Unity - A Long Journey [v0.9.4] [Marvellous Lunatic]

I really like the story here, the writing is exceptional, but my score is not gonna reflect what it should be because honestly I got some major issues with certain aspects of this, one of most being the forbidden text bloat

I love the writing, its even really, extremely well done. But the problem I have is that the pacing the developer writes at is gonna make this like a 10+ year project for whats in mind. It's a 2021 release, We're just about halfway through 2025, and not even 1/10th of the games systems are usable yet.

Theres a messaging system - never used, only like maybe 2 events, that honestly didnt even need to exist lol. The character just said everything that happened practically.
Attribute system - ? nothing. Not a single point anywhere.
Free roam - didn't even really need to exist. lol. It's just to hunt down "secret renders" serves 0 other purpose so far.
Inventory - Another dead tab
Map - somewhat used but, eh not really?
Tasks & hints - so you have any clue where to look on a massive 800 room vessel, but should be combined.
LI's/Characters? - Just Selene and Stella so far. Some flashbacks to Pia too, but not really an "active" cast member, just memories.

Onwards to point out that we really REALLY dont need the expressive emotes with every render, and a lot of renders are mega-cringe-awkward types that could also be done away with and save a lot of time and effort. There's kissing and sex noises, why do we also need the additional *splish* *splat* *chlik* *chlat* *pit* *pat* its just so overkill and ungodly amounts of additional labor for the dev. The scenes are extended so long by these constant "emote" sounds with only 1/10th of the whole thing being animated with a slider, and everything else being still-image. I just cannot in good faith rate a title high that wastes so much of the viewers time with unnecessary bloat.

Just so many easily cuttable renders, so much text that is emphasizing too much of what is happening, so much awkward looks, like everytime a character kisses, they stare at each other, 2 renders, look down at each others lips 2 more renders, move closer, 2 more renders, then kiss, another maybe 4-6 renders? repeating with about 30 text boxes of emote sound. Everytime the characters go somewhere, have to repeat the same cycle of renders you've seen 20+ times at this point back and forth. You could cut that in half so easily. We dont need to see their daily walk to each location. Also they can look at each other, not look down, and then kiss. I totally get looking at each other when something funny or stupid is said for comedic effect, but its just used way too much for every little thing. Even the last memory with Pia that we have up to this point, it looks incredible, its super well done, but if you hold the skip button it takes several minutes to actually get through the whole event. It's just so bloated.

I hate to be so critical but god I cannot stand sandbox games with text bloat lol, its like my mortal enemy, and as I said before, the story is SUPERB, its really good. Selene is annoying as shit sometimes, but otherwise everything else is superb. The bad guys are written beautifully, they have awesome design, the whole entire design of the ship, the containers, the innerworkings of everything, the logistics, everything is fantastic. The way the story progresses is great, the MC is realistic, just a lot of fantastic points I can give. I would even say the story is up there for 5 stars.

Kill the bloat, Cut the renders a bit, cut the sandbox or make it more worth the players time with actual events, or goals to achieve, and this would be above and beyond a masterful title.

You have something truly great here dev, honestly I mean it. Theres just so much things that may seem like a good idea, or realistic, whatever have you but turn out counterproductive that sadly take away from that.

If I'm honest, the caliber of the MC's character determines the first few scenes of the game for me, and if I can sink into that person, I'm there.
Well. Considering that the supposed profile of the MC is one that might be entrusted with a long-term space voyage -- it didn't take more than oh, 2 minutes, for this McWeinerdick to go from 'Oh I'm awake' to "Fuck!' and then again "Shit! Fuck me!" And then he started to get Really upset at not knowing what was going on. (!!)
Seriously? This is someone I want on my cruiser? What a panicnelly douche. Every second word out of his little pursed lips was profane and just stupid. I couldn't continue. I gave it 3 for guilt.
Apologies to the dev's hard work, but please, PLEASE, give us a hero to hold onto?

What a horrendous game. For starters, you call that a LI? She's absolutely horrendous. Betrays you every freaking chance she gets, and the MC just doesn't seem to care at all and just thinks with his dick.

