wow the fact that they made the UI interactable with the mouse is something I didn't expect specially coming from a Japanese studio, pretty nice feature
I'm actually of the opposite opinion as mean as it might sound, I hope it fails because if it doesn't that means they're just going to "Persona-ify" the shit out of other series like Devil Survivor and kill its original identity. The should see that Shin Megami Tensei 5 did really well without having to copy Persona.
Quick protip I saw earlier: If you set the tips display in your Gameplay Options menu to either "Hide" or "Display (with skip button)", it'll drastically cut load times down. It seems to ONLY be because of the TIPS screen
Yup. It seems like the game artificially increases load times so you have time to read the tip on the loading screen. Which is the dumbest shit I’ve seen in a while.
This is correct, i think if they are set to (Auto-Advance) or whatever it was called, the game deliberately waits 5 or so seconds for you to read the tip.
Soul Hackers 1 did a good job at making mundane, real life locations into threatening, mysterious dungeons. Crawling factories, hotels, office buildings, airports, and more was really fun for me. Makes me sad that 2 drops the ball.
Am I missing something about Soul Hackers 1? The dungeons never blew me away and how Narly described the dungeons in this game is exactly how I felt about the dungeons and overall setting of Soul Hackers 1.
@@anthonytoledo9493 Perhaps? Stuff like the vision quests allowing you to visit the same location at multiple points in time was interesting. The music would change based on the time period, the moon phase, and the state of the dungeon (like lights on/off in the factory). And I think creating labyrinths out of stuff like supermarkets and office buildings was ahead of its time and really encapsulates cyberpunk. It’s a world familiar, but futuristic and dangerous. Not every dungeon was a winner but I think they really fit with the themes and setting.
@@thequietbisharp I see. Personally speaking I found all the dungeons that take place outside of Paradigm-X to be pretty boring and uninteresting, even in Vision Quests. Like they’re just empty hallways with an NPC on a tile sometimes. Never really understood what was so “cyberpunk” about it. To me it looks like any other game taking place in a modern day city. Maybe it’s cuz I played the game for the first time when the 3DS version was still somewhat new (and being born and raised in New York City), but I never understood all the praise for the setting.
@@matthewkozlov928 that’s what you have to do to make a new franchise cause they need to show the investors the game made enough money to invest in it just like when directors take a 10 million budget and turn it to 80 mil
I’m hoping to every deity under the confines of conceptual reality that this game sells well so that more SMT spin-offs get made with a higher budget. I’m personally hoping for a third Raidou Kuzunoha game but that’s wishful thinking.
@@puer4787 so..what? Indie games tend to have a small budget and can still sell decently well. Budget isn't always correlated to how much its going to sell
@@art-cs6us no im saying the game is going to sell little especially in japan it will be a disaster, and i think it's because thebudget was so small that people are disappointed that atlus released something of this quality in the year of 2022, after they became a huge name with p5
One thing I like to point out is that the three human party members represents classic SMT alignments albeit never directly said . Arrow is Law, Milady is Chaos and Saizo is Neutral. A lot of the soul link choices reflect this
"factions aren't established well" I mean that's basically an SMT staple at this point to have different groups and have none of them fleshed out well at all lmao
@@0uttaS1TE I feel like you only say that cause standards are quite low, don't get me wrong I love smt 4 but it's pretty obvious that jonathan and walters characters were kinda twisted and forced to fit into their respective alignments around the end...and isabeau's route is just bland though it's still my favourite cause more content I guess. The best factions in the entire franchise is definitely in devil survivor 1, amazing game, amazing characters and alignments was pretty well made, characters don't feel forced into their respective alignments. I hope we get more games like it in the future. Also, naoya best boy.
The way you describe the game, fun combat + a serviceable story + bland dungeon/quest design... actually makes me feel nostalgic. It sounds (and looks based on the videos) like 80% of the JRPGs from the PS2 era. When the genre was still huge and we got all sorts of lower budget JRPGs. Honestly I think I am okay with that. I kinda miss these sorts of releases. I mean I know we still get them here and there, but it's not the deluge like it used to be. I already had the game pre-ordered but seeing the response the game has gotten so far has actually made me look even more forward to it as weird as it sounds.
