Lost Words: Beyond The Page Review
Lost Words: Beyond The Page
Publisher: Modus Games-Sketchbook Games-E
Developer:
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Lost Words is an atmospheric narrative adventure that takes place in the personal diary entries belonging to a young girl named Izzy that will unfold as you explore a fantasy land where words hold immense power. Featuring an immersive story crafted by renowned games writer Rhianna Pratchett, Lost Words: Beyond the Page will mesmerize players with its unique blend of gameplay mechanics and striking watercolor aesthetic. Driven by the player’s curiosity, the world of Estoria and the power it holds will serve as the engine that will propel Izzy through this deeply personal narrative, resulting in a truly memorable experience.
Lost Words is a truly unique experience of a game with a very moving story blended with a beautiful-looking game that kept me engaged from start to finish. The entire game is basically playing through two different stories that express similar themes in different manners. Not wanting to give anything away so you can experience this for yourself. You experience one side of the story through the actual journal, jumping through the sentences as a platformer with light puzzle-solving to get you through the different pages. In this story, you experience the life of the author going through some traumatic experiences through her eyes. This portion of the game to me was the most interesting, not sure if it was based on any true story or not, but this was excellently crafted to me through the lens of a young girl struggling with life.
The other half of this game is presented through a story the young girl is writing about the land of Estoria and a hero you create who is the guardian of her village on a quest to save their magical fireflies and stop an evil dragon. This narrative is done very well, to mirror what the young girl is dealing with in reality but presented as a fairy tale. In this portion of the game, you go through various levels using word magic from your special book to manipulate the landscape. You have various words you learn throughout the game to help you through the levels such as break (to break blocks), repair (to build structures and bridges), and many others.
The mechanics of this game just adds additional charm to a game that was already telling a captivating story. But presenting it in a different way than I’ve experienced in the past. Lost Worlds is a beautiful tale of love and loss wrapped up in a fairy tale narration straight out of a Disney movie. A fantastical story-driven game masked as a 2D platformer on the surface, but is so much more.
The graphics and art style are fairly simple but really pops off the pages of the book and the different lands of Estoria. The voice acting is very good as well, which really helped invest in this story they were presenting to us. The music was mellow and atmospheric, nothing too dramatic to me, but was welcomed as I wanted nothing to distract me from the story, it simply enhances it.
To sum it all up, Lost Words is a game that shouldn’t be missed by folks looking for a great story. This was a surprise hit with me that I didn’t see coming. If you are a fan of “walking sim” type games, this one should be on your radar as a truly unique experience to be had.
Article By Kevin Austin
Kevin Austin has been in gaming journalism in one way or another since the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube. Married and father of 3 children he has been gaming since the ripe age of 6 when he got his first NES system and over 30 years later he is still gaming almost daily. Kevin is also co-founder of the Play Some Video Games (PSVG) Podcast network which was founded over five years ago and is still going strong. Some of his favorite gaming series includes Fallout and Far Cry, he is a sucker for single player adventure games (hence his big reviews for Playstation), and can frequently be found getting down in one battle royale or another. If it's an oddball game, odds are he's all about it.
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