A Home Far Away

"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 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. But those who have played it to the end, find the ending scenes immensely rewarding.

It was made by Strangeluv and can be found here.

Tropes used in A Home Far Away include:

• Action Girl: Farrah.
• And Now for Something Completely Different: 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.
• 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: Dimming Caverns.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Funnily enough, the swamp in this game is named Bubblegloop Bayou, possibly a reference to the Trope Codifier.
• Boss Subtitles: For each boss.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Merick Graydu.
• Capital City: Willow Town.
• Character Development: Skarsgaard gets a lot after his Heel Face Turn.
• Charged Attack
• Child Mage: Both main characters.
• Circus of Fear: Harly's hideout.
• Climax Boss: Harly Quinn.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Cap'n Grizzlybeard. Yep.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Subverted. Winnifred Wispe is depicted as being surrounded by black cats, but nothing really indicates that she might be crazy.
• Drop the Hammer: Skarsgaard after he joins your party.
• 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.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys
• Everything's Better with Penguins
• Final Boss: A weird aversion for an RPG. There is no final boss whatsoever.
• Fishing Minigame: A requirement.
• Friend to All Children: Remy.
  • Penguincasso!
• Friend to All Living Things: Von Windlove (or at least, friend to all birds).
• Fungus Humongous: The Swamp Underworld.

• Game Breaking Bug: The main characters' Charged Attacks don't work when there's an additional party member.
• Gang Plank Galleon: The Mighty Matey pirate ship.
• 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.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
• Guide Dang It
• Heel Face Turn: Skarsgaard.
• 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?!").
• I Choose to Stay: Skarsgaard.
• Idiot Hero: Danais.
• 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.
• 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: Skarsgaard.
  • Jaden Jackknife flees when it's time to fight but ends up collecting the reward money anyway!
• King Mook: Plasmax.
• The Medic: Danais is more skilled with healing magic, whereas Farrah with the offensive.
• 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?!").
• Loads and Loads of Characters: The non-playable cast. In the second half of the game, you must interact with and keep track of approximately twenty townspeople. Just remembering their names can be a task for some. Fortunately, the Quest Log helps.
• 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.
• Meaningful Name: All over the place.

• Monster Clown: Harly again.
  • Inverted with Remy.
• Musical Gameplay: The Stop-Go Stadium, where if the music stops, you must stop or be hit by spikes.
• Narrator All Along: Danais.
• 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.
• Port Town: Montrose.
• 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.
• 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.
• Simple Staff: The siblings' only weapon throughout the game.
• Soft Water: How Danais survives a fall from a cliff.
• Somebody Else's Problem: Presumably the reason why no one has solved all the problems in Willow before Farrah comes along.
  • This is actually pretty clever if you really think about it!
• 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.
• Supporting Protagonist: Danais in the second half of the game.
• 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.
• 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.
• Warp Whistle: The Zoomo Tornado Expressway.
• 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!
• You Can't Go Home Again