Listen, folks. I’m going to be brutally honest with all of you here, right off the bat. It’s been a good long while since I’ve played a game that has managed to utterly bore, frustrate, and confuse me as much as Lost Soul Aside has – a title so rife with issues, both large and small, I genuinely have a difficult time even knowing where to begin explaining. And even when taking the (exceptionally) small list of positives into account, there’s still nowhere near enough on offer here to justify you spending both your precious time and money on this experience.



Developed by Ultizero Games under Sony Interactive Entertainment’s China Hero Project after beginning life as a solo effort, Lost Soul Aside tells the story of Kaser (playable protagonist and member of rebel group GLIMMER, luscious head of anime hair included) embarking on a quest to retrieve the soul of his younger sister, Louisa, after a group of interdimensional soul-stealing entities known as the Voidrax attack their city. To overcome the challenges lying ahead, Kaser merges with another (noticeably more friendly) Voidrax going by the name of Arena, held captive underground for experimentation purposes – allowing our hero to tap into the being’s power during combat. But we’ll get back to that in a bit.



The story does, admittedly, start off somewhat promisingly – and it had me eager to learn more about this world’s lore and its inhabitants. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before any interest I had nosedived, and by the halfway point I was barely paying attention to what was going on.

To put it bluntly, Lost Soul Aside tells a simple story but dishes out spades of exposition in perhaps the most unnecessarily complicated and uninteresting manner imaginable, saying a lot without much substance and dumping unexplained terminology on the player right from the get-go – and it never really hooked me in once the initial sense of curiosity wore off. There is nothing here from a plotline standpoint that feels worthy of holding your attention, with characters and story beats instead coming across as outstandingly generic and needlessly bloated.



What makes digesting the above even more of a challenge, though, are the mixed (English) vocal performances – ranging from decent to downright awful and delivered in ways that give the impression that the performers weren’t provided nearly enough context in certain scenarios, even falling into what I can only assume are localisation errors every now and then. Kaser, one of the worst offenders, often sounds like even he would rather be doing anything but playing a role in this game. Arena’s delivery, on the other hand, is a lot easier on the ears – but his incessant commentary during battles is enough to drive anybody up the wall. The flow of spoken dialogue is also incredibly jarring, with subsequent lines playing near-instantly after the current one ends – which can result in some truly amazing bits of unintentional comedy.

To put it bluntly, Lost Soul Aside tells a simple story but dishes out spades of exposition in perhaps the most unnecessarily complicated and uninteresting manner imaginable.

On the topic of battle, Lost Soul Aside’s combat encounters are nothing to write home about, either – featuring a disappointingly shallow pool of enemies that feel more like playtime padding than engaging or entertaining affairs. Boss battles offer some variety amidst the usual batches of four or five spawned in foes every two or three minutes, but they, too, feel just as repetitive, formulaic, and often last longer than they probably should. Still, the over-the-top nature of some of these fights did put my boredom on hold for a few minutes – a moment of tentative joy before going right back to business.



Actual combat mechanics (evidently inspired by titles like Devil May Cry) are split between your standard light/heavy hack and slash-style weapon strikes, dashes, fancy-looking combo moves, and parries (timed just before the enemy attacks, indicated by a blue circle) with special rechargeable Arena-powered abilities thrown in for more devastating offence options. Despite its repetitive nature, I’d be lying if I said combat doesn’t initially feel somewhat satisfying, if not a little light on the impact front - especially once you’ve nailed down parry timing and become more familiar with your gear and increasingly elaborate combo techniques. As with almost every other aspect of this title, however, the novelty quickly begins wearing off the longer you play.

Despite its repetitive nature, I’d be lying if I said combat doesn’t initially feel somewhat satisfying, if not a little light on the impact front.

All these combat techniques may be enhanced through their respective skill trees (usually tied to one of the available weapons, like the hefty Greatsword) – and upgrade slots are unlocked surprisingly frequently, making upping your power level feel more like you’re checking off boxes as you progress through the story rather than building towards a specific playstyle. It all feels very linear and basic, and I guarantee the overall enhancement system would be better off functioning as scripted drops or permanent stat increases after specified battles. Skill trees aside, up to six accessories can be equipped to your weaponry as well – adding bonuses to attack or crit damage, for example. Interestingly, Lost Soul Aside lets you choose where exactly on said weapon you want to place your desired accessories – including rotation and resizing options for those who wish to make their arsenal as pretty as it is deadly.



“Pretty”, however, is not the word I’d use to describe Lost Soul Aside’s world and general map design choices. Pointlessly large, often empty, basic, and dull seem like more appropriate terms here – with zones often filled with barebones platforming and extremely light puzzle-solving elements. Thankfully, fighting your way through these areas, on PS5 at least, performance never really runs into major snags. Aside from a few frame rate dips, most of my time spent with Lost Soul Aside was technically sound.

Containing barely any notable redeeming qualities and oozing mediocrity at best, I cannot recommend avoiding Lost Soul Aside enough. All things considered, the fact that this game is being sold at a AAA price point is absolutely diabolical – somehow clocking in at R1,299 on both the PlayStation Store and Steam. If you’re itching for a quality RPG or action title to sink your teeth into, you’re going to want to look elsewhere. For your own sanity.

*PS5 Review code provided by PlayStation