LongStory

LongStory has some decent ideas when it comes to, well, story. The bullying aspect of high school definitely rang true, and the online relationship with Nora was very similar to the internet relationship I'm actually having. Unfortunately everything built around the story is lacking in a way that means I can't recommend a purchase in its current state. LongStory was initially designed for a mobile platform, and it definitely shows. No sound effects, no text skip, and an extremely clunky 'episode' system that means one wrong choice can force you to give up half an hour of progress. Some of the decisions I had to make were two options I never wanted to select (blabbing about the secrets of someone who's sworn you to privacy, where there's no third option to keep quiet). A lack of transitions and repetitive music make the pacing very uncomfortable at times, and a complete lack of internal dialogue/narration causes the text to feel clunky (especially whenever it's describing what the TurkeyHawk does). If it was a more competent port better designed for PC, I might've been willing to stick with this game for longer. As it is though, I don't think I have the patience for it.

I guess I can't really do a full review yet for now, since I've only played through the game once and romanced one of the characters (Colin), but I'll write my thoughts based on my experience and update this review in the future when I've explored more options. So I was really excited about this game because I was always really itching to play more LGBT+ romance games, and I'd say that I enjoyed this one despite its flaws. I liked the characters and the charming art style, and it was overall a pretty immersive game. Well, for the most part. I liked that there was so much drama, although if teen drama isn't really your thing then that might be a drawback for you. Personally, I'm a messy b*tch who lives for drama, so I was totally eating it up. There are a few things I disliked about this game though that I hope the developer could fix. My biggest issue was that a lot of the time I felt like choice was taken away from me, and my character acted in ways that I NEVER would've acted and I couldn't help that. They can be extremely nosy and intrusive, and a particular spoiler-y instance was when [spoiler]they decided they wanted to break up with Colin, even though I didn't want to at all. It practically forced me to and took away the decision. I suppose it didn't really matter in the end cause I was able to get back together with him, and that the developer wanted to progress the story and add conflict, however I still wish that that could've been done without taking away player choice.[/spoiler] Also I just wasn't really satisfied with the final two chapters. Chapter 8, the second to last one, I think should have been the last one and also should've been optional, because it's a standalone chapter that has no relevance to the story or decisions you made in the previous ones, so I felt like the game shouldn't have made that chapter mandatory, or at least saved it for the end. And also with the last chapter, I thought it focused WAY too much on one single character, and said character wasn't even the one I romanced, so I wasn't really quite satisfied with how everything ended. I'm planning on doing another playthrough romancing that character I mentioned, since the last chapter is so focused on him and it would probably more meaningful if he had been a love interest. A few small smaller gripes I have is that there's not really an options menu to speak of, just an option to mute or unmute, and also there's no "skip" feature that's really handy in VNs if you wanna breeze through dialogue you've already seen. I'm really hoping the developer adds this because as it stands, starting another playthrough is very time consuming. With all the criticisms aside, I do think this game is worth a try, especially with this current sale. I just hope that the developer will tend to some of the fixable technical issues with the game. I will update this review once I've played through more scenarios.

I originally wanted to play this on my smartphone, but couldn't get the app to work right. Thus, I was glad to see the game appear on Steam. There is so much to say about it, but I'll do my best to keep my thoughts organized. Despite the title of the game, my first playthrough was only 6 hours or so. However, the story has many paths to take, so there's plenty motivation to replay it several times. There are six romance options to aim for, each with special CGs to unlock. There is technically a seventh character to romance, but this comes up at the end of the game, perhaps for someone who didn't romance anyone throughout the game. While this story takes place in the United States, it's obvious that it wasn't written by an American. Definitely not a complaint, just an observation. I suspect it was written by Canadians, due to Canadian websites being listed at the end of the bonus chapter. There are also subtle writing differences. The British U, such as "Favourite" versus "Favorite." Common phrasing of school grades, such as "Grade 8" versus "8th grade." Also, some of the story involves the jr. high schoolers having to choose which high school to go to. That's definitely not a common American practice in the educational system. In most places, students have to go to whichever public high school is in their district or pay tuition to a private school. However, I'm not an expert on the entirety of the United States, so perhaps some states do things differently. The best aspect of this visual novel is the representation of marginalized groups of people. The beginning of the game allows the choice of pronoun and whether to look more feminine or masculine. I admit that an androgynous option would've been nice too. Among the characters, there is plenty of queer representation. That was to be expected. Luckily, there is also a lot of racial diversity as well. I believe the protagonist is racially ambiguous on purpose, so most people can insert themselves in his/her/their place. There are actually more people of color to romance than white people. That's probably a first among all the otome VNs I've played. I was really pleased to see an Arab character! He was even developed enough so that the player can learn a bit more about his culture, including when he takes a trip to Dubai. The bonus chapter is political. I refer to it as the Anti-Trump chapter. The chapter touches on many topics that many Americans are concerned about. Women's Rights. LGBTQ+ rights. Immigration policies. The Muslim registry. The increase in hate crimes. Knowing that many Americans feel helpless during Trump's presidency, the chapter was added to help marginalized groups of people feel less alone. It also gives American and Canadian resources for ways to resist oppression and become more active in grassroot social movements. Admittedly, the game can use some work. As stated earlier, this game was first on smartphones, and didn't port well for PCs. There is no skip option for already read text, which means lots of rapid clicking after the first playthrough. There's no way to scroll back to change choices. Sometimes a glitch occurs when saving, in which it resets the chapter. While not necessary, a gallery to view CGs later would be appreciated too. There are also a few typos throughout the game. Regardless of its flaws, I highly recommend the game. The story is slice-of-life, but still very interesting, with decently developed characters and a variety of romance options.

