LostWinds is a unique WiiWare Platform Game developed and published by Frontier Developments and released in 2008. One day, while out playing, a young boy named Toku finds a strange blue stone. Inside the stone is Enril, a wind spirit from a forgotten age. She needs his help — long ago, she helped to seal the evil spirit Balasar, trapping herself along with him, but now Balasar is on the verge of breaking free. Enril, however, is still confined to the stone; she can only go where the stone, and, by extension, Toku, goes. Controlling Toku with the Nunchuck and Enril with the Wii Remote, you must use your wind-based powers to jump, glide, and explore the world and find out how to stop the ultimate evil from breaking free once more.
The 2009 sequel, LostWinds 2: Winter of the Melodias, begins with a new character, Riveren. After being late for his duties regarding the Melodias King's homecoming event, he stumbles onto a black stone containing Balasar's spirit. Incidentally, this sounds rather familiar. The rest of the game shifts back to Toku as he and Enril attempt to discover and break the curse befalling the Melodia City and also affecting his mother, Magdi. This game features the ability to change the seasons with the spirit Sonte, adding a new dimension to solving the various environmental puzzles.
It remains to be seen where Toku and Enril will blow off to next, though given that the story is far from complete, we're sure to find out sooner or later. Both games were eventually released on Steam.
This series contains examples of:
- Action Mom: Toku's mother Magdi, explorer extraordinaire.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Winter of the Melodias starts out with you controlling a Melodia named Riveren to start.
- Bag of Spilling: You keep all your wind powers from the first game, but due to falling out of a tree, your Jumpbrella Cape gets ripped at the start of the sequel. Don't worry. You get it back.
- Blow You Away: The premise of the game is manipulating gusts of wind to help the protagonist traverse the environment.
- Collection Sidequest: The Melodia Idols scattered around the levels serve no purpose but to reward exploration. There are 24 in the first game and 48 in the sequel.
- Easing into the Adventure: The first game starts with Toku waking up late before going to see his mentor. The second game has Riveren waking up late before a festival.
- Escort Mission: The entire endgame of Winter of the Melodias, including the Final Boss fight, centers around guiding the Melodias King around the areas and using his singing powers to solve puzzles. Luckily, he cannot take damage.
- Exposition Fairy: Enril fulfills this role, acting as the voice of the Silent Protagonist. Calling her gives the player a hint of where to go next.
- Gentle Giant: Magmok is a giant golem that has been corrupted by Balasar and acts as the final boss of the first game. After being purified, he becomes gentle and helps Toku in the sequel.
- Ironic Echo: Not with dialogue, but with action. The sequel starts with Riveren waking up before a festival, just like Toku. And just like Toku, he finds a fragment of a mystical stone in a glade just like the one Toku woke up in that starts to fly and glow. But because this power is black, it's clear that this is going to end much worse.
- Kid Hero: Toku is forced into the adventure because Enril is confined to a stone. Without Toku to carry her, she's helpless.
- Kill It with Fire: You can't control fire directly, but if there's a fire nearby, you can push it and control the flames with Enril to an extent. Effective for killing enemies and burning vine barriers.
- Magic Music: The Melodias had Magitek powered by their singing.
- Permanently Missable Content: There is a glitch in Winter of the Melodias that, if invoked, will prevent the player from getting one of the Melodia Statues.
- Playable Epilogue: The first game lacks one, but the second one lets you play around all you like in the overworld after the final boss. Good thing, too—collecting all the Melodia Statues unlocks character profiles for you, and the last two are in the final boss' lair. It'd have to save afterwards to make sure you get all the goodies.
- Scenery Porn: Absolutely gorgeous cel-shaded scenery with the world's most soothing soundtrack. You'd be forgiven for just wandering around and taking in the sights.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Balasar is an evil spirit that Enril has trapped in a stone along with herself. Before the events of the first game, he has managed to shatter the seal, fragmenting the stone and enabling him to partially influence the world around him.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Enril was trapped along with Balasar when the two fought in the backstory. The same is implied to be true to all the remaining benevolent spirits, with the plot of the first game specifically revolving around helping one of them regain his memory: your mentor, Deo.
- Sequence Breaking: In Winter of the Melodias, it is possible to find the Jumbrella Cape sooner than you're meant to, making some subsequent puzzles a bit easier.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The entire world in Winter of the Melodias has been locked in perpetual winter. Toku seeks the Spirit of Seasons to reverse the curse.
- Taken for Granite: The citizens of Melodias City, as well as Magdi, are frozen in time due to the winter curse brought upon them by Balasar.
