# Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a 2025 two-part adventure game developed by Don't Nod Montréal and published by Don't Nod. The plot focuses on four teenage girls: Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat, who go on a journey of self-discovery and forge unbreakable bonds during the summer of 1995. Running concurrently with the main plot, the girls reunite 27 years later, where they confront the long-buried secret that made them promise to never speak again.
Bloom & Rage will be released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in two parts, with the first having been released on February 18, 2025, and the second set to release on April 15.

## Gameplay

Players make narrative decisions throughout the game as "part of recreating the story with choice and consequences" according to creative director Michel Koch. Unlike many other narrative-based games with an ensemble of main characters, Bloom & Rage has one playable character, Swann. Koch said the decision was made because having perspectives change between characters can cause a disconnect for players "from what's happening on the screen."
A major gameplay mechanic of Bloom and Rage is the use of Swann’s camcorder. As Swann, the player has the freedom to record different subjects in each environment and edit them into her “memoir”.

## Plot
### Tape 1: Bloom

In November 2022, 43-year-old Swann Holloway (Olivia Lepore) travels from Vancouver back to her hometown of Velvet Cove, Michigan, to reunite with a group of friends who she hasn't seen for 27 years. After arriving at the Blue Spruce bar, she converses with the friendly bartender Gus (Alex Bisping) before reuniting with Autumn Lockhart (Andrea Carter), who is now a social worker based in Atlanta and divorced with a son. Autumn explains that she contacted Swann after receiving a mysterious package addressed to "Bloom & Rage", a punk band they created in the summer of 1995. Together they begin reminiscing about how they first met and the events that led to their mutual agreement to part ways and never speak again.
In July 1995, Swann is a 16-year-old aspiring filmmaker in the process of making a memoir about Velvet Cove using her camcorder before she has to move to Vancouver with her parents. She heads to a local video rental store but finds it closed and soon meets Autumn and her best friend Nora Malakian (Amelia Sargisson). While filming outside the store, Swann is harassed by Dylan Mikaelsen (Victoria Diamond) and her boyfriend Corey Litchfield (Jordan Dawson) until Dylan's younger sister Kathryn "Kat" Mikaelsen (Natalie Liconti) arrives and defends Swann alongside Nora and Autumn. Corey then takes Autumn's keys and tosses them away before leaving. The four girls spend the evening working together to recover the keys, and quickly bond after discovering they have much in common.
Two days later, Nora and Autumn invite Swann and Kat to watch them practice playing their guitars for their amateur punk band. Swann suggests she film a music video for them while Kat starts writing an original song and names the band Bloom & Rage. The girls later hike along a forest trail to film scenes for their music video, but after watching the sunset together at an overlook, they become lost in the dark until they stumble upon an abandoned cabin. Swann and Kat break into the cabin and decide to make it the band's secret hideout. They later return during the day to clean and decorate the cabin before spending the next two weeks bonding and enjoying their summer. Kat soon takes the others to a secluded forest clearing and presents them with her finished song, declaring it to be a curse on all those who have wronged them. After making a blood pact, they agree to hold a concert to debut the song.
In 2022, while Autumn is distracted by work duties on her phone, Swann talks to Gus and Pam (Leni Parker), a regular at the bar, who discuss the seemingly supernatural occurrences that have happened in the town over the years. Nora soon arrives at the bar, now a successful fashion influencer based in Los Angeles with a wife and children, and reunites with Swann and Autumn. While Autumn wants to open the mysterious package and confront their shared past, Nora instead only wants to avoid it and move on. The three women struggle to remember exactly why they parted ways and recount the night they discovered the Abyss.
In 1995, the girls spend a night at the cabin and play truth or dare, but Kat later disappears while the others are asleep. Swann finds her at the forest clearing where their blood pact was made, only now there was a large glowing Abyss at its center. After Nora and Autumn join them, they believe that tossing something into the Abyss will grant them a wish, with each of them wishing to stay together. The following day, still reeling from their discovery, they collectively stand up to Corey when he attempts to take Kat back to her strict parents, and they believe that their wishes worked. The girls later head to the Blue Spruce to hold their concert and play Kat's song, which angers the locals, including Dylan and Corey. When the power is suddenly cut off, ending their concert early, Kat becomes enraged before her nose bleeds heavily and she collapses. Dylan reveals to the others that Kat is dying from leukemia before she and Corey drive her away.

## Development

In 2020, Don't Nod created its Montréal studio and commenced production on its inaugural project, with a total of six projects in development, with multiple staff members from Life Is Strange and Life Is Strange 2. A teaser image was released in a 1990s setting of a person's bedroom. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was announced at the 2023 Game Awards.
The studio had considered creating a studio in Montréal since 2014, but did not do so until the completion of Life Is Strange 2. Due to Square Enix's ownership of the publishing rights to the Life Is Strange franchise, they stopped working on the series and decided to work on new titles that they could self-publish. As a result, the Montréal studio was established in 2020 and commenced development and production of Bloom & Rage.
It was decided that the game would feature adults instead of teenagers. Due to the production team being French, they hired two American writers, Desiree Cifre and Nina Freeman, for their knowledge of American culture and to ensure the characters were authentic in 2022 and 1995. Koch revealed that the game is being worked on "as the foundation for a possibly larger universe", while producer Luc Baghadoust said that there will be more games in the Lost Records label, with Bloom & Rage being the first in the series.

## Release

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is set to be released in two parts, dubbed "tapes", the first having been released on February 18, 2025, and the second set to release on April 15, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. It was originally planned to release in late 2024 but was delayed to avoid competition with Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. The second part was originally set to be released a month after the first, but was delayed to April to refine the experience. Koch said the team hopes it will "give us space to let the events of the story sink in, and possibly even bring us together to theorize about what will happen next", comparing the situation to how fans did a lot of theorizing between the weekly episodes of Game of Thrones. The game was included in the PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium subscription service at launch.

## Reception
### Tape 1

Aggregate scores :
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | PS5: 75/100 Win: 84/100 |
| OpenCritic | 75% recommend |
Review scores :
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 4/5 |
| GamesRadar+ | 4.5/5 |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4/5 |
| TechRadar | 4.5/5 |
| The Guardian | 4/5 |
Tape 1 of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 75% of critics recommended the game.