Soul Hackers 2 is Standard Shin Megami Tensei & That's OK!

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Soul Hackers 2 may be the first non-Persona and non-mainline Shin Megami Tensei release in 11 years, but does it do enough to stand out? Does this sequel, 25 years after the original Soul Hackers, merit a purchase? Join Derrick as he breaks down his thoughts!
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Опубликовано:

28 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 108

@thebigboyyay 2 года назад

It's definitely not standard SMT

@thiskid3000 2 года назад

I've been loving soul hackers 2! Definitely agree with all the notes you had though. You should totally do a video about all of the references to the old games that soul hackers 2 has!

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

I love it. As someone who adores DRPGs like older SMT, Etrian, etc. I don't mind the samey dungeons. I think it's important to have "low lift" RPGs like SH2, where you can get that RPG fix without it needing to be the next landmark title. It's definitely a 7/10, but some of the best game of all time are 7/10 imo lol. I think some of the negative reactions are overblown, and I appreciate your even-handed appraisal, Derrick! Great video.

@gilded_lady 2 года назад

I agree with all of this- sometimes you just want to play a DRPG or a game you can finish in 40 hours instead of 100. The genre needs AA games and that's what this is. I'm about 20 hours in and 7/10 feels about right. Its fun but definitely imperfect.

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

@@gilded_lady exactly! It's okay for games to just be "good" or "decent." I feel like some people see that as a failure, but I definitely don't.

@gilded_lady 2 года назад

@@TheCrawl Plus honestly, the story, while not the most original, is still light years ahead of V. I also like the melancholy tone that hangs over the game.

@StarsAndSticks 2 года назад

Dude, I had no idea about the tips/load times. Gamechanger, thanks for mentioning that.

@tromedlov87 2 года назад

I really wanted to love it, but ultimately it's merely okay and has too many flaws. The music is mostly great, especially the shop themes, but there are only two music tracks that play in the dungeons, and they're some of the blandest in the game. Given how much time you spend listening to them, this gets old very quickly in what is otherwise a pretty good soundtrack. Combat is pretty good (not quite as good as press turn, though) and gets better as you go, and the demons and fusion system shines as it usually does, but the dungeons in which you do all the combat are frankly some of the most boring and bland dungeons I have ever encountered in a JRPG. It's not just them being linear and with almost no gimmicks or puzzles, but the general color pallet, art, etc., is just so boring and repetitive. A shipping dock. Subway tunnels. Okay, now another subway tunnel! An empty office building! Now ANOTHER shipping dock! The game just doesn't give you much of a reason to care about the plot or characters at all. That's sometimes fine in a game; SMTV felt similar to me (although still better) but it didn't feel like much of a focus so it was okay. SH2 feels like it wants you to care about and empathize with these characters, but doesn't spend nearly enough time building up them or the world itself. It's hard to care when a character has a dramatic reaction to another character doing something, and it seems like the game wants you to feel strongly about it, but those two characters have interacted for all of like two minutes and barely had any screentime whatsoever. Ultimately it feels like a game that had a VERY small budget and they kind of did what they could with it, but it feels like a lot of lost potential since there's a lot of good elements and pieces there, it just doesn't come together very well.

@AwsmNix 2 года назад

I’m adoring the game and have put 70 hours in just a week lol. I think the character writing is tremendous and tbh I enjoy the old school dungeons. First person dungeon crawlers never had aesthetically complex or elaborately decorated dungeons so it just feels like the goodness of those dungeons in third person. And I love the soul matrix. I disagree with a lot of the people complaining about the story or gameplay.

@jakeriese4862 2 года назад

Is ringo really sarcastic to the point of unlikeabability

@SearchmanDS 2 года назад

I picked this up day one because I loved the style it was showing off in trailers and I like the SMT gameplay.

@hollow.princess Год назад

SH2 is my first game in the SMT franchise and I am hyped by it. Longer and bigger games often scare me away. This game is an easy start, visually pleasing, has easy dungeons, doesn't take so long, and learning about the demons and the gameplay overall is easy in SH2. I think SH2 is good for beginners.