I applaud LongStory for its inclusiveness, but removing that aspect from it and looking at it simply as a game, I cannot recommend it compared to others of its genre. While LongStory does have a rather interesting storyline that resonates well with the nostalgia of school days past, it plays much more like a kinetic novel rather than an RPG, and the choices that are presented don't really feel like they have a lasting impact. They also don't seem to do much to change the resolution or ending to the game. Not only that, but at times the choices aren't really markedly different from one another when they're presented which, combined with the fact that there's very little customization available for the protagonist nor much of any skills listed that gives him/her/they a defining feature, breaks the immersion considerably. This ends up with the reader feeling more like they are watching the story unfold as a visitor instead of being directly involved. Considering that LongStory is lacking in a great deal of features that are considered standard for a game of this genre, the considerbly short play time, and with these issues presented, I find it very difficult to justify the price of the game as listed. Perhaps pick it up if there's a sale on it as the story itself does inspire some emotional nostalgia and is quite inclusive, but as much as it pains me I cannot recommend it when examining it strictly as a game.

Let me start by giving a shout-out to the devs. I posted a negative review here on Steam due to a bug/clunky interface that stopped me from progressing, and they found it and worked with me to solve the bug. Big kudos to them! However, I can't say that I was very pleased with what happened once I was able to progress. Almost immediately from the start of chapter 2 I stopped feeling like my choices mattered. Sometimes it was small, like response dialogues that suspiciously seemed like they would've applied to both options. Other times it was more egregious, like no matter how many times I had my character agree to stop pursuing the mystery about Em I wasn't given options otherwise. The game also springs scenarios on you where you're expected to make a choice about who among the possible partners you are going on a date with without so much as a scene where plans are actually made. As time goes on, it seems less like I'm playing a character with agency shaped by the choices I make and more like I'm playing a paranoid, over-excited, temperamental character in a harem anime. If this game had presented itself more as a visual novel with a set plot and characters but branching paths, I would've been fine with avoiding it; I like more freedom and choice to be who I want to be in a dating sim. It's especially startling, given one of the major selling points is that I can pick my appearance and pronouns, but despite the literal first line of this game's description being "In LongStory you can be [...] who you choose." my character is pigeon-holed into a specific role rather quickly. I'm willing to forgive spelling/formatting errors and a clunky and often unresponsive interface for the sake of interesting characters and a compelling plot, but when I select the option to "stop doing The Thing" and the immediate next thing the game does is have me do The Thing anyway, I can't in good conscience give it a positive review. Especially not for $14.99.

