Soul Hackers 2 review

Soul Hackers 2 is not Persona 5. I’ve read a lot of reports; news and even some other analysis where “the soul, the aura of Persona 5, the essence of…” was reflected and honestly, I think that game has marked for good and bad to Atlus. It is true that Soul Hackers 2 was born from the need to follow the mainstream wave that Shin Megami Tensei and Persona 5 carried, but I think that they themselves do not know what audience it is aimed at.

It is important that you know that it is not necessary to play the first Soul Hackers; sub-saga that is born from «The MegaTen», although focused on the detective tone. This sequel continues with those detective adventure skills but taken to the futuristic extreme, a kind of Cyberpunk future with dreamlike touches. The tone works quite well and the design, at first glance, is striking.The leading role in Soul Hackers 2 falls on Ringo, an entity born from Aion; this being a kind of collective mind that has been created to protect the future of humans. Ringo and another almost twin entity, known as Figue, have the duty to save humans from their imminent annihilation. For them, the two are sent to futuristic Japan to rescue two people. We do not want to gut beyond this, but Ringo will have the help of Arrow, Milady and Saizo after escaping from the clutches of death and among the four they will collaborate so that the end of humanity does not occur.

The premise of standing up to the main group in the first hours of the game is very good… in the playable term. Having the main characters already available will not cost us much to get into the combat mechanics, the problem is that the story takes time to start and it is not at the level of other great Atlus stories.The combat of Soul Hackers 2 picks up much of what has already been sown in the franchise. Being a turn-based role-playing game, these will be numbered from 1 to 4, with the one with the most agility being the first to participate and when our actions are over, the enemy’s turn will begin. If we discover the weakness of the enemy, we will add a combo counter, giving us a kind of final finisher of the fourth allied turn, called “The Sabbat”. The bigger that counter is, the more damage from that finishing move will be added to the damage started.

Another common point will be the possibility of recruiting demons, as in Shin Megami Tensei. Each character will be able to equip that demon and use its abilities. We will have the possibility of merging these demons so that they become stronger and special demons, also already seen in the saga. It is something that the fans will be happy about, because if something works, then try to always keep it in mind in future installments.For the rest, we will also have the possibility of improving our weapons -known as COMP, our nexus to summon demons and use their abilities- giving us more damage; passive skills and even tricks like Leader Skills, a kind of initial help in combat. In the playable section, although it is behind many games and even some other “big brother”, we cannot argue with anyone who is worked and done in detail.

Soul Hackers 2 falls under the Dungeon RPG family and that has positive and negative connotations. The labyrinthine dungeons will be another of the main pillars, with juicy details such as the possibility of finding our litter of demons roaming the place and exploring every nook and cranny in search of money; objects and even encouraging other demons to join our group. The exploration can be a bit heavy, but those who are looking for direct combat taken from the role of the early nineties will be faced with the ideal game.The care they have in the playable section makes us see the shortcomings in its graphic section. For the first few hours I kept thinking that the animations looked like something out of a couple of generations past, and while the character designs can be flashy, it doesn’t matter if they look like empty shells. Even Shin Megami Tensei 5 -Nintendo Switch game- has better work in this regard.

The soundtrack, on this occasion, is produced by MONACA, a studio that will not sound familiar to many but surely if you know one of the producers or bosses of him, a man known as Keiichi Okabe; responsible for giving light; life and color with the music from him to Drakengard, NieR and even Tekken. Unfortunately, here the music goes unnoticed, with respectable themes but without going any further.

The Japanese dubbing, with well-known seiyuus, overshadows the English dubbing; being this meme meat. We won’t have as many vocal lines either, but since the dialogue is so bland, it doesn’t sound like Atlus wanted to put much effort into it.Is Soul Hackers 2 really worth it? all that is rescued from him in the analysis is that he could have been much better in his best sections and is also far from the previous works of Atlus, in the shadow of an also improvable Shin Megami Tensei 5. But the thing is that really can find its niche in the summer market.

A few years ago I played Dragon Quest XI in the summer holidays. I’m not a fan of his story and there are points that, well, I do notice a narrative improvement compared to his ninth or the vaunted eighth installment of the Square Enix franchise. But despite that… he left me close to a hundred hours, invested in my rest and my moments of peace.

It was a fun game; with gripping combat and tight difficulty; with its elaborate dungeons and its towns full of life and houses to explore. In addition to Dragon Quest XI, in previous years games of that cut have arrived to entertain us those heated afternoons and nights; like Xenoblade Chonicles 3 for example.

Soul Hackers 2 I think tries to copy the formula of the game that comes to meet the needs of the Japanese role player on vacation. It is not the most recommended option but it will offer you about fifty or sixty hours of dungeon hunting; tight combat and endless demons to capture.

Pros:

• The turn-based combat is evolutionary, it will improve over the hours.
• Exploration in the dungeons.
• A design of the dystopian future with a dreamlike tone…

Against:

• …But it doesn’t manage to hide the graphic ballast with the animations.
• A story already seen and without charisma or soul.
• The lack of social integration with the group.