90s nostalgia feels like it’s cresting yet another wave although I couldn’t tell you exactly why. Perhaps part of it is due to us millennials now being more prominent positions to create experiences that exploit this desire for the past. Or maybe it’s simply escapism; the weight of the world today driving many of us to instead to retreat to the “simpler” times so we could look at things with the eyes that only youth can provide. These ideas were playing along in the back of my head throughout my playthrough of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage as, putting its magical reality aspects to one side, it’s a lens to a very particular experience of youth in the 90s. I initially found it somewhat hard to relate to, even though I ostensibly went through a similar formative period at the same time. However, having given it time to sink in after playing it, I’ve found much more of it resonating with me.
Swann sits in her car, hands gripping the steering wheel as she stares at the billboard across the road. It’s been 27 years since she was last here and her mind is racing whilst her mum tries to talk to her on the phone, asking all the probing questions that Swann doesn’t want to answer. There is one question that keeps replaying in her head over and over though: why did it take this long for her to come back? These were her best friends and the final summer they spent together was nothing sort of incredible. What happened to them? Why did they drift apart? What starts out as a reunion of friends long since estranged quickly turns into a replay of the traumatic events that led to them making that promise: to never see each other again.
Lost Records’ aesthetic instantly reminded me of Life is Strange, albeit with the increase in craftsmanship that you’d expect from a now veteran developer house. The stylized realism, coupled with the soft lighting and vivid colour palette, gives it a very dreamlike quality. That’s amped more in the flashback sections, providing a kind of visual distinction between the past and present sections. The camcorder view is a nice touch too, the slight blur and coarse pixelation instantly taking me back to the days of making and viewing our own home family movies. There could be a bit more attention paid to optimisation in some places as there were a good number of sections where the framerate dropped right through the floor only to recover once I’d exited the area. Overall it’s level of quality I’ve come to expect from a DON’TNOD game.
Lots Records is an interactive fiction game with a heavy focus on player choice. Most of your time is going to be spent making choices in dialogue with the other characters, shaping the narrative arc as you go. There’s an exploration mechanic included by way of Swann’s camcorder. As you explore and record the world around you there’ll be different categories of things to film which you can then create short movies out of. Mostly this is just a way to get you to explore the world, unlock additional dialogue and engage in a bit more worldbuilding to flesh out the world that Lost Records exists in. There are puzzles too although they’re usually pretty straightforward and the other characters will start to relentlessly drop hints if you’re showing signs of struggling. Nothing exactly earth shatteringly unique here but what it does, it does very well.
You’ll spend your time between two time periods: current day (late 2022) and the past (mid 1995). The choices you make in the latter have an effect on both, either opening up or closing off dialogue options depending on the previous choices you’ve made. There’s also an undisclosed relationship meter hiding behind the scenes with various choices changing it for the better or worse. You’ll start to get a feel for what kinds of choices are the right ones for the characters although, like all real world relationships, there’s really no hard and fast rule to figuring out what the right thing to say is.
I will admit to being somewhat frustrated with the game’s pacing initially. There’s an incredible amount of foreshadowing very early on and so you’ll often find yourself asking how the events that are being replayed in front of you are in building towards those major plot points. Much of the game’s early parts are focused on building out the base relationships between the characters which, I’ll admit is necessary, but it does sometimes feel like certain points are hammered home so many times that the story gets bogged down before moving onto the next arc.
Things do pick up somewhat in the game’s second half though as the game focuses less on building up the world and more towards the core narrative. I think this is also partly due to the exploration mechanics toning down somewhat as well as, early on, you’re scanning the entire environment for things to capture. That’s partly due to my completionist kicking in, I’ll admit, as I wasn’t certain just how many things I’d only have a single opportunity to capture. The game does give you multiple opportunities to capture all the major mementos though so some of the game’s early pacing issues could be addressed by making that a bit more clear.
SPOILERS BELOW
It was interesting to compare/contrast my playthrough with the global averages as it highlighted the real level of impact that your choices and preferences will have on the game’s narrative. It also brought up some potential gaps in the story’s arc as, I feel, the way that I played it felt pretty canon narrative that the writers were going for. This is wholly due to me falling for Kat early on, not knowing that the second half of the story was going to be almost exclusively focused on her. The choices of Swann as a result of that then seem to make a lot of sense, like going into the forest at the end, as without that level of relationship with Kat things would feel a little forced.
I am somewhat interested to see how things would turn out if you hadn’t say, invested and/or deliberately took the wrong choices for an extended period. A lot of the narrative growth comes from you yourself understanding the characters and making the right choices as, even very late in the game, there are options available to you that very obviously not good. Indeed I feel like there’s a version of Swann in the game that’s the exact opposite of what I played.
SPOILERS OVER
Lost Records: Blood & Rage is a game that I didn’t expect to grow on me. Whilst the game’s disjointed pacing early on can make it hard to really engage with the narrative your patience will be rewarded if you’re able to push through. Whilst I think there’s some improvements that could be made to take it from good to great I do feel like it sets up a universe that is worth exploring. I may have missed the boat with this in Life is Strange but, hopefully, I won’t do that again with this new IP that DON’T NOD has brought to us.
Rating: 8.0/10
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is available right now on PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 right now for $60. Game was played on the PC with a total of 11.2 hours playtime and 61% of the achievements unlocked.
