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The Longest Journey

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Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime. The Longest Journey is more than a game - it's more like a book, a movie and a game all rolled into one. Explore an interactive and beautifully created universe from the perspective of April Ryan, a young art student who soon discovers that there is more to her world than meets the eye.

With the power to pass between worlds like others pass from waking to sleep, April must embark on the longest journey of her life; a journey not only across twin worlds, but also into her very own heart and soul. Embark on a voyage across phenomenal worlds, encounter a fantastic cast of unforgettable characters, and unravel one of the most epic stories ever told.

Experience what critics around the world are calling one of the best adventure games of all time. Experience The Longest Journey !

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The Longest Journey

"Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." — Cortez

The Longest Journey is the first game of the The Longest Journey Saga . It is a 1999 Adventure Game written by Ragnar Tørnquist and developed by the Norwegian company Funcom for Microsoft Windows . Famous for its expansive storyline, a lovable, Genre Savvy heroine, and flawless gameplay (as far as point-and-click gameplay goes), the game is commonly credited with resurrecting the Adventure Game genre after its crisis in the late '90s. In November 2014, The Longest Journey also received an iOS port.

April Ryan is an ordinary art student living in the Orwellian metropolis Newport and applying for the local Academy of Arts. She has her share of problems with her parents, insecurity about her future, and increasingly strange dreams, but she also has some great friends, a job, and a friendly landlady. Then a weird Cool Old Guy named Cortez appears and tells her that she is The Chosen One who has to Save Both Worlds — and then he sends her to that other world , Arcadia , that she is supposed to save. As her familiar world crumbles around her , April has to dive deeper into the secrets of the universe, fulfill cryptic prophecies, bring down an Ancient Conspiracy or two, save the Guardian of the Balance , and ultimately restore the harmony between the Twin Worlds of Stark and Arcadia. And that all in less than two weeks.

Tropes found in the game:

• 13 Is Unlucky : Inverted. In Arcadia, thirteen is a lucky number with strong tradition. The Ayrede High Council has thirteen ministers, and thirteen Fathers who begat the Sentinel and built the Tower of Balance.
• Abusive Parents : April's adoptive father , though it's strongly hinted he feels deep remorse over it.
• Alice Allusion : When Cortez helps April travel to Arcadia for the first time, he deliberately invokes this imagery to her: "Why, Alice, I am sending you through the looking glass!"
• Alien Geometries : The maze in Roper Klacks' castle has some fake perspectives. There is also a staircase at the background, which is revealed to be just a painting.
• Almost Dead Guy : Flipper utters some final words to April when she meets him half-dead.
• Alphabet Soup Cans : Roper Klack is beaten by using a calculator, to prove that you can do math and he can't. Or at least, you can do it faster. Afterward, the mage gets sucked into the calculator, for reasons unexplained.
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome : The Talisman of the Balance helps April out in various situations.
• Ancient Astronauts : The Alatien and the Maerum has a common lineage. Their ancestors apparently came from space.
• Ancient Conspiracy : The Vanguard.
• Ancient Tradition : The Sentinel Fathers.
• Bird People : The Alatien are roughly humanoid birds with wings for arms.
• After all her numerous trials and sacrifices throughout TLJ , April is basically given heartfelt thanks... and then left to her own devices . She even admits as not knowing how to feel as she starts her trek "home".
• By the end Arcadia is under attack and Tobias is dead.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass : Glass eye on retinal scanner.
• Chekhov's Boomerang : Mr. Guybrush is utilized twice in the game.
• Chekhov's Gun : The Mystery Door by the Fringe.
• Chekhov's Volcano : The volcano on Alais.
• The Chosen One : Played with heavily. When April asks Cortez if she is the chosen one, he denies the idea. Later, he gets to admit it to be true. April doesn't want to be in that role either, but grows into it.
• Cloudcuckoolander : You never know what George the maintenance man will say next.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat : Minelli uses this to secretly keep an eye on the movie entrance. April points out that obviously, he must be a cop.
• Cosmic Deadline : Sort of a Disc one variant, with April obtaining two pieces of the stone disc within roughly ten minutes of each other. In true Longest Journey Fashion, she points out how easy obtaining these pieces was .
• Covert Group with Mundane Front : In Stark, the Vanguard are working under the cover of the Church of Voltec.
• Creator Cameo : Ragnar Tørnquist voices Marcus, a minor character near the start of the game.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option : There are other things too, but special mention goes to Detective Minelli. First you poison him (or at least give him a severely upset stomach) to get him to move out of an area, then you steal his glass eye (he obviously becomes very panicked when you do this) and replace it with a plastic eye from a toy monkey (which he then puts in his eye socket). Other solutions involve conning your way around problems.
• Cyber Punk Is Techno : A lot of technoheads in the cyberpunk metropolis of Newport.
• Cymbal-Banging Monkey : The Guybrush monkey toy.
• Delivery Guy Infiltration : April breaks into the Vanguard headquarters by pretending to deliver pizza.
• Didn't See That Coming : The ending reveals that April is actually supposed to get the Guardian to his destination, not become the Guardian herself.
• Dismantled MacGuffin : The Stone Disc, the key to the Guardian's realm in the first game. Justified in the Back Story : the disc was originally kept at the Sentinel Enclave, ready for pickup by The Chosen One , but then the Vanguard tried to steal it. Afterwards, the Sentinels decided to break it up and hand the pieces over to the four magical peoples most motivated to keep it hidden (since most magical creatures would likely perish if the Twin Worlds were forcibly reunited).

