Long Gone Days from Serenity Forge and This I Dreamt is a narrative-driven wartime RPG on PlayStation 5. Learn more about it in our Long Gone Days review!
Long Gone Days from Serenity Forge and This I Dreamt is a narrative-driven wartime RPG on PlayStation 5. You’ll be playing as Rourke, who has risen through the ranks as a highly skilled sniper. After learning a bit about Rourke’s backstory, you’re immediately thrown into the action. Four drones have entered the area, and you’ll need to use your sniper skills – and limited ammo – to take out all of them before it’s too late. You’ll be moving your aim with the left analog stick or the D-Pad and shooting with the X button. Simple, right? Unfortunately, as soon as you take down the drones, several soldiers show up! You’ll need to dispose of them quickly before they manage to break into the tower.
You manage to take down four soldiers, but your efforts are not enough to keep two of them from entering the tower and shooting at the civilians. It’s then that you’ll go into a close-range turn-based battle from a first-person perspective. Most enemies will have different spots for you to aim at, and every spot will have different stats to consider. You’ll be able to check them during target selection. If you aim at certain body parts, you might be able to find an advantage in battle. The harder it is to aim at a body part, the higher the potential for dealing more damage. Parts that are easier to shoot will probably have a higher defense stat, so be sure to experiment as you go to find what works for you.
Each of your party members will be able to attack, use a skill, or use an item. Attack is the most common of the three and will allow you to deal good damage to your opponents as you chip away at their HP. Skills will require you to spend skill points to activate, but they can make a big difference during battle. Take, for example, Lynn’s Full Burst skill. By spending 11 skill points to activate it, Lynn will unload an entire magazine on an enemy, which can certainly deal a ton of damage in one go! She could also use Sprint, which can raise an ally’s agility for 3 turns.
Or you could use Rourke’s Center of Mass skill, which delivers a quick and powerful shot at the center of mass of his opponent, which could help to turn the tide of battle. Something to keep in mind is that while attacks have a chance of missing their target, that will not be the case for skills, so use this knowledge to your advantage so that you can deal the killing blow when needed. You can also end up paralyzing your opponent if you, say, shoot them in the arm. Some items can be used to recover skill points, heal your party’s wounds, or deal damage to opponents as needed.
Something else to keep in mind is how there can be different status effects inflicted on characters during combat. These status effects include bleeding, which will deal damage over time, or blind, which can make it easier to miss the target. There’s also the aforementioned paralyze that can keep a soldier from acting in battle. The last status effect to consider is marked, which will make the enemy focus all their attacks onto a single target.
After the battle, you’ll be brought back in time to better understand how things got to that point. The main character has been selected to lead a special operation known as Operation Pregolya, which aims to offer support and aid to the Polish forces in Kaliningrad while wearing Polish army uniforms. As part of the Core, an extensive state located below the surface of the Earth, currently governed by Father General Eugene Weisner, you are part of an elite group of soldiers trained from an early age to be the best they can be in order to keep The Core and its citizens safe.
During your mission, you will get a chance to boost your morale by helping civilians on the surface, as well as your company. By boosting your morale, you will be better prepared to deal with the hardships of combat. Your main mission is clear, but taking on additional quests here and there as you take on each new area will be good for your party’s morale, as well as providing you with some bonus items here and there that can make a big difference during some of the more challenging battles.
The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. And since this one is a Cross-Buy title, your purchase will allow you to download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost. Each version will have its own trophy list, which is split into 33 Bronze trophies, 8 Silver trophies, and 5 Gold trophies. Some of the trophies will pop as you progress through the story and complete objectives along the way, but a good chunk will pop for completing the different additional quests you can work on.
Long Gone Days is a narrative-driven wartime RPG. I enjoyed the game’s story, liked its turn-based battles, and loved the pixel art style and the game’s soundtrack, which does a great job at accentuating each different story beat – no pun intended. The twists the story took kept me coming back for more, making this an easy one to recommend. Long Gone Days is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $24.99 purchase will allow you to download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This Long Gone Days review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Serenity Forge.
