History VideoGame / LostInBlue

A series of SurvivalSandbox games by Creator/{{Konami}}, for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, consisting of the original ''Lost in Blue'' in 2005, 2007's ''Lost in Blue 2'' and finally, 2008's ''Lost in Blue 3'' and ''Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked''. These games are only thematically related to each other. In the US, the ''Lost in Blue'' series is treated as a SpiritualSuccessor to the earlier UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor game series ''Survival Kids'', while in Japan, [[MarketBasedTitle the series has been continuously branded with the Survival Kids name and there's no true difference between them.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:You see that girl standing there looking helpless? [[BlindWithoutEm That's because]] [[TheLoad she is]].]]

The premise of the games is generally that you are stranded on an island with different areas to explore. You have meters that cover different human bodily functions, and you need to find food and water in order to survive, and eventually your goal is to escape from the island. The games usually feature a [[ActionHero male character]] and a female character that in the different games, can range anywhere on the SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality from TheLoad, TheChick, to ActionGirl.

* TheChick: Skye

* StandardStatusEffects: Poison, paralysis, confusion, and energy boost are the typical ones.

** Beating ''Lost in Blue 2'' grants access to "Serious Survival" mode, a survival run playthrough with only one of the main characters. This mode is ostensibly harder, as there is no partner to help gather firewood or food, or make baskets for traps (small land traps are possibly the most efficient method of food gathering), rope for furniture, or jerky. But the player also only has to keep one person alive, and the Serious Survival save keeps all of the furniture, shelters, and cookware from the file that was completed, making this mode potentially easier to maintain long-term than a normal file, and thus a good opportunity to [[HundredPercentCompletion work on the picture book]].

* FishingMinigame: There are actually ''three'' methods of fishing- traps, spears, and fishing rods. In the ''Lost in Blue'' games, fish is the most efficient food source outside of traps in 2, and often the earliest obtainable food source that can actually sustain the characters long-term.

* HundredPercentCompletion: There's an encyclopedia of items that you can fill as an SelfImposedChallenge.

* [[LevelGrinding Item Grinding]]: Required for HundredPercentCompletion.

* [[JustOneMoreLevel Just One More Day]] gathering materials and preparing.

* ArtificialStupidity: Occasionally happens in ''Lost in Blue 2'' if the partner is left alone. Even if multiple food items, packed lunches, and bottles of water are left in their inventory or on the shelf and the player has told them beforehand that they would be out for a while, the partner might not eat or drink any of it. Meaning the safest course of action is to drag the other character along with you.
* BittersweetEnding: Two of the possible endings in ''Survival Kids,'' where after 100 days you realize you aren't getting off the island, but it doesn't bother you anymore. There two variations--one if you've rescued the other kid, and one if you haven't.

* FishingMinigame: There are actually ''three'' methods of fishing- traps, spears, and fishing rods. In the ''Lost in Blue'' games, fish is the most efficient food source, and often the earliest obtainable food source that can actually sustain the characters long-term.

* TheLoad: In ''Lost in Blue'', whichever character you don't choose ends up as this due to their being badly injured. Nintendo Official Magazine UK once described ''Lost in Blue'''s Skye in particular as being [[SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality "so lazy and annoying that it just might make you rethink your standards on gender roles"]].

* IslandHelpMessage: In ''Survival Kids'', the way to get the quickest ending was to build one of these on the beach. You'd then get rescued. (It is, of course, a long ways from the Best Ending, which you need to unlock New Game Plus mode--in which your character rescues the other child on the island, befriends them, the two of you escape on a Lost Technology ship, and grow up to get married.)

* TheLoad: In ''Lost in Blue'', whichever character you don't choose ends up as this due to their being badly injured.

* MarketBasedTitle: ''Lost in Blue'' in the US, ''Survival Kids'' in Japan. The first game ''was'' called Survival Kids in the US, though. In the PAL region, the first game is called Stranded Kids.

A series of [[SimulationGame wilderness survival games]] by Creator/{{Konami}}, for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}. ''Lost in Blue'' games tend to be only thematically related to each other. In the US, the ''Lost in Blue'' series is treated as a SpiritualSuccessor to the earlier UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor game series ''Survival Kids'', while in Japan, [[MarketBasedTitle the series has been continuously branded with the Survival Kids name and there's no true difference between them.]]

----

** In ''Lost in Blue 2'', the partner can be asked to go gather food and firewood, but this is almost never a great idea at any point in the game largely because the player is able to do those two things themselves, it hurts the player and partner's relationship in the early game, the partner is limited to just picking up food that you could have picked up on the ground (which is largely going to be inferior to what can be hunted or trapped). By the time the player has built their first treehouse in a resource-rich area, the partner is needed to work on valuable rope and baskets, which the player ''can't'' make themselves.