I feel exactly the same way. I don't need every JRPG to be an amazing experience that redefines my life. I'd even say I'm more likely to return to a 'good', comfy, 30/40 hour long JRPG than I am to an 80+ hour 'great' JRPG that's higher brow. I've been playing SH2 for a few days now and I feel like it'll be a game I return to over the years, like I have with DDS.
A lot of atlus games in the ds/3ds are similar in dungeon design and I don't hate it, I agree with you about the not "great" thing, I just finished xc3 and I don't need another emotional roller-coaster that soon
people who don't have that nostalgia for old jrpgs simply see dungeon design like this as not aging well. People aren't going to plat smt2 and games with similar design to it nowdays
for anyone who doesn't know this, the loading screens are way faster if you set the option "tips display" in the gameplay options to "display (with skip button)" or "hide". also if you find the camera weirdly centered, you can change the camera position from the default "left" option to "center". also personally i found the camera moving on its own to follow ringo weird, so i changed the camera tracking option to off so i have full manual control with the camera.
I don’t think they have, the p5 director is on that game and he has a LOT of good will due to making the studio go from niche to borderline mainstreamed
@@nr2676 Atlus themselves have 3 internal studios; P-Studio for Persona, Team Maniax and Studio Zero. In terms of size and budget, they are quite small in Japam standards, with 300 employess.
Probably not, Studio Zero is just a bit more elusive. Pretty hard to atlus drop the project, as it has Director Katsura Hashino ( Modern Persona - Nocturne) and Designer Shigenori Soejima ( Persona - Soul Hackers).
Honestly, after 100%ing P4G recently, I'll take empty hallways and rooms as long as they have an actually fixed design. Anything is an improvement for me at this point.
A nice little detail that I really like in this game, is the interaction between the party member in combat. Like they don't just say some random lines, they actually respond to each other.
Btw, there is a setting that will reduce the loading screen times. It's a set amount of time. I believe it's something to do with tips. It's pretty dumb but at least you can reduce it
@@karotconcarne3325 this guy above has half of his activities online being hating Megaten for ages, i see this guy hating Smt for more than 2 years i swear This guy literally has no meaning in life other than hating a Videogame series
looks alright, might be a good steam deck title. was really excited to play on release, but after seeing the bland gameplay outside of combat and all the day one dlc, gonna wait for a sale...
Combat actually looks pretty fun. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this game but think I'll give it a go on sale. At that point the Persona games will probably be on switch and PC though so might be a while before I get to it.
Well you resold me on it.. After seeing just how shit the dungeons were and a few other things it caused me to cancel my preorder, i still am not getting the game but once it goes on a good discount by Black Friday i might just cop it!
7:10 A note to potential buyers, An update for the game was pushed after this vid released which added sprinting and a high speed mode for battling. So complaints about sluggishness are somewhat mitigated. Here's the notes: Dash Function - Added a “Dash” function to Ringo’s movement in dungeons and fields. You can switch between “Normal” and “Dash” as you like. (With the addition of the Dash function, the effect of the Summoner Skill “Assassin’s Stride” has been changed to, “Become undetectable to enemies for a fixed distance.” High-Speed Battle Mode - Added a “High-Speed” mode to battle. You can switch between “Normal” and “High-Speed” as you like.
Virtually no one did. The original releases for the DC and PS1 were Japan only. It did get a worldwide 3DS remake, but between region locking and the fact that third party titles on Nintendo platforms are a pr*ck to find a week or two after release, it's not surprising. Don't know which region you're in, but in PAL territories getting any of the 3DS MegaTen games costs significantly more than a 3DS.
I enjoyed TMS at the time and this looks somewhat similar, so I'll have it on my radar, however I'm not buying it yet because there are games that interest me more coming out. I hope it does get released on Switch in the future though.
