Soul Hackers 2 (Zero Punctuation) 

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Fun fact the running problem yahtzee experienced is actually tied to frame rate. If you have it set to unlimited it causes the animations to mess up while if you have it set to 60 fps it works normally.

That "yes I will, f*** it" sounded so genuine.

"Has someone done that joke? Someone must have done that joke." That line compared with the animated facial expressions made me burst out laughing. Thank you.

Who hasn't had a traumatic experience with a Slurpee machine?

Atlus latest announcement: We're proud to announce we won't be announcing Persona 6 at our own concert event.

It's weirdly funny that Atlus fans complain whenever reviewers compare all of their works to persona. Yahtzee is the one to say "Well if they don't wanna be compared maybe they should use a different formula"

Asking Yahtzee for opinions on anime games (aka JRPGs) is like asking the fox for it's opinion on the hen house defenses

So, to sum it up: If I wanted to play a cyberpunk SMT, I should just play SMT 4.

I like the fact that he doesn’t just say what it’s missing in comparison to persona but compares and contrasts them both, that and he actually brings up smt, which is more than most reviewers do

Fun fact: Ringo is japanese for "Apple".

I love the slow transformation Of Yahtzee into a anime fan that are crying on promnight when the store is out of cadbury eggs.

The problem is that Altus made its' bestiary of demons by compiling together every mythology and religious figure possible and there's little you can add from there. Occasionally they will come up with some new ones like Krishna, Dagda or Abdiel but most of them will be re-used from previous titles. I do like how they'll occasionally use an urban legend like the Jersey Devil. Maybe Slender Man can join in the next game.

I'm just fascinated that the more Atlus RPG Yahtzee going through, the more he became a Persona fans. I hope Persona 3 Portable released soon so Yahtzee can have excuse to go through that.

Caused quite a laugh when the final gag of the episode continued into the credits

"Christ you're predictable!" That whole intro monologue was incredible, Yahtzee's extra testy today lol love it. "Scowling in disdain as it looks up from its Bible." Such a strange yet perfect analogy to convey something is cold and distant. The idea of the Bible being casual reading lmao. "Yeah I'm a New Testament guy. Call me basic but I really love the Book of Matthew."

Can we please a yahtzee squatting over a sprinkler emote?

I found the game quite enjoyable, though who knows how much of that was caused by having played the Saints Row Reboot before starting this game

a minute in n this may be the pinnacle of Yahtz at HIIIIIIIIIIgh speed. Kudos Sir. Killer as always

He's basically admitted to wanting to know when P6 is coming. What a guy!

Sometimes I wish Yahtzee was around when SMT4 came out, since it solves the "personality" problem of 5 with aesthetic and characters

Joker didn't just know how to walk properly. It's perhaps the best feeling running in any video game (with that soundtrack)

Bruh, did Yahtzee really just say this game is worse than P5 because it has less waifu seduction? He really has gone full weeb. I’m here for it.

The reason ATLUS uses the same “ladder of monsters” is because they’ve basically included all of them at some point or another in the series history. Every now and again they return to one and give it a new design (see Isis and Lucifer’s designs in SMT V) but they’ve basically hit almost every nasty boy and urban legend you can possibly think of. Most of them are hard to place in a power ranking, and many of them share their fundamental design with a pre-existing sprite, so you may as well cull it down to the ones that work, then rotate a few in and out every time when they fit the themes or plot of the game.

The last line in these videos always make me laugh

It's really rad that Yahtzee low-key kept the escapist going for a bit. But I do miss the days when ZP had it's own channel.

The delivery of "yes, I will, fuck it" made me happy

01:33 Somehow it's more horrifying to see Sinistar say "Senpai" with anime eyes than to see someone be casually informed that Mara is going to wear them like a hat.

Yahtzee's *"Yes, I will!"* is so annoyed, I love it.

Big problem for me going through the game is that man the demon variety isn't nearly as wide as in other games. Like I swear for every set of levels there's only 1 or 2 demons that are exclusive to fusion and then the rest of them you can just recruit anyway. And that makes all the time I spend trying to make the best demons I can to prepare feel a lot less impactful when I'm constantly fighting those exact same demons

Yeah it’s generally believed health issues lead Kaneko Kazuma to make less demons with new games up until 2009, and now only does art for magazine covers or novels once every five years. He did an Oda Nobunaga like four years ago or so.

actually, that summary did save me some time.

