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On February 18, 2025, Don’t Nod games released to the world the first episode of their newest episodic story experience, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. This title promises an emotional story about a group of teenage girls in 1995 whose experience one summer has returned to haunt them decades later. While other entertainment mediums have done stories like this, there are very few video games with similar premises. Is Lost Records a well-crafted experience that’s worth playing through though? Let’s break the game down piece by piece and determine that for ourselves.
The main gameplay mechanic of Lost Records is, of course, making decisions that effect your relationships with the three girls you’ll be spending your summer with. While this type of game was everywhere in the mid-2010s, it has become rarer in the 2020s so it feels nice to see this style is still around.
What surprises me most though, is that Lost Records has dialogue choice mechanics which greatly reminded me of the LIPS choice system from Sega’s Sakura Wars games. LIPs being timed-based dialogue choices where not only is silence a viable option, but also an extra option may appear if the player waits long enough or the choices themselves may change.
This method of handling dialogue choices was incredibly interesting to me as you don’t really see that in Western games often. The closest thing I can think of is the Telltale Games system of choices in games but even then that is more of its own thing than LIPS. Regardless of whether it was the intention of the developers, this similarity to the Sakura Wars franchise immediately endeared me to Lost Records and made my experience more enjoyable overall.
Just like the Life is Strange titles, players will be able to walk around and examine various random objects during any scene of Lost Records. This rarely has a purpose other than hearing extra dialogue from Swann, but when one of the biggest selling points of this type of game is getting immersed in the world, this type of mechanic is greatly appreciated.
Despite the game featuring a similar format to the Life is Strange games, the plot and pacing of Lost Records is much slower-paced. Instead of immediately having the player encounter some supernatural element.
Unlike other episodic video games which tend to release around five short episodes of content, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage Is split into two moderately sized episodes. This change in format does wonders for the game’s pacing and allows it to be the type of slow burn this story should be.
While it can be frustrating at times to hear characters in the present reminisce on the horrible thing that happened in 1995 repeatedly, if you’re the type of gamer who loves the journey over the destination then having an entire episode focused around developing the relationships between the cast will please you immensely.
When speaking about any Don’t Nod game, one of course has to bring up the dialogue writing. The way characters speak in these games has always been a source of discourse and mockery in online communities, and I doubt Bloom and Rage will be an exception to that.
While the writing of this game and the Life is Strange titles are to put it in a word, corny, I myself have gotten used to this style of writing and can find comfort in watching these characters gossip and hang out in this way. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but one that has an audience that is happy with it.
The characters may not feel the most natural, but they feel well-developed. Nora in particular stood out to me as despite her 1995 and modern-day selves being very different characters, the game is written well enough where you can see exactly how she would have grown up to be the way she is now.
Of course, I may be biased in favor of the writing due to how explicitly queer the game is. There are very few lesbian-centric stories in gaming as a whole so having characters like Kat in this game is very important for representation. Her interactions with Swann near the end of my playthrough of this first episode were probably the best part of the experience.
While the character writing and interactions were pleasant throughout, one part of the game which did not land for me was the 1990s nostalgia aspect. As someone who grew up in the 2000s, it merely felt like a glimpse into a world I did not know.
This isn’t a major complaint and didn’t worsen my experience with the game, but considering a good amount of dialogue and objects you can examine in the environment are meant to invoke this feeling of nostalgia, it felt like it was worth noting.
Aside from the main story and choice mechanics, a central part of the Lost Records: Bloom and Rage experience has the player walking around the story areas with their camera in hand to film various scenes for their memoir collection.
As someone who both loves collectibles in games and anything involving photography/videography this mechanic hits a very specific niche which I loved from start to finish. Walking around trying to find cute critters living their lives or new graffiti spreads on walls never ceased to put a smile on my face.
The game is very user-friendly with these memoir collectibles as well. For the ones which have dozens of film examples to collect like graffiti or your friends, you’ll only need to film a handful of them to complete your memoir. For others like Mothgirl or your cat though, you’ll have to be on your A-game and be ready to pull out your camera whenever you are given the chance.
The game does have various performance issues that can break the immersion of the experience. In particular, the frame rate tends to drop like a rock, and animations glitch for a bit any time the player opens and closes the memoir menu.
While I wouldn’t say these issues majorly affected my experience with the game, I can easily see this being a big deal for any player who wants to get immersed in the world of Bloom and Rage.
Overall, I found Lost Records: Bloom and Rage episode 1 to be an incredibly pleasant experience from start to finish. The slow burn of the story may be a turn-off for some people, but as someone who loved spending time with Kat and the other girls, I couldn’t get enough of it.
While it’s not yet possible to judge the experience as a whole due to only the first episode being out, this first half of the game was an excellent start. Until the rest comes out, I’ll be counting the days until I can download it in April.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage
Bottom Line
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is an acquired taste, but any gamer who loves slower, story-focused experiences will find something to enjoy in this charming title
