(The moment I'm writing this down, I've already played Eternum [0.5] two times. I know [0.6] is coming soon, and I'm really excited for this!)
(Sorry if this is verbiage, but these are my genuine thoughts!)
Dear Caribdis:
I am a Chinese player of your game, studying in a college in the U.S.. I've played Once In A Lifetime a few months ago, and I really LOVEed the story, character developments, horrors, humors, and I specifically appaluded the music choice. For instance, the bathpool scene in Japan: the male protagonist was sitting in the pool "hopelessly" with some other middle-aged men, and Fei-Yu-Qsing's "Yi Jian Mei" played at that moment! THAT WAS REALLY ON POINT LOOOOOOL! You have no idea how people in China loved your game.
Back then I said I'd check out Eternum once I'm done with the spring semester. And here I am. There are so many things to leave some positive comments on this game!
1) Worldview and Settings
NOBODY would have thought to combine VR and adult novel together, and you were the genius that did. I'm like "AM I still playing a AVN? This is so avant-garde!" The setup for the male protagnoist (Orion)'s exposure to "Eternum" was a little bit slow, but once he started playing Eternum with Annie, I was amazed. The transition during logging-in is so COOL! Praetorians, Weapons of Atlas, the obscure difference between Eternum and the Reality, virtual servers with different genres, etc.., were so captivating to watch. But in the meantime, I also liked your subtle reminder of "playing fire with VR might cause bad consequences", which is reflected through the main plot ( No spoilers lol).
2) Characters, Music Choice and Stories
Similar style, similar tastes to Once In A Lifetime, but with better stories, graphics, modelings, and animations! They for sure look better than girls in OIALF. Although some parts of the interactions between Orion and the girls are a little bit rushed, such as persuading Penelope to play Eternum, the story and the girls in general are fantastic! They resonate with us in many different ways. I know many people's favorites (perhaps worships lol ) are either Nova, Alex, or Luna. Don't get me wrong, I love them, I really do. But my personal favorite is actually Dalia since her experience resonates with mine the most. Not to mention she can F*king deep-squat 350 lbs with that slim body of hers!
I also love how the accurate choice of music gets us in the mood for a particular scene, and that's too much to compliment. How on earth did you discover so many unpopular but GOLDEN songs? You and your team are really amazing! I even listen to many of them while working-out or going to work. These music make me engage with the story even more!
Lastly, the stories. I could say this is the Better Call Saul of AVNs. The story just flow naturally from one to another and somehow, I cared about the stories more than the 18+ scenes themselves: those nude scenes are jut the natural outcome of the story progression. Not to mention there are other good details involved in attracting the audiences eyes, like fine-tuned humors and horrors, camera movements, dialogues, etc.. I still remember the camera transition during Penelope's photoshoot, where we looked at Penelope from the camera, and it zoomed out so we saw the Penelope in the picture, with Penelope looking at that picture from the side (Those who have played probably understand better of what I'm describing). That was so cool!
I'm looking forward to see how the story progresses! That cliffhanger at 0.5 is very intriguing.
3) Lastly, just some suggestions for something I feel that could've been better.
- Maybe this contains my personal biased opinion, but I genuinely feel that Orion's relationship with Penelope is a bit weird, like too fast. IMHO, in the college party in 0.5, their sex was driven more by lust and teasing, rather than genuine appreciations of each other ( I mean they like each other but it is just not as convincing as in the case for other six girls). I understand that Penelope may be a complex character that could be explored more. Anyways, I hope to see more of Penelope's character (0.6 maybe?)!
- And that's it! Nothing more biggie! Also, is it possible for you to add constellations for each girls as a fun fact? If not that's okay haha.
I am really loving this game and it heals some of my wounds occured during my past relationship. Thank you so much Caribdis and keep up the awesome work!
Yours sincerely
Pigrider