People call them outcasts. Screw people.

Gorgeously animated, Young Souls draws you in with its distinct art direction that keeps you playing.

Young Souls features precise gameplay mechanics wrapped inside a profound story with unforgettable characters and intense combat. Penned by Matthew Ritter (The Walking Dead game, Nova Phase graphic novels), Young Souls draws players into a familiar place teeming with nostalgia and adventure where everything is possible.

Jenn and Tristan are two teenagers twins who find themselves suddenly abandoned and without a family until a good-hearted scientist adopts and brings them into his home settled within a small port town. Life in Portsbourgh for Jenn and Tristan proves uneventful. Uneventful, that is, until they uncover a portal to another world which threatens the very existence of life on Earth as we know it. The alternate world is filled with goblins, friends and foes, but Jenn and Tristan are used to going it alone and set out to navigate this strange new world - all was going well, until it wasn’t.

Publisher The Arcade Crew and developer 1P2P announced that Young Souls is reaching Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in addition to the previously announced release on PC via Steam.

Today’s announcement trailer finds misfit orphans Jenn and Tristan clashing with powerful otherworldly fiends in new gameplay showcasing the game’s intense boss battles. The twins wield a sampling of the expansive arsenal of weapons and unique gear players can find in the game against some of the game’s mightiest enemies, with each plunge into its beautiful but deadly dungeons offering a chance to earn powerful new loot.

“With Young Souls, our goal from day one was to make boss fights the core of the game experience” said Jérôme Fait, co-founder of 1P2P Studio. “We worked hard on these fights to make them as thrilling and rewarding as possible."

The gameplay was partly inspired by games straight out of the old-school, 2D beat ’em up genre and partly by our personal influences, which lean towards 3D beat ’em ups and more modern games. Probably the best example of the latter’s influence is the fast-paced gameplay we’ve infused into Young Souls; things definitely move quicker than the classic titles, which tend to be more deliberate in nature (but no less captivating!)  

Over the course of the game, you’ll face a bunch of mid-bosses whose main role is to introduce a new enemy behaviour or a weapon/accessory that the player collects and gets to use once the mid-boss is defeated. Defeat Mohm, a spooky giant spider, and you’ll be able to fight with its mandibles that can spawn friendly poisonous spiders – the perfect weapon to deal with an enemy crowd.

The main bosses are a key part of the story, and so these confrontations constitute recognizable peaks in both the story and the gameplay. Gameplay-wise, the main bosses represent true challenges to your progression through Young Souls, testing your mastery of the game’s combat system by unleashing a combination of different attacks that you’ll need to defend against and counter.

For the art direction, we worked with Xavier Houssin, one of our favourite character designers in the business. He designed all of the characters in Young Souls, including (obviously) all of the bosses – with which we took two totally different approaches regarding design. 

For the mid-bosses, the guidelines for Xavier were very game design focused, with the art direction being influenced by the gameplay. This meant that Xavier worked off of a very ‘functional’ description of each monster and an estimation of its size. A gigantic but slow mecha is the perfect way to introduce you to bombs or a stealthy assassin is a great enemy to learn how to parry and counter-attack. 

However, for the main bosses this approach was reversed: Xavier worked off of the story guide and a ‘screenplay sheet’ we created. This ensured that the gameplay wouldn’t interfere with his ability to shape the characters to his own vision. For Kah-Kon, Xavier wanted him to have a massive Morgenstern for a weapon. Conveying the weight of such a massive weapon was tricky but given how important this boss is, we just had to pull this animation off! 

Designing the bosses in Young Souls was no small task, but in the end it was worth it because the game gives a lot of freedom to the player. You’ll discover all kinds of weapons and accessories, each with their own uses and effects: magma swords, gladiator shield, freezing blades, anti-poison armor, XP-boosting Sneakers or a grappling hook….we’ve got you covered.

Since the bosses have to defend themselves against a variety of attacks (especially when you can play the game in co-op with another player), we made a point of personalizing each boss with multiple behaviours. The destructive Fazmore can either attack you with lasers and fireballs so long range attacks are definitely advised… but if you’re playing it too safe, he’ll teleport right in front of you and give you a punch you’ll never forget. 

Of course, we also made sure to give each boss its own weak spots as well as some resists to certain elementary attacks or accessories. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that once you get the hang of the game, you’ll discover some awesomely powerful combos that bring a huge advantage against certain types of enemies.

Throughout the development of Young Souls, our goal was to challenge players via a rapid evolution of the bosses’ skills during each encounter. To achieve this, we created a ‘life system’ for the bosses that allowed us to make each fight unique. Every time a ‘life’ is taken from a boss, its behaviour evolves. This gives you the opportunity to enjoy increasingly satisfying gameplay runs; every time you defeat a boss, a new milestone is reached and you become even more engaged in measuring your progression from one run to the next.

Young Souls features intelligently designed drop in/drop out mechanics, meticulously and gorgeously rendered environments to play in, set to a beautiful original soundtrack scored by Joachim Neuville (Inside My Radio). Players can train, collect gold and raid in dozens of dungeons with a variety of weapons, but will have to be careful that Jenn and Tristan don’t meet an early demise.  

Key Features

• Fight with Jenn and Tristan, solo or in co-op, and experience the adventures of the twins and the two worlds through a beautifully crafted story and polished dialogue.
• Customise your gear by unlocking hundreds of weapons, armour sets and accessories, and then prepare to fight hordes of enemies and over 20 fearsome bosses.
• Explore the four unique biomes of the goblin world and complete dozens of dungeons in your quest to save the world, your reputation and the professor.
• Pass from one world to the other through day and night and make the most of each environment. Enjoy stunning scenery and a unique atmosphere as you wander the streets of Portsbourgh.

Currently available on Google Stadia, Young Souls is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam) in Fall 2021 for $24.99.