Holy shit a reference to sin-estar, wasn't expecting that, but I appreciate it non the less.

Dungeons based on characters' internal psyche being subway themed is obviously a reference to The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet with the line "They're a long way away in the subways of your mind".

At this rate, I think we can expect the title of Yahtzee's next book to be "The More JRPGs I Play, The More I Love Persona."

Loved the Sinistar reference

"If I wanted tease and denial action, I'd-" **

I find it funny how Yahtzee complains about wanting the next Persona announced right when Atluses final announcement is a peronsa concert with no new games.

1:14 Didn't you have a second child, Yahtzee?

I finished the game recently and really enjoyed the experience. The main cast interactions were always a treat, especially Ringos 1 on 1 with each in the soul matrix. Playing on hard I found the mechanics and fights got more complex and interesting over time. I got my ass handed to me quite alot. If you've played and liked atlus games other than P5 and SMT 5, you'll be pleased to find this game is reminiscent of those. Not as high budget, but still offering alot to like regardless.

Did we learn nothing from Kingdom Hearts 3? A decade of tease and denial isn't exactly the way to keep interest going

me having a brain explosion realizing how neat jack frost fit into Yathz gremlin helpers

Shoutout to Sinistar and the horrible noise he used to make when he was trying to eat you.

Hearing Yahtzee say "waifu seduction" warms my heart

I feel like Yahtzee should give Live A Live a try, with it being a recently released RPG that very much goes against the norm of what RPG's are. Not in the sense that Persona does, but since it pays homage to so many different genres (westerns, Alien-style horror, Street Fighter 2, etc) he'd probably find something to like there compared to most RPG's.

I LOVE the review! It made me laugh a lot, God only know how much I need a good laugh of late. Keep it up!

If Yahtzee thinks we're going to COMPLAIN about him comparing Soul Hackers to SMTV and P5, he clearly doesn't know Atlus very well

yahtz hasn't failed to state he's raising a child in the latest videos and i feel this is some cry for help

"Yes, I will. Fuck it.". Fantastic execution

i feel like the SMT topics have a cap on how hard they can hit, if you know it all started from a YA novel about a twink programmer compiling a ritual to summon Satan to kill his bully, and then having to go on a quest to deal with the consequences.

I don't know why but that automated lawn sprinkler joke at the end had me laughing so hard I nearly passed out. When I find out that it's caused irreparable brain damage or I actually had a mild heart attack in the middle of that laughing fit, I'm sending you the bill, Yahtz.

One huge fucking tip which I only learned about halfway through the game from a random post. Turn the loading screen tips off. Loads the game almost instanteniously while with the tips it took like 15 sec every.single.time.

Credits gag was on point.

0:39 not only a spin off of the smt franchise but a spin off OF THE EXACT SAME spin off, namely SMT IF..., Which was the first high school based game set in the modern day where things aren't YET destroyed but threatened with destruction and the first game to feature companion demons that manifest from the character's psyche AS WELL as the comp system, with persona of course taking the former and devil summoner focusing on the latter.

I enjoyed the game, do wish it had a higher budget, better dungeon design, and few mechanical changes/improvements. I do agree that demon negotiation should have been an option though I also like the idea of my demons getting other demons to join.

3:50 that Terminator 2 4K advert lol

Ringo's name would translate to Apple in English so it being based on aware ai may be closer to the bone than initially thought

BRRRUUUUH that was such a good end credits gag.