@TheShuuman Год назад

I agree Soul Hackers 2 is a great way to dip your toes into SMT games without getting completely overwhelmed by the complexity that most of the games have by this point. A lot of the stuff is pretty straight forward. You're not punished too hard in battle for making mistakes outside of not preparing well. Atlus likely wanted a game that people could easily pick up and play and I'm always going to vote for a company to make a game that can intergrate people into a franchise easily and generate interest in the other SMT games as a whole. Like my first proper one was Persona 4 and after that I became interested in playing the other games and picked up Strange Journey as a result when it released a few years later. It seems to irritate the purists (for reasons I'll never understand or relate to) but the more peeps that get into the games the better in my book.

@EM_vi_ix 2 года назад

I hope this was low budget, it looks low budget. I'm going to wait for a big sale.

@dalestoddard2742 2 года назад

It definitely was low budget. There isn't much in terms of level design and animation.

@kirindas4691 2 года назад

I would like to check the game out at some point. But I unfortunately don't have time to dedicate to it right now. It's a pass for now and I'll maybe come back to it in the future.

@avalanchemkii7506 2 года назад

I get where the "Standard SMT" argument of this video is coming from, but I do feel like this game actually suffers a lot for not having the now "Standard" SMT Battle system. While it wasn't in the game this one is a sequel too, I feel like I'd like Soul Hackers 2 MUCH more if it had some variation of the Press Turn System.

@joehayes8795 2 года назад

It suffers badly from not having Press Turn. Turns out that's what differentiates these titles from other turn based jrpgs

@statesminds 2 года назад

Just think of it as traditional jrpg with dungeon crawling not smt

@hickknight 2 года назад

Well, i can say that i like this kind of content more than the GameXplain content you guys have been doing. I've only watched three videos so far though, and nothing is too far out of my interests ATM. Good job. As for soul hackers 2, I feel like I agree with your assessment. Why the game cannot be a switch title is quite frankly baffling considering how standard and same it feels. Grinding does feel like it needs to happen, but probably only on hard. I'm playing on normal and had some... Rigid boss fight which I didn't like. And while Ringo is a good gremlin and I sure like Saizo, Arrow and Milady, for where I am, are rather bland to me. And Arrow just looks very weird when looked at from specific angles, especially his face. They couldn't quite translate that well enough. And as far as standard goes, it is just that. Standard SMT, doesn't do much out of the box. I just don't understand the price point for a game that feels rather classic as JRPGs go. Especially one DLC that has a quest line attached to it, that runs through the entire game, from early to late. Which is what I'm assuming. Wouldn't be surprised if this game ends up having a small amount of fans due to it being buried by, like you said, XBC3 or that other game I forgot. Possibly Splatoon 3? Correction as to affinity, affinity to an element is what a weapon has, but that affinity is used as a cap to what strengths of mystiques you can use. So if one needs a C affinity to be equipped, but you have a D affinity in said element, you can't equip the mystique.

@mfntonberry 2 года назад

I'm starting to like Milady 20 hours in.

@Controcetica 2 года назад

I was extremely hyped for this game! I heard it was made by the same team as Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and that's a criminally underrated game which I loved! But when it came out it became clear this is a lower budget, relatively generic title being sold for the same price as top-tier titles. I'll still pick it up, but only when it is at least 50% off.

@Dash123456789Brawl 2 года назад

Huh, this is the first time I’ve seen one of those ‘telegram’ bots pretending to be a channel that ISN’T the one they’re commenting on. Guess this bot got lost.

@PhotonSieve 2 года назад

I personally don't think it's standard SMT at all. It's quite a bit below that level.

@dcashley303 2 года назад

Yeah, I haven't played it but it does seem very slight which is a shame. I was really excited with the announcement trailer and seeing Ringo but the world seems super dull.

