Don’t Nod, the studio that created the Life is Strange series in collaboration with Square Enix, has announced that it will delay the release of its upcoming self-published game The Lost Records: Bloom & Fury until 2025. The Lost Records was originally announced at last year’s Game Awards, with a release window of “late 2024” at the time.
If you’re a fan of gossip, then it’s probably not too hard to guess why this is happening, as Square and LiS successor developer Deck Nine recently announced a new game in the series. While it’s always been thought that a new Life is Strange game was a strong possibility, few expected that the fifth installment in the main game would return so strongly to the series’ roots, with original protagonist Max Caulfield returning as the player character in Life is Strange: Double Exposure, which is set to release in October this year.
Manage Cookie Settings
However, surprisingly, Don’t Nod did not carefully explain the reason for delaying “Lost Records”. Its CEO Oskar Guilbert said bluntly: “We know that many fans are eagerly looking forward to this game, just as they are eagerly looking forward to the recently announced next work of “Life is Strange”. Let’s give these two games enough space to let them shine. The wait is worth it.”
The Lost Records: Bloom & Fury does look like it will satisfy the longing that many Life is Strange fans have been feeling since the series’ last release in 2021, and Don’t Nod has been quite upfront about its intention to apply what it learned from Life is Strange to its new standalone IP. While Don’t Nod’s reputation as an original creator means the new Life is Strange won’t au tomatically overshadow The Lost Records in the eyes of many, there is a real risk of distracting fans if the two games compete against each other – especially given that Max’s return could potentially attract some players who abandoned Life is Strange’s recent anthology-style sequel.
It’s good to see Don’t Nod acknowledge this obvious problem and give Deck Nine the go-ahead to continue developing their title. Previously, Don’t Nod and Deck Nine have taken turns releasing the LiS series and pooling assets and ideas across it, so it’s good to see that Don’t Nod appears to have handed it over to someone else permanently, but they haven’t disowned their creation.
Expected to be released in early 2025, The Lost Records: Bloom & Fury centers around four female friends, spanning two time periods: their high school years in the mid-90s, and their long-estranged lives as modern middle-aged women. The trailer also hints at lesbian romance and supernatural elements, so the Life is Strange DNA is sure to be impressive.
