Lost in Random: The Eternal Die

Genre: Action / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

When Lost in Random came out in 2021, it was a fun, interesting, and fairly unique game with a quirky Henry Selick-style aesthetic that seemed like it might become a cult classic, but not a game I would think had strong franchise potential. However, it seems the folks at Thunderful and Stormteller Games feel differently, and they’ve brought us a spin-off of that game in the form of Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, releasing in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Taking place not long after the original Lost in Random, The Eternal Die places you in the role of Queen Aleksandra, the first game’s antagonist, whose struggle against the evil black die leads her to getting drawn within it, fighting enemies that she once trapped inside it.

The gameplay this time around takes a very different form than in the original Lost In Random, being an Action-focused Roguelike played from an overhead isometric perspective, with gameplay that most strongly resembles Hades. Much as in that game, players will explore through randomized arrangements of rooms full of enemies while earning various randomly-selected bonuses to make each run different. However, this isn’t to say that The Eternal Die lacks originality.

The first and most obvious unique element here is the die itself, which is tossed like an area-affect grenade and must be collected before it can be used again. Since it’s a die, the side that lands face-up determines the damage the die does, and after upgrading it can also cause other effects. This supplements your main attack and magical attack and adds a really great element to the gameplay that implicitly encourages players to dart into and out of groups of enemies as you toss the die and then must retrieve it.

Players’ upgrades during each run will also make use of the dice theme, with players needing to arrange them in a grid where Connect Four-style color matches (of, well, three like colors in a straight line) will empower these upgrades further. Additionally, in between runs you’ll have numerous options for permanent passive upgrades, but some of these come in the form of dual-sided coins, with each side having its own benefit, but only one side able to be active at a given time.

I will say the moment-to-moment gameplay doesn’t feel quite as tight as the Hades games. Multiple times I pressed the dash button to dodge a forecasted attack only to find that in the time it took for the game to register my button press, the enemy’s attack started and connected. This forced me to play more defensively than I would have otherwise, and made combat overall less satisfying.

My other complaints mostly have to do with the presentation. To be clear, the presentation in The Eternal Die isn’t bad – quite the opposite, this game once again makes use of the excellent Henry Selick-style aesthetic the first game had, along with detailed 3D visuals that look like they’re from a stop-motion animated film.

The issue here is, with the camera zoomed out and the world cycling in random chunks of rooms in a floating void, it didn’t come across as nearly as impressive as the fully-realized world we saw in the first game. Also, on Nintendo Switch, it seems there are framerate issues, with the screen scrolling in a jerky manner that’s distracting.

These visuals are backed by a soundtrack that mixes orchestral themes, some faster rock-inspired themes, and a few vocal themes for something that overall seems pretty cinematic, but that didn’t make a huge impression on me. This is joined by some genuinely good voice acting for all characters that helped to ensure that this game remains full of personality even when what you’re looking at is often a bit repetitive.

Overall, I don’t think that Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is quite as ambitious as the first game in the series, but I think it’s more accessible and generally makes for a strong alternative to Hades that does enough differently that it still feels unique even while borrowing most of that series’ formula and not quite reaching the same heights. Still, if you enjoy this style of game, I’d definitely recommend giving The Eternal Die a try.

tl;dr – Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is an Action-focused Roguelike and spinoff of the original game that copies much of the formula of the Hades franchise, and while it doesn’t reach those same heights, it brings enough unique and interesting elements to the table that fans of this style of game would do well to give this game a look.

Grade: B+

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