Lost Soul Aside, the project of one man

At the end of last week, and throughout the weekend, the annual ChinaJoy fair took place and was the perfect opportunity to pick up news of some Japanese productions that are among the most anticipated titles on next-generation consoles and on pc. In the beautiful panel of games that responded to the invitation, on was beyond thrilled to catch a glimpse of Lost Soul Aside. Casually, behind son mysterious title hides a game that has been in the news for several years: on December 15, 2014, Yang Bing posted one of his personal projects on YouTube, an animated scene (under Unreal Engine 4) of a little less of two minutes which will become the beginnings of Lost Soul Aside. A year and a half later, he hits hard with a first trailer for son “indie game” and caused a stir, now peaking at more than 4 millions views on the Google platform.

A dark character reminiscent of Noctis, a crystal, the most aggressive gameplay… Pretty much, Lost Soul Aside foreshadows the future of the Final Fantasy license and looks great for the time. ” Don’t give up on this project “, couldon read in the comments located under the video, and, indeed, Yang Bing clung to son idea, surrounding himself with a team freshly assembled for the occasion (the studio UltiZero Games) and concocting a full gameplay demo running on PS4 Pro at PlayStation Experience December 2017. Yes, Sony Interactive Entertainment spotted this gem to the point of bringing it son support by deciding to edit the project and include it in son China Hero Project program. Despite yet another trailer in August 2018, the enthusiasm around the project is settling a little bit: it must be said that it looks more and more like a new video game from Arles. However, this absence was necessary to better surprise us.

A project that has been constantly refined, year after year!

In the meantime, Lost Soul Aside understood that it was necessary to make oneself desired to arouse the attention of the public. It was a rather profitable strategy since its eighteen minutes of gameplay, broadcast at the end of April 2021, rekindled the flame of the hypesomehow. Even more striking graphics, ever more stunning visual effects, a tenfold range of moves and techniques, nervous gameplay that now turns frantic… UltiZero Games had effectively worked hard to make a comeback in force in the news. Except that with him, it’s more often the expression ” No news, good news which applies since Lost Soul Aside quickly resumed its habits by putting in place an additional period of radio silence, leaving us alone with the promises of this gameplay with small onions and a hybrid between Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry of the most promising. However, what Lost Soul Aside wish above all, is to reassure son audience, despite the accumulation of years and the wait for a release date.

Lost Soul Aside makes their stunning 2021 demo a reality

If he had not made the trip during the previous edition, Lost Soul Aside had made the decision not to return empty-handed during this meeting. As a gift or a small box of chocolates, the developers of UltiZero Games had made available a playable demonstration and which is none other than the sequence broadcast in April 2021. The risk taking is minimal, but this new perspective on the gameplay allows us to see that the action-RPG aspect is clearly punchyso much so that it could overshadow the fights of Final Fantasy 16 who could still boast of being supervised by Ryota Suzuki, the fight director of Devil May Cry ! Admittedly, Clive is a monster of power but Kazer, the main character of Lost Soul Asideseems to compensate for this lack of force gross by unparalleled agility : fast run, dodge, double jump, aerial dash, … The gameplay is twirling, certainly, but it also encourages aggression. As the 2017 gameplay extract already implied, UltiZero has apparently kept the idea that you have to attack son opponent to accelerate the filling of the dodge bar or even to perform a perfect pirouette to restore it completely.

On closer inspection, Lost Soul Aside doesn’t feel like it’s reinventing the wheel – most of the time, Chinese productions launched on the market international don’t really do office avant-garde – and could even leave indifferent in many respects : it only relies on the same and eternal extracts for a few months, gives no clue about son story – unless it is strongly set back like many beat’em all… – goes little into the details of the project (role-playing aspect, powers available, experience system, construction of areas, additional content , …), … In short, there is one more thickest fog that revolves around Lost Soul Aside that it is necessary to dissipate ahead of its release which would be, in the best case, scheduled for next year (without launch window, for the moment). So, to better drown the fish, Lost Soul Aside relies on what it knows how to do best, that is to dazzle us, without totally sweeping away the feeling of being. (a lot) window dressing. At any rate, on will be satisfied with it and then, if theon look carefully at this demonstration from a new angle, on notice a lot already.

For example, unlike Clive who bat to the sword and only alternates between the powers of the Primordials, Kazer adopts various styles (light sword, heavy sword) which he sometimes completes with magic attacks to distance and powerful strikes. Thanks to the support of son familiar (a species of dragon-like entity), it also deploys another range of moves, feeding a ranking system à la Devil May Cry which, here, increases visibly. In the same way, on distinguished an experience/level system (of which on waiting for more details) since an encrypted icon appears near the life bar of opponents (normal, sub-boss, boss) – some even have a high amount of HP, like on sees it with the multiple bars symbolized by points luminous – as well as a “shock” gauge delivering a series of devastating blows. Yes, it’s flamboyant, promising and its greater depth of action could do Final Fantasy a disservice. And if it was him, the perfect fusion between FF and DMC? Meeting on PS5 And computer in 2024in the best of cases, to have the end of this burning question.