Lost Eidolons Review

Tactical turn-based strategies with a mix of RPG elements founded by a solid story are not a common dish on the plates of gamers these days. After the era of XCOM or The Banner Saga, there hasn’t been a name that really shone brightly or at least was good enough to be remembered. Lost Eidolons from Ocean Drive Studio, on the other hand, is a brave attempt, especially from a new developer who tried to make an entry into this genre with some unique touches.

In most areas, they are very successful considering the innovativeness of the game, but there are areas that certainly need improvement. Yet, Lost Eidolons brings much to our plates, and it has enough to keep us occupied for quite a bit of time, and in a good way too.

Lost Eidolons carries much intensity and weight to traditional strategic role-playing games. The game does have resemblances to the common SRPGs, but it's a bit saturated with its fantastical shades. The world perspective is based on medieval fantasy. However, in many ways, it is quite different from previous fantasy SRPGs, from the worldview that serves as the backdrop of the game to the narrative.

The most intriguing aspect of Lost Eidolons that stands out at first glance is its similarities to Fire Emblem, especially when experiencing its fantasy, monsters, and magic. In here, you won't be able to do any of the spectacular magic tricks seen in the Fire Emblem, yet there are abilities to cast spells like fireballs, water bombs, dark magic, and a few healing spells and status condition spells.

Although the events of Lost Eidolons took place in a medieval fantasy environment, at first glance, the game seemed to have a straightforward medieval theme. The universe is based on a realistic idea, drawing heavily on the European feudal environment, with some magical elements here and there, especially for magic users and the design of certain monsters, even though these creatures are seldom found on the battlefields.

The plot begins on the fictional continent of Artemesia, which was initially comprised of seven independent feudal kingdoms but eventually invaded and united into a single imperial state. Due to his elderly age, Emperor Ludivictus must choose a new emperor, but he has other, more troubling things on his mind. He has just learned of a prophesy about two ancient mythical creatures called the Eidolons and how they may be connected to the nation's destiny.

The narratives of Lost Eidolons branch out through a young mercenary named Eden from Lonetta, the protagonist of this story. At the game, Eden and his friends are thrust into the middle of the action with very little background information.

Eventually, they are forced to flee from what appears to be an extremely dangerous situation even before the stage of the story actually starts. As was to be predicted, Eden and his men's involvement in mercenary activities very immediately puts them in a position where they are in over their heads.

After agreeing to a deal pitting them against the local ruler, they go to battle with him, and the situation only worsens from there. As Eden becomes involved in a revolt following a failed jail breakout, he hatches a plan to remove the harsh and elderly emperor while plotting his own demise.

Throughout the chapters, Eden and his friends evolve from a small mercenary group into a mighty army. While this type of story is nothing new, it is portrayed exceptionally well and is also more uncommon in modern fantasy games.

The progress mechanism of Lost Eidolons follows a pretty similar route from one chapter to the next, with a few cutscenes to establish the scenario, followed by a passage to the camp before entering the battlefield to conduct combat.

The whole story is narrated in an intense, dramatic manner and has a few unexpected twists, even if some of them are a little too sudden. The story takes over 30 hours and is broken down into 27 long chapters. There's a prologue at the beginning, the main story picks back up just beyond the halfway point, and then the scenarios turn towards a battle.

Aside from a few exceptions, the rest of the story follows this consistent pattern. Although there are branching plots and conversations, they don't detract from the story. This pattern is repeated throughout the game. More often than not, we learn the story's backstory and specifics via cutscenes that aren't always narrated from Eden's perspective.

The dialogue is presented as characters appearing over a stationary background, reflecting the development team's financial constraint, but it does not take away the excellent experience overall due to the fine voice acting.

Lost Eidolons' core gameplay mechanism is a simple grid-based game. Similar to any tactical turn-based role-playing game like The Banner Saga, your players, and the enemy's units go around a grid-based map, fighting and ending combat criteria as they go. Apart from the auto counterattack for form characters, there is a one-to-one turn pattern instead of a dynamic alternation between the player's characters and the enemies.

The game's combat system features several remarkable peculiarities that you can encounter. Though the terrain is pretty much the same from the beginning, no matter the location of the fight, the number of attacking options using magic and regular weapons adds up the more a character levels.

Despite remaining the same, there are environmental factors to consider for each terrain, particularly its wet and forest portions. It's an advantage to have your enemies in these two areas, but at the same time, it causes demise for your players, too. They not only restrict movement but also make units vulnerable to lightning and fire strikes.

Wizards on both sides have the power to create water strikes, which eventually make some grids wet so they can plan a future lightning strike. In later scenarios, when the number of enemies is double or triple your number of players, forming an attack strategy to hit multiple enemies simultaneously becomes the only way out.

Lost Eidolons has a comprehensive class tree. There are four different classes for all the characters you control throughout the game that branch out from Commoner/Noble, Fighter Mage, and Squire. Fighters can advance to Hunter or Warrior, then Sharpshooter or Assassin, and finally Ranger and Berserker.

In the same way, Mages can be upgraded to Wizard, Battle Mage, and Sorcerer, while depending on the type of spell books known as grimoires, wizards can take the roles of Priest, Bishop, or Warlock. Similarly, Squire can be upgraded to Knight, Templar, and then Vanguard.