• A Dog Named "Dog" : April's sidekick is a crow named Crow. He was also originally a bird named Bird.
• Doom Doors : The sound of any automatic door. These become more apparent in the later parts of the game, on the upper level and the space station.
• Down the Rabbit Hole : Pretty much the point of the first part of the game and it explicitly references Alice at many occasions.
• Dramatic Gun Cock : The cop at the shuttle crash does this after April speaks with him and he sends her away.
• Dream Intro : Subverted. While it looks like a dream, when April visits the same location in the waking world, she can see the traces of her actions from when she was "dreaming" about it at the start of the game. In other words, it was real from the start, she just didn't realize it then.
• Drugs Are Bad : The fictitious drug "Rapture" comes up repeatedly, though it's not important to the story. Too many will really mess you up. Also referenced is the fictitious drug "Amathin".
• Entertainingly Wrong : Captain Nebevay is tricked by April into leaving to checking on apple supplies below decks, despite noticing what pest is infecting them. These are worms, all right — vicious, snarling wheat worms, driven mad by their hunger for a change of diet!
• Fantastic Drug : "Rapture" and "Amathin", the effects which are never explained in detail. "Instant Heat Potency Pills" can be found in the men's rooms, a fantastic replacement for Viagra.
• Framing Device : The game starts with an old woman named Lady Alvane being asked to tell a story to two children. Instead of the one they asked her, she tells them the story of April Ryan. At the end of the game, Lady Alvane finishes her story, and the children leave.
• Funny Background Event : April crashes a news report and does this.
• Game-Breaking Bug : Some actions have to be done in the exact right order, even if the game seems to accept any order. Usually, it's no big deal, except for one puzzle that doesn't allow disassembling a partly-assembled contraption. It requires to pull a rubber duck (that has to stay inflated) over a steel clamp and then tie a rope to the clamp . Since there's a time limit until the duck deflates , many players reverse the order: attach the rope to the clamp, then blow up the duck and attach it . But this way the game behaves as if there is no rope, and April can neither use the device nor untie the rope. The device is required to finish Chapter 2, but the mistake can be made early in Chapter 1. In other words, a player has to restart. note  There seem to exist several different versions where the bug may or may not manifest. The build 142 sold at gog.com does have the bug.
• Gentle Giant : Sleeping Q'aman. Not surprisingly, his official circus nickname is "The Gentle Giant."
• Glass Eye : The police officer's eye falling out and rolling around. Also an example of Electronic Eye . It becomes a Borrowed Biometric Bypass .
• Guardian of the Multiverse : Guardians of the Balance.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy : In the space station, if a guard catches April, she runs away and the guard just returns to his post. The worst thing happens when the guard at the HQ catches you: he escorts you out, no matter how many times he caught you before. This same guard, when you disconnect the security camera, simply leaves his post to reconnect it instead of raising the alarm.
• Guide Dang It! : One of the reasons this game was so well received was the lack of this trope. However, even then, a few puzzles may come off as unintuitive, namely the rubber ducky puzzle very early in the game.
• Heel–Face Turn : Gordon Halloway has one after his soul is reunited with his body.
• Hilarious Outtakes : Accessible via the Book of Secrets.
• Hitler Cam : Used when recording the speech of Jason McAllen .
• Improvised Screwdriver : April has to unscrew a grating and uses the single Arcadian coin she has left to do it.
• In the End, You Are on Your Own : Invoked by name.
• It May Help You on Your Quest : Tobias gives you the Talisman of the Balance, and is quick to admit that aside from being magical, he has no idea what it does and doesn't really know how it will help, only that it's supposed to be given to April.
• Keep It Foreign : In the Spanish version Cortez is not Hispanic, but rather a Frenchman named "Corthes".
• ...And April still follows her home . Not until she's trapped inside the Gribbler's house does she go " Hey, you know what... "
• Limited Wardrobe : Partially averted, with different, context-sensitive outfits for April. Justified, too, when she enters Arcadia in her nightclothes.
• Luke, I Am Your Father : The White Dragon, who turns out to be April's real mother.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service : April has to collect the pieces of the Disk of the Guardian and the Dragon Eye Jewels.
• Magitek : The "statue-cum-phonebooths", as April calls them, are used as communication devices between different parts of the island. They can be rotated to configure which other statue they are listening/talking to.
• Merged Reality : That's what the Vanguard are attempting to do; apparently, chances of failure don't bother them much.
• Modern Stasis : The game is set 200 years in the future, yet, apart from the cyberpunkish aesthetics, there is little plot-relevant futuristic technology.
• There is also a "mystifying" machine by the hotel that acts as a Myst-esque puzzle.
• Move Along, Nothing to See Here : Said by the police guard bot at the site of the crashed transportation unit in front of PD.
• Mr. Exposition : Cortez and Tobias have lengthy exposition speeches.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero : When traveling on Nebevay's ship, April first manages to divert the ship into dangerous waters with her magic talisman. Then, when she tries to recover the talisman after Nebeway takes it away from her, she hits the floorboard with the axe instead of the chest in which the talisman is locked away, which results in the ship sinking.
