Lost Soul Aside™ Review Summary

Strong Visuals & Art Direction: The game receives high marks for its graphics, art style, and overall visual presentation. Reviewers frequently highlight the beautiful scenery, character designs, and stunning cutscenes, often comparing its aesthetic to the Final Fantasy series.

Engaging & Fluid Combat System: Players consistently praise the combat system for its depth, fluidity, and satisfying feel. It offers a wide variety of combos, weapon customization, and responsive controls, making it enjoyable for both casual players and action game enthusiasts. The combat experience significantly improves after the initial prologue as more skills and weapons are unlocked.

Good Performance & Optimization: Many players report a smooth and stable performance, with good frame rates even on higher settings. While some initial stutters or frame drops were noted, these often resolved after the prologue or with updated drivers, indicating decent optimization for a new title.

Positive Overall Player Experience: Despite some minor issues, a large number of players express enjoyment and satisfaction with the game. Many found it better than expected, fun to play, and a solid entry in its genre, often highlighting its potential for future improvements.

Inspired by Classic Action RPGs: The game's combat and overall feel are frequently compared to beloved titles like Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden. This blend of influences is seen as a positive, offering a familiar yet refreshing experience for fans of these genres.

Subpar Voice Acting & Audio: Feedback highlights consistently poor voice acting across multiple languages, often described as emotionless, bland, or out of sync. Additionally, sound effects are frequently criticized for being weak, repetitive, or poorly mixed, detracting from combat impact and immersion.

Poor Performance & Optimization: Players consistently report severe performance issues, including frequent stuttering, drastic FPS drops, and crashes, even on high-end hardware. This makes the game feel unoptimized and, at times, unplayable, significantly hindering the overall experience.

Unsatisfying Combat Experience: Combat is widely described as lacking impact, feeling weightless, and being repetitive. Players note poor hit feedback, generic sound effects, and a lack of depth or innovation compared to other games in the genre, making it less engaging.

Clunky Movement & Animations: Players find character movement, especially running and jumping, to be clunky, floaty, and jarring, with stiff animations. Specific issues include a 'lunging' camera effect during running and awkward transitions, impacting immersion and control.

Unskippable & Poor Cutscenes: Cutscenes are criticized for being unskippable, poorly directed, and having stiff character animations and expressions. Technical issues like abrupt transitions, audio cuts, and performance drops during cutscenes further detract from their quality.

DMC/FF-like Combat & Design: Players frequently compare the game's combat and overall design to a blend of Devil May Cry (DMC) and various Final Fantasy titles, particularly FF15, FF16, and FF7 Remake. It's noted for its action-oriented, linear gameplay, distinct from Soulslike or traditional RPGs.

Simplified but Flashy Combat: The combat system is described as simple and easy to pick up, allowing for flashy moves and satisfying combos. While some find it clunky or crude initially, many appreciate its fluidity and engaging nature, especially as more skills are unlocked.

Progression Unlocks Potential: The game significantly improves and opens up after the prologue, with combat becoming more enjoyable once skill trees, new weapons, and movement options are unlocked. Early game combat feels limited until these progression systems are introduced.

Story is Functional, Not Central: The story is generally considered basic but adequate, serving its purpose without being a major highlight. Many players admitted to skipping dialogue, suggesting it's not a primary draw for the game.

Platforming and Puzzles Present: The game incorporates platforming and light puzzle elements, which range from minor parkour sections to more extensive jumping puzzles and mechanism-based challenges.

Ray Tracing Significantly Impacts Performance: A recurring theme is that enabling Ray Tracing severely degrades performance, causing substantial frame rate drops and stuttering across various hardware configurations. Many players found that disabling Ray Tracing was crucial for achieving stable and playable frame rates.

Optimization Issues Persist: Despite some players reporting good performance, a significant portion of the feedback indicates that the game still requires further optimization. Players are actively looking forward to patches that address these performance and stuttering problems.

Driver Updates & DX11 Improve Stability: Some players found that updating their NVIDIA drivers or forcing the game to run in DirectX 11 mode (using '-dx11' launch option) significantly improved performance, reducing stuttering and stabilizing frame rates.

Shader Compilation Issues: A few players reported issues related to shader compilation, including crashes during the process or initial choppiness that eventually smooths out, suggesting background shader compilation might be a factor in early game performance.

Hardware Specifications Shared: Many players provided detailed specifications of their PC hardware, including CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage. This information helps contextualize their performance experiences, though it doesn't always correlate directly with reported issues.

Wait for Sales and Patches: A significant number of players recommend waiting for the game to go on sale or for patches to address current issues, particularly performance and optimization. Many feel the game is not worth its full price in its current state, suggesting a price point between $30-$40 or a 50% discount.

Mixed Reception and Refunds: Player sentiment is mixed, with many expressing dissatisfaction leading to refunds. While some give positive reviews, often with caveats, a substantial portion cannot recommend the game at full price or in its current state, with some even refunding pre-orders.

Combat System is a Highlight: Many reviewers praise the game's combat system, describing it as fun, flashy, and addictive. They recommend the game specifically to fans of action, hack-and-slash, or Devil May Cry-style games, often suggesting it's the main reason to play.

Try the Demo First: Players strongly advise trying the game's demo before purchasing. This allows potential buyers to assess performance on their system and determine if the combat style aligns with their preferences.

Average Review Scores: Based on initial impressions, many reviewers assign the game a score in the 6/10 to 8/10 range. While some combat scores are higher, the overall sentiment suggests a decent but not outstanding experience, often citing issues that prevent higher ratings.

Long Development History: A significant number of players highlight the game's extensive development period, often citing 8-10 years, and its origin as a solo developer project. This long wait has created a strong emotional connection and high expectations for many, influencing their overall perception and willingness to support the game.

Game's Scope and Identity: Players note that the game struggles to achieve a AAA experience due to its indie origins and limited resources, often feeling like a linear hack-and-slash rather than a deep RPG. The narrative and world-building are not considered strong points, leading to a perception of the game being 'average' or 'okay' despite its combat focus.

Influences and Comparisons: Players frequently compare the game to popular titles like Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy, noting similarities in combat, character design, and overall aesthetic. This suggests the game successfully evokes a familiar style but also sets high expectations based on these comparisons.

Support for Domestic Games: A segment of players explicitly states their support for domestic single-player games, often purchasing the game to encourage local development. This sentiment highlights a cultural aspect influencing purchasing decisions and review perspectives.

Developer's Dedication: Players acknowledge the developer, Yang Bing, and his dedication to the project, recognizing its origins as a passion project. This appreciation for the developer's effort often influences players' willingness to be more tolerant of the game's flaws and support its future.