Ya know, a guy like Saizo can just be a hopeless romantic and want a loving relationship without being labeled with internet terms. Thanks much, Mr Internet Lingo.
Man, even if they swung and missed on some aspects I’m just so grateful this game got made. Now if we can get a strange journey 2 and a devil survivor 3 I’ll be set:) Soul Hackers is probably my second or third favorite smt game, the cast and storyline were always going to be hard to follow. Can’t wait to get this when it gets cheap on Black Friday or something:)
Pretty much agree with your review minus your criticisms of the music - I absolutely adore the soundtrack, even the first 5sec of your video the music you played gave me instant nostalgia of my play-through last year. I hope they continue the series and at the very least continue Ringo as a character, because I agree I think she was a fantastic protagonist and it’s because she actually has a voice and personality. I’m never all that satisfied with silent protagonists.
I thought this game would be hot garbage but it's relieving to hear they nailed so many aspects. Music might be called mediocre but I love cyberpunk style music anyway so anything scratches that itch, sad the dungeons looks so boring though
@@KyngD469 having played over 32 hours so far, the story, combat, and music are all amazing. The characters have a lot of depth as well. The only downside is the dungeons, especially the vision quest dungeon. They’re all bland hallways for the most part but there’s a dungeon or two that I liked. Overall the game is good, like 7/10.
Kinda reminds me of older jrpg dungeon crawlers. A bit mundane but I kinda dig those old grid based dungeons. Honestly a first person mode would be great for it I think. Maybe there’s a mod on the pc version.
Yeah I'll say Soul hackers it's a good game has some flaws but it's okay game and I feel like Atlas is making games to get people into the series they have and make them a little easy which is honestly perfectly fine as long as they don't do it too much it's perfectly fine it's a good way to get new people into the smt series as well of its spin-offs though you might have to worry about the fan base but that's a whole different story
Also not every game needs to be GOTY. I think a lot of people forget (or weren't alive) back even in the PS2 era when most ganes were just alright, it made the incredible ones stand out as all time classics I'm perfectly fine with an okay game if like you said, it brings people into the series or genre even
I just got the game, around 5 hours in. I'm digging it so far! I honestly do love the 4 party dynamic. Let's you get close to the members (which P5R had too many at once and SMTV having no party members) I am looking at getting the older demon summoners in the future after I'm done this.
I actually wanna pick this game up and play it, and won't lie the biggest reason is the fact we have a TALKING PROTAGANIST, some bonus points for it being a woman too, but really it's just the fact the protagonist isn't a silent/self-insert. I don't mind silent protagonists, but it gets very boring when every game the character is a silent protagonist so this just feels like such breath of fresh air for me. Plus despite the flaws towards the dungeon design this just looks like a fun game to me, been a while since I saw a game being played I hadn't seen before and said "yep I wanna play this game now"
Honestly, the way you describe the Sabbath system makes it sound like a compelling evolution of Demon Co-Op from Strange Journey. Add that to the return of Redux’s Commander Skills, and I think it’s clear that the Soul Hackers 2 team were consciously taking inspiration from there. On the other hand, I think some of the developments in Soul Hackers 2 would make for compelling additions to a Strange Journey sequel- a protagonist with more of a personality, for example. In sum, this is making me want a Strange Journey sequel with Alex from Redux as the protagonist, set in one of her fucked-up futures.
YES so excited for Soul Hackers 2! I hope it does really well despite rough release timing (in the hopes that atlus decides more spin offs are good and they give us another devil survivor) Also I'm glad to see Ringo has more personality. I much prefer that to blank slate characters.
I'm still fairly early in Soul Hackers 2, but I gotta say that I'm really digging it so far. Maybe that's just my bias as a Devil Summoner fan, but I'm having a lot more fun with this game than I did with, say, SMTV. I'm really hoping it sells well so we can hopefully get a Raidou 3 some day.
