The Lost Pisces

The Lost Pisces for PC and XONE is a science fiction adventure game inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale Little Mermaid. An independent American studio Sirenum Digital lead by Daniel Rutkowski developed it. After the failed 2015 Kickstarter campaign, developers took to their hearts user opinions and redesigned their idea for the game. Another crowdfunding campaign, this time on Indiegogo and with a smaller funding goal, was successful.

The Plot

The plot in The Lost Pisces for PC and XONE tells a futuristic version of the story of a mermaid who fell in love with a prince and, frightened by the vision of nothingness that comes after death, goes on a journey to find a soul that will grant her immortality. In Sirenum Digital’s game, the fairy tale world was replaced with a grim reality where humanity is at its technological peak. The mermaid was replaced with a synthetic being called Pisces who, just like her archetype, desires to have a soul, the dereminant of humanity. In the game we do not play as Pisces, but as a human soldier who tries to make her dreams come true and helps her during her dangerous journey.

Mechanics

In terms of mechanics, The Lost Pisces for PC and XONE is an action-adventure game where we observe the action from the first-person perspective. As we play, we travel with Pisces through the game’s futuristic world, exploring gigantic steel structures, city ruins, and the depths of the sea where we will find useful items and technology. There will be many occasions to use our findings because every now and then we will have to face powerful mechanical bosses. We can fight with them with ranged weapons (like guns), or in directly, by climbing them and finding their weaknesses (just like in Shadow of the Colossus).

One of the key elements of the game is Pisces’ gradual eveolution. As we progress, she becomes more and more human, replacing the synthetic actions with humane reactions and emotions. For example, we spend a lot of time in the water at the beginning, but as the time passes, it gets harder and harder for Pisces to do so. Our behavior towards her plays an important role in her evolution. She can interpret our reactions and remember times we’ve spent togheter, building her own, more humane, consciousness.

Technical Aspects

The Lost Pisces for PC and XONE uses Unreal Engine 4. It allowed the developers to create not only highly detailed, living world, but also to create realistically moving character models. It also allowed them to make our heroes’ facial expressions more humane and emotional, which is really important in our Soldier’s and Pisces’ relationship.

Last updated on 24 October 2023