Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Really intriguing story and really nice character design

I mean this is as close to a true life is strange sequel then honestly any other game in the life is strange series…except for maybe Before the Storm. It’s pretty wild how strong this nails the theme and feeling of Life is Strange. It’s really good. Spot on music choices as well. I love the voice actors. I cared so much for these characters. So much of this game is fantastic…but the problem is in the end it feels like a game that was just not finished. I love the frame work of this game that you are basically in the present and the entire game is told through flashbacks. It’s fun both hanging out at the bar in the present and then going back to the past for specific scenes. It allows significant amount of time to pass so you really get a feel of these 4 girls lives over a period of time instead of like a few days. Honestly, I feel it should have taken place over an entire school year instead of just the summer. The whole video recording everything and your ability to watch these home movies you are making are also pretty cool. I like that once you collect all of one type of video you can watch it with Swann narrating stuff for additional insight. Overall the entire feel of the gem is so retro. If you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s this game is a must play. The feels are real, even looking around your room at all the 80’s and 90’s stuff was super cool. Swann’s room literally is identical to the room my cousin had even down to that stupid pin cushion thing. Even the intro to the game is just perfect retro 90’s. It feels like an old VHS tape. It’s just so good. The four female characters are all super 90’s and the fact it revolves around them having basically a punk band is perfect…although I will say some of these characters can be grating. Kate comes across as basically psychotic in parts and Autumn feels real out of place in a punk band. Swann herself feels perhaps tooooo awkward…honestly Nora feels the most realistic character and perfect at peace being in a punk band. However, I will say the way these characters as portrayed as adults is just perfect. Basically, exactly how I would imagine these 4 girls growing up. The problem as I noted though is the game just feels like it’s missing large chunks. The game is just too short. This should be a 20hr game. Instead this is about a 12-15hr game. The game should have started at like your senior year of school and covered the whole year. It feels weird that you meet these 3 other girls for the first time over the summer and you’ve never talked to them for the multiple years you attended school. Then the fact that at the end of summer the game insists you will move away just feels weird. The game for some reason wants to insist this friendship is only 3 months long and is ridiculously intense. The characters act like they’ve been friends for like a decade. I just think it would have been a better story if it was the start of a school year and the game was 20hrs and ended at the end of summer. Then your relationship could have built over the course of the game. There is also another problem with the story, but it’s spoilers [spoiler] I just feel large chunks of this game are missing. The bonding of the friends and this whole weird mystery over the abyss and what the hell is going on here just feels lacking. The game needed to be longer to address these things. I have no idea what the abyss is. It seems like these woods have a history of strangeness probably caused by the Abyss, but the game doesn’t have time to deal with it. Then the ending of the game where both Kat and Corey seem to be possessed by the abyss just makes no sense. There is even a scene where it feels like the Abyss is given the character magic powers. Are they supposed to be witches? What is going on? It just feels like their should be multiple more scenes explaining this. Also…I understand that Corey seems to be an insanely abusive person…but in the end he practically turns into a serial killer. It almost felt like the Abyss was turning him more abusive as the game went by…like the “tape 1” part of the game…while he seemed like a douchebag he didn’t feel cruel and evil…but by “tape 2” he is a full on abusive psychopath. That’s fine if the games story is the Abyss was turning Corey evil…but it also seemed to be possessing Kat which makes no sense. I needed a lot more scenes and information to explain what was happening here. It just feels so hand wavy, like the devs had this great idea for a beginning to a game and an ending…and didn’t know how to get there. I think it would have been better if the game had been longer and laid the ground work for two opposing spiritual forces in the forest, one that possessed Corey and corrupted him to be more and more controlling and abusive and one that possessed Kat to make her want to be a sacrifice to stop Corey’s corruption. So much more could have been done here to explain what the hell was going on. The very end where present Swann is called to the Abyss where Kat apparently is still alive was jarring…it made no sense and I assume their will be no sequel…so an even stranger way to end this game. Also…it was pretty jarring learning Kat has Leukemia…that realllllllly felt unnecessary but ok… [/spoiler] This is a very good game where unfortunately it just feels like large chunks of the story are missing and the mystical ending then becomes nonsensical. The rest of this is so good though I can forgive that…and there are a lot of different ways this game can end, your choices matter far more in this game then most other adventure games/visual novels…Honestly this is easily Don’t Nod’s second best game…like there is no comparison. Life is Strange and Lost Records are the only games made by Don’t Nod worth playing, the rest are all hot garbage and literally a travesty. If they made a sequel to this, I would buy it immediately. #Worth $20…it’s just too short to be worth more than that.