Synchronized Souls

Synchronized Souls
Developer(s)	Lone Planet Productions
Publisher(s)	Lone Planet Productions
Platform(s)	Nucleo The V² Onyx Sohnix MechaByte Steam Epic Games Store Nintendo Switch Atari VCS Xbox One PlayStation 4
Genre(s)	Beat-em-up
Age Rating(s)
Media Included	Cartridge Disc Digital download

Not to be confused with Souls in Sync.

Synchronized Souls is a sidescrolling beat-em-up umbrella video game developed by Lone Planet Productions. It plays quite similarly to games like Capcom's Final Fight, being a brawler where characters must fight through waves of enemies and pick up items on the ground to heal themselves and gain extra energy and abilities.

If you would like to jump into the game's story, go here.

Lore: The House

The House is an enclosed realm where a massive civilization of all kinds of creatures and people resides. An ectoplasmic layer splits it into two realms -- the Attic and the Basement. The Attic is a mystical wilderness with a multitude of unique species, whereas the Basement is a bustling metropolis filled with ever-expanding cities. Between these two realms is a Neo-Egyptian empire ruled by Lady Eliza, who acts as a diva in the Basement city of New Meridian and seeks to shatter the boundaries of both worlds and pit their residents against each other.

Gameplay

At its core, Synchronized Souls functions much like most sidescrolling beat-em-ups. The player can move their character in any of the eight cardinal directions using their console's Control Stick, or a keyboard or mouse on PCs. They can also jump to reach higher areas or gain height for midair attacks. Every playable character has basic punches/slashes and kicks, as well as the ability to dash forward and a dodge mechanic. They each have a set of Special Attacks specific to said character, as well as a Fighting Style associated with them.

• Gunner characters, like Jake Peralta, Deadpool, and Panty & Stocking, use their guns as long-range weapons, firing bullets or energy blasts that act as projectiles.
• Mind characters, like Eleven, Sans, and Mace Windu, use a form of telekinesis to pick up enemies and throw them around. They can also pick up several objects with ease, although heavier objects will need a bit more time to lift.
• Mystic characters, like Hilda, Spawn, and Simon Belmont, use different types of magic or supernatural abilities to cast effects on enemies or environmental objects.
• Brawler characters, like June, Sylvie Paula Paula, and Cerebella, are notably more combo-oriented compared to other characters, and can easily chain their attacks into each other to rack up damage on enemies.

At the top of the screen, a Health Meter is shown next to each character's icon; it will go down with each hit they take from an enemy, but they can pick up food and drinks spread out in each level to replenish it. In resemblance to Toroko's Heroes of the Hearth, each character has a Favorite food/drink which will replenish their health more than usual, or even give them extra health if their meter is already full. If a character runs out of health, their teammate(s) will have a limited time to revive them before they eventually lose a life. Each character starts the game with three lives, and once they're all gone, a Game Over message will appear on screen, at which point the player will need to restart from the beginning of the current level, or save and quit the game. Fortunately, Soul Potions can be picked up throughout the game to grant an extra life to anyone who manages to find them; the player can also split it between two characters, fully replenishing both of their Health Meters.

A lot of the game's primary features are inspired by Double Dragon Neon. If a character times their dodge just right, they will glow red and enter a Gleam state where their attacks will become more powerful for a short time. Players can also pick up Mix Tapes throughout each level; these tapes will be stored in their character's inventory, and up to two can be equipped at one time. One Mix Tape will grant the character a strong attack that consumes a Groove Meter just below their standard Health Meter, and the other will upgrade a certain statistic or give them a boost after fulfilling a certain condition. A duo of characters can use a Bonding mechanic (depicted as a handshake, a high five, a hug, or some other friendly interaction) that will split and share their health meters equally. Alternatively, one character can Psyche out their teammate with an attack, which the latter can dodge to instantly activate a Gleam effect; the former character can also Gleam out of it themselves.

As characters continue to fight enemies, a pink, circular gauge surrounding their icon will gradually fill clockwise. Once it's full, they can initiate a special Buster attack, their most powerful move, which will deal tons of damage to all enemies on screen. If two characters have the same amounts of fuel in their Buster Gauge (which has bright red lines going around it to make it easy to tell), they can share half of their energy to unleash a combined Sync Buster move. A portion of Buster Energy can also be used to boost a character's stats, and the player can choose to grant it to themselves or a teammate.

