Ghostlight Blog
Thu, 4th May 2017 | Posted by Ross
Hi everyone. I've got some great news on Lost Dimension for you all. As if by magic - if you count the hours and hours of hard work from our long-suffering dev team as magic - the first playable PC version of Lost Dimension has appeared in the office!
While we haven't had that long to look at it yet, I must say it seems very stable for a first playable build and it's certainly nice to be able to start hunting down those traitors on my PC at long last! :)
We're still some way off being in a position to start the closed beta, but this is obviously a massive step towards releasing the title on PC, so I'd like to say a huge thank you to the team at Laughing Jackal for all their hard work and to FURYU CORPORATION for their continued assistance.
Hopefully in the coming weeks, we should be able to share some early screenshots of the game running on PC, before launching the closed beta during the run up to release later this year.
In other news, unfortunately we will need to replace the title music that's used in the opening movie sequence of the game. This is because this particular piece of music, as used in the console versions, has not been made available for worldwide use on PC, due to some fairly complicated licensing issues. Having said that, we're currently in the process of sourcing an excellent replacement track, which we hope you'll like just as much :)
(Blog written by Ghostlight Ltd. All screenshots are taken from the PS3 version of Lost Dimension.)
Thu, 27th Apr 2017 | Posted by Al
Following last week's Lost Dimension character breakdown of main protagonist Sho Kasugai, this week it's the turn of Himeno Akatsuki and Toya Orbert. Himeno is a very cold fish, despite her fiery powers, while Toya is a rather entitled master of magnetism and electricity. Read on as we discover their strengths and delve into some of their best skills :)
When I first began playing Lost Dimension, I liked Himeno a lot. The initial level is set up so that her skills are likely to be the first you'll use. The fact she can set her enemies ablaze with her pyrokinesis ability is also pretty cool.
Some of her later powers are incredibly useful too, provided your allies make sure to keep their distance. Here are my favourite of Himeno’s skills:
Burn: This is Himeno's first available skill and is a useful single-enemy attack.
Damage is high considering its low GP and Sanity cost, plus for a basic attack it really looks kind of cool :)
Ignition: This is a useful passive skill (and if you read last week’s blog you’ll know I’m a big fan of passive skills!) If you continue to use combustion skills in succession, the damage from those skills grows higher each time, once Ignition is unlocked.
This can be extremely useful against larger enemies who will typically take several turns to kill and means you can mob-rush them solo with Himeno on later levels, or with someone else who stacks damage in a similar way, like George.
Icicle Strike: This is a really great attack because it has a decent chance to debuff the enemy it's targeting. It’s also not too expensive.
Lava Burst / Volcanic Eruption: These two are maybe my favourite area attacks of the game. Both are very cheap considering the area of effect they have.
They hit hard and can be moved some distance away, meaning you can attack from behind even when characters are in front of you. I love these two!
As you can see, Himeno has some great powers, but she does have her drawbacks. She’s quite slow in moving and has seriously limited range with her regular knife attacks, which also aren’t all that powerful unless you manually buff them, so over longer fights she may have less impact unless you plan ahead with GP/SAN replenishing items.
On to Toya now, who I find to be most useful in the early part of the game.
He’s initially very important as he has a decent range on his regular attacks and some early skills that help engage over longer ranges. Here are his best skills:
Coil Shot: This is Toya's first available skill and is a useful single-enemy attack with a very long range.
Early on, when your movement stat is low, it’s really useful, allowing you to end battles a turn earlier, for that elusive S rating.
Thunderbolt: This is a pretty powerful attack with a chance to Bind enemies who are hit, fixing them in place.
It’s also boosted once you’ve raised your Electron Master skill. The fact it’s also acquired fairly early helps out.
Tempest: This psychic based area attack is more expensive to use than Thunderbolt, but in busy areas it’s great, because unlike Thunderbolt it won’t hit allied characters inside its range.
