Recent reviews by Kyriskat

As a fan of this series all the way back to the original "The Longest Journey" I felt I had to give a review on this.
And as a story driven series, YES you should play the other games first if you can.

I played The Longest Journey and enjoyed it, even playing it some years after the initial release.
I was pleasantly surprised when Dreamfall came out and felt the game actually managed to do a good job blending a modern puzzle/adventure game but focusing on more drama to keep it entertaining and add mysteries to the story.
I followed the news of a sequel for years and then one day I discovered Dreamfall chapters was finally released.
I was so excited because it managed to sneak up on me that it released.

Now that I have fully played through every chapter I can honestly express what I think of it.
First, I enjoyed it. And I think I would have still enjoyed it had I not played the other games. However, as difficult as it is to say, this installment as a whole left me disappointed.
I think I just expected too much and although I wanted to love this game, it just wasn't the case.
To me, the game starts off well enough and looks great. I was awed by exploring the city in Stark at first and actually got lost. Similarly traveling to Arcadia again you have to actually learn to navigate the city. It felt expansive and believable or at least at first it does but then you wander through the same areas across the 5 chapters and it starts feeling... more repeative and almost like a bother to where you just want to get to the next destination so you can advance the story.
THIS to me is where I have to say made the game less appealing and it's real weak point. The other games felt like a journey, you were constantly going to new locations and between worlds there was just so much variety between everything. New creatures and characters in Arcadia or traveling to entirely new locales in Stark there was always a lot of variety and thats what made the games so immersive.
Similarly the characters in Dreamfall chapters were just less memorable to me than even in Dreamfall despite being a shorter game. But there are still some great characters, it's just some felt more one-dimensional and weaker than usual.
Dreamfall chapters seems to suffer from pacing across the chapters. Theres some really aweasome moments in the game that I loved but it just feels like it could have done more or at least had more going on to really keep you engaged. Kian's chapters particularly tend to feel "slow" to say the least. Which is a shame to say as I think his voice actor and design was excellent in this game particularly.
I know it likely seems negative but I still do love this series and thats exactly why I do recommend this game still because it is still a good game and a great series. I can tell a lot of work was put into this game. Theres a lot of inspiration in all the lore and it doesn't rely on typical depictions of good and evil.
My recommendation is give it a try as you might be surprised with trying something new.
I'm still really happy this game became a reality and I think some of my critique is partly based on just not seeing more from this game universe but all good things come to an end.