Lost Soul Aside: Our review will steal your soul!

Lost Suol Aside: undici anni di sviluppo per il nuovo action

Many have been waiting for it for many years, not least because its development began way back in 2014, but it has finally arrived in our hands, specifically in the PlayStation 5 edition (but it is also available on PC). What are we talking about? Naturally, Lost Soul Aside, and here is our review for you! The dates speak for themselves, this title has had a decidedly troubled development that in 2016 managed to attract public attention thanks to a trailer capable of even stirring the interest of Sony which, shortly thereafter, took the video game under its protective wing and brought the Ultizero development team and its founder, Yang Bing, into the China Hero Project, a project with which the PlayStation company subsidizes and supports the most promising and talented independent Chinese developers. Lost Soul Aside is a third-person action game with RPG elements, not so much for the presence of choices to be made, but for the growth path of our protagonist between weapons, abilities and items to equip (and craft). Kaser, our protagonist, is part of a rebel armed group, engaged in trying to strike at the power of the empire, but precisely during a sabotage action that sees, among others, Louisa, Kaser's sister, also employed, something happens that shifts attention to much more serious facts, that is, what appears to be an alien invasion.

We get to know the dangerous Voidrax and their leader Aramon, previously imprisoned by a seal that has weakened over the centuries. The Voidrax have the ability to absorb human souls to use their strength, which can allow Aramon to finally free himself and conquer the planet. Kaser, however strong he may be, cannot defeat the enemy alone, but during the early stages of the game he meets Arena, a "repentant" Voidrax in the guise of a dragon with whom Kaser makes a pact and enters into symbiosis, securing the powers he will need to fight the dangerous enemies who, among other things, have also stolen his sister Louisa's soul, as well as having ravaged the imperial capital. The plot does not shine for originality and from the beginning it is clear how much Yang Bing has inserted elements taken from very famous titles into Lost Soul Aside, which are certainly among his favorites. Speaking of narration, it is impossible not to think of several Final Fantasy games and Drakengard, with the scene of the pact between Kaser and Arena recalling, albeit with less dramatic tones, that between Caim and Angelus. The characters we will meet are also stereotypical, although the figure of the "vendor", Liana, has a certain charm in her over-the-top nature. 

Lost Soul Aside: Gameplay that Draws Inspiration with Style

The game structure is quite linear, exploration is guided with a map and minimap showing our objective, and variations on the theme are minimal, limited to offering a few secondary paths to find objects or perform fairly limited actions. There are basic environmental puzzles that allow you to progress on your journey and, although they add little to the experience, they manage to vary what risked being moving through long corridors, but it must be said that there is a certain attention in trying to diversify the various areas we will visit. The strong point of Lost Soul Aside is to be found in the gameplay, although from this point of view too, there is no secret about the various works from which Yang Bing and Ultizero have drawn inspiration. We are talking about a varied, solid combat system composed of the presence of various weapons and powers (thanks to the symbiosis with Arena), where there are combos for all tastes and a system of parries and dodges that, if executed at the right time, allow you to charge energy to use for special moves. Light attacks, heavy attacks, jumps and combinations of everything, expandable with classic skill trees that grant new abilities and skill improvements in a system that incredibly smells of "déjà vu" and, always incredibly, works really well, not perfectly, but more than satisfactorily. 

Bayonetta and especially Devil May Cry are the main sources of inspiration, so much so that some moves will seem taken directly from the two sagas just mentioned, while others are clear citations, see Kaser who, when equipping the greatsword, can use it to move faster by "surfing" on it, taking inspiration from Dante's unmistakable style. During our explorations, we will encounter hordes of various enemies, more or less strong, where we can unleash ourselves and prepare for the bosses who offer elaborate approaches and often require a different tactic than simply attacking head-on. The gameplay is therefore decidedly approved, provided you don't turn up your nose at a work that puts very little innovation into it but has the merit of skillfully drawing from the past and bringing a functional combat system without particular deficits to our PlayStation 5. There is also a fairly simple crafting system and you can equip yourself with some items, including elements that will embellish your weapons and that you can also visually place on their entire surface: a magic feather could end up on the tip of the sword, on any part of the hilt or on the grip, the choice will be yours. Obviously, Arena's powers are not lacking, these too are varied and improvable.

Lost Soul Aside: Is the Price Right?

Technically, Lost Soul Aside is not a "triple A" and the graphical impact is on par with the PS4 generation, with the possibility of choosing between two modes, one focused on graphical quality and the other on better performance. I recommend the latter, much more suitable for a frantic action game, which shows a solid frame rate without particular problems. There are some bugs, such as cameras that lose the focus of the scene especially near corners and crevices, some collision problems with surfaces, but honestly nothing that ruined my gaming experience. The music is decent, although no theme has remained in my heart, but it has the merit of accompanying the different moments of the story. A separate discussion for the voice acting, with the Japanese one winning hands down compared to the English one, which is afflicted by various problems and often of inadequate quality. All texts are in Italian, which we always appreciate, although in this case the texts and dialogues are certainly not the interesting side of the game. Lost Soul Aside can keep you company for a period of between 20 and 25 hours and does not have a real difficulty system (but by finishing the game you might have some surprises...). If you start dying too often, you will be provided with increasingly stronger items that will make you harder to kill, so you can overcome the momentary obstacle. For the more demanding, there are also secondary missions to face by talking to the omnipresent Liana, who will reward your efforts with various rewards.

Lost Soul Aside is not the new messiah of action RPGs, but it does its duty and succeeds in the difficult task of balancing being a satisfying title despite the flood of obvious citations and inspirations. Of course, presented at full price, it risks lowering the quality-price ratio, but if you love the genre, you might consider it at the first markdown.