Young Souls

Great game. I played solo, so can't speak to co-op. Pros and Cons below:
Pros
- Combat is fun, simple and addictive
- Loop is also quite addictive once you get into it
- Narrative is well thought out and executed
- Absolutely gorgeous visuals and the cinematics are great
- Mostly bug free. I did get one UI bug that blocked some functionality, but it only happened the once and it fixed itself by continuing to play. Had a few camera issues too, but purely visual and resolved themselves instantly
- You are constantly getting cool new armour and weapons with actual notable abilities beyond just raw stats (but yeah, they've got those too)
Cons
- There's one section near the end of the game that forces you to use preset weapons and have 1 health. This feels awful if you don't like those weapons' attacks or you've been putting extra points into health
- Maybe it's just me (I'm not usually a Beat 'Em Up player), but there's a bit too much reliance in combat on hiding "under" enemy sprites
- The start of the game is brutally difficult until you break through the wall and "get it". It clicked for me when I stopped treating it like a Beat 'Em Up and started treating it like a Soulslike
- After the brutal difficulty up front (the very first boss has heatseeking missiles, hits through your dodges, can infinitely stun lock you, can't be parried and can 2 hit you) it peters out into baby-easy fights towards the end (except for the actual final boss, which is suitably difficult). It fits the narrative's tempo (mostly), but feels a bit stilted
- Lots of repetitive fast travel cinematics that don't actually seem to cover load times. These are awesome details the first few times, but very quickly graaaaaate on your nerves while finishing things up
- For 100%ers, there are difficulty achievements. I played on the 3rd of 4 difficulties and the beginning was brutal. I don't know that I have the desire to play the whole game again with an even harder start
- A lot of the equipment is meh. I love the equipment design over all, but nothing felt as good to me as the sword 'n' board. I didn't find much use for elemental stuff outside of one freeze ability

Paused the game just to leave this review, after my nth time fighting a specific boss where everything is a one-hit kill and you can't use any of your kit. Maybe it wouldn't annoy me so much if I hadn't spent all my fitness tickets boosting defense. Pretty big oversight.
I started with a thumbs-down, but there were some things I enjoyed so this is a very tentative thumbs up. Combat was varied enough but wide swinging weapons have a clear advantage by allowing you to stay vertically safe and still hit enemies. I love parry/riposte combat but daggers never really came into their own; it felt like the reward never outweighed the risk. Sword and shield was safer and still did just fine parrying, plus swords have overall better benefits. I usually felt that when I died, it was my own fault, or it was learning enemy patterns, for the most part. Except being forced to use two specific weapons for the previously mentioned one-hit kill boss, which is itself just a slog. I challenge you to find someone who thought that fight was fun or had interesting mechanics.
The idea behind cosmetics is great! But you can only see them in town, because armor overrides all cosmetic stuff. And you spend the overwhelming majority of your time in dungeons, only exiting for minor story advancements, upgrades, and sleep (level-up.) I am so curious as to why the sleep-to-level-up system was implemented.
The dialogue was fun, especially with the receptionist and mayor.
So yeah, I did enjoy the game but with some major caveats and QoL oddities.

Highly recommended!
The art style is gorgeous, combat is fun and engaging.
It's got a soft loot system and playing co op with a friend makes this game a hidden gem.
It deserves way more recognition.
Try it.

It's a good game, fun to play with a friend. decent story, good combat, flexible difficulty options and accessibility options are plentiful, making the game a cakewalk if you wanted to. howver a MAJOR point of frustration is that for some dumb reason the camera is centered on the male protagonist. whoever is controlling the sister is left high-and-dry and is often offscreen. doesn't make it unplayable, but it is very, very irritating.

i've looked several times and there is not an option to fix this.

Don't generally write reviews, but this game deserves one. It's a great beat'em up, with fun fighting mechanics, nice graphics and just the right amount of minigames.
The game is challenging until the end, then it becomes extremely easy, due to being overleveled and improving weapons and defense. I did not grind, one completed 100% of dungeons. That was enough to get there.
The story is a little lacking, but it's solid. I hoped that there was a bigger character development, but I guess that makes sense for punk teens.
Pretty neat characters, speaking of which. Edgy, but not at a point to be rude for no reason. Just teens being teens. Fits the narrative.
Overall, great game.

Me and my buddy only played this game on the hardest difficulty, so my review might be biased. So, this was definitely a hard game, but fun. It did not feel very "balanced", but the controls are tight, the visuals are perfect, the story is neat, the characters are fun, the sound effects must be good because I have nothing to complain about.

What bad stuff to expect:
- In couch coop, camera follows P1. Some rooms are LORGE so P2 might suffer.
- The rare resources (black gold and diamond) are rare. AFAIK, you can't farm them. So, you should wait before using them, or use them on weapons you're MOSTLY sure you will use the entire game.
- The game is harder at the beginning (hardest mode). Big enemies ONE-SHOT you, and it sometimes feels unfair. HOWEVER, once you adapt to the game, you learn what to-do, and what not-to-do. Then you find good armor, and you can survive a hit, and the game becomes easier (mostly because you've become good at surviving).

Anyways, it was hard, and it was fun. I am starting a guide.

Is a nice dungeon crawler for what it is, I played it coop so I don't know the solo run is like. I wish there was more to do in the town, except for the shoes shop. And the only currency that had any value was the gold coins, the dollars you get from the pawn shop was only use for cosmetics. Also the bows as the best idea in the game, there was no competition for it at all.