Narrative driven games are among my favorite in the video game space as I love to get into a story, meet interesting characters, and have my emotions played with. As long as you can tell me an interesting tale that can leave me thinking then I can sometimes forgive the game if it’s lacking a bit in other areas like gameplay or graphics. One of the latest story driven games I played was No Longer Home from Humble Grove and Fellow Traveller which has come to PlayStation platforms after being released elsewhere previously. With story at its core, did No Longer Home grab me or was it a forgettable tale? Here’s my review of the PlayStation 5 version.
No Longer Home is a semi-auto-biographical point and click game that follows two queer students named Bo and Ao. Bo and Ao have both been attending college in South London and are living together in a flat along with some friends. While Bo has lived in London most of their life, Ao came here from Japan to go to school. The story picks up as the two are wrapping up their school life and uncertainties are now filling their heads. Since they’ve lived together, they’ve both learned a lot about themselves and each other but many more things have to be figured out. Ao has circumstances forcing them to move back to Japan which is a blow to be sure. On top of that they are having to figure out what they want to do for work and where they will be living as they will be moving out of the flat they have been staying in. I can imagine that many people can relate to what is going on but I never lived with friends or housemates myself while in school. I did face a lot of uncertainty with what I wanted to do after school so that was relatable.
While you are getting the story in No Longer Home, you’ll interact by playing as both Bo and Ao while moving your cursor around and clicking on things. Using the shoulder buttons on the DualSense you can rotate the rooms and items in the various rooms of the flat can be interacted with. These interactions aren’t as smooth as I would’ve liked though as rotating and clicking on what you want felt a bit clunky and sometimes the game thought I clicked on something I didn’t. You can also strike up conversations with other people and make dialog choices but this isn’t a choice-based game though so nothing you say will change any outcome on the story. The game is relatively short as if you just focus on the objectives you’ll finish under and hour while if you take your time exploring and interacting with everything in the house, you’ll get maybe two hours out of it.
With this game being so story focused and so short you can finish it in a single sitting I don’t want to give too many things away with the story. I’ll just say that while it touches on a lot of topics with many of them being important, I didn’t think it spent enough time on some of them for me to really care. Many story-based games leave a lasting impression on me but this one just didn’t for some reason or another and I’m not entirely sure why. The game doesn’t impress visually either as it uses a more minimalistic art style so there isn’t much detail in the characters. Voice acting would’ve been nice but you’ll be reading all the text yourself in this one.
No Longer Home is a short, narrative experience about two people who care a lot about each other and who are struggling with what comes after college. Many of the topics I couldn’t relate to but some did get me thinking back on my past experiences and it will likely be the same for many other players. I don’t think this one is a must-play but if you like these types of games and have an hour or two to spare then it can be worth a shot.
*No Longer Home is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. PlayStation 5 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
No Longer Home
$14.99
Pros
- Short narrative experience that touches on some serious topics
- Simple point-and-click gameplay that anyone can play
Cons
- Interacting with the world can be a bit clunky
- Doesn't explore all of its topics well enough
