The Longest Journey is an amazing graphical adventure, where the player controls the protagonist, April Ryan, on her journey between parallel universes. Embark on an exciting and original journey of discovery, where you will explore, solve puzzles, meet new people, face terrifying monsters, learn, grow, and live the adventure of a lifetime!
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There is this... not a genre, nor a trope, but a feel perhaps, that I like to call the Grand Adventure. The Grand Adventure is your classic story of a young, plucky no-one important soon finding themselves in the middle of something larger than life, discovering the whole vast world beyond their imagination and setting on a quest that takes them from one end of the realm to the other, in the process becoming Someone. It's a classic hero's journey tale that most stories in the world tell in their own words, but the difference between them and a Grand Adventure lies in a certain kind of je ne sais quoi atmosphere of it all. I, primarily, associate this with the fantasy genre: Lord of the Rings is an obvious pick here, but my favourite example of that feel being nailed perfectly is Final Fantasy 9. That, and The Longest Journey.
The tale of the young art student April Ryan discovering that not only beyond her ca. year 2200 Earth lies the fantasy realm of Arcadia, that these two worlds used to be the one and the same before being split in half and that she has a prophesied role to play in ensuring the balance between the two remains in place while a secretive organisation moves to tilt the game in their favour, is a wonderfully well crafted Grand Adventure. April's haphazard search for understanding what's behind all the weird things happening around her lately soon opens up to an epic tale that takes her through space stations and enchanted castles, underwater cities and cyberpunk hellscapes, and the more you play it the more grippingly fascinating it becomes. Both Stark (our world) and Arcadia are beautifully and richly designed and the major characters in them are excellently written and acted - April being the prime example as her demeanour and personality change over the chapters due to everything she's seen and heard, and of course her talking bird friend Crow who deserves a place in the pantheon of great sidekicks. Tørnquist's writing and world building knows when to have a lighter touch and when things need to focus on the serious and the balance is executed so well that whatever tone the game takes, it feels like the right one.
The greatest thing is, coming back to this after a long time away, it's still really strong. The last time I replayed The Longest Journey was back when I was still installing it from CD-ROMs (it was a four disc game!), this time opting for a simple GOG download instead as - coincidentally - the game was on sale the very time I started thinking about replaying this again. So it's been a while and in the ages between I had either forgotten more than I thought I had, or I simply didn't get all the nuances when I was younger - but whatever the case, I promptly fell in love with the game all over again and it flooded back to me why it became so special. You begin to care about the worlds and the characters so much that you just want to spend more time in it, and though not everything has perhaps aged perfectly (the game lightly tackles sexism on account of April's gender in a very masculine world, but it's handled with all the nuance of an adult male videogame writer imagining how a witty young female videogame protagonist would respond to things) the strengths more than make up for it. I loved once again exploring Arcadia in particular and there's tangible passion in how its different cultures, traditions and extended histories are portrayed.
I had also forgotten what a real, brilliant gut punch the ending is. Right in the last steps of April's journey, the rug is pulled underneath her feet as it becomes clear she never was the prophesied Chosen One - she was simply destiny's tool to help the actual Chosen One take their place in the great cycle. It's handled brilliantly, particularly in April's palpable mixed emotions of effectively having her fate rerouted almost as soon as she had finally accepted her place in the world. It's more common these days to see Chosen One stories get deconstructed or actively questioned within their narratives, but The Longest Journey did this a long before it became almost expected - and it still does it better than many of the stories that have come since, simply because of how closely the game has managed to get the player to believe in it too. It makes for a really beautifully bittersweet ending - which is then turned into a fuzzily heartwarming one thanks to the olive branch of an epilogue.
Outside its narrative and design, The Longest Journey is a click n point adventure game and it's mostly a really well done one. It suffers from a few obtuse puzzles, most infamously the inflatable duck puzzle which has a reputation in the click n point communities, and there's a few puzzles where a relatively simple task is made a lot trickier to comprehend thanks to how they're presented - but generally speaking there's logic to what the game tries to coax the player to go through and there's some impressive Checkov's Gunning going around in both the world and the items the player carries (some which can take up space in the player's endless inventory for several chapters) which feel particularly satisfying to solve. The biggest grumbles primarily come from where it's clear the original vision had to be streamlined in order to ship the game in time: the much foreshadowed underwater city is restricted to a single room and a few exterior locations despite the vast towers in the horizon and it feels genuinely awkward how April cracks the long-forgotten secret history of the race by simply removing some seaweed from a cavern couple of minutes away from the said city, and after spending so much time getting two of the macguffins she needs, the game literally hands her the remaining two in the space of ten minutes. It takes away from the epic sense of adventure that the game is otherwise so good at delivering.
