Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 2 finishes the series with a fiery conclusion.
Thank goodness, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 is finally here, after two months of waiting to see what happens next. As the second and last part of the series, it draws the conclusion to what was a crazy and heartbreaking cliffhanger. Now, you’ll need to understand beforehand that you must proceed with caution, as this review contains spoilers, but only from Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1.
If you haven’t played it yet, do so right now or read the review of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1, then come back to this review, as it was a pretty enjoyable experience. But if you’re okay with this, then continue reading. Furthermore, if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you can simply install it, as it’s free to play.
With Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1, as you’re transitioning from 1995 to 2022, this game is quite different from your usual narrative-based games, because you only play as one character, that being Swann, throughout both episodes.
You get to hang out, catch up, and get to know each of the three friends. Moreover, having to select responses and decisions, some of which drastically impacted the status of your relationships with the three, as well as the story as a whole.
One thing to love about Lost Records: Bloom and Rage Tape 1 is how authentic the interactions between the characters are. It’s like engaging in real-life conversations. The most crucial feature in this game is Swann’s trusted camcorder that she takes everywhere she goes.
The device allows Swann to mainly record a variety of important and random interests. Then, after recording clips, you can edit them and form videos for her memoirs and watch them whenever you please. Plus, it has a built-in flashlight for viewing and recording in the dark.
As some of you know, later in the story, the four friends, while hanging out together at an abandoned cabin, claimed it as their new hideout. There, they found a mysterious, bright abyss, which they believed to be supernatural.
And because of this, they threw something into the abyss, thinking that doing so would grant their wish of a curse that only punishes those who had wronged them. And for that to happen, they’d have to perform a sacrifice as a trade for their wish.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage Tape 1 had a pretty horrifying cliffhanger involving the four friends: Swann, Autumn, Nora, and Kat. They had made their concert outside a bar, which led to the outrage of the locals, including Kat’s sister, Dylan, and Dylan’s boyfriend, Corey.
A moment later, during the concert, the power cuts out, abruptly ending the concert, which infuriates Kat. Kat then suffered a nosebleed and collapsed after reciting lyrics that she and the other three friends created in Nora’s garage for their amateur rock band that Nora and Autumn initiated.
She gets rushed to the hospital by Dylan and Corey. However, before doing so, Dylan discloses to the girls that Kat has leukemia and that it’s terminal, leaving the girls shocked and saddened. And that’s where it ended from there.
So, no, the reason why they had agreed to stop seeing each other for 27 years hadn’t actually been revealed yet. Albeit, it did reveal a lot of things that led up to the event. And of course, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 picks up from where you left off from Tape 1. Now, because of the nature of Tape 1’s cliffhanger, it got me more excited for Tape 2 and what’s to come.
For the last two months, the cliffhanger has left me with several questions and concerns about whether Tape 2 would be better than Tape 1 and how much better. It also prompted me to come up with theories about what would happen next, as well as what would happen to Kat, and, of course, what the secret could be.
One theory I had was that the secret largely involved Kat and that maybe she was saved because of a sacrifice. Since all four friends had a disdain for Corey because of how badly he treated them, it would make much more sense that he would be selected. Another theory was that Kat was the one who was sacrificed, and since she was dying, that would also make sense as the reason for the sacrifice.
On top of that, I also felt that the abyss wasn’t supernatural at all; it was all for nothing, but it didn’t erase something that they had done, which was so terrifying that they had to lie low for a long time, just for a “sacrifice”. That’s a lot to think about, but this is the effect that Tape 1 had on me. It was a great game to play. Now that Tape 2 is here, no more having to use the thinking cap, and I can finally find out if any of the theories were correct or not.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2, Swann and the girls are experiencing the consequences of not only what happened to Kat, but also throwing a concert at a bar. Swann and her mother are moving out, but before doing so, Swann needs to come to terms with what happened, Kat’s condition, and so on, before leaving the town.
Just like in Tape 1, you’ll have to complete a series of objectives, as well as take very important clips for your memoirs, in order to progress. As well as continuing to strengthen Swann’s relationships with each friend. But more importantly, we might get to finally see what’s inside the mystery box. Moreover, we’re still reminiscing about interests to unlock crucial and random memories.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2’s gameplay is much shorter than Tape 1, and that isn’t really an issue, seeing as the majority of it was in Tape 1. Plus, it would have been annoying to have to play through similar gameplay hours to figure out exactly what the big secret was.
So, if you combine the gameplay times of both tapes, you’ll get a pretty good length. So, if you were to play both tapes, you’d get around 8-9 hours of gameplay, which is good for a game of this style and price. But at the same time, it’s a little disappointing that there wasn’t much new to engage with.
Although you’re building on from Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1, I would have liked to have had many more objectives to complete, rather than just capturing clips for memoirs, viewing and editing those memoirs, and interacting with interests. And if we didn’t have to wait two months, if Tape 2 contained this much gameplay. Albeit, it did provide a couple of twists that took me by surprise.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 was an emotional rollercoaster, and it answered questions that Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 didn’t fill. It drew a pretty wild conclusion to the series. I felt a connection with the characters, especially when playing as Swann. And Don’t Nod should pat themselves on the back for giving us another great project.
