After reading all the early reviews for the Soul hackers the main takeaway I had was that Atlus was overcorrecting the "too complicated" critique of JRPG's without really considering that the reason they've had so much success in the past is because there are quite a few people willing to learn how their games work. Gotta have that mass market appeal though
Kinda just wish they just made Tokyo Mirage Sessions 2, the battle system was flashy and I liked managing the turn order between party members and enemies a lot. Just make it less grindy and have actual english voices.
@@heroicgangster9981 Tokyo Mirage was a failure though, it barely sold around 35k in Japan and only 50k or so in the USA and people are going to relate it to censorship and other bad marketing.
Those load times are fixed by going into the options and setting the tips to button press. I have no idea why that isn't the default since it makes the loading times like 1 second.
the artificial loading times are most likely a requirement because of the tips showing up on the loading screen as a way to allow players to have enough time to read the tip. Not the best reason but a reason nonetheless
@@yakkocmn I never played them but I thought persona and smt were the same series? Like how elder scrolls, skyrim, and oblivion are all part of the same. series. If they are part of the same series then why do you talk about them as if they are different series?
Conclusion: Altus can’t do a noob friendly game so Altus should continue to develop games with more complex mechanics and avoid oversimplifying the gameplay.
Conclusion: not every game has to be triple A to be enjoyed and you should check the game out yourself and not let one person tell you if it's good or not.
Nah, they just need to keep SMT games as SMT and Persona games as Persona games. Persona games would benefit if they became more difficult though, but bringing down the complexity of SMT or Persona would be a mistake.
@@CrimRui Tbh I agree a lot with him watching let's plays (yeah I'm that meme of a persona 5 fan that can't even play the game lmao) it just feels kinda dead for me and feels like it's not paced well enough, I'm not asking it to be like persona or smt (I have played p1-p3) but it's just missing anything interesting with the characters, I'm guessing it's because the player doesn't get to hang out with them as much as persona games do (though persona games are slower in general with slice of life parts) and my least favorite part is that I like the character designs a lot but I don't really like the characters themselves (no hate, just doesn't feel right)
Atlus seems so alien compared to the rest of us consumers. The story DLC, day one DLC, DLC bundles more expensive than the game itself. Reused stories and characters (Persona), Stories and characters with missed potential (SMT), Stories and characters with very little potential (Soul Hackers 2/SMT IV: Apocalypse). Excessive merchandising. Spinoff games to milk the shit out of Persona, including multiple Persona 5 crossovers in random mobile games, and the anime/manga variations that add very little to the game, especially Persona 4 Golden Persona 5 the Animation. This company doesn't feel like it's getting worse, but less understandable. The more decisions they make, the more it feels like it will set up for disappointment, with current main Megaten titles not doing well as they should. Persona 6 is in an extremely dangerous place, and if it ends up ruining Atlus due to their money-hungry business decisions, it could mean a horrible downfall for the company, like Konami.
@@Whatthescallop1776 Lol they will treat Persona 6 with the utmost care, without a doubt. It’s their best cash cow, they won’t fumble it. And persona fans will eat it up no matter what so long as it doesn’t stray from its roots-even if it sucks.
@@geisterwolf397 What you say applies to more modern Persona games, but originally Persona was pretty much in line with typical SMT themes and atmosphere, esp the first one which was even a first person dungeon crawler.
if its on steam, you can refund it if you have played less than 2 hours, or less than X days after purchase if its not, i would try to refund it anyway.
@@Alibaba-le2ku sure, just make sure to give it back before 2 hours if you dont like it (and you bought it on steam) or else they wont give you anything back.
I’d just like to add that the unique frosts are in the original Soul Hackers too. And the way you get them is unique and applies to their lore. Seemingly that was lost in this sequel.
You know, for as much flack as it gets, the idea of a game that uses SMT and Persona elements is actually most applicable to Tokyo Mirage Sessions. And I can safely say that game did WAY better with it. Didn’t even need to act like it was a main SMT game to do so.