If everyone’s bunched together with enemies it’s well worth the extra cost.
High Voltage/Static Charge: If you find Toya at a loose end then cast Static Charge which will boost your passive ‘High Voltage’ skill up one level, boosting your Skill attacks and cheapening their cost.
Over longer levels this can stack up very nicely and I find myself using it a fair bit, as I often employ Toya further back than the rest of my team.
You can see that Himeno and Toya approach combat in very different ways and they can complement each other well. I find myself using them both regularly, especially Himeno who’s become a firm favourite of mine.
Next week I’ll be looking at two more very interesting characters: Mana and Nagi. See you then.
(Blog written by Ghostlight Ltd. All screenshots are taken from the PS3 version of Lost Dimension.)
Thu, 20th Apr 2017 | Posted by Al
As we wind our way towards the release of Lost Dimension on Steam, we thought it'd be fun to provide breakdowns of all the playable characters in the game. Rather than a character bio, which you can already find online or read on the game's website when it's finalised, we thought we'd try and provide you with an insight into using the characters during an actual battle.
This approach will hopefully whet your appetite for some of the fun you'll be having when Lost Dimension arrives on PC, as well as providing a bit more info than you might find in a regular bio.
To bring you this valuable homespun wisdom, I've finished the game several times, seen all three endings and have managed to 'Platinum' the game in both its PlayStation guises, so I think it's fair to say that I've got a decent handle on each of the playable characters' strengths and quirks. :)
(At this point I'd like to note that these opinions are based on my personal preferences, after blazing through the game ten or more times. Your own preferences may vary!)
So, without further ado, let's kick off with the game's main protagonist, Sho Kasugai:
As the game's lead character, Sho is the only party member who *must* feature in every battle you have. How great, then, that he just happens to be one of my favourite characters, as he's got some really useful abilities that always give me a real power trip! ^_^
In particular, Sho has some amazingly useful powers that can alter the flow of turns and even the turn order itself, as well as more conventional one-on-one and area attacks. My favourite of his skills are as follows:
Mystic Shot:
This is a standard one-on-one attack, with typical range and solid damage, plus it has a decent chance to insta-kill the target, which is obviously good news!
This is pretty much my go-to attack for Sho if I have adequate GP/Sanity remaining. Grab it as soon as you can!
Rubble Strike:
You're often outnumbered in Lost Dimension, so area attacks are always a good idea, the only downer being that your allies won't assist you after an area attack.
On the plus side, you might take down several enemies with good planning. Rubble Strike is a fairly standard area attack and is the only one Sho has without sharing Materia, so it's pretty essential.
Premonition:
Ah, Premonition! This is a passive skill (and I am a huge fan of passive skills in games wherever possible, as it saves me having to remember to trigger something specific.)
Premonition is awesome, as it gives you the chance to stop an enemy during their attack and replace it with an attack of your own! This will even stop enemy counterattacks, meaning you'll be taking them down way more easily with careful use of this skill.
Daydream:
For me, this is the BIG one - maybe my favourite skill in the game! It's certainly one you'll want to make use of to get 'S' ranks for all missions, as turn count seems to be the major requirement in how ranks are calculated.
With enough support from other characters to keep his GP and Sanity meters topped up, Daydream will allow Sho and friends to theoretically complete any level in a single turn. 'How' you ask?? Basically, whenever you use Daydream, there's a slip in time at the end of your turn and it begins over again, but with all your previous actions remaining intact! Needless to say, this is a must when squaring up to some of the tougher enemies...
So, there you have it, my thoughts on Sho, who handily enough is one of my favourites in Lost Dimension.In the coming weeks I'll be back to discuss two other characters: Himeno Akatsuki, the surly, fiery (literally) redhead of the group, and Toya Orbert, the electrical master of ranged combat. See you then. :)
(Blog written by Ghostlight Ltd. All screenshots are taken from the PS3 version of Lost Dimension.)