Young Souls Review – Dungeon Brawling With The Best Of Them

Young Souls stars two orphans who are used to being overlooked, but their adventure should not be ignored. This RPG fighting game has more depth than your common beat ’em up thanks to slick combat, pleasant customization, and crisp writing. Whether you’re chopping down monsters alone or alongside a friend, fighter connoisseurs should take note.

Orphan twins Jenn and Tristan feel like they face the world. The foul-mouthed and hotheaded teens are conditioned to fend for themselves, earning a reputation as rowdy outcasts in their small town. The only person they respect is the teacher, their adoptive father who opened his house to them a year earlier. The three of them enjoy a harmonious yet emotionally awkward relationship, but things turn strange when the twins discover that the professor has been kidnapped. Even stranger, a portal in his laboratory reveals an underground world inhabited by goblins whose leader plans to storm his city. While that’s a problem, Jenn and Tristan’s main concern is rescuing the professor, and they are more than eager to collect swords, shields, and other weapons to take down goblin after goblin that stand in their way.

Young Souls’ strong writing offers players an engaging cast and a more emotionally charged story than expected. Watching Jenn and Tristan reflect on their actions and discover that both sides of a conflict may commit atrocities with good intentions brings a welcome self-awareness. I also found it refreshing to see a villain genuinely concerned that invaders are systematically murdering his subjects. Twins feel serious and relatable rather than one-dimensional edgelords, especially when wondering if they’re ready to call the professor “daddy.”

Kicking goblins’ butt thanks to the fluidity of the combat and the shocking response of the landing blows. It doesn’t matter if you’re using daggers, swords, hammers, or heavy axes, stringing combos and air juggling baddies feel great. The time window for crashes and stops feels inconsistent, which is frustrating, but a successful stop triggers a satisfying slow motion effect. Upgradable secondary weapons add more depth, like a bow, screen-jumping teleportation spell, mob clearing bombs, and my favorite, a chain that pulls enemies towards you or vice versa. Young Souls may not break the mold, but it’s a blast to play.

Goblins pose a more significant threat than average beat ’em up fodder. They often avoid, block, and parry, presenting a pleasant challenge that prevented me from swinging my weapon without thinking. I was pleasantly surprised by how often I had to consider my offense rather than just hitting the attack button, especially against bosses. Some enemy types are annoying to deal with (shield-wielding spearmen block too often), but Young Souls takes the fight in the best light. I encourage experienced players to choose the difficulty recommended by the developer.

Playing alongside a friend is probably ideal, but co-op is local only, unfortunately. Still, I’m impressed with how much fun Young Souls is to play alone. An impressive tag team system lets you quickly swap between siblings with the push of a button that you can use to set up cool combo chains. This is great for doing dramatic saves in a split second, as each sibling has their own health bar and a limited number of revs. I like the fighting game strategy behind constantly tagging in / out to allow the other twin to rally while mixing up their offense.

Jenn and Tristan initially play identically, but that changes in a fun way as they each have their own load. Weapons and armor fundamentally alter their playstyles based on their weight and type. For example, I had Jenn emphasize quick attacks and evasion, while Tristan became my deadly tank. The game is at its best when you have two different twins to cover your bases against all threats, but having both play similarly is also a valid strategy. My Jenn’s faster build fared better against a slow boss, so duplicating that strategy helped me take her down faster.

The structure of Young Souls resembles a condensed race-based dungeon crawler. You’ll fight your way through enemy rooms to earn treasures, resources, and keys to unlock new areas and chests. The level design is largely straightforward for a fault. The game mixes things up with boss challenges and encounters against a legendary warrior who rewards a new type of weapon each time he is defeated. The most imaginative level pits players against ghosts that you can only kill with a particular weapon; however, the weapon makes you vulnerable to a one-hit kill. Young Souls can stand to shake up your exploration this way more often, as most of the levels feel too mundane. On the bright side, backing up to catch all the items is a breeze thanks to a flexible fast travel system, numerous checkpoints, and the fact that the map marks locked chests. Young Souls may be the funnest game to be 100 percent completed in some time.

Between dungeon races, you’ll ride your moped around town to sell items and buy outfits, including upgrade-granting sneakers. You can even go to the gym to complete simple but enjoyable exercise mini-games to improve the physical attributes of the twins. However, coming home to level up is a bit of a hassle, as is the fact that you can’t equip battle gear in the human world.

As the kind-hearted professor learned, give Jenn and Tristan a chance, and they’ll impress you in more ways than one. Young Souls is an exceptional adventure not to be missed if you are looking for the next great game to tackle with a friend or want a quality RPG fighter to dig in alone.