@6scar911 2 года назад

Yikes, that's dissapointing to hear. The presentation is great with the appearance, but I guess the execution was not pulled off all that well :/

@akiradkcn Год назад

Itsthe opposite of 'standard' lol

@joehayes8795 2 года назад

I was so hyped for this game and then I defended it and now I'm mostly playing other games instead. The dungeons are so freaking boring and bland, just hallway after hallway. Keep in mind this is a PS5 game and the dungeons are laughably bad compared to, say, Final Fantasy XIII two generations ago. I remember all the complaints about that games dungeons but honestly I'd rather be playing FFXIII. The battle system is so one note and almost boring without Press Turn. As for Switch.. Yeah there's zero reason this wouldn't run great on Switch its just not that fancy

@statesminds 2 года назад

Dungeons in other persona or smt games arent bland and boring? Lol ive played most games and this is a staple of the series haha. And sabbaths are fine its more like a traditional jrpg with some smt sprinkles

@amirgarcia547 2 года назад

@@statesminds If we’re talking about the older games sure, but the dungeons in Persona 5 and SMTV are a lot more interesting and have much more going for them. This game’s dungeon design still feels like a PS2 Atlus game, which doesn’t really fly both by modern RPG standards and the standards of Atlus’s other games they’ve released in the HD era.

@pixelbomb97 2 года назад

Like many others, I got into the SMT series through Persona 5. Then I tried to get into the larger series with SMTV and I played though a few hours and just couldn't get into it. I think from now on I'm just gonna stick with the Persona series. Excited for the Persona 3 and 4 ports coming to switch.

@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu 2 года назад

I loved smt5. But you really have to love the battle system to like it i feel. But it was really addictive fusing demons and leveling them up. But it makes it harder to go back to playing p5 royale afterward for me as it feels like they simplified the battle system a little too much, even compared to the original p5 as they added alot more ez win mechanics so it gets a bit boring and repetitive. But obviously the story and characters are fantastic in persona. And persona 3 and 4 are amazing games. The dungeons can be a bit grindy but the story is fun and the soundtracks are amazing. And the combat systems are really good too.

@raphnoble808 2 года назад

@@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu I think you also need to like the feel of SMT. Persona spends a lot of time in Tokyo and a couple hours in a Palace. In SMT, you’re ALWAYS in a Palce/Mementos. It’s not for everyone, but admittedly, I preferred SMT V over Persona 5 when it comes to ambiance and gameplay

@joehayes8795 2 года назад

@@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu I loved it too.

@JagGentlemann 2 года назад

And what part of, for example, SMTV wasn't "standard SMT"? If anything it was that and less, with only two dungeons in the entire game, and only one was actually decent.

@joehayes8795 2 года назад

I loved that game. I'd vastly prefer another SMT V over SH2

@amirgarcia547 2 года назад

SMTV focused more on the overworlds than the actual dungeons, hence why there are so few, and each overworld basically feels like its own expansive dungeon.

@JagGentlemann 2 года назад

@@amirgarcia547 the overworld doesn't feel like a dungeon at all. It's like saying that each section from the botw map is its own dungeon.

@deshawnwilliams503 2 года назад

My only issue is how restrictive the fusion system is in this game. You can't move carry over many skills.

@WinstonOfDojima Год назад

fusion opens up once you get upgrades and get the mitami demons.

@xCr00k3Dx Год назад

Also, no item or power up fusions from P5/P5R was a bad choice.

@_J_G_ 2 года назад

I'm playing SH2 now. Just wanted to share too that i have played P1, P3, P4G, P5 (finished) and only a few of the SMT games on handhelds (though not to completion). So SH2 is definitely a modernized dungeon crawler, although the dungeon design leaves a lot to be desired - but definitely glad they're not randomized. I think the demons look great and the character designs overall across the board are quite cool looking, even the shop owners etc. As for the Soul Matrix, I think it's SH2s way of consolidating the idea of social links and tartarus/mementos and cater it to...an audience that is limited on gaming time, meaning for adults with a busy work/family/life schedule. The more I get to play, the more I feel like the game is respecting my time. The sidequests are just busy work so that's my choice on whether or not to engage with it. I don't have to feel like I'm missing out on something if I don't do X thing (much like in a Persona game for example). I appreciate the overall history behind each main character too. It took a while for SH2 to grow on me, but once the flow of the game clicked with me, (which didn't take too long), then I was good. I'm enjoying myself with it. Good job Atlus - we need games like these too. Not everything they do needs to be compared to Persona 5 or SMT V.