If a character's health is getting very low, their icon will rapidly flash red. In the event that this happens, the player can initiate a Rewind, taking the characters back up to ten seconds, giving them back any lost health or used up Buster or Groove energy and allowing them to rethink their strategy. However, they will only be able to Rewind once in each level.

Playable Characters

Character	Details
Team Purgatory
Spawn	Al Simmons was a secret agent working to take down terrorists and world criminals, but after being betrayed by his boss and burnt to death, he found himself in Hell and was chosen as the commander of its armies. However, after learning to control his anger and use it for good, Spawn went on to wage war against several dark entities and defend humanity from certain destruction. Recently, he has been assigned the task of filtering out a new wave of demons who have been overtaking innocent civilians throughout the Basement. But he also has to deal with new partners in the form of Anarchy sisters Panty and Stocking, and with them tagging along, he may barely be able to survive one night...
Panty & Stocking	Panty and Stocking, the Anarchy Sisters, were once angels residing in Heaven, but their dirty minds and reckless demeanor have gotten them stuck in the mortal realm. They take on monsters and get intimate with humans in between, all while trying to find some way to return to heaven. But they can live with being on Earth for now... right? Their boss, Garterbelt, has forced them to join forces with Spawn to fend off a new swarm of demons possessing humans. They don't seem to take it very seriously, of course, preferring to blab about high school, video games, the hottest guy in town, etc.
Team Ordinance
Alex Cross	Dr. Alex Cross, PhD, is a psychologist and homicide detective living in Washington, D.C. with his family, including his beloved grandmother Nana Mama. He is almost always on some kind of case, and has dealt with such criminals as the torturous Wolf and the insidious Kyle Craig. However, he still loves his family and will do anything for them, taking breaks from time to time to spend time with his children. In the Basement, a new threat has arose with the coming of Bane and his colleagues in the League of Shadows. Alex Cross investigates crimes around several cities, but a shadowy man seems to be handling most for him. He is very serious about the task he has been given, but the same can't exactly be said for his new partner...
Jake Peralta	Jake Peralta is a detective working with Brooklyn's 99th Precinct, but doesn't take his job very seriously. He was pampered by his old boss thanks to his ever-growing record of solved cases, but ever since Captain Raymond Holt stepped into the scene and took charge, he's been struggling to keep up the pace. Regardless, he keeps trying to sneak a little fun into every scenario, hoping to finally break Captain Holt's hard shell. His career takes a dark turn when he's assigned to the recent Bane case. And with Alex Cross of all people as his partner, Peralta knows this case will be more serious than anything he's ever handled in the past.
Team Foreigner
Hilda	Hilda and her pet deer-fox, Twig, used to live in a wilderness full of mystical creatures, and she would always sit down and draw them in her sketchbook if she had the time. But one day, she lost her old house to an unwitting giant, and she and her mother had to move into the bustling town of Trollberg, much to her initial dismay. Over time, though, she made close friends with two other human kids named David and Frida, and as she learned more about Trolberg and its culture, she grew to appreciate it for what it was. Something strange has been going on in the Attic. The land seems to be drying out, and nearby towns have been infested by stranger things than Hilda has ever seen or heard of. Whatever they are and whereever they came from, she knows what to do.
Eleven	Jane Ives was taken away from her mother and experimented on due to a series of odd abilities she displayed growing up. Upon breaking out one day, she met up with three boys named Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, who were searching for their missing friend Will. Her knowledge of the surreal dimension known as the Upside Down helped them track him down and take down a bloodthirsty monster they called the Demogorgon. Despite her menacing potential, she is actually compassionate and loyal on the inside, and to this day goes by a simple philosophy Mike taught her -- "Friends don't lie." After sensing a dark force intruding the Attic all the way from the Basement, Eleven has departed on a journey to keep it in check -- and it was only a matter of time before she met Hilda, who has been investigating the very same issue. Being from opposite sides of their universe, they both know they will have some problems down the road.
Team Pneuma
Simon Belmont	Simon Belmont is just one out of a long line of vampire-hunting warriors destined to defeat the Dracula incarnation of their time. His era was the late 17th century, and he fought Dracula twice, ending up with a deadly curse in between that slowly tore him apart until he destroyed the vampire lord's vital organs and released himself from said curse, living the rest of his life peacefully until his eventual departure and passing an ongoing legacy to his descendants. But this time, a deeper situation has come into light. Somehow, the earliest incarnation of Dracula has arrived into the modern world, and Simon has been summoned as a spirit to gather his fellow Belmonts to stop him. However, the identity of this Dracula may betray everything he knows about his clan...
