Check the "Skip unseen text" box in the options and then you can just fast-skip through the whole thing with tab, just gotta remember to turn it off once you reach the end of v0.7.
I've had quite a resurgence when it comes to AVNs this year, as before this spring I hadn't really found any new ones that I liked since September 2021 when v0.1 of of Eternum was released. I just kinda stopped looking. But this year, I got back into it and found a couple that even challenged for my top 10.
But to likely end the year with the best one... Well, let's just say I didn't expect much based on the intro! But I went from "I was wrong, this is actually pretty good" to eventually realizing that this game doesn't just challenge for top 10, it challenges for top 3!
These kinds of AVNs are always hit or miss as they can sometimes focus too much on the corruption/domination aspect and forget to flesh out the characters and their dynamic as a result, but this one definitely managed to strike a good balance. Some character models look a bit weird (Esme in particular) but most of them are fine or great. And I suspect that many characters who have barely featured - such as the principal's daughter - will be more fleshed out in future updates.
Like many AVNs, the beginning was a bit slow as the characters and setting are established, but once the story kicks in, it's really well-paced. The only noticeable flaw towards the end is the excessive amount of LIs, same issue that plagues Ripples a bit as it makes it very hard for the narrative to give all of them enough focus and development.
Also, Clarissa 100 % best girl, and I loved the cameos from other games, particularly both of the Lucys!
As someone who has played quite a lot of AVNs, I'm genuinely surprised I've never heard about this one before because it quickly got into my top 10 list, which was particularly surprising considering it doesn't have any choices or other kinds of interactive aspects. While I usually prefer a bit more variety than just maledom, it does a very good job establishing a relatively healthy dynamic in that regard, with a few exceptions but they're so minor that they don't really matter. So it's not really a criticism by any means as that would be like criticising a horror movie for not being funny.
That being said, how much new content is usually added in every update? Because if it's just an hour or so I might wait until a couple more have been released as I prefer waiting longer for more content at once. But if it's 3+ hours it's definitely worth getting every new update.
3 out of 5 is still what I consider a good game. It's mainly a slow beginning that brings it down tbh, but it's far from the only AVN to suffer from that, and the fact that it's only v0.2 naturally means that many characters and storylines haven't gotten enough focus yet to bring the score up.
Most AVNs wouldn't have gotten higher than 3/5 until v0.4 or v0.5.
I will admit, initially I didn't expect much out of it as it seemed like a standard "MC was in an accident and has to rediscover his life" scenario that we've seen many times before. So I was happy when it became clear that it was not, and the story really picked up once it gets to the first school day. I'm now quite intrigued by the story - complete with personal theories and predictions - and the characters, and it seems like it's only going to keep getting better.
When I tried to replay v0.17 in anticipation for this update, the game for some reason hardlocked me out of Ashley's story at level 14 or somewhere around that. The event was stated as available in the menu but it wouldn't trigger regardless of what I did, and there were no "I should do X"-prompts as there usually is if you need to do something else, which I had never had an issue with before. I don't know if that was just a random bug, and if so, has it been fixed in v0.18? I mean, there's no point in getting the new update if I can't progress to the new content anyway.
MC taking his pants off in this beautiful, wholesome completely family-friendly game?? How dare you insinuate something like that... Next you'll be telling me there should be pre-marital hand-holding in this game!!
There are many different ways you could lose a path, but they normally come down to just one specific decision you made. Even if you want a blind gameplay without using the walkthrough, it should be pretty easy to figure out by just rewinding until you find the moment you lost it. And obviously, save-scumming helps too.
I agree, it's probably my only criticism of this game. Some of the MC's actions definitely fall into morally ambiguous at best and outright refusing to take no for an answer at worst. I have to fast-click through those scenes since the game is otherwise amazing.
I'm really sorry to hear that. Cancer is the devil, I've lost a few in my family to it as well. Don't rush anything just because you think you're expected to, take the time you need to recover, for both yourself and everyone else around you!
I replayed the game just yesterday in preparation for this, and I was literally thinking at the end "Huh, it has been a while since we've seen Chop-Chop, hasn't it"! XD
Hey, I love your games! Both "Once in a Lifetime" and this one. Excellent humor, intriguing story and loveable characters.
I only have one question: Is the walkthrough for the harem ending? I have a blind save that I continue in each update but in case I want a specific outcome.
