Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a Puzzle Platformer written by Rhianna Pratchett, developed by Sketchbook Games, and published by Modus Games. It was originally released as a Google Stadia exclusive in 2020 before receiving a multiconsole release in April 2021. It talks about the power of storytelling, and how art can help one cope with events beyond our control.
Isabel "Izzy" Cook likes writing in her journal, as well as adding drawings, and spending time with her Gran. She has always wanted to be a writer, and so decides to write a fantasy story.
You choose the name of your player character, of The Chosen One as a guardian of fireflies in her village. This girl can go around collecting fireflies and assumes being a guardian will be easy. One night, however, a dragon attacks, burns down the village, and steals the fireflies. With the former guardian Elder Ava out of commission, our player character needs to go on a quest to find the dragon.
Lost Words: Beyond the Page contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adorably Precocious Child: Izzy is a talented watercolorist, as shown by the drawings in her journal, and she writes a fairly tight story for a preteen. One can hope that she submitted a version to a British contest or such.
- Art Shift: The game shifts from two-dimensional watercolor drawings that Izzy draws in her journal to the three-dimensional graphics where the player character navigates.
- Badass Pacifist: The player character doesn't have the strength or power necessary to beat down her opponents. She can use words to blow them away or pacify them in various stages, sometimes even talking them down.
- Bait-and-Switch: It seems like the player character's story is straightforward: rescue the fireflies, stop a firebreathing dragon, and befriend everyone in the world, a typical hero's journey. You only succeed with rescuing fireflies and befriending those you meet along the way; the dragon explains it's not evil, but necessary chaos to end the world. The Guardian had to meet him not to stop him but to learn how to restore the world and start anew.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both the real story and Izzy's tale have this:
- Despite Izzy's efforts to be good, Gran dies. Izzy ends up in a bad Heroic BSoD, ignoring her family and losing her ability to finish the story. Attending Gran's funeral lets her hear how Gran helped everyone in her life, bringing joy and happiness. This allows Izzy to finish the story. As an adult, she says revisiting her journal reminds her how she used the power of stories to cope with her loss, and hopes to pass on the joy to her daughter. Her mother is now a grandmother, showing there's loss and rebirth.
- The player character cannot stop the dragon from ending the world. In fact, the dragon is very apologetic when explaining it is not about what he wants, and he would rather not do it. He does, however, give her a hint about how to undo the damage, and the whale shark paves the rest of the way. The player character uses the fireflies to create a World-Healing Wave, which restores everyone to life but the previous Guardian of Fireflies, and it's implied Lump loses her memories of befriending the player character. Taking time to grieve, the player character promises to remember Elder Ava forever, and continue her story. She looks at the player and tells them life will be okay, no matter what happens, and you can always choose your ending.
- Blow You Away: The djinn's strategy for dealing with interlopers is to create strong winds and push them away.
- Broken Treasure: Referenced; after Gran dies, Izzy recounts breaking a vase that her deceased grandfather made. This made Gran sad rather than angry, so Izzy carefully took the pieces that Gran found and tried gluing them together. Gran appreciated the gesture, but later told Izzy that the vase was just an object, and her memories of Granddad were more important.
- Chekhov's Gun: The player character's necklace, a gift from Elder Ava. She reluctantly gives it up to the market and receive the means to follow the dragon.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Izzy's journal depicts a whale shark on the cover. The whale shark intervenes very late in the story after the player character has a Heroic BSoD and has ended up in some sort of weird afterlife.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Izzy and the player character simply respawn if they fall into a pit or pool of lava. Doing it several times may have the player character comment on not doing it again. It actually becomes an important plot point; due to being the Guardian of Fireflies, the player character survives the apocalypse because she is entrusted to rebuild it.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Rather, naive fire spirit has a point. Lump asks the player character why they're chasing a big, giant, and scary dragon that is way out of their weight class. After Lump performs a Heroic Sacrifice, the player character asks the same thing.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The aquarium that Izzy and Gran make together includes a cute fantasy sea creature among the decorations. The sea creature becomes a species that the player character encounters much later in the story.
- Five Stages of Grief: The player character's adventure goes through a series of areas representing the standard progression: the desert djinn being Denial, the raging fire elemental being Anger, the market being Bargaining, sinking into the ocean being Depression, and the tower being Acceptance.
- Gotta Rescue Them All: Finding and collecting the fireflies in the various stages serves as a 100% Completion goal. They are also key to undoing the dragon's destruction at the end.
- Gut Punch: There are several in the story:
- While Izzy is writing in her journal, her mother gets a call on the phone. They find out that Gran had a stroke. It sets the tone for the rest of the game, as the real story begins.
- Lump insists on performing a Heroic Sacrifice to help the player character find the dragon. You can plea with Lump to not do it, but she gives her fiery body to the flames.
- Izzy resolves to help around the help and do more good deeds in the hopes that it will help Gran recover from her stroke. Just after she does a few days of this, the family finds out that Gran died in the night despite her efforts.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: The player character finds out that being Guardian of the Fireflies is more than protecting them and rescuing them. They are doomed to survive the apocalypse because it is their duty to ask the fireflies for help in restoring the world. We find out Elder Ava has done this at least once and was ready to die when she saw that the player character was ready. To a lesser extent, even if it violates common sense, the player character has to confront the dragon not to defeat them, but to find out their real purpose.
- Living Lava: Lump is a fire elemental who is first seen in a lava-filled cave and can travel with it during one chase sequence.
- Mood Whiplash: Izzy reminisces how Gran helped her set up a glowing algae aquarium. She talks about how fun it was. Then her mother gets a phone call that Gran suffered a stroke.
- Schrödinger's Gun: You help Izzy decide on things such as the main character's name, outfit and interests, and the storybook part of the game changes slightly to match.
- Sizeshifter: Lump is initially massive, but becomes considerably smaller after she blows off some steam. She is later seen at its larger size rebuilding the city in the ending.
- Trademark Favorite Food: You assign one to Lump after its introduction, and it serves as a regular distraction and swap puzzle enabler for Lump in the next area.
- Wham Line: One accompanied by somber music: Gran died last night.
- World-Healing Wave: It turns out the Guardian of the Fireflies has a very distinct duty: after the dragon ends the world, the Guardian uses the fireflies to restore the world back to life. She can't bring back the previous Guardian, and anyone else who died is implied to lose their memories of being the Guardian's friend, but it does the job.