And then at the end of Chapter 1 she goes for the triple consecutive betrayals of trust and then vanishes with her sister whose life you literally just saved, leaving you to fix whatever problem the cliff hanger is supposed to be. A cliff hanger which isn't nearly as slick as you might think it is.


To anyone thinking about playing this game, just don't bother. The story is fairly compelling but the only LI in the game is someone no-one with even just a shred of self-respect would have any interest in and the sheer number of "mpfh"s and other filler-noise text will have you groaning on the floor with carpal tunnel yourself halfway through the game.

Spoiler function not working in reviews? Ahh well I won't post that part then.

As of v0.9.4:

What a gem! I just now came across this game, and man...

Animations/Artwork - 4.75/5

Great artwork, amazing models, and the scenes are very well done. My ONLY gripe is I feel the freckles on some of the models are a little too dark, and can look like dirt spots. Maybe either lessen them, lighten them, or both. Just my two cents. No shade at all.

Story/Dialogue - 5/5

I would give this 5/5 just for the fact that the dialogue is actually legible and well-written. Not trying to shade devs where English is a second language, but some of them do not bother proofreading or are lazy with translations, and can make games unplayable. Storywise, I love it. Be warned that this game is a slow-build. If you're looking for a quick fap, this is not for you. But the scenes so far are very good.

Gameplay/UI -5/5

Probably one of my favorite aspects of this game is the customization the dev put into the character development. You can change relationships, names, pronouns - even how side characters refer to each other. Just very well done. UI is easy to use as well, and in freeroam, you can highlight clickable areas. Just very well done from a gameplay perspective.

All-in-all, easy 5/5. Really hope this game continues to grow!

Radical Dreamer

Great game. Maybe I'm biased because I like the sci-fi genre, especially human space travel. The pace is a bit slow, yes, but I can understand for the sake of the story build up. Contrary to what people been complaining, I don't see too much problem on Selene's side. If you try to see things from her perspective you'll kinda understand that she's just trying to protect her most loved ones. Plus the renders are beautiful. I give this a 5 out of 5.

The CGs are great, but boy oh boy is the story draggin on and on and on. At some point, I just started skipping and even then it felt like an hour until the first sex scene.
Characters are unlikable and the story, even if the 95% padding was cut out wouldn't grip me. The dollar store Tates don't make interesting villains at all.

Enjoying the story, wish there was a bit more content. Invested in the characters. Renders are decent (thought the tendency for veins to show so much in people is a little wierd). Hope to see more updates on this soon.

The story should be renamed "A Meandering Journey", because fuck me if this isn't quite possibly one of the most boring AVN's I've ever read. Have you seen the movie Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence? The roles are reversed, there's some boring fucking bald terrorists, and that's about it. At least Passengers respected your fucking time. Don't play this game, just watch Passengers.

The only positive is the visuals. There are some fantastic visuals. Issue is, everything surrounding the 3 sexual scenes is HOURS of fucking boredom. The most tedious fucking repetition, over and over and over and over again. There's even proof IN the visuals, the reuse of assets back and forth in-between repetitive dialogue is EGREGIOUS. This shows that the dev understands that making new scenes would take a lot of work, but still decides to include MORE USELESS FUCKING DIALOGUE.

The biggest flaw with the poor writing, besides the ATROCIOUS pacing, is the main love interest, Selene. From VERY early on, we are told that Selene is betraying us. What the dev decides to do after this, is have us deal with her snide and rude remarks for HOURS. Somehow, Marvellous Lunatic and Neil Druckmann have the same fucking issue: they think adding sympathy to an unlikeable character makes them suddenly likeable. We know she's betraying us. We know, at some point, the MC will find out. So we are just waiting and waiting and fucking WAITING for it to occur. Once it actually happens, you don't even fucking care about the story anymore.

Supposedly, this game is planned to be a harem game. In what fucking year?? This game was released here in April 2021, and at time of writing it's May 2024. I guess they'll show us the full harem in 2035.

