Lost in Blue
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| Lost in Blue | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Release date(s) |  September 27 2005 2005 November 15, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E10+ OFLC: PG PEGI: 7+ |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
Lost in Blue is a continuation of Konami's Survival Kids series. It shipped on September 27, 2005 for the Nintendo DS, Lost in Blue makes extensive use of the system's touchscreen and microphone features as two young teenagers, Keith and Skye, struggle for survival in a deserted island. The user will have to learn to use the island's natural resources to create a make-shift home away from home.
Due to an undershipment, the game was difficult to find in the months following its North American release.
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[edit] Gameplay
Lost in Blue's gameplay uses most aspects of the DS hardware. In the fire building sequence, for instance, the player must alternate pressing of the L and R buttons in order to build enough friction on the wood, and then blow into the DS microphone to successfully ignite the fire. The touch screen interface is used for navigating menus, and the island can be explored and interacted with using either the touch screen or the standard control buttons. The game's primary action takes place on the touch screen, while the top screen is used to display Keith and Skye's health, which is categorized by hunger, thirst, stamina, and hit points. If any of the first three categories hits zero, the character's hit points will begin to drop. It is also possible for other conditions, such as passing out due to lack of stamina, to occur. The player loses if either Keith or Skye runs out of hit points and dies. Therefore, it is necessary for the player to monitor the health of both characters and make sure that they eat and drink plenty of food and water and also get plenty of rest.
[edit] Story
Lost in Blue is not a linear game in its gameplay and its multiple endings provide a different story nearly every time one plays through it. The story advances through exploration of the island that is essentially moving deeper into the island and uncovering its secrets. Some days may not be spent exploring and advancing the story but just surviving by collecting food or building furniture and so on.
The story begins on a ship, the destination of the ship and where it came from is unknown as is the ocean the island is. Two teenagers are on board, only one image of the ship is presented in the game. A “terrible storm” forced its inhabitants to abandon ship. The two main characters Keith and Skye escape. While Skye manages to get on a life boat, Keith is plunged into the water.
There is a cutscene of Keith underwater which explains the aforementioned, at the end of which he loses consciousness. A very similar cutscene is shown in ‘Skye Mode’ which ends in the same way.
Keith wakes up on the beach of the south side of the island. This beach leads onto a field which leads onto cliffs. Along these cliffs is a cave where Keith and Skye eventually make their home. Keith spends the first night in the cave after realizing the river is at high water level and is impassable. Fire is required for sleep so Keith makes a fire maker out of a stick and bark. The next day the river has settled and can now be used as a source of water. Stepping stones are revealed allowing access to the south east beach. This is where Keith finds Skye. Skye wakes up on the beach next to her lifeboat which appears undamaged. She has impaired sight and has lost her glasses. When looking for them Keith accidentally steps on them, so now for the rest of the game Skye must be guided by Keith’s hand over treacherous terrain where climbing and jumping is required.
The two return to the cave and make a home. Each day Keith usually leaves the cave to explore, returns, gives Skye food to cook and then sleeps. The game runs on a simple day night system with a second usually equating to about a minute. Sleeping is essential for recovering HP.
As Keith explores and begins to the scale the cliffs he comes across a waterfall. His idea is to climb higher to get a better view of the island and hoping to find a way to escape. As he gets close to getting to the waterfall he comes across a boulder that needs to be pushed to make a way to the waterfall. He can’t push it alone so he enlists Skye’s help. The two manage to push the boulder together to make a way to the waterfall. When Keith returns the next day (the game automatically returns the characters to the cave after pushing the boulder), he looks out over the island. All he can see is ocean and no way of escaping. His efforts weren’t for nothing though, as a tunnel lies behind the waterfall. The tunnel has three exits, one to the waterfall, one to the grasslands and one to the jungle.
In the grasslands Keith finds mysterious ruins. Clearly man made. Keith runs up and down the large ruins yelling for help but is given no answer. The ruins here have no visible entrances into what is clearly a building. The mystery behind the ruins, who built them and what happened to them, is never fully explained. However the ruins can be entered after a certain switch is pressed after the lake is crossed. Inside the ruins are a series of complex puzzles. The Grasslands are also home to a score of animals which can be killed and harvested for food. In the south east corner of the Grasslands there is a small outlet of land, below which are several rocks which lead down to another area offering easier access to the beach as well as feathers and eggs. If found early on, this secret proves incredibly profitable. The jungle holds the key to advancing further in the game at this point. The jungle is home to many different fruits that can be collected for food. On the north side of the jungle are more cliffs to scale. Atop these cliffs Keith discovers an inland lake he cannot walk around. He can’t swim across so decides he must build a raft to sail across it.
Things at home should also be advancing as well. Some journeys require you to leave food on the shelf for Skye. Skye can also make other useful items such as baskets and rope. Keith needs many logs and yards of rope to build the raft. There is also and option to build furniture for the house such as tables, chairs, beds and shelves. The cave ends up looking like a house by the game’s end.
