@tempertress Yea, I agree. The Longest Journey is still one of the best, if not THE best adventure game I've ever played. And that's saying a lot, considering I've been playing most adventure games out there since the very first King's Quest.
TLJ's voice acting is nigh-perfect, and the writing is SO good, convincing, and memorable, there's never a jarring transition between the normal, everyday casual conversations and the more mysterious, fantasy-laden ones as April shifted worlds.
I'm glad GS put in April Ryan and Crow. An equally interesting and wonderful relationship in the series, IMO, is between April and her best friend Emma. It's the kind of (platonic?) girl friendship that you see a lot in chick flicks but rarely explored in video games, where girls would quarrel, yet still stick out for each other and remain loyal through difficulties. It's refreshing because Tornquist remained respectful of the character of the girls and never degrades the portrayal of their relationship into a kind of fratboy girl-and-girl sexual fantasy.
My other favorite relationships:
- Avatar and his comrades Iolo, Shamino, Dupre (Ultima 7: BG, SI): still one of the best portrayal of camaraderie and friendship in video game after all these years.
- Arisen and Pawn (Dragon's Dogma): a master and his/her loyal guardian. It all culminates into one final moment at the ending!
- Vincent and his bar buddies, Katherine, and Catherine (Catherine)
- Ico and Yorda (Ico): a boy, an older girl. Neither can speak the other's language. Their bond grows as the boy hold the girl's hand and keep her safe from harm.
- Shion and KOS.MOS (Xenosaga): a creator and her creation. Maternal, protective, platonic bond.
- The nameless travelers (Journey): it's YOU and other people.
'necessary evil' my foot. By this logic, ANY original IP in a unique genre will eventually HAVE to become a mindless action game in order to sell better instead of expanding those qualities that made them unique in the first place. Do I want, say, Catherine and Journey to be more like CoD? Of course not!
Sad but so true. Sega is a complete dumbass when it comes to promoting their games. They have lots of great IPs like Bayonetta, Virtua Fighter, and Yakuza, but barely market them right.
@SavoyPrime yea, I agree. It looks like she got a sunny-side up stuck to the back of her neck. And the combat still looks weak mainly, IMO, because her attack animations and impact lack oomph. That said, I'm still interested in the game. I hope we'll see improvements to it in the future.
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