Video game development is hard. Most of us have thought about trying to make our dream game. That thought usually ends after downloading a free game engine and realizing you have to make it. Those who stick with it find that video game development is very time-consuming, and it’s a miracle any game comes out at all. From indies to AAA, no one is safe from rocky or prolonged development cycles. 

This year alone has been great for highly anticipated games with long or troubled development. Silksong and the latest Deltarune chapters came out to high praise, and Metroid Prime 4 is around the corner. However, there was another game that many looked forward to, which also had a troubled development and was released this year. That is Lost Soul Aside, a game that will be brought up when discussing long development cycles for a while, but for all the wrong reasons. 

Lost Soul Aside is an action-adventure RPG and the debut title from Ultizero Games. Development began in late 2014, with game director Yang Bing uploading a trailer for the game in 2016. This trailer was very popular and helped the game get picked up by Sony to be a part of its China Hero Project. With proper funding, Yang was now able to hire a full team and establish a new game studio. It sounds like a dream come true for any aspiring game developer. Well, Lost Soul Aside is finally here, and it feels like this dream was a nightmare.

Lost Story

Lost Soul Aside takes place in a fantasy world under the rule of an evil empire. You play as Kaser, a young man and member of the resistance group GLIMMER. During a festival, GLIMMER has a plan to inspire the populace to revolt, but a sudden attack from strange creatures stops it. The attack causes Kaser to fall into an underground laboratory where he finds a dragon-like creature named Arena. Arena gives him the power to escape, and now Kaser can fight these creatures called Voidrax.

When Kaser finally escapes, he encounters a big Voidrax that attacks his sister, leaving her unconscious. Worried she’s dead, Arena informs him that she is alive, but her soul has been stolen. If they can get her soul back, she will wake up, but that’s easier said than done. Kaser will have to travel the world and other dimensions to put a stop to the Voidrax and their leader, Aramon. Only then will he be able to save not only his sister, but the world as well.

This is a standard fantasy story, and not much else. There is more here, but none of it is interesting. The evil empire leaves no impression and is barely here despite being one of the major antagonists. There are more characters, but I’m gonna be honest, I can barely remember their names, let alone any of their motivations. The Voidrax are boring enemies, and the more I type their name, the more I hate it. I am having trouble finding anything that works in this narrative. 

The more you play, the more it feels like they just filled out a fantasy world checklist instead of trying to make a narrative. It doesn’t help that the game is poorly paced and full of unskippable walking segments that try to make it seem important. It makes this short game feel longer than it is, and I found myself yelling, “This is still going!” to the point my roommate got concerned. The voice acting doesn’t help either, as most characters range from subpar to just bad. Clips of the voice acting have already gone viral, but trust me, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The more I played, the more my boredom with the world became annoyance. By the time I saw the credits, I never wanted to hear the nonsensical names and words of this game again.

Lost Combat

Lost Soul Aside is an action-adventure RPG, a genre I tend to love. While I didn’t like the writing, good gameplay could save this. The combat is your standard action hack-and-slash gameplay. There are light and heavy attacks, special abilities, and a powered-up form that extends combos and other moves. You eventually end up with four weapons you can switch between, each with a complete skill tree. The abilities are all unique and can be swapped out and upgraded. There is a lot to the combat, I just wish it were fun.

My main issue starts with how slow the game feels. When it starts, Kaser feels like he’s walking through molasses. Even his sprint feels slow, and it only drags out an already poorly paced game. Then, when you get to combat, that slow feeling doesn’t entirely go away. You eventually get used to it, but it still slightly hinders the gameplay. It also doesn’t help that the combat feels shallow. There is a lot here, and on paper, the combat should at least be a little fun. Instead, it feels like a cheap copy of all the games that inspire it. 

The more I played, the more the combat just felt boring. Even after unlocking all the weapons and having a full kit of abilities, I still stuck with the same moveset for about 80% of the game. Switching weapons never felt natural, and instead of extending combos, it slows them down. The tech is there for weapon switching, but it never clicks. I only ever switched weapons when the game forced me to for specific encounters or puzzles. 

