The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 35 – 04/02/22 – 305 Days, 18 Hours and 50 Seconds to go…

After a terribly frustrating day yesterday, I really struggled for enthusiasm on Day 35, almost deciding not to play at all. But just like in the movies, when our hero is feeling down and out -with nowhere to turn- a stroke of pure luck changed everything…

I reluctantly picked up my Switch to check in on Monty – I was entirely out of ideas and had no real plan on where to turn. My morale was probably as low as it had been with The Longing – even lower than when I was struggling with the mushrooms – all of that lost time felt incredibly wasteful indeed.

Monty was stood in the darkness, diligently awaiting my arrival… Sorry pal – I shouldn’t take it out on you – it’s not your fault that I have absolutely no damn idea what I’m doing. Day 35 was a Friday evening, which tends to be a busy day for me, so before I had done anything at all with Monty, I got distracted with something else that I had to do at home. Normally I would have put my Switch on standby mode (it’s just a habit that I have whenever I put it down), but this time I didn’t – and I’m absolutely glad that I forgot to…

“400 days… How long is a day anyway?”

Monty

When I returned to my machine Monty was murmuring to himself (or me) about time with a couple of options on how to proceed. I had seen this prompt once before and just assumed it was to pass the time, but with my current predicament, I felt like this might be a significant development. Thinking on the plan to make Monty feel lonely, I decided to choose “I have never seen the sun…” – I mean, it certainly doesn’t look like he has! I was faced with another choice of options – one decidedly more bleak than the other, and so I selected “…and I never will.” Monty simply sighed and I immediately felt like I had made the wrong choice.

I desperately wanted something to happen – for Monty to make it clear that he was feeling bleak and lonely. I need more than a sigh, matey – come on – work with me here. I decided to leave Monty to his own devices again for a few minutes, and my instinct was right – Monty began musing again.

This time I went down the other route and seemingly down the more inspirational options that Monty seemed keen to discuss. (I’ve included the questions in a gallery at the end of the piece, for those who are interested.) I think I messed up on the answers one more time before Monty seemed grow in confidence and I was suddenly very excited that I was on to a winner.

Monty and I confidently strode towards the [Eyes in the Darkness] and right up to the mystery creature, fully expecting that we’d somehow vanquish the fiend. Instead we were faced with that dreaded phrase that we had to come to know and loathe over the past few days…

“I can see you…”

Eyes in the Darkness

Picking Monty up from the bedroom floor, this time I wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. Where yesterday I had been annoyed at the outcome, I was convinced I was almost there this time, and so immediately sent Monty back up beyond the [tall ledge].

I returned to Monty after a little while and he was just about arriving at his destination. When he finally stood still I decided to watch and wait, just as I had done to provoke the questions before…. There it is! You you sonofabitch.

“Close Eyes”

On-screen Prompt

I eagerly hammered the action button and watched as Monty slowly shut his eyes and became entirely invisible against the the pitch blackness beneath the mountain. Oh yeah! That’ll do it baby! Keen to finally be done with the grinning weirdo in the shadows, I pushed Monty onward and straight up to the [Eyes in the Darkness]. As Monty passed the creature, the evil right-peering eyes closed and Monty’s left-looking peepers reopened and the sinister music immediately faded away, but not before the creature asked one more parting question…

We continued a little way further east in the dark before Monty finally let me know that we were on the right path, and as excited as a I was that we’d overcome the darkness, it was getting late and I needed to head to bed. The upside was, of course, that when I checked in with Monty again I was guaranteed some interesting progress. And I can’t wait.

Continue reading: Day 36