Review

Developed by:Lancarse Published by:ATLUS Genre(s):
  • Tactical RPG
  • Platform:
  • Handhelds
  • Sony
  • Cost:$39.99 ESRB Rating:TEEN Players:1 Release date:July 28, 2015 Reviewed on:PS3
    7

    Lost Dimension

    The story of Lost Dimension is a well explored arena. Out of the blue, a large pillar known as The Tower appears and catastrophic events have claimed millions of lives across the globe. A lone figure known as The End then appears and promises the world will end in thirteen days unless he can be defeated. The team tasked with saving the day is a group known as The S.E.A.L.E.D, a special unit comprised of gifted individuals with extraordinary strength and determination. The fate of the world is in their hands…

    Lost Dimension is a turn based/Tactical RPG that was released on the PS3 and Vita in Japan last year; ATLUS was kind enough to port it over to North America and eventually Europe. The game centers on getting Sho Kasugai, a member of S.E.A.L.E.D and the game’s protagonist, and his group to the top of The Tower. With his ability to see events before they happen, Kasugai is the best chance humanity has against The End.

    The Tower itself is broken down into multiple floors and each floor features a lobby that serves as the camp for you and your group. In lobbies you can engage characters in conversation, choose the next battle, level up gifts (abilities unique to each character) and equip new items. There’s also a Generator that grants you new items and equipment by synthesizing the energy of defeated enemies. Before being deployed for the next battle you get to choose which allies to take into battle and also view the layout of the battleground to further assist in choosing the right allies for the right situation.

    Your team is comprised of a six member squad that you select from your camp before every battle. During fights the battleground can feature an assortment of layouts based on enemy, ally and building placement. All these factors come into play when deciding the best method of attack. During each characters turn a circular grid represents the area that particular character can move. Upon movement, that grid continues to get smaller until further movement is no longer possible and now you have to choose what actions to utilize, based on enemy locations and the abilities of the current character using the turn. Another thing to be weary of is if there’s an alleyway your characters can be stuck behind one another, wasting valuable turns and making it very easy for enemies to attack.

    Each character utilizes an attack based on guns, swords or hand-to-hand combat. Of course the range of a pistol allows you to keep a safe distance on the battleground versus the riskier melee based characters. Each character also has access to gifts that grant powers like pyrokinesis, concentrated gun shots and stat buffs that assist in battle. Some gifts can be leveled up making them exponentially more powerful. New gifts can also be unlocked through branching paths that differ greatly from character to character. When on the battlefield, each character will have bars representing Hit points, Gift points (magic) and Sanity. A character’s Sanity depletes every time you are hit, use gifts or defer a move to a character that already completed their turn. Once completely depleted, a character will go into a stunned state and lose a turn. Being stunned is never a good thing, so it’s important to choose your actions wisely. For instance, deferring moves can be quite useful. When one character uses his or her move getting into position to make an attack but couldn’t because an enemy was just outside of their attack range (something that occurs often) you could defer the next character’s move back to them so they can complete their attack. Then there are the times when the enemy is stronger than the character currently using a turn. Instead of making them face that tougher opponent you could switch to a more powerful character even if they went already. Though these are both good situations to use the defer ability, each time you do your sanity will deplete, taking you one step closer to being stunned.

    Teamwork and trust are emphasized in Lost Dimension, adding an additional layer of strategy and in some cases concern for the player. If an ally trusts the character attacking and is in range of the attackee, he or she will join in for an attack of their own causing additional damage. Up to 5 characters can potentially assist in attacking creating huge amounts of damage but beware; enemies are also capable of assist attacks as well. In order to build trust you have to engage characters in conversation in one of the lobbies within the Tower. You can only build trust between two characters after a battle, so wise selections must be made when choosing characters to build trust with. What makes this feature even more interesting is that there are traitors in your group that must be found out before progressing to the next floor. Paying close attention to conversations and characters demeanor is crucial in order to successfully fish out the traitor amongst your group.

    For the most part, Lost Dimension is a rather entertaining experience. That said, it isn’t as good as it could have been. One of the glaring issues for me, is the fact that the game was developed alongside the PS Vita version. While the 2D cutscenes are of anime caliber, character models and environments don’t quite meet PS3 standards. However, the less than stellar graphics don’t take away from the overall experience but it certainly would have enhanced it substantially. From a production standpoint I completely understand that it’s more cost effective to develop using the same assets or resources but there are obvious downsides to this cost effective method.

    The musical score consist of the usual techno futuristic sounds that make up most Japanese inspired RPG’s. The tempo of the music changes depending on whose turn it is, creating tense moments particularly when two or more members of your team have fallen in combat. The voice acting’s top notch, pulling you into the game as you engage with allies and enemies on your quest. Full audio conversations aren’t utilized for the small talk that takes place while sitting in camp as it’s mostly used for big battles or trust boosting dialogue amongst members of your team. While this is a very small complaint it would have been nice to have fully voiced conversations throughout the entire game.

    In general Lost Dimension is a fun game, with memorable moments. Its tense moments and “typical” character design fall right in with other RPG’s with similar tone and setting. Lancarse certainly has something to build on if they choose to make a sequel and I look forward to it.

    Gameplay:

    8

    Standard RPG fair with interesting elements sprinkled in to keep monotony at bay.

    Graphics:

    7

    It’s a game developed in tandem with a handheld and its apparent. It's the only major issue that fortunately doesn't hurt the experience too much.

    Sound:

    7

    A fitting score that while not incredibly remarkable, does manage to get the job done.

    Replay Value:

    6

    Once you’re done there aren’t too many reasons to play through a second time.

    Final Score:

    7

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