<report>Pretty good for what it is. If you're coming into this looking for a fully-fledged mystery/harem visual novel with several choices and very different routes and endings, you'll be deeply disappointed.

If you're looking for something with a bit of comedy relief and absurdity, some mystery plot and some sex scenes, then this is more than good enough.

While the main characters tend to not have any significant development, the side characters (both side girls and otherwise) have enough changes in their story to make up for it. The VN doesn't take itself too seriously, which keeps it light in tone even in dramatic reveals. It's not hard to stay in the harem path, nor is it hard to deviate for it, making it easy to get scenes for whoever you're interested in.

A good, light read.

<report>Probably my favorite VN. Great humor, engaging story, fantastic visuals (if you like HS). But its greatest strength are its lovable and endearing heroines. The beautiful character design and their expressive faces are just without equal, and Caribdis manages to make the relationships feel so deep and intimate despite the game's light-hearted nature. Usually after I play a VN, I have one or two favorites, but in this game five of them just stole my heart.

<report>You'll probably be impressed if you are new to visual novels and/or only play them for porn. If not, then it's still worth your time if you want to read a harem story with nice comedy and some horror elements. Heroines are kind of shallow, but a couple of side characters and their "changes" are entertaining. The main plot is nothing groundbreaking, though there are a couple of plot twists. The ending is meh, and your choices don't really matter that much, I'd advise you to just download walkthrough mode as there are no heroine routes (as far as I know) and the endings are just a bunch of the same CGs with the harem ending being obviously the canon one. The ending itself and the "final battle" are lackluster and rushed. Half of the sex scenes are threesomes (FFM), btw, which I liked.

<report>Pretty good. 3D models looked anime-ish, but the overall the graphics was decent. The story can get from serious to a comedic tone in a flash. However, I enjoyed the funny moments and the pop culture references done in the game. The cult core story is actually pretty interesting but it can get too ridiculous at times with the comedic moments lol. Besides the main girls from the family, there are other side girls. Should include harem tag.

<report>Some people already wrote reviews about this game, I'm not gonna add much more than what they said. There are two main topics I appreciated about this game: the quotes to other works and the animations for sex scenes. The story is a bit of cliché, the protagonist has a huge d**k, which I don't understand in many VN why they have to put a baseball bat for the sex organ, and some characters are not very well developed except for the sisters, they are lovely. All in all is a good story that will amuse you between one moment and another of its plot with the quotes I mentioned above.

<report>Worth reading. A clean and simple narrative that goes in somewhat unexpected directions, with a relatively straight-forward mystery plot. Frequent comedy moments, and some of them are actually funny. Entertaining, arousing and well done. Gets better as you progress.

Don't expect something too serious or overly complicated and you should have a good time.

<report>I couldn't get on this at all, heard many people praising this but this is a no for me.
First is how easy is to miss girls paths in this game, i was playing without a worry and then i noticed i lost the paths from many girls and not a little long after that i reached a point where i lost every girls paths like how? I thought everything was going fine and they didn't changed the way they talked with the portagonist in or not following the girls path.
Second is the puzzle sections, they're horrible, you need to put the correct combinations of places to go in an especific untold order so you end up just bashing your head on the wall until you complete it so you can continue with the game.
Third the comedy, this is subjective but i also didn't found this to be funny like so many people said

<report>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... Read more »

<report>TLDR:
comedy in this one is amazing
american way of thinking(not even close to japanese)
very well written and logical choices
models are pretty hot
good interface, no bugs, works well
good enough animation,background,BGM("silence/ambient noise" most of time)

=====

This game is amazing, truly a masterpiece for me.
the focus is really in the comedy, it's really hard not to laugh at some scenes
(usually i don't like american movies or series, but this one really made me ROFL XD)

the plot is simple, conspiracy topics, like a random afternoon movie on the TV
all the choices makes sense it's not really random (like clannad)

there's not endings basically, if you make the "right choices" you... Read more »

<report>I was surprised at just how deep of a visual novel that Once in a Lifetime was. There is a multitude of characters you meet and about a half dozen endings. You make plenty of choices to branch the story along the way. I was also surprised at just how funny the game can be. The characters of Fit Jack; Stabby Mike and Hiromi had me laughing constantly whenever they were in the scene. The story felt a bit “out there” and maybe too implausible at times but to be honest I really didn’t care because I was enjoying it too much. There are some faux endings that are game over ones but there were enough legitimate branches to take that I forgave that. There were some fight scenes that felt a bit... Read more »

<report>I'm not generally a fan of western-made VNs, particularly amateur productions. The vast majority are either abandoned projects, severely lacking in quality, or projects in development that are so bloated that it will take the authors the better part of a decade to finish.

Thankfully, that's not the case with this one. Once in a Lifetime is a rare gem. This is the author's first venture into VNs, and it's fascinating to see the quality improve as you go. It starts out decent and gets to be damn good toward the end.

Pros:

- The writing. Excellent. The author has a knack for seamlessly switching gears between comedy and drama, slice of life and horror. The comedy in particular had me... Read more »