Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Google Stadia
In a week where I reviewed two beat ‘em up/brawler games, if someone would have told me beforehand that I’d enjoy the one about a couple of teenagers trying to save their dad more than the one about giant monsters slapping the shit out of each other, I would have had a hard time believing it. Yet here we are, and the game Young Souls really took me by surprise. The former Google Stadia exclusive has finally arrived on other platforms, and I have to say, it was worth the wait.
Young Souls tells the story of two rebellious twin teenagers, Tristan and Jenn, as they become unlikely heroes after their foster father opens a portal to the goblin underworld and are tasked with saving him. It’s a decent story that is told mostly in conversations between characters, making reading through its dialogue easy and not overly convoluted. The twins, in particular, have great chemistry with a lot of funny back-and-forth throughout.
The presentation of Young Souls is pretty slick and feels like a cartoon you could watch right now. The characters and environments are colorful and varied, making it a game that is easy on the eyes. Don’t let that fool you though, Tristan and Jenn are pretty foul-mouthed, dropping F-bombs quite frequently. There is a profanity filter you can apply if you’re looking to play with a younger gamer though.
By day, the twins are able to visit a variety of places in town. They can hit the gym to raise their strength, health, or stamina, sell things at the pawn shop to get some extra spending money, buy new clothing, and more. Eventually, they’ll also be able to purchase and upgrade gear that will help them in their quest to save their foster dad. These are your typical items like weapons, armor, accessories, and potions.
At night, Tristan and Jenn will be able to put all that gear to use as they pass through the portal into the goblin realm. This is basically one giant dungeon that is broken down into a few different areas. You’ll need to advance in one area and find what’s known as a Power Rune in order to proceed to the next. Each section has a recommended character level you should be at to tackle it, and there are plenty of rooms to explore, treasures to find, and bosses to defeat within. So, you’ll be coming back to some sections in earlier areas as you get stronger to find better rewards. Progressing through the dungeon will also allow you to save a variety of NPCs that will in return help you in your quest.
Getting through the dungeon won’t come without a fight though. The twins will have to avoid traps and hack and slash their way through plenty of goblins and other monsters. You’ll be able to switch between Tristan and Jenn on the fly allowing for a bit of strategy in the gameplay. You can also outfit them with different equipment, which will allow you to be ready for different combat scenarios. After one takes damage, you can switch to the other, enabling the first to heal up a bit. If one twin does happen to fall in battle, the other can revive them, but each has a set number of lives per dungeon section.
There are a wide variety of weapons, ranging from tiny daggers to giant hammers. Weapons can also come with special attacks, as well as both buffs and debuffs. There are also armor sets that offer protection from different elements, so outfitting each character in a different way can be very beneficial in fights. All of this gear can even be upgraded by finding certain items in the dungeon. On the topic of gear, the appearance of your characters will change with each different weapon or armor they have equipped. Although not the most important aspect by any means, this is always a little touch that I appreciate.
The combat in Young Souls is typical of a 2D brawler, and it’s fast-paced, fluid, and well implemented. On the surface, it seems pretty straightforward, but if you dig deep enough, there are plenty of advanced tricks you can learn outside of just button mashing. Parrying, in particular, plays a pivotal role in combat. You need to parry some enemies to cause decent damage to them. There are also bosses that are parry resistant, so you’ll have to parry them multiple times if you want to eventually get the full benefit. Successfully parrying also rewards you with Mana, which is used to perform your weapons’ special attacks. The bummer about this is that I found the timing of parrying to be very finicky, which made some fights far more brutal than they needed to be.
Honestly, combat in Young Souls is a lot tougher than I expected it to be. The game offers up four default difficulty levels, Relaxed, Balanced, Challenging, and Expert. The game actually recommends you play on Challenging, but I know my skill level, so I started on Balanced. Eventually I had to drop it down to Relaxed and some boss fights still kicked my ass early on.
It is worth noting that there are even more options to reduce difficulty for those that are struggling. You can modify a bunch of things like how much damage the player and enemies deal, attack speed of both the player and enemies, or even turn on autoblock. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to mess with these options, but I like that they are there, making this is a game that should be accessible to nearly everyone.
Young Souls also features RPG elements like gaining XP, which will allow the twins to level up and improve their stats. Unlike other RPGs though, in order to level up you’ll have to go back to Tristan and Jenn’s bedroom and sleep. This reinforces the day-and-night gameplay cycle and will also have you making strategic decisions about when you’ve been in the dungeon for long enough. It’s an interesting take on traditional-RPG mechanics that ensures that you’re changing things up from time to time.
Now onto the biggest problem I faced during my time with Young Souls. I played it on the Xbox One, it wasn’t without its technical issues. There were more than a few times that the game suffered from slow down and stuttering. I had some issues with the inventory menu glitching out and not allowing me to change weapons or armor. One of my characters fell through the floor and began sinking into the abyss until I fast traveled away. There were even a couple of occasions where the game completely froze forcing me to restart it. I’d like to say these issues didn’t affect my experience too much, but with a game that’s only around 10 hours long, I’d say the frequency of problems was a bit too high for my liking. I can’t speak about how it runs on other platforms, but just know there is a possibility for some issues like this.
Young Souls was a game that I didn’t even know existed a few days ago, and it came out of nowhere and really surprised me. The main characters, Tristan and Jenn, are loveable assholes, the combat is fast and fluid, and exploring the goblin underworld was just an enjoyable experience. The version I played (Xbox One) had its fair share of technical problems, but nothing so bad that it ever made me want to throw in the towel. It’s honestly one of the better games I’ve played so far this year and I’d highly recommend checking it out.
