Regarding books and the like, I’m personally a fan of computers. An in-game Wiki would have been awesome (and story-relevant) to go look up things that people made reference to in every-day conversation. Nothing should be impossible without research, but having bonuses reward people who enjoy exploration through text as well as running around would be good.

And yeah, April WAS ugly. Wow. I kinda liked her more for that. The lack of romantic interest was also greatly appreciated.

Thanks to your review, I now have a desperate desire to re-play TLJ. Thanks a lot.

And to get background, the most easy and profound way is through dialogue. There are always other devices but nowhere near as effective as straight words.

Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it should be done. What you are referring to is called “Exposition”. Over-reliance on exposition is sometimes also called “Information dump”. Especially in movies it is considered bad practice because it goes against the “Show, don’t tell” admonition. I don’t see games being different in this regard.

Second matter is the dialogue. Sure, there are long dialogues which may get boring and asking stuff like “tell me about Emma”, who just happened to be the protagonist’s best friend, seem odd. But at least in the English version, the response you would get from characters, matches real people reactions. So, the designers knew that it’s silly for this background info to be included in dialogue hence they mock themselves by having the characters saying “why the hell do you ask me about X, who is your best friend, by the way”.

The reasons these traits are included, is that serve the provision of background. That said, they belong to a category of fallacy devices called “plot devices”. They are used both in Cinema and in Literature but these are often missed because films are an escaping means, progressing linearly through the course of 1-3 hours. So you don’t get to stare for hours and notice that it is impossible to always find a parking spot where you want to park, computers DON’T open instantaneously, car doors are in fact locked, so goes for house doors. Most of the time, there is no time for you to focus on these escaping moments of unreality. In literature, plot devices are delivered through narration. No character needs to bring up background info because the writer can narrate them himself, breaking the linear action without harm done. But in computer games, you cannot really do any of this. If you want character development, you need background. And to get background, the most easy and profound way is through dialogue. There are always other devices but nowhere near as effective as straight words.

Now, the fact of the matter is that the ending seemed a little rushed, probably because it was already a huge game so they decided to scrap quest sequences about the other stones, etc. It was already started to become boring anyway and it isn’t very original (get the pieces of a disk, jewels, etc). But I don’t get the commend about the “chosen one who is revealed in the last scene”. There really isn’t such a thing in the game. There is a twist in the end, where it is revealed that Gordon is the next guardian, but he isn’t really a new character. There are dialogues about him, you see him in a video and you talk about him with the Flipper but, most importantly, you also speak to him directly, in the Border House. He isn’t just a random guy.

I have to agreed with Krystian. The characters, due to amazing voice-acting and a detailed script, are by far the best aspect of the The Longest Journey. The fantasy, although decent, wasn’t what made this game great.

A few examples of fantasy elements gone wrong:
1. Roper Clacks gets sucks in by a calculator, WTF?
2. The Warrior Shifters are never explained.
3. Pocket-watch being Cortez’s heart…?
4. The part where the flying castle plummets from the sky and the very next scene you see April walking across a meadow? Yeah right, girl.

Also, the ending was rushed. Did you notice how it took 20+ hours to get 1 piece of the stone disk and 3 hours to the get other 3 pieces and the other 4 dragons eyes? I mean, the Dark People appeared out of nowhere just to give you a piece of the stone disk and you never see them again. Really?

As far as gameplay goes, to be fair IQ Media Nordic had at most 17 people working on it at one time. You can only do so much with what you have.

Summary: Cut out the crappy convoluted fantasy and keep the good fantasy. Also Ragnar Tornquist should have spent more time on polishing the ending.

They have a tendency to take too much control away from the player. They also tend to give back-story literally, rather than imply it subtly.

The worst of all is when there is not enough stuff to interact with — or that you cannot interact with things in a meaningful way.

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with adventure games. I want to love them, I really do. But for some reason 'story' in adventure games has evolved into these unfortunate situations where it takes over the game… At the expense of all other components of gameplay and composition.

The fantasy topic seems to ba a hot button issue for a lot of people. All I have to say is that I haven’t played it when the game out. I’ve played it recently. The thing I found intriguing about The Longest Journey were the mature aspects of it because it is something I rarely see in Videogames. Obviously, the game has different meaning for different people. I do understand if you enjoyed the Fantastic elements. They well well-made after all. But as you’ve noticed yourself, the very same story has been made a couple of times now – Never Ending Story, The Labyrinth, Narnia, Harry Potter. Escapism and “a stranger in a fantasy world” is hardly what I would call “brilliant”.

Less of the fantasy stuff? More focus on only one kind of world? I don’t know–the never-ending-story feel was exactly what’s cool about this game. It was NEVER predictable, you were always on the edge of your seat eager to find out what was coming next.

As a side note, when I was reading news of the future coming “The Sims” I was skeptical, saying “this is stupid, this will never work. A game about your everyday life? Eat, sleep, go to work, buy furniture? We already do those boring things in everyday life”. Boy, was I wrong! The Sims was one hell of a bestseller. Even I moderately enjoyed playing it for a while.

So TLJ with less of the fantastic elements would not be TLJ. Even when the action happened in the industrial world, what kept the player engaged was the inherent intuition of the “otherworldly” stuff.

Basicly, it’s about escapism. You’re not a native of a fantastic world, that could get boring. You GET INTO a fantastic world as a total outsider. That’s the brilliance of it.

Yup, and it goes on and on and on. That’s a good thing. When the game actually ended, I still wanted MORE of it.

On the shortcomings of the interaction you’re perfectly right. Still, the long times of getting from point A to point B were not that bad, as you could take in the beautiful vistas once more.