I stand ready and willing to be utterly surprised by Lost Soul Aside, an anime action RPG that found Final Fantasy 15 in a dark alley and robbed it of every leather jacket, bottle of hair spray, and impractical sword it had in its pockets, and those are deep pockets. Announced all the way back in early 2021, Lost Soul Aside has finally gone gold ahead of launch this month on August 29, meaning the game should finally, for real, come out.
Game news account Kami flagged the translated “gone gold” announcement on Twitter. Lost Soul Aside is coming to PS5 and PC, with its Steam page promising an epic and action-packed gauntlet featuring some genuinely lovely environments and some probably much more polarizing emo boys.
I’m intrigued by this one for a few reasons. Most importantly, it’s the latest in a growing line of hardcore action games from Chinese developers – in this case, Ultizero Games – who are increasingly pushing out of mobile and onto consoles and PCs. This is a trend I’ve immensely enjoyed, from Black Myth: Wukong to the upcoming Phantom Blade Zero (which impresses me every time I play it), and I’d love nothing more than for Lost Soul Aside, which looks like the most action RPG-ass action RPG to ever action RPG, to be shockingly good.
I also quite like Final Fantasy 15, so the vibes pass my personal vibe check. Lost Soul Aside is anime melodrama down to the bone marrow so far, with trailers embellishing characters I know nothing about, natural disasters, and larger-than-life boss fights, all set to sizzling electric guitar that makes me ponder the smell of the game.
Combat seems like the focus of Lost Soul Aside, and it looks to be considerably faster than the likes of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers or perhaps even fellow action RPG Stellar Blade. Here’s what I’ve gathered so far: you can change weapons, dodge, parry, customize your build with a magic dragon companion called Arena, and unlock new combos and skills via a skill tree. A skill tree! It feels like those fell out of fashion for a while, but they’ve really made a comeback. I’m here for it.
We actually just got a new “Weapons Trailer” for the game from PlayStation, and yeah, it might look like textbook Unreal Engine VFX overload, but sometimes that can be fun. Also: our hero, who I’ve dubbed Not-Noctis, swings a giant metal glaive the way I would swing a lightweight fishing rod, so that’s fun. The weapon swapping looks compelling in a Nier: Automata kind of way, which raises my eyebrow.
All I’m asking for is more of the 3.5/5, 7/10 anime junk food that my body craves. Scarlet Nexus with more polygons, basically. That would be enough for me. If Lost Souls Aside ends up being better than that, it will be a massive win.
Square Enix hasn’t abandoned turn-based JRPGs, but the creators of Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default have followed Final Fantasy with a new action RPG – still in the gorgeous HD-2D style