Soul Hackers 2

This is a very barebones JRPG considering what Atlus is capable of producing. The lack of budget and development time can be seen all over the game. It took me multiple attempts to get into the game due to how boring the story and dungeons are. It’s a shame, because the game definitely has some good stuff that could really shine if it wasn’t brought down by the other aspects. Ringo is one of the best MegaTen protagonists, she has an actual personality, takes action and frequently interacts with the rest of the cast. The crew, while noticeably less interesting, is still pretty good. The artstyle and music leave a lot to be desired, but at least provide a decent foundation. There is still some MegaTen DNA in the combat and demon fusions. The game gets a bit ambitious with its storytelling, which ends up doing it more harm than good. The cutscenes try to depend a lot on visual character acting, but they rely on a very limited set of facial expressions. Any attempts at serious and emotional scenes are immediately hampered by goofy-looking anime faces. This is one of the cases where inserting some more dialogue could better sell the drama. It does not help that some scenes, especially the memory hacking ones, reuse a lot of the same shots and cuts. Recycling does not stop there, the game has a series of Soul Matrix dungeons, which is where we learn more about the party members. This was a great opportunity to make each dungeon reflect the respective character in the visual and audio designs. However, they all look and sound the same. These are also very long dungeons, exploring them becomes a chore real fast. Additionally, the game’s overreliance on teleporter mazes becomes frustrating. The main dungeons are also mostly underwhelming. The side-quests frequently send you back to previously visited dungeons which makes it even more obvious how undercooked these areas are. Also, the environments tend to have a lot of narrow areas, which makes maneuvering around demons annoying. One of the game’s biggest sins is the combat. MegaTen games usually have some sort of pushback, you gain an advantage when you strike a weakness and so does the enemy. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. While you can play around with the Sabbath mechanic, which is okay, the opponent gets nothing. It’s a shame, because some of the abilities and COMP upgrading are pretty cool. During battles against other Demon Summoners, killing a Summoner can end a fight even if their demons are still alive, which adds a tiny strategic touch. They also have some ways of defending themselves, but the concept of fighting against other Summoners could definitely use some more work. As much as I dislike the practice, Soul Hackers 2 is a prime candidate for the classic Atlus rerelease treatment. There are some decent aspects which could be salvaged into a good cyberpunk-themed MegaTen game, but it might require more work than Persona rereleases for definitely not as much profit.

This is like if I described what I liked about Persona to someone, and they only heard every other word I was saying. Grab it on sale if you've played literally every other Persona game.

It's good. Simply good, not great or phenomenal in any way, primarily compared to other SMT/Persona/Megaten games out there and it's definitely not worth a full price release but if you can get it on a say...half off sale, somewhere within that ball park, I'd recommend but lightly. You'd do fine without it but it wouldn't feel like you've wasted your time/money if you did buy it during a good sale.

This game rules don't listen to the haters Ringo is a fun and endearing protagonist Same SMT combat from every other game in the series, u know what to expect Tons of demons lots of cute silly social interactions some more serious ones Saizo has shark teeth for absolutely no reason and I love that for him Ppl complain about soul matrix being boring but it's the exact same idea as mementos or labyrinth of Amala or whatever smt grindspace. It's actually kind of a humorous throwback because it's laid out exactly like the grid based dungeouns of SH1 Plays great on mouse/keyboard ALSO this game has ultrawide resolution support, something that's strangely absent from the "Overwhelmingly Positive" Persona 3 Reload, which was released years later Which begs the question about weird double standards within the broader Atlus fanbase but I dunno! Shouganai

The good: -Protagonist has an actual personality. -On very hard, has some of the best boss battles in the JRPG genre. -Planning out demon fusions is just as fun as any other SMT game. The bad: -The dungeons are bad. They are both boring, tedious, and artistically bland. -You can feel the low budget in some of the cutscenes. -Don't know why they call it Soul Hackers 2 when it doesn't have the amazing 90s cyberpunk aesthetic from Soul Hackers 1. Overall, I enjoyed it but only worth if you get it on sale and are a big Megaten fan.

