Young Souls Impressions/Review

With the recent release of such big AAA titles taking up everyone’s time (coughEldenRingcough), indie games often times get looked over or missed completely. There’s only so many hours in a day after all, and in these modern trying times those with the most marketing dollars/word-of-mouth spread tend to stay more relevant in the current gaming zeitgeist. Luckily, your friendly Mog pal has got you covered, as he scours the recent release list on Steam every week as a habit, almost like a weekly ritual. Totally not due to his bias for indie games that doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention but deserves that and the entire world just for getting their game out there in the world.

This time around, I’m talking about “Young Souls”, released by French Studio 1P2P on March 10th, 2022. It was originally a Stadia exclusive late last year, but now it has officially been released for all modern consoles. I originally learned of this game through one of those Xbox Game Pass “coming soon” trailers that they do, and the art and plot premise is what caught my eye. Fast forward to today, instead of spending a day off playing a more recent “Souls” game I spent my time playing and experiencing this game. And boy, was it a solid-ass fun time.

To be honest, I haven’t been playing or at least sticking onto many games these past few months. Either I’m busy with work or other projects, or just not getting the feel for a game that I am trying out. Even with Elden Ring, its massive scope and vastness is a bit too anxiety-inducing to me. My bottom line for me is that it is a time commitment, one where in order for me to play this game and experience it I have to just keep at it, traveling and exploring and failing, over and over again. Don’t get me wrong, I do like how the game feels and how Fromsoft designs it. But as I get older and especially with the career I chose, time is a precious commodity at the moment. The question I ask myself, is it worth the popoff after finally beating a boss after an hour or so of willpower and determination, or should I spend that hour popping off at something else without the use of all that stress? And so, I took this weekend as a break to popoff at something else - a new game.

“Young Souls” is a solid beat-em-up where you play as these two punk teen twins: Tristin and Jenn. These two are quick to curse, don’t go to school, hang out on their rooftop of their really tall house, and run errands for their adoptive dad sometimes. All this is interrupted when goblins from the underground kidnap their father. And what do punk teens do when their not-dad dad gets kidnapped? You betcha, take up arms and travel through a goblin portal to wreak a trail of havoc on the way to a big bad goblin castle.

Let’s talk about the most solid thing about this game and why I got hooked: the gameplay. The twists this game adds to the 2D brawler formula are timed parries, changing weapon/armor loadouts for different gameplay, and being able to switch between the twins during combat.

The parries feel so good to hit, and all moves that can be parried are all telegraphed by purple flash on the enemy right before they strike, making it real easy to recognize and either learn or react to. That, combined with the handful of enemy types and strike patterns, makes for a rewarding time when playing. Even if parrying is not your thing, blocking and shielding is also a valid option for reducing damage. Oh, and you can also roll in different directions too, granted that you have enough stamina.

The game also gives you a variety of different weapons and armors to try out and equip. The armor is both cosmetic and has unique stats and effects, same with the weapons too. However, the armor also changes the weight of the twins, resulting in a slower move speed in exchange for better defense. There’s about four or five different types of weapons, ranging from daggers to swords to claymores to great axes to hammers. All have different attack speeds/playstyles and you can find some with unique abilities like being able to summon certain creatures or shoot fireballs. Not only that, there are six sub-weapons like a bow and arrow or a blood-draining field totem that really changes the flow of combat. Oh, and did I mention all this is upgradeable?

Adding all these with the ability to change between the two twins makes combat flow so well. With a press of the button, you can have one character attack and as the finish up their move, the other jumps in and gets ready to strike. I know this is also intended for 2 player couch co-op, but they did a real good job integrating it for single player too. With this, you can have two totally different play styles and swap between them at any time. Plus with things like charge attacks, aerial attacks, attacks that send enemies bouncing off the wall, and critical hits, the fights just flow so well to the point where it’s just addicting. For example, I had Tristin be a kind of tank with a heavy claymore and Jenn to be a “rouge” build with daggers that have her critical hits upon backstabs plus a teleport amulet that allowed her to zoom behind enemies. Near the endgame, fights became really easy with my playstyle to say the least.

Along with those aspects, I think the thing that just made me want to play it more is the linearity of it all. This game has four main areas, and each of those areas are a collection of dungeons with a clear end goal. You see treasure chests sometimes but at first you can’t open them. Not until you defeat a certain boss and get a master key from them. Then you replay the level and bam, level 100% complete. A majority of the time though you just run through the level, left to right, and just… beat it. No puzzles, no thinking too hard. Just some good old fashioned brawling. Sometimes you just need to play a game that gives you direction. Exploring is fun and all, but also gives me anxiety. Give me a clear goal and objective markers though and I’m all set. As long as the game feels good.

Now comes the only part of the game I wish was better: the story. Don’t get me wrong, I love the two main characters. They play so well off each other, and it’s been a while where I’ve seen good dialogue of teens cursing casually and it not being so cringe. The initial premise is pretty interesting, or at least has potential. However, the payoff at the end felt rushed and not very rewarding. There’s a lot of good moments in this game, but it doesn’t really add up together in a way that ties everything together. There’s still a lot of holes and loose ends in this story package. I wish there could have been more about the twin’s past, their relationship to their not-dad dad, and even the motivations of the big bad boss. But there are no answers to them. Only vague allusions where you can kinda piece together but not really, like how the twins say they were adopted not as children but as the teens they are now (which adds more questions than answers). Plus also they are really hesitant to call their adoptive dad “dad”, which gets resolved eventually but feels forced for some reason? You would think there would even be some like notes or books or environmental storytelling that would plug up those holes but alas, there are none. Only guesses with very little facts to grasp on.

Oh, and don’t get me started with all the attempts at character development. At best, it’s a bit spotty, and at it’s worst the connections between big ideas are far-reaching in their conclusions which one could say “well, they’re teens they don’t know any better” but at that point it feels like a cop-out. I won’t reveal any spoilers, but the final hour of this game did not resonate with me emotionally or tug any heartstrings like it felt like the game wanted me to. Which is disappointing, since I really did like these characters.

All in all, this is a pretty solid game and I’m glad I played it. As a game, I think it’s well designed and feels really good to play. As a story though, it falls flat on so many occasions. It had potential, but I never felt like it went all the way with the themes and emotions it wanted to project.

I don’t normally give games a score, but I will give it a Mog Knight Mog Stamp of Approval, with an added tag of this being a “fair” graded game. Like I said before, it’s a solid game-ass game. I highly recommend it if you want to play a fairly short, well-designed game-ass game that you can beat in a weekend. But if you’re looking for something compelling or truly memorable, maybe look elsewhere.

Oh, I forgot to mention, there is a mashing minigame in this game and it's very hard to get the max score of 5 stars. You better believe I popped off really hard when I did get 5 stars.