“It was a letdown” is a phrase you often hear when a game and its audience miss each other entirely. As a gamer, it’s a sad feeling I’ve experienced more than once, and it never gets easier. Unfortunately, it’s also a phrase that somewhat fittingly describes Lost Soul Aside. Although it was developed as a relatively niche project by a small development team, the game has seen its reputation heavily damaged by grave missteps in pricing and marketing.
Lost Soul Aside is a 3D action RPG for PC and PS5, developed by Shanghai-based studio Ultizero Games. It’s also part of the China Hero Project, a program run by Sony Interactive Entertainment to support small developers. This review is based on the PS5 version, played using a review code provided by SIE.
A small-scale project a decade in the making
Lost Soul Aside is the product of a 10-year development journey. Limited development resources forced the team to narrow their focus to one core aspect of the game rather than pursuing synergy between multiple games systems (like big-budget games tend to do). For Lost Soul Aside, that core is combat. Combat is everything in this game, and other elements serve as filler for the most part, a way to pass the time until the next battle.
That said, the combat itself is well-crafted. The battle system revolves around switching between multiple weapon types in real time, dodging and parrying with precise timing, and breaking enemy gauges – which grants you a limited time window to deal devastating damage. Through this cycle, Lost Soul Aside offers that rewarding, cathartic feeling that action game players seek out.
Each weapon feels distinct. The one-handed Sword is agile and versatile at all ranges. The two-handed Greatsword is slow but packs a punch, making it excellent for breaking enemy stances with heavy, flashy strikes. The Poleblade demands fluid transitions from ground to air combat. The Scythe lets you control distance by drawing enemies closer, and is excellent for coordinating with other weapons.
The fun lies not only in swapping between weapons to get maximum damage out of each opportunity, but in mastering their commands to figure out your own original combos. Boss fights highlight this design, as they mix broad, sweeping attacks (which demand evasion) with direct, linear strikes (which call for well-timed blocks). While bosses don’t have particularly varied movesets, their attack patterns shift multiple times as the health bar changes, which keeps the fights from feeling like a chore as you hone your skills.
Lost Souls Aside also comes with some customization. Accessories are literally attached to weapons, a system that feels equal parts odd and nostalgic. Some swapping is needed for dealing with elemental (dis)advantages or specific gimmicks. To accommodate players less experienced in action games, Lost Souls Aside also lets you tweak the difficulty through customization. After enough defeats, you can unlock equipment that reduces incoming damage and boosts attack power. It’s a clever way to make the game easier without offering a formal “easy mode.”
The developers have been open about drawing inspiration from titles like Final Fantasy XV, Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, and the battle system does a good job of blending all these elements into something coherent.
As for everything outside combat – like the story and dungeon design – when I called them “filler,” I didn’t really mean it as an insult. It’s simply the obvious outcome of development resources being consciously concentrated on only one thing. As the combat would grow boring with nothing in between battles, most of the other game elements only serve as a change of pace. The story, which offers the bare minimum required to drive game progression, delivers a touch of nostalgia in a FF7-style JRPG tone, and the dungeons keep you on your toes with parkour action and successive boss fights. After clearing the game, there’s a boss rush mode and higher difficulty modes to unlock.
So, when viewed purely as a small-scale, resource-conscious project, Lost Soul Aside seems to achieve its goals efficiently.
What’s the problem then? Lost Soul Aside was oversold and overpriced
Unfortunately, the game has been met with negative review upon negative review. On Metacritic, the average sits at 62/100, with “disappointing” being the dominating sentiment among players. I have to say I feel the same. Lost Soul Aside has failed to meet the inflated expectations set by its own marketing.
Its pricing likewise sent the wrong signals. At $59.99 USD, the game sat in the same bracket as AAA blockbusters that are expected to deliver comprehensive polish across multiple aspects of game design. But Lost Soul Aside, by its nature, is a niche game built on a limited scope, focusing its efforts and resources predominantly on combat. As such, it is a game that needed targeted advertising aimed at a specific playerbase, one that would tolerate its compromises and appreciate its one-tracked approach. Personally, I believe a price around $30 would have been more appropriate.
Another issue is the lack of awareness about SIE’s China Hero Project. This Sony initiative supports small developers in China, with past titles including ANNO: Mutationem. It is not a pipeline for developing first-party AAA games. Yet many players, seeing the “SIE Presents” branding, cinematic trailers and price tag, assumed it would be a project rivaling Chinese triple-A hits like Black Myth: Wukong.
Ultimately, Lost Soul Aside suffered from the overhype resulting from its marketing. A small, niche project was dressed up to look like a blockbuster with mass appeal, and it collapsed under the weight of expectations. I don’t think this mismatch is unique, and I suspect we’ll be seeing more such cases in the years ahead as developers fight for visibility.
Small-scale projects like Lost Soul Aside do deserve attention. It is not a bad game. For its scale (and for the right audience), it’s actually quite well-made. But its lengthy development period, outer appearance, and premium pricing turned it into something it’s not. Players expected a masterpiece crafted over 10 years, a “supernova” industry debut.
And that is not honesty. A lack of honesty risks closing off the future for potential players, for emerging developers, and the industry itself. Game development will always carry risk, and the desperation to break even is understandable. However, for everyone involved in Lost Soul Aside, I think there’s a lot to reflect on in terms of whether this was truly a sustainable endeavor.
