Soul Hackers 2

[h1] 屎 [/h1] [h2] 是的，这就是一部彻头彻尾的粪作 [/h2] 作为老牌的JRPG厂商，ATLUS总是在创新，这次他们研发出了折磨流JRPG 剧情是老套的羁绊，支线是传统的跑马仔，人物是一如既往的谜语人 当然，还有强行弱化的仲魔系统。 更恶心的是仲魔的技能栏还要升级，咋的ATLUS怕玩家玩的快退款是吧 就这帮B仲魔，全加起来都不够数万箴言劈三下的 [h1] 然而这些都不是重点 [/h1] [h3] 重点是这个游戏里的地图，枯燥乏味且千篇一律 [/h3] [h3] 整个地图像是用雨姐的大汗脚踩出来的一样，比TM良子的胃袋还要大 [/h3] 这个B地图不光大，还到处是传送点 传送点之间还没有连线指引，要是忘了上个传送点的位置，大概率要捏着鼻子再跑一遍 [h3] 这游戏好啊，不但帮人锻炼记忆力，还帮人预防老年痴呆 [/h3] [h3] 不知道的还以为哥们是来参加最强大脑了 [/h3] [h3] 我严重怀疑ATLUS的设计师是不是集体对着屏幕一边月牙天冲一边设计地图 [/h3] [h3] 看大伙射到哪里就在哪里整个传送门 [/h3] [h1] 就这B游戏，除了林林2米长的大长腿，其他全是一坨屎 [/h1] [h1] 除了ATLUS的重度舔狗其他人不建议购买 [/h1]

没入感を全く与えない主人公 中身が無い薄っぺらなキャラクターたち 起伏が一切無い恐ろしく平坦なシナリオ 難しさと面倒臭さを履き違えたダンジョン ATLUSというブランドが作るRPGに求めていた要素が何一つとして無い、紛うことなきクソゲー。 女神転生やペルソナのような要素を求めているなら、決してこのゲームはやらないことを勧める。

I should start this review by noting that Soul Hackers 2 is not a particularly good game, and the pricing and DLC border on corporate thuggery. I also rather enjoyed playing it and found it strangely comforting as I wound my way towards 100% completion. Allow me to try and explain this apparent dichotomy while my aging brain continues to unravel. This is yet another entry in the stalwart Shin Megami Tensei franchise. I mean, I think it is? SMT is its OWN franchise, but it also has a zillion spinoffs, and some use the SMT umbrella name and some don't and it's all very confusing. (This is the second Soul Hackers game but the fifth Devil Summoner title... see what I mean?) But you know SMT when you see it... wielding demons, Agi spells, Jack Frost saying "hee-ho!" and so on. Anyhow, the original Soul Hackers debuted back in 1997, over in Japan. It wouldn't be localized to America until 2012, when it was ported to the plucky 3DS. Both that port and this 25 years late sequel seem like odd business decisions, but a certain SMT spin-off series called Persona has become very big business indeed for Atlus, and has led to increased interest in the SMT brand as a whole. And so Persona shall drag all of its siblings kicking and screaming into the West, ready to get their big break. I enjoyed the 3DS version of Soul Hackers well enough, but was still surprised to see this sequel announced 25 years late to the party. It centers around our protagonist Ringo, a plucky artificial gal created for the noble purpose of doing JRPG things like fighting monsters, talking to party members and solving side quests. She was also created to wear heels and snug hot pants, and to be shot at an angle to constantly remind us of this. I'm not a prude, but I think this hobby is well past the point where it needs to constantly be nudging us in the ribs, telling us how hot this imaginary girl is. I dunno; maybe it's ingenious satire. Ringo was spawned by a giant AI called Aion, and if one of our own Earthly AI entities pooled our collected knowledge and spawned a savior based on all it learned about human culture, knowing us, it probably WOULD take the form of a cute anime girl in short-shorts. Well played, Atlus. The game's story can be best described as 'functional.' Ringo and a bunch of Devil Summoners on various sides are fighting over five MacGuffins called Covenants, which are helpfully color-coded and look like those long, stringy sour candies. Battles are fought, people fall, and Covenants are traded around for a while. Everything then culminates in a story beat that didn't quite land for me, because the underlying relationship to support it just wasn't developed enough. I like the concept behind it and find sympathetic villains intriguing, but yeah, not enough time in the oven. (I know I'm being annoyingly cryptic here; just trying to avoid spoilers.) Then you have the Big Battle, and depending on your Soul Matrix progression, one of two endings which fall on differing sides of the Bittersweet Spectrum. The underfed nature of the climax is indicative of Soul Hackers 2 all over. It's a game which needs a lot more, well, game. This would (and probably should) be the length of a modest indie RPG, but it's been padded to the point of absurdity with fetch quests, mazes, and repeated returns to various dungeons. Although the word 'various' is a stretch there, as every area is either a shipping yard, an abandoned subway tunnel, or generic office space. The exception is the Soul Matrix, the dungeon where you explore the psyches of your teammates, but every sector there looks identical too and it gets old pretty fast. It's unfortunate, because I actually like the game's aesthetic overall. It's a warmer, more colorful take on cyberpunk that really does it for me. I wish the developers had a bigger budget to get more thorough and creative with level design. So yeah, here's where we talk about the expensive elephant in the room: the monies. This is more of a budget title; something akin to what we call a AA game. And that's fine, and even laudable; this industry needs way more of these, instead of us having to always choose between overblown trillion-dollar monoliths and something three people made in their basement. But Soul Hackers 2 retails for a full $60, and if you want the complete version, that'll be $90. This is an absurd price point for what's on offer. The DLC is especially galling, putting iconic demons like Mara and Satan behind an additional paywall. This is modern Sega all over, cutting corners everywhere but wanting even more cash as they do it. I bought the complete edition only when there was a massive sale, and I highly suggest you do the same, Gaving said all that, there it is, my thumb pointed upward atop this review. I won't remember this game in a few months, unlike, say, Persona 3, which still traverses my psyche 20 years after first playing it. But I'd come home every day after work and be happy to settle in and boot this up, basking in the glow of SMT's familiar charms. I like the non-combat locations and the fun people who inhabit them. I like Ringo's upbeat nature and shiny neon jacket. I like optimizing the demons in my compendium. Early SMT games could be brutal indeed, but the difficulty here is far more temperate. Demons don't back out on deals and you aren't likely to wipe on basic enemies. There are some tougher battles if you want them, though, and sometimes I did. It was the gaming equivalent of a "hangout movie" and I welcomed it, and the dozens of hours I could escape into it and enjoy a dystopia far more fun than the real one outside my window. The game sold below "expectations" so we probably won't see another one for another 25 years. (I'm sure Sega blamed everything except their own pricing schemes for that.) Farewell, Soul Hackers 2. Who knows what you might have been, had your parents loved you a bit more and money a bit less.

Look, I tried really hard to like this game, but it honestly commits way too many mistakes. WAY too many. The music is great, the setting is okay, and the cast of characters (especially Ringo, she's easily the best thing out of this game and makes me wonder why Atlus keeps using silent protagonists) is really good, and has some other nice tidbits like the characters' portrait changing mid-sentence to better reflect their feelings in a cutscene rather than staying with one single expression through all the dialogue. But gameplay wise? It is horrible. The Sabbath mechanic kinda works, but it is a less interesting version of the tandem attack from Strange Journey, and on top of that, you can't talk to demons in combat, and negotations strictly happen outside battle while you roam the field. But what breaks the game in half, is the dungeon crawling. In Soul Hackers 1, you go through a huge variety of places, all with their own gimmicks, music and mood. In Soul Hackers 2? You only go to really unremarkable places, you spend a lot of time under ground, WITH ONE SONG PLAYING THROUGH ALL THE DUNGEONS. GODNESS GRACIOUS. HOW???? EVEN THE FIRST DEVIL SUMMONER HAD MORE VARIETY AND THAT GAME IS STUCK FOREVER IN THE SEGA SATURN. This game was a complete waste of time and money for both me and Atlus. I'm going to finish it out of spite, but please, just ignore it, it doesn't deserve to be called Soul Hackers 2.

