Dreamfall - The Story Starters Guide (No Spoilers)

The first episode of Dreamfall Chapters has been finally released to the joy of adventure game fans world wide. For longtime fans, this game is a real must have, but if you are a newcomer you may find yourself lost in its deep and compelling story if you haven't played the previous installments which were The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Today, as a fan of the series I will try to give you a little insight of what the game is about while doing my best to avoid spoilers, just in case you are curious about this series of games, but have no idea about their story. I am going to try to be as generic as possible so I don't spoil any important details, so you can safely read at your own pace and try the games later if you want.

A) The World of The Longest Journey
The whole environment in The Longest Journey series goes back and forth between 2 worlds. The first one is called Stark which is based on reality, reflecting our world with the existence of real cities and the various occurrences of the human lifestyle with a cyberpunk touch, going from the most mundane of things to the most bizarre. On the other hand we have Arcadia, which is a world based on magic. This world looks and feels like your classic medieval fantasy setting consisting of villages, dungeons, exotic places, townsfolk, warriors, priests, warlocks and even dragons. On this world we also have different types of living beings that populate the realm and are not exactly human.

If we are going to name the notable villains in the first two games, we have a giant mega-corporation called Wati-Corp on Stark and a corrupt religious empire called The Azadi on Arcadia. Both of them will try to stop April and Zoe (See characters) from doing what they need to do in order to restore the balance between both worlds, but they are not connected in any obvious way. Giving any more details would spoil the fun of getting to know these crooks up close and personal, but you will see how each of them have their own beliefs / big scheme and how they put their respective plans in motion to basically enslave their corresponding worlds if they can't destroy them.

B) Characters
The main characters in the series go as follows:

April Ryan: April is the protagonist in the first game (The Longest Journey) and a secondary character in Dreamfall. She starts in the first game as an Art student in that discovers that she has certain powers that enable her to travel into another world. This discovery turns her life upside down as she finds herself in a struggle to save both worlds and ensure that neither of them meets a premature end. She will also discover that she doesn't know herself as well as she thought.



The Draic Kin: The Draic Kin are a race of mystical dragons that have the purpose of protecting the balance between worlds without directly interfering. Most of the time they will give messages and remind April of how important she is to both worlds. In some ways the Draic stand as the benevolent and wise gods of Arcadia and can take a human form at will if it serves their purpose.




Crow: Simply put, he is a magical crow that talks. He becomes April's friend in the first game and follows up to meet Zoe on Dreamfall. He is kind of corny and throws a lot of bad jokes, but he is also very helpful, giving clues to the both girls when they need them the most.





Zoe Castillo: Zoe is the protagonist of the second game (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey). She is a kind of depressed young woman who is living without any purpose in life. When the game begins she is already having it rough after recently dropping out of college and breaking with her boyfriend Reza. Her life takes a very different turn when in another one of her "dull and event-less" days, something happens that makes her share April Ryan's fate although not through the same means.




Reza Temiz: He is Zoe's ex boyfriend and one of the most mysterious characters in Dreamfall. Based on what it is known about him, he is some sort of a journalist that is involved with Wati-Corp in Stark. We also know that he is involved with the company's secret agenda (been the one that sets in motion the whole ordeal that Zoe lives through) and for some reason he vanishes without leaving a trace.




Kian Alvani: Alvani begins a warrior for the Azadi in Arcadia. He is sort of a paladin who fights to defend "The Goddess" which is the main icon of his religion and to destroy a resistance movement that threatens the empire. His faith is admirable, but his iron clad loyalty will become a problem to him as the story progresses and you will see why he is not as great and important as he think he is in the beginning.




The Vagabond: This mysterious being lives in a rift between both worlds and seems to serve as a guide to Zoe. This mystic will make few appearances, but will prove instrumental at giving you information about the grand scale of things. See him as a sage who will reveal what needs to be done and why.



There are many other characters in the story of The Longest Journey series, but these ones are the most significant.

