Lost Records: Bloom & Rage places Dontnod in the odd position of being its own strongest competitor – hands-on preview | Gaming

I usually hate to lean heavily on comparisons to another game when talking about a stand-alone title, especially one developed and published by an independent studio. But really, there’s no way to talk about Lost Records: Bloom & Rage without acknowledging that its history is deeply, likely inextricably entwined with that of the Life is Strange franchise.

We may never know the behind-closed-doors history of why Dontnod broke off from Square Enix, leaving its flagship franchise in the hands of former collaborators Deck Nine, and vowed to publish much of its own work in-house from now on. What we do know is that Lost Records aims to kick off a new independent IP for the studio that builds on Life is Strange while remaining crucially distinct — a task complicated by the…