Crossing Souls

The game starts great! It carries a lot of Stranger Things vibes and adds even more of that glorified American '80s attitude where every character is an over-the-top archetype. But pretty soon, the story tries to get mature and leave its Saturday-morning cartoon roots behind, and imo that’s where it fails.
There is way too much stuff crammed in for a cast that bland. A constructed twist here, a tearjerker there, another 'one-scene-and-done' dispute and every single character reacts in exactly the way you would imagine right from the beginning. At one point, a character complains that it’s starting to feel like an RPG and, honestly, that genre would have been better for the story. And since the game relies heavily on its narrative, it would have benefited the overall experience.
Gameplay-wise, the game does everything right IF you enjoy minigames. There are a lot of them, and they are unskippable. You should also have a soft spot for tactical boss fights that test your endurance. Besides that, it’s very enjoyable with a good amount of secrets and collectibles. The levels are crammed with detail, homages, and easter eggs.
The art style is appealing. The pixel art and the cartoon sequences try to emulate an '80s feeling, and if you haven’t experienced CRT screens yourself, they succeed. If you see it as 'Neo-Pixel Art,' it works great, and you can feel that a lot of love went into its creation.
I still recommend the game because it starts great and pulls you in with ease. When it starts to become weak you've already invested enough time to complete it.

Crossing Souls is a 2D beat-em up style game that some people says heavily lean on the height of popularity of Stranger Things and I'd say that's fair though it tried something drastic for the story and introduced very depressing topics for a PEGI 12-rated game. I could even go so far as to say that the progression of the story was heading in the direction suitable for a mature audience and implications of certain themes were sidelined because of the age rating. As for the gameplay it's a traditional beat-em up that tried different things at once but by the end of it feels underwhelming because some elements of it left so much to be desired. The utilization of characters and items are not optimal in which i end up with so many unusables though it makes sense for the sake of discontinuity of usage later but perhaps the game just wasn't design to be big and deep enough to begin with. All i can say try it if it's on deep discount for those who likes the art style but proceed with caution for 2D beat-em up fans cause this game won't sate that hunger for formidable fights. 7/10.

An incredible game covering friendship in the 80s.
Topped up with a really fun heartfelt story, great art style, animations and soundtrack.

One of the best and relaxing game for me and i finally finished the game with complete achievements. Didn't expect that this kind of game would be interesting for me and the story is rich. Highly recommended ^^

An insanely high quality game with a soul (no pun intended) put into it! I get many people's complaints about the game's change of tone past its beginning, but personally I wasn't expecting anything upon playing the game and appreciated it for what it is, which is a really nice adventure that always tries to surprise you with different puzzles and twists. The artstyle is very pretty, with scenes being full of details, and the synth soundtrack being the cherry on top. Highly recommended.

overall cool concept and fun gameplay. not perfect by any means but not bad

Five friends cross strange realms
A secret stone opens worlds
Childhood fades away