Lost in Random

 Switch
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 25
  3. Negative: 4 out of 25

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  1. stremlenye
    Oct 13, 2021
    2
    I was hooked by the trailer yet regretted the purchase half an hour later.
    The visuals which sold me the game through the promotional videos in the first place turned out to be quite bland and repetitive. Throughout my playtime, I kept getting the feeling the original concept art gut butchered due to the budget shortage and what was supposed to be the unique dystopian world neighboring    I was hooked by the trailer yet regretted the purchase half an hour later.
    The visuals which sold me the game through the promotional videos in the first place turned out to be quite bland and repetitive. Throughout my playtime, I kept getting the feeling the original concept art gut butchered due to the budget shortage and what was supposed to be the unique dystopian world neighboring the one of Alice American McGee and those of some of Tim Burton's animated movies became a corridor with assets recycled over and over again to the point I kept finding myself disoriented running into the opposite direction I initially intended to.
    Even though the story is entertaining the delivery plummets by the end of the second chapter with the out-of-place cut scenes interrupting the flow abruptly frequently reiterating what the player learned about a minute ago.

    The combat system makes an attempt to merge the deck-builder genre with 3D beat-em-up which is not a bad idea per se yet in given game implemented rather awkwardly: the protagonist has no means to deal any amount of damage without using the cards and may only collect the energy through dash-dodge mechanic or shooting small crystals from the enemy's body. That makes every encounter look and feel exactly the same and full of repetitive chores to run before the actual brawl begins. Talking about brawl: those cards available to you lack what makes a good deck-builder - card effects combinations that compose different and unique playstyles depending on the hand dealt.
    In the first half of the game, you are practically limited to choose only one card at a time which boils down to few options out of necessity: do you want to deal damage, heal or use those few useful utility perks other cards have to offer. The rest is mostly mindless dodge-hit loop against recycled enemies with one or two attacks which nevertheless feel the same since you have no options to deal with them differently. And that's just the basics. Here come the annoying bits: the mace's spin attack doesn't knock enemies away neither gives you invulnerability frames yet lasts for few seconds which means you are staggered for that time while enemies still can attack you canceling your attack, marking targets takes three buttons to be pressed at the same time to work reliably, dash-dodge through enemies can fail to register for now good reason, you can find yourself in a situation where an enemy is unreachable by any means but the bow and you have nowhere else to collect energy from apart from that enemy which turns into the hide and shoot sequence until you finally draw the bow card and get lucky to throw at least two with the dice to use it, sprint accelerates protagonist by what it feels ten percent at best and barely noticeable, the effects like that healing bell which supposed to act like a billiard ball bouncing from the walls can leave the arena fazing through the walls or falling from the cliffs. As a result, it felt reasonable to resort to a handful of cards that work reliably and keep iterating over them.

    If you feel like the story might be appealing you would probably find yourself running mindless errands like fetch quests to get to the next bit which by the fourth hour made me resent each new character coming my way. As you could imagine, side quests are not better at all.

    For me buying this game was a waste of money.    … Expand
  2. Dhumost
    Apr 11, 2023
    4
    The game is good but has no level select for clearing up the collectibles of the chapters and this is very annoying because if we end up clearing the chapter missing any of the collectibles, the game gives no chance to get back and complete them. This really pisses me off.

Awards & Rankings

93
#93 Best Switch Game of 2021
100
#100 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Gaming Age
    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.
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  2. 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]
  3. Nintendo Life
    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.
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