I have played many visual novels at this price point, and can easily say that for your money, LongStory is the best bet. The art is super high quality, the writing is incredible, and the overall experience perfectly weaves the nostalgia of high school with plenty of humor and sadness. You can tell, from the jump, that the queer experience is important to the developers. But I think the thing that makes this game stand out over most others in that particular sphere is that it tells a story that anyone can relate to, and it puts you in charge of exactly how to tell that story. It has some of the most genuinely engaging choices in a game like this. In TellTale games, most choices are a binary between two routes, but in LongStory, choices genuinely feel organically linked to the kinds of slice-of-life high school drama that don't shake out easily. Sure, you can tell this girl you like her, but what if she says no? You can ask for a guy's phone number, but what if he gets freaked out? These things sound mundane on paper in comparison to Zombie Attacks or Intergalactic Space Conflicts, but the game's writing is so immersive that I found myself caring much more about whether to hit on one of my friends than I ever would about shooting an army of space aliens. I've played enough visual novels at this point to be able to easily recognize flags that will dramatically shift the story in one direction or another, but in LongStory, no single choice feels like it is going to set you down an A or B path. Instead, the game feels like it is genuinely evolving in step with your choices as you make them, telling you a story that is actually tailored to each one of those choices, rather than throwing five or six smaller choices at you until you reach a larger, more divergent decision. There are a few very minor technical hiccups here or there, but considering we're in a time when every Triple A game has them, I can confidently say that the few quirks I've run into so far don't really detract from my overall enjoyment of this stellar narrative at all. It probably comes off like I'm writing a love letter to this game because it speaks to my experience, so for those of you who get annoyed by "issue games," I want to make it perfectly clear that half of me expected to be bored stiff by this game. I don't particularly identify as queer or trans, and it's only through the writing and storytelling of this game that I found myself relating to its subject matter. Every conversation plays out like a hilarious and awkward back and forth between the main character and a cast of colorfully defined romance options and side characters, and it feels like a genuine picture of High School romance and intrigue. I can see where that might not be for everyone, but I think this game has a much wider audience than people on the fence might think after a first glance. The themes are universal, and the game gives you true ownership over your identity as the player, giving you boys, girls, and even a giant, gesticulating Turkey to fall in love with. If you're a fan of the genre, Life Is Strange, or are just looking for a totally different kind of video game narrative, you won't go wrong with LongStory. I'm going to be thinking about it all year. It's the kind of game that reminds me just how powerful a medium games are for telling stories.

I first noticed [b]LongStory[/b] on Google Play about four years ago. However, I did not have a chance to try it out until recently when I received a gift copy of the game from the curator group. One thing worth mentioning before we start: surprisingly, this time I decided to play as a boy [i](I am a girl in real life and prefer playing as female characters)[/i]. Maybe because I liked the male option’s avatar more than the female’s one? Or maybe because I decided to try out new grounds. I cannot answer for sure right now. Well, now, this little fact aside, let me start with the actual review of [b]LongStory[/b] and its features. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1416373550 [h1]What I liked[/h1] 1) [b]The story[/b] was nice. I am not really into teen-dramas these days, but LongStory was neither annoying nor boring. Even though the pacing was off at some points, the game did its job pretty well in making me engaged with characters and their problems, dreams and affairs. Some romantic parts and jokes made me smile genuinely, and this is a good sign; 2) [b]Characters.[/b] Of course, some people were quite stereotypical. The usual bully in the form of a popular girl with her minions, the outcast who can be rebellious, the cool girl who is nice and sweet but has her own dark side, the sporty guy and…a guy/gal dressed as a Turkey mascot??? Now that was unusual! Despite being so common and overused, these personalities worked well together in LongStory. All of them have deeper sides and secrets that you might not be too keen to reveal. I would also like to complement the main character: it was nice that we could play different personalities and it affected the story in some ways; 3) [b]Lots of dialogue options.[/b] Some dialogue options had special signs next to them that indicated what type of personality would say something like this. This way it was easy to understand what kind of reaction you would receive. It was a nice touch that helped roleplaying; 4) [b]General design.[/b] At first, I was unimpressed with both character’s design as far as their sprites are concerned and the backgrounds. However, after some time everything just clicked and started doing its magic. I would describe LongStory’s design as scrapbooking or a personal diary with lots of photos and pictures. For some reason, these were the main associations I got. All parts of the design looked good together and created the right background for the story. Oh, and it was nice to see that despite characters’ sprites being static, their portraits had several emotions that they changes according to the situation; 5) [b]Back button.[/b] I was lucky enough to start playing when this feature had already been added to the game. It is a really cool option, trust me! If you did not like the outcome of your choice, instead of using the usual save-load mantra, you can just undo your actions and come back to where you had to select one of the answers. This helps to try out different options without being punished for saying something wrong. I wish we had the Undo button like this in real life…; 6) [b]Texting to Nora and others.[/b] This is one of my favorite parts in the game. I liked talking to Nora and other characters a lot and it was nice to do it via main character’s smartphone. [h1]Not sure about it[/h1] 7) [b]Music.[/b] Either it is just not my style or all tracks were too simple. Nothing really caught my attention, to be honest. However, I cannot add this point to the negative section simply because of my own taste. The music worked well with different situations and did not distract me from the gameplay. So, it was just OK and nothing more. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1417261484 [h1]What I did not like[/h1] 8) Story pacing. The game was jumping from one day to another without clearly indicating why and when the previous one has ended. This was quite obvious during the first chapter, for example. I would not mind if there was a sign like *New day has started* or *Day 2*, or if characters said something like *Well, it’s night again. Time to go to bed*, or if there was some kind of event that indicated the start and the end of the day, or just anything that brought more order to the story. Maybe it is just my nitpicking here, of course, but I felt as if days were cut every time without no actual reason and situations promptly jumped from one to another with no explanation what happened in between. As I have already mentioned, I liked texting to Nora. But sometimes she knew things that we have never discussed. For example, I do not remember talking with her about the situation with Hanna in the second chapter, and then she all of a sudden asked “How is your Hunniferjane problem?” Maybe I missed something. And sometimes characters reacted as if I selected some other option during the dialogue. For example, Marcel invited my character to watch a movie, I answered “Yes, OK” immediately, and later in the chapter he said “Next time do not make me wait so long for your answer”. It looked as if I said before something like “I will tell you later” instead; this was not right and really confused me. 9) There is no way to return to the previously read text. I needed to check some parts of dialogues from time to time, but there was not any option to do it, unfortunately, Undoing my choice would not solve the issue; 10) It would be nice if the developers made it possible to remove the interface to take screenshots. There were some pictures I wanted to save, but those four options buttons in the top right corner looked out of place and ruined the idea. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1417260566 [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [b]LongStory[/b] is a good game with nice design that looks like a diary and lots of choices to be made. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and will continue playing to look into other possible romances and outcomes. However, regarding the story, I think that not all readers will find it interesting. Teen-dramas are not everyone’s cup of tea, so if you are not into stuff like this or are just in the wrong mood, I cannot guarantee that you will like what you read. [i]P.S. Alex was soooo annoying! I am genuinely happy that I am the only child. If a had a brother like this, I would do something bad to either him or myself, I swear![/i] [h1][i][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/LucyCorner]You can find more reviews at my personal Curator Page. Please, give it a read ❤ [/url][/i][/h1]

