Soul Hackers 2 is a turn-based RPG released
by Atlus in August of 2022, and I played the whole game. And it sucks. When I play video games, I’m looking for
new experiences. New storylines and aesthetics, engaging characters,
interesting gameplay mechanics or innovation on an existing formula, and this is especially
the case with JRPGs. While it’s a genre often plagued by anime
tropes and mundane combat, there’s a lot of creativity if you dig around for the right
titles. And Soul Hackers 2… is not one of those
titles. Just to preface here - I have not played the
original Soul Hackers, so I won't be comparing this game to that one, and will instead be
considering my experience with other Atlus titles like SMT Nocturne, Four, Five, and
Persona. Oh, and, just for transparency’s sake, I
received an early review code for Soul Hackers 2. And that's one of the nicest things I can
say about it- Atlus is a studio that has made a name for
themselves over the years with their innovative turn-based RPGs, telling incredible character-driven
stories through Persona AND building striking depictions of the apocalypse in Shin Megami
Tensei. SMT in particular has developed a cult following
with its detailed depiction of demons and the occult, pairing stunning visuals and themes
with soul-crushing levels of difficulty that puts it up there with the big boys. And by big boys yes I mean Dark Souls and
no I won’t stop making that joke- When I first saw Soul Hackers 2 announced,
I went oh, hell yeah, it’ll be kinda like SMT V except it’ll run at more than ten
frames per second and not make my Nintendo Switch sound like it’s screaming for air! But the reality was, I wish I’d just played
SMT V again. By this point you should already know it’s
a red flag when every gaming news outlet is saying that Soul Hackers 2 is like Persona
5 and SMT V, or that it’s trying to turn Persona fans into SMT fans by merging the
best of both worlds. Problem is, those worlds are separated for
a reason - they’re trying to achieve vastly different goals. But this game trying to “ease players into”
SMT doesn’t exactly result in a quality product, as Soul Hackers 2 feels like it wants
to be so much at the same time, but ends up feeling generic and forgettable as it loses
itself in implementing surface-level mechanics that never really work on their own or as
a cohesive unit. Jack Frost of all trades, master of none. Plus, a marketable animal mascot that somehow
manages to be the most annoying navigator I’ve ever heard. *navigator voice lines* can we… shut the fuck up maybe- I’m gonna be making a lot of comparisons
throughout this video, but I wanna make it clear that I don’t just wish Soul Hackers
2 was Persona or SMT… I wish it was a better game. They didn’t call this one “Shin Megami
Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2” for a reason, but as much as it tries to distance
itself from SMT, using the same demon designs, skills, fusion mechanics and combat fundamentals
makes it difficult to evaluate the game on its own while simultaneously highlighting
its shortcomings when compared to other Atlus titles. A turn-based RPG is often defined by its central
battle mechanics, as combat needs to be consistently engaging over tens of hours and hundreds of
battles. Mainline SMT games have the press turn system
(which is my personal favorite), Persona 5 has the similar baton pass, Octopath has break
and boost, Paper Mario has quick time events… and the list goes on. Problem is, the core mechanic of Soul Hackers
2 is a non-interactive reward for a system that already exists in almost every game - weakness
targeting. It’s called the Sabbath, and simply put,
if you hit weakness during your turn, you deal an AOE burst attack that scales on how
many times you hit weakness. Throughout the game, you can upgrade this
to trigger on more player actions or add bonus effects. That’s, uh… that’s it. Outside of the general game being fairly easy
even on Hard difficulty (I couldn’t play on Very Hard because Atlus did that wacky
thing where it’s day 1 DLC for god knows what reason), double-rewarding the damage
of weakness targeting - which is how almost everyone plays RPGs by default - only limits
your options when it comes to combat, especially in the early game where it completely outclasses
physical builds. Whereas mechanics like the Press Turn system
encourage weakness targeting while expanding your combat strategies and adding a sense
of risk when it backfires against enemies, the Sabbath doesn’t add any additional layers
to the foundation that exists in… almost every game ever. In general, Soul Hackers 2 just feels like
playing a turn-based RPG on autopilot, with one of the more depressing features being
the “Assist” button, which automatically chooses an optimal move and targets the right
enemy. The game says “here, this shit’s so boring
we’ll do it for you!” I understand the idea of wanting to make the
series more accessible to newcomers, but this shit is so oversimplified that it makes Persona
5 look like a fuckin’ calculus equation. It feels like Atlus forgot what made so many
of their games interesting in the first place. Remember light and dark spells? Nah. Remember dungeons with actual mechanics other