• NPC Amnesia : April can change her answers without fearing any backlash. The most blatant example is a high-strung secretary who won't let you into the Corrupt Corporate Executive 's office. You can go through every option in the Dialogue Tree (all of which will fail), then leave, come back with a pizza, and pretend to be a delivery girl (in the same set of clothes), and he'll let you through. Although he does acknowledge that your character April does look familiar, April pretty much gaslights him into believing you.
• Ominous Floating Castle : Roper Klack's castle.
• Our Dragons Are Different : The Draic Kin
• Overly Long Name : The first two Bandas met have long names, Bandu-umanu-banta-au-rubana-biutan-binaort ('the little one who tries hard to live up to his father who sings to the Soil') and Bandu-uta-matuta-uiaten-aiama-binaort. April clearly wants to refer to them with a shorter name.
• Paper-Thin Disguise : Simply by holding a pizza box , April can get past a guard she had previously pestered to no avail.
• The Passwordis Always Swordfish : At PD, April correctly guesses the password for the database to be "laura0731" which is the name and birthday of the officer's wife.
• Percussive Maintenance : The housekeeper at the Mercury theatre kicks the flickering neon sign with his broom in hope to get it to work again. The actual problem is in a nearby fuse box - when the percussion doesn't work anymore, he leaves.
• Physical God : The Guardian. However, after or during the Changing of the Guard, they are as helpless as normal humans.
• Product Placement : One of the bits of graffiti on the subway is the logo for Coca-Cola's short-lived Mountain Dew competitor Surge.
• Prophecy Pileup : By the end, April fulfills the prophecies of at least three magical peoples who all proclaim her their respective Chosen One .
• Reconcile the Bitter Foes : April has to play the peacemaker between the Alatien and the Maerum to get to the Old God, a.k.a. the Blue Kin.
• Ridiculous Future Sequelisation : If you look at a red cherub in the cathedral, April mentions that it must be from the sequel of the Bible.
• Scary Shadow Fakeout : Invoked - you must assemble a pile of things to make a shadow that resembles one of a man pointing a gun, so that a guy sees it and gets scared.
• Set Piece Puzzle
• Shout-Out : The game features a lot of homages to famous TV shows and movies of our time, including Looney Tunes , Evil Dead , Futurama , Labyrinth , and Star Trek . And there is Constable Guybrush .
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty : Most of Newport is quite gritty, which is in contrast with the shiny upper levels. The space station is also gritty.
• Slipping a Mickey : While putting candy in ooze gives a rather obvious bad taste and only has the detective driven off because spitting out the candy hits Freddie, it's done more direct later by putting "Instant Heat" in a security guard's coffee.
• Sorry, I'm Gay : When April tries to get past a security guard by acting cute, all he says is, "Sorry, ma'am, I'm gay".
• Standard Power-Up Pose : The Guardian of the Balance assumes this pose (but with his legs together) upon ascending to the top of the Tower of the Balance.
• Stealth Pun : When April returns Crow to his original horrid owner, she's literally giving him the bird.
• The scene with the Gribbler, although the jury is still out on whether it was played straight or as a mockery of the trope.
• Disrupt the magic compass and prevent the ship's escape from a storm that even got the hardened crew shaking in their boots? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• Superstitious Sailors : Played for Laughs with Captain Nebeway, who invents the craziest maritime superstitions on the spot that allegedly prevent him from signing a map delivery receipt — all to conceal the fact that he cannot actually read or write.
• Supervillain Lair : Roper Klacks' castle and McAllen's skyscraper and office.
• Surprisingly Easy Miniquest : Getting the Stone Disc pieces kept by the Dark People and by Abnaxus .
• Taken for Granite : Roper Klacks favorite pastime is turning people into sentient statues .
• Talk Like a Pirate : Defied. Captain Nebeway talks normally, even if April tries pirate-speech on him. Nebeway is not impressed.
• Third-Person Person : Q'aman refers to himself by his name, seemingly related to him not fully understanding some conversation from April.
• Title Drop : "You're about to take the first step on the longest journey of your life."
• Unlikely Hero : April is just a minimum wage waitress and starving artist at the start of the game
• Visible Invisibility : We can still make out April when she becomes invisible.
• We Can Rule Together : McAllen tries to convince Cortes of this.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : Near the end, after April escapes Venice, Emma and Charlie is never heard from again, except that Emma is alive . We don't get to know whether April finally got reunited with them or not. These questions are resolved in Dreamfall , though.
• Worm in an Apple : April has to distract Captain Nebevay away from the compass aboard his ship. Her course of action is to catch a wheat worm, stick it inside an apple, and show the infested apple to the captain as "proof" that the barrel might be infested and needs to be checked up on.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks : If you try to gamble your gold ring in the cups game, the dealer will refuse and say that he only accepts iron coins.
• Wretched Hive : Newport to varying degrees. Venice is quite nice, except for the sewage flowing in the canals. The Metro Square area looks like a typical Cyberpunk city. Then there is The City Narrows , Hope Street. You don't want to go there unless really needed.
• You Can't Miss It : The mapmaker's directions in the delivery mission.

