It’s been a while since RPGs took it upon themselves to break from out the former traditions of being wholly fantasy-based. And while there still exist examples of that same leaning into the usual tropes of magic, kingdoms, world-ending monstrosities and a precedent to band together for the greater good, from Final Fantasy to Trails to the wider Xeno and Megami Tensei series alike to give a few examples, everything from familiar modern-day locales to an intriguing meshing of magic and technology has helped cultivate a wider palette. A palette that shows not just the genre is still one that can grow, but in some cases, is easily malleable to fit an array of gameplay styles. And in some cases, entirely different genres too.
Long Gone Days, a game having been in Early Access for some time and now finally releasing in full, may initially give the impression of a turn-based RPG. A RPG that leans towards more grounded interpretations of warfare, with real-world nations setting the stage on top. But with its Visual Novel-like cutscenes and character profiles, not to mention the sprite-based rendering of its top-down perspective world, acknowledgment (though I stop short of upgrading that to full-on credit and praise) should at least be given for how unwilling the game is in not wanting to be pigeon-holed too quickly.
A story that doesn’t dawdle on the themes it wants to convey, a combat system that’s easy to grasp. A general flow that isn’t too complex or convoluted in what it is generally speaking players are required to accomplish. Even the way the substitute for what may constitute a magic or special skill meter, in the form of the Morale mechanic, intrigues. Suggesting perhaps there’s something here to grapple with. Hopeful too that what follows in the succeeding hours will be, if not revolutionary, then a novel alternative all the same. Long Gone Days is, if nothing else, adamant on wanting to herald its own identity. Even if the concept of war and grappling with the collateral damage (material and human alike) that might entail isn’t in itself the freshest idea to undertake.
There are many things this game wants to be and wants to be seen as. Admittedly early on, it’s easy to get suckered into the mystery and character melodrama all the same – child soldiers, a shadowy nation committing False Flag operations and as noted, a game about war as seen from those not on the front-lines sounds like an interesting-enough proposal. The problem with Long Gone Days unfortunately is that past the first couple of hours, the ideas it professes are not only too simplistic for their own good, but as a result of its borrowing from a wide array of genre influences, mechanical and artistic alike, the game soon falls victim to a crisis of identity.
Take the overarching plot of Long Gone Days as the first example. Taking on the role of rookie sniper Rourke, after coming to terms with the true nature of his mission – a mission as part of the aforementioned mysterious, subterranean sovereign state referred to simply as The Core, of which he has been a citizen of – the game quickly defaults to an ongoing exploration of the struggles of a looming, continent-spanning war. Attempting to push back against the nation you’ve abandoned as well as uncovering the true nature as to why such events are taking place. Yet as potentially tense and horrid this escalation might understandably be, Long Gone Days appears relatively lax and dare I say, light-hearted about the whole affair.
To the point where an early-game invasion on a small Russian town – manufactured by soldiers disguised as Polish nationals (yes you heard right: Poland is the one invading Russia here) – is accompanied by breezy acoustic guitars in its soundtrack and a worrying feeling that the tone has mistaken this warfare-fuelled RPG for some slice-of-life alternative. That for all the talk about NPCs scrambling, worrying, panicking about the unfolding events, the game does little to convey this beyond the dialogue spoken. Whether it’s a lacking grasp of the themes or simply taking one too many influences from distant genres, Long Gone Days doesn’t necessarily suffer from inconsistency, more so that it so often isn’t sure how it should even go about conveying its own narrative. What you end up with is a series of exploring settlements and locations – book-ended by VN-style cutscenes that if anything feel more out of sync with the pixel art aesthetic – fulfilling fetch-quests and answering dialogue options as you go. Hoping above all else that enough investment in these ordeals, mundane and critical alike, can net you an increase to your character – and soon enough, a growing party of characters' – morale level.
Morale being the meter that governs the skills you can activate during the turn-based battles. Battles in question here, appearing as scripted affairs, rather than random encounters. In fact, it’s what Long Gone Days does with this Morale mechanic, in conjunction with how battles generally play out, that just might be its most interesting (and as a result, arguably best) trait present. As there’s no XP or leveling up at all in Long Gone Days, surviving each encounter becomes the focus of combat. And while short-term decisions such as which items and clothing to equip to boost certain attributes play their part, the long-term strategy in Long Gone Days is deciding how much, or little, you want to utilize your Morale meter to dish out helpful skills and potentially get you out of trouble mid-fight. Use it too much, though – causing your player-characters to become demoralized – and those you control will deal weaker-powered attacks.
Stave off relying on Morale, however, and upon reaching the full 100% applies the opposite effect – granting characters stronger attacks when the meter is full. The trick then is trying to predict and/or make an educational guess on when that next refill of Morale may come in the story. Or as the game may likely want to convey: making sure to invest in helping out the citizens of each locale, completing quests and as a result, being rewarded with Morale for your team. The issue is that outside of occasional world-building, most of these quests are relatively simplistic in their structure. Go here, find this, get dragged to another location, do that first, come back, fulfill the original quest, rinse and repeat. Worse still are the cases of having to interact with a required number of NPCs out in the field. And while it’s understandable for a game to refuse simply signposting details to the player, the consequence for this is that players will most likely end up randomly interacting with virtually every NPC in a tired attempt to simply the trigger the contextually-necessary line of dialogue.
Not that deciding against using Morale to get you though battles causes too much pain as battles in Long Gone Days barely evolve beyond the initial template of targeting specific limbs/parts of an enemy for varied effects. Attacking certain parts may be weaker, but could cause said target to miss a turn. Likewise, targeting something like a soldier’s head incurs greater damage, at the risk of said enemy likely to evade. Again, there’s an interesting set-up here, but the game doesn’t do enough to make any of this seem either rewarding or worth the gamble. Not that consecutively missing four head-shots will encourage you to try again a fifth time – battles eventually defaulting to picking the safest bet guaranteeing at least some damage on your target. Even the occasional, first-person styled sniper segments (tasking you with taking out targets with limited ammunition) are so basic and in short supply here, such is its last-minute mentioning here serves to reflect just how little bearing it ends up providing.
Closing Comments:
Briefly enticing the mechanics governing Morale might be in and out of combat, Long Gone Days' inconsistent tone and unconvincing meshing of visual styles doesn’t pull through for a narrative deserving of a more refined focus. Good moments there may be sprinkled about its exploration, its party management and so too the longer-term deciding on whether to invest or save the Morale you’ve built up, a potentially interesting mechanic is all the game can muster. In an experience that doesn’t necessarily fail outright, more that it rapidly settles into a tepid though not terrible checklist to fulfill. For all its talk of high stakes and higher drama, Long Gone Days' questionable meshing of visuals, tone and crucial decision-making doesn’t reach the happy medium it’s aiming for.