than doors and teleporters? Nope! Remember when optional side bosses with interesting
designs wouldn’t instantly wipe your entire party if you didn’t kill them fast enough? wait, what the fuck? Remember how talking with demons was an exciting
balancing act that took place mid-combat to add tension? How you had to figure out their personalities
and juggle between indulging and denying them, and if you picked the wrong answers they’d
get mad and steal your turn? Now you just talk to a dude outside of combat,
and if the random demon it picks is one you don’t have, you give them the thing they
want, and boom, instant recruitment. Hang on, let me make sure demon talk isn’t
just a mainline SMT and Persona 5 thing. nope, it was in the original Soul Hackers,
I’m allowed to be mad- The removal of demon talk is probably my biggest
complaint with the game’s normal encounters, as it removes the risk-reward system of trying
to recruit demons, which introduces a fun “gotta catch ‘em all” mechanic that
makes Pokemon appealing despite its simple combat, while also adding comedy and character
to a cast of wacky demons that inhabit the world. "And so I've come to take your heart." Oh, clever! That’s a reference to a good video game. There's a fine line any game has to tread
when it comes to building tension, making sure the player can experience excitement
and danger without making them lose too much progress if they fail. If done right, save points, resource management,
and systems like demon talk can add great suspense to exploration, but Soul Hackers
2 has absolutely nothing. There's no thrill in trying to make it to
the next save point because you can save anywhere, and there's also no threat of losing to an
enemy because it's nearly impossible to get ambushed by one when they run at your exact
speed and are incredibly easy to knock down. This turns dungeon-crawling into a brainless
expedition where you pick and choose every fight until you get sick of the exact same
zero-stakes combat and walk straight to the boss. And SPEAKING OF THE DUNGEONS! They’re these empty, lifeless corridors
with a near-zero amount of puzzles or points of interest. Area design has always been a point of contention
among SMT fans, as many dungeons can feel like endless, punishing spirals filled to
the brim with random encounters, but while this game doesn’t have to deal with the
encounters dilemma, it only removes the word “punishing” from the phrase “endless
punishing spirals.” After SMT V’s exploration-focused open worlds
and Persona 5’s stylized palaces, Atlus set the bar high only to ignore the bar entirely
and make not one, not two, but three identical dungeons filled with nothing but gray cubes
that are required to progress character stories and unlock new abilities. It really feels like Atlus took one look at
the back of a kid’s menu and went holy shit, are you guys seein’ this? I'm about to enter nitpicking and biased territory
for a second here but I swear to god, doing battle prep and making party changes in this
game is miserably slow. Being forced to change things up for bosses
and overcoming massive hurdles like Matador or Minotaur is what makes SMT fun, and SMT
V really streamlined the whole process, but it feels like half of my time in Soul Hackers
was spent looking at a fucking loading screen. I would leave a dungeon, then pick the fusion
carnival, oh, loading screen, ok now i'm outside gotta walk inside, ok now I need to use the
shop so leave the carnival, back to the world map, pick the shop, loading screen, ok go
in get my accessories oh wait I need some items well for that I gotta leave and then
back to the world map and then to another part of Tokyo with another loading screen,
then back again, fourth loading screen for the weapon upgrades and the OTHER item shop,
back and fifth loading screen for the hideout to heal and then three more loading screens
to get to the dungeon because I guess we can't just put everything important in the same
place or make it accessible INSIDE the dungeon, maybe? I played this shit on a PS5, you know, the
console they spent half the marketing goin’ THIS THING HAS AN SSD IN IT, and yet SMT V
loads faster on a dying microwave. And in the end, this all sucks, because the
style of this game really had me pumped when I first saw the reveal trailers and character
designs. Running around the neon-lit cyberpunk Tokyo
to jazzy jams got me hyped up in the first few hours, but every time I jumped back into
another underground railway or gray cube zone, I was thrust back into the reality of playing
Soul Hackers 2. oh, it’s a… teleporter dungeon, yeahhhhhh
YEAHHHH oh my god, it’s THREE teleporter dungeons… it’s like I’m playing Nocturne all over
again! 90% of the game’s flair is gone by the end
of the opening cutscene, though, as Soul Hackers 2 is so generically anime that it’s kinda
depressing. The game’s plot is dull and uninteresting
even as it shows its entire hand during the opening act. The whole concept of “soul hacking” is
that Ringo can dive into people’s souls and give them another chance at life, but
you literally only do it three times, with your three party members, all within the first
