Lost in Random: The Eternal Die Hands-On Preview

2021's Lost in Random is set to receive its first follow-up, but it's a distinct departure from the action-adventure gameplay of the original. Instead, Lost in Random: The Eternal Die transports its dice-rolling gothic fairy tale stylings into the realm of an action roguelike. But while The Eternal Die might share more in common with Hades than its predecessor, its connection to the Lost in Random universe shines through in its narrative, atmosphere, and art direction - and it just so happens that it has an incredible combat sandbox to back those elements up.

The Best War Games went hands-on with Lost in Random: The Eternal Die over the last week, and the general impression of the title so far is that it's more than capable of holding its own in the increasingly crowded action roguelike space. While the core gameplay loop of The Eternal Die will feel right at home to anyone who's played either of Supergiant Games' Hades titles or any of the many games those two inspired, the unique wrinkles that Stormteller has added to a familiar formula help the experience stand on its own merits.

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die Explains Unusual Protagonist Choice [EXCLUSIVE]

The Best War Games shares an exclusive BTS look at Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, explaining why the first game's antagonist is the sequel's protagonist.

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By Dominik Bošnjak

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die Presents the Perfect Jumping On Point

Lost in Random was a largely narrative-driven action-adventure game, so it makes sense to come into The Eternal Die wondering how an action roguelike sequel could continue the series' overarching narrative and emphasis on storytelling. Thankfully, The Eternal Die manages to strike a careful balance between appeasing returning players and welcoming newcomers thanks to its mostly self-contained story. Rather than play as the first game's protagonist, Even, players instead get to step into the shoes of its sympathetic antagonist, Queen Aleksandra. And true to the spirit of the first game, Lost in Random: The Eternal Die leans heavily into its gothic fairy tale atmosphere and eccentric characters.

The setup for The Eternal Die's story sees Aleksandra pulled into the twisted game of the Mare the Knight (or, "Nightmare", if you will). Following the events of the first game, Aleksandra is on a quest for redemption and to reclaim her place as the rightful ruler of the kingdom of Random. But she'll have to beat Mare the Knight and escape his realm before she can realize those goals. It's a framework tailor-made for both the Lost in Random series and an action roguelike, as Aleksandra needs to clear 4 different biomes, each of which is laid out as the playing board from a board game. Of course, Aleksandra is far from without help in her quest.

Joining the Queen back in the hub area of Sanctuary is a charming and colorful cast of allies who each look and sound as if they'd be right at home in an animated Tim Burton film. Each of these characters brings something to the table in terms of the game's narrative, but they're also critical to Aleksandra's continued success in Mare the Knight's game, thanks to their contributions to an incredibly satisfying meta-progression loop that bolsters an impressive combat system.

Balanced Progression and Combat Are a Highlight of Lost in Random: The Eternal Die

Regardless of players' familiarity with the first Lost in Random, The Eternal Die's combat is enough to entice any action roguelike fan to give the game a shot. Eternal Die utilizes a top-down, third-person perspective akin to Hades, and the crux of its core gameplay loop is fairly similar to Supergiant Games' award-winning action roguelike. While in Sanctuary, Aleksandra will select one of four weapons — a sword, bow, spear, or mace — before heading into Mare the Knight's game world. Each of these weapons handles differently, having the capacity to completely change the feeling of a run in a way reminiscent of Hades. But the presence of an individual upgrade tree for each weapon, including some truly transformative abilities and modifiers, helps give The Eternal Die's weaponry a strong sense of progression and power creep.

Currency in The Eternal Die comes in two forms: Pip Dust and Cinder. Pip Dust is spent on Blessings, which provide meaningful meta-progression-skewed upgrades to Aleksandra's health, weapon damage, defense, and more. Conversely, Cinder is entirely devoted to purchasing new weapons and filling out their upgrade trees, including unlocking elemental effects for certain weapons or increasing their damage output. These systems will likely sound familiar to anyone who's played a variety of similar games in the genre, but Lost in Random: The Eternal Die stands out as a newer action roguelike to keep an eye on thanks to how much currency players earn per run and how meaningful its permanent progression curve is.

In combat, Aleksandra has a wide array of abilities. In addition to a standard light and heavy attack, she has access to a special "Card" ability (unlocked by the special Cards that can be collected in a level and held one at a time), as well as the ability to toss her die companion, Fortune. Fortune deals damage in an AoE radius based on the number it lands on, and rapidly switching between light and heavy attacks while continually tossing and retrieving Fortune builds a meter that allows Aleksandra to use her Card ability. By frequently utilizing every ability in the Queen's toolkit, enemies and bosses will quickly meet their demise, but not before investing carefully in Aleksandra's meta-progression.

To be frank, Lost in Random: The Eternal Die does not pull any punches when it comes to its difficulty. Death will be frequent and swift during the first several runs a player makes in Mare the Knight's game world. But once players earn enough currency to start purchasing some upgrades, or even unlock a weapon that changes their playstyle, victory begins to occur more often. It took us upwards of about 15 runs to beat the boss enemy of the first world. After that initial triumph, each subsequent started to feel easier, only for us to get humbled again in the second biome. Thanks to the various options available for increasing Aleksandra's power back in the Sanctuary, each run in The Eternal Die is challenging but fair, not to mention impressively varied thanks to the Relic system.

Relics are the Loaded Die in Lost in Random: The Eternal Die's Combat Sandbox

The ace up The Eternal Die's sleeve is the Relic system. One of the rewards players will regularly pick up at the end of an encounter in The Eternal Die is a Relic, which they can strategically place on a 3x3 grid. Each Relic bestows powerful modifiers to Aleksandra's combat abilities, but it also contains a color-coded "Magic Dye" that, when paired with similarly-colored Relics, grants massive boosts to her stats. In one example, players might pick up a Relic that produces a poison cloud upon killing an enemy that is color-coded purple. By picking up other purple Relics, many of which will have similar poison-centric abilities or modifiers, players can stack them in a straight line on the inventory grid and increase Conjuration damage, improving the effectiveness of poison, weak, or other status debuff elements.

There are practically endless permutations of Relic combinations available in The Eternal Die, and in our experience, there's not a bad one in the bunch. Every pairing of three Relics in a straight line across the grid opens up a new way to approach each encounter, which keeps every fight feeling fresh and exciting. Better yet, some Relics contain 2 or 3 matchable colors, which creates an opportunity for some truly interesting combinations. Together with the transformative power of The Eternal Die's meaningful meta-progression and tough-but-fair enemies, Relics have the power to dramatically expand the game's combat sandbox and replayability in a way that should make other action roguelikes stand up and take notice.

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die was able to successfully hook us based on the strength of its combat alone. Even in its pre-release state, it's already polished to a degree that sees it outperform other games in the action roguelike genre, and that's with only making it to the end of the second biome. New players might come to Lost in Random: The Eternal Die for its quirky atmosphere and unique board game-inspired visuals, but they'll ultimately end up staying for its airtight encounter design and satisfying combat and progression loop.

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