Lost in Random: The Eternal Die Review

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is an action roguelite developed by Stormteller Games and published by Thunderful Publishing (which I didn’t know was a sequel until literally as I upload this review). Instantly, you can tell that it was heavily inspired by Hades, and that’s not a bad thing. That game is an excellent example of incredibly fun gameplay mixed with a story that makes you want to replay over, and over, and over. There’s no better game to be inspired by. That being said, I think they’re even using the same font for some UI elements, but, um… let’s see if there’s enough of a difference to warrant rolling the dice with this game.

Welcome to the whimsical world of Random. You play as Queen Aleksandra, its ruler… or at least, she used to be. The kingdom fell to ruin and strife thanks to the Black Die, leading to the deaths of many… including her sister. While the Queen did try to fight it with Fortune (her trusty Die companion), she was overwhelmed and taken into the Black Die's realm. Though weakened, she will stop at nothing until she completes her revenge and the Black Die is destroyed. But to do that, she'll need to face her past, which is quite literally out to kill her, with one preventing her escape being her former Knight, Mare.

I was actually quite invested in the story. In a world based on dice, cards, and board games, it feels like an actual place with history, despite being trapped in a nightmare realm that twists and corrupts its image. There is a ton of dialogue that not only reveals facts and events about the world, but also more about your various allies, enemies, and that one wild card you’ll encounter

The voice acting is great too and has some great moments. Throughout my playthrough, I don’t remember a single repeated line. There’s always something new to hear, even if it’s only a couple of fighting words instead of full conversations. I would like a skip button prompt, though, because the game does not indicate in any way that it’s even an option, and after seeing Aleks fall into the Discard time and time again (sort of hoping the animation changes), you’ll get tired of it soon enough.

But enough of that; let’s start the game. As the Queen has lost all her power, she is nowhere near strong enough to beat whoever is in between her and Mare. So, you’ll be exploring a randomly generated dungeon full of enemies to fight, traps to avoid, and loot to get grabbed, all in order to get strong enough to face the boss on the next floor. Repeat until you get lucky enough to make it to the final room and end the nightmare once and for all. It’s not special because, again, this game is heavily inspired by Hades, but it works. I liked the challenges the various rooms gave me, from mob encounters to trap rooms, and the rewards felt significant enough to be worth risking life and limb for each one.

Your standard kit will consist of a basic attack with one of four weapons, a charged attack, a dash, tossing Fortune as a damaging die roll (with damage/effects determined by what it lands on), and a card that is used to cast magic. This is a pretty familiar move set (down to having a retrievable object), but it just makes adapting to it all the easier, although it’s often not enough, so you’ll need to get stronger, and you do that by obtaining Relics.

These 128 Relics have unique effects, rarities, and colours that will modify and buff the Queen and are rewarded for beating a room or bought from the shop. With the right combinations, you may become unstoppable. But, hang on, what does “colours” have to do with a Relic? Well, how you manage your items is equally as important: Get Relics with the same colour in a row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) and you'll get a bonus to your stats depending on what colour it is (e.g. Red = Weapon attacks, Blue = Die throws, Yellow = Card attacks, etc.) for the rest of the run. This creates a really interesting puzzle where you have to think about your choices.

There are only so many spaces on the grid that will allow you to create lines and you might not get what you want. You can even replace a Relic or put a pearl in its place, which doesn't do anything but counts as a colour and will break once there's a colour match. I found this mechanic pretty fascinating. It makes you think before choosing instead of finding your favourites and sticking to them whenever they come up. You might be at the mercy of RNG, but you can make any build useful and benefit from it, as long as you plan ahead while leaving wiggle room for other things.

However, a game like this can sometimes be rigged against you, and eventually, you’ll fall short of winning, but it’s a roguelite. It’s not a matter of if you win, but when. Between your attempts at brutally killing Mare and his minions, you’ll be at the Sanctuary where you’ll talk to those you’ve found and rescued in your journey, learn more about the world, change your outfit, and unlock and upgrade skills, stats, and weapons to make your next run a little easier. There’s always something to do in the Sanctuary, I feel, and it makes every death worth something. It’s good to hear some of the stories the NPCs tell, and despite how wonderland-esque the world is, there are some sombre tales. It’s a nice respite from all the fights, even if several people aren’t happy that you’re their only hope.

Now, onto performance, and it went relatively smoothly. Although there were a few stutters here or there, and the load times for fast travelling can be a little long, Lost in Random: The Eternal Die ran at 60 FPS most of the time at generally High graphic settings with no need to futz with the settings. That being said, I encountered the strangest glitch numerous times when the game suddenly became SUPERHOT, so time only moved when you moved… in frames. I hit the pause button the first time this happened to see if this was intentional and that I just accidentally picked up a really OP Relic, but it ended up softlocking. This also happens when I tried to get the reward after beating an encounter with it. I had to force quit because, I assume, I can’t move, the menu doesn’t pop up. That's a new one!

I also discovered an exploit along the way when force-quitting the game mid-run. While it does save your Relics (which is really nice in case of a crash, which I didn’t get), it doesn’t save some of the rooms you go through, so you can just redo easy rooms and grind out whatever you want. Hopefully, this is all fixed if you get the game yourself, because I’d rather not have anyone need to rely on luck to play the game.

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is a great time for any fan of roguelites. It is, unashamedly, like Hades, but there is more to the game than just that. It’s a seriously fun time that makes rolling dice a legitimate strategy. I had fun with almost every single moment… aside from some of the glitches I ran into. It’s great standing on its own, and I want to play more. And if you want to check out the previous game, read Artura’s review here for everything you need to know about it!

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die launches on the 17th of June on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and PC via Steam.