After the release of the original Persona 4 Arena, Atlus has made benefits with Sega to proudly sponsor their love of gaming. Every once in a blue moon, Atlus' bonding with Sega made a huge hit because of one JRPG that is similar to Sega's old JRPG, Valkyria Chronicles. The game is called Lost Dimension, Atlus' latest game for the PS3 and PSVita where you attack, strategize and win your way to victory. Let's keep it cool and read the review about it.
13 Days to the World's End:
Lost Dimension's story is about a group of members of SEALED have 13 days until the end of the world. The countdown was started by The End, an antagonist to Lost Dimension. After 13 days, The End will end the world, leaving no life on the planet. And now, SEALED must stop The End before 13 days are over.
In the Lobby:
The lobby is where you can talk to members, buy goods, equip, learn Gifts and more. In fact, this is always be SEALED's hangout. As the game progress, the new talk topics will be posted in the section. By the Generator, you can buy goods with Energy, money. More items are added at the Generator as the game progresses. At the gate, you choose a quest to partake on. There are main quests that are a part of the story, sub quests that are not a part of the story, and character quests, which are unlocked after accepting one teammate's request. There are more varieties to choose from.
There's also a place where you can go after clearing all missions each floor, the Judgement Room. The Judgement Room is where your teammates must cast a vote to see who is the traitor of the group, or the weakest link. There's no turning back until the judgement is done.
Talking to People:
In the Talk menu, you see the faces and the thought cloud after the face. There are three types of talk topics. The white cloud with three dots means a regular talking, the blue cloud means talking and gaining trusts, thus forming a bond to Sho Kasugai's teammate, which is available until you choose two people to gain trust to, and finally, the gold cloud means a talk with a possibility to choose which topic suits you, and on some parts, he/she will get a tight bond. The bond forming is called Camaraderie. If you form a tight Camaraderie bond on all of Sho's friends, there is a surprise.
The Gameplay:
Lost Dimension has a gameplay similar to Valkyria Chronicles because of each side's phases and defeating all enemies will clear the mission. During the edge of combat, Sho and his teammates must defeat enemies to clear the mission. You can carry up to six people in the battlefield in the lobby.. After all your teammates acted, it's the enemy's turn to act. After all enemies acted, it's off to the next turn.
The blue gauge is GP, which is consumed from using Gifts. The gauge below the GP gauge is your SAN gauge, which is consumed from using gifts, taking damage and deferring, which consumes 10% of your SAN gauge. Deferring is an action that can give the energy to teammates who already acted. There are ways to recover SAN. Waiting will increase your SAN gauge by 5% while using a certain item will increase your SAN gauge.
The system is simple, the enemies are attacked when you are closer enough to select Attack on the command list. To use Gifts, select the Gifts option. New Gifts are learned by using Gift EXP. They can consume GP, so use them wisely. But, if you're not careful, then some of your Gifts will do a friendly fire, attaking your teammates, or worse, your SAN gauge will reach zero. If that happens, he/she will go berserk while others have fear until after 3 turns or using an item that cures berserk. It was funny to see him/her go berserk, but it's serious, so be careful. The enemies also have a SAN gauge, but they can be dazed when their SAN gauge reaches zero. It's not the end of the world, but plan your moves carefully.
Lost Dimension has an Assist Attack feature, which occurs after attacking an enemy in front of your teammates. If you see "Assist" by the person's body, it means he/she will assist you after attacking. After attacking an enemy with certain attacks, the enemy will counter, but it won't counter after your allies use a certain Gift.
Learning New Gifts:
As your team levels up by earning EXP at the end of each mission, Gift EXP will be earned. That way, you can strengthen up your Gifts and learn new Gifts. The lock to the Gift is unlocked when a Gift reaches a certain level displayed by the lock. When you erased one of your teammates, he/she leaves behind Materia, which can be equipped in the Materia menu opened with the triangle button. The Gifts will also be unlocked through equipping certain Materia.
Hearing Voices:
As you complete every mission, Sho hears voices to find out who is the traitor of the group. His friends will ask him if he/she was the traitor. If someone is the traitor, he/she will be erased from the group as The End stated.
Vision to Forsee the Traitor:
The Vision menu allows you to forsee who will be the weakest link of the group. It was thanked by Sho's teammates. As you earn vision points after clearing each mission, the traitor will be revealed after every end of each mission. The traitor searching will move on until you reach to the top.
The Conclusion:
Let's say Lost Dimension is a serviceable game similar to Valkyria Chronicles. The friendly fire might be a pain, but you just pay attention on what the object does or does not. Not perfect, but I can say how great this game is. If you don't want this game, you can not get it, but it don't mean you might fail to play the game well.
Pros:
+Weakest Link similarity
+Gameplay is similar to Valkyria Chronicles
Cons:
-Erasing teammates is stupid, but is to move on.
I'll be giving Lost Dimension an 8.0, which is close to perfect. The game was insane, but I have enjoyed it from the top to bottom.
