Lost Dimension

Editor's Notes

Digital PS3 version reviewed. Testing with the Vita version is noted in the Video section.

Introduction

The idea of a traitor being in the ranks is nothing new to video games, least of all RPGs. The concept of an ally that the protagonist fought on the same side of and trusted with their life turning on them can, if used correctly, invoke powerful emotions from the player. But while most video games use that concept as a one-note plot point, 'Lost Dimension' makes betrayal and traitors the core of it story, and it even bleeds into its gameplay elements.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

The end of the world is nigh, thanks to a man who simply calls himself The End. The white haired terrorist has erected a mysterious tower and issued the world and ultimatum: Climb the tower and kill him within thirteen days, or he will launch every nuclear warhead on the planet and destroy Earth. In response, the world decides to send an elite psychie unit called S.E.A.L.E.D. into the tower.

For fiction, this is a standard set-up, but when Sho and some of the other members of the unit awake, they seem to have lost their memories, and The End reveals a startling fact—that there are traitors amongst the group.

Getting down to the game's world, it's mainly the Tower. On every floor of the Tower, there is a traitor to try and pick out amongst the group of S.E.A.L.E.D. members. With the main character Sho and his psychic powers of Premonition, he can try and weed out the traitor of the group, by listening to their thoughts after battle. Additionally, he can use an ability called Deep Vision to delve fully into a comrade's mind, finding out for certain if they are a traitor… provided he has the Vision Points to do so, which aren't easy to come by.

Finding out the traitor of the floor quickly is important, as when Judgment time comes, not only does the player have to know who the traitor is, but they also have to convince the other party members to vote for the traitor. This is done by talking to them after battle, telling them who you think the traitor is and also by raising their camaraderie with Sho, in a Pesona-like Social Link manner of conversing and eventually doing quests together.

This part of the game, for the most part, works pretty well. Nothing's too obtuse to understand, the various characters are interesting enough to talk to, and the fact that eventually players have to go and possibly kill their favorite party member or suffer the consequences later is compelling. Unfortunately, the fighting, which ultimately makes up the bulk of the game, really drags the intrigue down.

'Lost Dimension' is a strategy RPG, with Sho and five other party members pitted against foes in a turn based fashion. Each of the party members has their own unique skills and strengths they bring to the table, and there's a lot of variety to be had in battle formations. It's all pretty straightforward for an SRPG, the only exception being the Sanity gauge. As members use their psychic skills, not only do they use 'Lost Dimension's' equivalent of MP, but it also eats away at their Sanity bar, and if it hits zero, they'll go Berserk, significantly raising their power but also making them uncontrollable. It's actually kind of an annoying system to deal with, as most skills even worth using take large chunks out of the bar, a character being attacked depletes the bar, and normal attacks typically don't do enough damage to deal with foes in an effective manner. What should have been a decent idea to try and conserve resources eventually becomes an anchor that disallows players from completing stages in an efficient manner.

Which leads to the game's biggest issue… battles are too slow. Players have to watch all animations as the fights happen, including the enemy phase and character skill animations. At first, it isn't too much of a problem, but when players run into big mechs that saunter slowly towards the characters at a step every three seconds or so, and there's three or more of these mechs on the map, it quickly gets old. Had there simply been a fast-forward option for enemy phases (as players can't do anything but watch anyway), 'Lost Dimension' would be a leagues better game; alas, in its current state, battles all too often become tedious and boring, and this becomes worse when late-game battles require precision tactics… and failure means a loss of fifteen or more minutes.