Lost Words: Beyond the Page (PC) review "Light gameplay meant to deliver a narrative and pack and emotional punch, but may depend on your take on mental health."

The first words that came to mind when I was trying to characterize Lost Words: Beyond the Page were nice and sweet. But I can’t really use those. In part because they’re too simple, too plain, but mainly because they’re inaccurate, potentially leading to wrong expectations about what will happen and how it’s likely to make you feel if you play it. So I’ll go with wholesome instead, which is far more appropriate. Plus that it does sound more like the sort of term that one should use while reviewing a game that’s ostensibly about writing, doesn’t it?

Actually, it really is about writing. Not so much about the character’s, the Estoria sections being pretty much as childish as it’d be expected, even in the later parts, at least in my opinion, but about the game’s, the “real” story and the way it’s presented in the Diary sections, the narration also playing an important role. And, from this point of view, the fact that the character’s writing remains believably suitable for her age should be seen as quite an achievement. The far bigger one, however, is the emotional response it generates, the punch it packs even when you, the player, are likely to know what’s coming.
The largely relaxing, risk-free gameplay, with light platforming and puzzle elements that you just get to try again right away if you fail and choices that allow you to shape certain moments without actually carrying real consequences, only complements and emphasizes the focus on the story and its emotional impact. It serves to keep players engaged and feeling that they’re actually taking part without needing to think or worry about playing the game in itself. So I won’t dwell any more on the gameplay either, Lost Words: Beyond the Page being a great example of using the medium to deliver a story, and in some ways a message, and being just enough of a “game” to perhaps appeal not only to some who might not have the patience or the attention span for simply reading, but even to some who’d reject the “walking simulators” that tend to be seen as the genre that’s typically used for this purpose.

It does still require the willingness to take it easy, or better yet to see it as something that’s to be experienced rather than “played”, the fact that the logo videos can’t be skipped whenever you launch it perhaps being one more indication of that… And one that I could have done without. But that’s just a tiny niggle, a far more serious complaint being that there’s no manual saving. There are three slots, so the game can be played more than once or by multiple people at the same time, the checkpoints are particularly frequent and, as I already mentioned, if you fail something you just get to try again right away and there are no real choices that you should save before. But sometimes it may feel like there are, so you may want to, just for your peace of mind. Admittedly, the player’s peace of mind isn’t necessarily what the developers were aiming at, but it doesn’t mean I have to like the approach. Plus that, no matter how generous the checkpoint system is, manual saving is a matter of respecting the player’s time, of allowing quitting whenever you want or need to without the risk of losing anything.
And then there are some bugs as well. Some are minor, like words that vanish after a certain point reappearing after reloading during that chapter, but there are even places where you can get stuck, in which case the checkpoint system shows its ugliest face, possibly even meaning that you’re forced to restart the game. While I obviously had no intention of testing it myself, I saw a post stating that such a moment may exist in the lava cave, after you get Burn. And I for one “managed” to get quite literally stuck at those falling rocks, ending up on the edge of one when the next one fell and being unable to move, so I had to quit, fortunately being able to continue from the last checkpoint after that.
Moving on to the collectibles, I’m not sure about the asterisks, but there is at least one firefly, in the desert, that can become unreachable, though I realized it quickly, went back to the menu, then resumed and was able to get it at that point… Only to see at the end of the chapter that I had missed others as well, probably because, being the first chapter where they appear, I didn’t quite know what I had to look for and collect. And the game seemed to be rather confused about the number, since I remembered seeing 17/20 at the end of the chapter and, without missing any others after that point, I was still missing three from the total at the end, but the counter shown next to the save slot only listed a single missing firefly all the way, and when the Chapter Select option became available, after finishing the game, it listed 19/20 in that chapter. Then again, while I didn’t actually check, I got the impression that it doesn’t really matter in terms of the game itself, not counting achievements, for those who care about that sort of thing.

But I said that the game is mainly about delivering a story and a message and then wrote three paragraphs complaining about technical matters, and minor ones at that, with the exception of the few that may result in being unable to continue. So let me now get to what bothered me about the message. Not the story, which I’m definitely leaving under positive aspects, but the message behind it, which has to do with the “proper” stages of grief and coming to terms with facts or events that are beyond one’s control and can’t be changed, in ways that the modern mental health field would support or at least accept. I will emphasize that the point isn’t driven home that much and the conclusion is bleaker and more negative than what most mental health professionals would typically advocate and definitely very far from what would come from this toxic cult of positivity that keeps being so terribly popular, so my reaction is also far less negative, but I was nevertheless bothered by this. And yes, I’m quite aware that this basically amounts to complaining that the developers have achieved what they set out to do, which hardly sounds fair when you put it like that, but it is what bothered me the most and I must say it.
And, while it’s less important because it was just mentioned in passing, there was one more moment that I reacted negatively to, and this time there are no caveats. I’m referring to the character writing “when I get my first job” despite correctly stating “if”, and even “unlikely”, when it came to getting married. So she didn’t have what are considered to be the typical stages of life drilled into her mind to the point that she sees them as mandatory and unavoidable, or at least managed to resist that process in case of some of them, but that apparently doesn’t apply to the hamster wheel of wage slavery. And I’d have quite a few comments to make about “when I go to university” as well.

Leaving a few technical matters aside, Lost Words: Beyond the Page’s light, largely relaxing and risk-free puzzle platforming gameplay strikes the balance between being sufficiently engaging to keep one’s attention and not taking any of the focus away from the compelling and believable narrative that is the game’s primary purpose, and which is likely to generate quite an emotional response even when, unlike the character, you can see what’s coming. The exact nature of that response and the “taste” it’ll leave you with will be in part influenced by your attitude towards what are considered the “proper” stages of grief, and perhaps also of life, but even I will say that it could have been much worse… And I actually expected it to be, so while I can’t say that I enjoyed it, I wasn’t exactly displeased either, and I’ll readily admit that the developers have definitely achieved what they set out to do.

Community review by Cavalary (August 31, 2025) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.