Young Souls Review

Developed by 1P2P Studio and published by The Arcade Crew, Young Souls is the new 2D platformer on the block. The fiery twins in both hair colour and attitude are ready to step up and rescue the professor who has been looking after them as a carer. Little did they know the scientist was in possession of a Moon Gate portal that took them to another world full of goblins.

The story introduces you to the orphans Jenn and Tristan as they adjust to their life living with the professor. But after speaking with him and showing how much care he has for them gives them something to consider on how much they accept him as their new guardian. The professor is mysteriously captured one night upon and upon investigating you discover a moon gate which is a portal.  You pick up some basic weaponry and speak to an injured goblin who tries to explain who is and why the professor is in danger. After smacking some goblins about you soon learn that the connection between the worlds has been going on for a while. The professor and the mayor of the town have been providing safety for goblins for a while in their hometown. But the evil goblins are torturing the professor for information on how to accelerate their evil plan and it’s up to the twins to kick some goblin butt and save their guardian.

The game looks pretty good graphically, the animation is pretty decent, the background music and sound effects are pretty good. The music ramps up when you are in combat as you would expect but not to an annoying level. There is no dialogue as such here it is all text which makes it feel more comic book-like which I enjoy but some voice acting would have been a decent addition here. There is a lot of comical dialogue and some cursing to show their attitude. I am not sure I am too impressed with the level design though as it all feels very castle or dungeon-like. A lot of the areas seem very samey and the animation of kicking open the door does get a bit old after a while.

The gameplay is pretty tough at the start, and I struggled even on the Relaxed game mode, which is the easiest of the four. It’s because there are a few skills to master, and you can’t just treat it like a Streets of Rage beat ’em up. Although it is a scrolling beat ’em up, knowing when to attack is all about timing. The same with defence as it strongly encourages you to parry the enemy first before striking if you want to stand a chance. But this game caters for all with some accessibility options which allow you to tweak the game to level the playing field or just completely have the upper hand, so you are just shy of being in God mode. But the same applies the other way if you like having your arse handed to you and prefer them to hand it to you diced up then you can really ramp up the difficulty if you wish.

The controls are pretty simple and easy to pick up but there is a strong leaning on defence with this game. The first instruction is how to raise your shield. But you have your standard attack and holding the button does a heavy attack which later in the game has some cool effects too. You and roll for evasion but stamina is limited and needs to recharge. You can build up mana by hitting the enemy and once the gauge is filled you can perform a magic attack which differs per weapon you have equipped. Later in the game, you also can obtain an accessory that allows you to perform a special action like firing an arrow, teleporting or firing a hook to pull enemies closer but this also has a cooldown time. You can collect potions from breakable objects or that are dropped by enemies which can restore your health or mana which are strongly needed on the standard difficulty.

The game encourages you to make use of the twins as a gimmick. When playing solo you can tag out your enemy when you are low on health so they can recover. You can equip the twins differently so one does heavier damage but is slower and the other is faster and performs lighter attacks but is good at evading. When played as part of coop local only, the tag button becomes a tag special move and when you use a potion both of you benefit from it. If one of you gets downed then it is up to the other player to revive them but standing over their body and pressing the button quickly, but that isn’t so easy as the enemies can disrupt the revival process making it very tricky. But you can’t keep reviving each other either as you only have so many lives.

The boss fights are probably where the game challenges you most to test your reflexes and patience. Most of them have a pattern to their attacks but you still have to rely on timing to parry their attacks to get your shots in. But the bosses have some parry resistance, so you have to parry them a couple of times before they become vulnerable to a pummelling. But even once you pummel them some bosses have multiple health bars which are similar to like different forms. They attack slightly different on each form, so you have to be patient all over again to work out how best to beat them which is cool.

The game has some strange ideas though when it comes to levelling up and improving your stats.  Once you have earned enough experience to level up you have to leave the goblin world and head back to your bedroom and sleep. Whilst asleep you level up and your stats improve and on certain levels, you gain a token for the local gym to raise your stats. To use the token, you need to travel to the local town centre and head to the gym. The token can be used to redeem one of your stats like strength and stamina, but you don’t just get the stats you have to earn them in a minigame. It usually involves mashing a button to keep the marker in the green whilst your character works out the longer it is in the green the more stars you earn which in turn gets you more stats. It’s a novel way to do it and I am all for minigames, but it just feels like a lot of unnecessary travelling at times.

There is plenty of different weapons and armour to find in the goblin world and they each have different rarities and properties which some work better in certain dungeons or scenarios than others. It also depends on how you prefer to play. If you like wielding a massively powerful weapon you will gain a lot in weight which will make you move about the screen much slower. Or you can equip lighter dagger-like weapons and armour which will allow you to move with much more freedom. There is also currency and items to collect which can be used to buy other equipment or upgrade your current equipment which you will need as you progress.

There are 4 different areas to explore in the game and they are not massive, but they lock parts out until you find a certain key, or you reach a certain level to be able to take on the dungeon. So, there is a bit of backtracking to be done if you want the better equipment or you want to 100% every area for the completionist inside of you. All in all, the game could be completed in a week if not sooner if you have more time on your hands. But that is about the right size as I mentioned before a lot of the areas look the same and it does run the risk of getting a bit stale.

Conclusion

Young Souls is a scrolling beat ’em up with a few more ideas thrown into the mix. You can change the path you take slightly, and you have to earn your increase in stats. The twin’s functionality is a cool touch and playing with a friend is way more fun than by yourself. The game is meant to test your skills and patience but the added option to make it an easier ride will make it more accessible.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.