Seeing the rise of western AVNs thanks to platforms like Steam hosting them piqued my curiosity as someone who has been into the Japanese eroge scene since the early '00s. I decided to give them a shot to see if any are worthwhile and quickly realized that there are a million of these "work in progress" one-man project Ren'Py games. You're gonna have to dig through dozens of trite Being a Dik clones before you find any treasure. Luckily, Eternum is one such treasure.

What initially drew me to check it out was the fact that it used models created in Honey Select 2, a game that I have spent countless hours modding and toying with myself. I knew nothing else about it other than that going in. Starting out, I nearly dropped it because it seemed like the same familiar setup. Moving to a new town, rooming with girls, starting your first day of school, etc. The only thing that kept me playing was the models. Once you start learning about the titular Eternum; an MMO that the characters in the game play, however, things start picking up very quickly.

The premise is similar to something like .hack, with the characters hunting for powerful one-of-a-kind relic weapons, engaging with hostile high-level players, and unraveling the corporate conspiracy behind the game itself. Being in a setting like this, where the changing of a game server can send you to an entirely different world or time period allows for an endless amount of creative and entertaining scenarios to play out, and it's taken full advantage of. This is balanced with maintaining your relationships with the characters both in the real world as well as the game. The characters here all have very distinct, memorable personalities that set them apart from one another and make for a great cast. As for the H-scenes, the animation sequences are well done and stack up favorably to other games I've played. If I have one gripe, it's the constant use of asterisk actions in the writing. It's not a huge deal, but it happens enough that it's worth mentioning, and there are better ways to convey information that aren't as annoying.

As of writing this, the game is on release version 0.5. Hopefully, the developer can keep up the pace and stick the landing, because I think they've got something here.

TL;DR: Fun ride. Luna best girl and Annie is cuter than anyone in your favorite moege. Disagree? 1v1 me on Ion.

weirdly the complete antithesis of what mcgee was going for in the sequel,, the sequel is bright and colorful but ultimately dour and overly dark in tone and story. this is one of the most dark looking games ive ever played and the map layouts for each level are so utterly confounding and disorienting, a labyrinthine hell constructed by others specifically for u to suffer during. the first is a game about growth and progression, forgiveness and regret and the pain that comes w both, the sequel is concerned w regression and ig I just don’t vibe w that as much. this belongs more to an era of game design like max payne or rule of rose where ur small and the world is big and there’s plenty of ppl who don’t want you to exist within it. the structure of every world is chaotic and dizzying and scary! I love some of the weirdo imagery the enemies can conjure up like the flying bomb dropping bugs that seem almost military like.

there’s so much being said here even w like v minimal actual words being said,, alice herself conveys sm through grunts and screams it’s actually kind of wild. a simple jump to a ledge sounds blood cur-tingling and filled w anger + desperation. idk to see her suffer so often and in such extreme ways and come out the other side (at least for this game) a better and more whole person is rlly fucking fulfilling and satisfying to experience.

part of me wishes there was a third game and a better ending to both alice the character and the series, but also I realize that this series obv took a lot out of mcgee and was coming from a place that’s maybe better left sitting dormant for his own mental health. he seems kind of happy as a retired old guy living in shanghai that’s left behind a wealth of art that means a lot to a lot of ppl and now just makes emo plushes that while don’t mean rlly anything to me obv mean something to enough ppl. I think that’s nice ^_^

The Oedipus Complex
The Oedipus complex is a theory of Sigmund Freud, and occurs during the Phallic stage of psychosexual development.

It involves a boy, aged between 3 and 6, becoming unconsciously sexually attached to his mother, and hostile towards his father (who he views as a rival).

In the young boy, the Oedipus complex or more correctly, conflict, arises because the boy develops unconscious sexual (pleasurable) desires for his mother.

Envy and Jealous are aimed at the father, the object of the mother's affection and attention. These feelings for the mother and rivalry toward the father lead to fantasies of getting rid of his father and taking his place with the mother.

The hostile feelings towards the father lead to castration anxiety, an irrational fear that the father will castrate (remove his penis) him as punishment.

To cope with this anxiety, the son identifies with the father. This means the son adopts / internalizes the attitudes, characteristics and values that his father holds (e.g. personality, gender role, masculine dad-type behaviors etc.).

The father becomes a role model rather than a rival. Through this identification with the aggressor, boys acquire their superego and the male sex role. The boy substitutes his desire for his mother with the desire for other women.