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.
If you’re looking for a turn based JRPG to play through, there are far better options out there that provide more variety for your dollar.
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 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.
This dungeon crawler takes heavy influence from Shin Megami Tensei but mostly feels like a poor imitation.
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.
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 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.
With some interesting combat mechanics and wide range of creatures to collect, The Lost Child makes for a passable, if not particularly compelling JRPG. Were it not for a dearth of dungeon crawlers on the Nintendo Switch, this is a tale you could easily skip.
While a decent RPG experience I enjoyed the dungeon exploration and the mystery sleuthing the most. I grew tired of the battles early on but they became much more challenging as Hayato progressed to the end. The price is a little high for what you get so waiting for a price drop or sale may be a safer bet. That said, definitely a game I would want in my collection and a satisfying experience overall.
The Lost Child is a solid dungeon crawler RPG that doesn't innovate in many areas, but is still fun to play. The repetitive nature of combat and exploration is a shame, but the story should keep you interested to the end.
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
Overall I had a good time with the Lost Child. If you’re waiting for SMTV or something this will definitely scratch that itch as well as give you a really cool and sometimes legitimately interesting story. Where the game falls flat is once again the odd art direction and diminishing returns of its dungeons and combat encounters. If they were able to spice up the game in that regard it would have been an almost amazing game.
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 isn’t bad game, but I don’t really think I would call it a great game either. This one is very middle of the road and basic. I did have fun collecting all the different types of enemies, and the story is kinda interesting. There is really just nothing here that makes this one stand out. You’ll get a solid 40 hours of gameplay here and a bonus 100 level dungeon after completing the story. If you’re a fan of Dungeon Crawlers and you need to scratch that itch this would probably get the job done at its $49.99 price tag. Just go don’t go into it expecting the next evolution of the genre.
Some may be tempted to write it off as an SMT knock-off, but this doesn’t strike as being fair given how its systems go a long way to stamping its own mark on everything and to make it stand out.
Honestly, I expect The Lost Child to be hit and miss with most players. Fans of monster capturing and dungeon crawlers certainly have quite a bit to look forward to in the game, especially with the added strategy.
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
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.
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