C) The Story (Synopsis)
In The Longest Journey, the story start as an art student called April Ryan visits Arcadia by mistake and meets the White Dragon (See Draic Kin) who tells her that she is the heroine that will bring balance to both worlds. Just after that, she gets attacked by some dark force called "chaos vortex" and that's when she gets back. That surreal experience turns her world upside down as she discovers that she is a "shifter" (person who can travel between worlds) and begins her quest in her own world (Stark) even when nobody believes what she says. Soon, she starts turning skeptics into believers (mostly her closest friends) and as she gets used to crossing between worlds and begins solving problems on both of them, she becomes a threat to the dark forces that want to destroy the balance between worlds, so they will do whatever is needed to stop her. Her journey will take her to the deepest parts of Stark and Arcadia as she tries to solve the riddle of how she can save the so called "balance", involving her friends, new found allies, the Draic Kin and a magical crow that helps her through her journey.

Next in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, the story shifts to the life of a girl called Zoe Castillo. In the beginning Zoe's life has no purpose or direction as she dropped out of college and broke up with her boyfriend. Living in this predicament leaves Zoe with all the free time she could want, so as her dad leaves to a business meeting in another country she plans to make a party in her house with some of her friends. All seemed well, but while she was organizing the event her ex boyfriend Reza Tamiz appears and asks her to look for an important package in his apartment. Seen that they are still good friends, Zoe agrees, but after getting to his apartment she becomes involved in a big conspiracy that will lead her all the way to Arcadia where she meets an older April Ryan that has become somewhat of a leader in the fight against the Azadi.

Now Zoe who has become her own kind of "shifter", becomes an even more important piece of the puzzle as she struggles against both the Azadi and Wati Corp in the fight that will decide the fate of both worlds.

D) The Connection With Dreamfall Chapters
This part of the starters guide has big spoilers so if you really want to read it, click the show button, otherwise play the games first.

In the end of Dreamfall, Zoe Castillo is left in a coma by her own mother (she connected Zoe to a device called a "Dream Machine" that keeps her permanently connected to the dream world) because she did not wanted Zoe to reveal her newly discovered secrets. Now on Dreamfall Chapters Zoe begins in a comatose state while April Ryan appears to be dead and Kian Alvani is trapped in the Azadi prison at Marcuria, waiting to be executed. The story goes on, once again stressing the importance of Zoe to the balance between both worlds as The Vagabond sends her back to the real life so she could fulfill her duties. Up until the point where Zoe comes out of the coma, she had been living in some sort of limbo where she had developed special powers and used them by helping others when they had a nightmare while using a Dream Machine.

Wrapping it up
I hope that this little story guide helps to spark your curiosity even more so you can give a chance to this great series of adventure games. I wouldn't suggest you to skip the previous games and just start on the new one, but I'd be glad if this little insight into the story of The Longest Journey series of games gets you on the right track so you can understand what you will be seen and experiencing in Dreamfall Chapters.

The Journey Continues In Dreamfall Chapters

There are a ton of things happening in the gaming scene right now ranging from first person shooters, to hack and slash type of games all the way to rpg and driving games, all of them are promising to be good and diverse gaming experiences. The wave of games that the community is about to get is a real hype train, but today I will go a little into a soother (and more surreal) side of games to come by talking a little about Dreamfall Chapters.

It is quite possible that you haven't heard about the game and that is all right because this one comes from the niche, but interesting genre of adventure games. When I say "adventure games" it is not to be confused with games like Legend of Zelda or Tomb Raider. This type of adventure game is a lot more subtle, built in a gaming environment where puzzles (as in solving problems) are more dangerous to your game progress than the enemies themselves (that is if the game has enemies to defeat, which is not that often). These kind of adventure games are not so famous right now, but they used to be in the 90's and early 00's so it has been kind of a long time since adventure game fans had a real fix with a new installment on one of the big games in the genre. Luckily for us (yes, I do love those games) one of the biggest adventure game series is roaring back to life with Dreamfall Chapters.

The Longest Journey, this is where it all began.

