"I feel like I'm on the edge of a dream. You know the feeling when your stomach drops? Bet it'd feel crazy like that... jumping in."

My life changed in 2015, thanks to Michel Koch, Raoul Barbet, and crew. I had just entered college as an aspiring game designer and storyteller, slowly began questioning my own closeted identity, and eventually discovered Life Is Strange, a narrative that seemingly had everything I love: bizarre sci-fi, coming-of-age queerness, small-town mysteries, and a story that overall felt impactful to my own choices.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, I believe, not only successfully evolves its predecessor two generations later, but somehow manages to overtake Life Is Strange in both design and technical production. It's not going to resonate with everybody, especially given some of its typical coming-of-age tropes. But for me personally, it feels like a one of those perfect games that comes from my dreams, implanting nearly everything I love into something special, something that someday I hope to make in its inspiration. Dare I say, this might be one of my favorite pieces of media I've experienced in years.

Of course, for a narrative adventure game, its choice-based branching design plays a significant part in this story. "Tape 1" may feel like a drag, but you discover later on, leading into "Tape 2", that even the smallest interactions between Swann and the three girls can form several variations in scenes, whether it be full lines of dialogue or even the smallest details on character and object designs. Scenes may not change drastically like something in Detroit: Become Human, where there are entire scenes missable, but there's enough here to discover and compare with other players. And with how nearly every scene feels timed and dynamic, making certain bits of dialogue missable, the world feels alive. Its narrative structure of hopping back-and-forth between 1995 and 2022 shows the brilliance of combining such a non-linear method of storytelling with choices made during a scene. Dialogue selections in 2022 can affect how the girls' past events occurred, and likewise, major events in 1995 can have an impact on the girls' behavior and even appearance in 2022; every variable seemingly at play with no noticeable dissonance to the foreshadowed implications placed throughout. Together, the two decades also act as a commentary on generational changes; the simplicity of 1990s childhood in comparison to the dullness of 2020s adulthood.
As a huge sci-fi/fantasy nerd, the implications of Velvet Cove and the Abyss itself hooked me in on first discovery. But, do these bizarre supernatural elements make sense on first play? Not necessarily, but I don't believe that's the point. I'm reminded of 2019's Control, a game with supernatural elements that go unexplained ultimately because of how naturally complex and incomprehensible they are in the world, and I see the aspects here no differently. This is just a story about four friends enjoying their 90s summer of punk rock and making memories, to distract them and escape from the mundane moments of teenage life. In fact, I personally read this adventure as an example of childhood imagination; whether or not these pieces of sci-fi actually exist, through the various visual examples throughout the story, it takes me back to a time of my youth where I would simply explore the trees and parks of my town, picturing the ethereal fantasy for myself; reminiscent of something like Bridge to Terabithia. The main cast of characters is fun too, each with their own characteristics. (I personally relate to Swann, as an introverted nerd, although I like Kat's crazy yet poetic nature the most.) And as someone who actually quite loves episodic releases, giving enough anticipation between parts for audiences to build theories and speculation, this two-part sectioning is not too short and not too long.
It's not all just an interactive movie though, as a central focus on exploration and puzzle-solving is through Swann's camera; an often-smart and effective way at both telling a story and integrating with choices not necessarily tied to simply picking dialogue. Among little details when using this camera as a first-person view during certain sequences, one of my personal favorite moments involves interacting with a character from a distance, zooming in on them to read clues and even flashing your light in a pattern to answer "yes" or "no".

Speaking of Swann's camera, the production value of Lost Records overall is simply breathtaking; I've seriously never seen any video game, even outside of the adventure game genre, execute on certain design elements like this.
Firstly, the overall ease of use and immersion of Swann's camera and the footage taken from it for memoirs is the most realistic levels of interactivity I've experienced with an object like this. The filter and film grain looks insanely accurate to actual analog video, and adding gyro makes it feel like you're actually holding the camera itself and giving full control of your footage.
Secondly, to the credit of Unreal Engine 5 and possibly the use of SSD technology for asset streaming, this game is not only gorgeous in its fidelity, evident through many close-up shots of characters' faces, but in its editing as well. The technology isn't there just yet, noticeably so through several instances of textures loading in or music going off-sync just a second or so behind, but the vision is clearly there and, as mentioned earlier, is something I've dreamed of seeing in a cinematic adventure game of this nature. The jump cuts especially impressed the hell out of me; a scene involving The Dø's "Sparks" in sync with several jump cuts between real-time scenes, cleverly disguised using tape static, is one of the best examples of this high production value in action. (There's a scene at the end of "Tape 2" that also uses these cuts in such a hypnotic way, though I won't ruin the surprise here.) The technology isn't perfected, but if studios adopts this level of editing and design, the future of film-like games will be insane to the eyes and ears.

Whether it's a beautiful one-off encapsulation or a piece of a world with bigger potential, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is seriously one of the most unforgettable experiences I've had with a piece of media in quite a long time, checking off a list filled with everything I love. Absolutely heartbreaking, ethereal, soothing, nostalgic, and other words that are simply understatements of my short time with these characters, this soundtrack (huge shoutout to Ruth Radelet and Milk & Bone), and the peculiarity of Velvet Cove. Even if you may not have enjoyed Life Is Strange, if you enjoy choice-based narratives from the likes of Telltale or Quantic Dream, have an addiction to the oddities of the otherwordly like Remedy, or even just have a love for the obvious Stephen King literature (and perhaps the Paper Girls books) that it draws inspiration from, this game deserves your time and attention, for its design and quality alone. It's a dream come true, and one that ties my imaginative youth together with my current love for punk rock, dream pop, and the wild unknown.

Huge thank you to the entire team, for making all of this a reality. And of course, thank you to Natalie Liconti, for making me cry. I needed this.