New Review: Though a little rough around the edges, Lost Records is another memorable, character-driven journey from the creators of Life is Strange

In the summer of 1995, a group of teenage friends experience a series of events that will change them forever; a summer filled with both beauty and tragedy, love and sadness, and a summer that, mysteriously, fades from their memories after it ends. They reunite in their 40s, after one of them receives a mysterious package addressed to her that may provide some clues and closure as to the events that drew them together and then pulled them apart.

Lost Records: Bloom and Range sees Don’t Nod Entertainment, the creators of the Life is Strange series and developers of Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2, returning to the story-driven Adventure Game genre for the first time in many years, and the results are incredibly good, albeit a little rough around the edges and with a somewhat flawed second half.

The game features main character Swann, a girl whose family is planning on moving away from their sleepy suburb of Velvet Cove at the end of the summer. She wants to create a documentary to commemorate her final two months in Velvet Cove, and it’s while she’s filming outside the Video Store that she’s harassed by two bullies before 3 girls nearby witness it and step in.

Autumn, Nora, Kat, and Swann become best friends shortly after this, and Lost Records: Bloom and Rage alternates between the teenagers’ nostalgia-drenched summer adventures in Velvet Cove, and their 43-year-old selves as they sit together in the bar, meeting for the first time since and trying to recall the fateful events that led to them never seeing or speaking to each other again. As always with these types of games, your dialogue choices and the decisions you make shape the characters’ relationships to each other, and have some impacts on the story.

Though the Life is Strange series has continued without Don’t Nod Entertainment’s involvement courtesy of Deck Nine Games to mostly solid results (with Life Is Strange: True Colors being a true highlight) there’s just something so special about Don’t Nod’s storytelling; their ability pull beauty and warmth from what on the surface seems like the most mundane of moments. Velvet Cove is a town wrapped in mystery; you get to see the bar, the video store parking lot, a deserted park under a freeway ramp, the characters’ houses, and some scattered other locales, but much of your adventures take place in the forest, with the main characters creating a world (and a final summer together) that’s all their own.  You don’t ever really get to see or know the town very much, and the cast of characters that Nora, Swann, Autumn, and Kat interact with is incredibly small. Though this might at first glance seem like a flaw, the fact that Lost Records is so devoted to the 4 main characters and their time spent together in their secret world that’s so close yet feels so far away from their quiet suburb helps to create a truly transporting and dream-like atmosphere and vibe, and a feeling that stuck with me long after I completed the game. The music is top notch, providing a nostalgic backdrop, and the visuals are incredibly pretty (bearing in mind that this is an indie game and there are some rough patches) with the number of things to interact with in the environments being incredibly high as well.

Swann’s video camera also provides a cool gameplay mechanic, with your ability to take photos and videos of the main characters and numerous things in the environment to complete her collection of memoirs both addictive and compelling. The space that you have is limited, which is something that I wish the game had made clearer to you up front so you don’t have to delete some stuff later, but other than that minor issue, it’s one of Don’t Nod’s better mechanics.

Though Lost Records: Bloom and Rage provides an intimate, atmospheric, nostalgic, and compelling journey across its 2 tapes, it does have to be said that there are numerous flaws as well. The voice acting is generally good, but there are a few times where it feels like they could have done another take, with some moments of awkward delivery and strange dialogue taking me out of the story. And despite many instances of great writing, it does feel like the game would have benefitted from another draft or two to iron out some of the rougher moments. In particular, the personalities of the villains feel inconsistent, with the two of them becoming so ridiculously evil by the end of the game that it’s hard to take them seriously, especially given the circumstances. Fleshing them out a little bit more and making them more human and less over the top definitely would have helped, but I just found it hard to understand their motivations, and why they treated a certain character the way they did.

It has to be said too that the first tape is by far the stronger one; a major event happens at the end of tape 1 that changes things pretty dramatically, making tape 2 a lot less fun as a result, with the story in both the past and (especially) the present becoming a pretty big downer. The game redeems itself with a beautiful ending, but aside from that, its best moments are in its first half, which is a bit of a shame. The dialogue system also lets you know pretty much right away with a visual cue when you make the “right” or “wrong” dialogue choice, rather than keeping that a mystery, which seems slightly outdated for the genre and makes things feel a little frustrating when you make the “wrong” choice, something that happened to me increasingly in tape 2. On that same note, while the game ends in a beautiful way regardless, the present-day section for most who play it will lack a major piece of closure, as it’s locked behind an ending that’s very hard to achieve, as evidenced by the statistics revealed at the end showing how few players achieved it. It doesn’t end up affecting the game much, because quite honestly I think the normal ending’s better, (which, as of this writing, is the ending that the vast majority of Lost Records players received) but it does seem like kind of a weird decision on the part of the developers, and does a pretty big disservice to the 43-year-old versions of the characters.

