Lost Words: Beyond the Page

Due to the strength and way emotions towards life drama and adversity are explored by Izzy in her diary and her imagined world, Lost Words: Beyond The Page is a must-have game for Nintendo Switch owners. There is a near-perfect balance of exploring sadness, helplessness, loss of hope and also hope itself through Izzy's own experience and how she drives her fictional character through a tough situation that really tugs on heartstrings and uses clever game mechanics to drive both tales forward to a highly satisfactory end.

An example of storytelling that can only exist through the medium of games, and a testament to the artistry of play. Its powerful writing, eye-watering design, and incredibly truthful narrative are held up by simple intuitive gameplay that immerses you in its story. While it’s not a challenging experience, Lost Words pulls you into an emotional journey that will linger long after the ending credits. This is the kind of game that makes me excited to play games, even if they leave me in tears.

Grief is a familiar theme in art, but in being both so universal and so personal, it’s something that will always resonate. Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an poignant, original approach to a common idea—both an abstract metaphor for grief in its fantasy world and a moving exploration of the creative catharsis behind it. Most of all, it’s a game about the power of words to make sense of a world turned upside town, and to cherish forever the memories of those we’ve lost.

Lost Words is an emotional journey that is told beautifully, and only slightly let down by the lack of gameplay and puzzles in between the fantastic storytelling.

There are plenty of environmental puzzles to be solved, but they pretty much all involve picking the right words in order to progress — whether it’s stepping on the right highlighted word, or picking a word like “repair” in order to fix the path ahead. There are only a couple of places where you’ll need to pause and think about what you’re doing. But, I mean, that’s kind of the point of any good fiction, right? If you’re actively taken out of a story by thinking about the mechanics of it all, then the story hasn’t done a great job of hooking you in. Lost Words may not be the greatest fiction you’ll ever read, but it will keep you hooked from the first to last page, and in this case, that’s enough.

Under the guise of a puzzle-platformer, what we have here is an emotionally enthralling game that pits us in an immersive experience where subjects like love and grief are masterfully presented in a way very few games manage to do. Lost Words: Beyond the Page is without any doubt a work that deserves to be in everyone's Nintendo Switch collection.

I’d easily recommend this to those looking for a well-told, emotional story with an interesting presentation, but if you want something that pushes back with its mechanics, it may not be the right game for you.

Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a phenomenal experience, one that I’m not likely to forget anytime soon. The gameplay is simple but the narrative more than makes up for that. An incredibly relatable story that really had me lost for words.

The story of Lost Words manages to be sad and beautiful all at once. The game only takes a couple of hours to finish and it's never particularly challenging, but that's because it exists as a medium for telling its story. The production of the game is stellar in terms of its audio and visuals, and the brief glimpse that players are given into Izzy's life is a memorable one. It falls into the niche of the short indie puzzle game that aims to pull at the heartstrings, and it succeeds in telling an engaging story about dealing with grief while using the video game medium to keep players hooked along the way.

Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an emotional story with an enjoyable wrapper of art, music, and gameplay that lasts about three or four hours. Turn back if you want an immense challenge or brain-wrinkling puzzles, but if you’re looking to shed a tear or two and take in a well-written story where you move a character around and occasionally solve some clever but basic word puzzles, this is a great game to experience.

Lost Words: Beyond The Page affected me more than most games do, but it’s not always engaging to play. In the end, the touching story wins out over the flaws, but be prepared for an inconsistent experience. Sometimes I found myself nodding off going through yet another boring platforming sequence; others, I had to turn to the next page of Izzy’s journal to make sure she’d be okay. Lost Words: Beyond The Page is an interesting way to tell an interactive story, venturing into territory that isn’t often explored in video games and I’m glad it exists, despite its flaws.

Sketchbook Games have created a truly fascinating experience that sensitively deals with trauma. Even though Lost Words suffers from a few gameplay issues, its narrative carries the game to incredible heights. For those looking for an emotional, grief-ridden title, look no further.

Playing through the thoughts and emotions that Izzy's feeling during a difficult time in her life is confronting and heartfelt in equal measure, making it all the more disappointing that Lost Words' core mechanic lets it down so much.

While Lost Words portrays the experience of loss from a younger perspective with a stunningly talented voice actress, but in the end, what's left is the story of a girl traveling through the five stages of grief. Though Lost Words: Beyond the Page attempts to reach beyond that is still a touching story, most of the depth in this gorgeous indie game is blocked by rudimentary symbols and adolescent cliches.