It also doesn’t help that anyone with a basic understanding of this genre will breeze through this game. I can count on one hand the number of times I died, and how many enemy encounters were actually a challenge. Enemy balancing is nonexistent, as later encounters just give you the same things to fight with more health. Boss battles have the same problem, and it’s a shame because some are quite the spectacle. The only hard combat encounters are optional challenges that I gave up on finding after the first. Not because it was hard, but because I didn’t want to.

When you aren’t mindlessly fighting, you are exploring levels. This is where the most annoying part of the gameplay is. You are forced to do platforming and puzzle-solving segments that are not fun. Any cool traversal you’ve seen is not gameplay but actually a hidden loading screen or scene transition. Earlier, I said Kaser was slow; well, he is also heavy and not an ideal character for platforming challenges. His jump feels stilted, and it will cause you to fall to your death a lot. The puzzles are also annoying. They aren’t hard; they just have you stop everything to walk around the map and press buttons or match up symbols. None of it is fun or engaging, and it just brings down the game more.

Lost Optimization

I played Lost Soul Aside on PC. When I saw the recommended specs, I thought I should be able to run the game without any problem. Sadly, the optimization was also a mess. When I first launched the game, I had to wait for it to compile shaders. While annoying, the game should at least run well then. I was quickly met with stuttering, random freezes, and audio desyncs. Speaking of audio, the first time I played this, the mixing was terrible. The music in the intro cutscene was louder than the voice acting. I adjusted the audio settings, and when the cutscene was done, that at least didn’t happen again.

The game also crashed on me the first two times I played it. My first session was a couple of hours, and when it crashed, I let out a sigh of relief and stopped for the night. The next day, an update was pushed, so I played again, only for it to crash after another couple of hours. The update did seem to fix the issue after all, as it hasn’t crashed since. Each update will have you recompile shaders, so be prepared to wait when you see the update pending. While it’s nice to see them actively working on the game, even after each update, I still run into bugs. Stuttering isn’t as bad anymore, but desyncs and freezes will still happen from time to time.

Lost Praise?

I have been harsh on Lost Soul Aside, but is there anything I somewhat like? While the level design is repetitive, I enjoy some of the environments. Some of the levels have open areas that have spectacle, and you can see a hint of that original reveal trailer. This also holds for the dimensions you explore, even if you spend too much time in them. I can’t say the same about the character models, though. They all look unnatural and have stilted animations. Well, all except one.

The best (and honestly only good) character here is Arena. He is your main companion for the game, and he’s the only fun part about it. Since he’s not human either, he doesn’t have the unnatural look of the other characters, and his animations are nice, too. He always has something to say, and he quickly became the only part of the game I wanted to see more of. His voice acting is pretty decent, and his character reminded me of Beerus from Dragon Ball Super. While it may not seem like a lot, I’m glad the other character you spent the entire game with was at least fun to be around.

Lost Verdict

Lost Soul Aside is the latest example of a project that fell apart during its prolonged development. The original reveal had potential, and it’s sad to see what it became. I can commend Ultizero Games for continuing to update the game. Although the game still has issues, it continues to improve with each update, fixing more problems. Sadly, this game feels fundamentally flawed, and I don’t see how it can be fixed without a complete overhaul.

I can not recommend Lost Soul Aside. To those curious, watch someone else play it. Everything here is taken from other games, but I don’t understand what makes it work. The story isn’t interesting. I was bored with the combat and annoyed with the exploration. The game is poorly paced and actively goes from boring to annoying. Except for Arena, I didn’t like or remember any of the characters either. I hope this was at least a learning experience for Yang Bing and Ultizero Games, cause it’s clear they have passion. It just couldn’t save this game.

Disclaimer: Lost Soul Aside was reviewed on PC and purchased by the reviewer.