Objectives definitely sound like a good plan. Since there is so much to do in the game, so many main and side characters to focus on and so many outside activities, it can often be difficult to balance them all. I often find myself realizing, "Hey, I haven't actually done anything with X in over 2 weeks" but then I'm already planning to do Y. Having something like this would make it easier to keep track of what would currently be the best choice.
Damn, I played this game in its very first release, found it to be pretty promising and then completely forgot about it.
Well, now after remembering it again... if you managing to make me laugh in just the intro is a sign of anything, I think I have a gem on me right now...!
AAAHH, the struggles of wanting to play every single update blind but also not wanting to damage all the progress I've managed to make by using the walkthrough... Why you gotta torture me like this?? (Seriously, tho, I love it)
Since there are a few references to football in OIALT, I'm definitely hoping for some lighthearted banter between the MC and the other characters in this game about soccer vs. American football...! (Preferably with some nods to Arsenal because we could use something right now...)
See, one of the struggles of being a regular college student with no money whatsoever is the wish to support my favorite creators combined with the knowledge that whenever I DO get a stable income I'll have to make many difficult choices regarding WHO I'm going to start spending money on first, especially considering the list just keeps on growing. However, one thing I can 100 % be sure of is that you are certainly going to be the first on my mind!
After playing OIALT, I was already excited for this game. Yet, with only v0.1 and even more so with v0.2, you managed to take those expectations and not only deliver on them but make them look like a parking lot from the perspective of an airplane!
I may not be completely finished with the current content in the game yet, but I want to say a couple of thing before I get too sleep deprived to form coherent sentences. First of all, I've never actually managed to get a VN game after just its first version had been released, but obviously playing your first game made it an obvious thing to do. Therefore, I didn't really know what to expect from just v.01 and I do have to say that I didn't expect the current amount of content to be as large as it actually was. You must've been working your freaking ass off on this!
Secondly, just like your first game, the thing that sticks out the most is the humor. I may not be neither American nor British, but after analyzing different kinds of comedy, I would go ahead and say that the comedy style in both games are very typically British, and I honestly think that's been an advantage. It gives the humor an unusual "color", so to speak, without ever feeling like the originality is forced. And yes, I will still spell it like color, fight me!
And last but not least... Annie is freaking adorable!
Actually, that was a lie... That wasn't the "last" thing...
I absolutely love the gentle horror aspect you gave to both this game and Once in a Lifetime. As someone who loves horror games, I can say with brutal honesty that the night-sequence (that's the spoiler-free way of describing it) gave me more chills than most horror games do. Good job!
The romcom that the MC watches with Maria, Ashley and Hana was actually "supposed" to be a commentary about the cultural treatment of elves but the writers/directors were forced to take the political commentary out of the script by the executives in order to avoid public outrage.
After all, it's a pretty known idea that (in general) artists and entertainers as a whole tend to often be much more progressive than their time. Like gay people in media during the 80s and 90s. Sure, the portrayal of gay people back then may be offensive and stereotypical from our modern perspective but just the fact that most writers and authors included them at all and didn't portray their sexuality as inherently bad was still a very positive thing at the time.
I think the same applies to this world... The authors, writers, comedians and artists are the ones who will be the MOST likely to support Elvish liberation!
I absolutely agree. If it wasn't for the fact that the story is heavy at times, I don't think many of us would spend the double-digits amount of hours that this game takes. It's what keeps it engaging. So it wasn't a criticism by any means, just pointing out that after the emotional roller coaster this game has been recently, it was nice to have something a bit more toned down.
And as for how you did with the romantic aspect of the scene, it was great. It's so easy for writers to take "romance" too far and there's always a risk that it becomes cheesy in that case. You managed to avoid that. The romance was clearly there but still subtle.
The last few updates have all been very heavy emotionally, so Lin's new content in v0.13 really pleased me for that reason. I love when games are able to get me so emotionally invested as this one does, but it was nice to get a bit of a bit of a break from the more hard-hitting content and just casually spend some time with my girl.
This is definitely the best erotic game I've played, but I'd argue that both Lucky Paradox and Once in a Lifetime come closer to rivaling it than Being a DIK. I love all of them, though.
Just randomly scrolling through the comments and finding out that the release of the next update is only a few days away... Well, I think I just got the best birthday present possible!
I also struggled a lot, I was never able to figure out how to pick the right answer when catfishing as the psychologist. At one point I was even sure I tried every single possible way to do it but still ended up failing, and it wasn't until I checked the walkthrough that I was able to. It's a very tricky path to follow it seems.
