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 Studio announced that Young Souls is bringing its fight against invading goblins to PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4 on March 10, 2022, and will also be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via backward compatibility.

The release date arrives alongside a new overview video, which follows protagonists Jenn and Tristan as they plunge into another world for tense, dungeon-clearing battles, eventually retreating to their sleepy town to catch a breath and prepare for their next fight. See how the duo juggle all-night fights against surreal foes as formidable warriors with leisurely trips around town as average, laid back teens during the day.

1P2P Studio also detailed Young Souls’ combat mechanics, how each hero’s style is boosted through visually unique equippable gear, inspirations for the game and more

A 2D brawler, yes – but also… 

With Young Souls, our original goal was to create the ideal beat ’em up game.  Baptiste (my 1P2P co-founder) and I really love classic 2D brawlers and we wanted to mix influences and concepts that were close to our hearts in order to create the core gameplay of Young Souls.

Two opposing worlds

The Young Souls universe is divided into two distinct worlds: the human world and the goblin world. Our heroes belong to the human world, and you’ll start your adventure with Jenn and Tristan in their everyday life before an unfortunate event opens a gate to the goblin world. This mysterious gate was discovered in the basement of their house and will be a key location to the game. Keeping the duality between the two worlds was key to us, and you’ll be able to travel between them throughout the game.

In the human world, you can roam freely from the twin’s manor to the city of Portsborough, where you’ll find multiple shops and habitants to talk to. In the city’s underground lies a way into the Goblin market, where hidden friendly goblins will offer you gear to overcome the difficulties that you’ll face in the goblin world’s many dungeons.

In fact, the goblin world is where the “action” part of the game is. You’ll explore and unravel its dangers as well as its many secrets. As you can imagine, the further you progress in the goblin world, the tougher your foes will be. In order to handle the game’s hordes of raging enemies, we built a progression and leveling system close to what an RPG offers.

The core influence of RPGs

In Young Souls, your heroes constantly evolve. Each time you level up your stats will rise, provided you get some sleep first.

Equipment also helps boost your stats. From dungeon to dungeon, you’ll find new weapons and combat gear. Each equipment is unique and offers exclusive features that allow you to personalize your experience and help progress your character the way you want. Also, most equipment can be upgraded via the many shopkeepers in the goblin market, helping to boost stats and unlock new capacities.

The twins’ abilities are derived entirely from their gear, and we’ve created a system that doesn’t restrict you to a single way of evolving. You can change a character’s build at any time – for example, going from a lightweight magician who attacks at a distance to a heavy soldier with a hammer who favors close-up fighting. Depending on the enemies ahead, it’s quite easy to adapt accordingly.

In solo mode, you can equip both characters individually and switch between them at any time. This opens up a system of devastating combos through the use of complementary weapons and spells.

Slaying goblins, and looking cool doing it

In Young Souls, another important feature for us was to make the equipment as visually distinct and visible as possible in-game. Thus, visual customization was a major part of the development process. We wanted our heroes to keep their adolescent appearances even while wearing their combat outfits. Following this idea, we created two coexisting customization systems: one that permits clothes customization that is purely cosmetic and allows you to express your own style for the heroes; and another that allows for combat gear to be worn over your character’s clothes during battle. These two systems allow for giving your characters a unique look – for example, combining medieval armor with a denim jacket and high-end sneakers! We’re quite proud of how this system works and we hope you’ll enjoy customizing your character’s look as much as we did while building this feature.

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) on March 10, 2022 for $24.99, and will also be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via backward compatibility.