10 seconds for each loading screen? My man that absolutely nothing, have you played Jade Empire? Most loading screens take almost a whole minute or more, sometimes you could have the same problem with going to another area by mistake and waiting for both loading screens to pass to keep playing
For the $25 I paid, I'd say it's okay for just playing through the main story and nothing else. I couldn't bring myself to go for all the trophies since a handful of them require a ridiculous amount of grinding in both the Soul Matrix and every area of every dungeon, the former of which was so painfully boring. And don't even get me started on the 4F areas of the Matrix. I also found myself getting quite bored and frustrated with the last dungeon to the point I just put the game on easy and brute forced my way through 90% of it. I didn't even bother with the DLC. 6/10. And I feel I'm being nice
Really wish SH2 got the same budget that persona games or hell, even SMT games, get. It feels like the team behind it tried real hard to make it great, but fell short due constrains. The character models are great, but the environments feels like they were sacrificed for them and some attack animations are like they were meant to be more flashy.
I'm loving it quite a freaking bit so far. I really love the art style, it's this gorgeous watercolor look. Very unique and looks incredible in 4K. The gameplay is fun right from the start and the characters are pretty great. I love the voice acting, especially Ringo. The stores are so beautiful! And GIANT BLACK FROST??
Just beat it last night. Load times were near instant on PS5. Ringo is such a great character. Hard game to suggest to others because of the dungeons, even if I liked them. I fell in love with the OST but it was a slow burn. Great review! I definitely agree it is a flawed game. I missed true ending by 2 soul points with Arrow and that felt particularly bad haha
I'll probably grab it if it comes to Switch. My PC works fine, but finding time to sit down and play it is difficult. It's always better to have JRPGs portably.
I really... Like REALLY don't like Ringo's design. Or that her ass is center screen. Don't get me wrong girls are attractive. But I find in video games they need to be character first, ass later. And I just didn't get that from her. Could just be me. I dunno I just feel like Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers did it better. Rei Reiho and Nemissa were just better. And I actually preferred the battle system of Soul Hackers 1. 🤷
I genuinely just don't understand why this game is named Soul Hackers 2. It's so different from the rest of the Devil Summoner subfranchise. It feels like a spinoff title that they lacked confidence in and used name recognition to sell it, like Sonic 4 did. Like really, you named this Soul Hackers 2? Really? This?
It's a fairly good game, but appart from Victor and some Kuzunoha guy, the story and gameplay have little to do with the prequels. If they had called it anything else, it would have sold better
With how equipping demons sounds, my immediate first thought was DDS. Obviously it doesn't work like that and the mantras though. I guess the comparisons you made are more apt.
The dungeons don't seem any simpler than the ones from PS2 era Megaten games like Digital Devil Saga and Persona 3 and 4. I know Megaten dungeon design has higher standards now thanks to Persona 5 and SMT V, but if the dungeons in this game are its biggest flaws and they're like the PS2 era dungeons then I don't think I'd mind.
I want to like these games, but it feels like they have poor general direction on what they want to do for story and worlds, the gameplay has always been good. SMTV was really disappointing, along with how much they charge for DLC, it's hard to want to keep supporting these games.
"There's really no reason not to play this game." Sure there is, the price is astronomical and the approach to DLC is contemptible. This is a low budget, low effort, premium priced game. No thanks. Also are Atlus still going to be using the same demon models across ALL their games in another 20 years? Cheap and lazy.
reeks of entitlement cause not everyone can afford to drop 60+ bucks on a game that's "just okay" or whatever and then have the time to sink 50+ hours into it
Cyberpunk and megaten go together like peanut butter and jelly. Sad to see Atlus embracing the Tokyo Mirage Sessions aesthetic so relentlessly. Other than that it's a really good game. Glad to see they're focusing more on a SMT IV style narrative experience in soul hackers 2 as apposed to the plot hole no story mess style of SMT Nocturne like they did in SMT V.
