'Young Souls' Is a Nostalgic RPG Beat 'em Up Gushing With Style

This morning The Arcade Crew revealed Young Souls, a vibrant new RPG beat 'em up that is pushing [...]

This morning The Arcade Crew revealed Young Souls, a vibrant new RPG beat 'em up that is pushing literally all of our gooey nostalgia-buttons. It's fresh and familiar at the same time. It's neo-nostalgia, if I may coin a phrase. If you're a sucker for RPG progression mechanics, and you used to pour all of your quarters into the side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade cabinets back in the day, then this is the game for you. Check out the reveal trailer above!

"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."

Young Souls has a lot going for it. We have a novel pair of protagonists that are neither helpless, nor stereotypically hardened and invincible. They're vulnerable, but in the same way an animal is vulnerable when it's cornered, and these young souls have some serious teeth. Hack and slash your way through beautifully-rendered dungeons, grow stronger, and earn tons of gold to spend on loot.

I am a total loot whore. It's why I love games like Diablo, Destiny, and Monster Hunter. This image makes me very happy:

young souls equipment
(Photo: The Arcade Crew)

The promise of treasure and upgrades galore is what has me most excited. The sweeping music, intriguing story, and hand-drawn visuals and animations are wonderful, but I'm here for that f#*kin' loot. Maybe I'm part Orc.

This looks like the perfect game to start on an early Friday afternoon with a buddy for a nonstop, weekend-long co-op session like we enjoyed in the good ol' days! Young Souls will be available for select media to preview during PAX West, so we should see some hands-on previews before too long.

We hope to get our hands on this one soon, and we'll make sure to update you guys with impressions and launch details as soon as we're able. Stay tuned!