Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Oct 7, 2021
    85
    It's brilliant, challenging and an absolute joy to strategize with the cards randomly dealt to you. [Issue #55 – October 2021, p. 24]
  2. Oct 1, 2021
    80
    If there’s an idea no one’s done before, it’s probably because it’s just a bad idea. But Zoink has managed to hit on something original that actually works with Lost in Random. Its audiovisual world-building is tremendous, ably lifting a servicable quest structure and story, and inventive combat plays to its strengths and is taken carefully up to the limits of its potential. However, the layers of interaction during battles make a promise of strategic complexity that isn’t kept, and encounters last too long without the depth to sustain interest. Nevertheless, everything is packaged beautifully and Lost in Random doesn’t outstay its welcome, either, leaving you craving one last roll of the dice.
  3. 80
    Lost in Random isn't a terribly long game. Even if you do keep the battles long by maintaining normal difficulty you can knock it off in around a dozen hours or so of gameplay time. By that stage, you probably won't find the combat as charming as you did when you first started, but you'll still want to see it to its conclusion, because the narrative and humour are so particularly strong.
  4. 80
    Lost in Random succeeds at telling a modern coming-of-age dark fairy tale that can be enjoyed by players of almost all ages, and the character and world design perfectly complements the zany and clever writing. The gameplay is likewise unique and engaging, and even though combat doesn’t offer extreme depth or challenge, it fits the scope of the adventure. However, the graphics and lighting suffer on Nintendo Switch, and if you have the ability to play it on another platform, you probably should.
  5. Sep 10, 2021
    80
    Lost in Random enjoys an exquisite universe, between an artistic direction reminiscent of the golden age of stop motion and a particularly rich narration. Add to that combat mechanics cleverly built and well executed despite some redundancies and some under-exploited ideas. But in the end, Zoink offers us a fascinating macabre tale that never runs out of steam over time and is worth browsing.
  6. 75
    Lost in Random definitely can hold its own against other titles and feels like a premium experience, but on it’s way there the balance between randomness and thought out design may have gotten a bit lost.
  7. Nov 22, 2021
    67
    Everything looks blurry and unfocused, and the game makes use of the old “shroud everything in fog to hide shortcomings” trick that horror games used a few generations ago. Even worse, you can practically see the world falling apart, whether you’re looking from a distance (and you see gaps where buildings need to pop in) or up close (where the game’s assets don’t fully materialize). It’s bad, and there’s no way around that unfortunate fact. And it really is unfortunate, because, as I said, there are quite a few good elements to be found here. I’d even go so far as to say that if you can overlook how hideous it is, then Lost in Random is incredibly rewarding. But at the same time, there are some very real performance issues here, and if you don’t want to spend dozens of hours straining your eyes at ugly graphics, I certainly wouldn’t blame you.
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 25
  2. Negative: 4 out of 25
  1. Oct 7, 2021
    5
    I really wanted to love this game. Its art style is beautiful, the sound design is great, but the gameplay just falls so short it hurts.I really wanted to love this game. Its art style is beautiful, the sound design is great, but the gameplay just falls so short it hurts. Your ability to do damage is so heavily based on RNG that most fights get drug out way longer then they need to be as you just doge around until you draw a card that lets you finally do some damage. This gets better as you progress through the game and you can just fill your deck with mostly attack cards, but you start the game with 3 cards in your deck that can deal damage and the bad taste that left for me never went away. The story itself is fairly formulaic (go to new area, do a couple fights to obtain item, fight boss, move on) and the ending was so abrupt. For a game that is so heavily based around being like a storybook I really expected more of an epilogue sequence but there is none. Some of the dialogue sequences are really repetitive too and they become annoying to go through as one character will tell you to do the same thing in like three different ways. The voice acting is solid, but in some instances they just make characters grunt which felt really weird, especially if a side quest focused on them. As someone who plays mainly big JRPGs, I almost never skip dialogue in a game, but here I was skipping a lot of side quest dialogue because they just weren't interesting at all. The art style of this game is so great and I really wanted to like it, but it just doesn't work for me at all. Its perfectly playable and some of the worlds are pretty cool, but the meet of the gameplay is just not well executed. The game runs fine on switch, there are some graphical issues and it does have a lot of load screens, although most of them only last 5 to 10 seconds. Full Review »
  2. Sep 27, 2021
    10
    Where's the Critic reviews for this game @ NS? It's kinda weird for a game with this quality not getting their scores.
  3. Sep 16, 2021
    10
    It's been so long since the last time I've played a game so unique, gorgeous and engaging. Sure it has it's flaws, but those aren't very important.