Luna was adorable and Autumn was simply enormous. The location felt authentic, a flat where you went through rooms, and it even had two lovely pet cats to interact with. The characters of Ao and Bo were relatable as were the other characters in the game. Although there are some serious topics covered in the game, it also reminds us that life is nothing if it doesn’t have a bit of humour stirred in, even during times of uncertainty and stress.

No Longer Home tackles deep, important conversations and ideas about identity, relationships, fear, and loss. After playing, I wondered if it stood for a larger metaphor about fears etc., but I think that will be entirely up to each person who plays the game as to what they think of it. It doesn’t seem to add anything to the story and is just there to create a sort of quirkiness just for the sake of adding one to the game. There is a strange supernatural element as well, and I found it to be unexpected and a bit out of place. There is a section mid game where you are playing a video game with friends and it takes on a whole story within a story, although it comes across as merely a sideline of the main narrative. This meant you could get a normally quiet person to interrupt a more talkative one in some scenes. What I did find interesting was that not only could you choose what was said, but at times could also choose who said it. There are no achievements attached to them at all. The dialogue choices have a wide range and ultimately don’t matter to the end game. You have the options to admit fear and insecurity, for example, without directing the story to a ‘bad’ place. Your dialogue options in the game seem quite natural and not really as if there are 'right' and 'wrong' choices. You’ll walk around the apartment, and garden/yard, going from room to room, interacting with items or having conversations with people. No Longer Home plays like many other narrative games where you have a sort of detached view of the game, using point and click, having an emphasis of branching dialogue choices. This also comes after the year they have spent together while coming to terms with their gender identity and starting a relationship together. No job, no home, and Ao moving out of the country is creating a lot of uncertainty for them. Ao is being forced to move home to Japan because of their Visa restrictions and they both have to move from their London flat that they share with friends. On top of that, circumstances beyond their control are tearing them apart. They are sharing an apartment and trying to make ends meet and have no idea what they really want to do with their lives.

When most people feel like their lives should be taking off, this story shows what a lot of us experience. The main story takes place one year later, immediately after Ao and Bo finish university. There is also an achievement for playing it if you are an achievement hunter. This is completely optional to play but it does help give you the back story to who Ao and Bo are and what set them on a trajectory to being together. No Longer Home starts with a preamble called Friary Lane. Its simplistic mechanics allow you to focus primarily on the story. The game was made over the course of four years and many miles between the developers residing in Japan and the UK. Humble Grove’s No Longer Home is semi-autobiographical in nature, based on the life experiences of two of the developers. No Longer Home is a story all about endings, specifically the end of an era for the two main characters Ao and Bo, two non-binary characters who have fallen in love but are being forced apart by things beyond their control. A great story and characters will easily keep me hooked and playing, unable to put the controller down until the end.

It’s no secret that narrative driven games are my favourite genre.

No longer home