Lost Dimension Review
By: RJ (@rga_02)
- Lost Dimension
- Developer - Lancarse
- Publisher - ATLUS
- PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Vita
- Rating - T
13 days ‘til the end of the word. How should you spend those final days? Climb up a tower of course.
The premise of Lost Dimension sounds like it was meant for a 999/VLR spinoff you are working among 10 other people in a group called S.E.A.L.E.D to try to bring down a mysterious villain by name of “The End”. But he’s not an old man with a parrot hiding out in the jungles of Russia looking for a Snake to catch. He’s your typical evil white hair antagonist hell-bent on destroying the world within 13 days. It is up to you and your group to reach the top of the tower and prevent the destruction of the world.
To make it even worse, there is a traitor among your peers and you have to weed them out. Instead of normal character interactions you need to find out who the traitor is through unorthodox methods. After each mission you hear voices from various members of your group and you have to find voice stands out the most. It’s a mental version of cat and mouse. Later on in the game you unlock the “Vision” feature which will allow you to further investigate who is truly the traitor. There is a fun small little “mini-game” within this feature called deep vision which will allow you to run around the mind of a possible traitor to figure out if they are clean or not. I would like to note that no traitor is the same in every playthrough. So the person you exposed in your first playthrough won’t be the traitor in the next. So don’t get attached, because your favorite character could be the one plotting against your group.
You also build up smalls relationships with various party members with small interactions before and after you complete the mission. It’s not as in depth as you would find in other RPGs such as Persona but it’s nice to take a break from the nitty gritty. However there were little to no characters that I truly wanted to establish a “relationship” with. A majority of them were simply just uninteresting. Of course one shouldn’t expect glee out of people when the end is nigh, but everyone just felt so static.
The battle system is reminiscent of Valkyria Chronicles. While it does strike some similarities it has its own characteristics. You choose your characters and deploy them out in the field. Each characters are limited to one action per turn. So if you want him/her to perform an action twice, you can opt to have another character defer their action in favor of another. I stated earlier that you can build up relationships with others outside of battling. These relationships actually come in handy during battle. Should they be in range during battle they will perform assists while you are attacking. The assist system applies to all members of your party, but for those who you built up a relationship with, the damage will be greater. Don’t go into battling thinking you can just run around and spam your weapons and try to get assists to win battles. While it may not look in depth as other games of the same nature such as VC or xcom, the game makes you think from time to time. One wrong placement, and your enemies can sneak up and perform a heavy blow.
It isn’t just relying on your weapons during battle. Each of the party members is “Gifted”. They each have their own special powers unique to their character. Ranging anywhere from healing to going full Rambo on your enemies. Upgrading your gifts reminded me of the material found in Final Fantasy VII - albeit not as deep as that game. During battle you might want to watch on how many times you will use your gifted abilities as it is tied to your sanity. Once your sanity depletes then you will find yourself with an uncontrollable character who can attack members of your own party.
The art direction of this game is quite dull. Some of the character designs look straight out of some Western made “Japanese Inspired” animation. However the biggest crime in the art department would be the environments. They are just so dull and drab. I’ve seen better out of a Neptunia game. From my personal experience, the surroundings even placed a placebo effect on me. The surroundings were just so boring, that during the battle sequences I was just losing interest. The music was also largely forgettable. A majority of RPGs I have played, there is always that one song I will find myself humming by the end of the game. There is none of that in Lost Dimension.
This isn’t a bad game. It is certainly forgettable. It has an interesting premise with a solid battle system, but overall the whole game never left a lasting impression on me. The characters and the art direction felt unfinished. Perhaps what I am yearning the most from this game is in another dimension.