Soul Hackers 2 is the loose sequel to Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, set within the same universe and city though featuring wholly different storylines and gameplay. As with any Atlus game, this release had quite a considerable following leading up to its release as well as expectations of it expanding the enormous lexicon of demons. Has the game hacked its way into our hearts though?
Modern Soul Hacking
The story starts with a brief explanation of our plot and main characters, Ringo and Figue, two portions of an advanced AI god known as Aion. Thankfully, we do not play as emotionless machines as some other RPGs that feature androids would emulate. These leading ladies are made to be almost exactly like humans, with a bit of an edge with their advanced summoning techniques and magic.
Our goal is to stop the world’s end as estimated by the AI god, the catalyst of which is a young devil summoner by the name of Arrow. As bad luck would have it, however, our target is found dead a few minutes after we land on Earth. Instead of a game over screen, Ringo uses one of her unique abilities to revive our target, Soul Hack.
With Arrow brought back to life we are put on a merry chase of his goals, to make sure armageddon does not arrive and keep those who hold the power within them to do so, also alive… Let’s just hope you get there in time.
The story will last you around 30-35 hours, with side quests and additional content adding up to almost 50 hours. A lot of the side quests will have you revisiting old areas, or talking to several people, so you won’t experience much new in doing them, aside from a few that feature boss fights with unique demons or buffed-up demons you’ve already faced.
There are two endings to be had, though to get to these you only have to make certain choices in the final dungeon. If you keep a backup save in the final area you can see both without much issue. There is some replayability in the three options you’ll have in almost every dialogue, as well as the new game plus options on offer that also unlocks more side quests and events.
This Is My Gun and This Is My Demon
As with many recent Megaten franchise entries, Soul Hackers 2 is a turn-based RPG where you explore dungeons to get to the end or quest points, fighting demons along the way. Fighting grants you money and experience, and uniquely to this entry a higher chance of seeing that demon via demon recon for recruitment.
Demon recon happens at the beginning of every dungeon where you send out your demons to find items, money, quest-related items, and demons for recruitment. Recruiting demons has been dumbed down to a single response of Yes or No, you give a single item or sum of money and they join you, or you say no and they leave. This may feel a bit strange to veterans of the franchise but maybe a breath of fresh air to others. It certainly speeds up the process and makes it painless.
As always, demons are not your friends, but your tools. The higher their level is from their starting level, the less experience they will get. So you will need to fuse your stock into new variants to keep up with the increasing difficulty. From my count, there are about a dozen new demons on offer here, and many aren’t that exciting.
Soul Hackers 2 also brings back some of the equipment systems found in other games like SMT IV and Apocalypse. You have one armour and one accessory known as a Mistiques, though you can get more slots for these later on. Your COMP can also be upgraded and granted new skills, such as increasing certain damage types, reducing MP costs, gaining a bonus attack, and lowering the chance of ambushes.
Customisation and gear upkeep are very straightforward, though a bit linear at times. All you need is the materials and money, and you’re done. You only really make a final choice near the end when you get one ultimate skill, though you can change these for a price at the COMP smith. Armours give a better variety, focusing on particular attributes or stats, some even granting evasion chances against particular elements.
Heart and Soul
The soundtrack of Soul Hackers 2 is rather pleasing to the ears and fits a lot of the themes and environments. At least for me, the tracks didn’t have enough energy or impact, when compared to the more rock or metal-influenced songs found in other parts of the Megaten franchise. For fans of trance, techno, and synth, you’ll feel more at home with the sounds at play.
As with any Megaten game, the difficulty of this entry is mostly held within its first few dungeons where your options are limited. After your third dungeon, you will find the game much smoother as you can specialise in particular elements or find a loop with your party to deal with encounters before the enemy gets a turn. A lot of the bosses have interesting mechanics, and will certainly bring a challenge, though I did feel like the last few bosses were a bit weak for their aesthetics. Something that I felt with SMT V too.
Bringing up SMT V, Soul Hackers 2 does away with the large landscapes and endless running to your destination over sand. However, in its place, there are copy-pasted corridors and reused dungeons. There are two shipping yards and three abandoned underground train systems. Combined with asinine blockers like knee-high hurdles that could easily be circumvented, and the overuse of one-way doors and teleports.
The dungeon design is a major detraction of this title, this is held even more severely within the matrices of your companions’ minds. Plain blue abysses with walkways that feature nothing unique except some stairs and at later sections an abundance of hair-pulling teleports. I’ve always been a hater of these portals, and Soul Hackers 2 really wanted to drive home that it was padding these areas with them.
On the other hand, I was glad that the game didn’t feature any annoying characters with grating voices or choices. A lot felt organic, with was refreshing after the abundance of annoying mascots found in recent entries. The voice actors were also all top-notch. I just wish they hadn’t removed the DLC quest line from the base game, the day-one addition should have just been in the game.
Overall, I give Soul Hackers 2 an 8/10. It is a very enjoyable game though does nothing outstanding in its field. The story flows nicely, with a few jarring breaks in the action to allow for discussion between the party members. The gameplay is simple and engaging, though some bosses do leave the player wanting more. Sadly, a game that is mostly dungeon delving, Soul Hackers 2 features terrible dungeons.
Grab your copy here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1777620/Soul_Hackers_2/
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