Wonder why I put 1/5, despite saying the visuals are great? Because there's no conceivable reason anyone should waste their time SOLELY for the great visuals. The good visuals are hardly used appropriately, if anything they're used as a carrot on a stick to try and convince us we should keep going into the totally paper-thin story. It is not worth your time.

The best case scenario would be the dev takes their visual skill and creates a new story. The people who dislike A Long Journey will likely give you a chance because of the great visuals, and the people who like you already will want to see your new work.

I'll start out with something I do like about this VN. The space colony idea is neat, the body figures for Selene and Pia are some much needed eye candy for this VN, and the render quality is above average. The sex scenes (the few that there are) are intimate and personal with custom animations which makes them hotter than the typical AVN romps, IMO.

That's about as far as I can go with things that I like about the VN. My first criticism is that this is an AVN that doesn't know whether it's a sandbox or a kinetic novel. It has free roams, time management, and yet unused character stats just like a sandbox, but most of it serves no purpose. The narrative and character interactions are almost all lengthy linear scenes with nearly no choices.

So whether you're more a fan of sandboxes or more a fan of kinetic novels (like myself), Neither will be satisfied as of this version (0.8.1). Sandbox fans will find the lack of choices and mechanics disappointing, and KN fans will find the freeroams and time-sensitive events to be unnecessary tedium.

Second major complaint I have is that the current story arc itself... (we'll call it the "Saboteur" arc) is preventing nearly all progress with character interactions and romance. All but one love interest in the story right now is inaccessible due to certain plot elements (which I'll explain further in spoiler tags). Because of this Saboteur arc, the vast majority of the game still feels like it's "on-hold" until the antagonists are taken care of.

This is allegedly planned to be a harem game, yet as of three years of development, the story is still stuck in this status quo where two antagonists are in full control, the protagonists have no working ideas, and the majority of the cast hasn't even been introduced yet. As a result the story feels stale and droning, like we're stuck waiting for the good part.

Supposedly, the next version is supposed to finally wrap up the saboteur arc. Hopefully the story will improve at that point. To that point though, there has been no foreshadowing for the next arc so we have no idea where the story is going to go after this.

If you are heavily into edging this game is for you. As it takes an eternity for anything to happen. Sure the story might be okayish the first time around but you can hold the skip button, pull up your pants, go make tea, lunch, go outside for a smoke, come back and find nothing has really progressed in the game.

But yeah one thing that really irks me about this game is how lazy the dev is for absolutely no reason. Models and animation are honestly really great but for no reason at all the dev then decides like 60% of the scenes needs to have super bad stop motion moving a still imagine in MS paint....And in the same frigging scene. Like WHY? Why not just stick with the super good animations you already made instead of ruining over half the scene with ultra bad "animations"? I don't get the choice here.

The render are good. The story isn't so bad for the most part. If you don't like being in menu hell then don't even bother with this game. I finally couldn't take the menu's anymore and quit. It was the reason I quit Starfield after paying $70+ for it and there is no way I want to deal with it in a free game.

As of 0.8.1:


Yikes, I dont think an update has had me yawn as much as this one. I had high hopes for this one, back in the earlier stages. Now it's just one step forward, and hopefully only one step back soon after, sometimes two steps back. And a lot, a loooooot of reading with barely any actual progress. The visuals are all pretty, but that aint saving this 'game'. Polish a turd, it's still a turd.

Still, this one might become something really good later on. But I'm with some others, I think from now on, I'll wait til this one is actually completed(if it ever will be). Considering the amount of time between updates as well, I see this one either getting canned at some point, or if it gets finished, it won't be before 2030. There's apparently several characters left to be actually introduced, and they're not even remotely close to being 'introduced' yet. An update per year, maybe 2 updates per year, with a story that (overall) doesnt really make any progress. And the only actual girl we get to hang out with, is just getting more and more unlikable per update.
I've tried, I really honestly tried to like her, understand her situation etc. But nah, she's becoming more annoying instead of being even close to a "LI" in my book. MC is..I dunno, sometimes he's actually pretty good. When he's not busy being braindead and simping for the previously mentioned girl.

