Lost Words: Beyond the Page

 Switch
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 11
  3. Negative: 1 out of 11
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  1. Pastel1360
    Dec 22, 2022
    5
    Lost Words: Beyond the Page has received plenty of praise: awards in 2021 and 2022, favorable reviews here and in other game stores... one would imagine this is a gold nugget, and for many people I am sure it is. For me, it wasn't.

    The game is two-layered: there's a girl writing in her journal and creating a story, so you participate in both activities. The story she creates is heavily    Lost Words: Beyond the Page has received plenty of praise: awards in 2021 and 2022, favorable reviews here and in other game stores... one would imagine this is a gold nugget, and for many people I am sure it is. For me, it wasn't.

    The game is two-layered: there's a girl writing in her journal and creating a story, so you participate in both activities. The story she creates is heavily influenced by what she's going through in real life (she faces loss and has to learn to process grief), and I found the narrative nice, but fully predictable after the first half hour of playing.

    Gameplay-wise, there isn't much. The game is based on moving words around and seeing how they impact the world, in a way not too dissimilar to Max and the quest of Brotherhood and its magic markers. However, where Max adds a bit of a challenge in terms of puzzle and sometimes a bit of skill and timing, I felt that Lost Words: Beyond the Page didn't require any skill to play, and found puzzles obvious and repetitive.

    There are large sections of the game where the pace is imposed: there is text appearing as you move, so you are forced to move at a certain pace to read it, sometimes you need to press a button to advance a dialogue. There are sections where you advance fast, which should be exhilarating, but there's absolutely no control as the game does it for you and reuses the same animations that feel repetitive quickly.

    I am not sure what audience this game targets. It could be teenage / pree-tenage gamers going through a similar story as the protagonist (in that case, I would argue that there might be better media to help them process their feelings), but even for them the gameplay side of things would be too basic. The gameplay could work for a younger audience, but in that case they might be lost on the wider message.

    For me, a "mature" (euphemism for older) gamer, this was not a satisfying experience. I believe some of the reviews I read before buying were saying "we don't want to spoil things by going into much detail", and so I have tried to remain spoiler-free but still provide as much detail as possible.    … Expand
  2. tonyozhelev
    Feb 1, 2023
    6
    The story is very predictable. It will probably move people who lost dear ones, as it did for me, but even though I was emotional I didn't really like some of the writing. While the journal parts of the game are fine, the story writing parts made me feel cringy and confused at times. Puzzles are kinda easy, but I enjoyed them. What I didn't like was that in the story there are some momentsThe story is very predictable. It will probably move people who lost dear ones, as it did for me, but even though I was emotional I didn't really like some of the writing. While the journal parts of the game are fine, the story writing parts made me feel cringy and confused at times. Puzzles are kinda easy, but I enjoyed them. What I didn't like was that in the story there are some moments that can leave you confused and if I didn't know the game is like 2 hours long I probably wouldn't have kept on playing. It all makes sense in the end, but I guess I kinda didn't like the way it was writen an presented. It's a decent 2 hour story, with a little bit of bad writing here and there. It's free on PS Plus Extra right now, so I'd say go for it if you want something really casual.… Expand
  3. b00lpr0p
    Dec 11, 2022
    3
    The game is boring, the story is boring, the puzzles cannot even be named "puzzles" because they are so obvious, there is no challenge at all.
  4. berkerzararsiz
    Sep 25, 2021
    10
    Good storytelling, feeling weird emotions, layered gameplay... Perfect game for me

Awards & Rankings

96
#96 Best Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 16
  3. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. Cubed3
    Jun 16, 2022
    90
    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.
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  2. Starbit
    May 5, 2022
    80
    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.
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  3. Player 2
    Apr 7, 2022
    42
    An interesting premise and solid execution are let down by a narrative that treads a predictable path, reaching for a poignant epiphany it isn’t able to realise.
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