Dreamfall Chapters will be an episode based series of games that will serve as the sequel to The Longest Journey and Dreamfall series. Those two games were pretty popular within the adventure game fans back in the last decade, featuring a beautiful and engrossing story with clever puzzles and a surreal environment for gamers to explore. The Longest Journey was released just on the beginning of the new millennium (2000) and received many praises because of its engaging storyline, cool puzzles and situations to solve. This one was more of a point and click game, but instead of been from a first person perspective like the Myst games, TLJ worked from a third person perspective with pre-rendered background images, so wherever you clicked the character followed. The story of the game went around a girl called April Ryan and all the adventures she had when she discovered that she could travel between two worlds. One of these worlds was our own (technology based) which is called Stark and an alternative one (magic based) called Arcadia. On TLJ, April must learn how to unleash her potential as a "shifter" in order to save both worlds from collapsing.

Dreamfall has a lot of Arcadia in it, but it still gives us a more futuristic style. 

After the success of The Longest Journey, the series took a rest and then came back with a sequel which is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. This game was released in 2006 and it continued the story some time after the end of the first game. On this one, you play as Zoe Castillo who begins as an apathetic "whatever, my life is lame" kind of person who gets mixed up into the "Shifter" business when she ends up in Arcadia while uncovering a strange conspiracy involving her ex-boyfriend and a mega corporation. With Dreamfall, its developers tried to go for a different approach and made the game to be a little more active, meaning that you could fight enemies and play some stealth parts, all while keeping the puzzle solving mechanics intact with the use of a clever control scheme that for the most part worked pretty well. In simple terms, As compared to the first game, Dreamfall was a darker, more futuristic and active game experience and even though it wasn't as popular as its predecessor (with an ending that wasn't well received by the fans) it was a good game in its own right that paved the way to its soon to come sequel.

Now enter Dreamfall Chapters. This episode based game will be the direct sequel to Dreamfall and its been developed by Red Thread Games by using the Unity3D engine. The project began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 which closed with a total of more than 1.5 million dollars, an amount way over their initial $850,000 goal. Up until now, the people at Red Thread have shown some images and videos and the game is shaping up really good. The really cool thing is that based on their Kickstarter page updates, they are almost ready to release the first chapter in the series which is sub titled "Book One". The game will be a (console) timed exclusive for the PS4 while also launching on Windows, Mac and Linux, but they are also considering other platforms in the future.

Zoe is back and we are itching to know how.

Based on what has been shown about the game on the net and its showcase on Gamescom, Dreamfall Chapters seems to keep most of the elements featured in Dreamfall, but this time having a polished version of the main game play mechanics. They also seem to be doing a great job in solving the problems that the previous games had while adding up some new features. Let's see some of the game's more noticeable details:

• A more open gaming environment.
• Three different characters with their own adventure.
• Choices to make that will affect the whole game. 
• A big graphic update (a bit obvious, but worth mentioning).
• A very good improvement on voice acting.
• A more direct interaction with objects in the game.
• The possibility of the characters changing based on how you play.

It is also important to point out that fans of the original games will feel right at home and may even get a deep nostalgic feeling out of some of the places featured in the game as they look fresh, but at the same time are very recognizable if you played TLJ and Dreamfall. The game will also have the appearance of most of the old characters as the story of Dreamfall continues and reaches the long time conclusion that fans have been waiting for.

A cool concept art of Stark in Dreamfall Chapters.

Wrapping it up

Dreamfall Chapters is nearly here with the soon to be released Book One of the series. If you are a long time fan, this is something we have been waiting for years and we couldn't be any happier about it. If you haven't played the game before, I suggest you get the previous games (Steam is a good place to get them) so you can get the hang out of the story before trying the new one. The game is stated for release on Autumn 2014, but no official date has been given yet, so stay tuned and dream on.

Bonus Stage

If music is your thing, know that you can have your music featured on Dreamfall Chapters. Just go to the game's Kickstarter page and follow the instructions. It is a cool opportunity to get your music talents into a video game.

Sources:
Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter