Lost Smile and Strange Circus is a game for iOS and Android, released in 2017 by SEEC inc. The game follows a young girl called Noah, an orphan, who has been surrounded by misery all her life due to her not being able to smile. She eventually runs away from her orphanage, but just when she thinks she's free some strange men try to attack her. Thankfully a mysterious man called Oddman comes to her rescue and takes her into the 'darkness' where he is the master of a circus of other wayward souls.
The gameplay consists of tapping on the screen in order to attract 'Audiences' (little black creatures whose purpose is not made quite clear), which you can later use to buy pictures, lamps, boosters, and all sorts of things. You can also unlock more performers using this audiences, which will increase the amount of audiences you can automatically produce, and invite audiences to each performer's stage, which will also increase the number of audiences you automatically produce. Over time different circus members will appear on the 'main' screen (where you tap the lamp) once you've unlocked them. The first time you click on them you'll obtain a picture (necessary in order to complete the game), and next time they appear you'll be able to watch 'TV' (an ad) in order to get a scarlet stone. Once you have all pictures from all members (not including the member notes) you will reach the ending. There's also the 'Flower of Chera', a place where you feed audiences who 'have fulfilled their purpose in life' to a flower as fertilizer, which will unlock 'something special'.
The game is fairly short, and with enough patience can be finished in one day. It can be found on the Google Play Store for Android.
minor note
Tropes:
- Bad Powers, Good People: The Oddman is tasked with 'taking away' people who wander into the darkness, however, he is far from being evil.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The game suffers from this in certain parts, as it is an in house translation from Japanese, resulting in making it more confusing than it should be. However, it's still readable and understandable for the most part.
- Blind Musician: One of the performers, Angeletta, is a blind singer.
- Cartoon Juggling: On Jack's sprite, of the arc variety.
- Circus of Fear: Averted. The circus is creepy but definitively not evil.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: The Oddman's outfit. Moreover, his mask is that of a Plague Doctor.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The circus has a pretty sinister and creepy vibe to it, but none of it's members is a villain.
- Emotionless Girl: Noah is perceived by everyone as this due to her inability to smile, or demonstrate most other emotions.
- The Freakshow: The circus The Oddman directs haves some shades of this, although it seems to operate more like a normal circus.
- Knife-Throwing Act: Billy's usual circus act consists of this, just with stuffed animals instead of people. At one point he asks Noah if she would like to be the Lovely Assistant in one of his acts, but after seeing her reaction says it's a joke.
- Living Toys: One of the performers, Jasmin, is a living doll.
- Non-Human Head: Several of the characters have this, including:
- Jack, who has a box head;
- Billy, with a cat head;
- Rebecca, whose head seems to be some kind of dessert on a cup;
- Alphonse, who has a sheep head;
- and Oscar, who has what seems to be a tv for a face.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: We never find out Oddman's real name, or if he even has any.
- Recurring Dreams: Noah has one where there is a woman with a baby. The woman is singing a lullaby, when suddenly a dark man comes and kidnaps her, leaving the baby all alone.
- Flashback Nightmare: Turns out her dreams have some truth to them, and this is how Oddman met her mother, Chera.
- Whip of Dominance: Rebecca is a tiger tamer, and so she is never seen without her whip. Despite her Hair-Trigger Temper, she seems to be a Fluffy Tamer and has a good relationship with her tiger, Sugar.
