Lost Words: Beyond the Page

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a family-friendly Puzzle-Platformer released on Stadia in 2020 and ported to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game follows the story of a young girl named Izzy writing in her journal as she tries to process the sudden illness of a family member, as well as the story-within-the-story the girl is writing about a girl trying to save her village after its magical fireflies are stolen by a dragon (because symbolism).

In both stories, players interact with the world using words in various interesting ways. In the framing story, players must maneuver a girl through the words of each journal entry as it is being written, with some words needing to be moved around to interact with others on the page, to be used as platforms, or simply to be slotted into their proper spot. Meanwhile, the girl in the story uses words as magical spells, gaining more through the course of the game, with each interacting with the environment in different ways, such as by lifting up objects, breaking them, or repairing broken structures.

This game has occasional moments of brilliance with how players make words interact with the environment, though these are fleeting. Mostly, it’s pretty straightforward what you need to do in any given place, meaning it’s almost too simple to call this game a Puzzle-Platformer. However, the platforming here isn’t especially difficult either. Mostly, this game’s focus is on telling the two connected stories, and using the Puzzle-Platforming elements to give players interesting ways of interacting with the first story, and for providing the slightest facade of a challenge in the second story.

It is fortunate, then, that the story here is quite good. The game is told from Izzy’s perspective, and is written in a voice that feels fairly realistic for the age being depicted, with her being artistic and imaginative, suitably emotional and lacking the understanding and insight of an adult. The writing here is superb, and really drives home the confusion and despair at the situation of dealing with a loved one in a dire medical situation.

The second story, the one that Izzy is writing, is also good, but in a different way – it is a simple fantasy tale, one that’s not especially deep or well-written, which makes sense given the age of its in-story author. However, as a metaphor for Izzy’s real-life struggles, it brings some additional insight that’s a nice touch. Both stories are narrated absolutely beautifully by Izzy’s voice actor Sidonie Marie Šakālis, who beautifully delivers on bringing us a character who genuinely feels like a frightened little girl trying to remain hopeful in the wake of a terrible situation.

Graphically, each of these two stories brings something different to the table. Izzy’s journal-writing has sketches scribbled onto the page as Izzy writes, with splashes of watercolor that are at times really beautiful, if a bit simple. Meanwhile, the story-within-a-story makes use of simple 2D visuals that have some decent lighting and shadows. It’s nothing truly impressive, but it looks nice and works well for the game.

One more thing I should note before concluding this review. Despite that the game’s constant on-screen cursor makes this game seem like an ideal candidate for the use of the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen, the touchscreen is not used in this game. It’s an unfortunate omission, but the game plays well enough without it, I suppose.

In the end, Lost Words is a great narrative experience that tells a wonderful, well-written, emotional story, and its Puzzle-Platforming gameplay occasionally has some great moments to back that up, but mostly the focus is on the story. If that sounds okay to you, this game is well worth playing.

tl;dr – Lost Words is a Puzzle-Platformer about a young girl writing in her diary while she struggles while a loved one is suffering from an illness, and also about the story she is writing that has metaphorical ties to her current situation. The story is well-written, well-told, and well-voice acted. The Puzzle-Platformer gameplay is also good, making some inventive use of words, though perhaps not as inventive as I would have liked. Still, the gameplay is good, and the story content is compelling enough that it more than makes up for any lack of ambition in the gameplay.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Voice Acting

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