Lost in Blue is a game produced and published by Konami in 2005. It is the third game of the "Survival Kids" serie, but is only the second one to reach the eastern shore. You play as Keith, a 18 years old young man who decides to go on a cruise alone. Unfortunately, your trip is suddenly interrupted by a mis-fortuned event as your boat sinks during a storm. You wake up on a tropical deserted island and you have to survive. After exploring the area for a bit, you meet Skye, a 17 years old girl who was on the cruise with you and who seems to be the only other survivor. Gameplay - The game has very intuitive controls. It's mostly played with the regular buttons but it also makes a good use of both of the DS's innovative features, the touch screen and the microphone. You can shake trees for fruits, wood sticks or branches with the screen, search and dig the ground for seafood and light a fire with the mic. The X button opens your menu, where you can look at your inventory, eat, drink or equip a tool. One button is used to investigate or pick-up things and another one makes you run. Overall? Simple but effective, well-made controls. At first, you won't be able to do much but walk around a bit to survive the hard jungle life, but you'll soon find ways of making your life easier so you can go further and start exploring the island to eventually find a way to escape it. Both your characters have 4 bars. Hunger, thirst and energy, there is also your health meter. They all start at 100, and when your health bar reaches 0, you die. You shouldn't neglect any of them, though. If your hunger bar is empty, you won't be able to refill your energy bar, and if you are hungry, you won't be able to sleep at all. If your thirst bar is empty, eating something will not raise your hunger bar, etc. Another important part of the game is how you have to deal not only with your stats but with Skye's as well. As seen in the beginning of the game, she is injured and she can't see very well either, so she will always stay at the cave and all she will do is cook and build baskets and traps for you. (The game has actually been critiqued for this somewhat sexist aspect of the game, but that's not the point for now.) She's not some super-hero, though, and you will have to make her drink, eat and sleep as well because if she dies, your game is over. Story - The story is somewhat simple. Keith and Skye ends up on the tropical island without anything. They have to survive and eventually try to find a way to leave. The story has a twist, but I'm not going to spoil it. There's also a few little events that shows how the relationship between the heroes evolves and a few different endings. It's one of these games that gets interesting even if it starts from a somewhat simple plot, just like Harvest Moon games. Graphics - The graphics are really nice. Everything looks like what it's supposed to look like, and the images in the inventory are extremely well done. The characters are in anime-style and both characters have a few different expressions who are really cute, but not exaggerated (So no O_O or ^.^'s). I think you can appreciate them, no matter if you are into animes or not. The map and the menus are all well done, the 3D is convincing, everything is really nice. The only negative thing I could say about it is the somewhat grainy textures in some places and the cliffs, who are way too "square-ish", giving them a little unrealistic feel. The fog can be annoying too but it's not always there. Considering the DS capabilities, they could have been nicer. Look at Nintendogs, for a good exemple of what it can do, but they are still very nice graphics indeed. Sounds and music - The music is not very present, actually, you'll mostly hear it only when you are either in danger, entering a new area or when you wake up in the morning. I think it's a bit saddening as the themes are very good and should have been longer. The sounds are all very realistic, though. A splash of water sounds just like one, the sound of fire, the waves along the shore or the grass moving in the wind, it's all really nice and it really takes you "inside" the game. Play Time/Replayability - It depends. The game can be beaten in probably less then a hour if played with a walktrougth, so that would be completely ruining it, but it can take hours and hours to just figure out where to go if you play it the real way. You don't need to discover everything in order to finish the game but you have a notebook in the menu that shows you how many things you have found out in every categories and how many you still have to find (Like tools, fruits, furnitures, etc) which really makes the game even longer if you're really dedicated to find everything. This is a game you can play for easily over 100 hours if you really like it, and after beating the game with Keith, you get a completely different game mode that is as long and innovative, where you play Skye. I only played it for about half a hour so far and I haven't figure it out yet but it has a really nice and complicated cooking system. I've also read that there is a challenge mode unlocked once you beat the two first modes but I don't know what it is at all so that will be up to you to find out if you're up for the challenge. So, should you get this game? Well, I absolutely LOVED it and it's one of my all-time favorite games, but you have to like the style. You tried Harvest Moon and you hated it? Maybe it's not a game for you as it does get repetitive and tedious at times. If you're a die-hard HM fan, get this NOW. If you read the review and you're not completely sure, I recommend renting it to see if you really like it first as it's really not a game you can beat in a few days rental anyway. And also, it is very frustrating at first, maybe even boring because you can't figure it out. Both me and my brother wanted to return it because we thought it was bad, and after playing it some more, I fell in love with it, so don't let your first impression ruin the game experience for you because you would regret it.