The Lost Child Reviews
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.
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 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 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.
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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.
Overall, The Lost Child is a good way to spend your time dungeon crawling as the story provides something interesting instead of a little bit of gloss as your reason for doing everything. With lots of interesting mechanics in regards to your party, there’s more than one way to approach your combat tactics as you work your way through Japan solving mysteries to write up your articles and working on the biggest one of your life. What exactly does it mean to be “God’s Chosen”? You want to know? Your dungeon crawling awaits you!
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.
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 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!
Although The Lost Child is a far cry from El Shaddai, Sawaki Takeyasu clearly crafted something special here.
The Lost Child is both a great game and a very frustrating one. It does a lot of things really well, the dungeon crawling, the story, the voice acting, the combat, and the puzzles themselves. Yet, it also has issues with the lack of tracking your investigations well, the difficulty spike at certain points, the too-frequent random battles, and the vagueness of some of the riddles. However, as a whole, the game was great to play through as it only got more interesting the more you got into it, and it was very satisfying to both solve the puzzles and unlock 100% of each floor.
While I’m usually a fan of the monster-catching genre and greatly enjoy anything Lovecraftian, The Lost Child fails to hit a lot of the key points that makes both of these genres fun. Add to this a standard storyline, repetitive combat and a pointless overworld, and you’ve got a game that’s ultimately very hard to recommend spending time on. With many exciting RPGs coming up in the near future, only those in desperate need of some monster catching or dungeon delving should look here.
The Lost Child has the ability to take you on a roller coaster ride, complete with highs and lows, when glossing over the structure and execution of its systems. On one hand, it does well with its dungeon diving system, though possibly playing it safe when viewed by those who eat these kind of games for breakfast. The combat itself is engaging enough, backed by a decent crafting and loot progression system.