Totally agree with this, while watching the video, the only thing I could think of was, "This is just TMS #FE, but worse, much worse." It's crazy how much they stripped from this game's origins, of the SMT title; to have such a braindead simplistic battling system, dungeons, and story. It really doesn't, in my opinion, deserve to hold the name of SMT.
Honestly, I'm getting fed up with developers aiming for mass appeal when we've got more than enough evidence to prove that this approach rarely works and is not why this sort of series gained notoriety in the first place...
@@platinummad4701 If it reduces the quality of the game for the fans that were already there, I'd say yes. I don't see how banking on potential new fans is better than banking on already existing ones. Unique and Great beats Generic and Decent, any day of the week.
@@platinummad4701 Besides, what does it mean to make a game for "new players". If you try to cater to too many people the overall product always loses quality. That's a guarantee, because other games that focus on those aspects will inevitably do it better than you. Persona is great because it does it's own thing well. Same for SMT. The first Soul Hacker also had its own unique thing going on that made it great, but they've tried to go for the persona approach and muddied the waters instead of perfecting what was already great. The point is, if you want to make a game for new players: make a new game. If you want to make a good sequel, take what was good about the original, and expand on that. Don't just remix everything.
It seems like the only great part of this game is the visuals. The character design pops, and I can tell there is some real talent behind it. And even though the city is basically boiled down to a bunch of annoying loading screens, when it comes to the neon glowy look of the city itself, it has a great cyberpunk feel. Even the shop keepers have designs so well done that any one of them can easily be a party member because they just look that good. But it does not matter how good a video game looks if the "game" part is not any fun.
@@janericpaghubasan2930 For a longer more in-depth answer, watch the video. For a TL;DW answer: It's not "bad" in the conventional since, it's more so just so bog standard that it's only as mechnically deep as FF1. With that said the dungeons are bad, they are samey and either overly maze-like or overly linear with no inbetween, recruiting monsters is a pain in the ass, and the dozens of needless loading screen outside of the dungeons do not help.
@@RegalPixelKing i feel like he's overall not fair about the combat system in this game if that's the right word (don't know about the whole review but there are things he says that didn't make sense.) haven't played the game yet but, watching Nyarly's review. not only is it night and day but also the combat seems more than the meets the eye.
Funnily enough I just started SMT4 today again, after playing maybe an hour years ago when I bought it and got felt frustrated due to how hard it was. I'm having a great friggin time with it. It actually got fun once I was able to recruit a few demons (which I never managed back in the day).
Yeah the first couple hours of that game are ruthless, but you really get a solid grasp of the game and its mechanics once you’ve clawed your way out. Fantastic game
Oh yeah, Naraku _is_ an insane start, after a certain point you'll get a grasp on everything and will be able to play without dying (too much), it has some bs moments but it's also a very fun game
I’ve been playing this game for 12 hours now (over several days) and I swear all I’ve been doing is dungeon crawling and upgrading and equipping stuff I can’t even tell if it’s making a difference. It’s like the idea of Persona but with zero storyline. I don’t connect to the characters at all. And the costumes I bought only being seen in battle is bunk!
