Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

During a perfect summer in the 90's, four girls feel drawn together to form a deep lifelong friendship. However, something horrible happened. Something they need to forget. They run, from what they did, from each other, from even their own memories. A package shows up, forcing them to reckon with their past.

It's an incredible plot, and the execution pays off. Thrown back into the summer of '95, full of the unrestricted, free feeling of a group of teen girls' last summer before college and "the real world." It's nostalgic and bittersweet. I found myself remembering aspects of my own past I had long forgotten. Sights and sounds pull you into an immersive world. And the music! Oh, the music! It's a fun blend of dreamy pop sequences and riot grrrl punk.

Each character is fleshed out here, even those that could have been 1-dimensional. Turn every stone, try out every dialog option, because there's a deep mystery here, and it deepens the more you look into it.

This is a rich game focused on characters. On growth. On dangerous mysteries and forgotten pasts. It's somehow both cozy and thrilling. I can't step away from it. In just over a month, the second half will land, and you won't want to miss that.

Lost Records is the newest title from the beloved (especially by me) Dontnod studio, developed by the original team behind the first two Life is Strange games. The story follows Swan, Nora, Autumn, and Kat, a group of girls who quickly form a bond - but one with a deadline, as Swan is moving away at the end of summer, while they have to deal with some problems this new friendship will bring.

To be honest, I even feel a bit guilty for not liking this game as much as I expected. I've seen people call it "the Life is Strange 3 we never got," but I couldn't fully connect with it.

The biggest issue for me is the structure. The game focuses a lot more on relationship driven choices than true consequence based decisions. And because it jumps between past and present, a lot of the outcomes are already revealed, which makes many choices feel less meaningful. The tension comes more from seeing how things affect the characters than what happens to them.

That means the characters need to be deeply compelling , and they sort of are. Dontnod does a great job building a believable, emotional friendship between them. But there's a clear focus on Kat's which overshadows the other 2 girl. It feels like the game is pushing you in one direction instead of feeling organic.

Another issue is the pacing. Long stretches go by where very little happens, and even as someone who enjoys narrative games, it felt a bit too slow. The dialogue is solid, the chemistry is there, but the lack of momentum hurts. That said, Tape 2 improves a lot, and the final emotional scenes remind us of the brilliance this team is capable of.

I don't want to sound harsh. Lost Records isn't a bad game. Far from it. But I did feel disconnected for a surprising amount of time. Still, when the story finally picks up, it shows that Dontnod hasn't lost their touch with emotional storytelling. Not their best work, but definitely a solid, heartfelt experience.

I downloaded Bloom and Rage on the PS5 and so far, have played part 1.

The game does a fantastic job of making you feel like you're a kid again in the 90s. Which is very special to me as I was raised in the 90s myself.

I enjoyed the story so far, despite the cheesy dialogue and the facial mechanics. My God, the facial mechanics.. I believe the studio must have ran out of money before they could really get the graphics correct.

Despite the mechanical flaws, it didn't take me out of the immersive aspect. I think a score of 7/10 is pretty fair. It's not as good as the Life is Strange saga......

Is the audience for this game only teen girls? It was boring me into a coma being forced to listen to nonstop teen girl conversations. It sounded somewhat similar to the show Yellowjackets, so i was interested. But I played, drudgingly, for about 6 hours, which included me skipping every single cinematic they let me, before anything sort of interesting happened. It didn't last long though and went right back into long, dragged out, boring teen girl conversations. If i didn't invest so much time i would have turned it off. But i wanted so badly to see what the "bad" thing that happened to them so long ago was that they've been forbidden to discuss all these years! But if after 6 hours of gameplay there's still NO sign of WHAT this is, i don't think i can't take any more! I do not understand the high rating for this game at all. And they really need to let you skip alot more cutscenes than they do, because it has just been painful!

This game perfectly simulates the life of a teenager and the struggles of being an introvert. Despite this it still manages, to add a plot line of something out of the ordinary with that being the curse the girls set up on themselves. The character relationships and building is phenomenal; it really feels as though you are the character. However, it does have its flaws, such as the characters mouths not moving and clipping in objects. Although, this is what you can expect when a game first releases, and the fact that it has such a good foundation, lets these small inconveniences off..

It's a shame that we have to wait another 2 months before Tape 2 releases, luckily that will be the final instalment.