two hours… makes me think they just wanted to make sure
everyone would see the animation of Ringo licking her finger- Interesting things don’t happen in this
game. There’s apparently two warring factions
fighting over the future of the world, but it’s never seen directly in any events or
locations, considering the only places you go are abandoned tunnels as you spend half
the game chasing leads on where some guy might be. You barely meet any members of the two factions
until the FINAL DUNGEON. Most exposition is done sitting in the hideout
as your team members tell you things that have already happened, like Ringo showed up
too late to her own video game, and even the heavy use of plot twists near the end of the
game fails to bring any excitement to the experience. “Haha… Man, how many plot twists is this now? All I can do is laugh…” Despite the game attempting to place a heavy
focus on memories and the human soul, the protagonists feel pretty forgettable outside
of their visual designs. I found a few fleeting moments of enjoyment
in Saizo, the singular character with any bit of life in him, but the peaks of “mafia
man with shark teeth who is so down bad that he still loves his ex even after she gets
him killed” weren’t enough to save me from “the anime protagonist equivalent of
unsalted crackers” or “woman who fell in love with the villain even though he saved
her when she was a child and he was a whole-ass adult because what the fuck-” The “Persona influence” comes in the form
of slice-of-life hangout events that lack the individual character arcs to make them
interesting outside of some cheap jokes, with their reward being points that allow you to
unlock a new ability, but only AFTER walking through their fuck-off cube dungeon for another
thirty minutes! Now, I’d say that the navigator’s constant
screeching would be enough to make dungeon crawling miserable on its own, but Soul Hackers
2 manages to put Horizon Zero Dawn AND Xenoblade to shame with how much its characters won’t
shut the fuck up- “Initiating sync.” *unintelligible chatter* In the half a second it takes to speedily
navigate through the battle menu and target an enemy, about six or seven character voice
lines will play and overlap with each other. This is legitimately THE worst implementation
of banter I’ve ever seen in a video game - every single button press in the combat
menu will trigger a battle line, sometimes TWO AT THE SAME TIME! *dialogue examples* LOWEST KILLSTREAK BUYS DRINKS! I'm so fuckin’ tired of games ignoring the
atmospheres they build, thinking music and sound design isn’t enough, or believing
that drowning out said music in constant dialogue is an enjoyable substitute, because it gives
me zero time to think or reflect on my own. One of the big ideas that often defines the
SMT series is its darker, more oppressive atmosphere, but even taking into account that
Soul Hackers is a spinoff, it feels so far removed from these ideas that I’d forget
it was an Atlus game entirely if not for the recognizable spells and demons. I think some of the only new additions to
this game are the elemental Jacks like Blue Hawaii Frost, but that is not a demon that
is the name of a drink you get at Taco Bell- For a game about Devil Summoners, the game
doesn’t really spotlight the “Devils” much at all, as you never see your own demons
in combat outside of the Sabbath cutscene - a pretty solid reflection for their lack
of importance compared to key players in story events or NPCs in the overworld. Like I’ve said already, this just further
pushes Soul Hackers 2 into the territory of forgettable anime RPGs that I honestly can’t
recommend, even to fans of the franchise. Atlus doesn’t always have a perfect track
record, y’know, we all have our moments, but it takes quite a strong mix of disappointment
and frustration to make me write an entire review for a niche turn-based RPG I received
an early review code for out of spite. I do have a Patreon if you wanna help me recoup
my potential losses from this one, though. It’s uh, in the description. And just to really make sure I’d hate Soul
Hackers, Atlus has also decided to continue their practice of creating a bunch of day
one DLC for their $60 game, with an entire additional story chapter, dungeon, and demons
this time! I don’t think I could sum up my thoughts
better than when I told my friend about it: does it cost money? yea horseshit In short, if you're looking for a stylish
entry point to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, something with engaging gameplay or a captivating
storyline... just play an SMT game! They’re obviously not perfect, but there’s
so many great titles with their own strengths and unique flair, and acting like people need
to be babied into SMT from Persona just further pushes the narrative that they’re these
impossibly difficult nightmares. Fuck it, dude, I think… am I really gonna say this? I think Nocturne is better than Soul Hackers
2 and I hated almost every second of that game, but at least it was memorable! They both have enough underground railway
dungeons to send my sanity to hell and back but at least one of them let me put Dante
in my party.