But those are almost minor things, and the only real bother I had during my playthrough was the weird glitch where the game wouldn't always recognise my mouse clicks when trying to use the interaction menu (my poor mouse L1 button must feel hammered). Spending a few days again with this game otherwise felt like seeing an old friend for the first time in years, still instantly familiar yet a little changed. I was in love with this world again. A
The tale of the young art student April Ryan discovering that not only beyond her ca. year 2200 Earth lies the fantasy realm of Arcadia, that these two worlds used to be the one and the same before being split in half and that she has a prophesied role to play in ensuring the balance between the two remains in place while a secretive organisation moves to tilt the game in their favour, is a wonderfully well crafted Grand Adventure. April's haphazard search for understanding what's behind all the weird things happening around her lately soon opens up to an epic tale that takes her through space stations and enchanted castles, underwater cities and cyberpunk hellscapes, and the more you play it the more grippingly fascinating it becomes. Both Stark (our world) and Arcadia are beautifully and richly designed and the major characters in them are excellently written and acted - April being the prime example as her demeanour and personality change over the chapters due to everything she's seen and heard, and of course her talking bird friend Crow who deserves a place in the pantheon of great sidekicks. Tørnquist's writing and world building knows when to have a lighter touch and when things need to focus on the serious and the balance is executed so well that whatever tone the game takes, it feels like the right one.
The greatest thing is, coming back to this after a long time away, it's still really strong. The last time I replayed The Longest Journey was back when I was still installing it from CD-ROMs (it was a four disc game!), this time opting for a simple GOG download instead as - coincidentally - the game was on sale the very time I started thinking about replaying this again. So it's been a while and in the ages between I had either forgotten more than I thought I had, or I simply didn't get all the nuances when I was younger - but whatever the case, I promptly fell in love with the game all over again and it flooded back to me why it became so special. You begin to care about the worlds and the characters so much that you just want to spend more time in it, and though not everything has perhaps aged perfectly (the game lightly tackles sexism on account of April's gender in a very masculine world, but it's handled with all the nuance of an adult male videogame writer imagining how a witty young female videogame protagonist would respond to things) the strengths more than make up for it. I loved once again exploring Arcadia in particular and there's tangible passion in how its different cultures, traditions and extended histories are portrayed.
I had also forgotten what a real, brilliant gut punch the ending is. Right in the last steps of April's journey, the rug is pulled underneath her feet as it becomes clear she never was the prophesied Chosen One - she was simply destiny's tool to help the actual Chosen One take their place in the great cycle. It's handled brilliantly, particularly in April's palpable mixed emotions of effectively having her fate rerouted almost as soon as she had finally accepted her place in the world. It's more common these days to see Chosen One stories get deconstructed or actively questioned within their narratives, but The Longest Journey did this a long before it became almost expected - and it still does it better than many of the stories that have come since, simply because of how closely the game has managed to get the player to believe in it too. It makes for a really beautifully bittersweet ending - which is then turned into a fuzzily heartwarming one thanks to the olive branch of an epilogue.
Outside its narrative and design, The Longest Journey is a click n point adventure game and it's mostly a really well done one. It suffers from a few obtuse puzzles, most infamously the inflatable duck puzzle which has a reputation in the click n point communities, and there's a few puzzles where a relatively simple task is made a lot trickier to comprehend thanks to how they're presented - but generally speaking there's logic to what the game tries to coax the player to go through and there's some impressive Checkov's Gunning going around in both the world and the items the player carries (some which can take up space in the player's endless inventory for several chapters) which feel particularly satisfying to solve. The biggest grumbles primarily come from where it's clear the original vision had to be streamlined in order to ship the game in time: the much foreshadowed underwater city is restricted to a single room and a few exterior locations despite the vast towers in the horizon and it feels genuinely awkward how April cracks the long-forgotten secret history of the race by simply removing some seaweed from a cavern couple of minutes away from the said city, and after spending so much time getting two of the macguffins she needs, the game literally hands her the remaining two in the space of ten minutes. It takes away from the epic sense of adventure that the game is otherwise so good at delivering.
But those are almost minor things, and the only real bother I had during my playthrough was the weird glitch where the game wouldn't always recognise my mouse clicks when trying to use the interaction menu (my poor mouse L1 button must feel hammered). Spending a few days again with this game otherwise felt like seeing an old friend for the first time in years, still instantly familiar yet a little changed. I was in love with this world again. A
One of the most beautiful and well-written games I've played in my life. Genuine tears were streaming down my face when I finished the epilogue. I haven't played many point-and-click adventure games: only the ones by Humongous Entertainment and Sam & Max, so randomly picking up this game that was super cheap during the steam sale and having it be one of the best pieces of media I've experienced in my life was an insanely pleasant surprise.
The Longest Journey, without going into too many spoilers, is a story about April Ryan, and her connection between the two worlds: Stark (the world of science and law) and Arcadia (the world of magic and chaos). Throughout the story, through April, you travel and experience the struggles of abuse, political censorship, and if war can ever truly be "just". You meet strange people, animals, and mystical creatures that help you along your journey to help reconnect the seperated worlds. Every character is so well thought-out and truly personal, it feels like you're properly meeting someone who has gone through so much in life, their skin moist with the sweat of real fears and missed dreams. Something personal to me that I really enjoyed was the crazy amount of strongly written female characters, ranging from our relatable but brave girl protag, to the realistic and openly accepted lesbian couple, to the old women whose tales we must trust more than our own self. I appreciate that the serious times of the game are allowed their moments, while also having many silly moments that know when to be separate. I went in expecting to hate Crow, as an example, but you don't see him too often for him to become annoying, and when you do see him, it feels like a breath of fresh air to hear his dumb, silly banter. The story is set up perfectly, and clearly had a lot of time and love put into it, with it being absolutely perfectly paced, and one of the better examples of using the Chekhov's Gun trope that I can think of.
