Game review: Lost Soul Aside (PS5)

Lost Soul Aside has been in development for around a decade now, and many people thought this game was never going to come out. The game's first inspiration came from Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which eventually ended up being released as Final Fantasy XV in 2016. 

Well, after ten years of development, Lost Soul Aside is finally out, and it's available now for both PC and PS5. Let's dive in to see if this Final Fantasy clone is as good as it looks, or is its release dead in the water?

At first, the game has an interesting premise as players are introduced to a slick-looking protagonist called Kaser. Kaser and his younger sister, Louisa, are part of a resistance group called GLIMMER, and they plan to take down the evil emperor during the Empire's parade. 

Things seem to be going well for GLIMMER until an alien race called the Voidrax comes along and ruins all of their plans. Not only do the members of GLIMMER have to fight both the soldiers and aliens, but Kaser falls off a huge cliff and finds himself inside a secret laboratory. 

Kaser seemingly survives the fall and helps free an imprisoned dragon-like Voidrax called Lord Arena. Lord Arena does not have his full body, but he floats around like a head and gives advice to Kaser about the Voidrax and their motives. 

Lord Arena isn't just a mentor like Yoda because he grants Kaser some of his special powers, too. Things seem to be going well for Kaser until the Voidrax comes and steals Louisa's soul. This is when Kaser goes on a mission to get her soul back and save humanity from the invading Voidrax. 

Graphically, Lost Soul Aside does take a lot of visual inspiration from the aforementioned Final Fantasy XV, with Kaser wearing leather black and sporting a long sword. The game uses Unreal Engine 4, so it's slightly a generation behind, not using the more modern Unreal Engine 5. 

That being said, I was lucky enough not to see many technical issues while I was playing this game on a base PS5. The visual level design is quite cool, too, because Kaser does get to visit some exotic and fancy-looking locations during his adventure. 

However, the best part of the entire game is indeed the combat system. Some people might disagree with me when I say this, but I love the combat in this game much more than I did in Final Fantasy XV. 

Kaser is usually armed with a sword, and his powers with Lord Arena turn him into a very fast warrior. He can juggle some enemies in the air and even use sword slashes to attack enemies from a long distance. He can also block, but his dodging ability is arguably the best part of the entire game. 

Dodging/dashing is really cool because this game perfects the teleportation movements that were introduced in Final Fantasy XV. When an enemy attack glows blue, you will know this is your chance to dodge and teleport at lightning-quick speed. Dodging is by far the most important skill for me because it helped me a lot during the boss fights. 

Without giving away too many spoilers, Kaser later on gets access to a double-bladed sword, and it made me feel like I was Darth Maul from Star Wars. One of Kaser's best abilities, though, is his special transformation that turns his hair white. This increases his attack power, and it can break through enemy shields with ease. 

The game is quite generous because health potions are plentiful (most of the time) and can be replenished during save points. Not to mention, stamina is only drained when you use the dodge ability. Stamina doesn't decrease when you attack, so you can go on the offensive as many times as you want during boss fights. 

Speaking of boss fights, they are epic and very frequent in this game, too. Most bosses have multiple health bars, so they're not easy. They can be lengthy, but you will feel cool once you understand the pattern to beat a boss and finally defeat them. 

While the combat in this game is genre defining, the game sadly has some odd design choices that stop it from being a modern masterpiece. Arguably, the worst part of the game is its jumping mechanics/physics. The jumping feels too light and floaty, and there were many times I died falling off platforms. 

The jumping does not feel satisfying like Metal Eden does. Jumping isn't avoidable either because jumping puzzles/segments are frequent in this game, so you will have to do a lot of jumping. I never got used to it, even after hours into the game. 

The save checkpoints are also oddly placed in this game. I remember I used all of my potions during a long fight with enemies, and I was hoping a save checkpoint was nearby to replenish my potions. Unfortunately, the next checkpoint was 30 minutes away! I had to fight lots of enemies without potions, and this frustrated me a lot.

Sometimes, you don't have to get a checkpoint after a boss fight, so you have to continue fighting enemies with little to no potions left. This isn't something that can be addressed quickly with a patch, so it's an annoyance that will likely stay in the game. 

When I first played Lost Soul Aside, I was hyped because the combat system and overall presentation amazed me. I didn't understand why the game was getting so much hate online. 

Alas, the jumping and annoying checkpoint placements are big enough flaws to prevent me from giving this game a bigger score. If this game addressed these issues, I'm sure it would have been much better. 

Verdict: 7.0/10