The Longest Five Minutes aims to deliver an old school game but in more of a parody format. Players who love classic 8-Bit RPGs will love The Longest Five Minutes, while those who love to make fun of 8-Bit RPGs will equally enjoy it. Players will embark on a grandiose quest not from the beginning but from the ending instead. Relive moments from our main hero’s past to help him survive the battle he’s currently in all while enjoying classic 8-Bit RPG mechanics such as turn based combat and quests. The Longest Five Minutes delivers a unique take on the RPGs of yesteryear and that will definitely appeal to those who have maybe grown up from those older 8-Bit titles.

In The Longest Five Minutes, players take control of a band of heroes who have finally reached the dreaded evil boss. However, things have taken a sour turn for our party as their main hero has had something rather peculiar happen. Our titular hero has lost all of his memories! That means players will need to relive flashback moments in the hero’s life to see if they can regain his original power. However, with only 5 minutes left to face this terrible foe, it’s a race against the clock to save our hero’s memories and help him defeat the evil Demon King. Embark on a classic RPG experience with old school graphics and mechanics in The Longest Five Minutes!

Flash and his party—Regent, Yuzu and Clover—stand before the behemoth evil being known simply as the Demon King. As they prepare their weapons to attack, something horrible happens to Flash…he loses all of his memories! Flash has been hit with a sudden amnesia and now faces the Demon King with no recollection of how to even use his signature moves. Yuzu, Regent and Clover will now need to help Flash by sparking the memories of their past trials and adventure leading up to this final confrontation. However, time is ticking and the heroes must somehow regain Flash’s memories so he can become the hero he once was!

Retro RPGs are something we here at Honey’s Anime love and equally kind of grow tired of. Sure, they reawaken our love for the classics like Final Fantasy but equally, in a world of more modern RPGs like the Tales of series or even Final Fantasy XV, old school just feels kind of tired. Developer Nippon Ichi Software seemed to understand what we felt and have made their own retro RPG but with a rather clever twist. Let us see how they did in our review of The Longest Five Minutes.

The Longest Five Minutes doesn’t do what most RPGs do; let’s begin by saying that. Players aren’t going to ready up for a 50-80 hour journey of level grinding and doing millions of side quests to gain loot and experience. No, The Longest Five Minutes starts players off at the end of the game. Players assume the role of Flash Back—that’s his American name—as he has arrived at the final fight against the Demon King but then gets a sudden wave of amnesia. Now, Flash—aka the player—must re-establish how he got here and what the heck is going on. This is where The Longest Five Minutes truly begins.

From the beginning, players must journey through Flash’s various memories to regain their memories. This is done by journeying around various landscapes and fighting baddies just like any other RPG from the 80s or even early 90s. Though these moments are bite sized ones where players will never spend hours fighting hundreds of enemies but instead, will face several quests—only one that actually matters the rest are optional and thankfully some are as they can be annoying—to gain Flash’s memories and strengthen his current self.

During these flashback scenes, players will have a party of already leveled up individuals. However, as they fight off enemies and complete objectives they will gain a current experience point—re-experience—that affects their current strength against the Demon King. It’s here where The Longest Five Minutes feels so different, instead of having to grind for hundreds of hours, you only ever need to just complete goals and objectives to level up for the current final battle, the memories themselves have your team already beefed up to a decent level. That does kind of remove some of the challenge from the enemies unfortunately and also removes the need to buy new equipment or items, but you can still do all of that with minimal results in the process.

The biggest appeal to The Longest Five Minutes isn’t the old school design but the Demon King battle itself. You see, all those flashbacks you deal with actually affect the final battle in numerous ways. Decided to leave behind a member of your team in the past who now is in the current final battle? Well, they will suffer because they aren’t as strong and might also be a bit more annoyed at you. Equally, interacting with other characters might lead to a new move that will later help you out during the fight. This mechanic makes The Longest Five Minutes replayable just because you want to see how an action in the past could change the future.

In terms of graphics and sound, The Longest Five Minutes is what you would expect. Being that we’re dealing with a retro title, characters look pixel-like and environments are simple in design. However, that’s the appeal to games like The Longest Five Minutes. If you grew up rocking the NES over the PS3 or PS4 then you can appreciate the beauty of 8-Bit graphics and sound. That’s why we think The Longest Five Minutes looks incredible if you’re a fan of that nostalgic yesteryear design.

The Longest Five Minutes is a thoroughly enjoyable game for those who love old school RPGs but equally need something slightly different. The idea of starting from the end and working your way through via flashbacks is actually very clever and makes The Longest Five Minutes a unique RPG experience. While this same concept hurts some of the actual RPG mechanics by removing the need to equip better gear and level grind, it in turn leads to a rather fresh take on the formula we’ve seen executed for years during the 80s and 90s. With a clever story, some truly laugh out loud dialogue and an enjoyable nostalgic experience we here at Honey’s Anime quite enjoyed our time with The Longest Five Minutes. If you’re looking for a nice PS Vita/Nintendo Switch RPG to enjoy you’ll want to pick up The Longest Five Minutes whenever you get the chance.

Very rarely do old school RPGs warrant multiple playthroughs. After maybe a few years you might find some reason to dust off a cartridge and play through again but The Longest Five Minutes makes you want to redo the game and events to see what can be done differently in the final battle. We love that while The Longest Five Minutes is trying to be old school, it removes some elements that old school RPG titles don’t need and or are just tedious but equally, some fans might have issues with that. The Longest Five Minutes is a title we recommend to those who love old school games but equally want to laugh at some of the themes they use to rely on so heavily. Are you thinking of adding The Longest Five Minutes to your gaming library? Comment down below to let us know and for all your gaming review and article needs be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.