I rarely buy games, I often either rent them or acquire from less than noble sources. But there is one series of games that I shall always support financially.

The Longest Journey (1999) is a point-and-click adventure game developed for the PC by Norwegian studio Funcom.

The game takes place in the parallel universes of fantasy-magic Arcadia and a cyberpunk-industrial Stark. The protagonist, April Ryan, is an 18-year-old art student living in Stark, identified as a 'Shifter' capable of movement between these worlds, and tasked with restoring their essential Balance.

I cannot state how much I love this game and the concept reality-travel in general (so much so that I started the Alternate Potter Worlds project). The game's two settings of a fantasy world and a future cyberpunk world are icings on the cake. There are dragons, there are cyborgs, there is magic and there is space travel.

I was barely 10-11 years old when this game came out in Poland with a full polish dubbing. But man oh man, have I played it to the ground. I don't think there is a game I have played so many times. For me it has a strong replay value.

Other adventure games (and games in general) seemed not as fun to me after that. They didn't have reality travel goddammit!

Until several years later.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006) is a sequel to the above game and it is indeed a worthy entry in the series.

Dreamfall takes place 10 years after the ending of the first game. Due to events I shall not spoil, two things happened between the games, one in Stark and other in Arcadia.

In Stark, something called the Collapse caused the loss of such technologies as faster-than-light interstellar travel, anti-gravity, and neural interfaces and accompanied traumatic supernatural occurrences.

In Arcadia, the theocratic and steampunk-industrial Empire of Azadi conquered the Arcadian Northlands, banned all other religions and introduced hate towards magical creatures and non-humans.

Dreamfall has three (playable) characters: Zoë Castillo (a teenage girl from Post-Collapse Stark), April Ryan (now an adult and cynical woman living in Arcadia), and Kian Alvane (an elite Azadi soldier).

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! So we have cyberpunk, magic AND steampunk now? Needless to say, many hours were spent playing this sequel, once again in full polish dubbing.

But it ended on a cliffhanger! So what now?

Well, in November 2014, another game is scheduled to be released: Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey.

I admit the series isn't all that known and can be called obscure, so I don't expect many people from here to have heard about it. But I urge you to try it out! Sure, the first game was made in 1999 and has dated graphics, but that shouldn't matter, graphics aren't the most important thing in the world after all.

 

Ran into Dreamfall around 2007. Played it. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Except the fighting. Good grief that was so phoned in/tacked on/whatever. But the story and worldbuilding? Truly marvelous.

Got the original a few months later. The dated graphics were a bit of a challenge coming in the opposite direction, and the pixel-hunting style of adventure games was completely new to me at the time. But again, the story and worldbuilding was superb.

Basically, I second all of this. Definitely recommend. Cannot wait for the next installment.

 

For some reason, I still haven't finished The Longest Journey. I always enjoyed the bits I played, then stopped playing and... didn't feel like picking it back up again.

Dreamfall kept me hooked the whole way though. That game is great.

 

Loved these games so much, but yeah, have been waiting a mightily long time for the final installment. Can't really remember much of what went on so I might actually give them another go

 

Played both... A long time ago. Backed Chapters when it was up on Kickstarter, simply because I have such fond memories of it. Have to replay the first two games at some point before the release, because I can't really remember a lot of the details.

 

I started The Longest Journey a few months ago, but I wasn't really in the mood for a big long adventure game at the time so I dropped it. I still have it if I want to pick it up again though.

 

I recommended these here when someone asked for story driven adventure games.

Seeing the Chapters trailer after years of not thinking about it was like a punch to the stomach. Every time I remember that it's coming out next year I can't think of anything else for a while and I have to go on a binge of looking up concept art and new information. It's like The Game (not the rapper - the lame mind game that you just lost) but more time consuming. So, you know, thanks.

 

Dammit! I just lost the game. But yeah, you're welcome