Those that still think this is a *great* game, well good for them. But I dont think this is a good 'game'. It's not a game to begin with, these are usually VNs, not games. But even this one feels more like a Kinectic Novel. Rarely any choices. The minigames that pops up now and then are just, I dunno, padding the run-time. And god I hope the "free-roam" wont ever be a huge part of the story. Its fine that it's something we can do after the actual story content is over. But dont make me run around on that ship, it's a effing maze and mess.

At the moment, I would say there's TWO good things about this "VN". The visuals are rather nice. And you can SKIP thru all the boring dialogues if you want.
It's supposed to be exciting, and the classic "uh oh, how are they gonna get out of this situation". But it just falls flat most of the time, because everyone is a dick or a bitch, or selfish, or simping, and the million lines of dialogue just puts me to effing SLEEP.
There's nothing 'hooking' me to this one, the story doesnt grab me, their 'predicament' is just...Zzzz.
The girl we 'work' with is selfish, lying and has zero issues to do things behind the MC's back. And she then has the balls to think to herself that she doesn't know if SHE, can truly trust the MC. MC is probably the only honest-ish person in the entire game atm. I say at the moment, because again, it's shown that there's gonna be plenty more characters. But f-ck knows when they'll get introduced. This game has already been in development for quite some time, and we're still stuck with the same characters we met in the very first release. MC, the girl he runs around with, her sister who's basically a hostage by the two 'bad' men. Those are the characters. Meanwhile there's several other characters still in cryosleep. When the fudge are they gonna wake up? I'm getting really bored with the same boring events and dialogues.
Two bad men forces the MC and the redhead to do this and that, "or else..". This repeats, every, fucking, day.

The first two or so updates of this game, I actually recommended this one to some people. Now this latest update just solidified what I feared, it's not really going anywhere. There's some *MINOR* progress, but that's literally *minor* after waiting over half a year for an update, and reading thru what feels like hours of dialogue and expositions that will put anyone to sleep. Hence why this game wont be completed for another 10yrs probably(not even trying to exaggarate here), but more likely being abandoned before then.
My opinion as of update 0.8.1, dont bother with this one. Wait til it's completed. OR it suddenly gets some better writing and progression (aka check newer reviews if they mention the game getting better). Personally, I'll wait til it's completed in about a decade from now - if I'm still alive that is..and even remember this garbage of a VN.
Dont be fooled by the pretty visuals, that's literally the only good thing about this VN. There's 'incest' possibility too, but nope, not even in this lifetime, as there's no family awake/alive in the game atm. There's a few of them in cryosleep, but as mentioned earlier, them waking up.,..ha. From what the game has shown so far, that wont happen for many, maaaany updates from now.

What about the sex and lewd stuff? Sure there's some. But about half of the FEW sex/lewd scenes there are, are either some fantasy, or memory of the past. There's perhaps 2 actual lewd scenes that's "in the present". Latest update, to give a minispoiler regarding lewdness, there's ONE sex scene, and it's a memory of whenever, in the past. Filling absolutely NO point or purpose more than "gotta have a lewd scene in the update". It's rather long lewd scene too, but also very very meaningless and pointless. That time could've been spent progressing the effing story instead. I personlly hate VN's that use dreams/fantasy/memory as a cheap way of throwing 'lewd scenes' at us. I dont give a flying fudge who the MC banged X amount of years ago. We're here, I care about the *now* and the future in this story. Why would I care or want to see him bang his old girlfriend or whatever, that's not even in the effing game (yet anyway) ? Again, just a cheap way to include lewd stuff so ppl dont whine about 'no sex, booh'.
So latest update: more talking, talking, some more talking. million lines of dialogue. Minor progression in the story/plan. Which obviously get's thwarted. And towards the end, the 'mandatory' sex scene, that is so pointless and meaningless that you wonder if the dev himself forgot what or where to take this story.


