently engages Skip mode, and can be triggered on keyup  when using Alt-Tab to return to the game window. Very annoying if you weren't intending to skip.)

OVERALL [8/10]

This game is definitely worth a playthrough! It has an engaging story, very well developed characters, and rewarding erotic content. Aspects of the game design and visuals are somewhat rough around the edges, and the use of the included walkthrough document is almost mandatory, but much can be forgiven for how satisfying the story is when all of the scenes can be experienced. I look forward to seeing how Caribdis improves upon their interactive storytelling formula in the next project, Eternum!

I don't know how often I played this game from the start to the end the last few days but I think I still have not seen everything yet. The characters are great and especially stabby Mike was good for some laughs. I highly recommend this game.

I created an account just to say how much I enjoyed this game. I went in to see some cute girls but the game's story quickly drew me in to become my favorite nsfw game. The characters are all very charming, with even the side characters managing to be very entertaining. The models and animations of the girls are well done and in general the game feels pretty polished(a quality that is lacking from most nsfw games). There are some pretty hilarious moments in the game combined with well written dialogue and an interesting plot.

Overall, the game manages a nice balance of humor, story, mystery, and sex combined with good pacing that made it hard to stop playing. In the end, I found myself genuinely caring about the characters and the mystery of astaroth. I can't recommend this game highly enough and I'm excited for Eternum

10/10 one of the amazing game I have  played, Where do I find the walkthrough of this game?

I can't seem to follow Jasmine's path

Considering I just started playing these for a bit of titillation, I'm blown away by how invested I've become in the story and characters. Top notch humour too. Absolutely awesome work mate.

I was looking for good games to get me through my depressed ass night, and dear lord this is a masterpiece. Right amount of hurmor, right amount of compassion, perfect amount of horny to keep you at the edge until you pop when you aren't ready. Even the environments put chills down my spine and I'm not one that seeks out horror games.
I found and played this for free. Once I'm done, I'm paying for it anyways.
Love your dedication and your humor.

Never before have I felt such emotion; compassion, and connection to characters, and such desire to know how the story unfolds, purely from the writing of a visual novel, I will follow your work with great interest Caribdis.

This was a joy to play and a true writing masterpiece, congratulations.

Well ... what can I say I just finished this gem ... this masterpiece ... I toast you and your future that is full of successes ... this game has a rating of 200/100 really to those who do not have tried please do it you are missing a beautiful memory ... I really loved this game, every laugh, every sad moment, every fucking jojo reference (sorry so I say to any reference xd) bro ... I love it and I hope to see one new update of Eternum I know it will also be wonderful ...I forgot to say the most important thing *Thank you: D ... and nothing sorry for the google translator xD

This game is beautiful the story is wonderful the girls are beautiful and the devs have made a amazing work on that game I can't wait to see where ETERNUM is going so keep going please 

Hi ! your games seems really cool ! Can I make a few videos of it ? (knowing that I'm making a bit of ads revenues from that by posting on porn website)

This game's narrative is 10 times more coherent than the entire plot of nolan's TENET. Had an absolute blast playing it. Came for the nsfw, stayed for the entire ride. And not to mention, made me a die hard fan of stabby mike, my man's got life figured out better than i ever can. The dev has mad storytelling skills I swear. I always wanted to try game development but always feared that I might not have the adequate resources to tell a good story, but this dev just obliterated all my doubts by telling maybe the most engaging story I read this year by simply weaponizing cross dissolving images. And not to undermine the resourcefulness of the dev, the animations are absolutely god tier and the nested paths of different choices are ingenious to say the least, I can't even imagine how the dev managed to track the code for all the intertwining consequences without going insane. I have ADHD and it's extremely difficult for me to get hooked to a story, let alone finish it, for this game I couldn't even keep the phone down without waiting for it to charge backup just so I could keep playing. Also I was never a fan of harem, i never understood the appeal and it just never made sense to me, but in this game, somehow the dev managed to make it surprisingly organic and nothing ever felt forced, it was a smooth ride to the end, i ended up rooting for the mc and the girls as their relationships progressed, and that takes skills. Hats off to the dev. Every minute of the game played convinced me more that this project was made with a lot of love, care and effort, so if u read this wondering whether to try it, I absolutely recommend giving it a shot. It's sooo worth it. Thanks again dev.

This exceeded nearly every expectation I had for the game. Clever writing, excellent animation. A fun ride all the way through.

This game is an instant 5/5 you won't even regret playing this game when I first played this game I immediately can tell it was good no regrets.

help !, I need to know how to unlock the content of the stepsisters, if it was not so much trouble. please.

This game was the reason I mad this acount. So I could rate and 5/5 and tell you how much I loved every seccond of this adventure.

Hope to see more of these lovely characters in your future projects. Can't wait for Eternum to be finished <3

When I try to download this game it just keeps on loading and doesn't download. Can somebody help? Really want to play this game

I loved the art style in this; beautifully presented. Does anyone know what software the characters were modeled in?

Is there incest in this game? Because i haven't played this game before

This game was great.  I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it, and more than once it had be laughing so much I had to take a moment to catch my breath.  It has a great balance of humor, suspense, romance, and lewd stuff. The only thing I wish it had was a bit more after the end, but that doesn't mean I wasn't happy with the ending I got so it still gets 5 stars from me. While I'm looking forward to trying Eternum (and any other future projects of yours) I would love to be able to return to these characters in some kind of part two... a fan can dream...

Mike would get my vote in 2024.

Normally I am not the kind of person to comment on something but I wanted share that I had a lot of fun doing 2 playthroughs over the last week and it exceeded all my expectations. 10/10 I was really mesmerized.

Are you supposed to accept or refuse the deal with Astaroth???

Bro this is marvelous game ever I love how fatjack and classmate girl are together in the ending love the plot story and sure I love adult scene (laugh) I can't wait for your next project "ETERNUM" Love it <3

hello, the sentence "this is just beginning" at the end of the game have any hidden meaning, and i really like Lauren and Judies, they are so cute, i like them the most in my harem, thanks for the  Create a masterpiece, I will wait for your new games in the future 😚😚😚

Hello! I've come to make a small request. It's actually been some time since i've finished the game and i really liked the whole story involving the grimoire (sorry if i misspelled it). And i wanted to ask if you had a document or something similar where you have the whole story about the past owner of the grimoire, also everything involving the demin inside the book. Pretty much everything involving the book. 

I really loved the whole theme and story involving the grimoire and would like to ask for maybe a copy of the story you have created? 

I would really appreciate it if you could. I don't mind having to play the game again to re-enjoy the whole story (i plan on doing it again either way) but i feel it woud be less time consuming if i could just ask for it. 

Disclaimer: I don't really plan on doing anything else with the story other than reading it, i honestly really enjoyed it and want to read it in a way it feels as if i am reading a horror book (just to keep the horror theme and not get distracted by the lewd theme). Either way Thank You! And great game by the way, i already left a great review on this amazing game. Also, Good Luck on Eternum! 

This game was AMAZING. The plot was breath taking. The cultist theme, the wild adventures and character development, absolutely surreal. played it to every ending. This is the definition of what a visual novel is supposed to be. I can't WAIT for the finished version of "Eternum" but I would also LOVE a sequel to this.

By far the best game I have played on this site.  Amazing story, amazing scenes, and the BEST girls. 10/10!

This game far exceeded my expectations. Left my 5/5 rating already. Great job Caribdis!!! <3

Can you control where you want to go in the game? Like if it's a sandbox type of game