Plot hole? No story? Nocturne is minimalist and still present very well the characters and their reasons unlike SMT V. SMT IV is not that original because the game get a lot of SMT1 ideas.
Also the irony of saying « plot holes no story » to describe one game 🤡. Which is it? It’s easy to not make any plot holes or mistakes when you’re copy pasting from the best written megaten games. But IV somehow managed to blunder 🤡🤡🤡.
I own almost every SMT game and offshoot- and even emulated/patched the SNES ones with English fan translations, I can honestly say it's a great offshoot- I'm playing 1st Soul Hacker on 3DS again also (which itself is Sega Saturn remake). If I can look forward to some mainline Shin Megami every few years, a Persona in between , and now one of these (or Strange Journey/Devil Survivor/etc.) in the off years also- Atlus will give us a nice steady supply. Sure they reuse demons and some assets some games, but each story and changes made to mechanics is enough to warrant playing these games if you like this style. SMT universe is up there with Ys, Phantasy Star, Star Ocean, and Final Fantasy for me as far as long running, branching RPG like franchises.
A first person mode or mod wouldve been a great callback to the OG megatens. I hope this does well. I do wish the aesthetics were darker like the OG and I really just wanted to see that OG style but with modern resources. This game is so bright and cheery looking.
Can confirm on the performance. I'm playing on a bloody integrated graphics card and STILL getting solid 60fps. Some stutter when loading battles, but my PC runs on an HDD, so it's to be expected. Sega games don't usually have this level of optimization and polishing when ported to PC, but seeing how the P4G port was I was pretty much expecting good out of this one. And I wasn't disappointed. Also, the game is really good. Fun stuff.
The game definitely looks good enough for me as a JRPG fan to pick up although I will likely wait until a sale as I am currently playing through Bravely Default 2 and SMT IV.
A Note about the Loading Screens: Set the loading screen to button press. I think the autoload allows for time to read the box. button press allows you to advance the loading screen after 1-2 seconds
This should've been the default option. I have a speedy hard drive so there is literally no loading time. I think you're right they baked in the loading time so you could read the tips or story summaries.
They missed the opportunity to teach players simple programming skills and have the puzzles revolve around that. It's in the name! You don't even have to make the player write anything, just connect nodes a la Unreal Engine blueprints. It should probably be toggleable though.
@@JNCGamingI’m talking about modern releases. I’ve played persona 2. Besides, tthe series has been drowning in the high school anime aesthetic for a long time.
@@canonsprite just dosn't feel like a devil summoner game it feels too much like a pop idol fest i would lump this with the fire emblem crossover game. it's okay if you like generic anime rpg's reminiscent of vita titles
No wonder the two games felt so similar, didn’t realize it was the same team. If only they got a little bit bigger budget for the dungeons and the game could’ve been way better.
Great review, not sure how I feel about the many changes in this game. Not being able to fuse and use demons feels weird. But I don't mind blander, less frustrating dungeons either. I loved the original Soul Hackers for that 90s cyberpunk aesthetic. I would probably buy this one at a sale when it's cheap though. But like other comments said, I hope it does well so we can finally have Devil Survivor 3 happen.
@@steel5897 funny cause on PS Store and on the 3DS eShop, their games tend to go on sale quite often don't even compare them to Nintendo's own games, please
Collectors Editions have been garbage for atleast 10+ years now. Local game related shops closing down and bots sniping already scarce online stores of all their stocks the moment it goes live... i just wanna give these people my money but im not allowed to do so...
I was kinda worried because of the reviews, but it’s actually really great. Having a lot of fun with it. I love Ringo, she’s funny. The way you equip Demons reminds me a lot of Persona Q 1 and 2. Also, surprised by Arrow-was expecting him to be a generic, pardon the term, patsy surrounded by badass women, but I am glad Atlus did not go that route for this game. He’s pretty cool, and a nice change of pace from Yosuke/Kanji/Ryuji being unreasonably afraid of the girls in P4 and 5, that got old quick. Love the lore of this game, too. So far, enjoying it a million times more than SH1, which made me want to pull my hair out (I mean, any game with random encounters has that effect, really, but still, even the story for SH1 was pretty weak, with the only strong character being Nemissa).