Having binged a lot of his old stuff all the way up to recent I am just happy to say that after all these years the only thing that's changed is quality and that's in an upscale. It's beautiful and I'm glad I've got to watch it in real time over the years

I'm not 100% sure of this, but Yahtzee probably would've hated the 1st Soul Hackers game on 3DS a LOT more. For one thing, the demons in the 1st game are a LOT more talkative when you give orders to them in that game & it's tied to an affection system IIRC! The demons have both actions they hate & actions they love which they'll let you know ALL about! They complain if you tell them to do something they hate, but obviously will be enthusiastic if you tell them to do something they love doing DURING EVERY COMBAT ENCOUNTER! The Soul Hackers game on 3DS is ALSO a port of an old PS1 game so that means there are plenty of random encounters in it too! If you're not into old school JRPG's like me, then you probably won't like THAT part! There was also a feature where you had to unlock some new demons from other game entries in the SMT franchise either by using Streetpass or by using "Play Coins" which (for those who don't know) were tied into the pedometer function on the 3DS! The game also DOESN'T tell you everything you need to know much like other games from the 90's so you either had to figure it out yourself or find a walkthrough. For example, there's a choice in an early story conversation that will dictate what magic & skills the main heroine gets in the game! If it were released today, there'd be (metaphorically speaking) bells & whistles to warn you of this choice but remember that this is a port of a game FROM THE 90's! I know some people (like myself) will like those retro vibes or just won't care either way about the retro vibes of the 1st Soul Hackers, but people who don't like classic JRPG's probably won't like the 1st Soul Hackers either. One more thing for those who are curious: From what I've heard, there's no real connection between Soul Hackers 1 & 2. The only thing they have in common is their cyberpunk aesthetic. That's it.

"incident with a slurpee machine" sounds more like someone mentioning having issues with the ice cream machine at McDonalds (comparison might have worked better).

I remember seeing a stream of persona 5 and going, hey wait those are the demons from Orge Battle March of the black queen from the SNES. That is my entire Atlus exposure.

I enjoyed the Sinistar reference. Always a treat when someone else remembers that.

I like how he never mentions Soul Hackers 1 lol.

I love that Yahtz has started putting in random bits about his personal life that he hasn't said publically before (AFAIK) into these newer ZPs. Like apparently he has a kid that's at least 18 months old.

The monster roster is almost all based on actual mythological things so thats why they cant really change much.. i wouldnt be against ADDING stuff though

This is actually a refreshingly honest and more from the heart review from him. Not to say the recent reviews have been bad or anything, quite the opposite actually. It's just in this one you can hear a lot more emotion, as well as exasperation, from him which is a joy to watch.

Funny thing is you don't really "fight and recruit" Personas in Persona 3 & 4, you get them in playing cards dropped after the battle.

I just realized, Yahtzee is going through what Persona fans suffered when P5 was being developed, only Atlus are doing this to us before even announcing whatever the next game will be

This is quite possibly my favorite video game review ever.

Aww, didn't expect to see Pokemon plushies, and also Tales games. Two of my favorite interests!

Like the Yakuza games, I like the familiarity that the same collection of demons and spells brings... although they definitely could do a better job of focusing on some new demons in the main campaign. Soul Hackers 2 has some charms, but it just doesn't have a sense of identity. It's just generic Atlasverse.

1:00 to 1:12 yes! yes I'm almost certain that is the actual answer. at least that's my headcanon. It's a pain the ass trying to figure out the chart in play. imagine what a pain it is to actually make yourself

The fixed roster of demons is because they're based off mythological figures, unlike Pokemon that just makes stuff up. I do think there are some prominent figures that haven't been adapted into SMT yet but I think the best they can really do is change the designs here and there.

The dungeon design is a bit unexpected until you realize that this is a sequel to Devil Summoner Soul Hackers in the sense too, that they took the old school style dungeon design they've more recently had in Etrian Odyssey and tried to modernize the formula.

I only got about 7 hours of the game before deciding I probably will never pick it up again and paid like 70 bucks for it. Lost pretty big on this one and DNF Duel this year.

Funny you say working the fusion charts out just the once and lifting between games, because for whatever weird reason every game actuay has a different fusion and arcana set up. And thats not meant to defend them because its really easy to not notice. But that just begs the question of why go to the trouble to change it at all then?

Honestly the main reason I didn't have too much hope for this is for one reason: Soul Hackers 2 came out 8 months after Shin Megami Tensei 5 released. Heck it was announced 6 months before release. That is too fast for a new rpg in a franchise in my opinion. It would be different if it was a port or remaster of an older game.

Honestly, sounds about right for the Soul Hackers series. I know Persona team is pretty much Shin Megami Tensei's A-Team, but I wish there was a touch more inventiveness and style in the other series. Seeing Soul Hackers revived makes me worried about Devil Summoner and Digital Devil Saga though. I'm more hopeful about Devil Survivor considering the underwhelming entity that is Digimon Survive.