Again, wait til it's completed, that is, if it ever gets completed.
Perhaps this 'review' sounds very "aggro". In a way it is. Because I'm really reallly fed up with this "VN". It had EVERYTHING going for it early on, very promising, lots of potential, made me super excited. Now there's been a few updates in a row where we're basically still stomping on the same effing square we were in several updates ago. It's literally just reading and more reading, some pointless minigame now and then. And more often than not when there's a lewd scene, it's either just a fantasy, memory, or dream. So yeah, I'm upset. This game at the time of writing has WAY too high average rating.
It's not a 5, and not a 1. It's definitely neither of those.
But I gotta agree with others, this is a 2 or 3. There's nothing hooking you, other than early on, but you will also get bored eventually. The only girl we have to interact with and potentially 'bang', is getting more and more unlikable by the updates.

The game attempts to make you feel like stuff are happening, that things are about to go this or that way. But it's the same thing EVERY time. Nothing comes out of it, and/or it gets changed and you're back to square 1 again. Really, really boring game of one step forward, then back one step again.
In short, skip this one, or at least wait MANY more updates, preferably wait til it's completed. But there's at the moment ZERO indication that this will get 'good'.
You do you, but you've been warned. Do not play this if you even remotely tired, bcoz you WILL fall asleep.

"A long Journey" - indeed. could also be called "A boring Journey"

First minutes of interaction between mc and Selene and he already got scolded, slapped and called sissy. Every time they talk mc excuses, overexplain himself and unnecesary says sorry all the time. Selene just a rude bitch and I dont care about her predicament as excuse to behave herself like that towards mc. But he of course justify and simps to her like its a normal thing.

Another story writen by mental loser, no thank you. Visuals, UI and sound are good so 2 stars.

There are a lot of good things to say about this game, like :
- The renders, they're really good
- The animations are great too
- The story seems interesting (I didn't finish it, I'll tell you why later)
- The interface is really nice too

Despite all this, I have a big problem with this "game". Apart from going to rooms, having maybe 2/3 choices and the same mini-game from time to time, it's just reading. This may please some people, but personally I get bored quickly when I just have to click and read.

It's a real shame, but try it anyway, maybe you'll like it.

v0.7.4 - TLDR;

• Pros: Great graphics, well-designed game, and nicely done characters and animations. Lots of content.
• Cons: Dialogues and story are unnecessarily slow and boring for my taste. Free-roam adds nothing. A pain to read texts in such wide text-box (27'' screen). Zero story branching. Too much text, some adult scenes.
• Conclusion: A very generous 3 star. Didn't hook me. After 2 hours, I won't keep playing it.

Full review on v0.7.4:

I was really surprised that, with such quality images, good looking interface, and a cool first impression, this game had so few reviews, likes, and especially, so few Patreons... then I started playing, and I began to understand why.

As a video game, and developed with Unity, it's incredible. It's on par with Ren'py. It's got features that greatly enhance the user experience, runs super smooth, and the graphic interface is really sleek.

And the graphics and renders are also well done, just like the erotic animations. There are even graphic details like breast deformation or when two characters kiss. Visually, it's top-notch.

However, after a couple of hours of gameplay, I have to say I don't think I'll replay or try new versions. While there are sex scenes, I didn't find them exciting at all.

Another thing that people seem to like, but I found weak, are the dialogues and how the story progresses. Honestly, 99% of it is just conversations between two teens, talking about their problems and stuff... and that's the problem for me. It's just so, so boring. Conversations get stuck on one idea, and you spend a lot of time reading dialogue that could really be summed up in two lines.

It's not just long or slow, it's insubstantial. A shame, because the story's plot, although we've seen it dozens of times, has potential.

Add to that the text box being super wide (like 85% of the screen?) and playing this game on a large monitor becomes a strain on the eyes.

Other things that were a drag for me include the free-roaming, which personally I think adds nothing to this game (except having to mouse over the whole screen to discover secrets, which you end up not even wanting to find). And I really missed having decision trees. Apart from choosing to spy or not, or ending a sex scene one way or another, the story just moves on without much interaction other than 'clicking' a million times to get the next line of text.

