Lost Chronicles: Bloom & Rage puts Dontnod in a surprising position to become its fiercest competition – hands-on preview

I usually hate to rely too much on comparisons to another game when talking about an independent title, especially one developed and published by an independent studio. But really, there’s no way to talk about The Lost Records: Bloom & Rage without acknowledging that its history is deep, perhaps inextricably linked to that of the Life is Strange franchise.

We may never know the closed story of why Dontnod parted ways with Square Enix, leaving its flagship franchise in the hands of former partners Deck Nine, and vowed to publish most of his work in the house henceforth. What we do know is that Lost Records is set to launch a new independent IP for the studio building on Life is Strange while still being unique – a task made difficult by the fact that the initial release window ended up clashing with LIS’ fifth game, Life is Strange: Double Exposure. .

Dontnod made a smart decision to blink ahead, delaying The Lost Chronicles: Bloom & Rage to early 2025 to avoid alienating the large niche audience that will obviously want to play both games.

Despite being several months away from release than expected at this point of the year, Dontnod sent a 90-minute preview of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage to coincide with Gamescom. And naturally, as our resident LIS hyperfanatic, I played it and had it thoughts.

There’s a bit of nostalgia in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. On the other hand, there is the fact that part of this game – and most of what is shown in the picture – is set in 1995. Fellow girls of the 90s and ’00s: prepare to feel. seen.

I’m a decade or so older than protagonist Swann, but her bedroom brought back strong memories: X-Files posters on the wall focused on Gillian Anderson, filled with Sapphic Agent Scully fanfic, handwritten. and it is hidden in a box under the bed; bookshelves characterized by an embarrassing mix of horror novels and regency romances; a well-used handheld camera connected to a TV, surrounded by boxes of hand-written VHS tapes and sturdy textbooks on filmmaking (a particular passion of Swann’s).

The deep sense of identification I felt with Swann was much closer than knowing his surroundings. It’s clear that Dontnod doesn’t have a flawless record when it comes to accurately representing the diverse lineup they produce, even if their hearts were always in the right place.

However, with Lost Records, a team of American female playwrights – Desiree Cifre (Wylde Flowers) and Nina Freeman (Tacoma) – took the lead as story creators, working together with a third group of OG LIS director Michel Koch, producer Luc Baghadousst, and designer Baptiste Moisan. The true experience of millennial western girlhood is evident in Cifre and Freeman’s writing of the all-female quartet at the heart of Bloom & Rage.

Swann, Autumn, Nora, and Kat are not defined by their physical characteristics, but there is something unknown about them, especially in their teenage years: they are obese in a different way, they are acne-prone. pimpled, blemished, blemished and weak, these four girls increasingly from the voyeuristic point of view of young women who are flawless sexual objects, to be seen and not to be , which inform many video game archetypes.

Girls are openly shown to be imperfect in other ways as well. They circle each other literally and figuratively, as they proudly compare their most terrifying stories; they joke about sex which is all fun and games until the explanation hits too close to home for someone and it suddenly becomes problematic; they interact, in other words, in the way that close-knit groups of teenage girls tend to do when there are no boys or adults around.

More importantly, Bloom & Rage originally consisted of two singers: Autumn, the vocalist, and Nora, who is very scary. Games about aspiring musicians often feature performances worthy of an arena, but it quickly becomes apparent that’s not Lost Records’ vibe. These girls are not waiting for their talents to be discovered by another representative of the outside world, as they are already immersed in self-discovery. for see.

As a teenage girl, I have never seen a group of video game characters that I could relate to so easily. I’d say this move seems to be laser-targeted from the type of so-called capital-g Gamers who hate to see this kind of representation of reality in games, but I think it’s an amazing review: it would be fair to say this isn’t about them one bit. It’s about us, and I like to think that maybe, for once, that’s how it was conceived from the start.

But there is another side to the story when it comes to Lost Records and nostalgia, of course, is the distinct nostalgia that Life is Strange fans will feel when playing this game. The Lost Chronicles, as you’d expect, plays a lot like an LIS game: there’s a lot in the environment for Swann to interact with or comment on, and options Lots of dialogue and optional interactions with other players, which are always there. fun conversations that Swann can take part in while playing with the rest of the scene.

There’s a lot going on. At times I felt overwhelmed trying not to miss any of it – but that massive level of interaction also marks an improvement on Life is Strange’s focus on protagonists with ambitions and abilities they are creative. The player is given a moment to control Swann’s filmmaking choices – something that will clearly be very important to the plot of the full game – and can also contribute to the composition of the music for Bloom & Rage. It’s the biggest art-loving antagonist game Dontnod has attempted, adding to what is an endlessly repetitive and immersive video editing mini-game.

But what really struck me during this preview was that feel of the game is absolutely correct. As someone who has experienced indescribable joy when playing each new title near LIS – the sound of magic that I felt during the first visit to Arcadia Bay, from the perspective of that of Americana water fantasy – to a greater or lesser extent, I can confirm. that The Lost Chronicles: Bloom & Rage perfectly showcases Dontnod’s talents for creating a game world that feels at once perfectly peaceful, quietly joyful, and profoundly uncompromising when it comes to of showing its evil side.

I haven’t even touched on the modern parts of the game; in fairness, it wasn’t the heavy focus of this preview build, though there were a few brief scenes of middle-aged Swann and Autumn reconnecting after years apart. The focus of this picture was very much on the young characters and their once normal lives, not giving much details about the strange event that the central plot is funny.

But that’s okay; what I have seen so far has impressed me that yes, Dontnod has not lost anything that allowed them to create Life is Strange in the first place, and it has certainly taken every available update of budget and technology and their experience more. the next ten years to start a new business that promises to please their long-time fans. I honestly can’t wait any longer.

---

The Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is expected to be released in two installments in early 2025, and will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. This feature is played on PC.