The China Hero Project is an initiative established by PlayStation to mentor and support Chinese developers, helping them bring their games to life and reach a broader global audience. The next game to be released as part of this initiative is Lost Soul Aside, developed by Ultizero Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

This project was one of the first things that caught my eye when I booted up the game, and I felt obligated to look up what it’s about. The more I learned, the more I wanted to mention it, at the very least, and help shine a light on a program that is giving a platform to talented developers who might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Lost Soul Aside clearly draws inspiration from RPGs as well as other genres, with the most obvious influence being Final Fantasy XV. It’s a mixed bag of ideas, where some really work while others fall short.

The first of these misses is the narrative; you play as Kaser, a strong fighter who has joined a group named GLIMMER, fighting back against a tyrannical empire. It’s a fun introduction, but as time goes on, it slowly becomes convoluted as more characters, lore, and significant events are introduced without much explanation.

It’s hard to care about the story and these characters when you can’t form any emotional attachment to them. Adding to this is the weak writing, which may potentially stem from translation issues and voice acting that leaves much to be desired, at least in English. The silver lining I’ll give it is that the set pieces are incredible to watch, and I won’t spoil those. The banter between Kaser and Lord Arena was enjoyable for the most part.

While I found the game to be on the easier side, the combat is where it truly excels. The constant action rarely gets boring thanks to the variety of ways you can approach each fight. Kaser starts with a sword, but before long, you’ll also have a greatsword, poleblade, and scythe at your disposal.

Defeating enemies grants XP that can be spent on a fairly bare bones skill tree, unlocking upgrades like increased health, additional trinket slots, and new attack combos. Experimenting with these abilities and working out attack patterns feels rewarding, but that’s not all. Once you throw in dodges and parries, the combat becomes free-flowing and incredibly satisfying.

Very early on, you’ll meet a dragon named Lord Arena. Kaser fuses with the dragon to gain powerful abilities. This Arena Power adds another factor to combat, allowing you to unleash special skills once enough energy has been built up.

With a simple button press, you can summon abilities ranging from shields, draining life from your enemies, and even hovering, fantasy-style machine guns that mow down anything in sight. Filling the energy bar completely unlocks the ultimate ability, Fusion Merge, activated by pressing R2 and L2. Lord Arena amplifies Kaser’s attacks for massive damage, which I found worked best after staggering an enemy with a parry.

Speaking of parries, the timing window is quite forgiving, just like the perfect dodge, which suggests to me the developers intentionally leaned towards an easier difficulty to keep the combat fun. And I think that’s okay, since the combat is by far the best part of the game.

The other big standout is the boss fights, and even though some of the bosses felt like sponges with multiple phases, it never felt like a chore thanks to the combat I’ve mentioned above and the spectacle of the fights themselves. Bosses come at you with flurry after flurry of beautiful attacks, and yet the performance never dropped despite a lot going on. Add in the fact that parrying and dodging through the onslaught makes you feel like a god.

You aren’t waiting long between boss fights either, as the level design is fairly linear, except for some open-world sections. After mowing your way through rank-and-file enemies that are nothing more than a way to showcase your abilities, you are back at another boss fight. For example, throughout one section, I fought four different bosses in approximately 30 minutes.

I do think the linear level design may cause the gameplay to feel repetitive for some. When you’re not fighting, you’ll find platforming sections, but the slightly janky controls and animations can make these feel more tedious than rewarding. And since they can’t be avoided due to the game’s linear design, I couldn’t help but wish for a few more open areas to break things up and add some variety.

Thankfully, the world design is stunning. Big, gorgeous backdrops appear on the horizon, including ancient temples, lush hills, and fantastical dungeons with an impressive sense of scale, at least spicing up the linearity. The character designs are also beautiful, all adorned in wonderful outfits that are classic for a fantasy game of this nature.

Graphically, it looks nice running on the base PS5; some areas look worse than others, but overall, it’s a pass from me. It wouldn’t be a fantasy RPG without mentioning the soundtrack, and here, nothing significant stands out. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it’s pretty standard across the board, and that’s fine.

Overall, Lost Soul Aside is packed with fantastic ideas, though not all of them land. Its bombastic boss fights, beautiful character designs, and exhilarating combat make it well worth experiencing. Still, a forgettable narrative and some repetitive design keep it from fully reaching the heights it aspires to.

Written by: Dylan Kocins