Comments on: Ragnar Tørnquist On… The Longest Journey

By: Metronome

Metronome — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:35:28 +0000

Reverend, I think in the term of gaming world, TLJ series has one of the best stories. You just can’t compare the story in the game to some stories that you get from 20 academy awards winning movie, best novel in the world, and/or stories that’s popular in the pub.

By: Reverend Speed

Reverend Speed — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:15:04 +0000

Fuckdamnit. Jesus. I’ve just played through TLJ and Dreamfall. Gameplay aside, how on EARTH can somebody say these games have good stories? I mean, there’s some nice dialogue, but they’re meandering, heavily clichéd badly structured RAMBLES. If somebody started to tell you these stories in a pub, you’d feel compelled to set fire to the teller and NO ONE WOULD BLAME YOU IF YOU DID. TLJ gets some points for the interesting take on a main character and the affair with the compass (which I don’t think anybody’s mentioned above), Dreamfall has some lovely little moments of conversation, it has the father-daughter relationship and some lovely reveals of older locations, but… christ on a spike.

Good stories? Seriously?

By: Dogun

Dogun — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:29:38 +0000

<3 TLJ. And Ragnar’s vision, and the writing.

I wish someone had thrown them some more time and some more budget for Dreamfall, is all, and that they had concentrated a bit less on the engine and a bit more on tying the different pieces of story together. I really loved the story until it kind of felt flat. I hope Chapters does a bit to restore that feeling of effortless wonder I had with TLJ.

By: Ozzie

Ozzie — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:23:36 +0000

It’s interesting that Ragnar admits that they didn’t plan much of TLJs story beforehand and developed it just as they went along.
Maybe, unintentionally, this gave the game a much more natural flow. Of course, they could have cut down on some overlong parts, but overall, the story felt natural.

Otherwise, I always thought that the storytelling of Dreamfall was kinda awkward, everything felt so forced, stilted, unnatural, at least in the second part.
I would love to explain why, but I forgot the details. :/

By: Yann Best

Yann Best — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:56:34 +0000

“Um. You might have confused aberration with ‘abomination’ there.”

You’re entirely right. And my vocabulary improves a jot, thanks for that.

I still refuse to accept the ‘flaws in execution’ comment, though (unless ‘not making the game work on later OS’s’ counts).

By: JonFitt

JonFitt — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:47:25 +0000

On another note: Ragnar Tørnquist, he is an Armoured Bear right?

By: Archaeon

Archaeon — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:27:09 +0000

I bought both TLJ and Dreamfall a few months ago on Steam because I was on a “NEED ADVENTUREZ!” kick and they were highly recommended. So I scooped them up (along with Beyond Good & Evil and Curse of Monkey Island) and a good time was had by all. Obviously TLJ looks a good bit dated by now, the storyline was fantastic. And the ~~storyline~~ narrative was so great that I felt like I always had a good idea of what to do/click next, instead of just randomly clicking away at the screen hoping to God that I figure out the puzzle.

Obviously Dreamfall left me wanting more, since for the entire game I’d been wondering what the hell that Storytime realm was, and then you get one little snippet at the end of the game before the cliffhanger. I was a little dissatisfied with the interface/control scheme of Dreamfall, and very dissatisfied with the completely unnecessary and unnatural fight sequences, but I was still drawn to the story. A good story like Dreamfall’s will suck me totally in and cause me to forgive all slights. I sincerely hope that we will see a true conclusion to the story, and I’m definitely looking forward to TSW.

By: Alec Meer

Alec Meer — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:26:41 +0000

Um. You might have confused aberration with ‘abomination’ there.

By: Yann Best

Yann Best — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:08:55 +0000

“I wish Bladerunner hadn’t been an aberration”

You will burn in a special part of Hell for describing the fantastic Blade Runner as an aberration. One of the greatest point & click adventures ever made.

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:30:11 +0000

I found a lot of Dreamfall utterly heartbreaking, and mostly in a good way. I’d just finished TLJ and moved straight onto Dreamfall, and seeing what had become of Venice, of the Border House and April’s old friends was just horrible. I’d not realised how much I’d connected with the characters before then.

On the changes to April, mm. It wasn’t quite as easy to swallow, because disillusioned, bitter April was so unlikeable. Having spent the first hour or so in charge of ultra-mopey Zoe I was ready for a change, but got a mopey and angry April.

EDIT: Oh, and I LOVE the idea of improv dialogue in games. Too many voice actors seem to just go with whatever unreadable mistranslated crap they’re given and read it line for line. Actors ought to be given enough free reign to make their own mark on the script.

EDIT EDIT: Oh! Oh! And he referenced Heart of Darkness! Man, I wish I’d played that past the demo when I had the chance.

By: Janto

Janto — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:30:33 +0000

Hmm, well, after realizing that TLJ is actually about the cost of two pints, I have finally bought it, although I’ll admit that the idea of a walk-and-talker isn’t making me tingle with anticipation, I’ve drifted over to the dark side of ‘the stories you tell are more interesting than the stories people tell you’. I wish Bladerunner hadn’t been an aberration, whatever about flaws in execution, the design ideas were great.

By: BrokenSymmetry

BrokenSymmetry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:28:41 +0000

I liked the fighting in Dreamfall. It was just a very short and easy change of pace, which I enjoyed in the game.