Young souls may be the best reason to turn on Stadia in ages


Among the new releases this week, I’d be forgiven if Young Souls were to be missed. This is why you probably didn’t give it the time of day – the game is exclusive to Stadia timed. Don’t close this tab! The game is coming to other platforms this fall. I can’t wait for that day to come because I’ve been several chapters in the game and I’m having so much fun I’m upset that you can only play it on Stadia right now.

At its core, Young Souls is a two-player beat ’em up in the vein of Streets of Rage or Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It also has an RPG-style progression and a dungeon crawling structure. As two orphaned twins, Jen and Tristan, you are living a mundane life with your foster father, a wacky scientist, in a small town. What is not boring is that your father figure has been kidnapped by “gobbons” (basically goblins) and taken to a fantastic underground world. Since Jen and Tristan are rebellious teenagers, they are more than happy to grab a sword and fight through the dungeon floors to rescue him.

The elegant presentation of Young Souls was the first thing that convinced me. His animated construction-paper-like art looks amazing, and I especially love his dramatic camera angles during cutscenes. It’s definitely one of those games that looks best on the go. I am also researching writing. Due to their parentless upbringing, Jen and Tristan have some troubles and have earned a reputation around town as known troublemakers. Their “us versus the world” attitudes could easily have been irritating, but I find them endearing so far. His conversations with other characters, especially gobbons, have been lighthearted, silly, and funny. When they are not criticizing the world or each other, they are reflecting on related issues, as if they are comfortable calling the scientist their “daddy.” The great story about the relationship between the human world and the goblin kingdom has also kept my interest.

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As a fighter, you are mixing light and heavy attacks that feel quite good to execute, thanks to the satisfying weight behind them. That does not mean it is deliberate. The action is fast, fluid and easy to combine, but you also have to manage to dodge thanks to a resistance bar. The twins are equipped with a shield that is used to block and parry attacks, the latter of which opens up enemies for a counterattack or, better yet, to be picked up and launched against their allies. Young Souls combat isn’t breaking new ground, but it’s well-designed and a lot of fun. Smaller grunts and big bosses can be tougher than you’d expect, and that keeps the game from feeling too insane as you need to stay on point when it comes to knowing when to attack, defend, or score. Yes, there are times when enemies are not aligned with your attacks that way, but that is an inherited problem that I, as a fan of the genre, can tolerate. So far, Young Souls plays like a dream is shaping up to be one of my favorite fighters in recent times.

The game supports two players, but I play solo and still have a good time. You can switch between each twin on the fly in solo play, giving you two health bars. The partner that is tagged gradually regains health, and when one twin falls, you can revive that brother using the other. Jen and Tristan each have a limited number of lives, so it is important to monitor their health and implement consistent etiquette during hectic situations.

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Jen and Tristan perform identically, but you can tell them apart by upgrading their stats and equipping armor and weapons. Between nightly dungeon races, you’ll spend the day exploring the city to buy fancy outfits, sell trinkets for cash, and upgrade your basic attributes by going to the gym (as long as you have a special token). Completing mini-games of simple exercises like the bench press or cycling can increase the strength, endurance, and endurance of each calf. If you’d rather Jen be faster and Tristan be the heavy hitter, you can. Or you can update them anyway. Do what works for you!

I have a long way to go, and the game could always plummet, but I can confidently say that, at this point, Young Souls is well worth watching. Thanks to its tight playability, sharp writing, and eye-catching presentation, it’s so much more than your standard beat ’em up. While its timed exclusivity is a good fit for Stadia, it presents an unfortunate dilemma. Most people will probably pass the game simply because Stadia is, well, Stadia. When it hits PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC sometime this fall, you might get lost in the confusion of big Christmas releases. Right now is the perfect time for something like this to come out, which makes it frustrating that I’m on a platform that many people seem apathetic (and understandably) at best. So if you’re a Stadia user or willing to give it a try, Young Souls has been one of the best reasons to start it in a long time so far.

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