A fan of narrative games must have walked the halls of Blackwell Academy with Max and gotten into mischief with Chloe in Life is Strange. The work developed by Don’t Nod is a classic of the genre, just like Life is Strange 2 and its new story centered on brotherhood.
After exploring the action RPG genre with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Don’t Nod returns to its first love with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The Montreal studio takes the reins to take us on a journey of discovery through the story of four teenage girls in the mid-90s. Is the magic working again in this first piece called Bloom?
Lost Records, the most beautiful Don’t Nod adventure?
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage tells the story of four young girls who meet by chance during the summer holidays of 1995. The very introverted Swann, the main character of the narrative adventure, quickly meets and bonds with Autumn, Nora and Kat, colorful teenagers who are very different from each other.
Small singularity: the story of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage takes place between two eras. In the present (in 2022) we are still in control of Swann, in the first person. The forty-year-old living in Canada returns to Michigan, to Velvet Cove, where she lived as a teenager. A very special journey since it is triggered by the reception of a mysterious box by her old friend Autumn.
Sitting in a café, the two women relate the events of the summer of 1995 during which a terrible drama took place. Obviously, you won't know right away what could have led their school holidays and their lives to be turned upside down. Let's start by highlighting Don't Nod's good idea of setting this story during a summer between two years of high school so as not to reuse the same context as in Life is Strange.
On the other hand, we find this bittersweet atmosphere typical of LiS with great pleasure. The lighting effects, the orange tones and the cozy music contribute to creating this captivating atmosphere. In addition, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage takes advantage of its release only on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, to offer us more detailed and realistic faces than ever in a Don’t Nod production. An observation even more striking in the present, in first person. The motion capture work has paid off. The ideal setting to offer us a gripping story from start to finish. Except that...
A really long scenario at the start
We therefore alternate jumps in time in Lost Records: in the present, Swann and Autumn share some news about their respective lives and take us back to 1995 when they remember these school holidays like no other. The cornerstone of their exchanges remains this famous drama justifying why they decided to see each other again for the first time since high school.
Unfortunately, the passages from 1995 to 2022 are untimely and chop up the pace of the adventure. The sequences from the past sometimes follow one another too quickly, leaving little room for exploration and soaking up the places. The mini-loading screen separating the passage from the past to the present, although stylized, does not promote fluidity at all. This is even more striking during the final sequence.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage tries to keep us in suspense with this mysterious event that has turned the lives of the teenagers upside down, but the events progress so slowly that we end up becoming a little detached from the plot. The revelations and thrilling moments are condensed into the last half hour. Before that, Lost Records gives us no information, no clues and ultimately only rarely mentions this day when everything changed in order to maintain a high tension.
Swann and Autumn only skim over the drama in the present without ever really taking an interest in this famous box. Their conversations serve above all to introduce the sequences of the past. Of course, it was important to present the different facets of the main characters and to show the construction of the friendship formed by the young girls, but the game would have benefited from picking up this part a little. We therefore remain intrigued for much longer than really excited or captivated by the scenario. Let's hope that the second and final part, Rage, is much more rhythmic and retains all the tension generated by the conclusion of this Tape 1.
A cleverly redesigned dialogue system
At least, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage offers us a dialogue system that makes conversations particularly natural. There are generally two or three possible responses available. If you select one before your interlocutor has finished speaking, you will simply cut him off. On the other hand, if you let him talk, a new dialogue choice linked to what you would not have heard if you had answered earlier can be unlocked.
This may seem trivial, but thanks to this, we really feel like we have an impact on the evolution of a conversation and especially take part in a discussion like we can have in real life. In fact, you can often choose not to say anything, which seems like a wise choice in some cases. The space left for silence and waiting is particularly appreciable. Of course, your decisions impact the relationship that Swann will have with each of her friends.
We understand that it is entirely possible to start a romance with Kat, Nora or Autumn. However, Bloom only gives us the beginnings of a possible romantic relationship. Furthermore, the decisions to be made to start a romance with one of the three girls seem more nuanced, less clear than in Life is Strange, for example. It is important to capture the emotions and needs of one of our "partners in crime" at a given moment in order to touch her right in the heart (a symbol that appears when you have made the right choice).
Just as Max is passionate about photography, Swann never leaves her camcorder behind. No, there were no smartphones in 1995. So you can (and sometimes, must) use the camcorder to film what is happening around you. There are different series of albums to fill out, which act as collectibles. Honestly, taking the time to film birds, graffiti, and even Swann’s girlfriends is quite tedious, even if the rendering of the camcorder and the recorded sequences, which can be replayed at will, is particularly successful.
Of course, you can still physically interact with many elements of the environment, giving substance to the characters of Lost Records or allowing you to better immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the 90s.
Note that this is the first Don’t Nod narrative game dubbed in French. The French version is generally well-made, even if the secondary characters do much less well than the four teenage girls. The very average lip-syncing also has something to do with it. Nothing to say, however, about the original version, which keeps all its promises during these first 5 to 6 hours of play.
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