DotEmu’s new publishing label, The Arcade Crew, has announced their next title. The new game is Young Souls, an RPG / beat ’em up hybrid developed by France-based indie developer 1P2P Studio.

While the game has no release window or development platforms currently lined up, its teased as a narrative-driven RPG with beat ’em up mechanics, including “intense combat” and a “profound story with unforgettable characters” written by Matthew Ritter (The Walking Dead game, Nova Phase graphic novels).

Featured above, you can view the announcement trailer for the game. Here are the first screenshots:

Here’s a rundown on the game:

From The Arcade Crew (Blazing Chrome, Dark Devotion) and 1P2P (Inside My Radio – winner of Ludum Dare 23, Epistory Typing Chronicles) comes a touching and exciting new tale about life, family, adventure, and saving the world: Young Souls.

Gorgeously animated, Young Souls draws you in with its distinct art direction but keeps you playing via a deeply narrative-driven RPG beat-em-up that features clever crossover mechanics. 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.

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:

• Colorful and beautiful hand-drawn 2D graphics and animations
• 70+ dungeons
• Strong arcade feel: in solo mode you can switch between the twins and in co-op mode, the 2nd character can join you at any moment