Lost Soul Aside — Review
The long-awaited solo-developer-turned-major-publisher action RPG finally lands. Here's how a project that started as a one-person Final Fantasy tribute actually turned out.
Lost Soul Aside has one of the strangest development stories in modern AAA-adjacent gaming. What started as a single developer's FFXV-inspired technical demo turned into a full publisher-backed action RPG. The result is finally here — and the combat alone makes the years of patience worthwhile.
What It Plays Like
Devil May Cry's combat sensibility wrapped around a Final Fantasy-style world structure, with the kind of weapon-switching depth that puts a lot of bigger-budget action games to shame. Each weapon feels distinct in weight and pace, and the game expects you to commit to mid-combo swaps rather than pick a favourite and grind.
What Stands Out
The combat. The art direction. The fact that this exists at all in the form it does — the years of work are visible on screen, and the game has the kind of authored, hand-crafted feel that publisher-led action RPGs rarely manage anymore. A small handful of setpieces hit harder than anything in the genre this year.
What Holds It Back
Story pacing. The first three hours move with confidence; the middle stretch loses focus before the back half recovers. Some technical roughness around environment streaming and a handful of side-quest design choices that feel inherited from the original solo project rather than refined for the bigger release.
Who It's For
Action-RPG fans hungry for something between DMC and FFXVI. Anyone who has been quietly following development since the original demo went viral. Anyone willing to forgive narrative roughness in exchange for one of the year's strongest combat systems.
The Verdict
Ambitious, technically impressive, and the kind of action RPG that justifies its development story. Pacing is the open weakness — but the combat alone earns Lost Soul Aside a place on the shelf.
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