Welp, this was a sad one; I'd describe it as "the saddest game Ive ever played in which nobody dies". In all honesty, no events of note happen in this game. The entire thing takes place over a few hours in the lives of a couple of students who are set to move out of their house in a few weeks time. Some friends come over, and then they go to bed. That's it. And yet the artistry, atmospheric music and especially the writing make this one of the most emotional experiences I've had from a game.
This is also clearly a deeply personal game to the developers; the two lead devs have openly based the main characters on themselves. And I think this approach is a bit of a double-edged sword. Basing this game so closely on the devs' lived experience definitely helped make this game feel more real and hit home harder. But at the same time it can feel a little indulgent and overly specific, and can feel a bit less relatable as a result. The dialogue ocasionally goes off on little tangents about the characters' politics or beliefs, or comments on their pasts and struggles that aren't relevant to this era of their lives. These things are all perfectly valid and interesting points of discussion, sure, but they don't always fit in here and just make the messaging a bit unfocused.
Other than that, I'd say my main point against this would be its pacing. No Longer Home is just barely more than a Visual Novel, and I already find that genre to be excruciatingly slow-paced... but NLH also loves to take long forced pauses after each speech or interaction, with long pans or slow zooms which are supposed to provoke thought. But I just found them to be frustrating slow-downs in what was already going to be a very slowly paced experience, and it became quite frustrating at times.
But the more I played, the more it drew me in and I started ignoring these little annoyances. Like I said, this really is a very emotional experience. It's well-written and hauntingly relatable, and I would say its worth a play through.
This is also clearly a deeply personal game to the developers; the two lead devs have openly based the main characters on themselves. And I think this approach is a bit of a double-edged sword. Basing this game so closely on the devs' lived experience definitely helped make this game feel more real and hit home harder. But at the same time it can feel a little indulgent and overly specific, and can feel a bit less relatable as a result. The dialogue ocasionally goes off on little tangents about the characters' politics or beliefs, or comments on their pasts and struggles that aren't relevant to this era of their lives. These things are all perfectly valid and interesting points of discussion, sure, but they don't always fit in here and just make the messaging a bit unfocused.
Other than that, I'd say my main point against this would be its pacing. No Longer Home is just barely more than a Visual Novel, and I already find that genre to be excruciatingly slow-paced... but NLH also loves to take long forced pauses after each speech or interaction, with long pans or slow zooms which are supposed to provoke thought. But I just found them to be frustrating slow-downs in what was already going to be a very slowly paced experience, and it became quite frustrating at times.
But the more I played, the more it drew me in and I started ignoring these little annoyances. Like I said, this really is a very emotional experience. It's well-written and hauntingly relatable, and I would say its worth a play through.