READY TO RUMBLE
The 2D brawler has been having something
of a resurgence recently, from the remaster
of former Xbox Live Arcade cult hit Castle
Crashers to River City Girls that gives a
refreshing gender-flip to the long-running
Japanese Kunio-kun series. Incidentally,
Young Souls’ most formidable rival comes
from its own publisher Dotemu and
developer Lizardcube’s hotly anticipated
revival of a Sega classic with Streets of Rage
4. It’s good healthy competition though,
while Young Souls’ light RPG elements also
allow it to stand out.Early AccessAttract Mode
everything to bully them, from their hair to
the fact that they’re orphans.”
In the face of all this, it’s up to the duo
to save the town that rejects them, as
unbeknownst to the rest of the human
population, a goblin race from deep
underground is slowly digging its way
up to invade the surface. On a more
personal level, the twins are also out to
rescue their kidnapped adoptive father,
the Professor, who’s housing a portal in
his secret lab that transports them to
goblin-infested dungeons. With a story
penned by Matthew Ritter, whose credits
include Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead as
well as titles such as Life is Strange 2, there
definitely appears
to be more to Young
Souls than just
dungeon-brawling.
Combat is certainly
the main focus for
the demo, however, and it feels positively
slick in its animations, aided by a winning
pastel cartoon aesthetic that complements
publisher Dotemu’s previous releases, like
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. The action’s
fairly straightforward, as you progress
to an area and find the door sealed until
you’ve defeated all the spawning enemies.
As well as attacking with weapons, you can
also block with your shield, roll to dodge,
and make use of magic spells, all of which
are governed by stamina and mana gauges
respectively. These grunts aren’t pushovers
either, but most also leave behind a
generous dollop of hearts, and there
seems to be no limit on how often you can
revive your teammate to carry on the fight.
Defeating goblins will also earn you loot,
or more specifically a mixture of resources
from tokens to runes that can be used
to exchange better equipment in town.
(It’s amusingly apt for a game featuring
teenagers that, aside from all the expected
fantasy gear, buying cool sneakers is also
a way of altering your characters’ stats.)
It’s too early to tell just how in-depth theloot system and customisation will be,
though Fait says that the game’s crafting
system has been purposely designed to be
simple. “In fact, we wanted a kind of easy
co-op gameplay,” he explains. “And when
you play in co-op, you
don’t really take as
much time thinking
about what you’re
trying to make as you
might when playing
single-player. So we want something easier
to understand.”
After three years of development, the
main focus now is on getting the gaming
balance right before its 2020 release. But
Young Souls’ vibrant and likeable visuals,
accessible yet challenging co-op gameplay,
and a desire to tell a deep narrative
sounds like a winning combination.
Hopefully, it’ll also make Jenn and Tristan
poster children for redheads everywhere.“These kids are
considered outcasts.
They’re not really liked”more powerful gear is crucial to advancing
further into dungeons with more powerful
adversaries. At the centre of it, though, are
the Young Souls’ protagonists: twin siblings
Jenn and Tristan. As Fait points out, they’re
outsiders – a status neatly illustrated in an
early scene when someone in town snidely
calls them “ginger weirdos.” While games
have had their fair share of redheads
in the past, this definitely feels like the
first time we’ve noticed an overt case of
what some parts of the world, including
France, consider the last acceptable form
of prejudice. “We didn’t want to play with
that aspect at first,” Fait admits, mentioning
that he had picked their hair colour purely
as an aesthetic choice to make them stand
out in a positive way. “But these kids are
also considered outcasts. They’re not really
liked in the city, and people in town use
While primarily a co-op game, you can
also play with AI or opt for a hardcore
mode of switching between characters. That’s a cute moped to get around town, though whether or
not you can take it underground with you is another matter.Early AccessAttract Mode
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