Video Example(s):

Sorry ma'am.

April's attempt at flirting with a cop hits a bit of a snag.

Example of: Incompatible Orientation

• The Longest Journey Saga
• Point-and-Click Game
• Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
• Science Fiction Video Games
• GARAGE: Bad Dream Adventure
• Adventure Game
• Norwegian Media
• Fantasy Video Games
• Living Books
• MediaNotes/ScummVM
• Little Critter and the Great Race
• WindowsGames/3.x to Me
• Lords of Magic
• Lil' Monster
• Video Games of 1995–1999
• Machines: Wired For War

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Image Fixer
• New Articles
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

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11,241--> Report

The Longest Journey - A Retrospective

A game that almost vanished.

My earlier post about story reminds me of a piece I wrote for PC Gamer a few years back, looking at The Longest Journey, and its lasting effect on me. There was never room for my full thoughts then, and the full length 'director's cut' version has sat on my hard drive since. Clearly Dreamfall has been released since, telling us more about April Ryan, and another retrospective is due for that. Meanwhile, here's the full-length version of the original piece.

“Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where.”

The Longest Journey almost vanished away unnoticed, another obscurity ranted about by a few, but never reaching any acclaim. In the mire of pre-millennial adventure gaming, it could so easily have been drowned by the density of its peers, ignored by pessimism, never given the chance it so strongly deserved. How it was joyously liberated from this fate is mysterious. And in mystery, there is magic. In The Longest Journey, there is magic.

As a point and click adventure, The Longest Journey already defied conventions, ignoring the genre’s desperately floundering attempts at “catching up”. Developer and writer Ragnar Tørnquist and his team at Funcom understood that “catching up” was meaningless – they had a story to tell, and a world in which it needed to be told, and so this was the game they made. The natural instinct to say how it recaptured the adventure’s previous glory is strong, but this just simply isn’t true. Adventure gaming had never been as glorious as The Longest Journey – it hadn’t ever even come close.

Eighteen year old art student April Ryan provides the most perfect eyes through which to witness this tale. Sceptical, sarcastic and sassy, she tight-rope walks the same line as Buffy, mouthing off but never quite tumbling into the irritating. And yet still somehow gets away with normally grating late 90s Ameriteenisms such as, “That’s SO not appropriate.” You forgive her, because you realise, as do the games’ twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia, that she’s important .

A friend was recently explaining to me how Silent Hill 4 manages to spook so effectively by blurring the two worlds of the normal, and the horrific. When an element of one leaks into the other, stability in the known is shaken, and fear drip, drip, drips in. In April Ryan’s life, it is the fantastic that begins to disturb the normality of her existence, the world of dreams invading her world of rational and science. And where a good horror story shows you fear in the every day, The Longest Journey shows you magic. Set 200 years in the future, April’s world is enough like our own to allow us to identify, but distant enough to allow it status as a metaphor.

The meta-narrative tells of how, long ago, the united Earth was divided into two: Science and Magic, Stark and Arcadia. The Bladerunner-inspired future version of our known world allows the effects of this severance to have been demonstrated even more, well, starkly than they are now. Wars have increased the degree of global apartheid, Capitalism’s punishments are more prevalent, authority rules over democracy, and people simply get on with being people as it happens around them. It is unavoidably our future.

In contrast, Arcadia refers back to so many fantasy lands, simplicity bolstered by magic, thus creating seismic instability and inevitable fracture. But Arcadia at least possesses hope. Stark’s worldview is blind, eyes gouged out by its people’s own hands. It allows the coming destruction of Chaos without even the consciousness to question. And so it is through April’s dreams, through her powerful imagination, that she is drawn to ‘shift’ out of that world, and to learn her part in the shaping of the future.

I was unaware of how much I’ve been influenced by The Longest Journey, until returning to its tale for this piece. I’ve been writing a children’s story, on and off, for a couple of years, never getting very far with it, but always driven to persist by its unstoppable urge to leave my head. I’m now wondering how much I have to remove because I’ve simply plagiarised it from my subconscious. The ideology of this game is lodged deeply inside me, partly because I so strongly identified with the message I took from it, and partly because that message is so powerfully told. It is always a point and click adventure. There are always daft clicking the rubber duck on the clamp and tying it to the string puzzles. But it works with these elements, not despite them. Nearly every voice is perfectly cast, and the recording supervised by the game’s creator and writer, Ragnar Tørnquist. Yes, there is swearing, but there is swearing where real people swear. And wow, are the conversations long. But they are telling you a story like no other.

April is not a simple character, a template onto which we may impose ourselves to experience a world. She has issues with her father, trouble letting people get too close, and a propensity to run away rather than face difficulty. She is a complex and broken human being, thrown into a situation too big to understand, and arguably destroyed by it. She’s a person.

The opening quote, said to April by her mentor when she is persisting with him for answers, speaks for the whole game. The Longest Journey is epic and magnificent, but completion makes you aware that this is only a tiny fraction of a created world. Indeed, these are only weeks in the whole of April Ryan’s lifetime. So much remains unknown. But to know the whole truth is dull. Magic is in not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and when.

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"The Longest Journey is not only the best adventure games in recent years, it's one of the best games ever" - GamesDomain

About This Game

• Over 150 locations spanning two distinct and detailed worlds
• More than 70 speaking characters
• 40+ hours of gameplay
• 20+ minutes of high-resolution pre-rendered video footage
• Cinematic musical score

System Requirements

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• The Longest Journey

Table of Contents

• Walkthrough
• Prologue: A Lion is in the Streets
• Chapter One: Penumbra

This is the first game in the The Longest Journey series. For other games in the series see the The Longest Journey category .

The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure game designed in Norway by Ragnar Tørnquist. It is the first game in an intended trilogy, and was followed in 2006 by Dreamfall: The Longest Journey . The third part has been announced as an episodic series entitled Dreamfall Chapters .

