LOST EPIC Review Summary

Praised for its charming art and smooth combat, but material scarcity, confusing map design, and a punishing skill tree hold it back.

Art style and graphics praised: The game's art style and graphics are frequently highlighted as beautiful, attractive, and well-crafted across many reviews.

Combat is smooth and satisfying: Combat is consistently praised for being smooth, fluid, and satisfying, with fast-paced action and impactful combos.

Cute and appealing character designs: Character designs are often described as cute and appealing, contributing to the game's charm.

Diverse and rewarding weapon skills: Weapons provide diverse skills and learning unique abilities from different weapon types is rewarding and encourages experimentation.

Excellent value for playtime: The game offers high playtime relative to its price, providing good value for money.

Material scarcity hinders experimentation: Multiple clusters report that essential upgrade and crafting materials, particularly Tamahagane, are extremely scarce, forcing players to grind extensively and discouraging experimentation with different weapon types.

Map design is confusing and tedious: The map is difficult to understand, monotonous, sometimes misguiding, with poorly placed hidden treasures and quest destinations that are unclear, making navigation frustrating.

Skill tree punishes early investment: The skill tree is back-loaded, with early investments offering minimal benefits while later nodes provide far greater stat gains, effectively penalizing early skill point allocation.

Enemy variety is extremely low: Players report excessive palette-swapped enemy types with few unique designs, leading to repetitive encounters throughout the game.

Story is thin and forgettable: Players consistently describe the story as thin, forgettable, and lacking meaningful narrative, with insufficient foreshadowing.

Metroidvania Souls-like hybrid: The game is a 2D side-scroller combining Metroidvania exploration with Souls-like combat mechanics. This hybrid genre defines the core gameplay loop.

Weapon and skill system: Players can choose from three main weapon types, each with unique movesets. Skills are unique to each weapon and can be mastered through use, then assigned to multiple slots or fused.

Weapon crafting and upgrade: Weapons can be upgraded and evolved using gathered materials, with elemental enchantments available. Players find and craft new equipment throughout the game.

Adjustable difficulty options: The game offers adjustable difficulty, including an easy mode that reduces enemy strength. This accommodates players of varying skill levels.

Stamina and posture system: Actions consume stamina, which recovers slowly, requiring careful resource management. A posture or guard break system adds further tactical depth.

Game stability is poor: Multiple reports of stability problems including significant crashes during loading and frequent freezing during combat, severely impacting gameplay.

Smooth performance on modest systems: Multiple players confirm the game runs smoothly on modest systems, with no major performance issues reported.

Significant input lag present: Players report noticeable input lag, which undermines responsive control expected in action or combat scenarios.

Online latency issues exist: While local performance is fine, playing with distant online friends introduces minor lag, suggesting netcode could be improved.

Minor visual bugs reported: A visual bug causes the warp map to become translucent sporadically; while not game-breaking, it can be disorienting.

Recommended with caveats: Several reviews recommend the game but not unreservedly, or with significant caveats about its design and flaws. This reflects a mixed reception where the game has strengths but also notable weaknesses.

Accessible on easy mode: The game's easy mode makes it accessible for players who just want story and atmosphere, or for beginners of the action genre. This provides an option for less skilled players.

Grinding is a major issue: Multiple reviews mention the game requires extreme grinding, with some even suggesting using cheat tools to reduce it. This is a key point of criticism, especially for players who dislike repetitive gameplay.

Not for Soulslike fans: Multiple reviews explicitly state the game is not recommended for players seeking a Soulslike experience or for hardcore action gamers and Souls series veterans. This indicates the game differs significantly from the genre expectations.

Co-op functionality lacking: Several reviewers note the game is not a true co-op experience and is not recommended for playing through the story together with friends. Solo play is considered acceptable, suggesting cooperative features are incomplete or poorly implemented.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $13.00.

Story completion: 50.0h.

The game starts with friction from a weak story and repetitive grinding, but becomes more enjoyable in the mid-to-late game once players explore interconnected areas, upgrade gear, and unlock powerful skills.

Friction: weak story start; repetitive resource grinding.

Unlock drivers: interconnected mid-game map; rewarding gear progression; unlocking strong skills.

Progression Addict: Systematic, experimental, focused on maximizing combos. Motivation: Skill synergy discovery and build customization. Stance: buy.

Disillusioned Veteran: Critical, thorough, completionist. Motivation: Seeking a polished, deep metroidvania/souls experience. Stance: no buy.

Co-op Seeker: Social, relies on co-op for assistance and fun. Motivation: Playing cooperatively with friends throughout the game. Stance: no buy.

Steam Deck: User feedback reveals notable controller compatibility issues for non-Xinput devices, including bugs with PS5 controllers, and imprecise grab-point detection in some areas. However, native Xinput and the built-in Steam Deck controls perform well with responsive input. No major anti-cheat, launcher, or text readability problems were reported, suggesting the game is mostly functional on Steam Deck with minor tinkering needed for alternative controllers.

External guides: The game exhibits a strong external data dependency, especially for farming materials and understanding quest endings. The unfriendly map, inventory system, and development mechanics further compel players to consult wikis for basic gameplay tasks.

Game is in Early Access: The game entered Early Access with only partial content and a reduced price, later graduating to full release. Many reviews mention this state as a significant context for their feedback.

Version updates noted: Multiple specific version numbers are cited in reviews, indicating ongoing updates and patches. This shows the game's development status and frequent changes.

Improvements from updates: Updates improved various systems such as inventory, enemy respawn, material costs, weapon upgrades, and bug fixes. This shows responsive development.

Multiple endings available: Reviews mention multiple endings including Ending A, Ending C, and choices that affect the final boss fight. This indicates narrative depth and replay value.

Co-op multiplayer mode: Multiplayer co-op is available for 2-3 players, using lanterns as limited summoning resources. It resembles Dark Souls co-op but with restrictions.