REVIEW: LOST RECORDS - BLOOM & RAGE
By Mel
Publishing by Mel
Image credits: Don’t Nod
Released in 2025, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage tells the story of a group of four friends, Swann, Autumn, Nora, and Kat. The game takes you through their youthful meeting as teenagers in 1995 and their eventual first reunion in 2022. A mystery which involves their bond, memories, a box, and a promise no character can remember making.
You will say; “Again with the multiple ending coming of age story with supernatural elements review?” But! We promise! Not all queer games are story and dialogue focused. But, after the sour taste the finale of the Life is Strange left in our mouths, in this edition of the Sapphic Save File, we bring you their creative minds (Don’t Nod’s) latest entry into the narrative driven genre and in our opinion one of the best recent queer stories in gaming.
THE SETTINGS & VISUALS
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, we’ll call it Bloom & Rage for now, takes place in Michigan, US, as you take control of the character of Swann. The game is a constant switch of past (1995) and present/future (2022 – which makes it reference COVID funnily enough).
It has sets of nostalgic 90s childhood for the 1995 segments where we follow the teenagers as they build their bond through their love for of the era music and build an escape and memories in the forest. The games does show plenty of sets in this era, it is never contained to a single location and this gives so much freedom to see the beautiful landscapes and hidden secrets in rooms using the camera and its Zoom. There is so much to interact with and explore!
In the 2022 the game only centres in a pub, however as the game is only 1/3 of the time here, we will let it slide as in the “future” segments what matters is character interaction rather than gameplay and exploring.
We also need to talk about the character design. This is something we love about the original Life is Strange series and something that Don’t Nod knows we need more of: grounded but still stylised.
We don’t want super smooth characters and hyper realism, give our girls some edge!
Bloom & Rage takes this and shows it to all the characters, props, and even brings it to the menu itself. There is a feeling of the text and UI reflecting the rebellious teen spirit that all four characters aim to give.
This stylised look is also used in the game’s supernatural segments, as focus points seem to become corrupted and graffitied by spirals. The narrative builds upon these foreign themes that break the normalcy in the girl’s lives, but it is never rushed, rather little by little we see how this force takes shape and alters the girl’s lives and other characters.
THE GAME & CHARACTERS
There is a total of maybe six important characters, counting the four core friends.
Swann, the main character is the awkward nerd which gives us moments of second hand embarrassment all over again but in a charming way. We love you Swann. Nora, the rebellious punk-rocker who is the reason why this game has a warning for “this game depicts kids smoking a blunt”. Autumn, the skateboard girl with the braincell in the group. Kat, the pragmatic poet who mysteriously vanishes and is the centre piece for the supernatural elements in the game.
Yes, you can kiss and date all three of them as Swann. Thank you Don’t Nod.
The characters due to their low number have enough time to fully explore them, their personalities, their flaws, and their futures. It gives you plenty of scenes to strengthen the relationship you can build with them and at the end of the game it will show you how far you’ve reached with them.
Even if in the future you all know each other, it is your past decisions that dictates just how close you truly are to them (and if they still like you).
Background characters are also given plenty of depth, from the pub owner that can reappear (or be remembered) in the past, to Kat’s sister and understanding her being one of the key needs for one of the endings.
The developers gave the player the choice to explore more than just the world, but the relationships and characters that surround you, which themselves have also multiple endings.
The gameplay switches from the expected walking simulator with puzzle solving to camera gameplay where you can control Swann’s camera and take videos.
The later is a highlight of this game.
In its way to collect thoughts, reflections, and quotes said in dialogue, the game takes a creative spin where everything is done through videos you collect and film in the game. The videos will stay as you filmed (so if you shacked a camera a lot, jumped, zoomed in wrong, the game will save and show that!) and when you’ve collected all videos to form a memory or a thought they will compile into a full edited video narrated by Swann, you are also encouraged to edit the videos yourself and make them more “professional”.
This added a depth of replay ability into Bloom & Rage. This and the fact the game has over 8 different endings (at least those we’ve seen), where the dialogue choice, gameplay decision, sneak ability, and even the future (choices made in the 2022 timeline) can all make a difference!
Bloom & Rage succeeds at adding the core elements of choice based gameplay while improving them thanks to the small roaster of characters, which also gives the game time to breathe if you just want to treat it as an experience and excuse to film a range of beautiful backgrounds in a game.
CONCLUSION
Bloom & Rage is a game that is not only easy to enjoy, but also very easy to support.
We support it as it returned our favourite tropes of monthly chapter releases! It has been a while since games have taken a chapter approach with their releases (the last one was Dispatch) where you need to wait a few weeks to see/play what happens next, and this is what Bloom & Rage did, having a break between Tape 1 and Tape 2. In my opinion, looking at theories for your favourite narrative game in a break of episode release is an experience few games can replicate.
The game in itself is full of things to enjoy, and is a versatile game that lets the player really chose their own adventure. You want to have crushes on all the girls? Do it. You want to spend all your time filming scenes and editing? Do it! You want to get a specific chaotic ending? Do it! All this also in a small, 7 hour story, which is difficult and very ambitious from the developers!
We recommend Bloom & Rage because it’s not just an enjoyable game but a full experience that in itself contains a beautiful coming of age story.
Dirty Dyke Magazine gives Lost Records - Bloom & Rage : 9/10
Game was played and reviewed on the PlayStation 5. Gameplay and performance may differ in other platforms.