When people ask me what Disney movie I like best, I don’t answer “The Lion King”, “Star Baby”, or Pixar, Marvel, or Star Wars movies. I always answer “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Although this movie is far from the traditional style of Disney, it always resonates with me, and I think this is all due to its creepy but outstanding appearance. Therefore, when I saw Zoink Games’ “Lost in Random” for the first time, a game that seemed to resonate with Tim Burton’s Goethe visual style, I didn’t need to say more about how useful and happy I was. . After spending a lot of time with this game, I now have many ideas about it.
But before I start discussing these ideas, what kind of story is “Lost in Random” telling? The story of the game is set in the world of Random, a cruel and strange place. The almighty queen manages this land and uses a magic dice to formulate the rules of this land. One of the laws constructed by the Queen is that every child should roll this magic dice when they are 12 years old, so as to determine which of the six areas of Random is their home for the rest of their lives. At the beginning of the game, even’s sister Odd, the protagonist of the game, was forced to face this important event. After she threw six points, she was taken away from her home and sent to the Six States (Random, the most important of the six regions). A prosperous district), which led Even to embark on an incredible adventure to bring her sister back to her family in Yizhijiao.
Faced with such an important task, Even will certainly have some helpers on the journey-Dicey. A few years before the opening events of the game, the queen launched a war against these dice, and everyone thought they were dead. Dicey is a cute guy who can mumble and find himself in all kinds of absurd situations that many times make people laugh. Dicey and Even have a connection with each other, just like the queen and her infamous black dice, the relationship between the two is like a Pokémon and the trainer, and this connection is important because Dicey is only in After Even collects enough energy and throws him out, there is no way to influence and manipulate the world.
This mechanism is crucial in “Lost in Random” because it is the core of the battle. The game is played in real time. As Even, you must dodge and shuttle between the queen’s mechanical soldiers, and shoot the glowing crystals on these enemies with a slingshot, so that you can use the energy they drop to replenish Dicey. The reason Dicey needs energy is due to the card system in “Lost in Random”. This system allows Even to use a series of powerful cards, allowing her to use various abilities, such as using a sword or bow to damage enemies, and place bombs. Dangerous goods, use support abilities (such as healing potions), and many other functions. Dicey collects energy and gives you some cards to choose from, then you roll Dicey, and his number is the number of card points you can play. The higher the number, the more cards you can play, because powerful cards cost more points. For example, the “Hammer of Two-town” (Hammer of Two-town) that can cause a lot of damage requires three. Point to cast, and the basic healing elixir only needs to spend a point.
You might think that this will create an explosive combat system, but in fact it is just the opposite. Before you have enough energy to throw Dicey, you will be completely focused on avoiding damage and shooting the crystal on top. When you throw Dicey and start exploring the strategic side of the game, time will stop, allowing you to use your own The tempo makes a decision. Once you have played the card and are ready to continue your action, you can allow time to return to flow, start destroying enemies, regain crystal energy, and start the game cycle again.
Zoink even does more than that, because some of the encounters using the random dice roll system in the game are also playing table games. For example, you must move a chess piece to the end of the board during the typical battle I described earlier, and this chess piece only moves when you throw Dicey. This additional function can work seamlessly with the combat system, making many encounters you encounter during the game more colorful. If I want to say, they make the ordinary battle scenes boring in comparison. This is quite surprising, because they are not boring at all.
However, although fighting has a pivotal position in “Lost in Random”, the narrative and storyline, as well as the exploration of this strange but truly unique world, are equally important. The core story is really interesting and will make you want to continue the game desperately. Although it is quite distorted, it can sometimes make people feel uneasy. Zoink has also done a good job in maintaining the freshness of the world, but you will also notice that the overall Gothic design style that spans the entire Random world is also the driving force of the game itself.
But I still have to say that in addition to following the main storyline and participating in the battle, “Lost in Random” does have its shortcomings. Random is indeed fascinating, but the linear level design makes the side missions really make people feel that the side missions are very single and dull, and the collectibles can’t help much in this regard. In many cases, you simply rely on shooting clay pots to get gold coins, buy more cards, or find the pages of a storybook to get a little bit more understanding of the narrative content, but no matter which one is not very exciting.
However, to say that, “Lost in Random” is still a very incredible independent production game, because it is one of the most unique concepts I have experienced, and the way it is handled is so thorough and smooth. You will never feel powerless during the game, in fact it is so fascinating, you just want to keep playing. At first glance, the concept of “Lost in Random” is indeed a bit daunting, because this game refuses to conform to the industry and the established genre we know, but if you are willing to throw a dice and venture into the world created by Zoink, then You will have a unique journey, and you will never be disappointed.