Despite its flaws, however, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is easily an adventure game worth playing. Being a part of these 4 characters’ lives as they experience one final summer together was truly a memorable and thought-provoking experience. The world created here feels like a dream, a beautiful and slightly surreal trip through the garages and video store parking lots of 1990s suburbia. Though the first half is much stronger than the second half, and the occasional bits of iffy writing and acting and some bugs serve to remind you that this is a self-published indie game, ultimately Swann, Nora, Kat, and Autumn’s adventures together will stay in my mind for a long time to come. Definitely recommended to fans of the Life is Strange series and similar games, or to anyone who appreciates a good character-driven story that may not be full of action, but one whose emotional journey is everything.

4/5

New Review: It isn’t without its flaws, but Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is by far the best Like a Dragon game in many, many years.

 

 

If you’d told me back in 2006, when the first Yakuza game had released on Western shores, that I’d not only still be playing new installments nearly 20 years later, but that the series would achieve a major resurgence in worldwide popularity in the 2020s, I’d have never believed it.

Though it initially struggled to find a foothold in Western markets, success in Japan has enabled the Yakuza games (where the series is named Like a Dragon) to release on an almost annual basis for its entire lifespan. The previous installment, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which was known as Like a Dragon 7 in Japan, saw the series shift from being a brawler into being a turn-based RPG, and with that, a renewed effort to re-establish the series worldwide took place. Featuring a new main character, an entirely new battle system, and a brand new setting, Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon also saw the return of English voice acting for the first time since the original, along with the retiring of the Yakuza name in favor of bringing the Japanese Like a Dragon title worldwide.

Though I loved new main character Ichiban Kasuga and thought the turn-based battle system demonstrated a surprising amount of promise, I wasn’t a big fan of Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, which devolved into hours of dull level grinding, a plot that took forever to go nowhere, and a new city that frankly showed almost no sense of life compared to the series’ iconic Kamurocho. But the game proved to be an incredibly successful series rebirth, and Sega was riding high on its success when Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth released at the beginning of 2024.

As someone who’s been playing this series from the beginning, through what I’ve seen to be its many ups and downs, I’m extremely happy to report that Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth not only improves upon its predecessor in every possible way, but it’s by far the best game this long-running series has seen in many years, establishing itself not only as a must-have JRPG, but as one of the best games of the year.

Taking place in 3 massive cities, including the brand new and aesthetically vibrant Honolulu, Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth also includes the city of Yokohama from the previous game, along with series mainstay Kamurocho.  The hilarious and charismatic Ichiban leads his party on their adventure in Hawaii, while longtime main character Kazuma Kiryu leads his party on their adventure through Yokohama and Kamurocho. The two parties initially meet in Hawaii, but split after a series of major events, and the game alternates between the two as the series’ typically action-packed Yakuza-driven storyline propels things forward.

The characters and the often-hilarious dialogue are the true stars of the show here, along with the vibrant cities and the vastly improved turn-based battle system. Though it feels like the never-ending dialogue sequences have been scaled back slightly from their truly excessive lengths in Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, it’s true that like with all modern entries in this series, the cutscenes and dialogue sequences go on for far longer than they need to, and the storyline becomes hard to focus on and follow as a result. Similarly, the number of things to do while exploring these gigantic cities is never-ending, and wandering off the beaten path of the storyline is not only very easy to do, but encouraged. By the end of the game I admit I had little idea what was going on in the story, which has the series’ usual twists and turns and large cast of villains and near-death encounters. But I cared so much about main characters of Kazuma and Ichiban that it drives the story enough where I saw it through to the end.

Helping with this is a truly reinvigorated turn-based battle system, which remains one of the most action-packed turn-based battle systems I’ve seen probably since Final Fantasy XIII. Depending on your bonds with your party members (which increase through interacting with them in the cities and at the 2 bars which serve as home bases in Yokahama and Honolulu, respectively) new team-driven moves are unlocked, and your party members will run up and attack an enemy when they’re knocked down, or respond when you knock another enemy into them, hitting them a second time. Battles are relatively quick (especially when compered to its predecessor) and almost always exciting. Infinite Wealth also includes a great feature, wherein enemies you encounter when wandering the city who are at levels lower than yours can be essentially skipped, with you still awarded with the EXP for engaging with them. Kazuma also has his own series of moves, and his own gameplay mechanics, such as recovering his memories throughout the cities he visits, that differentiate his side of the story from Ichiban’s, and his battles from Ichiban’s. This is a seriously massive game, and it always manages to keep itself fresh and interesting.