Loved the game but the ending was abrupt and left you with no resolution to anything. Fun game, but just not worth in the end

The game was nice??? but a lot of the plot devices felt half done and not really thought through? It felt like a lot of unnecessary drama for no reason? Like I said it was a fine/okay game but I wouldn't recommend it

I really, really wanted to like this game. I played the app a few years back but as a teenager I didn't have enough money to buy the rest of the episodes. So I finally got to play it and it's.....okay? I mean the art design is nice and I do like how inclusive it is that's where the compliments end. The game was originally a mobile game, ported to the PC and while I don't mind that you can definitely tell by how clunky it plays and how blurry the screen is (not to mention the lack of graphics settings). On top of that the choices don't really matter. Sometimes they lead to a dialogue path that was obviously meant for the other choice. Pair that with the clunky dialogue and you're in for a rough ride. I think the worst part of this game is the fact that the mystery surrounding Em is poorly executed. You find out what happened to them before the game ends (which is fine) but it's not all that it was hyped up to be. Just melodramatic middle school drama. Speaking of middle school--this game is about middle schoolers. Which isn't inherently bad but it seems to advertise itself as a game that takes place in high school. It doesn't make much sense for the game to be about a bunch of 13 year olds but I digress. It's whatever, but takes away the replay value because I definitely don't want to try to romance a bunch of middle schoolers to see what would happen. It makes me uncomfortable. The game is also chalk full with queer Tumblr era humor. And I understand that's the demographic of the game but it ages the game horribly. Plus episode 8 just gave me a blank screen so that's cool. I guess. I feel like this is more like a visual novel than an actual game. I don't think it was worth 15 dollars, maybe 5-10 dollars but 15 is way too much for this game that has little to no replay value. I got RDR2 for on sale for 30 dollars. Is this game really worth half the price of RDR2 on Black Friday? It's a cute visual novel but I'd definitely wait for this game to go on sale or something and not buy it at full price. And go into this understanding that it's more or less an interactive visual novel and NOT an rpg where your choices matter.