5:55 this mechanic of seeing a dead person's dying memories and rewriting their past so they live is literally the plot of a DS game called Ghost Trick. If you've never played it, do it. It's tons of fun.
Soul Hackers 2 is honestly so forgettable that every time one of these videos pops up, I get nostalgic. Not because it was good or a classic - but because my 60 hours playing it back in September were so damn dull.
How did it take you 60 hrs? I took my time and did every request but not aion directives. Did all the hangout events and soul matrix and it took me 37 hrs
I remember a year before this game came out I was like running on the treadmill listening to the soundtrack of the of the game and then visualizing me playing the game eventually and then I eventually bought the game a few months ago and still have yet to play it until a couple days ago and I got to say it was a huge letdown and I can't believe I bought it at full price or maybe it was at the Disco maybe it was 41.99 I forgot but either way it was just it was a disappointment like the level design like I liked the characters in interactions in the beginning but then it got too overwhelming with stuff that it looked like it was unnecessary like they should have made it more simple and just the level design the level designs sucked and really like the portraits of the kind of got me saying like why don't you have the Persona 5 like portraits don't have this The World Ends With You portrait or come up with like a better portrait design cuz I didn't I didn't really like the face of some of these characters cuz you're not supposed to have like a long chin like that and it was just so weird to see that and I don't know and you know one of the voice actors is the same voice actor for Futaba in Persona 5 and the in Ringo was the voice for the AI in Persona 5 Strikers so that kind of pissed me off because I'm all like I don't want to get you confused in my mind you're kind of ruining the character for me for Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers so it's a good thing I deleted the game after 10 hours because like I was in that what's that is like the underground Subway and I was like screw this this is just so stupid and later on I saw videos of like there's going to be in like a like a grander level where you're going to teleport a lot I'm like screw that s***
It is funny how this ended up being the Opposite of SMTV. While SMTV took the gameplay in interesting and new directions but having a rather lackluster story and characterization. While SH2 was an ok Game in the gameplay department, while having pretty decent characterization and story. I do really enjoy the cast, I think ringo being a speaking Protagonist was a smart choice and she was very entertaining. And despite issues (Like the dungeons lacking variety in music, and the last dungeon feeling a bit rushed storywise) I platinumed the game. I hope Atlus can take what they learned from this game and apply them to future games or a sequel.
Its also opposite in the fact that, when smtv got announced we waited years for it, yet when sh2 was announced we barely had to wait before it launched
@@DragonKingX78 and hopefully in development for longer. As from playing soul hackers 2 it plays like something that was only developed for like a year or 2
I think it's good for Atlus to realize that they can't just rely on their good reputation to sell just any game. The bar has been raised for them and they have to try to meet it as much as possible. Sure it's not easy but there's a hunger for more good Atlus games which is where a lot of the disappointment from the newer games (SH2, SMT V) comes from. It means people are paying attention to them more than used to and they're ready and willing to support any high quality Atlus game even if it's something unfamiliar
I hope thats what they get from the poor sales instead of "well seems like the DS series is failing, lets just forget it again for half a decade while pumping more Persona spinoffs"
I think the best phrase for this game is "A better game with the wrong name" because a lot of its issues can genuinely be resolved just by making it separate to Soul Hackers It kind of exists in that same state as DmC Devil May Cry, it's a solid game, even at times a great one, but because it's building off of a legacy it's not very interested in exploring, it comes off as alienating and opens itself up to criticism from people who are very interested in that legacy. Because of which, this game is unfairly going to be written off as a "bad game" despite it being better than it's direct predecessor in a lot of ways
Couldn't have said better about DmC. It's a great game, but it should not have tried to be DMC, or in this case, tried to replace it. It's a great game, but not a great DMC.
then why not take it at face value and play it as a completely new and unrelated game? a title is just a title. but alas, fandoms aren't quite that resourceful
@@Pao-vo8mf It's hard to do that when the game itself keeps telling you "HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME (insert something that happened in a past game here) HAPPENED? HERE IT IS AGAIN". Why should we try to separate the game from it's predecesor, when the game DOESN'T want you to? And it's hard for me to enjoy DmC when it was called "shakesperean" when it came out, also "Old Dante looks like a gay cowboy", but then they get mad when people call new Dante "Emo Boy"
One thing I'll not knock this game on in the slightest is the character designs. Holy hell the character designs fucking slap. Especially Ringo- love her.
Though one detail I feel you missed with the battle system is that with SH2, it is also heavily in your favor as there are no downsides to screwing up nor can the enemy make use of. It is a one-sided "win more" mechanic rather than something you actually have to think about. And with the game being low budget, it should really be telling one thinks this given SMTV was cutting corners as it was. Also, there is one other thing this game gutted that the original did so well, the dream quests, those when you got to play as other characters and experience their last moments.
I can't get over how much potential this game left on the table in terms of battle. how can you look at the entire SMT/spinoff mechanic vault and say "equip perso- demons, some commander skills... and that's it"? game designer cringe.
I wish these characters had a better game to be in, because they are all super cool! I know most people have one character they don’t care for but I fell in love with this cast shortly after the intro. I honestly didn’t even dislike the main gameplay very much either, it’s just hard to go from such highly funded games before it to this. Ringo will still be a personal favorite of mine though, she’s just too dang cool
One thing I really liked was the Search Demon Fusion system. It gave you every possible combinations and the ability to view which skills were transferable. I only played P3F, P4G and P5R so I don't know if this was a new thing or not, but it made the fusion process so much easier.
Just started replaying Strange Journey recently, how I missed how good the game was... Proper pacing, excellent range of demons to fuse, just good SMT dungeon crawling.
It's been very very interesting to see the reaction of SH2 from the sidelines. I haven't played any of the Devil Summoner games yet, but seeing SH2 get such a mixed reaction from both fans of SH1 and those who either didn't play SH1 or didn't fancy it is really interesting and a bit sad to see. I hope ATLUS doesn't just abandon the idea of more sequels to their old franchises where it makes sense, but given their most recent brand new titles have garnered mixed reception at best, I fear they'll play things too safe in the future. In any case, I'd love to see an SH3 or some other Devil Summoner spinoff or even a new SMT spinoff entirely over another Persona 4/5 spinoff game. I'm especially saddened by the story and how it handled Figue, since almost every reaction I've heard to the end game twist is it was too sudden and nonsensical, kind of coming out of left field. It's a shame, considering the basic concept is decent and could have been handled better, if only ATLUS gave her more of a natural build up to a boiling point, like you've said.
I wonder if there were more planned conversations between Figue and Raven that got cut for budget or not. It’s hard to say because Atlus drops the ball often lol but just something I think about
I think a bigger example of worldbuilding in SH2 is the subway levels. It's really underplayed because your presence there has next to nothing to do with it, but the backstory establishes that the whole thing was a monumental waste of a project that was ultimately left populated by the workers whose livelihoods it ruined, as well as the demons that nobody cares to clear out because of how unimportant the place is. The bigger waste in my opinion is Ichiro Onda and his OMNI System, especially since it seems his ambition was in some way a reaction to the general stagnation of the society around him. Unfortunately, the "server from Hell" is also one of those things that are established early and then never heard from again until the very end. Frankly, the page on the OMNI System describes something so ridiculously powerful and demonically touched that you would expect it to be as central to the game as, say, Babel from Devil Survivor. Maybe even more so, since it pretty much invites themes of espionage and the omnipresence of digital technology, and may be used to further advance the worldbuilding of Devil Summoner in particular by showing the way that Summoner organizations have to dance around each other and the traditional governments just to keep the thing from becoming a flashpoint.
Ngl as someone who wants Raidou 3, I’m genuinely worried how it’ll turn out if this is the road the series is going down. Though, given the sales of SH2, it’s not likely Atlus’ll touch anything related to the series for awhile.
Yeah. They look similar. It's sad that Figue is not playable though. It'd be fun to have more than just 4 characters and be able to choose which ones you want in your party. Still, I love the game
I really loved the first soul hackers. Was there when this was announced and lost all interest right away. It just isn't what I am looking for stylistically, or mechanically. It's a shame, it seemed like even the people who were interested didn't like it that much
IGN gives Soul Hackers 2 a decent score: BAD!!! IGN ARE SHILLS!!! THIS GAME IS A CLASSIC!!! Everyone other small gaming channel says it sucks: ...That's so true... it's just not the game I remember...
Unlike Soul Hackers 2 though, that game is a Tactical JRPG, insta-kills would straight up not work in the format presented, while Soul Hackers 2 is pretty down to earth gameplay wise, and really sees no need to outright cut out insta-kills skills, let alone Light and Dark elements in their entirety
i'd like to know your opinion on TMS:FE#, i bought the game out of curiosity since some of the cast are in the FE gacha game (and kicked ass, good units) and i enjoyed it. TY for the amazing vid too, all your opinions are perfectly delivered, keep up the good work!
Its an underrated gem. There was a lot of controversy regarding censorship and while it does suck to lose content, it was still by all means playable and enjoyable
@@GothamiteYT I disagree, bought switch with 3 games in mind, one of them being tms and was severely disapointed. It was basically a persona, but worse in every aspect. Story in characters were especially boring and cringey, basically impossible to take seriously, which is a huge problem, since the game tries to be serious.
The game was more controversial when they realized it wasn’t like FE, despite the game being part of the FE series, but because the game showed false advertising.
Story and characters are "fine", but the gameplay is so good. Also the game have a lot of "style". I have some difficulty to believe that Soul Hackers 2 is made by the same team from Tokyo Mirage, but at the same time Tokyo Mirage have a lot more budget, because it was partially funded by Nintendo. The main menu is so beautiful ahah. The dungeons of TMS are better than the one from Soul Hackers 2. It's really not that good like the one from Persona 5, but they were quite original. :)
16:35 They made that change in SMT V and personally I absolutely welcome it. Because any game with negotiation beforehand usually ended up like. "Hey, give me some Macca" Okay "I want some HP" Okay "I want some more Macca" Okay "Alright, see ya." wtf
@@antiproductive4131 Then again, it was more like rolling a die than anything else, so, I'm glad it's not like that for SH2, because frankly, failed negotiations just serve to waste time
I think naming it Soul Hackers 2 hurt it’s sales. This is definitely not a sequel. They should’ve just called it soul hackers and treat it as a reboot.
the game would not change at all if they just changed the names of the antagonists and the soul hack ability, it probably would've been received a lot better if people didn't go into it expecting "soul hackers 2"
@@daiyahigashikata and it would have been received better if Atlus didn't *market* it as "Soul Hackers 2". though like with SMT IV Apocalypse, changing the title wouldn't make the game any less garbage.
As I used to say, I treat each game I play as a different game from separate series and id have to say Soul Hackers 2 was fun but some of the levels felt too careless and caused it to take too long. The characters were interesting and also fun but tumbled through it
@kurosan9712 Well, yes, and no. Because SH2 removed the "Devil Summoner" moniker, you can present it as just "Soul Hackers", and say it's a soft reboot
Funny enough is that I really wanted to show the game off but I was denied a review code. That's more than enough to say that I'm not good enough for SEGA/Atlus. Give or take a few months, we'll be seeing a Switch version of that game. Cue the emergency switch protocol.
I think this game is the good kind of okay. It's not super ambitious but it's fun, flashy, it has fantastic music, and I really like the characters and story. And unlike a lot of other SMT games, it doesn't have any singular elements that annoy me out of finishing it. It's one of those things I can just play and have fun with it without getting frustrated. I think that's cool, and it's why I'll finish this but I'll probably never finish SMT4 or Nocturne. It also makes it the perfect Game Pass game.
Just from all the prerelease stuff and the reviews I've seen, I feel like they dropped the ball on the aesthetic. I get that they can't just go back and do the 90s vision of what is futuristic, but just neon lights, geometric shapes, and glitch effects ain't doing it for me. Nothing here looks like Soul Hackers, aside from a few of the characters.
It's baby's first cyberpunk. They could have gone back to the 90s vision of the future. Blade Runner 2049 sure replicated the 80s vision. Heck the Soviet Union was in it.
As an on-looker to this game, all I can really say about this game is that I like its aesthetic and character designs, but that's about it - I never really heard anything about the game upon its release.
It feels like they tried to make this the "Persona 3" for the DS series. Persona 3 was also very much similar to this game, by the fact that it took the name of persona but completely reworked the formula and taking a completely new direction. However, we all know how successful persona 3 is, despite is several flaws; I wonder why persona 3 did well and soul hackers 2 didnt.
Dating Sim + highschool setting (most popular / generic setting in anime) = eldorado for ,,weebs''. Also P3 was released in ideal moment, when was no real competetion in West for those kind of games. Now market is oversaturated.
@@nr2676 Yeah. Persona 3 came at the right place at the right time, and the mechanics it did introduce were relatively revolutionary for the time, especially considering how different it was from P1 and P2 EP (We did not get IS localized until the PSP port)
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 Those Dating Sim mechanics in P3 were not new in Japan. Sakura Wars, Langrisser, Harvest Moon, did that 10 years ealrier, but those games were never released outside of Japan.
I believe the sabbath attack would have been cooler if the Sabbath skills did more, but used the stacks you built as their resource, and spent more stacks the more useful or powerful they were. Would be very nice
I would have rather seen a game that followed up on the spookies gang than this. I didn't even pay much attention to the game and I'm a huge atlus fan and just from my impression of it I think it's just a mediocre game and definitely not worthy of the soul hackers title. I just wish more effort was put into it.
I do admit, it would be nice to at least have some interactions with them, like, say, meeting one of them in Mansei Realm and them having a quest for you or something
Seeing similar gameplay elements in that metaphor trailer was kinda concerning ngl. I hope atlus hasn't decided to approach their new games with this "safe" mindset just because persona is their cash cow.
Yeah, changing every SMT spin-off / Atlus game into Persona ,,clone'' is route into nothing. Yes Persona give Atlus cash, but there will come a time when these types of games will eventually get tired of everyone. Even Persona fans starts to be tired of milking Persona 5 and her spin-offs. Spin-offs should be for experiments franchise with other game genres (for example: tactical SRPG, action RPG), with fresh ideas, not mindless turning everything into one type of game. Sadly Atlus is now under Sega shoe, that mean Sega needs money, and Atlus is forced to give them money. Devil Summoner was suppoused to be a detecive JRPG series, with ocult elements, and building relationship with demons (like we have in Digimon games), not be like Persona games.
I completely understand the criticism of Demon Negotiations being too easy but as someone with autism spectrum disorder I have always been utter dogshit at them, to the point that I just grind a shitload of money to fuse everything because it's so inaccessible to me. I wish there was some sort of difficulty setting that focused on the difficulty of demon negotiation specifically, like just doing multiple sliders for different aspects of difficulty. Then I could do hard combat, high EXP/Money gain, easy demon negotiations, etc
yeah but they don't take people like that into consideration when doing negotiation. i hated how it was handled here because you can't do it in battle and you're getting random demons and don't even know if you can get them or not because of your level. it was bad.
It kinda feels like Atlus forgot how to make interesting dungeons. Maybe they don't need to crank out a new SMT-related game to make a yearly release now that the games are primarily 3D.
I never finished Soul Hackers 1, even though I have it in my 3DS for years. But Soulless Hack 2 is one of my least favorite Megaten game, even though there is a lot of small things I like about it. The adult cast, the art style, the soul level system, are really good and interesting, and then Atlus give us one of the most boring combat system and story I've ever seen in years. Yeah SMT V's story is lacking for sure, but at least it tried to do something more interesting than "I will save humanity from suffering" (aka 3rd Semester P5R, the only storyline doesn't make any damn sense in P5 thematically). What I really hope, Atlus won't stop making game with adult casts. They need that.
I have to interject and say P5R’s third semester actually *does* fit P5 thematically. Saving humanity from suffering is Maruki’s ultimate goal, but how does he do this? By manipulating reality so that people don’t have to experience it for themselves while at the same time robbing them of their freedom, much like how Yaldaboath did the same near the endgame but with people’s desires instead. It reinforces the game’s main theme of freedom vs. security by having a moral dilemma of whether you would rather life a happy lie without pain or conflict, or live with suffering so that you have a chance to grow and change like the P5 cast all did. Just this time with an actual villain who has sympathetic goal and motivations instead of a (literal) faceless god and rehashing the same final act from P3 and P4 for the third time.
Seriously the Megaten Superfan community were falling over themselves trying to convince people that this was actually a worthy entry in the Devil Summoner series
As a person that has no real context for the original or devil summoner megami tensei whatever, I didn’t mind the game all that much, honestly I found it quite fun. The character/demon monster designs are really cool, the combat system is A LOT of fun, the voice acting is excellent, the story is okay, the dungeons weren’t that fun though. That’s probably my only ding, other than that this seemed like a solid game.
Havent finished the game yet, honestly I dont dislike the game.... but I took the time to play through soul hackers first (...well most of the game).... but litterally nothing is similar to the original. Cant say how it is as a SMT game since beside persona games, soul hackers is the only one I played. I loved the summoning system, demon negotiation, and demon morale system in the original. And none of it comes back.... They still have "negotiation" but its only a single choice that boils down to "if you want me, then give me this". And was immediately annoyed when they mentioned soul hacking, when that simply didnt seem to be a thing in the original... like I dont think they explicitly call it soul hacking in the original, but as they said in the video its simply turning souls into data allowing for it to be stored in a computer. Maybe I would have liked soul hacking more if they reframed it to match the original. Like pull the soul into the COMP and store it there as data, then simply summon that soul as you would a demon. There you have practically implemented bringing someone back to life... and you can keep the equipment system by explaining that in order to use the devil summoning program on their souls they have to overwrite an existing demon, thus giving them the stats and abilities of the demon they overwritten. I'm unsure of why but Mary is gone from the Goumaden and Zomas as a usable demon are gone too. It feels more like a bland persona game, then a sequel to soul hackers. Probably would have been better as a completely separate game. Honestly I just picked up Royal, and I think I rather replay persona 5 then finish soul hackers 2.
Negotiations in SMT have never not been weird Yea, SH1 doesn't explicitly refer to it as Soul Hacking, though the principle is changed for SH2, though in a similar vein As for how you reframe Soul Hacking...that's exactly what Ringo does, more or less, the characters' summoning programs require her to work, and it's how they can even perform Sabbaths. It's also why demons are equips Admittedly, SH2 is a Devil Summoner game at heart, just not much of a sequel to Soul Hackers
As someone who has pretty much all of the Devil Summoner games high on their favorite games list and view it as the best sub-series of SMT, it really disappoints me how cash-grabby SH2 just kinda felt and, while the Atlus that made SH1 died on the 3DS, I wish they look back at what made the old games charming and focus on that first.
I absolutely was waiting for a video on this. SH2 is not a bad game by any means but a **disappointing** sequel. All the cool experimentation with SH1 felt like it was left at the door to create one of the most mediocre SMT titles to date. For as much as I had problems with SMTV it was rather ambitious in what it was trying to achieve. That and the dungeon design and gameplay were still fun despite the lackluster story + characters. SH2 feels like someone at a board meeting took a look at an older Atlus property, gave a team a smaller budget and told them to work with it. As a result, you have a game so far removed from SH1's interesting concepts (to mask limitations) that it may as well be a side story. The character cameos/easter eggs don't even progress the original story of SH1 or give any new information from that game's world. That and the gameplay feels incredibly half-baked. I was definitely willing to forgive some of the game's shortcomings if the gameplay and dungeon design were solid. I'm a huge fan of budget games and understand they have their own niche, but these dungeons are some of the worst in SMT history. You will go through the same generic code cube design over and over again and you WILL like it. The actual gameplay is hindered by this because it makes battles such a nuisance. To make up for the fact that you would easily steamroll this game by grinding mindlessly with enemies, boss HP is inflated, making them feel more like a chore than a fun challenge compared to SH1. And don't get me wrong, SH1 wasn't perfect and was far from being a 10/10 game but the difficulty felt "right". Enemies never felt like they were too easy or hard. SH2 feels like it wants to waste the players time to inflate the game time. The characters are actually rather likeable (minus Figue, screw her) but are stuck with a game that doesn't give them enough time to be fully fleshed out. There are so genuinely good moments, but the game really needed more of these. Overall, I'm more peeved at Atlus putting a half-hearted effort into a cult classic and setting it up for failure.
I would but its currently only in Japanese. I'm waiting for a fan translation to come out so I won't have to rely on walkthroughs just to experience it. But I am willing to give it a shot if that ever happens
You might sh*t on TMS for being unpopular, but that dungeon design was so much better than SH2 dungeons. Each location had it's own unique puzzle (what you'd wanted from SH2), kind of like what we got in P5, but players also needed to revisit them later on because certain places where inaccessible. Also the "hitting red enemies while passing them so they don't attack you" mechanic is also from TMS - that game even had extremely hard bosses (black instead of red enemies) and golden/special enemies to gain rare items for weapon upgrades. TMS is much better than ppl think, but I guess it's just trendy to hate it.
30:53 whoa whoa, what? smt v took me 60 hours at max and I did every sidequest in the game. Older games, tended to be even shorter, nocturne was about 40 hours, and dds took even less, 30 h each. Howlongtobeat has higher times, but only about 5-10 hours more. I have no idea how you came up with 90, it took me 80 to play through smt v twice, second time on hard, with newborn character. Only persona games could take that much time. Also, the issue with not having a field to use strongest demons is a recurring problem. I think the only game that allowed to realistically use all demons was apocalypse. Smt v, persona v, smt 4, they all ended way before you would need strongest demons. Hell in smt v using guys like metatron, beelzebub or shiva, would break the game and make every enemy a joke.
I understand what you are saying. BUT here is the thing. It is differnt than the other Atlus games. If it had things like the ones that you said it would be like SMT or Persona. So it tries to do its own thing. And I respect that.
Hangouts and the characters were definitely the best parts of the game, but everything else, hoo hoy. As someone who generally plays games on easy, I felt them simplifying demon negotiation was just ridiculous, and the level design? The less said the better, lol. I hope Atlus take this as an example of what not to do in the future
I recently discovered your channel, love what you do and I have been kinda binge watching part of it. You inspired me to go back beat some smt games I hadn't or revisit some others I did beat.
I liked it a lot. The characters are great, the story discusses some interesting ideas, fusions and upgrades felt meaningful for defeating bosses, and the gameplay was a good difficult difficulty between persona's "why am I even here" and smt's "man I really hope I don't miss this attack and then get smirked to the title screen by the enemy". Yeah, dungeons were bland.
I was interested in SH2 when it was announced due to liking the aesthetic, the character designs, and seeing what MegaTen had to offer besides the Persona subseries (like everyone else) and SMT 5 (interesting in concept but pretty boring in execution). The fact that I didn't even know the game was *released* for a few months really goes to show that the game probably doesn't have much to offer beyond it's art style and the same ol' same ol'. Which is a shame, but at least the game sounds like it wasn't rushed out the door in an unfinished state. That's more than a lot of other high profile releases can say... Might pick the game up if it's on sale, maybe.
I recommend checking out some of the older non-persona games if you haven't. Digital Devil Saga, Devil Survivor Overclocked, SMT Nocturne and SMT IV are all fan favorites
I think my main issue with SH2 is that everything surrounding the game from the character designs, aesthetics, character writing and the choice to have an MC who isn’t just a voiceless blank slate for once is amazing. But the actual gameplay being so bland and repetitive is it’s biggest detriment, since we’ve seen games like Persona 5 and SMTV push their respective series forward in major ways with huge, sprawling dungeons in Persona 5’s case, or replacing traditional dungeons with later overworlds filled with tons of secrets and demons in SMTV’s case. But with SH2, the dungeons are all very bland, formulaic and repetitive, and feel like something out of a PS2 Atlus game like SMT3 or Persona 3. And so this game doesn’t just measure up to the standards of newer SMT titles, but that Atlus have set for themselves in the HD era. There is at least potential, so I hope this game eventually gets a sequel improving it’s shortcomings, but with how poorly its sold that unfortunately seems quite unlikely.
I know this is pretty late but yatagarsu being shady isn't new, raidou vs king abaddon revealed that in addition to the kuzunoha devil summoner family they also employed the Fukoshi assassins, the bug users who gave their daughters to the tento-lords to get more bugs
This game is both underrated AND a bad soul hackers sequel. It is very fun, and basically plays like a modern nocturne, but also has a meh story and mostly boring setting. I think what saves it is how smooth the combat is and that Ringo basically masks the story issues a bit to make you care
I just finished Soul Hackers 2, and your take on the Soul Matrix is 100% on point. It SUCKS. Bland surroundings, complicated and repetitive puzzles, overall disappointment. As Sub-Zero said perfectly in Mortal Kombat 11: *"Such wasted potential."* Edit: AND FIGUE. THAT TWIST AT THE END WAS ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS. WASTED POTENTIAL, TOO.
Having gone back and replayed this one recently, I found more enjoyment in it than I did when it launched. It's still a bottom-barrel game in the grand scheme of SMT, but for what it is, it's not bad. I did have some thoughts about your comments on the setting. The idea of society being on the verge of collapse being shoved to the background is kind of a reality. Many people here in good ol' 'Murica feel that our society is on the verge of collapse due to political, economic, and enviornmental factors that are out of their control, but it's not something that's aparent on a street level. People are still just going about their daily lives. They go to work, pay their bills, and try to find a little enjoyment in their lives as if nothing is wrong. Societal collapse isn't all riots in the streets, if that were the case than hockey season destroys society on an anual basis. To the average person, the collapse of society will look less Mad Max and more like an average tuesday.
Nice to hear another creators thoughts on soul hackers 2 I enjoyed my time with it but definitely had more potential than what was delivered unfortunately. Also true ending is tied to Ringo final 4 decisions not soul matrix, and I hated the last dungeon reminded me of the last level in scarlet nexus I will take bland dungeons over that drawn out mess. Good day mate loved seeing the difference in opinion ❤
This is the only game in the SMT series where i just wish for a rerelease that fixes all of this. Although that will probably never happen as so much would have to be changed.
I have to say I've been veering away from this franchise only because they haven't had a fully adult cast and uh... high school protagonists are kind of old hat by now for me at least.
I need more turn based goodness in my life and I currently playing the persona series on pc gamepass. Would you suggest adding Soul Hackers 2 into the mix next or move on to FFVII remake afterwards. I know they are different but I am very interested in what you think.
I was referring to games that came out post persona 3 portable since none of them featured female protagonists. Smt if… and eternal punishment did but those games came out back in the 90’s/2000’s
Playing this on GP and already liking Ringo a lot and the rest of the cast seems cool too. Who knows if I'll feel good about the game in the end , having likeable cast is extremely important in jrpgs for me.
Enjoyed it and all the 183hrs I've put into it so far. Others are of course going to determine what they want from or enjoy about the game, but I've been delving through the SMT universe since P3FES. I've since explored every game and spin-off before it and after it since I'm just a fan (probably due to my strong tolerance/enjoyment of anything Wizardry-like}. Other than that, just wanted to sound a meek warning that to fans that not every game is going to cartwheel like P5... and if we're not too careful, we might find ourselves mired in nothing but social links and Atlus attempting to chase only the sure thing, while cautioning from other too-risky endeavors that we've enjoyed up to this point. Not everything is going to be a homerun, but completely shunning them taking any chances is going to lead us to something I'd think far worse.
Soulhackers 2 is one of the SMT spinoffs of all time. Completely forgot it existed until I scrolled through your uploads lol! This video really covers why it’s not very notable or well received. It’s stagnant(kinda ironic considering the game’s premise), doesn’t do anything majorly new or old to really break that mold. People play specific RPG’s for different reasons and well beyond the characters, there’s not really anything that’ll stick with you(assuming you’re a heavy RPG fan). But you knew that already…
Soul Hackers is well known in the west? According to who?? I’m one of those weebs who had it on 3DS but I can’t imagine there’s a ton of American JRPG fans who got hyped at the idea of Soul Hackers 2.
Soul Hackers 2 was disapointing, I think with more time and more budget this could've been a great spin off series, maybe not on the level of Persona but coulda been great.
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Balls? Nah, it's simply useless for SEGA fans. We don't get pussy, we only get Mara ( and he doesn't shave. )
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I think this is important to note
The rap battle wasn't just cringy, it was so cringy the guy she was battling straight-up died.
So he quite literally died from cringe lmao
I mean, I guess that kinda was the idea? To throw shade at Carol J
Nobody hates SMT games more than SMT fans.
we're our own biggest enemy
Hm, I've heard this one before
I think every fanbase are their own worst enemy
FE fans: finally, we aren’t alone anymore
@@creator-link cause fans are the ones who care, so it really shouldn't be surprising
5:55 this mechanic of seeing a dead person's dying memories and rewriting their past so they live is literally the plot of a DS game called Ghost Trick. If you've never played it, do it. It's tons of fun.
I've heard that game is really good. It's made by Shu Takumi, who also made the Ace Attorney series, which I'm a big fan of.
@@alexandercorbett1147 aye, Ghost Trick is what is most likely one of the best DS games if not the best one
Ghost trick's story was so good
I mean he didn’t rewrite their memories, he just has the ability to travel back in time to their death and stop it. Great game though
@@jinkies1649 >seeing memories
>changing past
I never said anything about rewriting memories, bro
Soul Hackers 2 is honestly so forgettable that every time one of these videos pops up, I get nostalgic. Not because it was good or a classic - but because my 60 hours playing it back in September were so damn dull.
How did it take you 60 hrs? I took my time and did every request but not aion directives. Did all the hangout events and soul matrix and it took me 37 hrs
@@NamelessstewI know for me, a lot of the time is spent fusing demons
I remember a year before this game came out I was like running on the treadmill listening to the soundtrack of the of the game and then visualizing me playing the game eventually and then I eventually bought the game a few months ago and still have yet to play it until a couple days ago and I got to say it was a huge letdown and I can't believe I bought it at full price or maybe it was at the Disco maybe it was 41.99 I forgot but either way it was just it was a disappointment like the level design like I liked the characters in interactions in the beginning but then it got too overwhelming with stuff that it looked like it was unnecessary like they should have made it more simple and just the level design the level designs sucked and really like the portraits of the kind of got me saying like why don't you have the Persona 5 like portraits don't have this The World Ends With You portrait or come up with like a better portrait design cuz I didn't I didn't really like the face of some of these characters cuz you're not supposed to have like a long chin like that and it was just so weird to see that and I don't know and you know one of the voice actors is the same voice actor for Futaba in Persona 5 and the in Ringo was the voice for the AI in Persona 5 Strikers so that kind of pissed me off because I'm all like I don't want to get you confused in my mind you're kind of ruining the character for me for Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers so it's a good thing I deleted the game after 10 hours because like I was in that what's that is like the underground Subway and I was like screw this this is just so stupid and later on I saw videos of like there's going to be in like a like a grander level where you're going to teleport a lot I'm like screw that s***
It is funny how this ended up being the Opposite of SMTV.
While SMTV took the gameplay in interesting and new directions but having a rather lackluster story and characterization.
While SH2 was an ok Game in the gameplay department, while having pretty decent characterization and story.
I do really enjoy the cast, I think ringo being a speaking Protagonist was a smart choice and she was very entertaining. And despite issues (Like the dungeons lacking variety in music, and the last dungeon feeling a bit rushed storywise) I platinumed the game.
I hope Atlus can take what they learned from this game and apply them to future games or a sequel.
Ringo is great character that deserved a better game with a bigger budget.
Honestly if only they fuse elements of SMTV with SH2, you could get the perfect game
I'd prefer play SMT V than this tbh.
Doesn't matter how "good" the characters are, if the gameplay sucks. I'll pass.
Its also opposite in the fact that, when smtv got announced we waited years for it, yet when sh2 was announced we barely had to wait before it launched
@@DragonKingX78 and hopefully in development for longer. As from playing soul hackers 2 it plays like something that was only developed for like a year or 2
I think it's good for Atlus to realize that they can't just rely on their good reputation to sell just any game. The bar has been raised for them and they have to try to meet it as much as possible. Sure it's not easy but there's a hunger for more good Atlus games which is where a lot of the disappointment from the newer games (SH2, SMT V) comes from. It means people are paying attention to them more than used to and they're ready and willing to support any high quality Atlus game even if it's something unfamiliar
Atlus, like Platinum Games, showed their inconsistencies
I hope thats what they get from the poor sales instead of "well seems like the DS series is failing, lets just forget it again for half a decade while pumping more Persona spinoffs"
@@funninoriginal6054 why would they think mainline is failing? SMT V sold the most for a mainline game at 1 million and SH2 isn't even a mainline game
@@athorem
Oops i put in mainline as an error lol, was supposed to be "DS series"
@@therealjaystone2344 Why FROMSOFT is still king. And I ADORE Atlus
Going from 3rd semester palace to these ai generated dungeons is the biggest step in the opposite direction I’ve seen
I think the best phrase for this game is "A better game with the wrong name" because a lot of its issues can genuinely be resolved just by making it separate to Soul Hackers
It kind of exists in that same state as DmC Devil May Cry, it's a solid game, even at times a great one, but because it's building off of a legacy it's not very interested in exploring, it comes off as alienating and opens itself up to criticism from people who are very interested in that legacy. Because of which, this game is unfairly going to be written off as a "bad game" despite it being better than it's direct predecessor in a lot of ways
Couldn't have said better about DmC. It's a great game, but it should not have tried to be DMC, or in this case, tried to replace it. It's a great game, but not a great DMC.
