X
- E10+
- Square Enix
- E10+
- Square Enix
- E10+
- Square Enix
- E10+
- Square Enix
Lost Sphear
Released On: Jan 23, 2018
68
6.7
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 54 Critic Reviews
68
44% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
54% Mixed
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 54 Critic Reviews
68
44% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
54% Mixed
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Lost Sphear, as with I Am Setsuna before it, is a beautiful, heartfelt bit of classical Japanese videogame storytelling. It’s not a game that you should be playing for the gameplay in so much as it wraps nostalgia and some more modern ideas together in order to tell something that is both memorable and soulful. It’s a beautiful, emotive game and with it Tokyo RPG Factory has cemented itself as one of my favourite JRPG outfits going around.
Even though Lost Sphear may not quite match the quality class of the SNES classic, the Tokyo RPG Factory is much closer to the big role model with their new game than it was in I am Setsuna.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 72 User Ratings
6.7
56% Positive
40 Ratings
40 Ratings
18% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
26% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 72 User Ratings
6.7
56% Positive
40 Ratings
40 Ratings
18% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
26% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
I just platinumed this game, and purchased it off amazon for $40 earlier this month. I put in approximately 60 hours into the game, then came on here and I was disappointed to see a lower than expected rating. Sure, ratings don't always matter, since people can have such wrong or bias opinions. But some of these negative reviews are comical.
People are comparing it to Chrono Trigger, of course it may not be as classic or nostalgic like it, because the game is newer and a fresh take on what JRPG fans have been looking for in their games. It has pretty much all the elements to make up that JRPG you miss playing.
For what it is, it is really well done. It doesn't make sense to knock it for its graphics either, because it's a niche genre and this is the style its fans are looking for. If it didn't have the backing of Square Enix, it would almost be an indie game as well, since it's made from a smaller company as well.
So I can never understand how people can praise a game like UnderTale, with its even lower graphics and subpar story and silliness, but give low praise to a well done and beautiful game like this one. This is where bias comes in, especially towards JRPGs it seems, from Americans and those outside of Japan. Their standards are way too high or most people tend to look down on the JRPG genre.
Other than that. This game has a beautiful and amazing score. An interesting array of characters from various walks of life. A compelling and deep story, with a post game tying up the true ending of the story. Then there's side stuff to do if you want to dive in some more into the game. The battle system is a lot of fun as well.
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PlayStation 4
A very good old-school game. Successor spiritual JRPGs and battle system from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. Excelent RPG!
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PlayStation 4
I did thoroughly enjoy the mixture of old school art that is quite simplified and defines an RPG generation long since gone, while still maintaining massive amount of details in environments and characters that make you understand it was built for the current generation systems. To boot, you get a very strong soundtrack that I could probably listen to on a daily basis. In short, presentation was excellent, though not completely forgiving of the difficulty.
Lost Sphear brings back the Japanese RPG from the golden SNES era by taking Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 as an example. That does mean the game is filled with cliches, but you gotta love the nostalgic gameplay.
Lost Sphear has some good ideas and mechanics working together when it comes to battle, but everything else falls short and feels dull. The reused dungeons, backtracking, and slow-paced story don’t give me much to fight for, even if the end does come together in an interesting way. Sadly, the tedious grind through a milquetoast adventure is sour for far too long before coming together.
Eventually you come to feel less like you're changing the world so much as being given a half-finished jigsaw: there's a certain pleasure to slotting in the missing pieces, but completing the job can be a laborious process. [March 2018, p.114]
Old school JRPG fans will find much to enjoy here, but the refusal to innovate does more harm than good for the genre’s reputation.
This is a classic JRPG at its finest. The piano music is simple and effective, the battle system is classic 90s, as is the story; straightforward, simple, compelling, and engaging. The characters are written as classic JRPG characters, with that cheesy, predictable sense that just makes one smile upon reading all of its charm. Fans of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and VII, and Ni No Kuni will find something in this game to cheer about. A beautiful return to form. I can only pray that more titles and IP come from this new, growing subsection of Square Enix.
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PlayStation 4
A good RPG with the unique memory mechanic but also a weak beginning. I almost quit after a few hours and would have called it a boring and generic RPG. Luckily the story and gameplay took momentum and improved the experience. The game is a classic active time turn based RPG. I would describe it as similar to classic Final Fantasy with elements from Chrono Trigger and I think a bit of Xenogears. The story is set in a world that is created seemingly out of memories by the moon but most people think that is just a creation myth. After a flashback to a distant past we switch to the young protagonists Kanata, Lumina and Locke in the remote village of Elgarthe. While they are on a fishing trip something strange happens. The entire village vanishes into white mist and they have to solve this mystery which is just the start of a far bigger adventure. I stop here to avoid spoilers. The story is decent with some really good moments but they also use many tropes and stereotypes. I could foresee some twists and story events with ease. Also like I said the first 3-4 hours are a bit boring. It hits more than it misses in this regard but not by large margin. The gameplay is classical refreshing. It is an active time battle with manual movement / positioning for attack / special ability range (Chrono Trigger). Overall this is a good but not awesome RPG you can play or skip it. I recommend it for the memory ideas and later half.
