In addition to seeing Windjammers 2 and Streets of Rage 4 at PAX South 2020, there were two other games that were sharing booth space with DotEmu. Fellow French publisher, The Arcade Crew was showing of their one games, one of which was called Young Souls.
Young Souls is a beat em’up arcade style co-op game that has players take on the roles of twin bother and sister Jen and Tristian. The pair of teenagers have been abandoned and without a family until a good natured scientist decided to adopt them and bring them to his home in Portsbourgh. Life in Portsbourgh seemed to be quite enough, until they discover that their new caretaker has been captured by goblins from a portal to another world. Not wanting to lose the only person to ever care about them, Jen and Tristian take it upon themselves to save the scientist and the world. I’m keeping things vague with the story because I think its interesting enough that it should be experienced first hand.
The art is actually pretty interesting as when you think of beat em’ up with a fantasy setting, you tend to think of games like say Golden Axe, the Dungeon & Dragons arcade games, Gauntlet and many others. You don’t really think of two modern age looking teens delving into the depths, while living in a modern looking town.
As for the gameplay, the combat was pretty solid and fun, with having a variety of weapon melee options such dual wielding daggers or going with a sword/axe and shield combo. The best part is that Young Souls is a drop in/drop out co-op game, meaning that a friend can come in, help you out and then take off.
Final impressions: Young Souls, while it does everything that beat em’ ups have been doing for years, does it with style and still makes it fun. Young Souls doesn’t have an exact release date yet, but make sure to keep an eye on this one.
