Deleted 8 days ago
What made this game special for me was the humor, plus the story and relationships were really well intertwined! Other AVNs suffer from mainly consisting of "dates" where nothing really remarkable happens. In OIALT you get dates in your story segments and story segments in your dates; not once was I bored. And at the end of it all you feel like you really bonded with the characters that joined you on your journey, and the (best) ending was really sweet. Though I agree with the moral concerns you have, I didn't like that part either.
Eternum might overshadow OIALT, especially once it's finished as well, but to this day I haven't seen a finished AVN better than OIALT. As for graphics and music: Yeah, it's noticable how Caribdis got better and better while he developed the game. The beginning can be indeed quite rough for spoiled AVN consumers ;)
I think you judge by the standards of now against what the world was tech-wise when the game was created. Yeah, the division of character traits is better in Eternum, and there is less squick (even accounting for hosting rules imposed during development) but I find your critique of little merit.
This game is evolutionarily relevant. If you know of a finished game even remotely similar that is even half this good, please share with the class, as all of us would love to play it. If you don't get WHY this game appeals to people (which seems likely, given the wording of the critique) even across non-appearing kinks, then you just don't get it, and never will. And that's fine, but don't undermine the game.
Howdy, Tanxui! I just remembered you from Eternum's comments section. You are the one who helps everyone! First of all, you are awesome for being so helpful and recognizable. I love what you do.
Second of all, to get to why I am actually replying to you:
So, I finally finished the game, and you were completely right. This game absolutely does get better towards the end, and you can really see how Caribdis improves as a game developer throughout the experience. You could say you can see a bit of Eternum shining through in the end.
The story is indeed fun and memorable. Stabby Mike is hilarious, the Sons of Astaroth are scary, and the adventure overall is amazing.
Like I said before, this game is definitely no Eternum, but it is about as close of a second as a close second can get. Once in a Lifetime is incredible, and you were right. Also, if you are wondering why I deleted my original comment, it was because I was embarrassed at it's bad wording, so I deleted it in favor of giving it the remaster treatment.
Before I go here, I am going to follow you. Consider it my way of thanking you for being such an awesome and enthusastic Eternum fan. Have a great day, Tanxui, and thank you for your help! :D
OIALT was Carbdis' first game right? I'd view it as his skills developing over time then, especially if you're comparing it to Eternum. You can even see his skills develop in OIALT. The lighting changes, the scenes get longer and better, environments become more unique, etc, etc. Especially the scenes and lighting.
Eternum was made using everything he's learned from OIALT. And from what little I've played of Eternum so far, he's learned a LOT (Eternum's been pretty good so far, definitely an improvement)