![]() While combat is fun in and of itself, it’s elevated thoroughly by the equipment system. There’s a very prevalent feeling of having to both utilize and understand all aspects of the combat, especially since you’ll always have a different preferred method of dealing with each enemy types and boss. Dodging, blocking, team-up attacks, sub-weapons, special moves-a wide variety of these are readily available to you as you progress, but they’re intelligently limited by cooldowns and resources to the point where none of them can be abused. The largest emphasis of the game’s combat is in executing well-timed parries by blocking just before an attack hits, and nailing a string of them against a boss before unloading as much damage as you can before they recover from their dizzy phase is beyond satisfying.īut parries aren’t the only tool at your disposal. ![]() When you hit an enemy you feel it, and the satisfying weight of the fighting is the core of what keeps you playing even after you said “just one more dungeon” two dungeons ago. For many titles these are elements you either have or you don’t, and Young Souls definitely has both of them in spades. ![]() You’re Gonna Parry That WeightĬombat feel and general fun factor are ubiquitous topics in the discussion of beat ‘em ups. Very few story beats occur save for those after major boss fights, and while you’ll still get to see plenty of banter between characters (and the twins especially), it never reaches the heights of the opening again. Sadly you’re never given much of a chance to do so, as the story takes a backseat once you reach the gameplay loop proper. It’s easy to assume there’s a lot more than meets the eye with Jenn and Tristan not unlike the goblins hiding below the surface, and it had me excited to learn more about the world and the characters inhabiting it. When you’re first introduced to the twins and their situation, mystery and intrigue abound. For better and for worse, Young Souls puts its best foot forward with an opening narrative focus inconsistent with the full experience. With all this said, the storytelling setup is a bit deceptive. ![]() You can’t work through much of the text in Young Souls without coming across some clever exchange or a bit of humor, and most of it sticks the landing despite it sometimes feeling like the game is attempting to reach a quirky quip quota. The primary players of the narrative offer a tangible charisma and charm to most all dialogue in the game. They’re mistrusted by a majority of the characters you interact with for reasons that aren’t immediately clear, and unearthing that mystery is an excellent motivator for the dungeon crawling in the early game.Īnd it isn’t just the twins’ dialogue that gets this attention to detail. For all their razzing of one another, they’re very similar people, and their close bond makes even more sense coupled with the context of their relationship with the townspeople. Their attitudes feel realistic, and their interactions authentic. To make a bad situation worse, the leader of the underground, Dwarvengobben, is planning a full-scale invasion to lay claim the surface, forcing Jenn and Tristan to stymie those efforts as best they can over the course of their search.Īs touched on in the preview, a lot of attention is given to the communication between the two siblings in Young Souls, and I would argue it’s the highlight of the narrative. It’s clear from the jump that this is a relatively new situation for everyone involved, but when the Professor suddenly vanishes and a portal is discovered underneath their home, the twins are thrust into an underground world of goblins, dungeons, and magic in order to save him. Jenn and Tristan are two rebellious twins living on the outskirts of a small port town with their adoptive father, a man known to almost everyone as the Professor. The comment was initially made with regard to the button-mashing minigames used to increase your stats, but the concern wound up being emblematic of the game’s issues as a whole. Before, I mentioned it was somewhat difficult to predict how certain mechanics would fare once they were embedded into a full ten-hour experience. With the wider release of Young Souls on March 10th, 2021, the game is now also available for PC (the version this review is based on), PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One. By and large, the general takeaway from my several hours with it was an exceedingly positive one, and I found myself excited to experience the whole kit and caboodle to wallop some goblins in full. At the tail end of last September, I had the opportunity to check out the demo for Young Souls, a previously Stadia-exclusive beat ‘em up developed by 1P2P and published by The Arcade Crew.
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