Lost Dimension is a JRPG with game with visual novel elements created by Lancrase for the PS3 and PS Vita. The game is set in the near apocalyptic future. The story was written by Jun Kumagai, one of the writers from the Persona, Psycho Pass and the Terror in resonance series.
The story focuses on S.E.A.L.E.D, a special team of teenaged psychics that is investigating a mysterious pillar that has appeared out of nowhere. Their main target is a terrorist known as “The End” who was responsible for mass murder and destruction that led to the deaths of 2 billion people. As S.E.A.L.E.D enters this strange pillar, their memories start to disappear. “The End” reveals that one of them has a traitor and you must root out the traitor at the end each pillar and execute them.
Sho, the main protagonist, has the power to see the future and at the end of each level, he hears thoughts of the other characters and if red appears, it is a sign of a traitor is in the midst. The game randomizes each traitor so no playthrough is going to be the same, however if Sho gets marked as a traitor it means game over. Sho uses his telepathic powers to read his teammates minds to find out who is a traitor.
There are about 5 stages in the tower and you have to complete missions to go through them. The objectives are more or less the same, kill all enemies or a certain enemy and that’s about it. You are graded per mission and the higher the grade, the better the rewards. The enemies were reskins of previous ones with different skillsets. Each stage has its own enemy to battle.
You could find information about the lore and current events in the game by either interacting with teammates or through the maps of missions. You can place the positions and decide which of your team goes in. Its turn based and you could move around in a certain parameter and choose which move you like to use. If you and an ally is near each other, assist attacks happen to the enemy you are targeting.
In combat you could use a move called “defer” which passes one turn to another team member which is useful in case you need to re position or take control of a more powerful teammate. As you level up, you could increase the power of your abilities and also unlock new ones. You can copy off your ally’s special abilities to you or your other party members in case they get voted off and still level them up. Keep in mind the more you use special abilities in combat, the mental stability of you and your teammates will decrease and they will go berserk.
While in berserk mode, they attack not only allies but enemies as well and you could alleviate this by giving them special medicine while in combat and they also receive attack increases during this berserk phase.
The graphics looked very dated, almost as if it was made for late PS2-early PS3. The designs of each area were like a cardboard cutout as a result with not much differences in style. The textures too were quite low resolution as well. The art style was excellent. The voice acting wasn’t really anything special and the dialogue was cliched as the characters. The animated cutscenes looked good. The musical score was serviceable but nothing too great. It is mainly electronica and dub step based music. It was very repetitive to listen.
There is a good amount of replay value as you could start all over again and reach the true ending with the bonds carried over from your last playthrough.
The game itself was ok overall. It comes across as a hybrid of Devil Survivor, The World Ends With You and Danganronpa.
It gets 3 out of 5 stars.