SPOILER WARNING - Plot (compilation from various sites)
Between science and magic, between order and chaos between Stark and Arcadia there is an ancient balance. For thousands of years the Guardian of the Balance has preserved the Divide between the twin worlds (Stark the solid world of logic and technology that most of us consider to be "reality." Arcadia is the chaotic world of emotion and magic). But now the Guardian has abandoned his tower, the armies of Chaos are advancing and the fate of the worlds is in the hands of one person...the reluctant heroine April Ryan, who at 18 years old leave her repressive home environment and seek her fortune as an art student in Venice, a bohemian slum located in the heart of the sprawling metropolis of Newport. With the power to pass between worlds, April is tasked with restoring the Balance between the two dimensions, before Chaos overruns both worlds. To achieve her goal April must come to understand both worlds (or at least understand herself in both contexts) to achieve lasting balance. As she comes to understand the worlds around her, she solves puzzles to move the plot of the story forward. The creatures, and humans, with whom April interacts vary widely. Some of them add depth to the story, such as the enigmatic Cortez, who does his best to provide some guidance to the struggling protagonist. Others provide breadth, helping to fill out our image of the twin worlds. What makes the game stand out is the believability of the young heroine. Though as a teenager in Stark, April has futuristic technology at her disposal, she still has to deal with many of the same problems students have today. She also has mundane problems with her parents, which become clearer as the story progresses. April does not have any experience that would prepare her to deal with being dropped unceremoniously -- in her nightclothes, no less -- into a magical quest. This is rather refreshing. Most heroes in this style of fantasy adjust to their circumstances far too easily. April never feels terribly heroic; she does heroic things because they are necessary, and she has the courage to resist her doubt and fear. In so doing, she teaches us about our own courage.
TLJ offers 40 hours of fantasy/Sci-Fi gameplay, including all the side conversations divided into 13 chapters. The player controls a single character (April Ryan). TLJ is a third person exploratory graphical-adventure game, also known as an "interactive movie". Such games are more about characters and stories than about the technicalities of interaction. There are no challenges of manual dexterity -- no high-speed chases to maneuver through, no shoot-outs to survive. Adventure games provide their challenges in the form of intellectual puzzles and clues hidden in the environment. As noted from the previous post Adventure games foster judgement, observation, process thinking and reasoning.
Things I would change in the game
- The plot was linear, the quests all needed to be completed in a pre-ordained order and most of the quests could only be completed in only one way. This to me, if transfered to an educational game would feel too much like a regular skill and drill transmitted exercises. I would open up the plot so that items could be collected in any order within a chapter and could be used or combined to move the character through to other chapters. If the order does not fit the story arc then the object could be returned to the inventory to be used again in a more appropriate spot, yet other chapters have been opened and new information is gathered.
- I would vary the puzzles which are required to be completed to move the game forward. For the most part they were comprised of figuring out which objects could be used where and if more then one object is needed how they can be fit together. There were a couple of exceptions e.g. figure out the hieroglyphics on the statue so they align to make a communication system. This required more reasoning than just placing a key in the door to make it open.
- There was no way April could be injured or die. If she didn't do something quickly there were no consequences, or the player tried to make her do something that could hurt or kill her April would refuse. I would have the game in three modes one with timers and levels where April could get hurt and loose lives, the second with no timers but the character could still get injured if the wrong choice is made or would have to double back in order to get out of trouble (this level I would even consider making more interactive having the character confirm the player's choice if it doesn't slow down game play). The third mode would keep the game as is.
- I would make the cut-scenes shorter and intersperse them more so that the same information is reveled to the player just in more frequent smaller doses I found myself wanting to hit escape to skip back to the game play, but knew if I did I might miss important information.
The best thing the game did was provide choice of conversational alternatives, and I would definitely do this as well. Have April go back on her word, or be rude and their were consequences to the story moving forward.
I wish I could bring TLJ into the classroom and use it to show that commercial games can be used educationally, the way Kurt Squires assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison did with Civilization III; however, the game is rated M17 for language and sexual innuendo so I cannot.
The next post will show how The Longest Journey fulfills the criterion of a hero's Journey as per Joseph Campbell's model.
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