Lost Sphear

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Lost Sphear is a family-friendly Turn-Based JRPG that is the spiritual successor to developer Tokyo RPG Factory’s previous work, I Am Setsuna, and like that work, this is a game that seeks to recapture the spirit of 1990s-era JRPGs, with modern visuals. This game focuses on a group of plucky young adventurers seeking to restore the world after people, places, and things become “lost” in a mysterious white mist. This game was released in 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

Just as with I Am Setsuna, this game has a presentation that features a mostly top-down view from a fixed camera position, but makes use of 3D visuals to give everything depth and detail that’s quite lovely, albeit nothing impressive. The visuals here seem a bit washed out, which meshes well with the game’s mellow soundtrack, with some lovely mellow piano-centric tunes tunes such as Hope Journey that seem reminiscent of the works of Joe Hisashi. It’s all quite nice, though over time the game’s mellow, dreamy nature does gradually make it feel a bit one-note, like it all blends together. It’s not bad, but I still found it left me wanting.

The story here is okay, but lacks likeable characters. Your four initial leads here are Kanata, the forgettable heroic youth type, Lumina, the typical tsundere girl, Locke, the childish lazy type, and Van, an abrasive jerk who is constantly squabbling with Locke. Not exactly a group that will get you excited to join them on their journey. It also bears mention that the localization here is a bit lacking in personality too, though that may just be the game’s story. Whatever the reason, I never felt much attachment to this world or its characters, so it was hard for me to care much at the prospect of any of it becoming “lost”.

The gameplay in Lost Sphear builds on the same ideas that fueled I Am Setsuna, itself clearly inspired by the likes of Chrono Trigger. Specifically, this game’s battle system places a lot of emphasis on positioning to make the most of your attacks, with many character’s attacks having an area of effect. Players are given free reign when setting up each attack to position their character in the most ideal spot to catch the most enemies in the attack’s radius, and making smart choices about this is a key part of the game’s strategy. It’s a solid system, and I wish the game did more to make use of it – it’s a good idea, and it feels like the game could have done much more with it.

The same goes for many of the game’s systems it dabbles in. There’s a crafting system where players can create new equippable magic attacks and buffs using ‘memories” taken from defeated enemies, but these are only available in shops, and the slim number of options is constrained by the shops you find just as much as the resources you have available. There’s also a timing-based button press players can utilize to beef up attacks during combat, but players will likely be so busy setting up their next attack that this button prompt will seem like an annoying distraction more than an opportunity.

As a JRPG that seeks to reignite the glory days of the genre, there’s a lot that Lost Sphear gets right, but there isn’t any particular element that it truly excels at. Its story is interesting but not compelling, its visuals and music are enjoyable but not striking or impressive, and its gameplay has multiple good ideas that are never fully-realized. If you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll probably find this to be a solid game that does a good job of channeling the spirit of the golden age of the genre without really doing much to add to it. It’s well worth a look, but don’t expect it to lodge itself in your heart like the games that inspired it.

tl;dr – Lost Sphear, like its spiritual predecessor I Am Setsuna, is a Turn-Based JRPG inspired by the Super Nintendo-era classics of the genre. It’s a solid family-friendly entry in the genre that gets a lot right, but doesn’t do anything truly noteworthy like the games it seeks to imitate. If you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll likely find this to be a solid addition to your game library, but not a memorable one.

Grade: B

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