I feel your critique of the Sabbath system is a bit harsh. The extra effects and damage can add strategy for taking out groups of enemies or trying to make up for another party member's damage if they have to buff or heal that turn. Also If you're gonna hold the assist button as this flaw worth pointing out, you have to realize this has been in the series before as well. I remember off the top of my head Persona 5 had it in it's original release, and in the end of the day it only saves time. No sense to mock a quality of life feature for some people if it doesn't work for you. Also the fact they tried something different with negotiations isn't entirely a bad thing either, demon personalities is only mostly a thing in P5 and SMTV which other times it's just completely random chance. It is frustrating if you're looking for a specific demon, that I completely agree with. It can add a good chunk of time if you're looking for something you can't fuse easily. But the new method encourages you to explore and check every corner of a dungeon, so it adds to the exploration. Which I will add, yeah the dungeons are how they're like in 90% of the series. Even SMTV had similar dungeons with the Castle and the semi-final one. It's seen as part of the series identity as this point. Whether this is good or bad, like you said is up to contention. Ultimately it comes down to preference. Calling Soul Hackers 2 generic when it has a giant supercomputer under the ocean that is essentially stalking humanity for the sake of evolution along with it bringing stuff back from SH1 like the Phantom Society, the Kuzonha Clan from Devil Summoner and reimagined Vision Quest is at best disingenuous. The Phantom Society can be a bit of generic bad guys even in SH1, but their personality and designs make them memorable. Calling something "generically anime" really feels hollow when I don't see a high school in the main cast and instead it's a cast of 25+ year old people with their unique personalities and interactions with each other. I apologize for the unstructured ramblings and I do wanna say this: Your feelings are completely valid. If you don't like SH2 then you don't and I'm sorry this was such a let down for you man. But I do believe there were better ways to phrase your points and I do feel it's worth pointing out. Again: no ill will, and I wish you nothing but the best wishes in your endeavors.
Totally agree, and we're talking about the same company that made a Hello Kitty game, not ever single game they bring out should be holded with expectations to beat P5 and such. Sometimes we just like continuing of classic games in PS5 quality.
@@gamingdormouse2677 Yeah but this like one of the very few instances in the series where it drops the SMT moniker in an attempt to distinguish itself, just like how Persona did. But then it does nothing interesting and is flat out boring in a lot of areas.
You know, the more i look at it the more i think soul hackers and devil summoner as a series did not deserve this. Soul hackers one was this snazzy soul/time travelling experience where we unveil a mass destruction through vr plan to destroy humanity by feeding the planet with negative emotions (iirc), and there was plenty of possessions too. Original devil summoner was mc dying and posessing body of a badass devil summoner kyouji, and then figuring out who's killing ppl and why. All while oozing and radiating style like it was a nuclear power plant
The whole Sabbath thing seems like if they took the Alignment Co-Ops from Strange Journey, then removed LITERALLY ALL STRATEGY that the system had with teambuilding. I was gonna pick this game up for my birthday, but I think I’ll just get something I’d actually enjoy.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions sounds like a good idea. Managing the weaknesses between party members and enemies on both sides. And also having control in the turns of your party members with high budget attack animations.
Lmao I thought the same, but forgot the alignment team building thing since I spammed neutral demons. Yes, including against Mem "kiss your demons of one alignment goodbye" Aleph. Which was a nasty but cool counter mechanic btw.
Atlus PLEASE Don’t be afraid to design a system that both punishes player and enemies alike Yes, we know it works for Persona but not everything needs to be a Persona game
Mostly fair tbh. Will say to nitpick tho, the assist doesn't actually choose a good recommended move. The only time I used it, it had me use an electric move on an enemy I hadn't seen before and that enemy reflected electricity and instakilled me lol. Also it could be that I was underleveled but I found the fights pretty challenging in early game if you use no DLC items (I was like 6lvls under the bosses but still)
Oh also I would def play this again before I did a fresh run of nocturne. It was a fine experience the first time but I'm not sure If I wanna ever play nocturne again
@@puer4787 Tactical time pause tower defense game with a non-linear story that is packed with Scifi elements is how I would describe it to someone who has no clue about. It and The House in Fata Morgana are the best games I've played in my life, and coincidently both have non-linear stories, a trans character, is fairly unknown and SPOILER has a happy ending
Damn never heard yakko so angry at an jrpg before, sure the game is far from being great but it did something right. It's one the first protagonist in an atlus game that's not an self insert silent nobody and that's a pretty big step in a good direction, also I think it looks really good and actually nailed it with the visuals and it's theme
1:48 SMT has always been more about philosophical questions and trying to make the player think; they want to present all ways of reformation fairly and they want the players’ genuine answers to their prompts. Often times characters are sidelined in order to get more pure answers from the player. Persona is about exploring people; it’s about the critiques of the current society in addition to exploring complex emotions and trama of others. Each entry goes for a slightly different theme, makes you think, but overall doesn’t ask the player too heavy of questions in comparison. While being similar combat-wise, both of these series have different asks and expectations from the player. It’s the reason they are separate to this date. To me there is nothing wrong with that.
And Tokyo Mirage Sessions is about the passion of being creative and passionate. Even if the game is not like SMT or Persona, I like the craft the game had put into it.
@@heroicgangster9981 I agree. When I play Nocturne, I think of how I think a world should be governed/made (although I always feel weird when these games have a secret ending, because it encourages players to think that way even if I think in Nocturne it’s the most valid one) and when I play Persona 5 I see all the injustices of the current system and feel the need to fight back and rebel. These don’t need to be mixed together; it would be hard to achieve both mechanically. Not impossible, but imo, it wouldn’t be as good.
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 that's not all I think Devil Survivor should be known for, I do think that it does enough of its own stuff to be more than "SRPG SMT with a hint of Persona", but like who cares literally anything goes for game better than Soul Hacky Too
What interested me in devil summoner and other megaten games was that weird, half dark, half lighthearted atmosphere. In Raidou 2 for example we try to solve the mystery of luck stealing locust. TMS and SH2 could be as well published under every other franchise name by NIS or Marvelous. And it’s just my personal whining, but SH2 gameplay seems stiff. Persona 5, Smt 5 heck, even TMS had pretty dynamic animations during battles.
YEAH!!!! The only thing that makes me interested in Soul Hackers 2 is some cool designs like the masked guy and the sabbath demon animations that look cheap as heck! Tokyo Mirage Sessions was basically Persona 4.5 imo in terms of how a battle system and animations could be for an SMT Persona game.
@@BitchChill it means it feels generic. When you think of Nocturne, most people almost immediately think of oppressive, dark red, apocalyptic, high pressure, suffocating. SMT VI, a bit of that, but also a weird civilization that's some what comfortably nested in hell, while thinking about your choices to choose a false heaven or to burn the world to shit, or just wipe it all out. wtf is going on in Soul hackers 2? Neon lights and mini shorts? licking fingers and zoomer jokes?
I was interested in buying this game but didn't to save money for other stuff. Instead I got devil survivor 1 overcloked on my 3ds before the eshop shut down and I'm glad I did.
You're lucky you can get Overclocked on your eshop, It's not available on Australian eshops as well as the physical being impossible to obtain without spending a stupid amount of money and I've heard nothing but praise, some even saying it's the best of the smt franchise :(
@@DeepMoon45 I was originally going to get the second game but it was too big for my 3ds. I know there's ways to emulate 3ds games but I've never done it before So I may just fork over 80 bucks for the second game if I have the money
@@GradMeat I own the second game digital and it does take up a tonne of space. I'm probably going to have to resort to emulation for the first game but I've also never done so for 3DS either and don't love the idea but some games are only playable that way sadly, both Raidou games as well
@@DeepMoon45 yea I get you. Second reason I got the first is because I heard it was easier to emulate the second one. Atleast for the emulator I found. Haven't used it yet though and I'm not9 sure I will until like 10-15 years form now and nintendo provides no alternative to buying these games
the sabbath seems like Strange Journey's weakness exploit system, except all party attacks instead of just same-alignment demons. And the flavored jack frosts already existed on SH1
Respect and understand the disappointment 100% x Personally, im just happy to have something new to play and I appreciate a lot of whats going on that the flaws kinda don't bother too much. I went in looking for a simple but fun JRPG experience to tide me over until some big releases I was interested in and this gave me exactly that. Still really respect the disappointment however and always love seeing a Yakko video pop up in my feed!
@@kev8202 Aaaaa nice one! Gotta say Tales of Arise is really cool. Im just not a fan of the 3D Arena style combat JRPGs personally. Soul Hackers 2 is pretty cool but I can understand waiting. I very much see it as a simple adventure that is also acting as a testing ground for ideas and such. I recommend it but understand waiting.
The party banter sounds like you played 4 completely different UA-cam videos at once. Good job Atlus Also saying "we all have our moments" while slightly showing conception gameplay is perfect
Man that's a shame, I was willing to overlook how it didn't really have much relation to the first Soul Hackers in it's systems/mechanics due to how stylized everything seemed to be and with hopes that the new/unique stuff would make up for it but this just looks painfully average at best :(
@@aidankhaos7687 I don't feel like spending 60 dollars to find out if a game I'm already iffy/not all too interested in is worth the time, especially when I've watched multiple videos from multiple people that are and aren't SMT fans that kinda all pitter out to the game just being ok or only very slightly above average at best
@@SuperT380 Yea, it’s good decision. Atlus must see how awful this game and didn’t make second SH2. It’s really boring. I waiting SH2 and saw review but I thought, “nooo it’s can be so disappointing” but it is! Everything in this review is true. For information. My play time 38 hours. I make side quests and alleys dungeons and still don’t finish SH2. I can’t continue play this game because it’s boring T-T Now I’m little nervous about persona 6 ( P.S. sorry for mistakes I’m not native speaker, but I can’t not write about this game)
i really enjoy getting your perspective on Megami Tensei games. You’re a relatively experienced fan of SMT and Persona but you’re not one of the megaten gamers who are in so deep they can’t compliment or criticize the games fairly. As one in the latter camp, there are definitely moments when watching these reviews that i’m like “wow i must be a freak for not minding endless spirals and excessive menus” The constant voices blaring throughout the game, and the DLC nonsense however… that does not sound good.
Literally anytime Yakko does a bit where its just him irl I always end up cackling, it's just too good. It's the perfect break between review (which is always done spectacularly and keeps me fully hooked) and gameplay (which is always perfectly timed) which honestly just makes it all so much better. Fucking great dude...
It's even weirder cause most people I know who like both series were able to switch from say SMT V to Persona 5 or Persona 3 to SMT III. SMT and Persona work off each other despite being different in tone and structure thanks to combat still being Risk vs Reward. (even in easier titles like P5R or SMT IV) Kinda makes me wonder if they should of given SH2 an extra year and a bigger budget or just not made it at all.
It also doesn't help that this game came out smack middle of SMT V's success and P5R's multiplatform release and, if I'm right, we might see SMT go multiplatform along with Persona, making SH2 go even more into the background and be forgotten.
10:57 OH YEAH! Gonna pick up this game now, brings me back to my Tokyo Mirage Sessions days right there. (To make it clear, Tokyo Mirage Sessions fans don't really like the story but more so the character interactions, neat combat system, and spectacle. Just buy Tokyo Mirage Sessions if one wants an more anime-fied SMT game on Switch)
It's a good game. It's basically just a very dumb down version of SMT and Persona. It has its flaws but the game is by no means bad. As someone that has played both series extensively, I'm enjoying it so far
11:02 I assume that would be this games equivalent of alignment reps, and I feel like thats a result of trying not to lock players into an alignment too early, but its an overcorrection that makes alignment meaningless until the very end. This was also an issue with SMTV that alignment choices didn't matter at all until the alignment lock in the final dungeon. And like I get why the choice is made in the sense that, you want your players to be actively playing the game and not having to worry about what dialogue choices matter and make a difference vs which ones don't. Like you want to shy away from forcing players to have to pull up a guide and play from that, but it takes a way a lot of the differences that routes would have in other games. Its an unfortunate case of player choice being exchanged for the illusion of choice that SMT largely didn't have an issue with before.
Now that I think about it, I think you’re right about them trying to convince Persona players to get into SMT. Between this super stylish (Persona-like) look and the SMT-ish (toned way down) combat, AND putting this on PS consoles (where SMT hasn’t been for YEARS), I’d almost put money on this game being made to try and bridge SMT and Persona. Honestly a MASSIVE shame because the art is so incredibly gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve seen a single character yet from this game whose design I didn’t love
People are overreacting, everyone trashing this game, and after i played it myself, i enjoy it. i played persona from 1-5, devil survivor 1 & 2, Devil summoner 1 & 2, SMT mainline game. and i like the aesthetic, the vibe, the character design, it's refreshing, not to mention the Music is also good Atlus/sega rarely make SMT game, so a new title is very welcomed i just play it with open minded, and not to bend it into whatever it should be and not compared it into other SMT game, i'm used to a variety of mechanics from different SMT game that, i just let it happen, let the game be on its own. just enjoy the ride. it just i hope that Atlus/sega won't get discouraged from creating a new title, because the effort that their pour into this game shows
You guys are so lucky I want to play it so badly but my entire will being is telling me to finish all the other Atlus games but never finished because I have a bad habit of jumping games after I play like at least half of the game.
Same here. I enjoyed the game. The navigator audio not being something you can turn off and the boring dungeon design are the only negatives, imo. I liked everything else. The game is getting a little too much hate. I honestly feel like I got more out of it than SMT V, mostly cause SMT V hardly had a story and characters.
They changed so much from the original Soul Hackers, I knew I wouldn’t even touch this one before launch. It’s a shame, too. SH1 was so cool thematically and setting-wise. And the alignment based battle system was pretty cool. It was a hardcore game and they removed so much of the hardcore element.
@@yusufyasaf8010 Age of the game has nothing to do with drastically simplifying and dumbing down of core series mechanics. Persona 3 did something really interesting while updating some of 2's mechanics for the better. This game went the opposite direction and turned a series known for being hardcore and stylistically interesting into a generic, beginner level RPG. The setting and theming for this one is all over the place, as well.
my friend was excited for this game for the past month or 2, he doesn't like smt much but when I asked how this game was, all he said was "I kinda want to go try smt again instead"
I really wanted this to be Devil Summoner's great comeback. That game was my introduction to Atlas and the whole SMT franchise, therefore it will always have a special place in my heart. It's also just one of the best freakin' cyberpunk themed JRPG I've ever played so there's also that... I'm so sad.
It's a pretty aight Atlus rpg game imo, but like I would put Tokyo Mirage Sessions over Soul Hackers 2 any day. With all the new concepts in Soul Hackers 2, I was kind of bummed that it was not spectacular in any way other than the sabbath system. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a good casual SMT game and had much productive ambition. Soul Hackers 2 just felt like it took from other SMT games, Persona, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions but it's... cheap.
I'm pretty sure they only released this game due to the fact the P3P, P4G and P5R are coming out soon on PS5 and XBOX. Just something to keep people busy until than. Overall the game isn't bad, but certainly isn't great either
@@chizdip8192 along with the fact that the success of smt V gave them courage to explore some of there past games and not just be seen as the persona guys. Also something tells me Soul hacker 2’s budget was kinda small. Probably explains why this game is the way it is.
...So anyone remember FFX which had an amazing amount of character dialogue perfectly implemented in a way that it was rarely repetitive even when grinding combat??? And instead you'd get character interactions every now and then and it felt like little good treats and not auditory murder?
Funny you briefly showed Tokyo Mirage Sessions when you mentioned how everyone has their moments even Atlus considering Soul Hackers 2 is made by the TMS developers. Honestly explains a lot.
I just finished the game and to me one of my biggest complaints is the slog of traversing the labyrinth like dungeons in the mid to late game. the barriers in Subway Line 14 were a little annoying to deal with but it was somewhat simple and at least you can get rid of it. but all the energy vortexes in the final dungeon's and the absurd number of teleporters in everyone's 3f and 4f in the soul matrix legit gave me a headache trying to remember where they all went so I just had to use a guide to find out which ones to take. I mainly pushed through to the end was because of how much I loved the characters though, they were just that good.
i miss the cold, dark, grungy atmosphere of the original Devil Summoner/Soul Hackers. It made those games stand out more and gave them a creepy vibe. They were just so much more interesting to explore and take in all the little things. This just looks like persona.......again. I want things to be more SMT like. There's plenty of persona nowadays.
