There are many working parts in a video game. It begins with a vision. Thoughts of a particular style, intention, and approach. Then design work, from costuming and characters, to combat, narrative, world-building, and beyond. Lost Soul Aside is clearly a game backed by a vast and ambitious vision, but with a lack of cohesion in its many parts, it arrives as a convoluted, mish-mash shadow of RPGs that’ve come before.
There are bright spots in the adventure. As bland protagonist Kasar, you are made more compelling by a pact with a magical dragon-demon that grants wild, snappy combat abilities. Lost Soul Aside is at its best when you’re wielding these skills, flying and sweeping through the air, unleashing hyper-powered attacks that rely on good timing and heavy-hitting.
Ultizero Games has clearly been inspired by Devil May Cry in its mix of combat, with Kasar able to wield flashy, customisable swords, and access a Devil Trigger-like transformation that lets him perform more powerful magic attacks, with greater range (his hair even turns white, which is a fun nod).
It’s also worth noting Lost Soul Aside brims with a cool, edgy sense of style. While it feels somewhat derivative of early 2000s goth culture – all black leather, stylish scarves, and metal accessories – it provides a novel aesthetic. When Kasar’s companion Gethya appears, all in Victorian-style purple, with a little monocle and a lace cravat, you want to know her immediately.
Elsewhere in Lost Soul Aside, you’re introduced to guards in shining, twisted armour, with multiple faces on their helmets, and mystery in their movements. You meet villains of sweeping cloaks and gleaming masks.
Unfortunately, Lost Soul Aside never really gives you the chance to know these characters, beyond their aesthetics. They’re relatively surface-level heroes. Kasar feels particularly shallow, even as the main focus – you understand his quest, but not much else.
The problems begin from the jump, as Lost Soul Aside opens mid-campaign with very little context for your Hero’s Journey. After a brief and mysterious cutscene (which actually calls back to the very end of the game), Kasar arrives in a port to meet his friends, and they quickly set about plotting some sort of attack against the dictatorial regime that rules their township. It’s not immediately clear who these characters are, or their motives – you’re simply thrust into the story, and expected to keep up.
This can be done effectively, of course. But not so in Lost Soul Aside, thanks to convoluted and confusing writing that’s often more concerned with world-building and deep lore than providing character development.
There’s a lot of narrative in Lost Soul Aside, but it all gets lost, thanks to a rather typical high fantasy stumbling block – a focus on weird, esoteric names and quirks for unique characters, places, and monsters. Concepts like the demonic Voidtrax army are introduced, and then blazed over in exposition as new and bigger concepts roll in.
The crux of the game is relatively simple: In a fight against an encroaching demonic army, Kaser’s sister Louisa has her soul stolen. To get it back, Kasar must travel through various dimensions, obtaining special crystals that will help to restore her being.
But this quest is complicated at every turn, with the arrival of special magical beings, two conquering empires, and many threads of exposition that become tangled, the further you go. And with characters not given the time or dialogue to develop, you’ll find the plot loses its stickiness quickly. After a relatively compelling opening hour set-up, you’re simply thrust into tight corridors to take out foes, in multiple stages with platforms to jump across, and simple puzzles to complete.
The real shame in this is Lost Soul Aside does spark with exciting concepts. As I said, the style of the game is compelling, with characters like Arena (in its original form), and Gethya looking absolutely stunning. The costumier has clearly put in work, with designs that are incredibly interesting, aesthetics-wise. But a video game is made of many moving parts, and the vast majority of Lost Soul Aside simply doesn’t work cohesively.
Snappy combat only takes this game so far, with its storytelling fumbles reducing the impact and satisfaction of taking on each boss in turn, and finally drawing Kasar’s story to a close.
A PlayStation 5 code for Lost Soul Aside was provided for the purposes of this coverage.
