Just Original Enough To Not Be Lost Time
From the outside Lost Dimension looks like one of dozens of generic strategy JRPGs featuring inexplicably capable teens fighting to save the world, and as far as most of the minute-to-minute gameplay actually goes, you wouldn’t be wrong. However, the Mafia-like hook that’s also present helps to set this game apart from the masses just enough to be noteworthy and worth at least a look, as the real fun comes in the form of figuring out just who amongst you is not on the up-and-up.
A mysterious man calling himself “The End” (who is always referred to as that full name in a way that sounds awkward) has caused mass chaos and claims to be able to destroy the world. Building a large tower out of a city, a special team of gifted teenagers called SEALED are sent in to find The End and put a stop to his schemes. That’s pretty much it, the story and motivation are extremely one note, and the story basically doesn’t even have a middle: go into the tower, then the game happens, then there are some endings. The individual characters, however, have their own arcs, and while they’re certainly not anything to write home about, they suffice where the overall plot falls far short.
However, that’s not what the real hook is. As soon as you enter the tower, the eleven members of the team are informed by The End that there are traitors among them, and that not everyone can be trusted. The player character, Sho Kasugai, has the gift of “Vision”, which functions as a form of precognition, and can see faint glimpses of what could be the future. Using this power you try to track down the spies in your ranks as you move higher.
Every floor has three suspicious members, one of which is the traitor, and using the data you are given after every battle as to how many “suspicious voices” you can hear in your vision, you can whittle down your suspects until the true culprit is revealed. At the end of each floor of the tower, a judgement is passed and the one with the most votes is eliminated.
Although the system is flawed, the game really shines during the time you are trying to suss out the betrayer in the party. Looking at the data and trying to figure out the three suspects is genuinely fun, and is reminiscent of some party or tabletop games like Mafia or The Resistance. What makes it even more interesting (or perhaps frustrating if you’re interested in trophies) is, aside from Sho, who is always the player character, the five total traitors are randomly selected every playthrough from the remaining ten characters, so hopefully no two playthroughs would be the same.
Like I said though, there are some obvious problems. The largest of which is, well, you never actually see the traitors do anything bad. There’s nothing to suggest that anyone on your team is working against you, as this is not reflected in the battles and missions, only in what your visions say, and what you are told or asked from the other party members. None of the traitor business has any bearing on the game whatsoever until the very end, where any traitors you may have missed will reveal themselves and turn on you only then. It would be hard to have them act suspicious while on missions, as you control all six party members you bring into any given battle, but I did spend some time suspicious of those who missed attacks more often, or took more critical damage for little bit until I realized this had nothing to do with their status on the team.
There is a “Camaraderie” system that works in a similar way as the Social Link system of Persona fame. After every new mission, your party members will want to talk with you, but only the first two people you talk to will actually have their relationships to you deepen, creating a balancing act of time management as you try to get closer with everyone as this allows for them to assist in attacks during battles, as well as to trust your opinions when the subject of voting out the traitors comes up. This allows you to manipulate and control the vote to make sure the right person is removed at every judgement. The only problem here is it seems almost impossible to lose face with anyone. The system is so easy that I never once had anyone go below the starting line of trust, even the eventual traitors.
The proper meat of the game is the strategy RPG combat, and like most aspects of the game, it’s passable but acceptable. Once you find a strategy that works, you’ll probably be okay with most of the game, aside from for the odd – and outrageous – difficulty spike here and there. The enemies and environments are fairly bland and iterative, but at under twenty hours to complete, Lost Dimension is really on the low end of time-sink RPGs, so they won’t become too bland to look at as the game goes on.
Despite it’s problems in difficulty, uninspired characters and plot, it’s visuals, and the lack of actual feedback into how these characters are “traitors”, I find it hard to not say I didn’t enjoy my time with the game. Simply looking at the data given and running theories in my head over who the candidates could be was surprisingly engaging, and the wrapper around all of that is ultimately not bad. There are definitely ways the game could have improved, and it’s a shame they weren’t acted on because there really could have been something even better with the idea, but the product at hand is still at least worth checking out if you like strategy RPGs, as well as testing your powers of deduction and pattern recognition.
