![]() Applying for a student visa will set you back £348, while international fees are outrageously expensive, starting at £10,000. Studying in the UK isn’t easy for an international student. The story is inspired by their own experiences of leaving university and living in South London, as well as how they first met, although the truth of it isn’t quite what’s presented in Friary Road, the game’s prologue. A semi-autobiographical game, No Longer Home sees protagonists Bo and Ao preparing to move out of their South London flat after university, with a touch of magical realism thrown in. You can really feel that sense of ‘not doing anything’ in Humble Grove’s first title, the recently released No Longer Home. And from there I, ‘Oh, so it’s okay to make stuff like this as well, and not just kind of… puzzley stuff like Braid’, which I started crying while playing because I hated it so much.” “I think one that really moved me was Proteus just because it was so free, it was open to interpretation. I didn’t know that making games is an option as well,” says Lee. “I didn’t know anything about indie games till I started talking to Cel. The two met at university both were studying illustration, with Lee wanting to go into animation, and Davison into illustrative comics. No Longer Home is out now on PC through Steam, GOG, Humble and Epic, and is coming this October 7 th to Xbox and Nintendo Switch.Making games wasn’t always the plan for Humble Grove’s Hana Lee and Cel Davison. It didn’t jump out to me as an extraordinarily exciting game, but it is an important one: the representation of nonbinary characters and the nonbinary experience is vital, and refreshing, and it’s a game that will hit home for those who need it most. The very dreamy and uncertain tone, the mentions of mental health and the post-university struggle were all things that hit close to home and I can see why it has been received with such excitement.įor those who appreciate the themes mentioned and this sort of narrative game, I recommend you try out No Longer Home. A lot of the things in this game did resonate deeply with me though. Having said that, I know that as a cisgender woman, I am not entirely the target demographic for all of the themes of the game, and there are things within it that are just not meant for me – and that’s okay, because not everything is for me. I’ll be honest in saying that whilst I enjoy a good and emotional narrative game, it wasn’t entirely for me I found it a little too slow and contemplational to really be something I was genuinely excited about. The environments, for all their minimalism, are incredibly atmospheric and pretty. Long, profound conversations punctuate the narrative, accompanied with beautiful and equally dreamy music. It’s also something of a slow game, and it will certainly not be for everyone, as it is the psychological dimension that really gives it its meaning. It’s far more about the story and future of Bo and Ao unfolding, and about slow-burning emotion. The movement of the characters is slow and clumsy, and the animation leaves something to be desired, but the gameplay is not the central feature of No Longer Home, so one might forgive this. You’ll navigate through the flat environment, explore, and interact with various items and people. This is a very short game, easily able to be completed in one sitting of around 2-3 hours. Those who have experienced the student life will perhaps be reminded of their own nostalgia for this specific and transitionary period of life, particularly as you explore the clumsy flat that Bo and Ao have lived in. It’s a narrative that very effectively explores the pain of goodbyes and the grey space of adulthood that comes with leaving university and going out into the adult world, and it communicates the beauty and tragedy of the everyday with startling accuracy. A whole host of characters with distinct and recognisable personalities will greet you as you explore the game. The story is all about identity, transitionary periods of life, being on the cusp of adulthood, memory, mental health, and relationships of all kinds. Davison and Lee were, like Bo and Ao, separated at the end of university. Both characters are nonbinary, using they/them pronouns, but Ao must return to their native Japan, separating the couple. It’s a story about Bo and Ao, who are facing uncertainty at the end of their university lives. ![]() It’s an interactive, visual novel type narrative with minimalist graphics and sprinklings of magic realism, and is semi-autobiographical, based on the lives of the two main developers, Cel Davison and Hana Lee. ![]() From developer Humble Grove and publisher Fellow Traveller comes No Longer Home, an atmospheric and dreamy little point and click game exploring the nonbinary experience, in the stylistic vein of Kentucky Route Zero.
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