BLOOM & RAGE until 2025 to make way for a new LIFE IS STRANGE

Don’t Nod Entertainment announced that it would delay the release of its new narrative adventure game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage to avoid competing with Life is Strange: Double Exposure.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was originally scheduled for release later this year while Life is Strange: Double Exposure will launch on October 29, 2024. In a social media post, Don’t Nod announced that it would push the game back to 2025.

The reason for the delay is actually a little comforting because Don’t Not, the original developer of the first Life is Strange game for Square Enix, wants “Make sure both have space to shine.”

With both games being narrative adventures and being released around the same time in 2024, sales could have been poor. Now that each of them has their own release window far enough away, there should be room for both to hopefully thrive.

Announced during the Game Awards 2023, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a narrative journey about four old friends who reunite 27 years after an unexplained event made them promise never to see each other again. We don’t know the exact reason for their reunion yet, but it’s something players will discover as they recreate the story themselves through “choices and consequences,” according to creative director Michel Koch.

The official synopsis teases:

Film your last summer at Velvet Cove as Swann, a quirky introvert who loves capturing reality through the lens of her trusty camcorder. Get to know Nora, the rebellious firecracker; Autumn, the caring leader; and Kat, enigmatic and strong-willed.

From making music videos in Nora’s garage to sharing secrets under the stars… to discovering dark places shrouded in mystery, it will be a summer filled with unforgettable moments for this new sorority.

As the summer comes to an end, so does their friendship. A downward spiral culminates in an unexplained event that makes them promise never to see each other again. Now, twenty-seven years later, destiny brings them together to confront the long-buried secret they left behind in 1995.

The promise the girls made years ago changed the course of their lives forever. The reason behind this promise is in your hands as you make choices in the past and present. Shape the story of both timelines, in 1995 and 2022.

What really happened that summer?

Life is Strange: Double Exposure, meanwhile, is a new supernatural murder mystery and the next installment in Square Enix’s narrative adventure franchise, originally launched by Don’t Nod. Double Exposure’s development is being handled by Deck Nine Games, who previously worked on the 2017 game. Life is Strange: Before the Storm2021 Life is Strange: True Colorsand 2022 Life is Strange Remastered Collection.

The game reunites players with Max Caulfield, a photographer in residence at the prestigious Caledon University, who discovers his new closest friend, Safi, dead in the snow – murdered. In order to save her, Max tries to turn back time, a power she hasn’t used in years but which instead opens a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive and still in danger. Using his new power, Max must travel between the two parallel timelines to solve and prevent the same murder.

Another adventure game will also arrive in 2025, MixtapeDeveloped by Beethoven & Dinosaur, developers of the award-winning game Artistic escape, Mixtape — Inspired by classic coming-of-age films, it follows three friends who embark on a new adventure together on their last night of high school.