@datalphalion 2 года назад

Too bad the game’s sales won’t be able to reflect its true quality; it reportedly sold worse than Tokyo Mirage Sessions on Wii U.

@Terranigma23 2 года назад

I mean, even Tokyo Mirage have better dungeon design than Soul Hackers 2. It's quite a mess ahah.

@dalestoddard2742 2 года назад

I didn't much care for tokyo mirage sessions, but it's a better game than souls hackers 2.

@statesminds 2 года назад

Ive only seen physical japanese numbers

@alsaiduq4363 2 года назад

Honestly nothing really stands out that much from this game and with so many great or amazing experiences out there, for example Xenoblade 3 , being fine doens't help the game pop up from the rest.

@SuperPaperPokemon 2 года назад

Meh. I'm not against games simply being "standard" instead of good. But being an Atlus game, of course it's a full price game... so I'm not terribly interested in it. I still got SMT5 to finish in terms of Atlus RPG loop games, and Xenoblade 3 is taking up most of my time anyway, not to mention P5R is coming to all other platforms in only about a month, so... imma skip SH2.

@Animear- Год назад

Funny this games demo is what got me into the megaten series recently. Bought persona 5 royal and currently playing smt III nocturne.

@jgp1s 2 года назад

Honestly, I would buy it on Switch. I have other consoles, but it's just what I like to play on.

@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu 2 года назад

It's a test of is the market big enough in this niche genre to not only support the truly excellent 10/10 games that take 5 or 6 years to make(persona5, smt5). Or are people happy with a more regular 7/10's with a cool art style that come out every 2 years, that are less polished and hopefully more experimental.

@servantbyday 2 года назад

I agree with this perspective

@rj_4mp100 2 года назад

I’m a huge fan of having more experimental, low budget, 7/10 games that release every three years to fill up the huge gaps between their marquee titles. However, I’m not a huge fan of charging the same amount as said marquee games that not only are much better gameplay experiences, but also have much more effort put into them from a budget and development aspect. Soul Hackers 2 also has some pretty egregious day 1 DLC. Atlus as a company is just so frustrating. They make some of the best and most unique video games out there, but their monetary practices make them so hard to support as a consumer.

@statesminds 2 года назад

I love the game! The characters are great, the story is good, the designs and music are great, and i like that its a traditional jrpg with dungeon crawling and cool ways to learn about the characters with soul matrix and hangouts. I literally did every single quest and thing to do. The sabbath system is fine. I dont think every game needs to do one more/baton or press turn. Hopefully this isnt the end.

@HipnotikHylian 2 года назад

Of course it's Derrick giving excuses to Atlus

@Chamele7n 2 года назад

I have really been enjoying the game. I played through the Raidou games & Digital Devil saga so I’m used to the cheap, repetitive dungeons lol

@DragonKingX78 2 года назад

I like the game as well but DDS's dungeons still looked better then this one.

@statesminds 2 года назад

Even the persona games have repetitive dungeons with palette swaps imo. Not including 5R

@UndeadEggmiester 2 года назад

Honestly the game is just fine. Standard 90s turn based jrpg with just a ok story. It's nothing ground braking and remarkable.

@VAANET 2 года назад

It's a stepback for SMT for sure. It's very mid

@TheFreakRocker 2 года назад

please look at the camera lens, its distracting watching ur eyes

@TimurSokol 2 года назад

This game got a bit underrated by the community, but I'm sure it's going to be one of those games that people will revisit in the future and realize that it's actually good. Most of the hate is coming from those who expected this to be exactly like Soul Hackers 1 or who only played persona 5 and dosent know about other ATLUS games lol

@peacorptv6502 2 года назад

Underrated? I'd say outright despised from the SMT fans I know (and these are people who don't like Persona V).

@TimurSokol 2 года назад

@@peacorptv6502Yeah I could say that, but it got about 70% of positive reviews so it's not totally despised by the community. I and my friend that is SMT fan really liked it

@cliffturbo2146 2 года назад

It's like they expect every damn game from them is another Persona.

