If you’re not familiar with how game reviews work, usually publishers and developers will send early codes to their upcoming game to media outlets and content creators so they can prepare a review or any content leading up to launch. Drum up hype, let the game’s quality shine through the words of key opinion leaders. So when a game suspiciously launch without any early reviews, and the review keys are distributed at launch, it could be a red flag.
The key word here is “could.” There are exceptions to the rule, like how Doom (2016) was much-beloved despite the publisher’s lack of confidence in it to allow reviews ahead of release.
So, what do we make of Lost Soul Aside?
Initially developed since 2014, Lost Soul Aside had strong hype. It was a one-person game that looked like it could rival Final Fantasy XV. PlayStation not only invested in the title through the China Hero Project, they even decide to publish it.
Lost Soul Aside has since expanded from a one-person project to, based on the game’s pricing, a AAA title. But it’s been so long since the first reveal that not only Final Fantasy XV—which had its fair share of troubled development—has since released but there’s now a Final Fantasy XVI.
And funny thing, Lost Soul Aside’s big draw was its Final Fantasy-esque visuals that’s paired with character action gameplay that plays more like Devil May Cry. Look at what Final Fantasy XVI turned out to be.
Has Lost Soul Aside lost its touch? I would’ve argue to be so, judging by how incredibly rough the prologue has been. I see why PlayStation hesitated on giving this title early reviews. There’s so much to nitpick. It’s easy to paint a picture that Lost Soul Aside lost its soul through the long development cycle it had.
But I like to, I want to, believe otherwise. Once you get through the dreadful opening sequence of events and get to the meat of the game, Lost Soul Aside serves some good action gameplay. You just have to treat the game as a AA experience with plenty of jank and rough edges.
Awful Way To Start
The biggest problem I feel with Lost Soul Aside is that it has this grandiose plan to set the stage of a big story, but couldn’t execute them well.
See, the game starts with this set-piece where you control some big monster that supposed to be a dose of “look at how epic this is!” and “isn’t it fun to just press buttons!?” only for it to appear as a visual mess, and the combat feeling lacklustre. It’s just off, man, I was not vibing with it at all.
It doesn’t help that the voice acting in English is sub-par. The combination of a script that reads like it’s not natively written as conversations in English and the inadequate voice direction really throws off the storytelling for me.
The lore and worldbuilding also left a lot to be desired. Honestly, I would have gone “hell yeah” if Lost Soul Aside just embraced its Chinese roots and use Mandarin words for its terminology and concepts. As it is, we have to deal with terms that would fit well in late 2000s Bionicle, which became less cooler in my opinion after they had to pivot away from its initial use of Maori culture.
Voidrax? The ominous name humans refer to them before the reveal of their true name was much cooler, really.
Also, the game’s way of showing how cruel imperial rule are optional conversations where regular folks have to deal with a 50% tax hike and… comical violence against a child. I get the idea but these are too outlandish for me to really treat the world seriously. Poor kid, though. Having to take a hit like that?
That’s Rough, Buddy
The initial sequence of exploring the harbor also feels off because of one crucial thing: the character movement. This has been patched a bit since launch but my goodness me, moving Kaser around felt janky. It gives the sensation that the camera was bobbing alongside Kaser’s head as he runs around, which almost make me sick.
I’ve booted the game again a few days after launch and it doesn’t feel that horrible now, but that jerky feeling still persists. Apparently, Kaser’s running animation doesn’t loop smoothly, there’s a few frames where his running momentum appears to have stop dead only for it to continue, hence that jerky sensation. Curiously, I don’t mind it as much when the camera is zoomed out, and this sensation isn’t felt when Kaser is walking or go full sprint. For my health, I’ll have to just sprint around the town area where the camera sits up close.
Lost Soul Aside really didn’t have time to get some of these rough edges sanded out. And there’s one more, the music transition. In a lot of scenes, there’s a good number of seconds of dead air where a new music track is supposed to load in, but haven’t. Sometimes you can hear it stuttering, only for the dead pause to come in and the music comes back to load seconds later. There are music specific to exploration and combat, but both music loops back from the start with that dead pause in-between rather than blend seamless like you would expect a AAA game would do.
The dynamic music execution is awful. It’s a disservice to the otherwise exceptional soundtrack, at least from what I’ve heard in the prologue.
Dragon May Cry
I would have write Lost Soul Aside off immediately as a bargain bin purchase based on these faults and the rough prologue. That’s also due to the fact that Kaser’s moveset at the beginning also feels awful. I get that the game wants to introduce to the cool DMC-esque moveset a little later for plot reasons, but the first few combat sequences being rough was not worth it.
Once Kaser does get in touch with the talking fish that is Lord Arena (yeah, that’s their name), Lost Soul Aside immediately clicks. This is Devil May Cry-esqued swordplay. And not only that, it also gives some hints of Final Fantasy XVI as well. The terrible roll is now replaced with a floaty but workable dodge. There are perfect dodges and blocks with a stamina meter to prevent you from mindlessly spamming. I recognise that dutch angle camera zoom in on a Perfect Block.
Of course, you already have the light and heavy sword attack strings with a launcher available from the get-go, but now with the perfect dodge and perfect block, the core combat that was much hyped-up is finally presented in full and it feels awesome.
The audacity of Lost Soul Aside blocking me from experiencing its true potential for about an hour.
The only thing I can nitpick about the otherwise amazing combat fundamentals is that it doesn’t feel punchy enough. I feel like the sound mixing for combat-related sound effects are too low, which contributes to this lack of oomph to the otherwise slick animations. It also could use some more hit-stops.
Closing Thoughts
I am so glad that UltiZeroGames made a vertical slice for its free demo rather than providing the first few hours of the game. The prologue is utterly terrible in setting up the story, the stakes, the characters and the world. Yet its gravest sin of all is not providing the players a good peek at what the game actually is: a bona-fide action-RPG with character action combat.
I still have faith that Lost Soul Aside can deliver that one thing it was so hyped-up about. The game’s soul isn’t truly lost, and if you can put the terrible first impressions aside, you might still walk away with a fun time.
Like a failed wunderkid, there will be many folks disappointed that Lost Soul Aside doesn’t live up to its potential to be this wonderful video game like how when it presented itself as a one-person creation a decade ago. But at the very least, this game is bound to be swimming in the 7s, perfectly enjoyable for those who can power through all of its warts and blemishes to experience the beautiful world and characters.
Stay tuned for our full review of Lost Soul Aside. The game is out now on PS5 and PC (Steam), with a demo available.
Played on base PS5. Review code provided by the publisher.