Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Swann returns to her hometown 27 years after a formative summer in 1995, when she and three other high school girls became close. As the friends reconnect, they try to understand the event behind their promise to never speak again.

In the past, explore the girls’ surroundings, spend time together, talk, and help shape their friendships and punk band. Swann’s camcorder lets you record people, animals, places, and other details from their summer.

Dialogue choices influence Swann’s relationships, which can remain friendships or become romantic. Filming also builds themed collections that can be viewed as short memory films; the story unfolds across two tapes and shifts between the summer and the friends’ later reunion.

Players who enjoy the game often praise its emotionally affecting story of friendship and growing up, its convincing 1990s atmosphere, and its music and visual direction. Some say the characters and relationships feel personal and that the camcorder helps make the summer feel like a lived-in memory. Other reviewers find the story slow, the filming repetitive, or the mystery and choices less rewarding than they expected.