Lost Records: Bloom

Written by Nathan Carter on 2/18/2025 for PS5  

As soon as this game was announced, it instantly jumped to the top of my most anticipated games list because these types of games are right up my alley. Any kind of narrative adventure like Life is Strange, Heavy Rain, or Until Dawn is something I love because, more than anything, I appreciate a good story. I was especially excited since this was a new adventure game by the team behind the original Life is Strange, one of my favorite games of all time, so needless to say, I was hyped. After several delays, Lost Records by Dontnod is finally here, with Tape 1: Bloom available now and Tape 2: Rage coming in April. As the credits rolled on Tape 1, I enjoyed the characters and the story, and they set up a hell of a payoff for Tape 2, but unfortunately, the experience came with a ton of issues—mainly technical—which really put a damper on my enjoyment of Tape 1.

Lost Records takes place across two time periods: 1995 and 2022. In both, you play as Swann Holloway, an awkward, introverted girl who loves science fiction, nature, and, most of all, recording things with her camcorder—a birthday gift from her father. The game begins in 2022, as adult Swann returns home to Velvet Cove for the first time in over 25 years to reunite with friends she made as a teenager. She first meets Autumn at a bar—this is the first time they’ve seen or spoken to each other in over two decades. Through their dialogue, you learn that something happened in 1995 that caused them to split up and never reconnect, and their memories of that summer are foggy. A promise they made to each other is seemingly bringing them back together. The story then jumps back to 1995, where 16-year-old Swann, on her way to return a tape to the video store, encounters a pair of bullies. This chance meeting leads her to three other girls: Autumn, an upbeat army brat; Nora, a punk girl; and Kat, a foul-mouthed tomboy. The game unfolds over the summer of 1995, showing the girls becoming best friends and forming what seems like an unbreakable bond. However, in the present, things aren’t as rosy—a very ominous-looking box arrives at one of the girls’ doorsteps, addressed to “Bloom and Rage” and instructing them to “remember our promise.” Through present-day dialogue, we also learn that something serious happened, as the girls have seemingly tried to block out their memories of that summer forever.

The best part of the game, in my opinion, is Swann’s camera. While playing in 1995, you can press the R1 button to bring up Swann’s camcorder and record anything you want in eight-second increments. The game encourages you to film things like nature, bugs, the other girls, and locations around Velvet Cove. You can then place these video clips into a sequence to create a memoir of Swann’s adventures, narrated by Swann herself. There are memoirs for each of the girls, landscapes, and important locations like the video store, a playground, and an abandoned house the girls find in the woods. This feature was a ton of fun, and I honestly felt like some kind of creepy stalker with the camera because I kept filming the girls over and over again to get the perfect footage for the memoirs. Not to mention, the game is beautiful to look at. A lot of this episode takes place in the fictional forest areas of Velvet Cove, and I spent a ton of time just filming scenery, birds, squirrels, deer, and more.

Another thing I liked is how different dialogue options can appear depending on how much you listen to a conversation. When the girls start talking, you’ll usually get dialogue options to respond, but sometimes, if you keep listening, new options will appear, and some of these can raise your relationship levels with the characters. This feature seems like something that will play into Tape 2. The game also appears to have romance options, as dialogue can get flirty, though you can avoid it if you want. That said, while I found it interesting that I was raising relationship levels with characters, there was no payoff yet, so I’m excited to see how this plays out in the second episode. Another feature I liked was how dialogue in either time period can change the story. The game frequently switches between 2022 and 1995, and your choices affect how things play out. For example, in 2022, when Swann and her friends try to recall details about what happened in 1995, you’re presented with choices. These then impact what actually happened in 1995—ranging from small details, like song lyrics the girls wrote, to major choices that could affect the story’s trajectory in the past, present, and Tape 2.

The story was intriguing, and while some of the dialogue is awkward (sometimes in a good way, sometimes not), I really enjoyed watching the girls bond over the summer. This is a true coming-of-age story, reminding me a lot of Stand by Me and the first half of IT, with young teenagers navigating one of life’s toughest phases. Themes like bullying, body issues, sexuality, and bad home lives made the characters relatable, which speaks to how well they’re written. However, despite the well-developed characters, the game does drag at times. Even with its six-hour runtime, it starts feeling repetitive—so much of Tape 1 is about meeting the girls, learning their motivations, and watching them bond. That’s great, but after a while, I found myself thinking, Okay, let’s get on with it already. The present-day scenes often repeat phrases like, We didn’t know what was in store for us, Everything was great until it wasn’t, or We were so happy; I had no idea life would change forever, only to jump back to 1995 and show the girls having a great time. Eventually, the story does pick up, leading to a big reveal in the finale. While I won’t spoil anything, the girls discover something in 1995 that could change their futures—and there may be something supernatural at play. However, the climax was almost ruined by janky motion capture and some awkward dialogue.

Which brings me to my biggest issue: this game should have been delayed again because technically, it’s a mess.

My game crashed multiple times, and one crash completely locked up my PS5, forcing me to pull the plug to reset it. Character animations are often wonky, with characters snapping between animations or warping across the screen instead of moving naturally. At one point, Autumn was stuck in an animation where she was bent over looking for something in the bushes. She remained in this position for multiple scenes, including one where she was awkwardly lodged in the middle of a picnic table while having a casual conversation with Swann. Lip-syncing is also all over the place—sometimes perfect, sometimes completely off, with characters’ mouths stopping before their dialogue ends. There’s also an issue where lines overlap, so a character will start responding before the other has finished speaking, leading to multiple voices talking at once.

Now, this may be nitpicky, but I have to mention it: despite being set in 1995, the game doesn’t really feel like it. There are nostalgic elements—Pez dispensers, VHS tapes, video store rentals, magic eye books, and an IT Easter egg—but then a character suddenly makes a that’s what she said joke, which completely breaks the immersion. The soundtrack is phenomenal (I sat on the main menu listening to the song for hours), but it doesn’t fit the ‘90s setting at all. It feels like the only reason for the 1995 setting was to create a major time jump to the present. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it’s a shame they didn’t fully embrace the era.

Overall, Tape 1 of Lost Records has set up an interesting scenario for Tape 2. However, since most of this episode was setup, it’s hard to fully review the story. The major revelations only happen in the final 30 minutes, leaving more questions than answers. While that’s expected since this is only half the story, I wish we had gotten a bit more, and much earlier. I’m also somewhat worried—while the final reveal took an unexpected direction, it may dampen what I thought was building toward a big supernatural mystery. If Tape 2 goes the way I think it will, I might end up disappointed, thinking, Really? That’s it? But I hope I’m wrong.