My compliants are small, and just involve stuff that old point-and-clicks almost always do, such as having a couple confusing puzzles or actions to continue the story, but for a point-and-click as long and complicated as The Longest Journey I was pretty shocked how few "dead-ends" I ran into. The game also crashed a bit, but I guess it's to be expected when running an older PC game on a modern computer, and I mostly only really had issues with crashes when it didn't mix well with OBS.
The Longest Journey is $3 during the Steam sale - I've already bought and gifted it to 5 of my friends, begging them to put time aside and play this game. It's not going to be a game that touches everyone as emotionally as it touched me, but if you have $3 lying around and 25+ hours to spend, please please give it a chance...
This is the story of the Longest Journey, and I told it in my own words, as told to me by my teacher. As we will continue to tell for many, many years.
5/5
The Longest Journey, without going into too many spoilers, is a story about April Ryan, and her connection between the two worlds: Stark (the world of science and law) and Arcadia (the world of magic and chaos). Throughout the story, through April, you travel and experience the struggles of abuse, political censorship, and if war can ever truly be "just". You meet strange people, animals, and mystical creatures that help you along your journey to help reconnect the seperated worlds. Every character is so well thought-out and truly personal, it feels like you're properly meeting someone who has gone through so much in life, their skin moist with the sweat of real fears and missed dreams. Something personal to me that I really enjoyed was the crazy amount of strongly written female characters, ranging from our relatable but brave girl protag, to the realistic and openly accepted lesbian couple, to the old women whose tales we must trust more than our own self. I appreciate that the serious times of the game are allowed their moments, while also having many silly moments that know when to be separate. I went in expecting to hate Crow, as an example, but you don't see him too often for him to become annoying, and when you do see him, it feels like a breath of fresh air to hear his dumb, silly banter. The story is set up perfectly, and clearly had a lot of time and love put into it, with it being absolutely perfectly paced, and one of the better examples of using the Chekhov's Gun trope that I can think of.
My compliants are small, and just involve stuff that old point-and-clicks almost always do, such as having a couple confusing puzzles or actions to continue the story, but for a point-and-click as long and complicated as The Longest Journey I was pretty shocked how few "dead-ends" I ran into. The game also crashed a bit, but I guess it's to be expected when running an older PC game on a modern computer, and I mostly only really had issues with crashes when it didn't mix well with OBS.
The Longest Journey is $3 during the Steam sale - I've already bought and gifted it to 5 of my friends, begging them to put time aside and play this game. It's not going to be a game that touches everyone as emotionally as it touched me, but if you have $3 lying around and 25+ hours to spend, please please give it a chance...
This is the story of the Longest Journey, and I told it in my own words, as told to me by my teacher. As we will continue to tell for many, many years.
5/5
Yet another go at playing through this, and this time it's being done with very little setup difficulty through ScummVM. It looks great with the HD mod, and plays very well.
This game just amazes me. It's such a classic and the CGI, though dated by today's standard, is still impressive for the time it came out. It's an amazing point-and-click with a beautiful and flowing narrative.
I am amazed that it hasn't gotten more recognition over the years and not as well known as some of those classics like Monkey Island and Sam & Max.
My only real issue is that some parts are a little difficult, but the items glow if you have to use them on a certain object or person which can be a real life-saver. I also dislike the fact I had to disable the steam UI to have it work (though that was sometime ago and it might work ok now) so there aren't any chances to take screenshots to show friends some of the awesome scenes and enlightening words of wisdom that are often spoken in this game.
If you're a fan of point-and-click and you for some reason don't have this in your collection then I don't know why you haven't bought this yet. Especially for it's price and what you get.
I am amazed that it hasn't gotten more recognition over the years and not as well known as some of those classics like Monkey Island and Sam & Max.
My only real issue is that some parts are a little difficult, but the items glow if you have to use them on a certain object or person which can be a real life-saver. I also dislike the fact I had to disable the steam UI to have it work (though that was sometime ago and it might work ok now) so there aren't any chances to take screenshots to show friends some of the awesome scenes and enlightening words of wisdom that are often spoken in this game.
If you're a fan of point-and-click and you for some reason don't have this in your collection then I don't know why you haven't bought this yet. Especially for it's price and what you get.
This game has some pacing problems, and some really obtuse puzzles, not to mention far too much dialogue at points, but, dammit, you know what? I absolutely love it; it's an absolute event of a game and, for better or for worse, really demonstrates what the adventure game genre is capable of
masterpiece<3