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Oh no! You’re a duck who has been turned into a human! Now you find yourself indebted to the Goddess who saved you, and they need you to help them find stuff for people so that she can regain her power. You establish a new company to do just that, and Lost and Found Co. is born. Thus begins one of the greatest point-and-click searching games ever made.
Finding A Special Something
At its core, L&F Co. is a hidden object game. This means to pass each level you’ll be given a pictorial list of items at the bottom of your screen and then will have to find and click on each of them. That’s the long and short of things. What separates “good” games like this from “great” ones is what they do to make that process more engaging, entertaining, and addictive. The devs at Bit Egg Inc. have taken those extra chances to make a lasting impression on the genre and turned them into wondrous gold, as Lost and Found Co. will endlessly delight you with how much there is to interact with in each and every level. Though it takes a bit of mozying through a cute but lengthy tutorial introduction to the world, its characters, and how the game will operate, once you get to the true meat and potatoes of the story campaign and its many “request” levels, Lost and Found Co. explodes with personality, immersive item-filled levels, and thousands upon thousands of bits and bobbles to toy around with.
In addition to the main objects you’ll need to search for in the densely populated scenes, you’ll be given a list of bonus objectives to fulfill. For example, you may be asked to “help the tanuki perform a show” or “locate 7 cryptids” and other various objectives that ask you to think outside the much more literal list of items you can see in front of you. These extra tasks could involve discovering how items in the world actually interact, like warming up a pot of tea to serve to guests by clicking on the oven and then the water, or situations akin to that. Each level feels so alive and fun to click around in because of the little effects your cursor has on the living things and objects within them. On most levels, before I even glanced at the findable item list or objectives, I found myself wanting to click on every single thing I could just to be surprised by its individually designed sound effect, or how it reacted to my touch. You’d think that it would be easy to spot stuff easily, too, since the object you need to find is actually shown exactly as it is in the picture (as far as rotation and visual appearance) but very rarely did I locate them all as swiftly as I expected.
So Much To Do, Infinite Time to Do It
Thankfully, if you do get stuck finding some of the key items you need to spot before passing the level, the game does give you an initial hint for the item, followed by a triggerable extra hint that will give you the general location and a more in-depth hint that should lead you away from wasting time looking elsewhere for that pesky object. I enjoyed the method earning these extra hints was designed with, as in each level you can find these glitchy black & gray items that you can click on to give you one hint credit to use at your leisure. Just another example of the devs knowing that, “Hey, the more finding we can squeeze into the game, the better.” Beyond the things to find in each of the story levels and the extra “Request” levels, Lost and Found Co. includes quite a bit of customization inside it! You’re able to unlock or purchase (with earned in-game currency) colorful baubles, scenes, furniture, animals, animated objects, and much much more to outfit your company building and its surroundings, or your own personal room. The amount of things to play around with between searching and finding is impressive, and feels like it would be a dream for someone in love with the art style and creation tools made available to the player. Plus, between levels you’ll be able to interact with passersby and recurring characters to the story, as you build a rapport with them and everyone tries to save the Goddess Mei from being lost from everyone’s memory because she doesn’t have any more shrines or reputation to her fading name.
Art Extravaganza
As I’ve mentioned before, Lost and Found Co.’s calling card is the incredible display of interactive art that is laid out before you with each level. The challenge of finding items isn’t just in the amount of items shown to you at all times; it’s in the design of the various buildings, characters, furniture, flora, and fauna present. Seriously, each and every level would be a conversation piece if it was framed and hung on a wall. The gift of gaming is that we get the chance to poke and prod around like an omnipotent deity within this cornucopia of content and enjoy the small movements and little sound effects that toggle when clicked. So much care is taken to make sure everything is perfectly clickable and emits its own unique flavor of animation and glee. Plus, a large portion of the characters that populate the in-game world are various anthros, animals, or fantasy creatures. If you’re a fan of that, then you’ll be treated to a surprising amount of colorful characters throughout the many levels.
Occupying Your Ears
Rounding out the experience is the peppy soundtrack, which lends itself well to the overall joyful and bright experience, with most of the music existing to serve as a playful backdrop to the visuals and sound effects you’ll spend most of your time enjoying. It’s like really up-beat elevator music at times, and Wii-Menu like ditties at others. It’s not too subtle or overbearing, which is exactly what it needed to be. It’s definitely memorable though, but doesn’t vary too much. There could’ve probably been a few more varieties of themes layered throughout, but that’s not to say it isn’t still an appropriately poppy part of the experience.
In Conclusion
Lost and Found Co. is a gem of a hidden objects game. It goes way, way, way beyond the minimum objectives of a title in this genre and does it with acute precision while still being rounded at the corners. In a gaming world where art comes in all shapes, sizes, and high fidelity, it carves out its niche and lets you play around in it for a long, long time. Lost and Found Co. is a creative triumph in the genre, and one you will absolutely enjoy if you’re even remotely interested in this type of experience.
Thanks to the Developer & Publisher for a review key - Lost and Found Co. is available on Steam
