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Lost In Blue Review
Written by Señor Cha Cha on Monday, October 3, 2005
User Score
Exploring this unknown tropical paradise and not exactly knowing what to expect.
The fact that Skye acts like a stereotypical girl.
Last I checked, summer vacations aren't supposed to suck, but try telling that to Lost in Blue's main character, Keith. The poor guy had the unfortunate luck of taking a cruise on a ship that decided to commit seppuku and go all Titanic on his ass. Luckily for him, he survived the sinking and wound up stranded (or so he thinks) on a deserted island. Thus, his fight for survival begins. Will he make it? Is that mushroom safe to eat? Who in the hell is this strange girl? How did he become, Lost in Blue? With my DS in one hand and my stylus in the other, I began my trek through what's actually a fairly decent action RPG, though I have a few snapped nerves from playing it.
Lost in Blue is essentially Survivor sans a naked Richard Hatch running about. It challenges you with exploring a vast tropical paradise and staying alive by making good use of its natural resources. This includes searching for food, building shelter, and starting fires, the goal being to live just long enough for someone find and pick up your sorry butt.
Dragging Keith away from the jaws of death isn't particularly easy for several reasons, the first being this kid's rocket fueled metabolism. The top screen displays Keith's vitals such as hunger, thirst, and strength, and you've got to keep his number up, lest he croaks, so for example, if you rest he'll feel rejuvenated and if you crack open a coconut and consume its tasty contents he won't be parched, but his body burns through everything rather quickly. It's actually sort of unrealistic and extremely annoying because no one is really going to die in less than 24 hours after eating some healthy mushrooms and three coconuts. It's just nonsensical. The fact that Konami bum rushed me with monitoring these things from the get go left me rather disinterested in the game. All I wanted to do was explore the island and uncover its secrets, and having to give Keith a drink every five minutes seriously pissed me off. Things eventually got better after figuring out how to combine foods but there was just no need to make this stuff get in the way within the first five to ten minutes of the game.
Just when I got a handle on Keith's bare necessities the developers threw me another curve, that being the company of Skye, an attractive female who's as stranded as Gilligan. She's also a royal pain in the ass because she's been programmed to act like a stereotypical girlie girl, so she's totally unable to care for herself. In fact, she'll die of dehydration if I don't bring her water, so that's how clueless she is. Her whole mentality is, "Damn I'm getting thirsty! Guess I'll die now." It's actually a bit awkward how she's so reliant on Keith, especially when we live in a virtual world that spotlights strong-willed females who kick ass. I get the feeling that Agent Rayne, Lara Croft, and Joanna Dark would probably look down on her for being so weak.
Much like Keith, Skye burns through rations very quickly, so even though I loaded her up with enough food to feed a third world country I had to rush back to our dwelling in 24 hours lest I care to discover a corpse.
Then there are the controls. The game is powered by a solid 3D engine and all of this is displayed on the system's bottom screen yet I don't have analog control. Konami's forced us to maneuver Keith using the d-pad, and while that works all right at the same time I was yearning for Trace Memory's touch screen control where I would be able to lead him around using the stylus. But instead, I need to use the d-pad while also holding the stylus so I can point at and make him explore things. That, combined with using the face buttons to pull up the menus and perform necessary actions creates a rather awkward scheme. Konami definitely deserves a slap on its wrist for not thinking this through. I mean, you can't even use the stylus to cycle through the menus at the title screen. What's up with that?
That's all that I really have to complain about, and while most of what I said will ultimately damn this game for those of you who lack patience, if you really stick with Lost in Blue you'll discover that it provides a pretty rewarding gameplay experience if you're willing to invest the time. Using a combination of touch screen controls and the shoulder buttons you'll chuck spears and fire arrows at animals, use sticks to create fire, dig in the sand and collect clams, construct traps, fish, build furniture, and do other neat things, and I must admit that despite my issues with how Skye is portrayed, it is kind of cute watching Keith help her down from high ledges and hold her hand as they both cross a river in a AWWWWWW THAT'S SO CUTE IT SHOULD BE A PRECIOUS MOMENTS FIGURINE sort of way. A lot of what I had to do eventually became repetitious, yet at the same time I couldn't keep myself away, as the game's faults eventually transformed me/Keith into a smarter survivalist.
I'm also quite fond of Lost in Blue's graphics. The 3D engine displays simplistic shapes yet everything's colorful and well lit. The island isn't very large, yet there's enough variety in the scenery to make the discovery of new areas exciting. The DS is certainly capable of better, but just because a developer has 3D technology doesn't mean he, she, or they need to go nuts with it.
The audio is equally enjoyable. The intro music, for example, sounds like a track that's been yanked out of some NES title and Star Tropics actually comes to mind. It's well composed, catchy, and perfectly fits the mood of the game.
Much like Trace Memory, Lost in Blue isn't a must buy and it'll only appeal to a very small number of people. It frustrated the hell out of me, though I found that it never lost its intrigue, and it's because of my desire to keep exploring that ultimately kept me forging onward. It's an acquired taste, but don't allow it to intimidate you.
posted October 5, 2005