If you've played more than a few role-playing games in your time, you'll know how they usually go. Throughout the (usually rather long) adventure, you pour hours and hours into levelling up your team, battling hundreds upon thousands of enemies and honing your strategies, ready for that ultimate showdown against the final boss. But what if things played out a little differently? What if, as you edged closer and closer to that last showdown, you were forced to kill off some of your teammates in order to proceed? Maybe there's a few you don't really like, or don't really use - the choice might be easy then. But what if you had to do it over and over, until you're left with just a precious few, praying that you haven't just royally scuppered yourself with each death you order? How would you fare? Well, now you can find out in this summer's horrible choices simulator, Lost Dimension!
Which of your allies is in cahoots with the crazy dude in the red cape?
Set in a world only thirteen days away from the apocalypse, where a man calling himself 'The End' threatens to destroy life as you know it, Lost Dimension casts you as one of a specialised unit of superhuman psychics, known as the SEALED. Tasked with climbing a tower known as 'The Pillar' to reach The End and give him what for before it's too late, your little group is key to saving the world. Except that in order to ascend the tower, you need to erase (read: kill) some of your comrades - and when The End informs you there's several traitors in your midst, choosing wisely may well be a matter of life and death, as any traitors left in your ranks in the final showdown will fight against you, rather than by your side.
It's an interesting premise, and the story apparently changes depending on who you let live and who you decide dies - and the traitors themselves are chosen at random too, meaning that you'll likely have a totally different experience to your friend. Part visual novel, you'll also be able to chat with your companions, and get to know them better - all the better for helping you deduce which ones are with you, and which ones are against you. In a similar vein to the frankly amazing Danganronpa series, each floor of The Pillar you clear will force you to vote on and eliminate one of your party - and the consequences of picking the wrong person could be dire...
As always The End has a whole host of minions for you to battle along the way.
Each member of SEALED is a master of a different psychic power - a master of molecular physics who can freeze anything and anyone in her path, a guy capable of teleportation and a wannabe singer who can read and manipulate people's minds. There's even a jack of all trades who can pinch everyone else's powers too - all of which come in seriously handy in the game's tactical turn-based battles, where your positioning on the battle field is key to defeating as many enemies as possible. The specifics of the battle system are a little bit hazy at the moment though, with the only thing we have to go on being a handful of Japanese trailers.
Coming to the Playstation 3 and PS Vita on the 28th August, Lost Dimension certainly looks intriguing, with it's whodunnit traitor-fuelled story. Why not check out the opening cutscene in the trailer below:
