System Requirements
OS: Windows 95, Windows 98
CPU: Pentium 166 MX
RAM: 32MB
HDD: 200MB
VIDEO: 2MB SVGA 16 bit color Direct X compatible.
SOUND: 16 bit DirectX compatible sound card
You are April Ryan, an eighteen year old art student living in Newport. Recently you have been having some very strange dreams. They are very realistic, and often take you to another magical world. You will soon discover that this other world in your dreams is very real indeed. Furthermore, you are what they call a shifter and you can travel between the two worlds. The two realms are Stark (earth) and Arcadia. Stark is a place ruled by science whereas Arcadia is a place ruled by magic.
These two worlds were once one, but are now separated by a guardian and a balance power. Something is wrong though, things from Arcadia are slipping into earth through your dreams and when you are awake. The balance is failing, and guess who gets to save it.... The title is true to it\'s name, you will be embarking on a long journey indeed. In order to save the worlds you must understand it\'s past. You will be doing research on the past, as well as brushing up on fairy tales to solve many puzzles to help different races out. You will meet and help many mystical creatures along the way. You will see Dragons, merpeople, huge crabs, mole people, witches, etc. Many of these races have prophesies of your coming and tests you\'ll have to complete to prove yourself to them.
These will not be easy, I often had to refer to http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/tlj.phtml for help. Most of the time you are on your own but you will have many friends that will help you along the way. You have your best friends Charlie and Emma who live with you at the boarding house in Newport. There\'s also Cortez to knows about the dreams you are having and will explain them and the situation of the two worlds to you. In Arcadia you will meet and restore peace among many tribes. You are a good listener and will help many with their problems.Another friend you will meet on your journey is a talking bird named Crow. He will be a very valuable and equally entertaining.
From a Christian perspective there are a few issues with this game. My biggest complaint is the swearing. This games uses every word in the book, multiple times. I honestly think this game has more swearing than all of my games combined! I wish there was an option to turn that off. There are some drug and sexual references too. For example, your landlord is a lesbian and talks freely about her love life. Your best friend is \'easy\' and talks about hers too. I guess this is to help your great listening skills? My last area of concern is religion. Every one in the game refers to the balance. They will say things like 'By the balance', or 'May the balance be with you' etc. The whole belief system seems to be new age sounding. Christianity is mentioned, but only as an inferior religion. There\'s a priest in the game who plays both sides and mentions that he read the bible but it didn't make sense. Yet the balance was the truth and brought him closer to God. Umm yeah, whatever.
The game is easy to install and configure. When you launch the game you can choose your user and video settings. The graphics requirements are pretty low and they look pretty decent. The background is very detailed and the characters look nice too. For those who have the capability to use Full Screen Antialiasing, I would highly recommend using it to smooth out the character design. It makes quite a noticeable difference. The music and voice acting in the game were great. All the characters had very fitting voices. There was even one that reminded me of Forrest Gump. One thing I found strange was that I did a complete install (2 GB), and I found that the music and voices would stutter a bit. Even with the stuttering in the game, it did not crash at all. It ran well in Windows 2000 although it\'s not supported.
For controls you use mainly the mouse, there are keyboard shortcuts as well. The X key comes in handy for finding exits; sometimes they are hard to see. Overall, this is a very fun game. It has an awesome storyline and is quite funny at times. My biggest complaint is the swearing, but if that doesn't bother you, I would recommend the game. If you do manage to beat the game, check out the book of secrets. It has extra artwork, music and my favorite: out takes!
