Reviewed on: PC
Imagine this: you are in battle against the Demon Lord, the cause of all the evil plaguing the world, but then you realize you remember nothing. Not the names of your companions, nor how you got there. That is the premise of The Longest 5 Minutes, from NIS America.
You control a hero named Flash, and suddenly realize that all your memories are gone, right in the middle of the final battle that will decide the world’s future. As you progress through the game, you remember your companions’ names, their secret techniques and the details of your journey, until you reach the moment of the final battle.
The game was developed by Syupro-DX in partnership with Nippon Ichi Software, and was localized into English and published by NIS America. And although it is an Indie RPG, the graphics are not like those pixel arts that almost every indie game nowadays seems to use. A plus.
And it’s impossible not to be reminded of Pokémon and other Game Boy Color / Advance RPGs when seeing the game’s graphics. The effects of attacks, spells and special abilities are quite simple, matching the game’s proposal well.
At the start of the journey the whole world is covered by a strange fog; and besides that, various demons are surrounding all the known villages and towns. That is why the hero Flash decides to leave his native village and begin the journey in search of an answer to the appearance of the demons and the fog.
In the gameplay, we have the classic options to perform physical attacks, defend, use spells and special abilities, use items and flee the battle. We also have the Auto option, where we can choose preset profiles so the characters fight on their own. But honestly, on rare occasions will you use options other than Attack, since even characters with Magic-focused attributes can get by using physical attacks. That’s something that lacked better balancing.
Battles are generated by random encounters, and the enemies are not visible on the map, so you have no chance of avoiding the fights by dodging enemies, but the battle menu has the option to flee, in case you want some peace.
An interesting detail is that each memory, or chapter, is marked with the level you were at during those memories. And in each of them there are special conditions that grant experience bonuses if they are achieved, as a kind of extra mission within each chapter. And in the battles, you receive re-experience points, since the fights are taking place in the hero’s memories, and therefore they have already happened.
The dialogue is well written, but nothing out of the ordinary, and there are various jokes scattered throughout the game.
The music is excellent. None is really memorable, but all are very good and fit each moment of the game perfectly. The sound effects also do their job well.
The game is very light on PC, and doesn’t need a beefy configuration to run well. But that was to be expected because of the game’s graphic style.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
Operating System: Windows 10 / 8.1 / 7
Processor: Core i3-2100 3.10 GHz
Memory: 2 GB of RAM
Graphics card: Radeon HD 5450
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 1 GB of available space
Sound card: Onboard
The Longest 5 Minutes is a good RPG, with graphics that are simple on purpose and an interesting story, and serves very well to pass the time while that long-awaited Blockbuster hasn’t come out.
On Steam, the game costs R$ 75.49 and is worth the price if you are a JRPG fan, but on the Brazilian PSN the game is sold for R$ 143.50, and at that price there are better options on the market. It’s better to wait for a sale to enjoy this game.
Story: 7.5
Audio and visuals: 7.0
Mechanics: 8
PS: The PC version was used for the review.
Max Xavier
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