Lost Soul Aside—a decade-long dream turned uneven reality.
Lost Soul Aside is one of those rare games that almost became legendary in the gaming world. Back in 2014, Bing Yang started working on it by himself. He had big plans to make something that could compete with Final Fantasy.
People were shocked when Lost Soul Aside‘s flashy trailer came out in 2016 and showed graphics and gameplay that seemed impossible for a one-person team. With help from Sony’s China Hero Project, the project evolved over the years into something truly impressive, despite having a small team of approximately 40 people.
Lost Soul Aside was in a constant state of hype and uncertainty for almost ten years. Many people thought it would just go away on its own, becoming one of those projects that was too big to ever be released. But, against all odds, it finally came out, full of flashy combat, RPG-style systems, and grandiose shows. But the real question is: does it live up to ten years of anticipation? It’s hard to say the answer.
At first glance, Lost Soul Aside looks like it will be a great story. After a terrible war, the Empire rules over a bright but sad world. You play as Kaser, a rebel fighter who lost a lot in the war and now works with a group called Glimmer to fight the Emperor again. The beginning hints at a fight against a power for authority, like in Final Fantasy VII, and the story starts with a dramatic call to arms during a parade honoring the Emperor’s birthday.
But just as you get used to this setup, Voidraks, beings from other dimensions, come in and quickly change the political story. These animals steal human souls and store them under a mountain. During the chaos, Kazer joins forces with Arena, a snarky void companion who fights with him. Soon after, someone attacks Kazer’s sister and takes her soul. This turns the story into a quest to find her essence using several crystal-like MacGuffins.
This change makes the pace much worse. What starts out as a story about resistance and Empire intrigue quickly turns into a collection quest where characters don’t get much attention. There are some funny lines in the dialogue, but they are buried under boring cutscenes and text-box talks that feel more like they belong in the late 1990s than in 2025.
Villains talk to you from their hiding places, making fun of you in a way that makes you think of Saturday morning cartoons, but without the beauty. By the time you get your second item, you’ve forgotten most of the original Empire’s mystery, leaving you with a main story that feels flat and repetitive.
The main type of gameplay in Lost Soul Aside is action. Even though it’s called an RPG, it’s not really a role-playing game. Instead, it’s mostly just nonstop fighting. Blades, greatswords, and swords are the three main types of weapons. Any of them can be switched out in the middle of an attack.
The sword is balanced, the greatsword hits hard but slowly, and the poleblade is great at controlling large groups of people. The best way to get into the groove of Lost Soul Aside is to try out different weapon loads and chain them together.
Arena, your void friend, also gives you cool skills that work like special moves. You can wear up to three at once, and they’re just as cool to look at as they are useful in battle. A basic skill tree lets you unlock new combos, and trinkets and items change weapons in small ways, like making them easier to dodge or giving them extra damage. There’s even a transforming system that works like Devil Trigger and gives you short bursts of extra power.
But besides battle, Lost Soul Aside is pretty basic. The world is set up in a straight line, with hallways leading from one fight to the next. There are some tasks and platforming sections, but they feel like filler. The docks are the hub area, but they’re mostly empty and only have invisible walls and places to gather items. There are no side tasks. Exploration? Not much. There isn’t much else you can do in this game besides fight.
Combat is, without a doubt, the main show in Lost Soul Aside, and at first, it’s amazing. Counters can be stylish when you dodge, parry, or block, and Arena’s skills can be used to string together ridiculously flashy weapon swaps. There are a lot of bosses, from duels with other highly skilled soldiers to huge monsters that you have to destroy piece by piece.
Pacing and feel are what’s wrong. Run-ins happen too quickly and too often, and tasks can last more than an hour. There isn’t much room to breathe because boss fights happen right after each other. This is especially hard at the beginning because Lost Soul Aside gives you bloated life bars before you know how to use the controls. Things get better over time, but the pattern never really goes away.
Combat is flashy, but it hides a bigger problem: speed. A lot of the time, the inputs feel mushy, and the timing of dodges and parries isn’t as precise as it is in games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. You’ll often get stuck in movements or get punished because Lost Soul Aside‘s feedback isn’t clear.
Even customizing doesn’t feel deep. Accessories change how weapons look, but the designs are often bad, and you don’t really notice them anyway because the camera zooms out during fights. Upgrades don’t really make different ways of playing possible; they mostly feel like survival tools against endless waves of enemies.
The problems in Lost Soul Aside, but it just doesn’t stop at adding accessories. Enemies can glitch into walls or freeze up completely. It’s awkward when plants you collect disappear without any graphics. A lot of the time, music in cutscenes ends suddenly instead of fading away normally. These little cracks add up and make it hard to focus on what should be great battles.
There is progression, but it’s not very deep. As you level up, you can learn new skills for your weapons and in the Arena. Collecting items gives you small benefits. There is also simple crafting, which lets you make potions from plants you’ve collected. But the grind doesn’t really change how you play. Instead, it’s a machine that will help you get ready for Lost Soul Aside‘s tough boss fights.
When you have healing items with you in battle, it’s easy to get by, so progressing often feels pointless. You’re not grinding to get better in new ways; you’re grinding to stay alive until the next attack. That’s a lost chance for a game that looks like an RPG.
The art in Lost Soul Aside is all over the place. It’s stunning when it’s at its best, with wide-open settings, bosses with complicated designs, and particle effects that fill the screen. In its worst form, it looks like something from the Xbox 360 era. Some places have a modern shine to them, while others feel dull, empty, or unfinished. The long development period is evident from these visuals, which don’t match.
Another sore spot is performance. Quality mode on the PS5 Pro has trouble with slow frame rates, which makes the battle feel heavy. Performance mode works better, but there are still times when it slows down during auto-saves. This lack of flow is detrimental to a game that is all about presentation.
It’s impossible to deny that the music is the best part. Orchestral pieces with big tunes that bring Final Fantasy energy to boss fights and cutscenes make them more exciting. It’s without a doubt one of the best parts of Lost Soul Aside.
The sound effects don’t work well, though. The sword attacks don’t have much of an effect, enemies often make the same growls, and the background noise sounds like it was made by someone else. Voice acting is also all over the place. Arena is funny, but the other characters are either just okay or completely forgotten. When put together, they make the sound hit or miss.
Some people were afraid that Lost Soul Aside would be a disaster, but it’s also not the gem that fans hoped it would be. It’s an action RPG that’s all about show, and its crazy battles and epic music really shine. It has problems with pacing, polish, and story, largely due to repetitive events, uneven graphics, and slow progression.
It’s clear that the project is important to them—after all, it’s amazing that such a small team could make a game of this size. But having desire doesn’t always mean carrying it out. It looks and feels like a relic from a different time: it’s flashy, ambitious, and full of promise, but it’s also rough around the edges and a lot of fun to play.
There is fun to be had for die-hard action fans who are willing to look past repetition and technology problems. But for most, it will be a reminder that even ideas that have been around for ten years can fall apart when they are finally realized.