** In ''Lost in Blue 2'', the partner can be asked to go gather food and firewood, but this is almost never a great idea at any point in the game largely because the player is able to do those two things themselves , it hurts the player and partner's relationship in the early game, the partner is limited to just picking up food they can find on the ground (which is largely going to be inferior to what can be hunted or trapped), and by the time the player has built their first treehouse in a resource-rich area, the partner is needed to work on valuable rope and baskets, which the player ''can't'' make themselves.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Probably justified in ''Survival Kids'' at least, as the characters are presumably young enough to have plausibly not hit puberty yet. With regards to the teenaged characters in ''Lost in Blue'' 1 and 1, this can be TruthInTelevision- under extreme duress or physical exertion, females can stop menstruating.

* NobodyPoops: Perhaps in a case of AcceptableBreaksFromReality, the games never touch on how or where the characters take care of bodily wastes.

** In ''Lost in Blue 2'', the partner can be asked to go gather food and firewood, but this is almost never a great idea at any point in the game largely because the player is able to do those two things themselves, it hurts the player and partner's relationship in the early game, the partner is limited to just picking up food they can find on the ground (which is largely going to be inferior to what can be hunted or trapped), and by the time the player has built their first treehouse in a resource-rich area, the partner is needed to work on valuable rope and baskets, which the player ''can't' make themselves.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Jerky, from ''Lost in Blue 2''. Some guides describe jerky as an important food preservation technique, likely because it was in the prequel, but many players have found packed lunches to be far better because ''any'' ingredients and recipe can be put in them, and they ''never'' go bad, as long as the ingredients were fresh going in. Many players have trouble getting even seconds-old meat to turn into jerky without it spoiling in the process, and even properly-made jerky will spoil after about one in-game week, leading to many just making the jerky shelf and one of each jerky type for the picture book and never touching the mechanic again.

* HyperspaceArsenal: An odd example. Your characters' bags have enough capacity to hold exactly twenty items. It doesn't matter what they are. Just twenty items. One has to wonder how Jack and Amy can only manage to hold twenty leaves at one time, and also carry twenty logs.

** Firewood and tree bark picked up in the rain or other wet conditions does not need to be dried before it can be used.
** When hunting for fur to make bedsheets and chair covers, fur from any large animal will do, even boar "fur", which is even described in the picture book as coarse and rough.

* BittersweetEnding: One of the possible endings in ''Lost in Blue'' and its sequel is unlocked when you spend 365 days on the island without finding a way off. Suddenly there's a cutscene where the two characters realize that they'll never get off this island, but it doesn't really bother them anymore. There two similar cutscenes in the original ''Survival Kids'', found after 100 days--one if you've rescued the other kid, and one if you haven't.

* JamesBondage: Ken, the male character from the first game, ends up captured by a hostile group living on the island if you play as Skye.

* NewGamePlus: In the first game, the change is mostly cosmetic, as it allows you to make wolfskin and foxskin caps. In ''Lost in Blue,'' this lets you play as Skye, the female character. Beating ''Lost in Blue 2'' grants access to "Serious Survival" mode, a survival run playthrough with only one of the main characters. This mode is ostensibly harder, as there is no partner to help gather firewood or food, or make baskets for traps (small land traps are possibly the most efficient method of food gathering), rope for furniture, or jerky. But the player also only has to keep one person alive, and the Serious Survival save keeps all of the furniture, shelters, and cookware from the file that was completed, making this mode potentially easier to maintain long-term than a normal file, and thus a good opportunity to [[HundredPErcentCompletion work on the picture book]].

%%** Just ''barely'' subverted from being too big of a pain, as it's slightly larger than the static, unobtainable dandelions. Although you wouldn't notice without looking for it. %%don't know what this is referring to...
* PoisonMushroom: There are eight different kinds of mushrooms that you can find. Their effects differ from game to game; some will burn your throat and thus make your thirst meter go down faster, some will keep your energy meter from going down, some will induce stomachaches, some will do nothing, and some might even have multiple effects. This is [[RandomNumberGod randomized from playthrough to playthrough,]] though there are certain ways to tell which is which without chowing down.

* StayInTheKitchen: Skye, the female protagonist of Lost in Blue, loses her glasses during the shipwreck and is unable to help the player character outside of "household" tasks, like keeping the fire going. The female protagonist of the sequel, Amy, is a hobbyist archer and better at hunting and diving than Jack, but many guides will still advise the player to play as Jack and leave her at home whenever they can due to not sharing Jack's energy-saving climbing ability, leading to her mostly just keeping the fire going, making rope and baskets, and tending to the chicken and goat.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Jerky, from ''Lost in Blue 2''. Some guides describe jerky as an important food preservation technique, likely because it was in the prequel, but many players have found that packed lunches to be far better because ''any'' ingredients and recipe can be put in them, and they ''never'' go bad, as long as the ingredients were fresh going in. Many players have trouble getting even seconds-old meat to turn into jerky without it spoiling in the process, and even properly-made jerky will spoil after about one in-game week, leading to many just making the jerky shelf and one of each jerky type for the picture book and never touching the mechanic again.