I played a game that takes 400 days to complete

…or, more accurately, I played a game that can take up to 400 days to complete.

What I mean to say is that I played ‘The longing’ by Studio Seufz. In this game, you are placed deep underground and are given the goal to awaken the king. You, as a shade and servant to the king, are tasked to do this in 400 days when he has had enough time to regain his strength. Until that day, you wait alone in the caves, and what you choose to do in the meantime is up to you.

I first came across this game when I, believe it or not, found a video of someone speed running it. I found the concept interesting and I wanted see what else there was (beyond its very limited speed running scene). So, I found the game and got it on my phone.

In the beginning, I found myself doing a lot of exploring and collecting and, as time went on, I found myself eager to be drip-fed bits of lore. I made the decision to play it without the help of the wiki, to see what I could find myself, and also kept a log of what I did as I went along (see below). I didn’t find everything, but I did manage to get 16 of 25 achievements, including – ‘Diappointing achievement’, ‘My favourite painting’, ‘Head of a horse’, and ‘Leaving darkness’.

It’s a purposefully slow game, but that aspect works very well with the overall narrative. The whole game is centred around the concept of waiting, after all. My favourite aspects were exploring the caves, making paintings, and seeing my shade get more and more comfortable with their living situation. The only issue that I really had with the game is that I did end up getting a little bored towards the end, and just got the point where all I wanted to do was end the game and see what happens. I did also miss the shade’s birthday – which I am pretty annoyed about.

Overall, I did enjoy my run of the longing. I actually ended up becoming quite attached to my little shade (you can kinda see that in my notes). I did end up going for the most boring ending, though. I did exactly what I was supposed to do – I awoke the king as soon as I saw that the timer hit zero and I ended the world. I did almost end the run a bit earlier by jumping off a cliff…but decided against it (not that I knew that I was about to end the run at the time).

Upon reading the wiki after my run, I had a little look at some of things that I missed. Turns out that I had completely missed a few sections of the caves. The sections that I missed were the secret tower and, therefore, the secret door, and the blue face cave (as I just never went back to the broken staircase to see if the stalactite fell down). The latter meant that I never completed the map of the cave…I knew, throughout my run, that I had been missing something, but wherever I looked I could never seem to find it.

I know that the game is intended as a one time experience, but I would really like to play it again. I would like to see everything that the game has to offer myself and to get the 9 achievements that I am missing. I just need to figure out how to do that on my phone…at the moment, I can’t see any option to reset my game. So perhaps, I’ll have another log to share with you one day. Who knows? You’ll just have to wait.

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Log (24/11/2024 – 09/01/2025):

Day 1 (21/11/2024):

• Got the game.
• Read thoughts.
• Explored.
• Opened the door to the mines.
• Sat for a bit.
• Got all colours.
• Made 5 paintings.
• Found the mattock.
• Got some sulphur.
• Got disappointed 5 times.
• Found 2 more pieces of the instrument (1 left).
• Found 2 flint.
• Got the purple crystal.

Day 2 (22/11/2024):

• Started a fire.
• Started expanding the home.
• Found mushrooms.
• Kept digging.
• Got 2 red crystals.
• Fully expanded home.
• Got disappointed 2 more times.
• Broke mattock while trying to break glass (will have to wait a couple of weeks for a new one).
• Went further in the mines and found more mushrooms (glowing purple, green, and big).
• Chilled at home.
• Ate home grown mushrooms and had a dream.

Day 3 (25/11/2024):

• Went to the cliff to see if the moss had grown…It hadn’t.
• Went back home to chill.

Day 4 (26/11/2024):

• Jumped off the cliff.
• Got a new mattock.
• Got 2 white crystals.
• Explored around the waterfall.
• Found some chalk.
• Collected some moss (quite a lot, actually).
• Dug around in the mines.
• Got disappointed 2 more times (kept finding granite).
• Harvested some sulphur and coal.
• Started a smelly fire (and my little guy immediately left).
• Found a new part of the cave and explored.
• Got 1 black crystal.
• Found the hall of eternity and got a new carpet.
• Wandered the hall eternity for a while.
• Found 7 paper, 5 books, and a pair of curtains in the hall of eternity.
• Decided to walk back the hall entrance.
• Explored a bit more.
• Found 2 more flint.
• Found the last part of instrument.
• Found the library, but couldn’t get the door open and got disappointed.
• Made 3 paintings.
• Got water flowing in the home (guy has a sink and a shower but no bed).
• Played some music.
• Ate another home grown mushroom and had another dream.
• Normal fire and chill.