Yes, I recommend this game, but I would not call it a great game. This game is the YIIK: A Postmodern RPG of the MegaTen franchise, and I say that with all the positives and negatives. Soul Hackers 2 is just...weird. ATLUS tried to inject Persona into the Devil Summoner series and it went about as well as you can imagine. The links you build with your party members don't really feel all too impactful, and to receive the awards from leveling up a link you must traverse the most boring dungeon possible three times, once for each party member. When I say it feels like the Mind Dungeon from YIIK, I really do mean it in just how frustrating and unengaging it can be. Combat blends SMT's critical system and Persona's team attack systems into their Sabbath combat mechanic, which isn't bad but doesn't feel as immediately rewarding as either SMT or Persona's main combat mechanics. You can abuse the critical system in SMT games quite early to double the amount of turns your team gets, and team attacks reward smart precision takedowns of the enemy combatants in Persona. Soul Hackers 2's Sabbath doesn't really get good until you unlock the extra weakness upgrades that let you stack multiple points into a Sabbath per hit. You don't truly get the reward of the Sabbath system until you are well into the game, potentially 20 or more from my personal experience, and it just makes the system feel rather unrewarding. The cast has some really memorable designs, with Figue, Ringo, Ash and Nana having fantastic designs. Others are quite bland and inoffensive, while some are just downright silly. That being said, I wouldn't say any designs are straight up bad, just unremarkable at best. This game isn't really worth the full price unless you are a diehard MegaTen fan. I strongly suggest picking it up on sale if possible, and just remember; Soul Hackers 2 is the YIIK of Megami Tensei. It will all make sense when you play, I promise.

This is how I like it. It's how I roll, okay? I enjoy crawling dungeons. I'm a dungeon-crawler kinda guy. I'm borderline and hypersensitive and what not, and thus I absolutely love miles upon miles of twisting and turning corridors, repeating similar battles ad nauseam, things that occupy my fingers and the ever-terrified lizard part of my brain so I can distract the mammal part of my brain with the music and finally let my human-brain ponder things almost the same way the normal people do. Having said that, Soul Hackers has actually managed to tire me out somewhere around the finale. And, mind you, some time ago I've spent 200 hours plus crawling Mary Skelter and loved nearly every second of it. And there was Legend of Grimrock just before that. And Vaporum. Have I already mentioned I was into dungeon crawlers? My problem with Soul Hackers is not that it involves an abundance of dungeoning. That's is one of the things I came here for. The minor issue is that most of the locations are not particularly inspired. Shipping districts with lots of crates, abandoned construction sites, subway tunnels. All of these mercilessly recycled. There are at least two dungeons of each of those kinds, all of them consisting of multiple floors. But the absolute beast here is the Axis. It's a (mostly optional. But if you know your Shin Megamis then you must realize that skipping optionals is not an option) Gibson's cyberpunk virtual reality themed dungeon consisting of 12 (more on NG+!) mazelike floors that all look exactly the same. And if that wasn't enough, they employ an extensive use of portals when you reach the final levels. Not one or two portals per level but a sizable archipelago of islands interconnected by a network of teleporters that not necessarily make an immediate