The raft is built in six parts, this is to make the building easy for the gamer as logs can be quite rare and the building mini-game can sap a lot of them. When the raft is built Keith sets sail for the other side of the lake. He finds many things here. He discovers a hot spring which can replenish energy, another cave which can be slept in, a huge cave entrance and two switches. The switches seem to do something but require to both be pressed down in order to do whatever it is they do. Keith brings Skye along the raft to step on the switches. This results in water flowing into the Cliffside, where the big cave leads.
The big cave as Keith describes is ‘desolate’ and requires jumping over cracks which can be randomly blocked by fumes flaring up from below. When Keith gets through the cave he comes across something very familiar, he finds ruins that look just like those in the grasslands. These ruins have an entrance that allows Keith to enter the temple. Keith discovers that the temple connects to the grassland ruins and this can be used as a quick escape although he cannot enter the temple via the grassland ruins.
The temple shows no signs of civilization past or present. The people who created the ruins are not elaborated on in anyway and the temple only seems to hold puzzles using switches, crates that float and water. As Keith solves the many rooms’ puzzles he comes out the other side of the temple into another jungle type area. It is in this area that Keith comes across a major discovery. There are people on the island. He almost runs straight towards them before overhearing a conversation in which the people discuss that they are guarding someone and that intruders are to be killed. Keith decides to stealthily slip past them in order to try and use them to escape the island. The people on the island wear safari style uniforms and have a very bandit feel to them. Keith has now made it to the other side of the island and discovers that the bandits have a boat. Whilst not to big it is there, it is also locked at this point. Keith moves into the bandit’s area and discovers a large building crawling with enemy men. The place cannot be explored at night as the surrounding lookout towers have searchlights that can easily expose Keith. Keith sneaks into the building and finds a way to the rafters. He overhears many conversations realizing that ‘The Boss’ of the bandits has a radio, ‘The Foreman’ has the key to a warehouse, north of the Bandit’s hideout and ‘The Squad Leader’ has the boat key and a book entitles “Sailing for dummies”. After this information is recovered Keith reports to Skye.
When Keith returns the guards have shapened up and are now guarding the entrances better. After coaxing the guard to leave Keith is able to enter again and find a uniform which can disguise him as one of them. As long as he salutes he cannot be caught.
Endings
Its at this point the game changes and one must decide how they will escape the island. Some are easier than others and all pretty much require that Keith has eaten and has reserve food. There are four successful endings but it can be argued that there are more as every ending ends the same, a cutscene is shown and then the game returns to the title screen. One cannot save after an ending. There are other instances like getting caught by the bandits that result in this way so being caught could be considered an ending. As for escaping the island without dying there are only four ways possible.
Ending One: Escape via Skye’s Lifeboat When you first grab the uniform it is also possible to get a flare gun from the same room. This ending is one of the easiest as you can just take the gun and never return to the bandit’s hideout. The flare gun is essential to escaping with Skye as without it triggers an ending where a boat sails straight past them and then they die of hunger. Keith and Skye can launch the lifeboat and fire the flare to get a boat’s attention. This leads on to the universal ending shown after all of the other endings.
Ending Two: Escape via The Radio Late at night Keith can sneak to the Boss’ room and hear him mumble a radio frequency. Later Keith sneaks back into the room and uses the radio to call for help. Keith returns to Skye and in a few days a boat comes to rescue them from the island.
Ending Three: Escape via Cargo Crates Keith needs to discover which crate is being shipped on the day of his planned escape by eavesdropping on the Boss and the Foreman. Keith drugs the Foreman to get the warehouse key from him by giving him the mushroom that induces sleep. Keith brings Skye into the warehouse and hides in the crate that is shipped that day. They can then escape the island when it is shipped on the boat.
Ending Four: Escape via The Boat This is the most ambitious of the endings. Keith drugs the squad leader to get the boat key and can get a gas can where he found the uniform. Keith also needs the map which he must get by sneaking into the Boss’ room. He can then get Skye and then steal the boat, successfully escaping the island.
Universal Ending This ending happens after all of the above endings and takes place off the island. Skye is interviewed by reporters and is being taken many photos of. They ask her how her experience on the island changed her. It is revealed she has become a writer and written about her experience on the island. It is then seen that her and Keith are still friends despite her new found fame and we are left with an image of them holding hands. During the credits sequence it is possible to read the book which is surprisingly long considering.
The game ends with little resolution, but this resolution is not essential to the game’s story.
[edit] Sequel
Konami announced a sequel for this game, also for the Nintendo DS. Like the first one, there is also a boy and a girl stranded on an island. New additions to the gameplay include fighting with wild animals by using weapons that are found or made and weather phenomena like earthquakes and hurricanes that occur unpredictably. Both characters have different abilities that are necessary to explore and transverse the island.[1]
[edit] Gallery
 Early European Packaging |
 Making a fire |
 Collecting Shells |
 Fishing |
