Summary
Lost Records: Bloom & Ragewill have you collecting memoirs, shooting footage of your friends, and building relationships all across its run. From finding and hunting down collectibles to making impactful decisions that will drastically alter the course of your game, there’s a surprising amount to take in on a first playthrough.
But, even if you’ve played a game like Lost Records: Bloom & Rage before, it can be tricky to know where to start. This list has all the best tips and tricks for early in your run, and might just make all the difference in the outcome of your run.
10Focus On Your Camcorder
Don’t Pull Focus Away
Early on in your run of Lost Records, the protagonist, Swann, pulls out her camcorder, eager to start filming her last few days before leaving her hometown forever. The camcorder is, in many ways, the core mechanic of this game and is similar to a lot ofother mechanics common to the genre. You’ll want to pull it out often, especially if you’re going to collect every memoir the game has to offer.
In some of the larger levels, it can be easy to get stuck in third-person mode and potentially miss a lot of shootable stuff perfect for creating memoirs. When exploring a level, try to keep focused on using your camcorder so you don’t miss hidden items worth filming.
9Take Your Time
Relax, Swann…
Every sequence in Lost Records has a lot of hidden details. It’s aslice-of-life style game, after all, so you don’t want to speed through. Oftentimes though, characters around you might be beckoning you toward the exit of a room or to keep moving forward. Almost every level has a hard exit point, but there’s no need to rush to it.
Stay behind and focus on looking for collectibles, like memoirs and reminiscences. These are important for any completionist looking to uncover everything Lost Records has to offer.
8You Can Always Backtrack
Retrace Your Steps
Though it’s nice to take your time through levels, you also shouldn’t panic about missing things. During the first few levels of play, it’s a bit easy to get overly concerned about shooting every little object or reminiscing about every item you see on Swann’s desk.
Remember, you may always go back and replay a level if you so choose. Just go to the main menu and scroll through the chapter options to find the section you’re looking for.
It’s important to note that you’re able to replay scenes in two modes: collectible and story mode. In story mode, your decisions may alter the game; in collectible mode, you won’t alter your progress.
7Understand Your Companions
Sharing Is Caring
One of the key components of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is working on your budding relationships with your companions: Autumn, Kat, and Nora. While you have the option to focus on just one or try to improve your relationships with all three, you’ll want to be specific about how you go about this.
Most of the game’s cutscenes and environments have dialogue options, notes, and hidden collectibles that can inform you about each of these characters. Knowing a lot about these characters can help you play their relationships better and answer their questions and dialogue trees with the right option.
6Use The Camcorder’s Zoom Function
Zoom In. Enhance.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage features a lot of large and sometimes dark environments. Luckily, your camcorder has two functions that can help you navigate these spaces: a flashlight and a zoom. Not only are these functions helpful for tracking down footage for your memoirs, but they can help you see things you might not see with the naked eye.
Particularly in levels where you’re either looking for specific objects or trying to crack a code, use the flashlight and the zoom on your camcorder to help you out. You’ll be surprised how often this can help if you’re stuck and not sure where to go next.
5Pay Attention To Hidden Details
There’s Beauty Everywhere
As mentioned, Lost Records features a lot of small hidden details throughout the environment. Everything from books on Swann’s shelf to items found in a hidden cabin can have meaning, especially as it relates to understanding Swann and her companions.
Almost everything in Lost Records can provide information on your companions, your protagonist, or even how to progress through levels. Unlike some other games in the genre, a lot of the background dialogue isn’t just flavor, either. Sometimes, characters might be trying to give you hints on how to progress.
4Silence Is Sometimes Golden
Shhhhh…
Games like Lost Records are alwaysfull of tough decisions, especially when it comes to dialogue options. One of the more compelling mechanics found in Lost Records is your ability to stay silent during dialogue trees. While the game will usually always offer you at least one response, you may also choose to have Swann stay silent. Sometimes, this is actually the best option.
It can be tricky to resist quickly pressing a dialogue option, but patience is a virtue. Sometimes, if you let the dialogue meters dwindle, a character you’re talking to might praise you for being a good listener, thus improving your relationship with them handily.
3Listen To Swann
Trust Yourself
Similarly to her companions, Swann will often point out things in the environment that can help you progress through the game or even alter story paths. Early on, there’s even a level that can take a drastically different turn if you don’t pay close attention to the object Swann points out at the start.
Pay attention to your protagonist and what she sees, especially through her camcorder. Listening closely to Swann’s dialogue is also super handy when it comes to hunting down collectibles and knowing what types of items you can film for memoirs.
2Reminisce Often
But Don’t Get Too Nostalgic
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage has a key mechanic that involves reminiscence. When you look around a given environment, you might see this option pop up when you look at specific objects. Sometimes, these reminiscences can trigger entire new scenes and sequences.
Other times, they provide helpful insight into the world and characters around you. Though, in many ways, reminiscence is technically optional, make sure you spend some time in each level reminiscing so you can get a better understanding of the world of Lost Records.
1You Get Final Cut
Lights. Camera. Action.
It can be hard, as a perfectionist, to let go of your creative endeavor. When shooting memoirs with Swann, sometimes her dialogue will overlap with the memoir’s voiceovers, or vice versa. If you’re looking to create the perfect series of memoirs by the time you get to the end of the game, fret not; you can always go back and edit your creations.
Simply go to the memoirs screen to edit. Here, you can rearrange these clips in any order you choose and even sub out original clips with others you shot later on in your campaign. Be sure to revisit this screen often if you’re looking to create the perfect final cut.
