The Lost Child Reviews
The Lost Child is a dull, uninspired dungeon crawler. On paper, a Lovecraft dungeon crawler with a Japanese flair could be something truly iconic and memorable. Instead of realizing that ideal, The Lost Child apes existing dungeon crawlers and throws a dozen ideas at the wall, with none of them managing to stick. Combat can be fun and the El Shaddai nods are cute, but it isn't enough to make this cosmic terror worth losing your sanity over.
The Lost Child is a classic-style turn-based role-playing game with a first-person view, which features an intriguing story, well-designed puzzles and lots of opportunities to improve your party. On the other hand, this game is made with a very low budget, and it is pretty evident. If you're not a fan of exploration in the countless labyrinths, there's a chance that you'll get bored pretty quickly.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The Lost Child isn't a game bereft of merit, and we're sure that there's a number of people who'll enjoy the visual novel slash first person dungeon crawler approach taken here. But it's certainly a game with limited appeal - even among the role playing game demographic - thanks to the lifeless battles and cumbrous dungeon design. It's a game that pays more than a passing nod to numerous other RPGs - Pokemon, Persona, and other Shin Megami Tensei titles - but sadly, never approaches the quality of any of them.
The Lost Child is clearly inspired by several popular series from different genres and it does a decent job at that, featuring elements that will be easily identified by the players. Where it does not do so well is on delivering a good performance and capturing the player's attention, as this is a game that has problems with standing out, aggravated by its rather poor presentation, which ends up reinforcing how The Lost Child does not manage to be a compelling and engaging experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Lost Child is like that car your friend really likes but is hideous to look at. It's made of different parts, some of them from a different kind of car entirely. It makes funny sounds, and the sound system is a disaster. But they've had that car for years, and it still somehow runs without any problems. This visual novel/dungeon-crawler/monster-catcher is a whole lot of stuff mashed together, sometimes to awkward results. But the real meat and potatoes, the monster-catching, is not only the glue that holds The Lost Child together, but it's also a big ol' can of elbow grease that pushes the whole package forward. It's not always fun to read or look at, but I can get lost in grinding, evolving, and purifying more demons for hours.
The Lost Child is a JRPG with a number of quirky and interesting elements, not least of which is its Pokémon-like monster capture system. However, its dungeon crawling underpinnings are just too dull and repetitive, and its narrative approach too stilted to draw in anyone but die-hard fans of the genre. Even then, you'll need to come prepared to grit your teeth and grind.
Mix of a visual novel game and the dungeon crawler genre. This modern-day battle between Heaven and forces of evil is a good idea, but the mediocre execution doesn't help it much. The story is pretty good, though.
Review in Polish | Read full review
This dungeon crawler takes heavy influence from Shin Megami Tensei but mostly feels like a poor imitation.
The Lost Child might not be perfect, though it can be fun. Once you accept the story is a little out there, it becomes a decent ride with enough thought to be fun. Gameplay is rather dull, if only for the fact there isn't much going on, which is why the auto route and battle functions can be helpful. Combine this with fascinating characters, like a priest that reminded me of Mr. House from Fallout New Vegas, and you have a decent adventure with a fair amount to do.
A successor to the extremely unique action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, The Lost Child is a decently average dungeon crawler that plays it almost too safe.
The Lost Child is a first person dungeon crawler that revolves around grinding, exploration and a "pok'monesque" demon hunt. It is very repetitive and the graphics looks very dated.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Lost Child is a style of game has been done to death, but there are some interesting ideas found within the aggro and astral burst systems.
The strange thing about The Lost Child is that, despite its many, many flaws, it still manages to be entertaining by virtue of being a bog standard, but competent, first-person dungeon crawler with a great pace of progress.
The Lost Child has a lot to offer, with its fun battles and gameplay mechanics, gorgeous hand-drawn graphics, deadly bosses and an interesting story as well. A lot of love was poured into the game, and it really shows. So if you're a fan of dungeon crawlers, and don't mind massive visual novel length walls of text here and there, then you should definitely give The Lost Child a go!
The Lost Child is a good game that, even without anything special, should please both fans of the genre and act like a gateway for curious players. The story deserves special praise for being about a theme not commonly addressed in videogames and for doing it so well, but there are other problems that hold it back from reaching the level of its inspirations.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
undefined.It would be an easy task to find faults simply by focusing in on individual aspects of The Lost Child. The vast majority of the game can be traced back to another JRPG that probably did it better, and if you can't get passed that, than you probably aren't going to enjoy it. But what I can't deny is that when I just stopped caring about how much was borrowed from previous titles, I had a lot of fun, and that's all that really matters.
The Lost Child is also a game that so cleanly represents everything good about the dungeon crawler genre that I found it hard to put down. The fact that it's the perfect introduction to the dungeon crawler genre also makes it the perfect first example on the new hardware.
At its best, The Lost Child knows how to engage its audience with a creative take on the monster catching format without leaning too heavily into its Shin Megami Tensei influences. Unfortunately, at its worst, and it is more often at its worst, The Lost Child drags the audience along with an incohesive story, lacklustre dungeon design, and a repetitive battle system. The title isn't entirely without merit as everything does tend to mesh well enough in small doses, but longer play sessions reveal the monotony of it all. The Lost Child is an interesting experience, but perhaps one best experienced at a severely reduced price.
The Lost Child may be linked to El Shaddai, but you don't need to know a thing about it to enjoy it. It features a standalone story and cast but those who don't enjoy the genre won't enjoy this. I wish there was more to investigating and that so many assets weren't being reused so often, but The Lost Child is a solid first-person dungeon-crawler with an addicting capture mechanic and an engaging enough story to keep you wondering how it'll end.
Even as it is, The Lost Child is worth picking up. Whether its age-old tale of angels and demons does it for you is your call, but gameplay alone is enough to make this a worthwhile timesink. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got more demons to go and capture