Lost Sphear is a JRPG from the developer Tokyo RPG Factory known for their 2016 title I Am Setsuna. With a mixture of elements seen in games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy, Lost Sphear is a truly nostalgic JRPG in a modern age. Players who love old school turn based combat and classic JRPG mechanics will truly love Lost Sphear. Are you looking for a classic JRPG but don’t feel like dusting off your old consoles? Then your best bet will be Lost Sphear as it screams nostalgia in numerous ways.

In Lost Sphear, players will enter a fantasy world that’s in turmoil. Assume the role of Kanata as he travels with his friends to save the lands from a strange disaster. Fight against tons of various monsters and enemies in classic turn-based combat akin to Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. With the creative team behind I Am Setsuna in control, Lost Sphear is a truly amazing nostalgic title with bells and whistles not seen in modern JRPG titles. If you’re looking for a 20+ hour JRPG to sink your teeth into, you’re going to want to play Lost Sphear.

Kanata and his friends Lumina and Locke have lived their lives together in the town of Elgarthe. Despite, their painful pasts of losing their parents to an unknown war these friends have at least found some peace in Elgarthe despite monsters occasionally showing up. However, things change quickly when a strange white mist blankets the town of Elgarthe while the trio were away and everything within the town has become “lost”. As the trio decide what to do next, Kanata has a strange dream that awakens a power within him allowing him to restore anything or anyone that has become “lost” via memories. Now, Kanata and his allies must go across the world to help those who have fallen victim to the white fog and see if they can find out why this phenomenon is occurring in the first place.

If you were to ask gamers what their favorite older JRPGs were of all time, you might hear several different responses. Some gamers would claim the Final Fantasy series is their favorite or games like Chrono Trigger and Xenogears might also be mentioned. That’s because these JRPGs were some of the best examples of JRPGs being done right. With excellent stories and solid RPG mechanics, we completely agree that those titles are some of the best older series. Developer Tokyo RPG Factory in 2016 created a title called I Am Setsuna which harkened these older JRPG titles but with a newer spin here and there. With Tokyo RPG Factory’s latest title called Lost Sphear, it seems they once again want to dabble with fusing old mechanics with new ones. Let us see how this new attempt turned out in our review of Lost Sphear.

On paper, Lost Sphear is a very easy game to explain. Players control Kanata along with his various allies as they explore a sizeable world saving it from destruction. However, this destruction isn’t from giant magical beasts or horrible kings with a power fetish. Instead, players are saving the world of Lost Sphear from becoming “lost”. A strange white fog/mist has begun to envelope various people and towns causing those affected to disappear from the world. Luckily, Kanata has the means of reversing this affect via a hidden power and can use memories obtained from various places to restore those “lost”. Thus, Lost Sphear is like all older JRPG titles, travel the world beat up baddies and save towns from their doomed fates. However, Lost Sphear utilizes a few elements from older titles to make for one enjoyable experience.

Outside of exploration, players of Lost Sphear will be battling enemies both large and small. When battle commences this is where Lost Sphear borrows heavily from Chrono Trigger or even Xenogears—to some extent---making for an enjoyable experience. Players will manipulate their party like all older RPGs and attack enemies in semi-real time to defeat them. You’ll have to choose how to best attack an enemy for maximum damage and to avoid a whole party from being wiped out from a solid attack. Will you surround an enemy or have warriors go from behind for a chance at critical damage? The choice is yours in Lost Sphear and while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel—in terms of turn based gameplay—it does some neat tricks.

Players can utilize skills from items called spirinite to enable skills and also will use a system called momentum combat. As players attack with any of their characters, you will see a circle on the character’s portrait fill up and will fill one of several little orb indents on your character’s portrait. During a regular attack, players can hit the square button at just the right time to use one of these orbs to increase the amount of hits an attack does. Equally at one point in the game players will gain mechs—think kind of similar to Xenogears—that will allow their characters to utilize even more attacks and special moves. It’s not revolutionary in terms of gameplay designs, but in Lost Sphear, it keeps battles from becoming stale as the story goes on. Plus, some bosses are truly ferocious and learning how to handle them can be a fun challenge in of itself.

Graphically and sound wise, Lost Sphear does an impressive job. Visuals reminded us here at Honey’s Anime of I Am Setsuna and that is perfectly fine seeing as how it was a solid looking game with strong sprites and gorgeous backdrops. Lost Sphear’s greatest strength graphically is easily some of the towns and characters you’ll see during your travels. Equally, the music is the same with strong battle themes and solid background soundtracks for the towns and dungeons alike. Lost Sphear won’t push your console of choice to its limits but it will show a nice design reminiscent to the good ole days of JRPGs.

The biggest problem with Lost Sphear though is that while all of the things we mentioned above work for it, nothing feels truly unique about Lost Sphear. Combat, exploration, cooking, level grinding and even the concept of saving those who have become “lost” just feels like a hodgepodge of elements from older JRPG titles. Lost Sphear almost feels “lost” itself as it seems to want to be games like Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and even Final Fantasy all while being unique. Does this ruin the experience of Lost Sphear? Absolutely not, but those expecting Lost Sphear to be a new age JRPG with elements from the older greats will be a bit sad to know that’s not the case here. Lost Sphear works at a mechanical level but is far from revolutionary or something we’d consider classic ten to twenty years from now.

Lost Sphear is like what happens when you go to a store during a big sale. You’ll grab everything off the rack, but when you get home, you’ll find that a lot of what you bought wasn’t what you really needed or wanted. Lost Sphear has so many elements from some of the best old school JRPGs in the gaming world but none of them are utilized in the best possible way. However, because Lost Sphear does contain only the best elements around, it equally makes for a solid experience. The combat is fun, the story works fine and the experience will be one you’ll enjoy while playing. Lost Sphear which is what a game should inspire to do for its audience. If you love old school JRPGs but don’t feel like retreading through them, and need something new, then we’re sure you’ll enjoy Lost Sphear.

Lost Sphear is an admirable attempt at capturing the brilliance of old school JRPG memories. While Lost Sphear works because of this design, it also keeps it from being something truly amazing. Developer Tokyo RPG Factory clearly is learning though as we think Lost Sphear is a tad stronger than I Am Setsuna and thus we’re looking forward to their next JRPG sometime in the future. What are your thoughts on Lost Sphear if you have played it or are thinking of playing it? Let us know in those nice comment boxes down below and for all your gaming review/article needs be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.