Between Stark and Arcadia there is an ancient balance. For thousands of years this Balance has weighed the scales of the cosmos evenly, ensuring harmony between science, magic, order and chaos. But, now in an age of great turmoil, chaos threatens to tip the scales and bring terrifying dreams to life. As the tides of chaos gain momentum the fate of everything lies in the hands of one person. Her name is April Ryan. She is a Shifter. The power to walk between worlds is within her grasp and her destiny is foretold in a hundred tales. The journey ahead is treacherous, winding and shrouded in mystery, this is the longest journey of them all.

• Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
• Dreamfall Chapters
• Guides at completion stage 0
• Funcom Productions
• Empire Interactive
• Single player

Navigation menu

The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey is an award-winning adventure game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom and first published in 1999 . The game is set in the parallel universes of Arcadia, a world of magic, and Stark, a world of science and technology and follows the protagonist April Ryan on her journey through these worlds.

• 1 April Ryan
• 2 April's diary entries
• 4 Dialogues
• 6 External links
• There's a storm heading this way. Even the weather sucks in my dreams. I feel so charmed.
• It's a nest, padded with large scales. Very large scales. For some strange reason, I have a feeling I should get the hell outta here before the tenants return.
• There are only two things that are worse than an empty canvas: death and taxes.
• Life should carry a big yellow caution-sticker. It's certain to kill you sooner or later.
• I can't believe they wouldn't let me on the shuttle, just because my clothes stink and I look like a bum!
• I'm the Windbringer. I'm the Waterstiller. I'm April Bandu-embata of the Banda, and the Venar Kan-ang-la. I'm a Shifter. I will some day become the Thirteenth Guardian, protector of the Balance. And I'm April Ryan. This is who I am.

April's diary entries

• 18 feels kinda like 17, only I can buy a gun and pilot a hovercraft.
• I'd kinda figured that the number 18 would cast light into the deep dark chasm of my soul and reveal some grand truth about the universe. Like the meaning of life, or at least some explanation as to why all the guys are complete idiots.
• I need to start dreaming about boys and shopping… you know, the important things in life.
• Should I go get myself committed now or after dinner?
• If I AM insane, why aren't I seeing fluffy pink rabbits right now?
• Sundays are made for sleeping in. Sundays are made for walking around in baggy clothes, watching movies, nursing headaches and hanging out with your friends at the cafe. Sundays are NOT made for going to the worst neighbourhood in town to find a kid who might be able to give you the information necessary to infiltrate a powerful cult that plans to take over the known universe. That's what Mondays are for.
• Dear Diary, note to self: the next time anybody says the word "destiny"… run like hell!
• Hope Street Projects! Not exactly the friendliest place in town. It's more of a "shoot first, then shoot again, then pull the trigger a few more times before asking questions" kinda place. And I'm not even sure they bother with the "asking questions" part anymore.
• Why does the boat have to keep moving around? Why can't they make a boat that just stays still? I mean they got magic, right? [ sic ]
• I've been lucky so far. I'm counting on my luck lasting just a little bit longer. Pleeease?
• I can think of only one word right now, and it won't really do me any good. HELP!
• If God or the Balance or some other cosmic force is watching right now, why don't we agree on this? You get me out of this, I owe you a favour. Deal? Is that a yes?
• Don't blame a bird for trying to be a gentleman… gentlebird.
• Oh, bloody typical. I told her, she didn't believe me — girls always disappear on me. Always.
• No. No-no-no. That's so disgusting. No one told me I was gonna be pecking pigeon crap when I joined up for this adventure.
• Ah, curses and damnation, and all things mean and ugly… fine!
• Have you ever had a dream so real… you are not sure if you are awake or still dreaming?
• You are about to take the first steps of the longest journey of your life.

External links

• The Longest Journey quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• The Official Site

• Adventure games

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• More Systems

The Longest Journey – Guide and Walkthrough

Guide and Walkthrough (PC) by T_Hayes

Version: 1.1 | Updated: 06/19/2008 Highest Rated Guide

View in: Text Mode

The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey is a game by Funcom. A woman named April Ryan who lives in the scientific half of the world known as Stark finds that she has the ability to shift between both worlds.

• 1 Current status in ScummVM
• 2.1.1 Steam Version
• 2.2 Gamesplanet Version
• 2.3.1 Alternative method
• 5 Developer resources
• 6 External links

Current status in ScummVM

The ResidualVM Stark engine is being merged into ScummVM.

In the latest daily builds of ResidualVM, The Longest Journey was completable.

Installation

Required data files.

For more information on how ScummVM uses game data files, see the user documentation .

Copy the data files from your The Longest Journey CDs, DVD or digital distribution into one directory:

• The 1a — 79 directories (only 4f for demo version).
• The global directory.
• The static directory.
• The fonts directory (not critical, but recommended – see below).
• x.xarc and all the INI files.
• game.exe (not critical, but recommended for a styled message dialog)

The 2-CD and DVD versions have some of the data files packed in installer archives. Unpack the archives.

Mixing files from different versions of the game is not supported.

Steam Version

The Steam version and the demo from Steam are missing the fonts directory. The required fonts can be copied over from the demo version , or from the GOG or retail version.

Gamesplanet Version

This release contains the following files among others:

You need to use innoextract from https://constexpr.org/innoextract/ (available in Homebrew on macOS and in many Linux distributions) and extract the distribution with the following command:

Then follow the instructions for the normal CD release.

German 4-CD Version

The German 4-CD version includes a copy protection scheme which prohibits normal copying of the files (the TOC is modified to create artificially big files so copying fails).

There are two impossibly large files on each CD in the \Global\xarc directory. The following files must be left out when copying them from the CDs:

All other instructions apply as mentioned in "Required data files".

Alternative method

It is possible to run the Setup.exe file even in modern Windows versions (tested on Windows 11). The warning about the game not working under Windows NT can be safely ignored.

In the installer make sure to choose "Maximum" when asked for install size. The installer will copy all required files to the installation directory which can then be used with ScummVM.

If you don't use Windows, it might be possible to use a compatibility layer like Wine (open source) on Linux or Crossover (commercial, free trial available) on macOS or Linux to run the installer, but this is untested. Alternatively, a Windows install (Windows 95 or later) in a VM should work too.

Only use this method this if the normal instructions fail. This was only tested with the German 4-CD version (for which these instructions apply) and it is likely that other language version's installer won't copy all necessary files. This may also copy over files that are not needed by ScummVM so it might take up more space than copying the necessary files manually.

The mouse is used to interact with objects and menu elements.

Available keyboard shortcuts:

ScummVM can load replacement assets instead of the original files for some of the asset types. By leveraging this capability, users can create mods for the game. These are the currently supported modding features:

• Load mods from the mods directory inside the game data path. Each mod should be in its own directory in the mods subdirectory. Mods are loaded in alphabetical order.
• Load external PNG files instead of the XMG files inside the game archives. The replacement PNG files can have larger dimensions when compared to the original XMG images, enabling the creation of a high resolution mod. The game looks for the replacement files in a mod directory and then in the xarc subdirectory of the directory containing the archive in which the XMG picture to be replaced is located. For instance: mods/[my_mod]/1e/00/xarc/fountain_layercenter.png needs to be used for the Venice park background. ScummVM expects PNGs to be in pre-multiplied alpha format for improved load times. However the replacement_png_premultiply_alpha scummvm.ini setting allows to load regular transparency PNGs when set to true for convenience when testing.
• Load replacement video files for the Smacker animations. The replacement files can be either in Smacker or Bink encoding. With Smacker, only 1-bit transparency can be used. Transparent pixels must have the Cyan color (#00FFFF). When using Bink, 8-bit transparency can be used. The alpha channel should be encoded in the pre-multiplied alpha format. The replacement videos can have larger dimensions than the originals but must have the same number of frames and the same frame rate. Like with PNG files, replacement video files are loaded from mod folders: for instance mods/[my_mod]/08/02/xarc/011001.bik is the animation where the tree spirit lifts the egg back into the nest.
• Load replacement textures for the 3d models. Each original tm file contains several textures, each with its associated mipmaps. The replacement files are zip archives containing dds packaged textures. The replacement archives must be placed at the root of the mod directory and be named after the tm file they replace: mods/[my_mod]/april_waitress.tm.zip . Each zip archive must contain all the textures from the replaced tm file. The textures need to be encoded in uncompressed RGB or RGBA dds files with mipmaps. Files inside the archive must be named according to the replaced texture name, but with the bmp extension replaced with dds : backdress-highres-battic.dds The extractAllTextures console command can be used to extract the tm files to png files.

Contact us if you need further capabilities for your mod.

Developer resources

• Design notes

External links

• MobyGames page about The Longest Journey
• Wikipedia article on The Longest Journey
• Screenshots
• Stark Games
• Supported Games

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• View source

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is a singleplayer cinematic camera and third-person adventure game in the The Longest Journey series.

General information

Availability

Essential improvements, skip intro videos.

Configuration file(s) location

Save game data location, save game cloud syncing.

Controller support

Localizations

Issues fixed, crashes on launch on windows 10 boot camp.

The game may crash a few seconds into the gameplay when run on Windows 10 via Boot Camp.

Retail version won't run on Windows 10

The retail release (Any version: 6 CD, 1 DVD, or 1 DVD Game of the Year Edition) will refuse to launch on modern Windows, without even producing an error message.

Characters get stuck in cutscenes

Bug example: In a Chapter 5 cutscene, Zoë and Damien may get stuck walking in place through the stairwell doorway.

Other information

Graphical enhancements, dreamfall hd textures reworked (high res textures), system requirements.

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges ( Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES% , %PROGRAMDATA% , or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA% \VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later ( more details ).
• File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data .
• Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
• The app ID (6300) may differ in some cases.
• Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
• See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
• ↑ 1.0 1.1 Starforce or any DRM on this? - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
• ↑ Verified by User:Virotti on 2023-04-30 Deleted the files and only a short video is shown before the title screen.
• ↑ Windowed mode? - Official Dreamfall: The Longest Journey forums - last accessed on May 2023
• ↑ Verified by User:Fudgesiclesxd on 2022-07-10
• ↑ Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - Soundblaster.com (retrieved) - last accessed on May 2023
• ↑ EAX 2 not an available choice in Dreamfall - The Longest Journey Forums - last accessed on May 2023
• One-time game purchase
• No microtransactions
• Singleplayer
• Cinematic camera
• Third-person
• Direct control
• Point and select
• Pages needing references

• Dreamfall Chapters
• Edit source

Dreamfall Chapters is the third game of The Longest Journey Saga and the second (and final) of the " Dreamer cycle ". It is a direct sequel to Dreamfall . The first part of the game, Book One: Reborn , was released on the 21 st October 2014. The last part, Book Five: Redux , was released on June 17th, 2016.

