‘Lost in Harmony’ (2016) Review

Recently released on Android, Lost in Harmony is a rhythm game with a story about a teenage boy called Kaito who falls into dream sequences with his best friend Aya. Unfortunately, Aya is apart from him because she is sick and needs treatments. Her situation fluctuates and so does the emotions. Kaito escapes into a dream verse that reflects his emotions and that is where the gameplay takes place as he carries Aya piggyback through his adventures on his skateboard.

Lost in Harmony flows very smoothly. As a rhythm adventure game, its main feature is its mesmerizing music. It tries to build in the emotions of the creative levels that it is set in. There is always a common theme for each level, however the tone does change from soft and intense depending on the segment it flows through. The levels themselves are constructed so visually appealing that it is hard to not be immersed. The music is uses varies between some well known pieces from classical to contemporary and at the top of each level, there is an extra information icon that can be pressed to see what tracks are featured.

The gameplay is a mesh of a rhythm and adventure. On one hand, as the player, you need to navigate Kaito from dangers his path. It could be traffic or explosions for example.  Sometimes, there are obstacles that he needs to avoid or jump over. At the same time, there are stardust and three orbs to collect as many as possible to boost the score. That is the adventure portion. On the other hand, the rhythm is the part where in sporadic parts of the segment, star like orbs will appear in the sky. Usually Aya points it out. These stars follows the melody of the music playing. This is quite unique as most games choose to do one thing but Lost in Harmony chooses to challenge the player with multitasking and being aware of what is going on. It may be challenging but never impossible.

Lost in Harmony has 4 free levels available. In order to proceed further with the story, players need to purchase the upgrade to become a Gold member. This opens up the rest of Kaito’s Adventure but it also explains the counter on the right side for the developers to have enough Gold members in order to open up the next adventure.

On a personal side note, it’s rare that I put down money on Android games, Lost in Harmony is well worth it.  The story is not very unique but it does have intriguing conversation between Kaito and Aya through the clever use of text messaging to shows us the depth of their relationship.  Lost in Harmony is engaging enough to make us wonder what other tricks and challenges the levels will dish out and what other environments Kaito will have to travel to in future levels. Lost in Harmony is a visually appealing, beautifully rhythmic and challengingly adventurous game.