Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is absolutely amazing—every bit as incredible as Life is Strange. It even carries that same nostalgic feeling I had after finishing the LIS series. DON'T NOD has once again created a beautifully crafted world with deep, well-written characters, an atmosphere that invites exploration, and a phenomenal soundtrack that instantly took me back to my first introduction to their work.

I’ve been feeling a lot of gaming burnout recently, but I played this for nearly five hours straight—I was that invested.

The game does an excellent job of introducing its characters, letting you learn about their personalities, interests, dreams, and the world they inhabit. However, there's an underlying mystery—something terrible happened to them, something they chose to forget. But whatever it was, they made a promise to reunite 20+ years later.

You play as Swann, an incredibly dorky yet intelligent girl who loves nature, horror movies, and documenting her life with her camcorder (which you'll be using a lot). She also has a cat named Pumpkin! While her dreams aren’t entirely clear yet, I can see her running a bookstore or even becoming a horror movie director. Despite experiencing bullying due to her weight, she remains kind and courageous, never letting it hold her back.

Then there's Autumn, who dreams of being in a punk band. She struggles with anxiety to some degree, making her less jokey than the others, but she has a big heart. She’s funny, but she also knows when to draw the line.

Nora is the wild one of the group—very comparable to Life is Strange's Chloe. She has red-dyed hair, drinks, does drugs, and has absolutely no filter. Like Autumn, she also dreams of becoming a famous punk singer.

Finally, we have Kat, an incredibly smart girl who loves poetry. She has an abusive father and lives with her sister, who is absolutely horrible to her. Kat, like Nora, swears a lot, but it’s clear that her home life weighs heavily on her. At times, her frustration boils over, making for some intense scenes that highlight the impact of her upbringing.

One of the coolest mechanics is the camcorder. You can watch your actual recorded footage through a VCR, edit clips together, and even change their order which is really cool.

The game also features a romance system, allowing you to shape your relationships with different dialogue choices. Responses fall into three categories: empathetic, romantic (which boosts a love interest’s affection), and negative (which can cause disagreements and lower hearts). While the full extent of this system isn’t clear yet, I assume that in the full release, you’ll be able to choose who you fall for. It’s a great feature, and I hope DON'T NOD continues incorporating it into future games.

The only real downside so far is stuttering. Even with my RTX 4070, DLSS, and Frame Generation enabled, some sections had noticeable performance issues. It wasn’t unplayable, but a patch would make the experience much smoother.

Another common complaint I’ve seen (though I personally disagree) is that this chapter is "boring." The reality is that Bloom & Rage is focused on character development for most of this episode, only introducing darker elements near the end. If you're someone who prefers a faster-paced or more serious narrative, you may want to wait for Tape 2, which releases next in April. Since this is an episodic game, later chapters will likely delve deeper into the mystery and heavier themes.

I absolutely can’t wait for Tape 2! This game already feels like another masterpiece from DON'T NOD, and I’m excited to see where the story goes next.

Edit: finally finished tape 2 and it was amazing I'm so gutted it's only a 2 part narrative I want more 😭

Give the Nazis some G.I. Robot treatment