Thank you Ultimate Games for sending us a review code!

Sometimes Steam reviews can be deceiving. I’m not sure why, but Lost Dream: Darkness has a positive rating from its eleven reviews. Though the Steam store description claims that there is two hours worth of content, I beat the game in fifteen minutes. I have the livestream to prove it! Many of the Steam reviews are written by users with 0.2 hours of game time so I know that I’m not alone. What’s scary is that apparently, there is a whole series of Lost Dream games. I’m not sure why anyone would buy another after experiencing this one.

At the time of this review, the Switch version of this game is on sale for half off making it $2.49. The MSRP is $4.99, which is a couple of dollars more than the PC version. Sadly, the Switch port has its visuals significantly lowered to ensure adequate performance on the underpowered system. In the PC version you can see blades of grass, but the Switch edition just has flat green ground.

It’s no secret that I enjoy playing Visual Novel games. Oftentimes they’ll boast about having tens of thousands of words in them. In Lost Dream: Darkness, there’s about fifty words in it. That’s how short this title is. This running simulator of a game starts off with a fox in the rain saying that it’s been raining too long. Your goal as this futuristic fox is to find the light. There is no guidance so you just have to run until the game fades to black and whisks you away to the next brighter area.

In the first few minutes into the game I thought I’d take a short cut and swim to the sunrise/sunset but found out that the fox quickly drowns/dies and is brought back to the beginning. Oddly enough the next area starts off with the fox walking across the water like Jesus.

There is no guidance or story. You’re just a fox running away from the gloomy rain. You’re told that you’re getting closer to the light and the scenery gets prettier as you progress in this game.

Along with the ability to jump, the fox can attack. I’m not sure what it can attack, but it has the capability to do so. I heard the birds chirping, but didn’t see any mammals to interact with. There are lots of boulders, trees, flowers, and shrubs in the forest. Many of the trees and shrubs lacked leaves. I’m not sure if the forest is dying or what.

I don’t know what the purpose of Lost Dream: Darkness is. It felt like a school project. I don’t know why people would spend money on a game with little direction and effort. If you buy the Steam version, you can get a refund, but that’s not possible for the over-priced Switch version. The only use case I can imagine is buying this title for a kid who loves foxes. If you do decide to purchase this title, at least wait for a sale.