Lost Ember

Lost Ember is a wonderful, unique, and unforgettable experience with a love for nature.

Too many glitches, too few truly memorable moments, and an overabundance of wombats prevent the game from becoming a truly majestic beast.

Unless you're curious about the narrative, we'd beware of the dog in this case.

Lost Ember attempts to be an artistic experience, yet struggles to be an enjoyable game. The story is uninteresting and predictable, the gameplay is boring and sometimes frustrating, and the huge performance issues on Switch makes this game close to unplayable at times. While there is clearly potential here, Lost Ember fails to deliver on nearly every front. There are plenty of other artsy games on Switch to pick up over this one.

Lost Ember is an experience that will stick with well past the credit roll.

Lost Ember is a game that wants you to take your time and take in the beauty around you, and it absolutely nails these goals. The entire design of the game is used perfectly to awe-inspire the player, and give them the chance to explore at their own pace.

Lost Ember doesn't particularly excel in the field of fun and engaging gameplay, but its amazing story and enchanting world immediately draw you in. You'll want to know more, uncover new memories and piece the plot together to be rewarded with a heart-stopping finale that won't leave your eyes dry. The theme of reaching the afterlife is conceived in a simple but fascinating way against the backdrop of an almost fairytale-like world. The reincarnation mechanics add to the title's interest, it's just a shame about the controls and occasional glitches.

Lost Ember has lovely visuals, simple gameplay mechanics and a heartfelt story. The calm and peaceful vibe of the gameplay is perfect for players looking for a laid-back game to play. It is not overly long, coming in at around five hours. If you like games with a strong narrative, animals and a little exploring the environment then Lost Ember might certainly be worth a look.

The story in Lost Ember is one about a lone wolf and a curious spirit trying to remember what they have forgotten about their past lives in a journey across a beautiful world where past stories are re-told and truths are revealed.

Overall, Lost Ember isn’t a terrible game; it does, however, strive to be profound and ultimately is not quite so. The narrative is ambitious but never strays from the beaten path. Navigation is problematic and leaves players lost when it shouldn’t. Performance is also far from optimized for Switch. While the body swapping and visual design are solid, the former is let down by linear traversal and the latter isn’t enough to make up for the other flaws. Hopefully a patch will come along to tackle some of these problems, but in the meantime consider Lost Ember if you’re willing to put up with a number of different issues.