In terms of difficulty, while Infinite Wealth has its share of challenging fights, I almost never felt the need to level grind, even though a dungeon exists similarly to the previous game for that purpose.  I got the necessary EXP from the storyline’s main events and through wandering around town, which is how it should be and which makes a huge difference in terms of pacing. Grinding for cash is gone, and the game also helpfully lets you know the recommended Level you should be at before progressing through the story at various points, which is always a good thing.

As has become customary in many modern RPGs, Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth also warns you when you’re about to enter a lengthy series of battles, or when you’re about to enter a bunch of story sequences where it’ll be a while before you get to save your game. Though it’s certainly helpful to know what’s coming ahead of time, I can’t help but wish that this series would do away with these extended sequences where you can’t save your game. It adds nothing to the difficulty, as dying simply restarts you back at a checkpoint or the beginning of the boss, but the fact that you can’t save adds stress to certain situations that I don’t think needs to be there. The same goes for slightly unforgiving dungeon design towards the end of the game; once you arrive at the bosses at the ends of the final two dungeons, the game thankfully allows you to save, but doesn’t allow you to backtrack through the dungeons to level up, if necessary. It gives you no warning before hitting this point of no return, and though reloading a previous pre-dungeon save file is I suppose always an option, it’s not something that people should have to worry about, and all that it does is create a potential roadblock that stands between someone finishing the game, and I don’t think design choices like these are necessary or add anything to the adventure, just frustration.

Aside from those thankfully rare issues, the only glaring weak point to an otherwise fantastic combat system is the Job System; as with Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, characters begin with their own jobs and move sets, and eventually these can be swapped out for others; since doing so essentially starts you back at 0 in terms of your character’s development, I really don’t understand the appeal at all of doing this. The good news is that Infinite Wealth, unlike its predecessor, doesn’t expect you to do this as a means to beat the main story, so at the very least it’s not something I had to bother with. It is though frustrating that, when buying equipment for your characters, you need to scour the map for stores that sell equipment for your character’s particular Job, as opposed to them all being located in one Equipment Shop. It’s time-consuming, feels unnecessary, and really only further adds fuel to the idea that these games would be better off without the Job System entirely.

With those flaws out of the way, though, it’s almost impossible not to acknowledge everything that Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth does so well. The game has a truly great sense of humor, and it’s something that carries over to everything; from the dialogue, to the battle system, to the characters and situations that you encounter. Humor has always played a role in this series, and this element has only increased in prominence as time has gone on. Gone are the days when Like a Dragon presented itself as a gritty crime thriller, though of course the plot still contains many deadly-serious moments. Instead, Infinite Wealth is a laugh-out-loud comedy, and though it’s been a jarring change, it’s where this series has been heading for many years, and it’s hard to argue with it when the resulting game is so entertaining. Though I continue to feel that Yokohama is by far the least interesting of the 3 cities here, it’s improved from its predecessor, while Honolulu and of course Kamurocho more than make up for its blandness. Honolulu in particular is dripping with atmosphere, beautiful lighting, tons and tons to do, and just a really fun, established sense of place. Each of the 2 parties has their own home base in the form of a bar, (Revolve Bar in Honolulu and Survive Bar in Yokohama) where Drink Link sequences are unlocked with your party members; the dialogue drones on an on, but the combat benefits for developing your bonds with your characters are important and addictive, and the two bars are ridiculously atmospheric, so it’s a really great addition to the Yakuza formula.

After finishing Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth, I have to say that I was blown away. The ending may be somewhat anticlimactic and underwhelming, and the unannounced “points of no return” during the final two dungeons are unnecessary frustrations, but I genuinely didn’t want the game to end. Filled with humor, a ridiculously entertaining turn-based battle system, no shortage of vibes and atmosphere, two compelling main characters, and 3 massive, mostly-memorable cities to explore, this is, quite simply, one of the best Yakuza (or Like a Dragon, whatever you want to call it) games ever made, and definitely the best in many years. It demonstrates why the Like a Dragon series has slowly, over time, become an Iconic Sega Series, and after this installment, I couldn’t be happier for it. There are areas for improvement; cutscenes and mini-games are in desperate need of dialogue editors, and I wish that optional mini-games (such as Dondoko Island) weren’t introduced with such lengthy, mandatory tutorials, especially for those of us who have no interest in re-visiting the mini-game to begin with. But after being burnt out by the snooze-inducing Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, it’s not only a relief to see how great Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth turned out to be, but also a promising sign that this series could be heading to truly great places going forward. Definitely recommended, both to Yakuza fans, as well as to fans of Japanese RPGs and Japanese games in general.

4/5

Note; this review is based off the PS5 version.