@@alyssarasmussen1723 Junpei is the goat, best of the best friend characters of the modern Persona games as he has major story development rather than it all being locked behind social links that feel like they barely go anywhere 70% of the time.
Well, the characters actually being adults helps, so they don’t have to utilize the “I’m a teenager that still somehow hasn’t learned to talk to girls in 17 years” anime trope. Nah the characters in this game are great, all other criticisms aside, Saizo, Arrow, Milady, and especially Ringo, all have a great dynamic.
@@chadachi3970 Junpei’s pretty cool. My personal favorite is Yosuke, but Junpei is second, for me, yeah. Junpei was good, I think, because he wasn’t just the best friend, like, he actually had a life outside of Makoto, which made him feel more real, as you said. Still enjoy Yosuke more because he’s hilarious, intelligent, and also The Scene of P4G with the mail man-they really displayed how Yosuke can get and he led the charge in setting the tense mood.
@@GG256_ Yeah, it’s a breath of fresh air, lmao. I don’t mind a character being stupid with girls, but I do mind when said girls are just as powerful as the boys, and yet the boys fear the girls. That’s dumb to me, lol. Like, why is Ryuji afraid of Makoto Niijima? Isn’t she afraid of the dark? That’s who you’re going to be afraid of? Also, she’s your teammate? Come on, LOL. But yeah, they do have a great dynamic in SH2, I enjoy this game quite a bit.
@@V2ULTRAKill No ? All changes from SJR are optional (extra endings, extra dungeon, commander skills, apps, save game in any moment) and game dont force you to use them, which is great. If you want play like original SJ, dont use new features and content from Redux. Its not Persona 1 and Persona 2 remaster when devs force you to play only in newest version. The only downgrade from original SJ is artstyle change, thats all.
My biggest gripe(besides the DLC) is the Demons that you have equipped when they attack they are just a black outline behind the target...The demons look so good but your never get to see your demons in combat.
I would've gotten it immediately after release. Then the Day-1 DLCs were announced. Therefore I will have to wait and get it later as a bundle, because I dont want to reward such bullshit. Mara as a DLC, my fucking god; pathetic.
What I can't believe is that Nyarly didn't point out is that some of those VAs are ones you know and love if you watched some and play the series of games Nyarly has or watched English Dubbed anime. Here's the VAs(ENG): Ringo - Megan Taylor Harvey - Sophia(from P5S) and Sally Brown(from Charlie Brown) Figue - Erica Mendez - Bernadetta(from FE: 3 Houses) and Sailor Uranus(from Sailor Moon) and Ayaka(from Genshin Impact) Arrow - Zach Aguilar - Byleth(from FE: 3 Houses) and Genos (from One Punch Man Season 2 onwards) and Aether(from Genshin Impact) Milady - Erica Lindbeck - Futaba(from P5) and Black Cat(from Spider-Man 2018) and Asahi(from SMT IV A) Saizo - Griffin Putau - Raian Kure(from Kengan Ashura) and Lars(from Nier Re[in]carnation) and best of all Victor - Patrick Seitz - Jeritza/Death Knight(from FE: 3 Houses) and King Cerberus[one head](from DMC 5) and fucking DIO FUCKING BRANDO (from of course Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) and many many more.
I'm new to the soul hacker game didn't play the first one but for just starting and just beat the first dungeon I like the game so far, plus I really like Ringo too, she has a fun and sassy personality but still level headed and doesn't come off as mean or annoying, plus I enjoyed her rap against r.s had me smiling
Kinda feels like a quick cash grab or leans on the generic side. Like not a bad game but not really great either. 6 or 7 outta 10 seems about right which is unfortunate. Hopefully they’ll make another devil summoner/survivor or digital saga game
