Lost Soul Aside – Everything You Need to Know
Well, folks, the ambitious Final Fantasy XV-inspired action game Lost Soul Aside is nearly here—and anticipation is high. Development was long and difficult, originating with a single developer and growing into the Sony-backed 40-person studio it is today. While this character action RPG leans more into hack-and-slash territory, it may end up making waves like Expedition did earlier this year. With a slew of newly revealed footage and info, there are some key details we want to share about this upcoming indie title. Here are 15 things to know before you buy Lost Soul Aside.
Story
The plot of Lost Soul Aside wears its Final Fantasy colors on its sleeve. There’s an evil empire to overthrow, a sister to rescue, and an otherworldly dragon granting the hero special powers.
Characters
Our heroic lead, Kaser, partners up with unlikely allies from the Empire and resistance groups to confront a new extra-dimensional threat: the Voidrax. But the Voidrax may not be all bad, considering the dragon-like Voidrax named Arena offers its powers to Kaser in an unlikely allegiance.
Kaser’s sister likely won’t remain absent throughout the game, considering her role early in the timeline. She joined Kaser in rallying against the empire before the Voidrax invaded, so there may be a chance she rejoins the party later. Kaser himself fits the stylish and stoic archetype, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see some party members fulfill the comedic foil or antihero personalities.
Inspired by Final Fantasy XV for Its World
Back when Lost Soul Aside was a solo dev project, Yang Bing made clear how much Final Fantasy XV influenced the game. He particularly cites the fusion of fantasy and ‘reality’ as a core theme. This manifests in several ways—through Kaser’s contemporary outfit and the more realistic-looking locations in the game world, for example.
Crystals are another major motif, with heavy presence in marketing and world design (the dragon companion, for example, is made of crystal), reinforcing the Final Fantasy DNA.
Linear Experience
One misconception players might have is that Lost Soul Aside takes place in an open-world structure. Well, it’s been confirmed that it doesn’t. It offers a linear story with wide, explorable areas and branching paths, but no sprawling sandbox. That said, traversal abilities gained through Arena—like dash jumps, gliding, dragon flight, and even a crystal hoverboard—should make exploration fun and dynamic. Hopefully, the platforming remains clever and fluid without becoming cumbersome.
Weapon Types
With so many traversal abilities, players won’t be relying on basic human jumps alone. Arena, Kaser’s dragon companion, functions as his traversal tool in addition to his choice of four weapons. You thought using a crystal dragon as a hoverboard and crystal wall-riding platform was cool? Just look at the weapons Arena can turn into.
Arena can transform into four distinct weapons: a Poleblade, Scythe, Greatsword, and One-Handed Sword. The Sword serves as the ninja-like class prioritizing close quarters slicing and dicing. While the Greatsword excels in its sheer heft swatting enemies to the ground with slower, more determined strikes. The Poleblade is certainly the ranged option of the four, showering foes with bullets or ranged slash strikes. Players may prefer the Scythe if they’re eager for a mixture of various weapon types, as it seems to be the difficult-to-master, all-in-one choice. Want to swap weapons mid-combat? No worries, seamlessly switching between the four types is smooth as butter, lending new combos to battles.
Weapon Skills
Each weapon has up to four active skills mapped to face buttons. These range from the Poleblade’s energy blasts to the Sword’s warp-speed aerial strikes. Lost Soul Aside sure doesn’t skimp on variety or visual flair.
Skill Tree
Weapon abilities are further augmented through a Character Skill Tree. While the full layout hasn’t been revealed, it includes classic RPG mainstays such as passive buffs, stat boosts, and unlocks gained through experience points earned in combat.
Weapon Customization
Progression is further driven by collectible weapon fragments found throughout the game. These can be used to customize a weapon’s appearance and upgrade specific skills. Whether these fragments can be applied interchangeably across different weapon types remains to be seen.
Parries and Dodging
As a stylish action game in the vein of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, lightning-fast dodging is essential. That said, Lost Soul Aside doesn’t demand the kind of precision found in Sekiro or Lies of P. Lost Soul Aside leans toward a more hack-n-slash orientation with an easy to pick up, hard to master approach. But there’s still parrying involved here; it’s just not as necessary as FromSoftware-adjacent games.
Combo Burst Mechanics
Combat depth comes from fluid combo chains and a mechanic called Combo Burst. Each combo has specific ‘burst’ moments that magnify your attack power when timed correctly. To execute a burst, the player must time their button press at a specific time in the combo. It’ll be fun to master the rhythm of each of the different weapons and combos.
The Fusion Gauge also mixes up combat with a meter that allows your dragon friend, Arena to claw at the enemy in various ways. This Fusion ability can be upgraded and expanded alongside your other weapon skills and abilities, providing a pretty wide repertoire to play with.
PC Requirements
To experience Lost Soul Aside, players have to set aside 80 GB of storage space for the install. The minimum requirements list a Core i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD RX 5500 XT GPU, and 16 GB RAM. To maximize its graphical and performance potential, players need a Core i7-11700 or Ryzen 7 5700X CPU, RTX 3070 or RX 6800 XT GPU, and the same 16 GB of RAM as its lower setting. Of course, ray tracing is available to take in the dynamic crystal-laden visuals, though it’ll require the Ultra settings. Ultra ray tracing necessitates a i7-13700K or Ryzen 7 7800X CPU, RTX 5070 Ti GPU, and once again, 16 GB of RAM.
PC-Specific Features
In addition to ray tracing, PC gamers can also look forward to 4K visuals with unlocked framerates. The publisher has also shared “performance-boosting technologies” regarding the PC version, which strongly suggests DLSS and/or AI assisted frame generation. Oh, and want to feel the advanced haptics that PS5 users can experience? Well, the DualSense controller is fully compatible with the PC version.
No PSN Account Required on PC
PC players can have their cake and eat it too, considering Lost Soul Aside doesn’t appear to mandate a PSN account to play on PC. This knowledge comes from the Steam page which recently removed the Lost Soul Aside PSN requirement completely.
PS5 Pro Support Confirmed
Though details are scarce, Lost Soul Aside will be enhanced for the PS5 Pro. As with other Pro-supported games, expect improvements in visuals and framerate—but no exclusive content beyond technical upgrades.
Pricing and Platforms
Lost Soul Aside releases on August 29th for PS5 and PC. The regular edition will cost you $59.99 while the digital deluxe edition clocks in at $69.99. Digital Deluxe owners get three weapon fragment skins, an Arena skin, a health booster, XP booster, and a digital soundtrack with their game code.
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