Lost Words: Beyond the Page was originally released last year on Google Stadia however the game has now landed on consoles and PC. Developed by Sketchbook Games and Fourth Slate with Modus Games manning the publishing work, Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an amazing platformer with a unique gameplay style, excellent voice acting, and an art style that is really cool to look at. This is our review of the PC version of Lost Words: Beyond the Page in which we jump through some journal pages and chase after a dragon in a fantasy world.
The story of Lost Words: Beyond the Page is probably the most beautiful thing about the title apart from the watercolor art style of the journal pages. The story of Lost Words: Beyond the Page revolves around the girl Izzy who starts writing a journal in order to get some practice for writing a fantasy story later. The game follows Izzy’s journey both as she writes her journal and her fantasy story. It is a little easier to confuse Izzy with the main game character because you will be playing as a character that Izzy designs in her mind for her fantasy story, not Izzy herself. The story starts off with Izzy opening her journal and finalizing the final thoughts about her story and the character leading the story.
The gameplay begins with you platforming and controlling a character inside Izzy’s journal. This section of the gameplay is played throughout the books of the journal with you using text lines and sometimes other objects as platforms for moving around. As you move ahead and interact with different lines and objects in the journal, you will see the blank pages of the journal getting filled with different pictures and art from Izzy’s life. All of the text lines are fully narrated as well and every time you interact with select keywords; you will unlock small text backlogs for these sentences as well.
These journal sections are Izzy’s own past events of her life and some of them are pretty emotional as well. Izzy had her good times and she had her sad times, both of which are listed down in her journal and you will get to experience them as you progress in the main story of the game. Right at the start of her story, Izzy decides the character for her fantasy story, and you are allowed to make some choices such as the character’s dress color or her name. Since I chose Grace out of the three options, I will be calling the character Grace for the remainder of this review.
Izzy forms Grace as the main character of her fantasy story and Grace is a Firefly Guardian. She becomes the guardian after she finds a firefly and then the village elder makes her the guardian at the sacred tree. However, a dragon attack destroys the tree and now all fireflies are gone so Grace sets on her journey to save the fireflies and bring them back to her village. After this, Grace sets on a beautiful journey through the world. The story consists of two sections, one is from Grace which is in her fantasy world with 3D models showcased as 2D models, and the journal sections where you experience the past life of Izzy.
Both of these sections are joined with each other and after you complete one of each, you must complete one of the other ones. So, it goes on in the form of a cycle. Grace has the power of magic at her hand and you can control her skills with the help of her Firefly which you can control with the Right Joystick. You can consider this as a cursor as well because all it does is move around the magical words that Grace finds in the world to complete various tasks such as repairing, rising platforms, and even silencing Grace’s footsteps to creep on enemies or platforms. You find various magical words out of which some are situational and go away after the current situation while some are written in your book permanently for later use.
The game also offers different choices both in the journal form and the fantasy world which shape the world around Grace and also Izzy’s past. You can make certain choices in the journal sections as well that shape your Izzy’s past and the decisions taken in Grace’s world dictates what sort of world is your Grace traveling through. While not devastating, but the choices do have an impact on both Izzy’s past and Grace’s journey. These choices are made with you choosing words and dragging them to complete sentences with the firefly. The method of choice remains the same in both worlds and that is with the help of the firefly. It sets up a nice gameplay flow that you are comfortable with for both worlds.
Apart from the brilliant story and crisp platforming gameplay, another amazing aspect of Lost Words: Beyond the Page is its level designing. While Grace’s world features some really beautiful settings and level design, my main point here is the journal section that is absolutely brilliant. At the start of each page, these journal pages are blank and pretty dull looking with just a few sentences written in black ink but some of the words are colored and as you interact with them, they open up more dialogue and some even transform the pages completely with water colored images portraying that particular scenario. These look amazing and were probably my favorite aspect of the game as well.
Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a beautiful game and one that I cannot recommend enough for you to experience yourself. The way Izzy’s fantasy story takes a turn due to a certain event in her own life is just dramatic and really emotional. I do not want to spoil too much in my review about the story but it is something that very games have managed to do before and I absolutely love Lost Words: Beyond the Page for it. Sketchbook Games and Fourth Slate have done an amazing job with the game.
Final Verdict:
Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a beautiful narrative game that emphasizes the story over the difficulty of its puzzles and gameplay. While the game may introduce a unique dual-gameplay setting, understanding both gameplay types is very simple, and I enjoyed the journal sections of the game more than the actual platforming sections of the title. The world design is beautiful, and the watercolor art of the journal is too pretty to ignore. Easily completed in a few hours, Lost Words: Beyond the Page offers a unique gameplay style, an immersive and emotional story, and a beautiful world to explore. Highly recommended for fans of platformers and immersive narratives.
Final Score: 9.0/10
