The narratively profuse mystery game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is like living in a Bikini Kill song followed by a Phoebe Bridgers ballad. The four main characters who form the title band, Bloom and Rage, are strong together — even as teenagers, even when one describes herself as meek. Through the highs of anger and the depths of sadness, they search for deeper meaning through self-discovery as they come of age. It’s freeing. It’s feminist. It’s powerful.
But the rebellious grit, augmented by the game’s mature themes, does more than amplify an energetic liberalism during this 1995 period of revelation. Everywhere the girls go in tiny Velvet Cove, Mich., they rock.
Autumn, a spirited young woman of color, sings duets loudly with Nora, a gothy Joan Jett type who likes to push friends’ buttons. Music plays an important part throughout Bloom, the first of the game’s two episodes. (Rage is scheduled to be released in April.) The D.I.Y. riot grrrl essence here is inspiring, especially for those who lived through the time.
And yet, there’s a serene, attractive innocence when suburban boredom turns to goblincore-inspired escape. After Swann, the red-haired central character, is called “fat” by bullies, she turns to filming everything with a video camera. (There’s no idealized perfection here, a good, honest thing; every teen has zits, even Swann.) She explores a lurid forest. She sits at the water’s muddy edge among the mushrooms, frogs and dragonflies, the height of Zen peacefulness. You can’t help but appreciate her outsider essence. Even Thoreau would be jealous.
Swann and her friends yearn for more than hanging at the local ice cream stand or watching movies at the multiplex. You can hear it in their words. All they care about is one another, their fleeting summer together, holding hands and making their art. They make fun of condom wrappers and heavy flow days because speaking truth is freeing.
Just as in the Life Is Strange series, also by the French studio Don’t Nod, the gameplay elements are light and not necessarily new. There’s the convention of placing fuses correctly in a breaker box to get power running. But the play isn’t the point, not really. It is in service of the story, which feels dramatic when it should be and, at the end, surprisingly melancholy.
The game makes mistakes regarding pop culture history. Characters cite the found-footage horror film “The Blair Witch Project,” though that movie wasn’t released until 1999. They repeatedly use the anachronistic term “bounce” (meaning “leave”). The Furbys and Tamagotchis seen in Swann’s room weren’t sold until the late ’90s.
When the details are right, though, the game approaches perfection. Troll toys sit cute and big-eyed, a Newton’s cradle clacks appealingly, and nods are made to films like “Pulp Fiction.” At the practice garage, there are homemade mix cassettes featuring groups like Hole and Belly. It’s here that Kat, an overall-wearing, occasionally furious writer, introduces “See You in Hell,” the raucous tune that will be the group’s anthem. (Unfortunately, you can’t access the song to play it again when the episode is complete.)
A mix of horror and science fiction becomes revealed when three of the band members reunite at a local dive bar 27 years after their brilliant but tragic summer together. Through snippets of reminiscences, you see that Swann leaves a cabin at midnight to videotape bizarre moths. They’re suddenly, supernaturally colorful, surrounded by a fog of luminescent hues. They lead Swann to a seemingly bottomless sinkhole that radiates a purple glow. Then, back in the present day, a shoebox-size package addressed eerily to Bloom and Rage is brought to the bar.
A “Grey’s Anatomy”-style cliffhanger is moving because it isn’t just the girls who are friends. Invested in their stories and emotions, you’ve become close to them as well. The game’s final episode promises to reveal all mysteries, perhaps violently and supernaturally. True to form, Bloom and Rage sings, “I can tell I’ll mess you up — when I see you in hell.” In riot grrrl fashion, they may indeed live their music.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was reviewed on the PlayStation 5. It is also available on the PC and the Xbox Series X|S.
