In 2025, the creators of the Life is Strange franchise and Jusant will plunge us into the past with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. A narrative adventure about the summer of 1995 for four teenage girls, when an unexplained event changes their lives forever. Through the video rushes captured by Swan during her childhood, we will have to put the pieces of the puzzle together once we become adults, and try to finally shed light on this amnesiac episode.
Spanning two eras, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a narrative bridge between the present and the past, between adulthood and a childhood that is already distant. Several months before its official release, we had the opportunity to test the demo version of the game at Gamescom 2024. Behind what promises to be one of the most memorable titles of next year, the creative team agreed to answer our questions.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is an experience in its own right, with a narrative that plays on several eras, and a legacy that should speak to children of the 90s. What were your inspirations in creating the game?
Creative Team: Obviously, we looked at things that resembled what we wanted to do. For example, It by Stephen King, which really takes place in two distinct eras. There was also the series Sharp Object on HBO, which tells the story of a journalist who returns to her native life to write an article, and who is confronted with her memories. She sees herself young, there are a lot of flashbacks, and it's something that interested us in terms of timeline, of how to articulate the game.
There is also a mysterious force, of magic, which revolves a little around the story. On this point, we had as a reference the series Twin Peaks, which we like a lot, and which shows well this way of bringing the supernatural. We also discovered things during the creative process, like the 90s film Fox Fire that we did not know. And then, obviously, we had the legacy of our previous games, with the DNA of Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2.
Why this desire to have created a game spanning two eras?
Creative team: First, we are talking about two eras that are not trivial. The two great existential crises of life are the teenage crisis and the midlife crisis. But this is not necessarily pejorative: It is more a questioning and an upheaval of one's certainties. Adolescence happens at the same time as a major change in hormones, so inevitably, it can be a little more violent. The midlife crisis is more posed, but perhaps also a little deeper… It seemed interesting to us to talk about characters who are at two pivotal times in their lives.
Then, telling a story about two eras also allowed us to talk about certain subjects seen through the eyes of a teenager and the same ones seen a little later through the eyes of an adult, with all the hindsight and difference that this implies.
In the version we were able to test, you can only play one of the four characters. Will it be possible, later on, to play the other girls and have more action in the present time?
Creative Team: So, no and yes. We asked ourselves the question at the beginning, we wondered if we should play the different points of view. And finally, we felt that it would be stronger, more interesting to play only Swan. In narrative games where the player plays several characters, we can quickly create slightly schizophrenic situations where you start by playing Swan, you make your choice of answers, you get an idea of who she is… And then, you play Autunm, and you will have the game that will make Swan answer “in your place”. It can get frustrating pretty quickly.
Swan's camcorder is a central part of the gameplay. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
Creative Team: Swan is very introverted, so she hides behind her camera a bit. The game starts when she moves, so she decides to film her memories, she documents her life, to keep memories. It's really the basic mechanics, to film, zoom, record. At the beginning, it really starts like a documentary, you can film the environment, the forest, the buildings, her room... Then gradually, it becomes a tool for socialization. Thanks to the camcorder, Swan will also get closer to her friends, she will be able to film their videos, and players will be able to trigger dialogues based on what they are filming.
In terms of gameplay, this camcorder is really used as a direct link between players and the game. It makes the interaction more dynamic, but it will also become a tool in the plot, for example to zoom in on things that are too far away, to light up night scenes... There are things that seem innocuous that you film, and that you will absolutely have to look at through the camera afterwards.
Object manipulation and the associated sound design play a central role in the game's plot and immersion. Is that something you cared about?
Creative team: Indeed, there is a lot of object manipulation. It adds a certain immersion, a context, and for us, it is a very important dimension in the game. To recreate the atmosphere we wanted, the sound design team bought old VHS tapes, moo boxes... we really wanted to recreate something nostalgic for players our age. For example, there is a 16-bit game cartridge, and a lot of people told us they wanted to blow into it. So the team bought a cartridge, and recorded the sound. It adds an authentic side, we want players to want to touch the objects, to manipulate them. Especially since these are not just any objects, these are things from the 1990s that many people grew up with. For the younger ones, there is also a curiosity around that.
The game offers a very narrative dimension, do our choices of interaction with the characters have consequences on the rest of the plot?
Creative team: Completely. The first part of the game (which we played, editor's note) tells the story of the beginning of the friendship between Swan and her friends, so we are more on slices of life, with several choices that will have a fairly strong impact on the endings of the game. Obviously, there will also be choices whose impact will be more decisive. But the answer is yes: there are several endings. The goal of the game is really to write your own story, to create your version of what happened during the summer of 1995. So there will be several endings in 95, and several endings in the present.
A slightly more personal question: who is your favorite character in the game?
Luc Baghadoust, studio executive producer: For Me, it's Nora. There's something cool, I think, in the contrast between what she gives off and her fragility, her akward side. Visually, I also find it great, for example the fact that she has acne, it's a detail, but it's among the things I preferred in the game.
Jean-Luc Cano, lead narrative designer: Me, I think that like for Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2, I am extremely close to my characters. I really like Swan, I feel a bit paternalistic with her, I want to protect her, I want her to be happy all the time.
Michel Koch, creative director: Me, it's more Swan too, because I identify a lot with the introverted part, it's a bit my personality type. I really enjoyed playing Swan, making choices for her. But then, I find that all the characters, that's what we tried to do in any case, are interesting with their own character.
Lost Records: Bloom & Ragewill be released on February 18, 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series. The game was originally scheduled to release later this year, but was ultimately pushed back to avoid competing with Life is Strange: Double Exposure, which will be released in late October 2024.
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