@statesminds 2 года назад

@@peacorptv6502 old school smt fan here and i really like it

@peacorptv6502 2 года назад

@@statesminds OK fair snough

@marcosmarin745 2 года назад

I’m loving this game so far, but it really feels like the developers had a clear goal in mind: develop it as cheaply as possible and make it appealing to both hardcore SMT fans as well as more casual players. It is good but it could have been something special.

@matthewmincey8822 2 года назад

Overall this game looks interesting but $60 dollars interesting not entirely sure about that. Maybe if it goes on sale for $40 bucks and below or hits game pass or PS plus. I say this as a fan of smt and persona.

@DragonKingX78 2 года назад

I like the game, I do agree that dungeon design is lacking, and there are few other things I am not a fan of like only 6 skill slots for demons, very limited carrying capacity for many items, etc. I love the way the city looks, the freedom to go where I want when I want, female(non-silent) main character, etc.

@akiradkcn Год назад

Standard smt fuckking where when you cant even control demons, did you ever actually played a smt game before?

@RaspyCh 2 года назад

Standard in no way because it not really a Shin Megami Tensei game. It’s a Megaten game. Different things

@robertwilliamson2856 2 года назад

Atlus completely shot themselves in the foot by not having a Switch version on Day 1.

@amirgarcia547 2 года назад

Soul Hackers 2 looks interesting, but after hearing that the story is just sorta okay and that the dungeon design is very repetitive and samey (PSTD flashbacks to Tartarus in Persona 3), I think I’m better waiting until it inevitably goes on sale like most Atlus game and will probably cop it for $30-$40 instead of $60. Hopefully it eventually get a Switch port too since if a huge game like P5R can fit on Switch, I don’t see why this can’t either. And considering how much Atlus has been porting their recent games to Switch like the Persona games, SMT3HD and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and even a Switch exclusive game with SMTV, having it not release on Switch day one almost seems like a boneheaded move and definitely impacted the success this game would’ve had otherwise.

@_jtrev23 2 года назад

THANK YOU. I didn't realize the loading times were because of the tips. Tried turning them off myself and it is like night vs day in terms of speed.

@internetguy7319 2 года назад

it's selling way less than the original which wasn't really marketed in the west wdym "selling well" lmao

@Froge0 2 года назад

It isn't though. They homogenised the gameplay to the point of it being more like Persona than Devil Summoner. The world map is Persona style with it being menu based rather than having the classic blue icon (kinda like this 🚹) to move around.

@Froge0 2 года назад

@Lucas The Phantom Thief Use the aesthetic and surface level elements to lure in fans of Persona but maintain the unique mechanics of the Devil Summoenr series and find ways to modernise old ideas such as demon loyalty, rows and magnetite.

@internetguy7319 2 года назад

@Lucas The Phantom Thief what they did is imo appeal to nobody

@abrahampardede7557 2 года назад

The dungeon design seems boring. Which is very mainline smt I guess lol (idk about desu tho)

@phikirigiri 2 года назад

@Lucas The Phantom Thief I mean there ARE people that enjoy the game so I don't think it appeals to nobody

@rj_4mp100 2 года назад

@@abrahampardede7557 idk if I can fully agree with this; SMT 5 improved on level design by a huge amount when compared to the previous games. The open areas are huge, each one has a very strong and distinct identity, fully realised 3D models of the demons on the overworld , have a good amount of side quests, great musical themes etc. And honestly, even the “boring” dungeons of the older mainline games, which can probably be attributed to the weaker hardware, are still pretty impressive to behold. Some of Nocturne’s dungeons had great atmosphere, and 4 did an impressive job of having fully explorable 3D areas on a 3DS. The main disappointment with SH2 when it comes to its dungeon design is that it doesn’t seem to utilise the massive jump in power that being on more powerful hardware affords you. The dungeons are visually bland, and keep the same linear corridor aesthetic of the older games which released 2 decades ago. Heck, SMT 5 technically released on a mobile device, and yet they still went all out on modernising and elevating the classic dungeon design and exploration of the older games (at the cost of visual fidelity and perfomance, admittedly, but it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make). I get that a large part of this is due to SH2 having a much smaller allocation of budget and development time compared to a Persona or mainline SMT game, but it’s still disappointing to see. Atlus prices SH2 the same as SMT 5 and Persona 5, so they should very well treat it on the same level as those games and give it a high budget. I’m a strong believer that if something is high quality, it will sell. Just look at SMT 5: it chooses to retain its core identity but adds many new features that are still in line with the series, was given sufficient development time and budget, and is now the highest selling SMT game in less than a year, with more than 1 million units sold.

