April Ryan
Encyclopedia
April Ryan is a fictional character
from the adventure game
The Longest Journey
(1999
) and its sequel Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006
). In the former, she is the protagonist
, and in the latter, one of the three primary characters. In both games she is voiced by Sarah Hamilton
.
s), the Mother. It is unknown who her father is, or even if she has one. She is a painter and artist in the world of Stark.
Whether April was born in Arcadia or Stark is not known; but shortly after her birth in April 14, 2191 by Stark reckoning, she was adopted into a normal human family that lived somewhere in the continental USA. Her adoptive father was often inebriated and beat her as a child. His antipathy is later revealed that he dropped April on the floor when she was very little, severely handicapping her. To suppress his guilt
, he started ignoring her henceforth; but as she slowly recovered, he felt that she was mocking him and began to blame her for his own misery.
Despite April's bad relationship with her father, she has always been on good terms with her adoptive mother and rarely had quarrels with her two brothers, Danny and Owen. After turning 18 April left her adoptive family forever, after having one last row with her father, wherein he was injured. Without a word of goodbye to her mother, April left for Newport, an industrial megapolis
. At this point the events of The Longest Journey
start.
, whereas in Dreamfall she developed into an "Aragorn
type character". Journalist Randy Sluganski describes her adventure in TLJ as "a rite of passage; a maturation from the indecisive, self-deprecating teenage years into a hesitant adulthood that is at first shunned and then gradually embraced".
One of the traits that helped the player to identify and empathize with April Ryan - a much praised concept - was that she kept a diary
. Unlike Zoë Castillo's diary, April's diary contains more self-revelations and allows much deeper insight in its owner's character and background, allowing the player to trace her personal development
.
Tørnquist stated that he didn't create April as a female protagonist to reach the female adventure gaming audience, but because a female lead was a better fit to a story where progress is as much about empathy and helping people out.
Tørnquist, with his co-writer of Dreamfall Dag Sheve, commented that in terms of losing faith (a recurring theme in the game), April went further than the other two primary characters, resulting in her "actual death". Tørnquist, however, stressed the ambiguity of the term "actual death", refused to explicitly confirm her status, and added that "her influence isn't fully played out. It is her story, all the way through".
s. April placed 61st in the top 100 Best heroes of all time by UGO Networks. Although she is represented with attributes of a feminized sex object, she is also part of a trend of strong, beautiful women in a variety of media that don't depend on men to achieve heroic deeds. She has been compared to Tomb Raider
's protagonist Lara Croft
in that respect. April shows less prominent physical feminine attributes than Lara, but more feminine psychological traits as contrasted with Lara's masculine connotations like aggressiveness and force.
actress Sarah Hamilton
, for which she was contacted through a New York casting agency. The game included hours of recorded voice used to comment on the environment, provide information on how to solve puzzles, present dialogue between characters, and advance the plot. As a result, Hamilton spent approximately eighty hours over ten consecutive days recording voice work for the first game, including live dialogue sessions with the other actors so that they could develop a real rapport between their characters.
Her performance has been praised as "superb" and capturing the "inflection nuances that allow us to believe in April's growth as a woman".
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for the PC. First published by IQ Media Nordic in Norway in 1999, it was later localized for and released in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Denmark,...
(1999
1999 in video gaming
-Events:*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards*March – Game Over republished as “Game Over: Press Start to Continue”...
) and its sequel Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006
2006 in video gaming
-Events:* January 26, 2006 -- Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model is lighter, smaller, has configurable brightness and features an improved user interface.* January 26, 2006 -- Konami Corp...
). In the former, she is the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, and in the latter, one of the three primary characters. In both games she is voiced by Sarah Hamilton
Sarah Hamilton
Sarah Hamilton is an American actress who has done voice work for many national commercial campaigns including Chapstick, CoverGirl-brand cosmetics, V-8 Splash, and Sony-brand electronics. Within the videogame industry, Hamilton is best known for her voice work as April Ryan in the best-selling and...
.
Background
April Ryan is a human daughter of the White of the Draic Kin (DragonDragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s), the Mother. It is unknown who her father is, or even if she has one. She is a painter and artist in the world of Stark.
Whether April was born in Arcadia or Stark is not known; but shortly after her birth in April 14, 2191 by Stark reckoning, she was adopted into a normal human family that lived somewhere in the continental USA. Her adoptive father was often inebriated and beat her as a child. His antipathy is later revealed that he dropped April on the floor when she was very little, severely handicapping her. To suppress his guilt
Guilt
Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...
, he started ignoring her henceforth; but as she slowly recovered, he felt that she was mocking him and began to blame her for his own misery.
Despite April's bad relationship with her father, she has always been on good terms with her adoptive mother and rarely had quarrels with her two brothers, Danny and Owen. After turning 18 April left her adoptive family forever, after having one last row with her father, wherein he was injured. Without a word of goodbye to her mother, April left for Newport, an industrial megapolis
Megapolis
Megapolis is a variant of the word megalopolis, meaning a large city or urban area.Megapolis may also refer to:* Megapolis Festival, an annual audio arts festival in the United States.* Prajay Megapolis, a large housing estate in Hyderabad, India....
. At this point the events of The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for the PC. First published by IQ Media Nordic in Norway in 1999, it was later localized for and released in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Denmark,...
start.
The Longest Journey
At the beginning of The Longest Journey, as a resident of the technology-driven world, Stark, she discovers that she is a Shifter - a person with the power to move between worlds. Her journey begins when she unwittingly transports herself to the magical Arcadia. She is the daughter of the White Dragon, as she herself felt a connection between the two of them and it is confirmed by the White Dragon. Moreover, her Stark parents adopted her. April is prophesied from all four species holding the parts of the disc as being the savior who will restore the balance, only to finally break it.Dreamfall
April (described on the promotional posters with a tagline Rebel, Emissary, Chosen) returns as one of the three protagonists of Dreamfall. After her success in The Longest Journey, she was left without a purpose, and chose to join the effort to liberate the Northlands from the occupation by the Azadi Empire. She has turned her back on her former world of Stark and considers herself a citizen of Arcadia now.Personality
Writer of The Longest Journey Ragnar Tørnquist stated in an interview that he compared April in TLJ to "young inexperienced" Frodo BagginsFrodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom...
, whereas in Dreamfall she developed into an "Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
type character". Journalist Randy Sluganski describes her adventure in TLJ as "a rite of passage; a maturation from the indecisive, self-deprecating teenage years into a hesitant adulthood that is at first shunned and then gradually embraced".
One of the traits that helped the player to identify and empathize with April Ryan - a much praised concept - was that she kept a diary
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
. Unlike Zoë Castillo's diary, April's diary contains more self-revelations and allows much deeper insight in its owner's character and background, allowing the player to trace her personal development
Personal development
Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...
.
Tørnquist stated that he didn't create April as a female protagonist to reach the female adventure gaming audience, but because a female lead was a better fit to a story where progress is as much about empathy and helping people out.
Tørnquist, with his co-writer of Dreamfall Dag Sheve, commented that in terms of losing faith (a recurring theme in the game), April went further than the other two primary characters, resulting in her "actual death". Tørnquist, however, stressed the ambiguity of the term "actual death", refused to explicitly confirm her status, and added that "her influence isn't fully played out. It is her story, all the way through".
Reception
April Ryan (sometimes, along with her Dreamfall counterpart Zoë Castillo) is considered one of the most memorable characters in the history of adventure gameAdventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s. April placed 61st in the top 100 Best heroes of all time by UGO Networks. Although she is represented with attributes of a feminized sex object, she is also part of a trend of strong, beautiful women in a variety of media that don't depend on men to achieve heroic deeds. She has been compared to Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
's protagonist Lara Croft
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
in that respect. April shows less prominent physical feminine attributes than Lara, but more feminine psychological traits as contrasted with Lara's masculine connotations like aggressiveness and force.
Voice acting
The voice work for April in The Longest Journey and Dreamfall was portrayed by AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress Sarah Hamilton
Sarah Hamilton
Sarah Hamilton is an American actress who has done voice work for many national commercial campaigns including Chapstick, CoverGirl-brand cosmetics, V-8 Splash, and Sony-brand electronics. Within the videogame industry, Hamilton is best known for her voice work as April Ryan in the best-selling and...
, for which she was contacted through a New York casting agency. The game included hours of recorded voice used to comment on the environment, provide information on how to solve puzzles, present dialogue between characters, and advance the plot. As a result, Hamilton spent approximately eighty hours over ten consecutive days recording voice work for the first game, including live dialogue sessions with the other actors so that they could develop a real rapport between their characters.
Her performance has been praised as "superb" and capturing the "inflection nuances that allow us to believe in April's growth as a woman".