sense, require the memorization of where they lead and sometimes don't allow going back without taking a lengthy trek or teleporting entirely out of the dungeon and starting over. Luckily, there are a few fast travel points that somewhat remedy the situation. And as far as I know there is no separate map besides the mini-map projected onscreen as the party crawls. [h3] Avalon // Brave Folk Songs [/h3] The thing is, I owe it to Shin Megamis a lot on lots of grounds and music is one of them. See, when it comes to such lengthy campaigns it is inevitable that sooner or later, and with the notable exception of Yakuzas, I will get bored with the soundtrack and switch to an external provider. And as fate would have it, it is always over the final dungeon of a Shin Megami game that I discover some of the best tunes. I've got Tanooki Suit from Persona4, Jess and the Ancient Ones while running kalpas in Nocturne, Sulfur Giants on a loop four or five hours straight, and Hackers had me discover Rave the Reqviem. But this was supposed to be a paragraph about Hacker's music, right? It's fine and dandy. Fits the mood, and stuff. Go, check Jess, Tanooki and Reqviem out. [h3] Halcyon // That Lady with Glowing Fish in Her Hair [/h3] The characters are medium-lovable. Their backstories are the same old. There are also some heavily questionable, logic-bending actions towards the conclusion of the story, some unnecessarily theatrical screaming and some traditional JRPG exaggeration. But besides that, they are actually charming. During my 60 plus hours with Hackers, the way they interacted, hinted and commented each other's actions during the battles never got old. The little events in the local bar (the game has over 40 of those) while rather predictable, were still fun to witness. And the change and development they all undergo during the events of the game is - if you're willing to listen to their stories - actually quite impressive. Also there's Ringo, the game's protagonist and one of the better Shin Megami characters. First of all, she is not your typical SMT silent lead. She has both voice and personality. She is witty, upbeat and curious. She is also basically an anthropomorphized splinter of a macrocomputer superconsciousness overseering the humanity and there is a graceful explanation as to why such an entity would basically downgrade itself to meat and bone. L-l-look at you, Shodan, how the tables have turned... Also! The demons are really well written. There is this clever, little gimmick that instead of looking for the chests lying randomly around the dungeon, you send your demons out and they wait for you with items around the map. The Vile family deserves a special mention with their "Uhh, this thing will absolutely help the team.. W-w-wait how long have you been standing there listening?! DON'T tell anyone or I will have to kill you!" lines. You know, Viles? The evil guys. Also! Also! Most of the sidequests are of the standard go / kill / fetch variety but some of them are wrapped in a truly brilliant narration. Just forget the whole koala gig, it's better that way. I did. In all honesty, I have no idea what this koala business is all about. Found it in my notes for this review, reminding me to forget about it. [h3] Redrum // Infinity Plus One Almighty Sword [/h3] It's a Shin Megami, what did you expect? The mechanics are solid, there's hundreds of demons to be caught, and the usual rock-paper-scissors of the elements is present. If you know your SMTs you'll be at home and if you don't, you'd do best by starting somewhere else. P4 or 5 preferably, maybe Nocturne. Basically, any other main game. This one is for the folks who have drained all the other possibilities and still want