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* I finished Lost Records: Bloom and Rage by watching an LP because my playthrough was bugged. I'd been massively looking forward to this because the early promo was amazing. But, having seen the whole thing and also looked up to see if there are alt endings, I cannot recc this game.
Plot structure discussion, no specific spoilers... because there is no plot to spoil. The trailers posed the question 'why did these 4 girls promise to forget that night and never see each other again?' Bloom & Rage doesn't actually answer this question, it just sets it up. I knew they intended Lost Records to be a major new IP for them, bit I didn't expect this to just be a prologue with no ending.
One reason I am not happy with the lack of ending is that the only reason they are making a new IP is that they lost control of their big IP, Life Is Strange. So the story will continue, maybe, if things work out for the studio. If they had even ended with the title of the first actual game in the series, hit us with a 'the story continues in blah & blah' I'd feel a little more charitable. But, there wasn't even that. I am not the only person who feels burned by this, so that may also be a problem for the future of the series.
How Long To Beat puts the game at about 12 hours, 24 for a completionist run. That is a lot of fucking time to spend to not get an ending. Maybe this will go on to become an amazing franchise, but right now I am pissed off. Very glad I didn't try to debug / restart my run.
* Blue Prince has been blowing up, but I still feel it's still just catching on. As a puzzle game it's... a lot. Think rogue-like Myst but with decades of game dev know how and advances in game mechanics, but also in a quiet empty house. I saw some stats about it setting records for puzzle games in terms of how many people are watching streams of it and also content creation.
I put notes about the game in my journal and have had to clip in ten more pages, here they are folded and layered to hide spoilers:
Basically, for people who like these sorts of games, good news. Also, there is a specific aspect of the game balance that I want to see some long form content about.
Plot structure discussion, no specific spoilers... because there is no plot to spoil. The trailers posed the question 'why did these 4 girls promise to forget that night and never see each other again?' Bloom & Rage doesn't actually answer this question, it just sets it up. I knew they intended Lost Records to be a major new IP for them, bit I didn't expect this to just be a prologue with no ending.
One reason I am not happy with the lack of ending is that the only reason they are making a new IP is that they lost control of their big IP, Life Is Strange. So the story will continue, maybe, if things work out for the studio. If they had even ended with the title of the first actual game in the series, hit us with a 'the story continues in blah & blah' I'd feel a little more charitable. But, there wasn't even that. I am not the only person who feels burned by this, so that may also be a problem for the future of the series.
How Long To Beat puts the game at about 12 hours, 24 for a completionist run. That is a lot of fucking time to spend to not get an ending. Maybe this will go on to become an amazing franchise, but right now I am pissed off. Very glad I didn't try to debug / restart my run.
* Blue Prince has been blowing up, but I still feel it's still just catching on. As a puzzle game it's... a lot. Think rogue-like Myst but with decades of game dev know how and advances in game mechanics, but also in a quiet empty house. I saw some stats about it setting records for puzzle games in terms of how many people are watching streams of it and also content creation.
I put notes about the game in my journal and have had to clip in ten more pages, here they are folded and layered to hide spoilers:
Basically, for people who like these sorts of games, good news. Also, there is a specific aspect of the game balance that I want to see some long form content about.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-04 03:23 am (UTC)From:Ugh, that sucks about Bloom & Rage, though. I'd also be pissed at no ending. I understand that the nature of indie games is sometimes that they've got to get released in chunks... so a "To be continued..." sort of thing might not have been a shock, but generally the chunks should themselves be reasonably satisfying, and that does not sound narratively satisfying in the slightest. (Especially if it DOESN'T end up continuing.)
no subject
Date: 2025-05-04 06:37 pm (UTC)From:For Bloom & Rage, 12-24 hours is a lot of time to invest in what feels like a bait and switch. With Blue Prince if I never get the true ending, and I am not going to because a puzzle group lead by someone with puzzle solving prizes from Defcon is still working on it, I don't mind because the core game play loop is so smooth. For an indie game that just came out, I expected some jank. When I hit one puzzle I was like 'oh, here is where things fall apart because the engine wasn't designed for this' but not only was a smooth, but it had stuff in place to prevent problems. If I stopped now I'd be like 'that was a good time and I feel satisfied that I solved some stuff'. There's even an early out for people who want to just hit the main objective, say they hit credits, and move on. In Bloom & Rage, maybe 100%ing it means a stronger start in a hypothetical sequel? Except that a lot of games infamously don't carry over progression.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-08 04:11 am (UTC)From:It does sound like Blue Prince is very smooth, and having game play that's rewarding in and of itself can go a long way. Particularly if you can get some reasonable conclusions, like *an* ending (even if there are endings that remain elusive. And that in and of itself is impressive!) It's impressive for a newly released indie game to... work. Heh.