Shin Megami Tensei is one of Atlus’ most successful series. It has spawned several spin-offs, the most famous of which are the games Persona and Devil Summoner. Souls Hackers is another spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It was first published for the PlayStation 1 in 1999 as Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and was later ported to the Nintendo 3DS. Soul Hackers 2 was released as a sequel on current generation platforms. It’s just a soft reboot that doesn’t require much from its predecessor.
Soul Hackers 2 is set in the 21st century. The main plot revolves around a power conflict between the two most influential Devil Summoner groups, Yatagarasu and Phantom Society. The game begins with the appearance of Aion, an artificial entity with supernatural abilities. Aion can predict a terrible catastrophe for the world and uses his powers to create two creatures called Ringo and Figue. They are sent to the human world to investigate the reason for this devastating event. In order to quickly find a solution, each of them travels to a separate group. This is when the main story begins to unfold and the main characters are presented.
Through a technology known as Soul Hacks, Ringo and Figue can offer people new lives. This allows them to give everyone a second chance at life, while also working together to save the world. Although they are AI-created sentient beings, they try to learn human nature with all its shortcomings throughout the story. This moral dilemma is played out in a story where the odds are essentially an end-of-the-world twist, a popular cliché in JRPGs.
Unlike the Persona spin-off, Shin Megami Tensei games are often bleak and depressing, but Soul Hackers 2 doesn’t seem to keep up with the pace. It has a vibrant and colorful universe in which the player can connect with party members outside the battle and strengthen their bonds with them. The gameplay of this item also feels simpler, similar to Persona 5 rather than the older Devil Summoner titles. As an aside, one issue I encountered with the game was that the DLC demons made the player feel like OP, breaking the balance of the game.
Unfortunately, Soul Hackers 2 lacks the budget and polish you’d expect from a main game Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. The dungeon design is repetitive at times, so going through it isn’t always a pleasant experience. Other than that, most of the side content is equally uninteresting. The gameplay, on the other hand, is the saving grace of the game. With a lot of skills and possibilities to unlock for the different characters, the combat feels refreshing.
The game’s difficulty is not comparable to a mainstream Shin Megami Tensei game, although this is due to the streamlined gameplay rather than a game balance issue (other than the DLC bonus). The game prioritizes exploiting each enemy’s weaknesses and includes a bonus in the form of a total attack needed to take out a group of enemies. These are flashy attacks that are fun to watch the first few times, but can be skipped with the push of a button after that.
So, while the battles are exciting, the dungeon design falls short, which brings us to the characters. An excellent game is generally distinguished by a memorable cast of characters. They can elevate an ordinary game to a good game and a good game to a spectacular game if they are developed effectively during the game. The cast of characters in Soul Hackers 2 is strong and has a backstory that allows them to connect with the players. Each has a different personality. By playing the side content instead of the main story, you can better identify their traits.
The story of the party members is fleshed out by optional content in the Soul Matrix and can be found in Axis. This is a completely optional dungeon associated with each of our group members. It’s similar to Tartarus from Persona 3. To be honest, I’m not sure how I would get through the main story without diving deeper into the Soul Matrix. It might not have a great dungeon design, but there are some decent rewards for completing it, and the character’s background gets more fleshed out as we do. The main plot seems to have a bigger impact as we go through the optional dungeons, so I’d consider the side issues to be reasonable, although a lot of it feels repetitive.
Going through the main story will still take at least 40 hours if you’re slow, but if you include the optional content, it can easily take over 60 hours to complete the game. In a way, the game hides its ‘true ending’ behind the optional stuff, adding to the replay value if you’re a completeist. This is a good length for a JRPG, and Soul Hackers 2 seems to deliver.
On a technical level, I was surprised to see an option between a 60 FPS performance mode and a graphics mode. I found that the performance mode worked well enough for me that I didn’t have to use the graphics mode when playing on the PS5. The improved controller response and smoother performance make it easier to get through combat, and we can even fast-forward through some gameplay sequences.
Soul Hackers 2 Game Info
- Price: $59.99
- Publisher: Sega
- Developer: Atlus
- Platform: PS5 (reviewed)
- Disclaimer: A review code has been given by the publisher
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