@dgc1570 2 года назад

Yes, these dungeons were very much left to be desired. Which is a shame, because this was done by the same team who did Tokyo Mirage Sessions where those dungeons, even though in a similar vein to P4G were colorful and vibrant. And while I get they were going for a more gritty feel, there was no excuse for how these dungeons were handled

@joehayes8795 2 года назад

I thought the TMS dungeons were pretty rough

@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu 2 года назад

For me though I was tempted to get it but xenoblade 3 came out a took over alot of my gaming time. And that game is like a 9.5/10. Its soo good. Very different though. So there is room for both. Smt is alot more of a more focused tight maze of a dungeon crawler with more traditional but fast paced turn based combat, compared to xenoblades massive open world mmo style combat.

@xa5785 2 года назад

Ringo 😩

@jakeriese4862 2 года назад

Thanks Derrick

@statesminds 2 года назад

There’s no way someone can praise the dungeons in persona 3 or 4 and trash talk SH2 lol bland dungeons are a staple of smt and persona series for the most part 😂. I still love them tho

@therationalnational 2 года назад

8 hours in and I’m absolutely loving it. As someone who’s been gaming for 30 years but fairly new to JRPGs (Persona 5 being my real hooking point into the genre) I actually appreciate that SH2 is not over complicated or difficult. Love the style, the characters, the voice acting, and the battle system; it’s exactly what I needed right now, and I hope that more people give the PS+ trial a shot because that’s what sucked me in. To your point I understand and even agree with the complaint about the dungeons, but I find such comfort in the battle system, style, voice acting and everything else, that it hasn’t yet bothered me.. though we’ll see 40 hours in. But regardless I hope they continue this series and maybe do a better job trying to aim it at a casual audience, because I think it could really hit and be an entry point for a lot of people into SMT and other JRPGs.

@IBigDickI 2 года назад

Didn't expect to see you here.

@therationalnational 2 года назад

@@IBigDickI Ha! I worked in games before politics, and his history of SMT brought me here. Just an amazingly thorough breakdown.

@dgc1570 2 года назад

On the PC version it definitely felt like it was chugging, as if it had a hard time keeping up with my laptop; which shouldn't be the case as it's a high end gaming laptop. Which has me concerned for how it will run on a PS4 or a PS5

@TimurSokol 2 года назад

Might be laptop problem, it runs fine on my regular PC

@TurbulentEitri 2 года назад

On my PC, it was the opposite. I was having it run over 144 FPS quite easily.

@joehayes8795 2 года назад

It runs perfectly on PS5, I'm surprised anything is having issues running it

@dgc1570 2 года назад

@@joehayes8795 I was surprised too, you think it'd run fine on a PC but for some reason it is

@TurbulentEitri 2 года назад

@@dgc1570 Are your drivers up to date? I doubt it'd do that much, but it's worth checking I guess.

@JoshArtisto 2 года назад

I was really excited for this game and I'm only about 10 hours in, but one thing I'm disappointed so far is the music. The only songs I really like are the shop themes. I hate how all the dungeons so far have the same boring music. The battle music is ok, but I changed it to the other themes you can have with the DLC. This game has so much style I was hoping the music would have more pop or something. SMT games always have such good music and it makes me sad that I'm not enjoying the soundtrack in Soul Hackers 2.

@RyanCoomer 2 года назад

at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.

@amirgarcia547 2 года назад

Jesse, what the eff are you talking about?