more Atlusverse. Anyways. Hackers is slightly on a lite side. It's easier, more colorful and definitely less edgy than your usual SMT. Yes, of course there's the fate of humanity at the stake, but it's somewhere in the background. It's definitely not as soul - crushingly dark as Survivors or Nocturne. That is, if you find the complete extinction of humanity on a Biblical scale dark, I realize opinions may vary on this one. Nonetheless. The battles are significantly less challenging than I'd expected. Take the Sabbath mechanism. Every time a party member hits demon's weakness, it adds to the stack which in turn results in an all-out attack performed by the end of the turn which occurs when all of the party members finish their actions. Moreover, there is no similar punishment for enemies hitting the party's weaknesses. And, while I am far from calling it a hindrance, saving is available at all times outside of the battle. [h3] Amaterasu // Music Will Tie Whatever's Left of Me *[/h3] Sixty hours plus cut short, Hackers is the definition of a mixed bag. Sure, it's only a solid Megami, but that's still a viable way of wasting some hundred hours of your lifetime away. Yes, it's not a legendary like Personas or Nocturne. Or Strange Journey. It has its ups and downs, but there are some really nice ideas and honest, heartfelt moments every now and then. Still, the DLCs are coldheartedly greedy and atrocious. If he was alive, Freud would definitely have had a thing or two to say about locking Mara inside a paywall cage like that. Best course of action, 60% discount or higher, no DLCs and only if you've already completed Nocturne and at least one Persona. I have spoken. * had no idea for paragraph tiles, used the names of my playlists As always, thank you for reading this far and, as always, [h2] try to have a wonderful life. [/h2]

I originally wrote a very long review for this game, but it was too long, so f it. I came back to this game about 3 weeks ago to finish the 100%, then did 2 more runs to get a refresher. The game is very mediocre* The characters are fantastic, and the story is competent, it just has weird pacing due to the awful gameplay. This is also a very bad sequel to the first game, because they have next to nothing in common except for a few characters brought back and a handful of mechanics that were watered down. The dungeons in this game are by far the worst aspect, they are all empty and void of any personality, half of them are also copy paste of other dungeons. Only the final dungeon is truly original and memorable, it actually fits the ending of the game and the final boss incredibly well. It feels almost as they wrote the ending, the characters, did the final dungeon, and then tried to figure out how to get there but couldn't. If you buy this game, do so for the characters. I think you'll like them, they very much feel like real people. I must point out that this game was released when Atlus was at its worst, they were cutting corners in their games, making stupid DLCs, making mediocre remasters, and this sure as hell got the worst treatment of any game they released during this time. If the gameplay was as competent as the story, then maybe this could really have become the third pillar they said they wanted it to become along mainline SMT and Persona. DO NOT BUY THE DLC FOR THIS GAME. It's a massive cash grab, the dungeon is the same room copy pasted 50 times, with an okay super boss at the end. This was also day one DLC, they cut story content to sell it as a DLC, that's so damn scummy. As much as I like the character that this DLC focuses on, it sure as hell is not worth 10 bucks. The Soul Matrix is the worst dungeon in any RPG ever. They took the worst