June	June is a ghost girl whose spectral essence gives her the ability to teleport anywhere nearby, morph her hair into weapons, and use her head (or heads?) as a bomb or a bear trap. Her irritable, goth-like attitude pairs well with this power, and she is ruthless in battle and won't take "no" for an answer. She was once just like most other teenage girls, and she was walking home from a party one night when she suddenly got caught and murdered by the menacing Jason Voorhees. June tried to tell her family she was still there in spirit, but they shunned her away as a monster, and she remained alone in the cemetery with nowhere else to go. A massive turn of events comes to her when Simon Belmont rescues her from a swarm of spirit-sucking beasts and requests her help in taking down Dracula.
Team Lightspeed
Star-Lord	Peter Jason Quill lived a pleasant life with his mother Meredith until she was overcome by a brain tumor and he was abducted by the alien Ravagers. Decades later, he had established his identity as the notorious criminal Star-Lord, but it was only a matter of time before he ended up with Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, and took on big enemies like Ronan the Accuser and Ego the Living Planet, bonding with them and forming a new family -- the Guardians of the Galaxy -- in the process. The House is surrounded by expansive star systems and an ectoplasmic layer blocking anyone from leaving or entering the universe. A rescue mission gone wrong has separated Star-Lord from his allies and left him stranded in the northern end of this cosmos, and he must find a way back to the rest of the Guardians -- all while getting caught up in a different conflict entirely...
Mace Windu	Mace Windu is a renowned Jedi master, serving in the Galactic Republic's army and the Grand Jedi Council to defend the galaxy at any cost. Like all Jedi, he wields a lightsaber, and he has also mastered a special Jedi combat form that relies on his emotions to channel energy without coming too close to the "Dark Side" -- the side of the Force that is used by the Sith Lords, who have been overcome by fury and hatred. Serious, level-headed, and straightforward, Mace Windu is a valuable warrior for the Republic forces in their war against the Separatists's droid armies. Separatist spies, led by the dreaded General Grievous, have been hacking into Republic systems across multiple planets in an attempt to put a stop to the production of clone troopers, but this time they seem to have found a strange gem-like artifact to power their armies. As Windu leads a squadron to stop an attack on the medical satellite Polis Massa, he encounters a worn-out Star-Lord, who claims to have encountered a similar stone, and decides to work with him to uncover the greater mystery surrounding the Separatist plot.
Team Omniscience
Deadpool	Wade Wilson is a mercenary, and doesn't care much about the usual "good vs. evil" scenario, instead simply working for whoever pays him the most. His life was haunted by cancer, and he was on the edge of life and death until one fateful day, his blood was infused with the same substance that allows the mutant Wolverine to heal wounds with ease. Now, he's a wild, sarcastic vigilante who just can't shut his mouth in combat. Deadpool knows he's in a video game, and thus knows exactly what the game's bad guys are up to -- but no one believes a single word he says... except for fellow smart-aleck hero and fourth-wall breaker Wryn. He takes her under his wing, quite gleeful that he finally has his own sidekick... or is it the other way around?
Wryn	Wryn always wanted to be a hero -- and what better way to make that dream a reality than climb her way to the top by gunning down other heroes? After beating some blonde guy to the position of the world's only hero, she faced off against the armies of the sinister Valentine, who knew she would have great chances of ruling the world if she destroyed Wryn. Now, Wryn hangs out with that blonde guy in her apartment, waiting for whatever their next mission might be. But lately, she's been chatting with players and inspecting files and now realizes she's entered a whole new game. Now she's caught on to all the schemes of this game's villains, but just like with poor Deadpool, no one is listening. After meeting the Merc with a Mouth himself, Wryn joins him and establishes him as her sidekick... wait, isn't that blonde guy her sidekick? Does Deadpool want her to be his sidekick? Who's the sidekick here?? ...eh, whatever. Next character.
Misc.
Mary Not official name	Mary is one of a group of nightmare spirits named the Marra, who resemble teenage girls and give nightmares to unsuspecting humans and feed off of the fear they emit. Her particular group resides in the woods in Trollberg, and they square off against Hilda and her friends from time to time. Mary was hired by Eliza to track down the mysterious artifact known as the Mind Stone and brainwash as many beings as possible to serve in her army, in exchange for a grand feast of fear essence. To do this, she's opened up gateways to the Upside Down, releasing its monsters all over the House so she can use them to interrogate civilians.