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PlayStation 4
This is a mediocre game, plain and simple. And so not worth 50 bucks.
I played and loved 'I Am Setsuna' - even with all its flaws - because it was clear to me that there was so much love and soul inside that little independent game. What SquareEnix and Tokyo RPG Factory did with Lost Sphere is an industrial product that works, but nothing beyond that. A simple, traditional RPG that will keep you busy for 20 hours or so.
The cast is completely forgettable, the story makes absolutely no sense, the graphics are mediocre, the soundtrack is boring and there is a lot of backtracking to compensate for the fact that you have a very limited map to explore. The combat system is the only good thing about the game; there are some nice, fresh ideas there and some place to experiment. But, overall, Lost Sphere is one of the most mediocre and boring games I've played recently.
I really regret getting it day one at full price. This game is worth 19 bucks at most. 50 is ridiculous.
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PlayStation 4
Lets start off with the gameplay
The gameplay has three difficulty settings but I played on easy, because I wanted to enjoy my time and I believe JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Games) should not have difficulty settings at all.
Their are options to disable movement and battle animations in battle.
Their are artifacts in the game that basically gives you buffs in two categories: buffs that affect the whole world vs buffs that only affect the region.
The food system is pretty much useless and never used it unless I needed it for the platinum
There are two gameplay modes semi active vs active combat. one is enemies wait to attack while you make your move and another enemies don’t care and will destroy your very existence.
There is a dialogue and event skip feature that goes from x2 to x16, kinda weird you can’t use to control normal gameplay so you can move and grind easier.
It’s a turn based game with skills and each class has a designated skill set but most of the time you’ll probably have the same party members.
Combat is an average type of JRPG style of gameplay, nothing note worthy, you’ll probably find in previous entries of the games in general that almost have the same combat as this game.
One thing about this game is that you can beat it in the high 50s.
There are a few enemies that get introduced half way throughout the game but they start getting recycled near the end game. I would say It’s a minimum attempt at making a distinct amount of enemies.
the specific armor for at least one character has combo moves but its very simple and not developed at all to show options. you have at most 5 options but realistically only use 3.
skills can be upgraded with buffs and with a specific mechanic called sublimation you can keep some of its effects on it up to a 10 stack but you can only have a 4 stack of a specific momentum buff
The gameplay is just more of the same, you would have experienced it already in some shape or form and nothing changes.
JRPG or RPG in general determine its playability on its gameplay and this game does the bare minimum with its gameplay mechanics.
For This Reason, it deservers a 1.0 out of 2.5
Story
The story of this game how would I say it, its average at best.
You get memory abilities in which you can restore memory.
you find out early on about your childhood friend circumstances on them in randomly which is weird and nothing to built up on it like a someone making a passing comment.
The side characters are pretty uninterested except for Van but that’s pretty much it.
The specific character quest, in which a couple of them were the highlight of the game.
There are two ending in which its more less **** or bad ending. Its more so one is a shortcut ending and one is a hard work ending.
I think this game story is average at best as with its gameplay, its worth a 1.5. average as hell and cliché as hell
Audio
The audio in this game for an rpg was pretty pretty good.
It fit most of the scenes.
There is battle dialogue (Japanese) weird they didn’t go all the way.
There is a whole load of audio sync issues where you walk on grass and stone it takes 1 second for it to kick in
when loading, the audio just stops and you get a constant scare that it might have crashed.
One time it took around 5-10 seconds to load hence it caused me anxiety because of this issue.
This audio deserves a 1.5 out of 2.5 because of these two issues
Performance
The performance of this game was A to S tier, I couldn’t tell if it ran at 30 or 60 fps.
It ran pretty smoothly.
They treated the Queen of Gaming Correctly.
2.5 is the reward.
Price Point
The price of this game is at MSRP at 49.99, this suffers from the same issue as I Am Setsuna.
This game should have at max been at the 15-20 dollar range for this title especially in 2017.
I am subtracting a 2 for overcharging for this game.
In conclusion,
The game sits at an average score of 4.5 because the story, gameplay, and audio all had issues while the performance was good. The price point was ridiculous selling for that much even after the whole debacle with I am Setsuna people arguing its worth around 15-20 dollar range.
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PlayStation 4
I had to mute the game and put on LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE because the monotonous music was going to send me to the mental ward. The story was meh, I never really felt like I cared about the characters, setting, or world in general, though it wasn't horrible either. I really don't know what to say the whole thing was really just okay. I had a really hard time understanding the battle system, I still have no idea what the hell sublimation or momentum charge is or how that works with spritnite. Thankfully, I never had to really care or try all that hard. I don't understand the comparisons to Chrono Trigger whatsoever either.
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PlayStation 4
Summary As an ominous power threatens the fabric of reality, a young man chosen by destiny must arise to face a phenomenon never seen before. Enter Kanata, as he awakens from a devastating dream leading him to find his home, erased from existence. Awaken the power of Memory to restore the Lost and rebuild the world!
Rated E +10
for Everyone +10
Platforms:
- Nintendo Switch
- PlayStation 4
- PC
Initial Release Date: Jan 23, 2018
Developer:
- Tokyo RPG Factory
Publisher: Square Enix
Genres:
