The Lost Child

The Lost Child isn't a game bereft of merit, and we're sure that there's a number of people who'll enjoy the visual novel slash first person dungeon crawler approach taken here. But it's certainly a game with limited appeal - even among the role playing game demographic - thanks to the lifeless battles and cumbrous dungeon design. It's a game that pays more than a passing nod to numerous other RPGs - Pokemon, Persona, and other Shin Megami Tensei titles - but sadly, never approaches the quality of any of them.

The Lost Child is a JRPG with a number of quirky and interesting elements, not least of which is its Pokémon-like monster capture system. However, its dungeon crawling underpinnings are just too dull and repetitive, and its narrative approach too stilted to draw in anyone but die-hard fans of the genre. Even then, you'll need to come prepared to grit your teeth and grind.

This dungeon crawler takes heavy influence from Shin Megami Tensei but mostly feels like a poor imitation.

A successor to the extremely unique action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, The Lost Child is a decently average dungeon crawler that plays it almost too safe.

The strange thing about The Lost Child is that, despite its many, many flaws, it still manages to be entertaining by virtue of being a bog standard, but competent, first-person dungeon crawler with a great pace of progress.

The Lost Child is clearly inspired by several popular series from different genres and it does a decent job at that, featuring elements that will be easily identified by the players. Where it does not do so well is on delivering a good performance and capturing the player's attention, as this is a game that has problems with standing out, aggravated by its rather poor presentation, which ends up reinforcing how The Lost Child does not manage to be a compelling and engaging experience.

At its best, The Lost Child knows how to engage its audience with a creative take on the monster catching format without leaning too heavily into its Shin Megami Tensei influences. Unfortunately, at its worst, and it is more often at its worst, The Lost Child drags the audience along with an incohesive story, lacklustre dungeon design, and a repetitive battle system. The title isn't entirely without merit as everything does tend to mesh well enough in small doses, but longer play sessions reveal the monotony of it all. The Lost Child is an interesting experience, but perhaps one best experienced at a severely reduced price.

The Lost Child is a first person dungeon crawler that revolves around grinding, exploration and a "pok'monesque" demon hunt. It is very repetitive and the graphics looks very dated.

The Lost Child isn’t bad game, but I don’t really think I would call it a great game either. This one is very middle of the road and basic. I did have fun collecting all the different types of enemies, and the story is kinda interesting. There is really just nothing here that makes this one stand out. You’ll get a solid 40 hours of gameplay here and a bonus 100 level dungeon after completing the story. If you’re a fan of Dungeon Crawlers and you need to scratch that itch this would probably get the job done at its $49.99 price tag. Just go don’t go into it expecting the next evolution of the genre.

If you’re looking for a turn based JRPG to play through, there are far better options out there that provide more variety for your dollar.