Lost Soul Aside – Review

What happens when you want to combine Final Fantasy with Devil May Cry?

Lost Soul Aside was one of the projects I followed with great interest. Since its announcement in 2016, it seemed promising: it was developed by a single person and resembled a combination of Final Fantasy XV and Devil May Cry. When PlayStation announced that the title would join the China Hero Project initiative, I thought it would be a resounding success. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be… Lost Soul Aside tries to pay homage to legendary games, but it fails to be either original or truly fun. Although it has an interesting combat system, it evolves very slowly. As you've come to expect, we'll start with the story.

Once upon a cliché, once upon a time
From grand, imperial games,
A narrative thread too chaotic.

I can confirm that the story in Lost Soul Aside is a real mess. The beginning reminds me of the first few hours of Final Fantasy VII, due to the protagonist's affiliation with a resistance movement. The first major mission, to stop an imperial parade, turns into a life-or-death struggle when the city is attacked by aliens from another dimension. As a result of the event, they extract the souls of several people to use as magical fuel for… something, and the protagonist's sister (a faithful copy of Aerith Gainsborough) also becomes one of the victims.

The protagonist is lucky enough to discover a secret imperial laboratory, where he finds an alien dragon who wants revenge on the monarch and his own species. The story is full of clichés and literary devices found everywhere in other works (whether we're talking about entertainment software, TV series, movies, or books), but these are superficially copied and thrown into a stew, hoping something coherent will come out.

Each level comes with its own narrative thread, meant to be epic and, at the same time, part of the grand story that Ultizero Games wants to tell. The debut clearly recalls the famous Final Fantasy VII, but immediately transforms into a personal story about saving a loved one, only to then discover that we must save the entire world from an imminent disaster.

I lost interest the moment I realised it was emulating Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin / Bravely Default / Final Fantasy. It was hard to take anything seriously when the protagonist's great love turned out to be an ultra-talented shinobi, WHO IS ALSO THE PRINCESS OF DISTRICT 13! Sorry, of the lost kingdom of the North, which the empire had considered destroyed after a disaster of epic proportions. Sounds a bit like The Hunger Games, doesn't it?

I'm disappointed because the initial trailer for this project promised something completely different: a complex combat system, a mysterious story, and a lot of style. Instead, what I got was completely different. We're dealing with all sorts of literary devices, such as the edgy protagonist, a tsundere who is actually an ancient creature, and the indispensable resident goth.

Satisfying, but superficial combat

The best aspect of the game is the combat system. It's complex and encourages combining different weapons and attacks to create a true dance of death. But, like the story, the combat also has its own problems. The protagonist completely lacks a feedback system to indicate that he's taken some serious hits from enemies. So, many times, I only realised I was low on health because the edges of the screen turned red or because the alien dragon (named Lord Arena) told me it was time to use a potion.

However, the biggest problem with the combat system is the extremely slow pace of progression. Battles only become interesting once we have access to all weapons, and this happens in the last third of the game. Also, most of the interesting attacks are locked behind an uninspired skill tree.

Lost Soul Aside desperately wants to be an action game like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, but it doesn't understand why the latter are special. All the tools we need are given to us from the start in the two aforementioned creations, and both use an ingenious combo system that rewards risk and curiosity. Ultizero Games' title boils down to using the same two combos for all weapons. Although there's some variety in the tools we can use to tear apart aliens, you're not encouraged to experiment. Once you've unlocked the weapon you get along with best, you have no reason to use anything else.

Also, instead of using a cooldown system for blocks, parries, and dodges, the developer implemented a stamina bar, which depletes when we use these abilities essential to any action game, as well as when we activate combo-finishers. Thus, I found myself in situations where I was running around enemies like a panicked chicken, waiting for the bar to recharge, just so I could effectively resume the fight.

Bosses, which should be the culmination of any action game and true tests of player skill, are either simple damage-sponges or useless and complicated puzzles. I had to restart one of the final battles five times because I had exactly 45 seconds to find the solution against an attack that would destroy me in a single hit.

One of the players' grievances emerged even before release, when the demo didn't allow progress to be saved. Although the problem was partially resolved in version 1.0, automatic saves are almost useless. If you defeat a boss without reaching the save point (represented by a character who seems created for another game and forcibly inserted into Lost Soul Aside) and without performing the actual save (forcing you to navigate tedious menus), you will lose all your hard work. As proof, I had to restart a long battle just because the power went out before I reached the save point…

Unfortunately, alien slaughter is often interrupted by long sections of exploration and platforming challenges. The areas are immense, but empty, and offer no real reason to be explored.

Lord Arena gives, but doesn't put it in your pocket

We've reached the section you've all seen online. The script and the acting… There are guilty pleasures, and there's no problem admitting you like watching reality TV, reading fan fiction, or listening to folk music. But what's in Lost Soul Aside has long passed the level of guilty pleasures. The script is deplorable, as I explained in the story section, and the actors' performances are below expectations. Night Trap and the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie seem like true works of art. The actors have a fake British accent, which can annoy many players, and the performance is a bit too serious. As a result, many moments become comical due to the direction, an aspect that is in complete antithesis to what's happening in the story.

As proof, here's a video clip:

After this moment, I couldn't take it anymore and switched the dubbing to Japanese. I also tried it in Chinese, and I can confirm it sounds better, but I can't comment on the content itself, as I don't speak either language. From the little Japanese I know, I noticed differences between what the characters were saying and what appeared in the subtitles, which makes me believe there are translation issues.

Moreover, it was hard for me to take seriously a game where the protagonist is named Kaser – a name which, in the way it was pronounced, sounded more like "cheese" in German. I'm sure the developer chose names that seemed interesting in English and German, but the reality is completely different. For example, the alien dragon is named LORD ARENA, probably because Paarthurnax, Tiamat, Haku, Fafnir, and Neltharion were already taken…

As for the game's visual identity, unfortunately, I can confirm that it practically doesn't exist. The initial presentation used generic assets, but even those were more memorable than what I found in the final product. The areas seem bought directly from the Unreal store and used without any customisation. And, to my surprise, Lost Soul Aside is not created in Unreal Engine 5, but in Unreal Engine 4.

I'm saddened by Ultizero Games' creation. This game could have been remarkable, a testament to the creativity of Chinese developers, but the final product doesn't live up to the standards set by much more successful titles, such as Black Myth: Wukong. The cliché-ridden story, the disastrous English dubbing, and the endless sections of exploring empty locations make Lost Soul Aside one of the few games of 2025 that I cannot recommend.

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Played on: PlayStation 5
Release date: 29 August 2025
Developer: Ultizero Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment