A nostalgia evoking play-off

Lost Sphear is the second game developed by Square Enix’s Tokyo RPG factory. Much like I Am Setsuna, it is designed to evoke nostalgia for classic JRPGs from decades past.   

Players control a party of members, with a boy named Kanata as the main character. The story revolves around the phenomenon of getting Lost, which is when an object, person, town or large masses of land get covered in a white fog. But by collecting memories of the Lost object, Kanata can restore it to its original state. Thus begins his journey of slowly healing the world, while also getting trapped in a struggle for power.

Combat in Lost Sphear follows an ATB system. Characters are allowed to move around on the map and even target multiple opponents with one move. Your party builds momentum as the fight goes on, and after filling up the metre, you can press Square on the next attack to hit enemies twice. This can be done when using skills as well, which lets you activate specific bonuses, such as hp regeneration or increased critical chance. You can also participate in fights in a Vulcosuit but utilising these robots uses up points known as VP. As expected, the game allows you to upgrade your equipment, craft magic spells, eat food to gain further enhancements and make use of several other systems to improve combat efficiency.

The main concept of getting back things that are Lost extends to the world map. There are several areas that are inaccessible due to the white fog, and must be reclaimed by building structures known as Artifacts. This gives you access to special bonuses such as increased movement speed, charge rate of momentum, critical hit chance, increased ATB after evading an attack and many more. Some bonuses can also be stacked, giving you significant advantage in battles.

Lost Sphear’s interesting ideas and fun combat are let down by its often annoying but otherwise boring cast. The characters are either not relatable or as generic as one can find in a JRPG. It’s hard to care for them during most of the emotional scenes as the writing is also lacking any sort of charm or personality.

Lost Sphear can easily be categorised as bland and generic. But it is a solid attempt by a team on an evidently limited budget. If you’re looking for an old school JRPG, Lost Sphear will fill that gap in more ways than one.