YMMV / Lost Planet

• Complete Monster: Dennis Isenberg is the commander of the NEVEC forces on the planet E.D.N III. Founding the Frontier Project, he presents it as a way to get rid of the monstrous Akrid, but in truth he plans to use it to annihilate all life on the planet, including all of the humans living there. When Gale Holden learns of this and tries to stop Isenberg, he unleashes the Akrid, Green Eye, onto Gale and his forces and has his henchman, Bandero, kill any survivors, with only Gale's son Wayne escaping this onslaught. Isenberg would then oppress E.D.N III for 30 years killing numerous people and Akrid, extracting the latter's thermal energy for his project. He would then force Yuri to work on the Frontier Project by torturing him into compliance before killing him once he is of no use to him. While claiming the Frontier Project is for the betterment of humankind, Isenberg's willingness to use the project to wipe out all of humanity on the planet proves that he only wants to eliminate any opposition so he can claim the planet for himself.
• Contested Sequel: Both sequels became this for completely different reasons.
  • Lost Planet 2 was disliked by a portion of the fanbase of the first for its near-laser focus on online co-op and short missions structure and for its more disjointed storyline and poor AI. While others felt that the focus on gameplay above anything else plus the epic boss battles were a welcomed focus, especially after many felt the first game's story was cheesy and poorly written.
  • Lost Planet 3 was disliked by fans of both past games for making a 180 as a Metroidvania-lite story-driven cover shooter with very low focus on Mecha combat and very uninspired multiplayer mode. While others praise its characters, its more personal storyline and atmosphere.
• Demonic Spiders: In Lost Planet 2, the turrets from Episode 3-3. Without the right weapons, expect to waste ammo and time attempting to destroy them while you get blown off the train.
  • Enemy snipers and Revolver-wielding enemies are no exceptions. They're the only non-Akrid enemies that can kill you in one hit (if they put one in your skull), and if you're busy with something else, they won't hesitate to auto-aim for your head, even when you're in the air. Ditto the multiplayer simulator A.I.s, as they aim for your head by default.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Lost Planet 2 gives us the Vagabundos, a gang of goofball desert bandits who manage to hijack a N.E.V.E.C. overland battleship using only lightweight jetbikes, kill a Category-G akrid and destroy a second N.E.V.E.C. battleship using their new toy, and even get a Big Damn Heroes moment in the final battle where they save another group of protagonists from a swarm of Akrid. They're barely relevant to the overall plot, disjointed as it is, yet many players point to them as one the game's more memorable factions.
• Fan Nickname: Gordiant, the first episode's final boss, was referred as Sir Om Nom Nom among other names.
• Goddamned Bats: The smaller Akrid on the higher difficulties.
• Nightmare Fuel: Some of the Akrid qualify.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: General consensus is that the first two games are good third-person shooters, particularly with the improvements of the second title, but the stories are cheesy, bare-bones Cliche Storms.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Extreme Mode is not so much the Harder Than Hard that the first game's Extreme Mode was. It's most likely because of the co-op mode, weapon variations, and abilities. This can also be averted depending on the competence of your teammates.
• Sequelitis: While Lost Planet 2 both won and lost fans with its co-op and multiplayer focus combined with Artificial Stupidity for AI partners in single-player, Lost Planet 3 lost everybody. The prequel status explores an interesting idea the first game proposed, but most agree that the staple VS combat being dropped in favor of controlling a far clunkier Rig with a "Press X to Not Die" melee system and the on-foot gameplay becoming just another cover-shooter severely dampened the fun. It doesn't help that it suffered poor timing with the outsourced developer's style making it resemble the then-announced Dead Space 3 and causing people to think they were being rather derivative. With EX Troopers still suffering from No Export for You, Lost Planet 3 may have been a Franchise Killer as of this writing.
• Spiritual Adaptation: The best videogame adaptation of the original Starship Troopers novel
• That One Boss: It's easier to find one that isn't, even among some of the mini-bosses. However, it's not coming from completely out of left field, since Capcom helped invent Nintendo Hard.
  • Akrid X from the second game. It's large, but surprisingly fast, most of its attacks can destroy a VS almost instantly, and it constantly leaps around. The key is to move around more, bring LOTS of explosive weapons, and slam a few pile bunkers into its face.
  • From the second game as well, the Debouse. It moves around a lot, so hitting its weak points is quite hard. It can also stun players with a sonic scream and shoot them with a beam that deals massive damage. Oh, and it charges at full speed, trampling everything in its path. The best part of it all? You gotta fight two of them at the same time. This time, you better not bring in any AI buddies, as dodging the sonic scream and the beam afterward only involves staying completely still. Then just pump a few shotgun shells into their chests and then a few more into their heads when they fall.
• That One Level: Chapter 3-2. Filled to the brim with snipers armed with powerful rifles, a VS with a BFG rifle, and troops with the same rifle.
  • Episode 3-3 ends with an amazing boss fight, but making it to the boss can be a test of patience.
• That One Sidequest: Getting all the trophies/achievements.
  • Getting the "NUMBER 1" or "TOP TEN" Noms de Guerre. Yes, they want you to either meet or beat a world record.

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