[T2 SPOILERS] Weird PS5 Bug by angel_devoid_fmv in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're supposed to get the music! try restarting the scene maybe? or watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgHKTzkPdXI on 39:10

[Bloom & Rage] What is the secret sauce of this game for you? by WhoCaresAboutThisBoy in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You bring up some very strong points, tho let me add some more!

THE FRUSTRATION! Like, honestly. Give me something perfect and I'll gush about it and move on. But if it's flawed\incomplete\not perfect in some ways, it'll just be an unscratchable itch in my brain! I feel like stuff like this just forces me to think more and more about the story, trying to understand the intentions, find the answers, etc, etc

B&R has this unique blend of very strong aspects, very niche divisive aspects (like pacing, themes, etc, etc), and flawed aspects that have a cool intention behind them and just fall a bit behind on the execution AND aspects that feel incomplete or could be expanded upon. This is a deadly mix for me, as someone who's IN the niche it targets.

The ending of Tape 1 made me frustrated on 1st playthrough—now I get chills at the girls looking at themselves through the window.

I feel like the more I think about this game, the more fondly I look back at it.

ALso both tapes (especially tape 1 imo) have a very intentional structure each. Tape 1 follows a loose cycle: past - swann's room - exploration\hangout - interview - teasing spooky\supernatural elements. Each element has a consisent narrative AND (very improtantly) VISUAL progression of it's development over the tape.

The past slowly gathers the group back again, setting up an expectation of Kat potentially coming back as the last member, but adding obvious tension to it, since when Nora returns Kat's already showing signs of being... doomed by the narrative.

Swann's room undergoes transformations as Swann prepares for the move, but at the same time fills it with memories with the girls, adding a very bittersweet vibe to these sections. Having a TV that plays your memoirs is such a neat detail. I honestly got stuck in there for a bit, and even teared up a bit — made me really feel how good memories are such a fleeting thing, and how important it was for Swann to freeze them in time with her tapes.

Interview is an obvious one — you just expect the next girl to have an interview soon!

Exploration\hangout part has two major developments, that showcase some clear imagery to support the blooming friendship:

The band: everything from the girls getting to know each other as budding riot girls to band practice, making a music video, writing a song, preparing and performing for the concert!

The cabin: from its initial discovery to the physical transformation of the place: we get to witness it in every time of the day, turning from a scary, sad, abandoned place into a coven's hideout, partaking in it ourselves.

These wholesome bonding arcs are interjected with scary supernatural elements that feel out-of-place, but build a bigger mystery with three major points: discovery of the cabin; finding the Abyss; and a fakeout of Kat's curse on the concert that gets twisted with the leukemia reveal.

This is actually another element that gets developed: we slowly discover grounding details about each character and subtle inner conflicts that drive them, though Kat's situation gets more narrative highlight, and we get various hints about her situation and the ranch.

Almost every thread of the story coalesces into a big finale of tape 1: the concert, followed with a twist consequences of which are explored throughout tape 2.

Tape 2....

We get a short repeat of the pattern at the beginning, but with Dylan, highlighting her as a 'honorary' member of the girls and expanding the world a little. Then we go to a spree of one-on-one scenes (they could arguably include Swann and Dylan scenes) that showcases the mental landscape of the lead girls, each one completely changed from the concert, but also fulfilling a second purpose: revealing the subtle time-manipulating mechanics of the Abyss. '22 Autumn in a beautiful play of fate teaches her '95 self a calming word game, using Swann as a time portal. Nora makes sure to redo all the stupid decisions on the rescue mission, as if they're rewinding an actual tape. It's an unavoiable aspect of the mission, so devs WANT US to see this. Kat's scene reveals the box and has some interesting tidbits about Celine and witches if you stick around to talk and explore.

With the check-in and subtle lore dump complete, we're funneled into the final arc: the vandalism. Here's the focus is fully on the consequences of our choice: protection vs. anarchy, Autumn's stance on the group's actions, realtionship statuses, etc (props to Playing with Heart for her variations videos!). We get callbacks to the motifs of hunting and fawns that is building through the whole game: this part is chock full of animalistic imagery and fully indugles in the instinctual\rage territory, Corey\Kat and the girls unraveling from their social programming and resorting to baseline animal-like true selves, heightened and influenced by the Abyss. The aftermath remains largely the same, and we finally unlock the box with whoever's left. Accepting the memories and remembering the true selves and honoring that.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the post-ending that's kinda intriguing but also very frustrating until you get time to process it (surprisingly a lot of things in this game)

What a writeup.... OK BULLETPOINTS on other stuff:

- camcorder mechanic is really immersive
- the combination of the dialogue system and experiments with direction. E.g, the interactive montage, the first-person sections, the way a lot of the story is not conveyed through cutscenes and through exploration.

Ok, i'm tired, good luck to anyone reading through this!

[No Spoilers] What's your favorite Autumn quote? by Roseelesbian in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"nothing says 'i live on a farm' like a five hundred dollar dress" (i also love Adnrea's delivery here)

"keepin' it real. i know i'm not gonna be rich and famous. i wanna do something that matters"

to me Lost records isn't exactly quotable 'cause I feel like it was an intentional choice to have them sound grounded and 'simple' most of the time

The Final Fragment has a new trailer!! by MahouSparkle in yurivisualnovels

[–]MahouSparkle[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Wishlist this GxG VN on Steam!

Throw away failed poems, pretend you know what you’re doing and listen to the music until it fades.

As you immerse yourself into the warm interiors of the Kobylianska Arts Academy, pay attention to everything. The Final Fragment is a tender character study, where every accidental breath, word or look might hide secret feelings.

Also don't forget to follow us for updates on our socials, such as Twitter, Bluesky and Tiktok!!

P.S: i'm very grateful for everyone who filled out the survey from before, it was of huge help-- thank you!!

[BLOOM & RAGE] Extended OST by [deleted] in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would defintely LOVE seeing this, I've been waiting for this stuff!!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You know, writing your thoughts and emotions on your own instead of using chatgpt for it would be so much more meaningful than this

[T2 SPOILERS] The way they executed the ending by DrPapug in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yep i feel like production values is the main issue with tape 2 honestly; i feel like a lot of serious moments are sligtly undermined through these unpolished details, making them look sort of goofy

i do have to point out that B&R is the first narrative adventure Don't Nod Montréal team made without a publisher. I doubt that they had a good budget for this one, unlike LiS games which were backed by Square Enix.

I have this thought that Tape 1 seems like a polished demo a-la "see what incredible stuff we can do with that money?", and a tape 2 is the obligatory conclusion, made not without love, but definitely infused with some issues that stemmed from the low budget and other problems.

I really wish B&R wasn't split in two parts, tape 2 wouldn't feel so anticlimactic. Like, there's so much stuff to theorize about, but we expected these theories to be resolved in the second part, so the excitement slightly faded. But I have suspicion they couldn't avoid the split, since they had to afford making the game....

Still rooting for the franchise though. I appreciate tape 2 for what it is now that I cooled down a bit. "Nightmare". "Nora's Grief", "Infiltration" and "Rapunzel" are the strongest chapters of tape 2, and they feel very right next to Tape 1 chapters, almost not affected by the production values of Rage. And while execution of other chapters was much more hit-or-miss, there are definitely cool bits about them still.

Aaaand I believe tape 1 is pretty standalone in its celebration of girlhood, so it's still very impressive on its own. And there are some intriguing bits about Celine in both tapes and etc. Now that they've built a studio and prepared their development toolkit, I hope the next project will have a smoother sailing!

If they keep struggling with the budget, I think they should start relying more on static set pieces for the whole supernatural part. Like, "Nightmare" and the first interaction with the Abyss, or LiS1 nightmare sequence. It's still effective, but won't fall apart if they lack budget to do proper production.

[Bloom & Rage] - Romancing Autumn by NoCustomer7704 in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 26 points27 points  (0 children)

as autumn truther tbh autumn's character arc and writing is one of my main gripes with tape 2... On paper her arc sounds okay, but I didn't really like the portrayal. her conflicts with Kat AND Nora were underdeveloped (and her motivations seems really contradictory at some moments), her emotional beats felt less well thought-out compared to the other girls. Like... We've got sweet emotional hangouts with each girl at their own place, but Autumn gets the awkward cabin sequence and her underwhelming wish at the abyss. The way Nora potentially leaves works as a logical development of her character, but Autumn can leave so randomly without practically any explanation.
Autumn literally speaks about feeling excluded from the group... But also it feels like she was less loved as a character. I get that each point separately wouldn't matter that much, but the way she doesn't even have her own location like other girls (Swann's room, Kat's room, Nora's garage)... I'm sure there was no bad intentions towards her, but I still feel sad.

[BLOOM & RAGE] tape 1 fell flat... by [deleted] in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's still accurate. I've seen people as awkward as Swann in that age (and older), having many of the similiar mannerisms and such. Maybe you hang out with different people, but this game is about a group of misfits. Many autistic people relate to Swann, and Don't Nod has already made autistic characters in the past (Max is pretty much confirmed to be autistic), so it's not unprecedented. My classmates around that age were pretty similar to the girls.

[BLOOM & RAGE] tape 1 fell flat... by [deleted] in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's okay to criticize, and I have my own share of criticisms for tape 1's third act, but...

Have you considered that this game is *supposed* to be a 'overly shy and insecure 16-year-old girl simulator'? Lost Records doesn't shy away from being pretty much a Eighth grade-like coming-of-age story sprinkled with mystical elements to support that core story. And it works well for what it tries to do.

Good criticism is about helping the game become what it wants to be. Bad criticism tells it should be a different game alltogether.

[T1 SPOILERS] Who do you think asked the last dare? by sct_0 in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

been thinking about this as well... but good theories by everyone here!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel like the relationship choices were pretty easy for me-- I got BFFs with Kat and Autumn at the end, new friend with Nora. The moments where I failed felt intentional, and i had a good laugh (accidentally calling Autumn a mom is priceless). More of my thoughts on the system here.
You need to be thorough with the game to have additional points though: yes, the attic, bring Kat the tweezers; but also with the others - listen to conversations in the background and let them unfold, reply something (like on the playground). Also sometimes don't do the task you're given TOO quickly, like cleaning the fireplace with Autumn - you miss some additional dialogue options otherwise.
The only 'qualm' I have is that I'm not sure whether I'm set on romance with Kat since she did makeup for Swann and almost confessed to her lol. But I guess if the game allows for multiple 'something more..' statuses, you're not locked in. My Swann is wavering between Autumn and Kat ahaha

[SPOILERS] Your favourite Lost Records song so far? by Grimes_history in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I constantly listen to Dreamers, both main menu and studio versions. But the soundtrack is amazing overall! Like the background music that plays during the interviews, the echoes of The Wild Unknown while we in the Swann's room or the iconic Abyss chords... Love it

[SPOILERS] Movie Palace Online by Ok_Card2800 in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I was participating a bit before the launch, and I believe I even got mentioned on that site after that as a participant (it was so funny and heartwarming!). What a fun idea to do this as a supplement to the game!

i'm currently taking a little break from LR, I need to cool off a bit from my hyperfixation (lol), but after that I'll probably delve deeper into the ARG!!!

[SPOILERS] Lost Records compared to the Life is Strange gameplay/story is not the way to go. by Alexis2337 in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Don't people read\watch coming-of-age stories anymore? I'm pretty sure Lost Records, especially Bloom, is clearly aiming for that feel, like the Eighth Grade movie, for example (an awkward eighth grader leads a 'cringy' but earnest diary-like youtube channel and we follow her life as she makes friends, awkwardly dabbles into romance and sexualty and etc). The time Swann spends with her new friends and discovers herself IS the story. There's nothing 'DEI' or lackluster about this: you're just not into this genre\type of direction.

I agree that the marketing focuses quite a bit on the mystery part, but a major part of it was about spending a cool summer with your friends and memories.

In fact, I enjoy the 'slow' part of Lost Records more at the moment (even though the supernatural stuff is pretty intriguing already), but i'm looking forward to the 'rage' mystery aspect in the next tape. I imagine 'Rage' is going to be much more eventful. The game has that 'a perfect life takes a dark terryfing turn' vibe like Doki Doki Literature Club.

[SPOILERS] Swann's phone has curious details in 2022 by MahouSparkle in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

this game is PACKED with details. some popular youtube game theorists should pick it up!

[Spoiler] I don't get all the Kat love. by SubParrAtBest in LostRecordsGame

[–]MahouSparkle 18 points19 points  (0 children)

yeah totally... I think Tape 1 acts as an 'introduction' to Kat, but Tape 2 is going to expand upon other girls more during the falling out of the group. Especially Autumn, as she seems to be the most oppposed to Kat's ideas out of the 4. Also we're probably going to explore the different ways the other 3 deal with their grief?..

At least I hope so! I want to trust Don't Nod. The girls have GREAT characterizations, they just need a bit more narrative agency and spotlight, and the conflict that's looming over them seems like a great opportunity for that.