Forever Ago Review – A Lifelong Love Story

Forever Ago is a beautiful visual novel about loving someone with every ounce of your being. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, and the waterfall in the introduction certainly wasn’t the only one; so many moments were so full of love and beauty that I couldn’t help but cry. It’s a quiet, narrative-heavy game that explores grief, love, yearning, and longing while weaving in old memories and human connection.

The game opens with a scene where you take control of Audrey’s camera. You take a picture of Alfred from the upstairs window as he packs up his car. Alfred and Audrey journey to a waterfall for a school project and end up falling in love. At the waterfall, your point of view switches to Alfred and remains from Alfred’s point of view for the rest of the story.

The core gameplay includes Alfred going on a road trip, reliving valuable life moments. The player explores different environments, talks with various people, and experiences flashbacks that help tell the story of Alfred and Audrey’s lives. The gameplay is extremely simple, but in a meaningful way so you can actually fully enjoy the story, as the game focuses more on atmosphere and the characters’ arcs than on mechanical difficulty.

As you play, you take pictures to add to your journal, which is a sweet touch. Players can take up to 12 photos per area, and at the end of the story section, up to four pictures can be placed in the journal. You can pull out your journal at any time to go back through your adventure. Taking pictures isn’t just a fun little addition to the game, either. It makes you look way more closely at each area, taking everything in, just as Alfred does. You preserve the moments of the story and appreciate all the memories that Alfred has alongside him.

If you’re not familiar with visual novels, then the pacing may seem slow at first. There were a couple of moments when I wasn’t sure what was ahead, but looking back at the full story, I think everything comes together beautifully. The pacing seems very deliberate, and there’s plenty of downtime to let the story breathe and make the player think about what’s going on and why. The slower buildup really brings home Forever Ago‘s emotional parts.

One of the strongest parts of Forever Ago to me was the character selection and placement. Every character seems vital to the story, and no one is forgotten throughout. Everyone has a purpose and meets Alfred for a reason. I have never played a game where everyone feels so essential to the storytelling. Every encounter reveals something new about Alfred and shapes the story in a positive way. Even characters that do not get much screen time either come back around or leave a lasting impression upon you.

Alfred has flashbacks throughout the story that build the emotional side of the adventure, and the same recurring flowers are always Audrey’s favorite. These memories begin when you find the red petal piles throughout the story and interact with them. The way her petals and flowers intertwine throughout the story is subtle, but so important to each memory Alfred has. There are a ton of small details throughout the game that the player should always keep in mind so they don’t miss anything.

One of my favorite parts of Forever Ago is its emotional buildup and payoff. This game isn’t trying to constantly make you cry; instead, it builds important moments throughout the story with wonderful peaks and valleys that keep you engaged and wanting to keep going. I genuinely couldn’t put it down because I was so eager to see what would come next, and I became more emotionally invested as each scene progressed. I may have (definitely) cried quite a few times at these emotional peaks, because you really get invested in Alfred and the story.

The visuals are absolutely stunning; the sound and music add so much meaning to each scene, and the atmosphere of the entire game invokes so many emotions as you play. The technical aspects were also fantastic. I played the game on ultra settings with no stuttering or major glitches. The only small “glitch” I had was that sometimes, when I tried to interact with things, you had to approach them at the perfect angle, or it wouldn’t let you interact with the item and continue. Perhaps having a larger interaction radius would fix this.

The game had a runtime of approximately four and a half hours, and the pacing and length felt really good from start to end. It’s long enough to get you emotionally invested without boring you or dragging out scenes. There’s also a surprising amount of replay value, as you make different choices throughout the story in conversations and interactions, as well as finding and hitting all of the hidden Steam achievements.

Forever Ago will forever hold a place in my heart. It was an absolutely beautiful game that I would highly recommend to anybody. It is an extremely emotional game that feels intentional throughout, and will undoubtedly be sticking with me for a very long time.

Angel reviewed Forever Ago on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the review version of the game available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.