Resident evil 6 is also in this boat.
then why not take it at face value and play it as a completely new and unrelated game? a title is just a title. but alas, fandoms aren't quite that resourceful
@@Pao-vo8mf It's hard to do that when the game itself keeps telling you "HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME (insert something that happened in a past game here) HAPPENED? HERE IT IS AGAIN".
Why should we try to separate the game from it's predecesor, when the game DOESN'T want you to?
And it's hard for me to enjoy DmC when it was called "shakesperean" when it came out, also "Old Dante looks like a gay cowboy", but then they get mad when people call new Dante "Emo Boy"
i agree with that.
it shpuldnt have been SH2 but instead just a spin off title.
One thing I'll not knock this game on in the slightest is the character designs. Holy hell the character designs fucking slap. Especially Ringo- love her.
Good character designs, interesting characters, not bad combat, bad dungeon design, and the game is too short.
I feel like ringo is actually the weakest design out of the main crew. But she’s still great.
My only problem with Ringo is the bare legs. Theres a lot of vacancy in a design where her top half is busy.
@@kenamada5451 The legs are the best part of her design. The top half is too busy.
design med her look for the coomers
Though one detail I feel you missed with the battle system is that with SH2, it is also heavily in your favor as there are no downsides to screwing up nor can the enemy make use of. It is a one-sided "win more" mechanic rather than something you actually have to think about.
And with the game being low budget, it should really be telling one thinks this given SMTV was cutting corners as it was.
Also, there is one other thing this game gutted that the original did so well, the dream quests, those when you got to play as other characters and experience their last moments.
Until you get to Kaburagi, then hoo boy, hell breaks loose
I can't get over how much potential this game left on the table in terms of battle.
how can you look at the entire SMT/spinoff mechanic vault and say "equip perso- demons, some commander skills... and that's it"?
game designer cringe.
I wish these characters had a better game to be in, because they are all super cool! I know most people have one character they don’t care for but I fell in love with this cast shortly after the intro. I honestly didn’t even dislike the main gameplay very much either, it’s just hard to go from such highly funded games before it to this. Ringo will still be a personal favorite of mine though, she’s just too dang cool
I agree, wish they took more time with the game and it had a budget closer to Persona 5/SMT 5.
"I've been waiting for this!!"
Did you see that, Shinji?!
Prote- I’m sorry
One thing I really liked was the Search Demon Fusion system. It gave you every possible combinations and the ability to view which skills were transferable.
I only played P3F, P4G and P5R so I don't know if this was a new thing or not, but it made the fusion process so much easier.
Not a new thing, but it's much better in Soulless Hack 2
Yeah like this game's version.
Devil Survivor has it
This thing was invented by Devil Survivor, a DS game from 2009.
haha persona normie
9:32 Strange Journey exist tho.. Its full adult cast. And came out in 2009/10.
Yeah, took them over a decade for an adult casts.
Just started replaying Strange Journey recently, how I missed how good the game was...
Proper pacing, excellent range of demons to fuse, just good SMT dungeon crawling.
It's been very very interesting to see the reaction of SH2 from the sidelines. I haven't played any of the Devil Summoner games yet, but seeing SH2 get such a mixed reaction from both fans of SH1 and those who either didn't play SH1 or didn't fancy it is really interesting and a bit sad to see. I hope ATLUS doesn't just abandon the idea of more sequels to their old franchises where it makes sense, but given their most recent brand new titles have garnered mixed reception at best, I fear they'll play things too safe in the future.
In any case, I'd love to see an SH3 or some other Devil Summoner spinoff or even a new SMT spinoff entirely over another Persona 4/5 spinoff game.
I'm especially saddened by the story and how it handled Figue, since almost every reaction I've heard to the end game twist is it was too sudden and nonsensical, kind of coming out of left field. It's a shame, considering the basic concept is decent and could have been handled better, if only ATLUS gave her more of a natural build up to a boiling point, like you've said.
I personally would much rather see the Devil Summoner branch wither and die if THIS is what we can expect from it's future growth.
@@christopherbravo1813 Hold your tongue, Mr. Pessimism
@@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas Sorry. We don't do that in the USA.
@@christopherbravo1813 :P
Soul hackers 2 is closer to persona than soul hackers 1
It's also not a Devil Summoner game.
@@nr2676Then again, Devil Summoner could be argued to have Persona undertones, being its direct predecessor
SMT If is Persona predecessor, not Devil Summoner.@@kichiroumitsurugi4363
@@nr2676Eeeeeeh, it's a bit loose, but Devil Summoner is also tied to Persona, just like SMT if is
Yes but first was SMT If, and SMT If is connected with Devil Summoner, and Persona 1&2@@kichiroumitsurugi4363
I wonder if there were more planned conversations between Figue and Raven that got cut for budget or not. It’s hard to say because Atlus drops the ball often lol but just something I think about
At least the OST was good, didn't really care about the rest weeaboo stuff. Only *'AmateurThrowAway'*
One of my favorites. I still listen to it.
@seankw5827 , facts.
I think a bigger example of worldbuilding in SH2 is the subway levels. It's really underplayed because your presence there has next to nothing to do with it, but the backstory establishes that the whole thing was a monumental waste of a project that was ultimately left populated by the workers whose livelihoods it ruined, as well as the demons that nobody cares to clear out because of how unimportant the place is.
The bigger waste in my opinion is Ichiro Onda and his OMNI System, especially since it seems his ambition was in some way a reaction to the general stagnation of the society around him. Unfortunately, the "server from Hell" is also one of those things that are established early and then never heard from again until the very end. Frankly, the page on the OMNI System describes something so ridiculously powerful and demonically touched that you would expect it to be as central to the game as, say, Babel from Devil Survivor. Maybe even more so, since it pretty much invites themes of espionage and the omnipresence of digital technology, and may be used to further advance the worldbuilding of Devil Summoner in particular by showing the way that Summoner organizations have to dance around each other and the traditional governments just to keep the thing from becoming a flashpoint.
also sounds suspiciously like the premise of the previous game.
@@christopherbravo1813I mean, it's more understandable if you consider SH2 as more of a soft reboot
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 then why slap the Soul Hackers name on it? a far better name would be "Devil Summoner: Reloaded".
@@christopherbravo1813 It has more so SH's concepts than Devil Summoner's
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 no, it just steals terms from Soul Hackers and uses them for virtually unrelated plot elements.
Figue is what made me quit the game, her plottwist is so dumb and ruined the entire story for me
The soul matrix was BY FAR the thing that was the most tedious to navigate and hurt the game the most for me
Literally no one talked about this game when it came out
i love how he did a sponsor right after saying he wasnt going to be nice to the game just cause he got it for free
"I have integrity"
BUY THE THING BUY THE THING BUY THE THING BUY THE THING
A man's gotta eat.
Hopefully they never make another devil summoner game. I will die if another raidou game releases(derogatory).
Ngl as someone who wants Raidou 3, I’m genuinely worried how it’ll turn out if this is the road the series is going down. Though, given the sales of SH2, it’s not likely Atlus’ll touch anything related to the series for awhile.
After watching Cyberpunk I cant help feel but we're playing as Lucy rather than Ringo!
Yeah. They look similar. It's sad that Figue is not playable though. It'd be fun to have more than just 4 characters and be able to choose which ones you want in your party. Still, I love the game
I really loved the first soul hackers. Was there when this was announced and lost all interest right away. It just isn't what I am looking for stylistically, or mechanically. It's a shame, it seemed like even the people who were interested didn't like it that much
Not worth the $70 for a basic linear jrpg when you can wait for when it’s at $20
yeah, I knew I was going to despise this game almost from the get-go
IGN gives Soul Hackers 2 a decent score: BAD!!! IGN ARE SHILLS!!! THIS GAME IS A CLASSIC!!!
Everyone other small gaming channel says it sucks: ...That's so true... it's just not the game I remember...
Sh2 is more of a shitty reboot with persona elements then a devil summoners game.
11:02 Devil survivor doesn't have hama or mudo or any insta kill.
Unlike Soul Hackers 2 though, that game is a Tactical JRPG, insta-kills would straight up not work in the format presented, while Soul Hackers 2 is pretty down to earth gameplay wise, and really sees no need to outright cut out insta-kills skills, let alone Light and Dark elements in their entirety
@@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas yeah Hama and Mudo would be too unfair for the Devil Survivor games
They kinda have, but you gotta make enemy afflicted with ailment or somethin'.
Mudo got replaced as curse(?)
@@nibblesnarfer Curse is basically ailment stuff, really
i'd like to know your opinion on TMS:FE#, i bought the game out of curiosity since some of the cast are in the FE gacha game (and kicked ass, good units) and i enjoyed it.
TY for the amazing vid too, all your opinions are perfectly delivered, keep up the good work!
Its an underrated gem. There was a lot of controversy regarding censorship and while it does suck to lose content, it was still by all means playable and enjoyable
@@GothamiteYT I disagree, bought switch with 3 games in mind, one of them being tms and was severely disapointed. It was basically a persona, but worse in every aspect. Story in characters were especially boring and cringey, basically impossible to take seriously, which is a huge problem, since the game tries to be serious.
@@ologracz1110 I mean tbf it’s generally agreed that the story isn’t TMS’s strong point, the gameplay is what gets most of the praise it seems
The game was more controversial when they realized it wasn’t like FE, despite the game being part of the FE series, but because the game showed false advertising.
Story and characters are "fine", but the gameplay is so good. Also the game have a lot of "style". I have some difficulty to believe that Soul Hackers 2 is made by the same team from Tokyo Mirage, but at the same time Tokyo Mirage have a lot more budget, because it was partially funded by Nintendo. The main menu is so beautiful ahah. The dungeons of TMS are better than the one from Soul Hackers 2. It's really not that good like the one from Persona 5, but they were quite original. :)
that title is immediate blunt force trauma, good lord
16:35 They made that change in SMT V and personally I absolutely welcome it. Because any game with negotiation beforehand usually ended up like.
"Hey, give me some Macca"
Okay
"I want some HP"
Okay
"I want some more Macca"
Okay
"Alright, see ya."
wtf
But there is no negotiation here, you just give them what they want and thats it. In SMT V you at least have options that determine the outcome
Like in real life :D
@@antiproductive4131 Then again, it was more like rolling a die than anything else, so, I'm glad it's not like that for SH2, because frankly, failed negotiations just serve to waste time
If the devs had that poor budget, probably Devil Survivor should had been a better election to the new game than Soul Hackers
I think naming it Soul Hackers 2 hurt it’s sales. This is definitely not a sequel. They should’ve just called it soul hackers and treat it as a reboot.
or, better yet, something else entirely.
the game would not change at all if they just changed the names of the antagonists and the soul hack ability, it probably would've been received a lot better if people didn't go into it expecting "soul hackers 2"
@@daiyahigashikata and it would have been received better if Atlus didn't *market* it as "Soul Hackers 2".
though like with SMT IV Apocalypse, changing the title wouldn't make the game any less garbage.
As I used to say, I treat each game I play as a different game from separate series and id have to say Soul Hackers 2 was fun but some of the levels felt too careless and caused it to take too long. The characters were interesting and also fun but tumbled through it
This is truly the persona of smt games
Well because SH2 is...not a sequel.
It's a game that should bear any other name OTHER than Soul Hackers
Wrong naming sucks
Or, well, you could keep the "Soul Hackers" name, just remove the "2"
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 well, you cant, as there already is a game called that
@kurosan9712 Well, yes, and no. Because SH2 removed the "Devil Summoner" moniker, you can present it as just "Soul Hackers", and say it's a soft reboot
Funny enough is that I really wanted to show the game off but I was denied a review code. That's more than enough to say that I'm not good enough for SEGA/Atlus. Give or take a few months, we'll be seeing a Switch version of that game. Cue the emergency switch protocol.
I think this game is the good kind of okay. It's not super ambitious but it's fun, flashy, it has fantastic music, and I really like the characters and story. And unlike a lot of other SMT games, it doesn't have any singular elements that annoy me out of finishing it. It's one of those things I can just play and have fun with it without getting frustrated. I think that's cool, and it's why I'll finish this but I'll probably never finish SMT4 or Nocturne. It also makes it the perfect Game Pass game.
Soul hackers 2 was quite the great sequel
Just from all the prerelease stuff and the reviews I've seen, I feel like they dropped the ball on the aesthetic. I get that they can't just go back and do the 90s vision of what is futuristic, but just neon lights, geometric shapes, and glitch effects ain't doing it for me. Nothing here looks like Soul Hackers, aside from a few of the characters.
It's baby's first cyberpunk. They could have gone back to the 90s vision of the future. Blade Runner 2049 sure replicated the 80s vision. Heck the Soviet Union was in it.
As an on-looker to this game, all I can really say about this game is that I like its aesthetic and character designs, but that's about it - I never really heard anything about the game upon its release.
It feels like they tried to make this the "Persona 3" for the DS series. Persona 3 was also very much similar to this game, by the fact that it took the name of persona but completely reworked the formula and taking a completely new direction. However, we all know how successful persona 3 is, despite is several flaws; I wonder why persona 3 did well and soul hackers 2 didnt.
Dating Sim + highschool setting (most popular / generic setting in anime) = eldorado for ,,weebs''. Also P3 was released in ideal moment, when was no real competetion in West for those kind of games. Now market is oversaturated.
@@nr2676 Yeah. Persona 3 came at the right place at the right time, and the mechanics it did introduce were relatively revolutionary for the time, especially considering how different it was from P1 and P2 EP (We did not get IS localized until the PSP port)
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 Those Dating Sim mechanics in P3 were not new in Japan. Sakura Wars, Langrisser, Harvest Moon, did that 10 years ealrier, but those games were never released outside of Japan.
I believe the sabbath attack would have been cooler if the Sabbath skills did more, but used the stacks you built as their resource, and spent more stacks the more useful or powerful they were.
Would be very nice
Soul hackers 2 is the definition of mediocrity. Not good, not bad, just mediocre.
I still remember the live footage of Cosplayer from atlus dressing as Apple while fighting shadows while dancing here on youtube
I would have rather seen a game that followed up on the spookies gang than this.
I didn't even pay much attention to the game and I'm a huge atlus fan and just from my impression of it I think it's just a mediocre game and definitely not worthy of the soul hackers title.
I just wish more effort was put into it.
I do admit, it would be nice to at least have some interactions with them, like, say, meeting one of them in Mansei Realm and them having a quest for you or something
Seeing similar gameplay elements in that metaphor trailer was kinda concerning ngl. I hope atlus hasn't decided to approach their new games with this "safe" mindset just because persona is their cash cow.
Yeah, changing every SMT spin-off / Atlus game into Persona ,,clone'' is route into nothing. Yes Persona give Atlus cash, but there will come a time when these types of games will eventually get tired of everyone. Even Persona fans starts to be tired of milking Persona 5 and her spin-offs. Spin-offs should be for experiments franchise with other game genres (for example: tactical SRPG, action RPG), with fresh ideas, not mindless turning everything into one type of game. Sadly Atlus is now under Sega shoe, that mean Sega needs money, and Atlus is forced to give them money. Devil Summoner was suppoused to be a detecive JRPG series, with ocult elements, and building relationship with demons (like we have in Digimon games), not be like Persona games.
I've thought the girl in the thumbnail was the same girl in the edgerunners anime.
And I neither have heard of Edgerunners or Soul Hackers.
So that's why Lucy looked familiar to me....
I completely understand the criticism of Demon Negotiations being too easy but as someone with autism spectrum disorder I have always been utter dogshit at them, to the point that I just grind a shitload of money to fuse everything because it's so inaccessible to me. I wish there was some sort of difficulty setting that focused on the difficulty of demon negotiation specifically, like just doing multiple sliders for different aspects of difficulty. Then I could do hard combat, high EXP/Money gain, easy demon negotiations, etc
I relate painfully to this due to also being on the spectrum
yeah but they don't take people like that into consideration when doing negotiation. i hated how it was handled here because you can't do it in battle and you're getting random demons and don't even know if you can get them or not because of your level. it was bad.
@@StarPebblit I mean, fair, it should've been in battle at the very least, or at least tell me what demon I'd get
It kinda feels like Atlus forgot how to make interesting dungeons. Maybe they don't need to crank out a new SMT-related game to make a yearly release now that the games are primarily 3D.
I never finished Soul Hackers 1, even though I have it in my 3DS for years. But Soulless Hack 2 is one of my least favorite Megaten game, even though there is a lot of small things I like about it. The adult cast, the art style, the soul level system, are really good and interesting, and then Atlus give us one of the most boring combat system and story I've ever seen in years. Yeah SMT V's story is lacking for sure, but at least it tried to do something more interesting than "I will save humanity from suffering" (aka 3rd Semester P5R, the only storyline doesn't make any damn sense in P5 thematically).
What I really hope, Atlus won't stop making game with adult casts. They need that.
I have to interject and say P5R’s third semester actually *does* fit P5 thematically. Saving humanity from suffering is Maruki’s ultimate goal, but how does he do this? By manipulating reality so that people don’t have to experience it for themselves while at the same time robbing them of their freedom, much like how Yaldaboath did the same near the endgame but with people’s desires instead. It reinforces the game’s main theme of freedom vs. security by having a moral dilemma of whether you would rather life a happy lie without pain or conflict, or live with suffering so that you have a chance to grow and change like the P5 cast all did. Just this time with an actual villain who has sympathetic goal and motivations instead of a (literal) faceless god and rehashing the same final act from P3 and P4 for the third time.
how does p5r's third semester not make sense thematically??
glad there are fans still being honest about this. Crazy some youtubers I used to watch call this a modern classic... like cmon...
Seriously the Megaten Superfan community were falling over themselves trying to convince people that this was actually a worthy entry in the Devil Summoner series
I know exactly who you're on about lol 😂
@@jeveritt8398 lmao who? Tell me pls
Ni Tian when he learns about opinions: 🤯
@@nightvision_887 blade eagle when they learn about opinions: 🤯
I wanted to like this game. Bring back Radou.
As a person that has no real context for the original or devil summoner megami tensei whatever, I didn’t mind the game all that much, honestly I found it quite fun. The character/demon monster designs are really cool, the combat system is A LOT of fun, the voice acting is excellent, the story is okay, the dungeons weren’t that fun though. That’s probably my only ding, other than that this seemed like a solid game.
Havent finished the game yet, honestly I dont dislike the game.... but I took the time to play through soul hackers first (...well most of the game).... but litterally nothing is similar to the original. Cant say how it is as a SMT game since beside persona games, soul hackers is the only one I played.
I loved the summoning system, demon negotiation, and demon morale system in the original. And none of it comes back.... They still have "negotiation" but its only a single choice that boils down to "if you want me, then give me this". And was immediately annoyed when they mentioned soul hacking, when that simply didnt seem to be a thing in the original... like I dont think they explicitly call it soul hacking in the original, but as they said in the video its simply turning souls into data allowing for it to be stored in a computer.
Maybe I would have liked soul hacking more if they reframed it to match the original. Like pull the soul into the COMP and store it there as data, then simply summon that soul as you would a demon. There you have practically implemented bringing someone back to life... and you can keep the equipment system by explaining that in order to use the devil summoning program on their souls they have to overwrite an existing demon, thus giving them the stats and abilities of the demon they overwritten.
I'm unsure of why but Mary is gone from the Goumaden and Zomas as a usable demon are gone too.
It feels more like a bland persona game, then a sequel to soul hackers. Probably would have been better as a completely separate game.
Honestly I just picked up Royal, and I think I rather replay persona 5 then finish soul hackers 2.
Negotiations in SMT have never not been weird
Yea, SH1 doesn't explicitly refer to it as Soul Hacking, though the principle is changed for SH2, though in a similar vein
As for how you reframe Soul Hacking...that's exactly what Ringo does, more or less, the characters' summoning programs require her to work, and it's how they can even perform Sabbaths. It's also why demons are equips
Admittedly, SH2 is a Devil Summoner game at heart, just not much of a sequel to Soul Hackers
As someone who has pretty much all of the Devil Summoner games high on their favorite games list and view it as the best sub-series of SMT, it really disappoints me how cash-grabby SH2 just kinda felt and, while the Atlus that made SH1 died on the 3DS, I wish they look back at what made the old games charming and focus on that first.
I absolutely was waiting for a video on this.
SH2 is not a bad game by any means but a **disappointing** sequel. All the cool experimentation with SH1 felt like it was left at the door to create one of the most mediocre SMT titles to date.
For as much as I had problems with SMTV it was rather ambitious in what it was trying to achieve. That and the dungeon design and gameplay were still fun despite the lackluster story + characters.
SH2 feels like someone at a board meeting took a look at an older Atlus property, gave a team a smaller budget and told them to work with it. As a result, you have a game so far removed from SH1's interesting concepts (to mask limitations) that it may as well be a side story. The character cameos/easter eggs don't even progress the original story of SH1 or give any new information from that game's world. That and the gameplay feels incredibly half-baked.
I was definitely willing to forgive some of the game's shortcomings if the gameplay and dungeon design were solid. I'm a huge fan of budget games and understand they have their own niche, but these dungeons are some of the worst in SMT history. You will go through the same generic code cube design over and over again and you WILL like it. The actual gameplay is hindered by this because it makes battles such a nuisance. To make up for the fact that you would easily steamroll this game by grinding mindlessly with enemies, boss HP is inflated, making them feel more like a chore than a fun challenge compared to SH1. And don't get me wrong, SH1 wasn't perfect and was far from being a 10/10 game but the difficulty felt "right". Enemies never felt like they were too easy or hard. SH2 feels like it wants to waste the players time to inflate the game time.
The characters are actually rather likeable (minus Figue, screw her) but are stuck with a game that doesn't give them enough time to be fully fleshed out. There are so genuinely good moments, but the game really needed more of these.
Overall, I'm more peeved at Atlus putting a half-hearted effort into a cult classic and setting it up for failure.
You can tell how Atlus had abandoned the old school dungeon theme.
Will you try the first game before soul hackers?
I would but its currently only in Japanese. I'm waiting for a fan translation to come out so I won't have to rely on walkthroughs just to experience it. But I am willing to give it a shot if that ever happens
@@NamsCompendium I beaten the game with no knowledge of jp with the assistance of your friend marsh
Probably ask him for a collaboration and it'll be great!
You might sh*t on TMS for being unpopular, but that dungeon design was so much better than SH2 dungeons. Each location had it's own unique puzzle (what you'd wanted from SH2), kind of like what we got in P5, but players also needed to revisit them later on because certain places where inaccessible. Also the "hitting red enemies while passing them so they don't attack you" mechanic is also from TMS - that game even had extremely hard bosses (black instead of red enemies) and golden/special enemies to gain rare items for weapon upgrades. TMS is much better than ppl think, but I guess it's just trendy to hate it.
I’ve actually played TMS, would you do a video on it?
TMS?
@@DragonKingX78 Tokyo Mirage Sessions. He said like ten people played it and I’m one of the ten lol
I hope SH2 gets a "fixed" version in the future like how SMT5 got one with Vengeance.
I just realized that Devil Survivor used the same recruitment system. You just had to fork out Macca and outbid your competitions though
And doing so was way too easy, considering you can only overpay by 50-150 Macca and get the demon 99% of the time
30:53 whoa whoa, what? smt v took me 60 hours at max and I did every sidequest in the game. Older games, tended to be even shorter, nocturne was about 40 hours, and dds took even less, 30 h each. Howlongtobeat has higher times, but only about 5-10 hours more. I have no idea how you came up with 90, it took me 80 to play through smt v twice, second time on hard, with newborn character.
Only persona games could take that much time.
Also, the issue with not having a field to use strongest demons is a recurring problem. I think the only game that allowed to realistically use all demons was apocalypse. Smt v, persona v, smt 4, they all ended way before you would need strongest demons. Hell in smt v using guys like metatron, beelzebub or shiva, would break the game and make every enemy a joke.
