Review of Once in a Lifetime
| Subject | Once in a Lifetime |
| By | Helpfulness: 0 Vote: 9plisken on 2022-05-18 |
| Review | 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 busting out laughing several times. The story has been done before (evil cult hell-bent on ruling the world), but it's told well. - The characters. Each character is unique, with their own distinct personalities, quirks, etc. They thankfully never fall into the trap of the "author's voice". Well-written, endearing and lovable cast. (Stabby Mike deserves particular praise. Honestly one of the most hilarious characters I've seen in a VN) - The sex. Steamy, racy sex scenes, most of them animated. You can tell that the creator initially had some trouble determining the proper length of H-scenes, as the early ones are too short and end abruptly. This is fixed later on, with later scenes having multiple angles that you can flip through, fully animated, multiple positions, speed increase, etc. And they're plentiful, in case you're coming for the porn. Quite a lot there. Cons: - The music. The tracks are okay, with a few standouts toward the end. The biggest problem is that there isn't enough of it. Loooooong stretches of utter silence when simple BGM would have done wonders. This is fixed in the sequel (more on that later). - The artwork and visuals. Qualifier on this: it starts out ... okay. The biggest problem are the facial expressions in the very early game. Some of them, especially the toothy smiles, look unsettling. Fixed in the later game. Another obvious and glaring issue is the flat lighting in the early chapters. Makes everything look very artificial. Once again, fixed in the later game. Use of shadows and lighting do wonders for visual presentation. The creator's skill improved by leaps and bounds overall. All in all, this is a very good visual novel and well worth the read. It should also be noted that this is the first in a series. The followup is called Eternum, and is still in production. Taking place in the same universe, several years have passed and the world is utterly consumed by a VR game called Eternum. The story plays out almost as a carbon copy of Ready Player One ... at first. Then it becomes something much, MUCH more. The production quality is nothing short of AMAZING. The creator's skill has improved to the point of professional level. Fully animated scenes (not just H-scenes), vastly improved artwork, killer soundtrack, amazing story ... it's easily the best western made VN I've ever seen. Only downside is that it's not finished. About 30% is complete so far. Hell of a lot of content in that 30%, however. The final product is going to be massive. I'll end it here because I don't want this to become a dual review. Suffice to say that you should start with OiaL, and carry on to Eternum. Great stuff all around. |
| 0 points |