The Lost Child Reviews

The Lost Child is ranked in the 20th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
No
Jul 2, 2018

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.

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8 / 10.0
Jul 3, 2018

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!

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6 / 10.0
Jul 9, 2018

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.

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5 / 10
Jul 22, 2018

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.

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8.5 / 10.0
Jun 15, 2018

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.

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No Recommendation / Blank
Jul 2, 2018

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.

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7 / 10.0
Jul 16, 2018

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.

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6.5 / 10.0
Jun 13, 2018

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.

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6 / 10.0
Jun 20, 2018

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.

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3.5 / 5.0
Jul 1, 2018

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.

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Jun 19, 2018

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.

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Jul 24, 2018

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.

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8.1 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2018

Although The Lost Child is a far cry from El Shaddai, Sawaki Takeyasu clearly crafted something special here.

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8 / 10
Jul 17, 2018

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!

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70 / 100
Jul 13, 2018

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.

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8 / 10.0
Jun 12, 2018

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.

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Jun 18, 2018

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.

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Renan Fontes
Top Critic
5 / 10
Sep 15, 2018

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.

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Jun 18, 2018

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.

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GameSpew
Top Critic
7 / 10
Jun 22, 2018

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

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