On July 22nd, 2017, The Final Cut was released. [1]

• 1.1 Chapters
• 2 Characters
• 4.1 Developers
• 5 Boxed editions
• 6 Concept Art
• 7 Screenshots
• 9 External links
• 10 References

Ragnar confirmed that the story began where Dreamfall ended as well as rewinding to show some Dreamfall events from a different perspective, and that the story followed multiple characters, "both old and new, and there will be more overlapping paths and storylines".

The game is divided into 13 chapters and 5 books. Each book has its own self-contained story arc with a beginning, middle and end.

Dreamfall Chapters follows Zoë Castillo and Kian Alvane . At the beginning of the game, Zoë is still in the Storytime where she was at the end of Dreamfall, and is helping people to overcome their nightmares. She then wakes up from her year-long coma and moves to Europolis , where she gets involved in the upcoming election. She also takes up one of two possible career paths, chosen by the player. Meanwhile, Kian escapes from Friar's Keep , where he was imprisoned, with the help of Balsay Bachim , who wants him to participate in the Marcurian resistance movement.

According to Ragnar the game features all of the main characters of the TLJ "saga". April Ryan 's storyline is developed and even includes events set at various parts of the timeline, between the events of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall , before and after. [2]

An early post on Ragnar's blog gave the following hint: [3]

The following paragraph contains two and a half falsehoods. Make of that what you want: Zoë’s in it. And Crow. Gabriel gets his groove on. There will be puzzles. And an exciting story. You’ll find out more about the Azadi. A Dragon strips down to the ‘bare essentials’ (if you know what I mean). And you’ll learn the true identity of the Prophet.

Chapters [ ]

• Chapter One: Adrift
• Chapter Two: Awakenings
• Chapter Three: Trials
• Chapter Four: Dreaming
• Chapter Five: Anamnesis
• Interlude II
• Chapter Six: Machinations
• Chapter Seven: Hunted
• Chapter Eight: Crossings
• Chapter Nine: Journeys
• Chapter Ten: Umbrae
• Chapter Eleven: Lux
• Interlude III
• Chapter Twelve: Recall
• Interlude IV
• Chapter Thirteen: The Longest Journey
• Epilogue: Those Who Walk Between Worlds

Characters [ ]

Category Dreamfall Chapters Characters should list all characters that occur in the game. Below are some of the more notable ones.

Playable Characters:

• Zoë Castillo , a Dreamer
• Kian Alvane , an  Apostle [4]
• Saga , later as Lady Alvane
• Abnaxus , a  Venar [5]
• Anna , a mysterious ranger who seems to know Kian
• Baruti Maphane , campaign manager for the Unity Party in Propast
• Ben Bandu , a young  Banda [6]
• Benrime Salmin ,  the owner of the  Journeyman Inn [7]
• Blind Bob , a beggar from  Dreamfall [8]
• Brian Westhouse , a former journalist and traveler; later revealed as the Prophet [8]
• Commander Vamon , Azadi officer [8]
• Crow ,  a talking bird  [9]
• Emma de Vrijer  , a holosculptor and gallery owner [10]
• Enu , a  Zhid  rebel [11]
• Falk Friedman , a corporate jager [12]
• Gabriel Castillo , Zoë's father
• Helena Chang , Zoë's mother
• Likho , a  Dolmari   Rebel [12]
• Madame Nyx , madam of a  Dream Den [12]
• Mira , a shady networker [13] [11]
• The Mole , the leader of the criminal underground [11]
• Mother Utana , visiting from Sadir , the woman who raised Kian
• Roper Klacks , an alchemist and merchant [8]
• Reza Temiz , an  investigative journalist for  The Hand That Feeds
• Süleyman "Sully" Sadik , a friend and journalist colleague of Reza's
• Wit , a technological savant [13] [11]

Gameplay [ ]

The game-play is very much like Dreamfall's, but with a replacement for the focus field. While there was meant to be a revamped combat system, combat was abandoned as a gameplay element. An early prototype of the gameplay was showed at Rezzed 2013 in a Developer Session . Ragnar expressed an early desire to see the game released on a range of platforms, including Mac, XBL, PSN and the Wii Store if feasible. [14] As the first stretch goal of the Kickstarter was met, Dreamfall Chapter was released on PC, Mac and Linux. The Final Cut was released on PS4 and/or Xbox One (they even looked at the Wii U). [15]

Of the three playable characters, Zoë and Kian were announced early on. Ragnar also teased a third, female character [16] thus far unknown. [17] The third character was not be revealed until the release of the game. [18]

Development [ ]

On the 1st of March, 2007 Funcom announced that they had received funding from the Norwegian Film Fund (who partly funded the production of Dreamfall ) to partially finance research and initial development for the episodic Dreamfall Chapters , a continuation of DF's story. Funcom decided to use this money to investigate online-only delivery methods of episodic content, mostly in an attempt to circumvent illegal copying and distribution. [19] While this initially proved quite controversial in the TLJ community, expectations gradually faded as production on Age of Conan began in earnest.