3:51 Is that the Golden Axe "go!" sprite? Man I'm an old nerd.

Having completed the game, I can say I had a lot of fun with this game. It changes up the Atlus JRPG formula just enough that it makes it new and fun while keeping some familiar elements which doesn't make it too complicated to pick up and understand how to do well. The real shame is the day 1 DLC bullshit that Atlus insists on doing, they're basically skirting the 60 dollar/euro asking price with this kind of stuff, kind of like Ubisoft which isn't exactly a good example of consumer-friendly practices -.- Also, the DLC despite being overpriced, the Lost Numbers storyline isn't too bad and is fairly large as well, adds a lot of content and a tough superboss. Back to SH2, the story is actually pretty fun, it has the levity of a Persona game but since the characters are adults, the anime cringe factor is much lower, and thank god the english dub doesn't keep the sans and chans (thus reducing the anime cringe factor), so despite Yahtzee's opinion, if you like Atlus' style of JRPG, you might just like this one.

Wow. I see an expert of SMT.

is there a review, regarding devil survivor?

On the one hand, the demon recruitment is actually rather easy once you understand that "scouts" spawn on encounter clears and you get the app to highlight the encounters with demons you want to boost specific recruitment chance. On the other hand, this is terribly explained in the game itself, and the TMS-style Estoma Sword is just so damn good for taking out the trash and sparing you a trip where you try to remember what food you want to apply and which shop in which district sells it. SH2 did a great job managing its own budget, but an abysmal job managing the player's time.

So, funny enough, the "randomly get a friendly demon to randomly get you a chance to recruit demons to get a random demon" can actually be honed with options. For starters, you can have a meal that increases the chance of demon recruits. Also, the more of a specific demon you fight, the more likely it is for that demon to be the one who joins. And there are ways you can "see" where those demons are so you can just fight those fights. Otherwise, yeah, it's somewhere between SMT V and Persona V and doesn't do enough of either to really stand out. It was a fun playthrough though. Hit me with 6 plot twists in rapid succession enough to cause mental whiplash.

Yeah after the clusterfuck that is the 900+ Pokemon in said title....I wouldn't want to go above 200, let alone mixing them to form new+ versions of themselves. It works. Because it still feels like the OG games. With that said, a lot of people, haven't fought many of the creatures in said games. Till this day, people will post on forums saying "where was the one located?" They're doing a fine job.

I wonder if he'll play the older games one day.

I'm only a minute or so in and the lack of new demons was addressed with smt 5 where they added a few more, don't fully know if they added new ones for soul hackers 2 but it is something atlus at the very least is aware of

Atlus monsters used to have American ghosts and possessed tanks.

Well i loved soul hacker 1 so I'm definitely getting this. I do like my grinding.

Soul hackers was probably my favourite game on 3ds

When is your next audio book coming out??

I can’t help but wonder what Yahtzee would say if he saw the third Atlas property - Disgaea.

Hey I feel called out about the pokémon plushies.

Yahtzee, some of us do want sequels of old favorites instead of another Persona, and the first Soul Hackers was one of the best SMT spinoff ever made. Also, Atlus, THIS AIN'T IT. It has basically nothing to do with the original "Devil Summoner Soul Hackers" and has none of its charms.

I had seen Soul Hackers 2 recommended in Steam and didn't even realize that it was an SMT spin-off because I had mostly forgotten playing Soul Hackers on the 3DS, as it was the worst of the SMT-related games I played on that platform. Not in a rush to check out Soul Hackers 2 with that in mind.

I'm surprised you didn't bring up anything about the magical tapeworms

Best video in a long while... and the others have been good.

Yahtzee, you may not know this but it took persona five around five years and a console generation to come out. Even if they announce Persona six there’s no fucking way it comes out without being delayed for at least two years. Besides, they haven’t milked Persona five for all it’s worth yet. This is something you’ll have to get used to. The second Atlus finds something that gets mainstream appeal they’ll spin things off until there’s nothing left to spin. Hell, I’m pretty sure that’s how persona started.

Before I watch the video: "A new Zero Punctuation! After: Did he smite this game already?