Don't Nod's decision to split Lost Records: Bloom and Rage into two parts was inspired by its success with episodic hit Life is Strange and the game director's thoughts on Netflix's controversial binge model.
After dabbling in a few different genres - serene climbing sims, vampire RPGs, and tragic romantasy action games - Don't Nod has finally returned to the choice-based adventure games that made it a household name with Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Tape 1 out now and Tape 2 coming in April. But it's also returned to its episodic strategy, too.
"I noticed that I'm not invested as much in Netflix shows, I binge them and then forget them very quickly sometimes," Life is Strange and now Lost Records director Michel Koch said about the new game's staggered release in an interview with Eurogamer. "And then I was watching some TV shows on Apple TV and HBO, where they are sticking to weekly releases, and I found that I was investing way more. And we were thinking, we made some good episodic games, why not still go for at least a part of that?"
In the years since Life is Strange's coming-of-age melodrama and TellTale's fallout, other similar games have chosen to opt out of an episodic release, with both Life is Strange: True Colors and Double Exposure, notably, releasing all chapters at once.
Koch explained that Lost Records almost went in the same direction, but the studio "decided around two years" ago to split the game in half "so it makes sense for the story, for editing, pacing."
For anyone out of the loop, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage follows four friends and jumps between their teenage years in the summer of 1995 and their distinctly more dour adult lives 27 years later. The tapes are then split intentionally: Tape 1 is for Bloom and Tape 2 is for Rage. A major moment in between the tapes also meant it made sense for the team to press pause and "let the player take their time, to maybe play something else, wait a bit, think about what happened." That's definitely a feeling TV can capture when it's appointment viewing - look no further than Severance Season 2 - but, honestly, I don't remember the last time I properly debriefed with my friends about a single Netflix show, aside from conversations that go, "have you seen X? It's good!"
GamesRadar+'s Lost Records: Bloom and Rage review was convinced by the decision, calling it "a wonderfully sincere portrait of teenage girlhood."
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