If you like reading for the sake of reading, and sci-fi, you'll like it. And again, the graphic interface and Unity functionalities are beautiful.

And Kudos to Marvellous Lunatic. Even if I did not like it, I admire what he has been able to create so far. There's so much attention to detail in this the design of this game... I wish I had this guy's coding skills and good taste.

Most underrated game of f95zone; with beautiful renders and animations and a compelling sci-fi story, you will like it. I can't understand why some shitty anime/honey select regurgitation games get so hyped and this very well done, professional game with top notch art is so underrated.

Gripping story. It's a rare case where the protagonist is relatable and competent. the love interests are realistic. In fact, most of the dialogue and story are realistic. Makes immersion possible and takes the game from an average eroge to something most would find surprisingly wanting more of.

Marvellous sex scenes with good models and lighting. Which is somewhat rare nowadays with only certain studios keeping to that level of quality. NTL being the ones that come to the forefront of my mind.

Has great potential. The story so far has not reached anywhere near it possibly could thats not to say its terrible right now either, just to emphasise just how far it could go.

Love the game.

I don't review much or even often, too lazy for it but just doing it in the hopes of others seeing the good ratings and trying it out. Cuz I know this will get most that play it hooked. All in hopes that with a larger player base, we will get either faster updates or more content per update.

As of 7.4

Ok I have played all the content till now and just have to give this a rating that actually makes sense. The MC is Smart with computers but dumb in every other aspect. The only LI is unlikable and since its the only LI its forced. This is a Kinetic Novel plus unnecessary sandbox where you walk around an empty ship where everything looks the same for the only purpose of finding pictures for the gallery which wouldn't be an issue if there weren't a butt ton of room that you have to go through and since it all looks the same easy to forget where you have been.

story -3 there are good parts and bad parts. over all its meh
renders -4 the characters look great. probably best part of this.
plot - 1 I know AVN's usually don't have the best plots but this one tries to setup an epic opera story and its just bad.
MC - 2 We have an MC who isn't dumb when it maters but because story makes dumb choices or doesn't respond to situations with any logic
LI - 2 our only Li currently only cares about herself and her sister. yeah she will fuck MC and pretend to be with him but will backstab him at any chance for herself or sister.
Overall 2 there are some really good elements to this game but the bad heavily outweighs the good.

As of v0.7.3


PROS

• Good concept
• Nice looking backgrounds/sets
• Decent animation

CONS

• Models are meh at best
• The only LI(?) is unlikable & forced
• No choices

CONCLUSION

It's a Kinetic Novel without being tagged as such. Seems to be all about the story, which is unfortunate as it's no where near interesting enough to justify the slow pace & lack of any choice.

Great game so far.

The story is compelling, not terribly original but thats fine, simple concept with a lot of intrigue is good.

The dialogue is long and not superficial in any way, the characters feel real and fleshed out with emotion and the writer doesn't really take shortcuts with their story or the story in general. This however may not be for everyone but it shows a level of commitment and care from the developer.

The graphics and animations are really good and also not halfarsed at all, there is effort made in this too.

Overall I highly recommend this game, the effort the developer has made warrants community support. My only concern is that the dev seems to have a lot of plans for this game but so far has made very slow headway. The quality is without question but the commitment from paying Patreons could come into question with such slow progress.

Still, excellent so far and should be the bar we use for other developers of this genre.

EDIT: Just a recap and dropped it to a 4 star, I think after all this time playing and waiting on content etc, the game deserves 4 more than 5, id even go 4.5 but the honest truth is that the game takes way too long in terms of content, I mean actual scenes, more lewd and the time it takes for the tidbits of content.

When I say tidbits I mean the updates are good, the story is interesting, script is good, clever and you can see there is intellect and research behind it all. These things take time, but its not "a lot" its just mostly script, dialogue and nothing really happens. You can go several clicks in and have the same still there for ages and days later, so its mostly lines of script which is nice for story but not great for a VN on an adult site...if you catch my meaning.