aspects of the first game and just shoved them all here x10 worse, such as the final 3 floors having teleporters all over the damn place. Opps took the wrong one, back to the beginning. Just look up a map guide for this section. It's boring af, and honestly longer than the base game if you want to complete it in its entirety. In the launch version of the game, the ability to run was locked behind this stupid dungeon, and a lot of people finished the game without knowing you could run. Actual insanity. Thankfully they added a run button in one of the final updates, but it has a slower speed than the run spell from launch for some reason. The only good thing about this dungeon are the character interactions at the end of floors 1 through 4, because at the end of the final floor there is nothing, the camera just zooms out and tells you that "that's it" so much effort for literally nothing, Buy this game on PS5 or something, I got a launch edition copy of this game with the holographics cards for $15 at Gamestop a month after it came out, because they didn't sell a single copy. You can probably find this game for $3 at Walmart. Certainly don't buy at full price.

[h1] 이 게임을 개발한 개발진들은 도대체 무슨 생각을 했던 것인가... [/h1] 소울 해커즈2는 데빌 서머너 소울 해커즈이후 25년만에 나오는 신작 게임으로, 세상의 멸망을 감지한 아이온이 두명의 사자 링고와 피그를 인간 세상으로 내려보내고 3명의 데빌 서머너와 합류하여 파멸을 막아낸다는 이야기의 게임이다. 전작인 데빌서머너 소울 해커즈가 테크놀로지에 마주한 인간들의 이야기를 나타냈다면, 이번 작은 테크놀로지 입장에서 바라보는 인간의 이야기라고 볼 수 있다. 스토리는 그렇기 때문에 살짝 어두운 면이 있다. 페르소나를 생각하고 들어온 신규 유저라면 생각보다 어두운 스토리에 '이거 같은 아틀러스 게임 맞아?'할지도 모를 것 같다. 아니 그보다도 일단 게임성이 많이 뒤떨어져서 오히려 스토리보다는 게임 자체를 플레이하면서 이러한 느낌이 들 것 같다는 생각이든다. 엔딩은 총 2개로, 하나는 일반적인 플레이를 통해서 얻는 노멀엔딩과, 진엔딩이 있다. 진엔딩은 메인스토리 진행시의 캐릭터 선택등을 통해서 소울레벨을 올릴 수 있는데 이 소울레벨이 동료 모두가 100을 넘기고, 소울매트릭스 4층을 뚫어야한다. 얼핏 보면 빡빡한 수치이긴 하지만, 선택지를 선택할 때 캐릭터별로 골고루 선택해주면 게임 후반부에서 100을 넘길 수 있다. 100을 넘기고 엔딩 분기점에서 어떤 선택을 하느냐에 따라서 진엔딩과 노멀엔딩을 볼 수 있는데, 처음에 동료의 소울레벨을 모두 100을 만들고 최종보스전에서 저장을 미리 한다면 한 세이브데이터에서 두 가지 엔딩을 볼 수 있다. (이후에는 회차플레이를 진행하여 나머지 도전과제를 진행할 수 있다.) 게임성은 기존의 아틀러스 게임과 마찬가지로 악마들을 동료로 만들고, 그 악마들의 능력을 이용해서 적들을 물리치는 스타일로 진행이된다. 여기에서 조금 달라진 점이 있다면, 약점을 찌르면 한번 더 공격할 수 있는 '프레스턴'이 삭제가 되고 새롭게 사바트라는 시스템이 추가되었다. 이것은 약점을 찌르면 스택이 하나씩 쌓이는데, 턴이 끝나면 그 스택을 모두 제거하고 적 전체에 강한 공격을 남기는 시스템이다. 초반에는 최대 4개까지 쌓을 수 있고 이후에 커맨드스킬등을 이용하면 10개 이상까지도 쌓을 수 있다. 솔직히 기믹은 신박하다고 할 수 있지만, 게임의 템포가 느려지고, 딱히 게임에 이득이 았다고는 생각이 안되서, 게임 중반 이후로는 프레스턴이 오히려 더 간절했다. 몰론 개발진들의 입장에서 이것이 또다른 전략적 재미를 만들지 않을까라고 생각하고 넣은 것 같지만 오히려 전투를 루즈하게 끌어서 전투의 재미를 반감시키는 요소로 작용된 것 같다. 위에 적다보니 어떻게 단점을 먼저 적게 됬는데, 위에 단점을 적었으니 마저 게임을 즐기면서 불편했던 혹은 단점이라고 불릴 수 있는 것을 몇가지 더 적어보면, 2. 게임의 전개가 개연성이 떨어지고 꽤나 빠르게 진행된다. 처음에 시작을 하게 되면, 링고가 동료 3명을 전부 소울해킹이란 것을 이용하여 되살리고 팀으로 합류하자는 제안을 하는데, 이 제안 수락하는 과정이 정말 개연성없이 이루어진다. 예를 들어 "너 내 동료가 돼라" 얘기하고 답변으로 "ㅇㅋ"하는 수준. 그리고 중간중간 스토리를 풀어나가는 과정에서도 이런 식의 전개가 많이 나타나다보니 스토리의 몰입이 제대로 되지 않았다. 후술할 문제인 던전의 지루함이랑 같이 상호작용 되어 결국에는 졸면서 게임을 하는 경우가 상당히 많이 일어났었다. 그래도 마지막 최후반부 스토리 전개는 또 괜찮게 됐다 싶었는데, 마무리에서 또 급전개 되는 느낌을 줘서 많이 아쉬웠다. 3. 지루한 던전 및 사이드 퀘스트 사이드 퀘스트야 그냥 의뢰 식으로 던전 뺑뺑이 돌면서 악마사냥을 하고, 아이템을 얻어오면 되는 그런 간단한 것들이 주류이지만, 이 사이드퀘스트도 지루하게 만들어버리는 것이 바로 던전이다. 던전의 맵 설계 자체도 단순하게 되어있는데 맵은 또 엄청나게 넓어서 퀘스트들이 지루하게 느껴지는 부분이 많았다. 특히 소울 매트릭스 던전은 진짜 맵 설계를 누가했는지 궁금했을 정도로 정말 괴랄하게 만들어놨는데, 이거 제대로 길을 찾을 수 있는게 맞아라고 싶을 정도로 넓고 복잡하게 만들어나서 오히려 길찾는데에 피로도가 더 많이 들었다. (궁금하신 분은 인터넷검색창에 소울매트릭스 4층을 검색해보면 알 수있다...) 아 그리고 DLC에 로스트넘버즈가 사이드퀘스트로 진행이 되는데, 이 스토리가 게임에서 상당히 중요한 내용을 다루고 있는데 이거를 돈받고 따로 팔고 앉아있으니 역시 '아틀러스답다'라고 생각되는 건 덤이었다. 그래도 장점이 있다면, 생각보다 BGM이 좋았던 점과, 동료들간의 캐릭터성(개성)이 매우 뚜렷하고 스토리내에서 볼 수 있는 케미들은 꽤 좋았었다. (문제는 위에서 설명한 급전개가....) 아틀러스 게임을 좋아하는 사람들이라면 한 번쯤은 짚고 넘어갈 수 있는 게임이지만 앞서 얘기한 문제들 때문에 추천하기에는 힘든 게임인 것 같다. 본인은 초반과 소울 매트릭스 4층에서 졸면서 게임을 진행했는데, 다행히 중후반부터는 나름 재밌게 했었다. 개인적으로는 DLC파트를 정말 재밌게했다. 그래도 궁금한 사람들은 무조건 75프로 이상 할인할 때 들어오길 바란다. [b] 마지막으로 게임을 제공해주신 [KOR] HIPTORI님 정말 감사합니다 :) [/b]