There are some games that try to mash the best parts of other genres together. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don’t. Young Souls succeeds in some areas but fails in others. It has some great ideas, but also some frustrating elements.

Young Souls is a Side-Scrolling Beat-Em-Up inspired by all sorts of different genres. It can be played in both single-player and co-op with two people. If you play in single-player, you play as both Jenn and Tristan, twin siblings that you can alternate between at the push of a button. Jenn and Tristan find themselves in the midst of a conflict between the human realm, and the long-forgotten Gobbon (Goblin) race, who were forced underground by humanity years ago.

Young Souls takes place in two stages. By day you spend your time in the town above ground, shopping, talking to townsfolk, and preparing for your excursions belowground. You can sell unwanted items at the pawnshop to get human money, which can be used to buy cosmetic clothing.

You can use Goblin currency to buy sneakers that give you buffs or go to the Goblin Market and buy (or upgrade) weapons and armor. You can also upgrade accessories (like bombs) underground at the market as well with the right currency. Additionally, you can purchase consumables such as healing and mana potions.

In dungeons, it plays out like a Beat-Em-Up style game mixed with a souls game. You can attack, use special weapon abilities, roll, or guard. Guarding allows you to parry attacks, and at higher difficulties, it can be essential to your survival. Depending on how hard your difficulty is, each twin can run out of HP and be revived a certain number of times.

However, if you find that even on the easiest difficulty the game is too difficult (due to reflex issues etc), Young Souls’ accessibility options allow you to alter how much damage enemies do, or even things like their speed, or your own damage output. These accessibility options are great, as they open things up for people of all skill types and capabilities.

There are a few issues, however. For one, the game sometimes has stuttering problems, especially when opening the equipment menu or transitioning from combat to a story scene. Additionally, sometimes the equipment menu would glitch out, making me unable to change weapons or armor until I moved to a new area.

Another issue is that the Happy Fit gym, which is used to upgrade your stats, is entirely a button-mash mini-game. This is incredibly inaccessible for a game with great accessibility options. My thumbs felt like they were going to fall off after a few times of trying the mini-games to passively boost their stats.

The art style is absolutely fantastic, but the story is a little uneven. There are some funny, meme-esque moments that play on the absurdity of the situation. At the same time, there are comedy bits that run too long, and some that just sort of land flat. However, with the art style and the fun gameplay, I think a few comedic misses are a small price to pay.

Other than the framerate issues and the occasional freezing or stuttering, I think Young Souls is a great experience. It’d be super fun to play with a friend or significant other, and with the accessibility and difficulty options, you can tailor the experience to match whoever you’re playing with. I don’t normally like Beat-Em-Ups this much, but I think Young Souls has something special here. It’s a hidden co-op gem for sure.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Young Souls was provided by The Arcade Crew for this review.

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Young Souls

$24.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Interesting Premise
• Fun Characters and Story
• Smooth Combat
• Accessibility Options for Difficulty
• Multiplayer and Singleplayer Modes

Cons

• Stuttering and Lag
• Happy Fit Training is too Button-Mashy
• Inventory Glitches