Erling Ellingson confirmed that, while AoC was in production, DF Chapters was on hold, but might be taken up again after its release. [20] When AoC was released development of TSW ramped up to full speed, and fans knew DF Chapters would be delayed until at least after the launch of that. Ragnar estimated the development time for DF Chapters as approximately 18 months. [21] After the launch of TSW in April 2012 rumours of a return to DF Chapters resurfaced every so often.

It was not until the 1st of November, 2012 that Funcom reported Ragnar had left to form Red Thread Games for the purpose of creating DF Chapters. [22] Funcom retains the IP for the TLJ series, but Red Thread are licenced to create DF Chapters "and other titles in that universe as well". [23] The Norwegian Film Fund have again provided seed funding to create a prototype [24] , but the team also launched a Kickstarter to raise US$850,000 on the 8th of February, 2013. Ragnar stated that, while the budget for TLJ was ca. US$3million and DF US$5-6million, DFC will be somewhere over US$1million, with Red Thread members investing themselves [25] . Red Thread have also partnered with Blink Studios, which was itself formed from TLJ and DF veterans [26] .

Ragnar has said that fans will be kept up to date with production, not least because funding will come largely from Kickstarter where investors are regularly updated on progress. Further announcements were promised over late 2012, with work on the prototype beginning before a further reveal in early 2013. [27] It is slated for release in November 2014. [28]

On June 27th 2014, Ragnar wrote a message to backers explaining that the team had decided to return to the episodic structure that they had originally planned for the game, releasing each of the five books separately [29] . It was then planned for all 5 books to be released by September, 2015 on GOG, Humble Store and Steam. [30] On June 17th 2016, the development of Chapters was over with the release of Book 5: Redux.

Developers [ ]

• Ragnar Tornquist - creator, designer & writer
• Dag Scheve - writer
• Martin Bruusgaard - lead designer
• Christer Sveen - art director
• Kjetil Hjeldnes - technical director
• Eigil Jarl Halse - technical director
• Sigbjorn Galaen - artist
• Rakel Johnsen - producer
• Quintin Pan - programmer
• Audun Tornquist - programmer
• Morten Nøst - programmer
• Hans Kristian Andersen - 3D character artist
• Eivind Andvig - 3D character animator
• Morgan Sandbæk - 3D artist, environment and props
• Rikke Fjeld Jansen - artist
• Christoffer Grav - Illustrator/Graphic Designer

Boxed editions [ ]

• Journeyman Edition
• Dreamer Edition
• Limited Boxed Dreamer Edition
• Limited Boxed Shifter Edition
• Limited Boxed Draic Kin Edition

• Available on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, PS4 and Xbox One
• Final Cut released 22nd of July, 2017

• Collector's edition slipcase
• Signed collector's edition slipcase
• Wonkers 16Gb USB key
• Printed manual
• Journey's: Birth PB
• Journeys: The Graphic Novel PB
• Unique, numbered and signed Limited Shifter Edition box
• The Art of Dreamfall Chapters printed book
• Tome of the Balance printed book
• Official Sound Track on CD
• Personal thank-you note from director Ragnar Tørnquist
• Signed piece of concept art by Christer Sveen

Concept Art [ ]

Screenshots [ ]

See also [ ]

• Dreamfall Chapters at Red Thread Games
• Music of Dreamfall Chapters
• Choices in Dreamfall Chapters

External links [ ]

• Ragnar's blog , mentioning possibilities for the game engine
• Ragnar's blog , with further clarifications
• Ragnar's blog , a question and answer post
• Ragnar's blog , with more information
• Interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, on the formation of Red Thread Games
• Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter which started on 8th February 2013

References [ ]

• ↑ [1] - change log, playable deleted scenes, character library, Concept art gallery, in-game map"
• ↑ Ragnar's blog - possible DFC content
• ↑ Ragnar's blog - "two and a half falsehoods"
• ↑ Kickstarter update #27 "Video update! New gameplay & a second character!"
• ↑ Kickstarter update #12 "The Loremaster achieved! Additional stretch goals revealed!"
• ↑ youtube "Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter video update #1"
• ↑ Twitter Benrime will be back
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 twitch.tv/redthreadgames Dreamfall Live Playthrough
• ↑ Reddit AMA answer - Crow
• ↑ Kickstarter update #22 "Stretch goals, a bit of catching up"
• ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 youtube Rezzed 2013 Developer session
• ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Kickstarter update #30 "Stretch goal update!"
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 Rock Paper Shotgun - Mira and Wit revealed
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - PC and Mac release
• ↑ eurogamer.net "We are preparing to go to consoles"
• ↑ Two female protagonists
• ↑ Twitter 2/3 protagonists we already know
• ↑ Reddit AMA answer - third character
• ↑ Funcom.com - first DFC announcement
• ↑ interview with Erling Ellingson - DFC on hold while AoC in production
• ↑ Ragnar's Formspring - DF Chapters development period
• ↑ Funcom.com - formation of Red Thread Games
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - DFC "and other titles"
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - funding from NFF and Kickstarter
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - rough DFC budget
• ↑ Red Thread Games - Blink partnership
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - production
• ↑ DFC Kickstarter - release date
• ↑ Kickstarter update #52
• ↑ Twitter - All 5 books should be out by September 2015
• ↑ Kickstarter update #113
• ↑ Kickstarter update #115
• 1 Choices in Dreamfall Chapters
• 2 April Ryan
• 3 Zoë Maya Castillo