女神シリーズは最後までプレイしたものはありません（やったことはありますが自分の手で結末まで導いたことはありません）。ペルソナは全部やりました。 いささか辛辣…というか乱暴な表現ですが、ざっくりといってしまうと [h1]ダメなラノベシナリオで作ったなんちゃって電脳ヴァルキリープロファイル[/h1] です。 まず物語は全く引き込まれず、冒頭からしてプレイヤーキャラクターはこんなすごいキャラクターなんだよ、という設定が語りたくて仕方ない感ばかりが前面に押し出されています。そのためかいきなり様々な情報を詰め込んできますが、いちから丁寧に説明しようとしてそれぞれが雑、思わせぶりなだけ、冗長と本末転倒。自分を説明するのに「謎の存在」はダメでしょ。一方で舞台となる人間の世界の説明や当面の目標である「破滅回避」に関しては全然語られず、焦燥感や緊迫感はゼロ。おまけに「破滅回避に必要な人物2名を救出する」という最初の目的ですら失敗、ラノベ系ゲームの鉄板「いきなり命を落としたキーマンと主人公がふしぎぱわーでつながって云々」展開と「ダメなラノベ」のテンプレ。 バトルシステムは悪魔を召喚して自分に憑依させ、強敵戦では耐性を考えて付け替え、合体や継承して弱点を突いて…ってこれペルソナじゃねーか！（ｶﾞﾝ）戦闘中のカメラは種類が少なく単調、掛け合いが頻繁すぎて逆に興ざめ、敵との距離が近すぎるため射撃や攻撃のアクションもちゃちに見えてしまったり、戦闘開始時の主人公のカットインも毎回見ていると流石に見飽きてきます。ストーリー側からも「ああ、ライターさんが主人公キャラが大好きなんだなー」という推しの熱意は伝わりますが、ただそれだけ。 マップ移動もカメラが近すぎて迷いやすく、逆に地形の把握がしづらくダンジョンの雰囲気がぶち壊し。あちこちにお助け悪魔がいるので探索感もなく、決まったルートをイベント的に進んでいくだけのリニア。アニメ調のキャラクターがそのまま動くグラフィックもワンパターンだったり過剰な演出で活かせているとは思えません。 まったくソウルハッカーズをやったことがない（知らないという意味ではありません）人間だから、逆に新しいソウルハッカーズを楽しめるんじゃないだろうか、というポジティブな発想でプレイしたものの、はっきりいって「面白くありません」。ドキドキ、ワクワクしないのです。この物語がどんなふうに進んでいくんだろう、どうなってしまうんだろう、この人はどんなキャラクターなんだろう、といった興味が湧くこともなく、世界に引き込まれることがありませんでした。自分の感性はあまり頼りになるものではありませんが、たったこれだけの時間でさえ何一つピンとくるものが感じられなかったのであれば、さすがにこれはダメなんだろうな、というのが結論です。 クソゲーとまではいいません。ただ面白くないだけなのです。このゲームをプレイするのはただの作業、義務感で進めることになるのだろうと思います。これは「ゲー無」なのだと思います。

I wanted to like this game but man... my main problems with this game boils down to two of these: 1. Extremely bland dungeon. Imagine corridors with NOTHING in them. Just walls with the occasional stuff blocking the way. Nothing interesting, no knick-knacks, no puzzles, just a long ass corridor with enemies spawning left and right. The enemies also spawns right in front of you, sometimes not even giving you a chance to react. Each time enemy spawns, a character yells about it. Nice detail for the first 10 minutes, super annoying to hear for several hours. 2. Stupid side quests. These side quests are fine if a) it doesn't involve killing enemies that spawns RANDOMLY and OCCASIONALLY. Like hell, who tf wants to run around in a map for 10 minutes looking for something that the game DECIDES NOT TO SPAWN???; and b) it doesn't involve looking for an NPC IN THE SUPER ASS DUNGEON. It's like the game tries so hard to make you fall asleep

재밌게 하고 있었습니다.. 소울 매트릭스 4층을 방문하기 전까진... 두둥 던전 맵이 처음에 안그런데 갈수록 저 우주 안드로메다 급으로 완전 미로 맵이 되버려서 스트레스도 많이 받고, 참고 플레이 하면서 이성의 끈이 몇번 끊어 질뻔 했어요. 그래도 끝까지 하여 진엔딩을 보았는데요 스토리와 캐릭터들 그리고 성우분들 연기 너무 좋았습니다! 링고 라는 캐릭터를 성우분이 너무 매력있게 연기를 잘 해주셔서 게임하는 내내 링고라는 캐릭터에 빠져들었네요 하지만 이 좋은 스토리와 캐릭터를 맵 디자인이 다 깍아먹을 만큼 안좋았던게 너무 아쉽습니다.. DLC 안사면 심한 노가다를 해야하는것도 한 몫 합니다.

SH2 is a decent enough game with a nice cast and ok story, but the game itself feels more like a test demo for mechanics to be used in other Atlus games. It just feels unfinished and very linear with much of the game just feeling like it's not fleshed out enough.