Finally, the Overloader class is exclusive to Eden only. In the beginning, classes don't affect gameplay in any meaningful way, but they can specialize more and more as they level up, reaching a maximum level of specialization.

However, you still have some leeway in how you construct your character, and you can have a Knight who is also proficient with a bow or axe or any number of other combinations. Nevertheless, that does not seem to be as powerful as specialization. Every character unlocks a special skill through class experience that is unique to that character and will stay with them at all times, no matter what class they happen to be in.

The same class characters can be equipped with different skills to take advantage in the battles. However, certain late-game classes let you choose between focusing on their physical talents or their magical ones, making it intriguing to decide how best to use your character and their weapons and gears.

It's a relief that the weapons and other gears don't require maintenance once they are equipped, and you can launch repeated attacks with the same weapons without needing to restock your supply continuously. Wizards, on the other hand, need to exert somewhat more effort. The type of grimoires, dark, light, or elemental, allow them to cast a wide variety of spells during battles, including those that heal and those that do damage.

Depending on the level of the wizard, you can select up to 5 different types of magic, but you will need to exercise caution using the most powerful ones since each spell only has a limited number of uses in each fight. 

As mentioned above, magic spells can be combined to damage multiple enemies if appropriately planned. They are also helpful for healing and sometimes blocking the enemy's path to slow their movement for up to 3 turns. This gives you ample time to cause damage to enemies from a distance using hunters or wizards who have a higher target reach.

Even though limited in variations, you can outfit your characters with the many pieces of equipment, weapons, and accessories discovered along the way as you travel through the chapters. The ten characters you control during the battles are the most significant for upgrades.

Later on, during the game, many characters join your crew, and everyone's gear can be upgraded even though it's a bit unnecessary. It also becomes tedious to individually upgrade everyone's gears, especially when restocking their inventory with useable items for the next battles.

Anyway, when upgrading equipment, there is a trade-off between speed and damage when characters employ rare and precious equipment, especially when you equip them with horses. Each of them can carry three consumables into combat, such as healing potions, antidotes, defense, haste or warding elixir, etc. Level and class determine a character's skills and attributes by default.

Apart from the battles, all the activities take place in a location called The Camp. It's the primary hub of Lost Eidolons, and from here, you move towards the next chapter or side quests, establish alliances with new or existing characters, and stock up on supplies. In this part of the game, you control Eden in a third-person view and communicate with all the characters by chatting or giving gifts to develop a deeper relationship.

His consistent communication with the playable characters has an immediate effect during the battles, as the synergy develops between them at higher levels, resulting in increased damage dealt along with other possibilities. Each time you visit the camp, a certain number of Prestige and Command Points is obtainable by doing different talks, which can be used to initiate unique actions with other characters.

Besides gifts, spending prestige and command points for characters you want to strengthen the relation opens up more dialogue and training options. Gifts can be bought easily from the merchants, though at times they seem expensive, and you won't always have enough points to build a rapport with everyone. However, each time you visit the camp, there's always one of the characters who needs some special help, and this helps to build rapport, too.

All the characters can also be trained at the camp, but the progression process isn't quite as fast as they progress in battles. The training system is also a bit confusing, but a proper tutorial on this would’ve made life easier.

Although this change of view from a grid-based to a third-person mode is pleasing, the actions are pretty much repetitive throughout the game and get a bit annoying at times, especially when you're forced to do some silly tasks while you're unsure about your survival at the very next battle.

Thankfully, the character design of Lost Eidolons takes away a lot of indifference from the camp activities. The bonds between the five main characters, Eden, Leon, Francisco, Robere, and Robin, make up the crux of the narrative in Lost Eidolons, which is the game's greatest strength in terms of its storytelling.

Their conversations are always influential in the context of the situation of the chapters you're in, and there's hardly a dull moment when you engage in a conversation with them.

The voiceover is particularly good for most of the characters, making the experience even more realistic. While there were some glimpses, Eden did not have the option to get engaged in a romantic activity with the playable female characters. This feature certainly could’ve made the camp activity more interesting.

When it comes to looks, Lost Eidolons certainly stands out. The fast-paced animations of the fight moments are nicely done, and every character is easily distinguishable.

Even though a few characters aren't very impressive, the strong voice acting makes each one seem unique and present in the game. The quality of the voice acting is genuinely good, except for the conversation without voiceover, which feels really strange due to the repetitive sounds they make.

Understandably, giving voiceovers for countless conversations can put a toll on the budget of the game, but during battles, when characters repeatedly say the same phrase when interacting, it could easily be improved. While the gameplay is deeply engaging, the presentation of the game is also one of the best parts that I’ve experienced.

Those who prefer strategic role-playing games will find a lot to like in Lost Eidolons. There are sections of the game that tend to be repetitive and predictable, but that doesn't mean the plot or graphics aren't passable. The first game from Ocean Drive Studio boasts high-quality graphics and sound, effective writing for the genre, and gameplay that should please both beginners and genre fans.

The game's static speech background could use some improvements, but for those who can see beyond these little annoyances, Lost Eidolons really offers something unique. There is certainly space for growth and a few bugs that need ironing out, while its many existing strengths make it one of the finest SRPGs of 2022.