"Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than any magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration." - Charles Dickens (the game's opening quote)
A Home Far Away is a freeware game made with RPG Maker that tells the story of two siblings who get lost and must find their way back home. Cue an onslaught of weird characters and sidequests that could feel like a burden at times.
It was made by Strangeluv in 2010 and can be found here
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This game provides examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: We get to see all the small changes you made to Willow Town. What makes it touching is that, combined, they seem to be a great change altogether. Then we cut to Farrah's funeral decades later and Danais telling his granddaughter about the adventure.
- Blackout Basement: The Dimming Caverns location.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: Funnily enough, the swamp in this game is named Bubblegloop Bayou, possibly a reference to the Trope Codifier.
- Bystander Syndrome: Presumably the reason why no one has solved all the problems in Willow before Farrah comes along.
- Character Development: Skarsgaard gets a lot after his Heel–Face Turn.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Subverted. Winnifred Wispe is depicted as being surrounded by black cats, but nothing really indicates that she might be crazy.
- Duel Boss: Almost every single one in the first half of the game.
- Easing into the Adventure: Overdone! Cavorting about, buying birthday presents, chasing chickens! However, you are made aware that a thief is skulking around town the whole time.
- Final Boss: A weird aversion for an RPG. There is no final boss whatsoever.
- Fishing Minigame: A requirement.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The main characters' Charged Attacks don't work when there's an additional party member.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Though many of them are somewhat explained in the Willow library, many of them still come off as nothing more than excuses for boss fights.
- Where the hell did the giant fly boss from the crop garden come from, anyway?
- Global Currency: Averted. Only the hard-to-get Flibbit Coins are accepted in the swamp.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The serpent's eyes in the background when climbing the Rain Tree. Oh, they also shoot lasers at you.
- Go for the Eye: The only way to kill Yucca.
- Homage: The second half of the game is very obviously a large homage to Majora's Mask.
- 100% Completion: You must complete EVERY quest to finish the game!
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Lampshaded with the description of Kahvi's Dog ("Who knew a dog could fit in here?!").
- In-Universe Game Clock: The whole point of the second half, where the time affects the schedules of characters in Willow Town.
- Take Your Time: The amount of days that technically pass have no impact on the effects of the game.
- Irrelevant Sidequest: The entire second half of this game consists of sidequests. However, they must be completed to finish the game.
- It's Up to You: Sure, they expect a couple of kids to solve ALL the problems in the town! What would they do without them?!
- Jerkass: Jaden Jackknife flees when it's time to fight but ends up collecting the reward money anyway!
- Kill It with Fire: The elemental weakness of Plasmax's.
- The Medic: Danais is more skilled with healing magic, whereas Farrah with the offensive.
- Lethally Stupid: Farrah lets Skarsgaard join the party during the second half of the game. Yes, even after he tried to stone Danais to death while he was defenseless in the water.
- Lightning Bruiser: Skarsgaard after he joins your party.
- Live Item: Kahvi's Dog. Lampshaded in the description ("Who knew a dog could fit in here?!").
- Mirror Boss: Rorrim. A literal "mirror" boss that sends reflections of yourself to kill you during battle.
- Match Maker Quest: You have to help Scott express his feelings for Anaya.
- Musical Gameplay: The Stop-Go Stadium, where if the music stops, you must stop or be hit by spikes.
- Opening the Sandbox: The second half of the game is mostly non-linear and you can do the quests in mostly any order you wish.
- Point of No Return: The first half of the game is so linear and segmented that it is impossible to return to previous locations once completed. Also, in the second half of the game, you can never ever return to any locations in the first half.
- Pop Quiz: Twice; one in Harly Quinn's hideout, and another (longer) one in the Land's End Temple.
- Quest Giver: The Mayor.
- Rainbow Speak: Important characters, locations and items are given different highlighted colours.
- Rare Candy: Orange Salmon and Cascaduras, two rare fish that increase MP and HP, respectively. Interestingly, they can be obtained in unlimited amounts.
- There are also power-ups floating around in certain areas that improve the main characters' HP, attack, or defense when touched.
- Reduced Mana Cost: Aurora Arcana does this.
- Shout-Out: There are numerous references to Banjo-Kazooie, including the music used for some areas. The swamp is named Bubblegloop Bayou, presumably after BK's Bubblegloop Swamp, and contains Flibbit Coins (Flibbits were enemies in BK's Bubblegloop Swamp). There is also a shaman named Jinjo.
- The scene with the mayor getting swarmed with requests from the townspeople, as well as the layout of his office, is copied almost verbatim from Majora's Mask.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Averted. You may fight any enemy or any boss at any time in the second half of the game. A good example would be the giant fly in the crop garden in Willow. You obviously can't kill it right away.
- Standard RPG Items: Tonics, potions, etc. They're just named differently.
- Talk to Everyone: A requirement to complete the second half of the game.
- Title Drop: At the end. We are meant to think the "home far away" referred to Everdale, where Danais and Farrah are trying to get back to. But at the end, we find out the "home far away" is actually in Willow Town, when Danais is recalling his tale to his granddaughter, as he claims to have gained a lot of life lessons there.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The game is a bit odd... if you compare the first half to the second half. While the first half is strictly linear and follows a set plot line, the second half just drops a ton of random quests that can mostly do in any order.
- Verbal Tic: A lot of characters speak in an odd manner. The pirate crew. The Poet speaks in a rather verbose tongue. The Merchant speaks in a strange broken dialect. The Shaman speaks-ah like this-ah.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: First and second halves of the game.
- Is this an tactical RPG with puzzle elements? Or a puzzle game with RPG elements?
- Azule Gorge, the Rain Tree, Dimming Caverns and Willow Town are based around this trope.
- Workaholic: The Postman runs about town during the entire day, determined to get all that mail delivered. And what does he do at night? Sit around and worry about the mail that is not being delivered.
- You ALL Look Familiar: Averted in Willow Town. Each character is given a unique sprite. However, this doesn't prevent palette swaps!
