The Lost Child

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
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  1. Video Chums
    Jun 25, 2018
    81
    Although The Lost Child is a far cry from El Shaddai, Sawaki Takeyasu clearly crafted something special here. If you're a fan of first-person dungeon crawlers then you surely won't be disappointed with this fulfilling monster-recruiting adventure.

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User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 10
  3. Negative: 4 out of 10
  1. tomvs123
    Jun 6, 2019
    5
    Overall, a little better than Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls, but much worse than Demon Gaze II. As a fan of DRPG mechanics (tile-basedOverall, a little better than Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls, but much worse than Demon Gaze II. As a fan of DRPG mechanics (tile-based mapping and difficult battles), this game was able to scratch my DRPG itch, but it didn't offer much more than that.

    The dungeons, dungeon mechanics, and puzzles are okay. As long as you're a DRPG fan, they should be enough to keep you engaged and coming back for more.

    Combat is turn-based, and is a little different than the DRPGs I mentioned above. Skills and magic are what combat is all about. Normal attacks do tiny amounts of damage in comparison. And since enemies frequently get lucky hits that kill your leader (which ends the game), the best strategy is to kill everything as soon as possible with magic and skills. Having your leader die and end the game is annoying, but it’s very cheap (experience-wise) to retry if you die, so it’s not a huge problem.

    Overall, combat is fun and strategic, with a lot of variety and different options. Although many things are simply unknown, such as how much defense a defense spell ads, or what equipment stat bonuses do.

    I played using the standard difficulty and found it to be a little too easy overall, although there is a difficulty spike for each new dungeon or boss. Veteran DRPG players should probably choose the harder difficulty level.

    Three of your party slots are taken by monsters that you capture, while the other two slots are set characters (that you don't choose). I don't like monster collecting games, but found the mechanics required to acquire and level up monsters to be acceptable. there's about 100 different monsters to choose from (including bosses), but you may end up changing them every other dungeon since you find ones with better base stats frequently.

    The story is a generic JRPG "hero fights gods" affair, and it isn't executed very well. There's several instances of characters not acting believably, the world isn't fleshed out very much, and you get very little insight about the gods or their motivations. But the story isn't outright bad and I was able to get some entertainment out of it.

    Graphics and artwork are inconsistent and below-average overall. But it gets the job done.

    There's several mechanics in the game that weren't well thought-out. These include: The chest trap unlocking system is so silly that I ended up ignoring most traps and just opening chests. The battle burst/gun system is mostly useless, and annoying when you do need to use it (to capture monster). Resurrecting dead monsters completely restores their health and mana, which makes things easy in dungeons. It's always easy to exit a dungeon (during the main story), which makes the game a little too easy. And there's no map-level skills, such as light spells, levitation spells, or other spells that help you avoid environmental damage.

    Items and loot in the game are almost completely random. Very early in the game, I found an overpowered weapon and didn't replace it until the next-to-last dungeon. The loot in the later dungeons is disappointing, with much of it being more suited for a level 1 dungeon. Also, everything you find in treasure chests on the map is nearly worthless since they have no random stats, which makes them far inferior to items gained through battle.

    But with all the downsides, I liked the game. I completed the full story and half of the 100-level post-game dungeon. I gave up half-way through the post game dungeon because the puzzles get very tedious: the game is more about completing puzzles than combat or mapping at that point.

    For the DRPG fans out there, I recommend this game only if you need more DRPGs and have already played Demon Gaze II. The Lost Child is about as average as you can get.    … Full Review »
  2. Avorax
    Mar 6, 2019
    10
    At its best, The Lost Child knows how to engage its audience with a creative take on the monster catching format without leaning too heavilyAt 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… Full Review »
  3. GBG_Jason
    Jun 23, 2018
    6
    In a field that was often thankless, it’s nice to see the developers get the attention and credit they deserve, and it’s helpful to have anIn a field that was often thankless, it’s nice to see the developers get the attention and credit they deserve, and it’s helpful to have an idea of what you’re getting into based on a person’s previous work. While Takeyasu Sawaki is not a household name, if you played his previous game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, chances are you’ll see a lot of similarities in this.

    Starting The Lost Child, you’ll be treated to an intriguing tale of people committing suicide with a woman in purple always present. After almost being killed, Hayato is gifted with a device (from a woman in purple, what a coincidence) that allows him to collect and power up demons and other elevated beings like fallen angels. If you’re familiar with Sawaki’s aforementioned game, you’ll no doubt recognize some of the titular characters in this. Turns out The Lost Child is a spinoff, although anyone expecting another action based game is in for a surprise when they see this is a first person RPG in the vein of Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey, and Wizardry.

    As visually arresting as El Shaddai is, this may come as a disappointment. The game is presented in the style of a visual novel. That means characters may have a few different portraits for dialogue, but the designs are all pretty standard for this medium – nothing makes it stand out from other offerings on the market, which is what it needs. The one thing that most other games don’t offer is the strong religious themes and characters, and while Christianity appears to be at the forefront of Sawaki’s games, Lovecraft also plays a pretty prominent role here, although it’s really only in name.

    The game consists of two real portions – Hayato works as an occult journalist and must complete investigations per his boss. These stories are often intertwined with moving the story along with Lua, an angel sent down from Heaven to help Hayato battle the demons, and eventually save all of humankind. As stated previously, the game is presented in a manner similar to a graphic novel. For people that have never played one of those, you’ll be treated to scenes of dialogue and you can make choices that may or may not hold consequence – in this the choice picked determines the type of karma you receive. You’ll follow leads, talk to people in different areas after selecting them from a menu, and learn more about the world around you in this portion of the game.

    The second portion of the game is the dungeon crawling, which is arguably very basic. The mazes you traverse are hardly detailed and very generic, making it easy to get lost if the game didn’t provide a map for you. It’s possible that the environments don’t have much detail because it was expected you’d just follow the map, which is fine, but it doesn’t make the exploration very memorable. Each time I had to traverse another level before fighting the boss I noticed myself audibly sighing. The battles are all fairly simple, often times only requiring you perform normal attacks, although it’s in your best interest to use your Astral Burst to capture enemies before the gauge overfills and starts over from the beginning, making it impossible to use for a turn. At the end of a battle you’ll earn karma as well as experience for Hayato and Lua, who level up as you’d expect, allowing you to apply their newly acquired stat points. The karma is used to level up and purify the different beasts you capture, which you can eventually “evolve” if you max out their level and take them to a character that is only seen through a television.

    The game starts off strong; reminding me of Persona with its mystery of suicides on the train tracks, but quickly dips off once it gets into the story proper. There are plenty of tropes here, and while many of the characters originate from different backgrounds compared to similar games, the overall depiction of everyone is still overly familiar. The fact that Hayato is referred to as the Chosen One in almost every scene between angels, fallen angels, and demons doesn’t make things much better. Knowing this was coming from Sawaki, I was expecting something a bit more special. It’s not that the game is bad, but it doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary.

    If you’ve always wanted to jump into a first person dungeon crawling RPG but haven’t because of the difficulty, The Lost Child is a very welcoming game within the genre. The typically steep learning curve is not found here, although the boss battles can certainly give you a run for your money if you aren’t properly prepared. It also touches on some themes that games tend to shy away from, which is nice, but it’s hardly enough for people that are intimately familiar with the likes of Persona Q or Shin Megami Tensei IV.    … Full Review »
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