Post by LainTheMain in Eternum comments

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Definitely better than OiaL. The MC of that game often came across as manipulative and sleazy, but the MC in Eternum comes across as a better person. It's for that reason I decided to have him pursue a monagamous path and deliberately avoid as much fanservice or alternate paths as I possibly could. It worked surprisingly well, and it didn't require the MC to be rude or even unkind.

Making the game an ensemble cast working together, with everyone having different strengths, and all being relevant at various times also helps, since people still get some stuff to do even when locked out.

... Although perhaps the feeling that you can play a "nice guy" is just because I chose to be exclusive with Annie, which lends itself better to that playstyle.

Given her frustrating with feeling useless and her wish to seen as being useful by the MC, I think it would be nice if eventually she has to overcome her fear of scary things and gets to save the MC.

Angel33 days ago

I will preface this with saying I am waiting to play Eternum. I would hope this is better than Once in a Lifetime. As is, you could see the improvements throughout it, and this is meant to be bigger than it lol. So it's great to hear that Caribdis is still improving on an already great foundation :D

Voldesaur32 days ago

Oh it's so much better than his first definitely give it a go I'll just say this be prepared for a cliffhanger

Angel32 days ago

that is exactly why I am choosing to wait lmao. I just tried this one called Realm Invader that only has 2 "episodes" currently. A lot of comments were positive, and saw one compare it to Caribdis, so I gave it a go. I want more xD. And I know if I just jump into Eternum now ima be big sadge when I hit the end of the current content instead of the whole story like I did with OiaL. I know it's *roughly* 80% ish done. So I can wait a bit longer, play the whole thing, then drop money on Caribdis again like I did with the prior game lol. Really glad to hear he's improved so much, makes me look forward to it :D

Dorfnutter31 days ago

No it isn't 80% done. It's going to go beyond 10 updates, with the latest estimate around 12-14 updates total by the end. So we're still about 50-60% done with the main story if the estimates hold up.

Source: https://itch.io/post/9573790

Angel31 days ago

I say 80% ish because it's at 0.8 atm. Once it hits 1.0 is usually when story is classed as "finished" then any updates or add-ons after that are like 1.1 1.2 etc

Voldesaur31 days ago

It will definitely go past 1.0 there's too much that can happen still 😉 and realm invaders is awesome! Almost all the good ones have a bit to go story wise.

Angel31 days ago

I can dig a good story. Having a reason to like characters, or even dislike characters, can really change the whole feel of various scenes and events. These few that not only do very well with the writing but also the looks and animations? Absolute gems, the lot of them.

Dorfnutter31 days ago

That's...that's not how Cari plans to do it though. He mentioned on Discord that the next version after 0.9 is 0.10., and the naming will likely continue to 0.11 and so forth until he finishes the story. Only then will it get marked as 1.0.

Angel31 days ago

since it's been a minute, I launched OiaL again to double check. It's version 0.10 lol. So ya, he will probably continue adding it up as 0.10 and above. Go figure.

LainTheMain32 days ago (1 edit)

That said, I did notice a couple instances where the game did assume I was playing the field.

- Before the first visit to the "New World" server, Nancy called the MC a playboy, jumping from one date to another, even though I had only actually been on one date. That was the one with Annie in Eternum, and that was supposed to have been a secret. Literally everyone else had been greyed out a couple chapters ago or even earlier.

- Just before going to get pizza, the MC says that getting the pizza to surprise Nancy makes him a "hopeless romantic", which felt odd since her path had been grey since turning down going to yoga with her.

- Similarly in the last scene of Ch. 7, a certain character accuses the MC of being "intoxicated with women." That might be a little fair, but still, everyone else had been greyed out without any reaching any encounter, so it didn't quite make full sense. Being exclusive with one doesn't match the description of "intoxicated."

quikbrnfox32 days ago

Seems to me that the game being set up to accommodate that play style and still preserve the plot is beyond what one should expect. Sounds like going to a rib shack, ordering just a salad, then being put-off that there are no maple syrup or coconut milk based dressings available.

Maybe like with taking over empires, one of Nancy's skills is knowing when everyone else is having encounters. I've never tried to play past Maat without one; I may go see how that works out. Or maybe 'date' is just spending time individually with all the different women, which MC has to do. "Hopeless romantic" is accurate no matter what other explanations apply, as MC's in-game reasons for choosing Annie only are limited to what we see in the text, not to your particular reasons for following that path, which couldn't possibly be reflected in the text.

LainTheMain32 days ago

I was merely making observations. Not all feedback is going to match the creator's intentions, but it's up to them to decide which feedback to consider and which to ignore. Yes, it may be the case that picking one person's story to the exclusion of others is not the intended route. However, cutting off potential routes is built into the game. If cutting off routes wasn't intended, you wouldn't be able to. Besides, playing in a way which is possible-but-not-intended is a good idea, it helps check for bugs and such.

quikbrnfox32 days ago

I fully agree on choice. However, the nature of this game is not monogamous, and the various characters hint strongly at the planned combinations, even if MC is off-screen.

It is even set up so that not pursuing them, in most cases, makes their virtual existence worse, so intentionally cutting off routes in this game is abandoning them.

Short answer: the dev made it so people could play monogamy, but doing so is like buying Turbotax Premium and filing a sing 1040EZ.