You know, soul hackers 2 sure does exist
I understand what you are saying. BUT here is the thing. It is differnt than the other Atlus games. If it had things like the ones that you said it would be like SMT or Persona. So it tries to do its own thing. And I respect that.
it is literally an smt game and they don't try to move away from that at all, idk what to say to you man
I fear what a Devil Survivor 3 could bring
Propably like Devil Survivor 2 but even more anime.
I hope more like DeSu1 story with DeSu2 gameplay
Hangouts and the characters were definitely the best parts of the game, but everything else, hoo hoy. As someone who generally plays games on easy, I felt them simplifying demon negotiation was just ridiculous, and the level design? The less said the better, lol. I hope Atlus take this as an example of what not to do in the future
Hangouts without the calendar system are a surprisingly uncontroversial mechanic that people are generally okay with
I recently discovered your channel, love what you do and I have been kinda binge watching part of it. You inspired me to go back beat some smt games I hadn't or revisit some others I did beat.
Its a good game. Horrible sequel.
I agree.
I enjoyed it. It's pretty solid and fun. Loved the characters!
fascinating. care to elaborate?
There's something really funny about a Soul Hackers 2 review being introduced by an ass and balls trimmer
I liked it a lot. The characters are great, the story discusses some interesting ideas, fusions and upgrades felt meaningful for defeating bosses, and the gameplay was a good difficult difficulty between persona's "why am I even here" and smt's "man I really hope I don't miss this attack and then get smirked to the title screen by the enemy". Yeah, dungeons were bland.
would you mind expanding on your views here?
I was interested in SH2 when it was announced due to liking the aesthetic, the character designs, and seeing what MegaTen had to offer besides the Persona subseries (like everyone else) and SMT 5 (interesting in concept but pretty boring in execution). The fact that I didn't even know the game was *released* for a few months really goes to show that the game probably doesn't have much to offer beyond it's art style and the same ol' same ol'. Which is a shame, but at least the game sounds like it wasn't rushed out the door in an unfinished state. That's more than a lot of other high profile releases can say... Might pick the game up if it's on sale, maybe.
I recommend checking out some of the older non-persona games if you haven't. Digital Devil Saga, Devil Survivor Overclocked, SMT Nocturne and SMT IV are all fan favorites
@breaking if he played persona 4 or 3 than he should be fine since those games dungeons are utter crap.
I actually enjoyed it goes to show not everything works for everyone
I think my main issue with SH2 is that everything surrounding the game from the character designs, aesthetics, character writing and the choice to have an MC who isn’t just a voiceless blank slate for once is amazing. But the actual gameplay being so bland and repetitive is it’s biggest detriment, since we’ve seen games like Persona 5 and SMTV push their respective series forward in major ways with huge, sprawling dungeons in Persona 5’s case, or replacing traditional dungeons with later overworlds filled with tons of secrets and demons in SMTV’s case. But with SH2, the dungeons are all very bland, formulaic and repetitive, and feel like something out of a PS2 Atlus game like SMT3 or Persona 3. And so this game doesn’t just measure up to the standards of newer SMT titles, but that Atlus have set for themselves in the HD era. There is at least potential, so I hope this game eventually gets a sequel improving it’s shortcomings, but with how poorly its sold that unfortunately seems quite unlikely.
I know this is pretty late but yatagarsu being shady isn't new, raidou vs king abaddon revealed that in addition to the kuzunoha devil summoner family they also employed the Fukoshi assassins, the bug users who gave their daughters to the tento-lords to get more bugs
While true, they essentially overdid it with that concept
I LOVE the Soul Hacker 2 estetic
Its THE reason I got it.
This game is both underrated AND a bad soul hackers sequel. It is very fun, and basically plays like a modern nocturne, but also has a meh story and mostly boring setting. I think what saves it is how smooth the combat is and that Ringo basically masks the story issues a bit to make you care
I just finished Soul Hackers 2, and your take on the Soul Matrix is 100% on point. It SUCKS. Bland surroundings, complicated and repetitive puzzles, overall disappointment. As Sub-Zero said perfectly in Mortal Kombat 11:
*"Such wasted potential."*
Edit: AND FIGUE. THAT TWIST AT THE END WAS ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS. WASTED POTENTIAL, TOO.
Having gone back and replayed this one recently, I found more enjoyment in it than I did when it launched. It's still a bottom-barrel game in the grand scheme of SMT, but for what it is, it's not bad. I did have some thoughts about your comments on the setting. The idea of society being on the verge of collapse being shoved to the background is kind of a reality. Many people here in good ol' 'Murica feel that our society is on the verge of collapse due to political, economic, and enviornmental factors that are out of their control, but it's not something that's aparent on a street level. People are still just going about their daily lives. They go to work, pay their bills, and try to find a little enjoyment in their lives as if nothing is wrong. Societal collapse isn't all riots in the streets, if that were the case than hockey season destroys society on an anual basis. To the average person, the collapse of society will look less Mad Max and more like an average tuesday.
Nice to hear another creators thoughts on soul hackers 2 I enjoyed my time with it but definitely had more potential than what was delivered unfortunately. Also true ending is tied to Ringo final 4 decisions not soul matrix, and I hated the last dungeon reminded me of the last level in scarlet nexus I will take bland dungeons over that drawn out mess. Good day mate loved seeing the difference in opinion ❤
This is the only game in the SMT series where i just wish for a rerelease that fixes all of this.
Although that will probably never happen as so much would have to be changed.
I enjoy SH2 Ringo was a candy to the eye it felt a little too short though.
You needed an item just to run faster. This game was DOA.
As good as this review is, the fact he don't like the original Soul Hackers is a crime against humanity smhsmhsmh
I have to say I've been veering away from this franchise only because they haven't had a fully adult cast and uh... high school protagonists are kind of old hat by now for me at least.
Strange Journey, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment and Majin Tensei 2 had full adult cast. Digital Devil Saga also excluding Sera.
I need more turn based goodness in my life and I currently playing the persona series on pc gamepass. Would you suggest adding Soul Hackers 2 into the mix next or move on to FFVII remake afterwards. I know they are different but I am very interested in what you think.
SH2 I'd say is worth a shot
7:28 "Since persona 3 portable... we finally have a female megaten protagonist"
what about the girl from smt if tho
I was referring to games that came out post persona 3 portable since none of them featured female protagonists. Smt if… and eternal punishment did but those games came out back in the 90’s/2000’s
Playing this on GP and already liking Ringo a lot and the rest of the cast seems cool too.
Who knows if I'll feel good about the game in the end , having likeable cast is extremely important in jrpgs for me.
I still remember when the trailer droped and I lost interest right away.
Guess at least It won't kill the Devil summoner
Enjoyed it and all the 183hrs I've put into it so far. Others are of course going to determine what they want from or enjoy about the game, but I've been delving through the SMT universe since P3FES. I've since explored every game and spin-off before it and after it since I'm just a fan (probably due to my strong tolerance/enjoyment of anything Wizardry-like}. Other than that, just wanted to sound a meek warning that to fans that not every game is going to cartwheel like P5... and if we're not too careful, we might find ourselves mired in nothing but social links and Atlus attempting to chase only the sure thing, while cautioning from other too-risky endeavors that we've enjoyed up to this point. Not everything is going to be a homerun, but completely shunning them taking any chances is going to lead us to something I'd think far worse.
40:33 *SLENDER MAN CAMEO IN SOUL HACKERS 2?* 🤯
Soulhackers 2 is one of the SMT spinoffs of all time. Completely forgot it existed until I scrolled through your uploads lol!
This video really covers why it’s not very notable or well received. It’s stagnant(kinda ironic considering the game’s premise), doesn’t do anything majorly new or old to really break that mold. People play specific RPG’s for different reasons and well beyond the characters, there’s not really anything that’ll stick with you(assuming you’re a heavy RPG fan). But you knew that already…
Will you be reviewing/analyzing the other Devil Summoner games, the two PS2 ones?
Soul Hackers is well known in the west? According to who?? I’m one of those weebs who had it on 3DS but I can’t imagine there’s a ton of American JRPG fans who got hyped at the idea of Soul Hackers 2.
I feel like SH2 would have been an amazing title for the Wii U, it's got that vibe.
It's got that vibe, because this game is from Tokyo Mirrage Sessions developers (WiiU game).
Soul Hackers 2 was disapointing, I think with more time and more budget this could've been a great spin off series, maybe not on the level of Persona but coulda been great.