Lost Sphear (PC) Review

Where I Am Setsuna featured snowy sceneries and depressingly bleak environments and characters to a fault, Lost Sphear is immediately colourful and more vibrant. The core mechanics are all pretty much the same, but the visuals, story, and characters have all received an overhaul. The same meter-focused active battle system returns, but Lost Sphear makes sure to hand players a team of characters early on to squash the feeling that they are just standing around waiting to attack.

The characters themselves are more alive and humorous, and while they (and the overall story) aren't necessarily ground-breaking or original, they capture the player's attention and move the story along at a steady pace. Voices are entirely in Japanese, but the actors convey emotion and action very well; this particular reviewer is much more a fan of dubs than subs, but there's impeccable work here, and even the battle flavour text, which again goes untranslated, adds an unmistakable layer of excitement and emotion to battles.

White fog is covering up the characters' hometown, as well as the memories of various people and spirits throughout the land. The main character, Kanata, has the unique ability to find and story people's memories, as well as the power to return them and make the people whole and alive again.

Like the characters, it's nothing too original, but it moves the story along and makes for some pretty visuals - when they aren't stuttering, which seems to happen a lot. Just about everything in this game is done better than in its predecessor, with the sole exception of perhaps the music - I Am Setsuna edges out Lost Sphear on that front, but otherwise, it's surprising how much Tokyo RPG Factory was able to improve its craft in under two years.