Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

It's a clever mix of sentimentality and satire, structured in a way that's quite unusual for JRPGs. With most games in the genre, the end boss is the goal and triumph. The Longest Five Minutes is a love letter to the genre that wants you to remember that you're meant to enjoy the journey in a JRPG, too, and I certainly walked away from this game with a renewed appreciation for the spirit of adventure in these games itself.

The Longest Five Minutes uses a truly gripping concept, throwing the classic RPG formula on its head by having you put the pieces of an already existing story together as you go. While the combat and general gameplay are almost too easy-going, the story, characters, and overall aesthetic had us always wanting more, never wanting to put the game down. The asking price is perhaps a little steep for the amount of content available, and the strange take on a usually well-understood genre may throw some players off, but there is an indescribable charm that is worth exploring here.

The Longest Five Minutes embraces bits of the best and worst of old-school RPG nostalgia at times, then kicks them all to the curb with its own twist. RPG fans will find it worth playing for the superb music, adorable sprites, and the enjoyably unusual structure of the tale as a whole.

The Switch has had a surprisingly large RPG library in its first year; already it feels like there’s more RPGs on Switch than were on its predecessor and they just keep coming. Where The Longest Five Minutes stands out is that despite the name, it is fast. I did a lot of exploring in the environments looking for treasure and still managed to roll credits in under 12 hours. Given the Switch’s propensity for roguelikes and exceedingly long, story-driven games, this is a minor miracle. Not every game has to be a seven-course meal; sometimes you just want a light snack. On that front, Longest Five Minutes delivers.

The Longest Five Minutes may falter in the lack of difficulty that it poses the player with, but the game will upend your expectation in how absorbed you will become in the story that it unravels.

A JRPG that will keep us company for at least thirty hours to (re) discover the lost memories of Flash, in a wonderful journey in memory, both of our Hero and of us gamers, that every fan of the genre should undertake.

The Longest Five Minutes features a beautiful story, although its gameplay mechanics are too simple for a game of the RPG genre. Definitely worth a try if you own a Switch and love the RPG games that have good stories.

Calling The Longest Five Minutes a deconstruction of 8- and 16-bit RPG tropes is only half-true, as it turns around and reconstructs those same tropes by journey's end. Still, it's a brisk and amusing adventure that knows how to play to its strengths.

The Longest Five Minutes is almost the standard definition of an RPG, brought to life with one of the most interesting storytelling techniques for any Switch game.

The Longest Five Minutes certainly has some good, and surprisingly original ideas, but it just never takes them far enough to be something really special.