Lost Soul Aside

Lost Soul Aside’s repetitive story, derivative characters, and bland level design take turns setting up rakes for its excellent combat to step on. This game would be much better without trying to be an RPG.

There's little sense of impact to blows.

We're torn on Lost Soul Aside. On one hand, it's a very intricately made action game, full of interesting combat dynamics backed by an impressive degree of player expression. But on the other, it's a pseudo RPG with a really poor story, crappy characters, and a forgettable world. Right now, it's looking like a cautious recommendation for action afficionados, but we'll have to see how the rest of the package shakes out.

Lost Soul Aside wore on me pretty quickly, with its repetitive arena-to-arena flow, characters I never spent enough time to care about or what happened to them, and unpolished issues and quirks. Sometimes being "cool" just doesn't cut it.

Lost Soul Aside shines when its combat takes the lead: fast, combo-driven, built around dodges, parries, varied weapons and well-balanced bosses. Not everything works as well, with a story that simply does its job and an uneven technical finish.

Lost Soul Aside is quintessential big, dumb fun. You won't find much sense in the story and may cringe at the voice acting, but turn your brain off and you'll have a good time.

The soulless world of Lost Soul Aside and its equally soulless characters fail to give the title any identity that would help it stand out as a truly unique game.

Lost Soul Aside lands as a dazzling yet uneven action RPG, as it thrills in combat but falters in story, world, and polish for a flawed but interesting debut.

Not every game we wait for lives up to our expectations when it finally releases. Although Lost Soul Aside offers solid gameplay, it fails in almost everything else. Whether it's the dull story, the forgettable characters, the weak dialogue writing, or even the voice acting and the cinematics that simply don’t measure up for a game at this price. Combined with the flimsy level design and the shallow puzzles, the end product is unfortunately flawed and far removed from what the early trailers showed and promised.

Lost Soul Aside is a game that not only failed to meet any expectations built in the years since its announcement, but also failed at achieving the bare minimum quality I'd expect from a game like this, a decent combat system doesn't make up for everything else being a disaster.