Day 5 (28/11/2024):

• Drew 3 more picture.
• Ate some more mushrooms and had a repeat dream.
• Started a fire and read thoughts.
• Little dude loves his home.

Day 6 (03/12/2024):

• Decided to check if that puddle was full yet. It was.
• Found the library and got a bunch more books.
• Found a big green mushroom. Destroyed it.
• Got disappointed again.
• Ate 5 green mushrooms just to see what it would do (little guy doesn’t like them).
• Realised that I need a green mushroom to possibly solve a puzzle (plant then go big near ledge) and that I ate all of the ones that I have and couldn’t try it…oops.
• Went home.
• Started a fire and realised that the little guy now grins when he is at home with a fire going.
• Made a new painting.
• Sat down, read ‘The goose girl’, and started reading ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra I’.

Day 7 (08/12/2024):

• 100+ days have now passed in game.
• Went back to the mushroom caves and planted a green mushroom near the big ledge.
• Returned home.
• Started a fire.
• Had a shower.
• Sat and stared.

Day 8 (10/12/2024):

• Went back the big ledge in the mushroom caves.
• Green mushroom was fully grown but small.
• Replanted green mushroom.
• Went home and stared into the distance.
• Replanted green mushroom.
• Went back home.

Day 9 (13/12/2024):

• Went back to the big ledge again and the mushroom was not a big one.
• Took the green mushroom and planted it under the big mushrooms.
• Wandered the hall of eternity for a bit.
• Found a horse head, 3 books, a rug, and 8 more bits of paper.
• Headed home (I love the sound of his little tappy feet).
• Started a fire and painted my new friend (the horse head).
• Started reading ‘Moby Dick’.

Day 10 (14/12/2024):

• Went back to the ledge.
• Was a big mushroom but it was not close enough to the cliff.
• Planted a bunch more mushrooms around the cliff (both purple and green).
• Found 2 more books.
• Went home.
• Made 4 more paintings.
• Started a fire and read ‘Poems II’.
• Read ‘Metamorphoses’
• Read ‘The six swans’.

Day 11 (15/12/2024):

• Checked on mushrooms and found them small again.
• Attempted to harvest the one near the cliff and little guy refused because he found it disgusting (progress?).
• Went home, started fire, read ‘Fables I’.
• Came back to the game a bit later and checked back on my promising mushroom.
• Mushroom was big! Jumped up the ledge and explored.
• Little guy said it was dark so we went back, got a purple mushroom, and went back to exploring.
• Went to the edge of a cliff, nothing happened.
• Went up the stairs and found…someone.
• They saw me and sent me straight back home (little guy actually glitched out a bit – slid on the floor and started heading straight back to where he had been).
• Decided to stay home and sit.

Day 12 (16/12/2024):

• Read ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra II’ and ‘Amontillado’.
• That’s it.

Day 13 (17/12/2024):

• Went back into the darkness.
• Didn’t really know what to do, so just…waited.
• Little guy got thinking and closed his eyes.
• Walked through the darkness and eventually ended up in another cave.
• Got 2 bits of wood and a new mattock.
• Found the way out but it was plugged up with rocks that we couldn’t get through.
• Went in a well briefly.
• Decided to go back home.
• On the way, used another mattock on the glass. I then tried again…and the glass broke!
• Actually went back home.
• Built a bed.
• Lil guy went to sleep (he deserves it).

Day 14 (25/12/2024):

• Went to the glass, took 10 coins.
• Went back to the well to see if I could do anything with the coins there, couldn’t.
• Waited for a bit. Nothing.
• Went back home.

Day 15 (26/12/2024):

• Read ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra III’.

Day 16 (09/01/2025):

• Checked in with my little guy and found that the timer was at 0 (it was time).
• I awakened the king.
• Ended up with a total of 16/25 achievements by the end of the first run.

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And there you have it – my playthrough of ‘The longing’. Unfortunately, I do not have a screenshot of my little guy standing and grinning in his final home…I really wish I had that. I had so many more paintings, some more crystals, 2 rugs, and a horse’s head on full display! But, alas, we will just have to wait until the next run, shan’t we?

Today’s album is Sentimental craving for beauty – VEiiLA