Besides small things like the navigator talking a bit too much, I fully disagree with just about everything you said. And I don't mean stuff like you didn't like the characters, but also the combat system. I'm really surprised that someone who didn't dislike neon whites story and characters would dislike this story and the characters. Now I'm only 12 hours into the game, so maybe I'll dislike the game more at the end, but for now it's easily a game I could recommend to anyone who likes turn based rpgs and anime. I liked the removal of light and dark spells, since random insta kills aren't fun to fight against and almost never usable against enemies that you would want to use them against. I really loves that status abilities did damage, made them good and used them way more than any other SMT game. I understand you can be annoyed at the assist button but, in general you already know what you want to do, so it's basically just a short cut. I think what this game does extremely well is having a full party of voice acted characters, including the main character, who is also female, which is stupidly rare in SMT. This review to me felt like a rushed angry reaction, or a bit like when people say persona is bad because they want people to play the "real" SMT games. I think SMT nocturn is the best game atlus has made, if played on hard mode, and besides this game being easier, talking a bit too much and being a completely different part of the franchise, I don't see what makes this game the worst jrpg of 2022 but so many other SMT games the best jrpgs ever
From comments i'm reading here, it seems most ppl that are playing the game are liking it, while it's not on the level of others super hyped atlus games, they're still finding it fun enough. Also I find it strange that he says ppl don't need to be eased into the SMT games other than persona, seeing as he probably only forced himself to play nocturne to make a video on it, and didn't like it. And i'm glad you said that bit about hard mode, Nocturne is honestly not hard at all on normal seeing as you can very easily progress with very underleveled demons with sub optimal builds. The game is much more enjoyable on hard because it actually forces you to engage with all it's machanicc. You will struggle and die a lot but that is just a part of the process. Unfortunatelly most ppl these days don't like the struggle part in games at all.
I think the biggest disappointment for me was the dungeon design. Like, I actually like Tartarus from P3, but this just looks lifeless. I was genuinely excited for this game before looking at gameplay of it, granted I might still pick it up eventually, but school made me broke anyways. Also, as a Xenoblade fan, the constant voice lines of the navigator are just too much, I'm even surprised I find them annoying.
Tartarus atleast changes appearance and adds an instrument to the music every area. ..and now that i think about it, P3 has way more options with shadows in the dungeon, as getting the ambush takes strategy, rather than just pressing a button when the shadow gets near you (like soul hackers)
At this point I've just been programmed to assume anything with a "neon tech sci-fi" design is shit. Which is a shame, cause I used to really like that design, but nowadays apparently that's all anyone thinks "sci fi" is.
I'm not really surprised that they wanted to bridge SMT and Persona fans, they already did it before with the great side series of Devil Survivor 1 and 2(1 especially has an amazing atmosphere and great characters), but it's really sad to hear that they botched their 2nd attempt so badly
To be honest, I played with the dialogue in Japanese and totally did not notice the annoying dialogue repetition. I definitely enjoyed my time with SH2 more than you did, but I would agree that the game is disappointing, and there's obvious place for improvement. I think the worst thing I could say about it is that I finished in around 30 hours, and it felt so much longer than that. Getting to the end of a Persona game always leaves me with the feeling that it flew by, and they're 3x as long. Party prep never felt like that much of a slog to me, and while I am definitely not a fan of teleporter dungeons, most of them in this game are pretty easy to get through (also helped by having 'assassin's step' going all the time). The game heavily suffers though from having so much bad level design that I just wanted to get through, rather than actually enjoy. One-way gates, teleporters, backtracking, etc., they're all obstacles that make things varied, but they never make the areas more engaging or fun. It always feels like checking a box to make sure the area has a mechanic, but they never stop to consider whether it actually enhances the experience of the game in any way.
So far one review told me its eh pretty good, one of them told me its mediocre and this one is telling me its shit Sigh... guess I'm waiting for a sale I guess
Well, the writing was on the wall, so to speak. Because even before the game came out, there was already controversy. With that day 1 DLC which was way too much.
I definitely would not play this game after playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Soul Hackers 2 just seems like Tokyo Mirage Sessions but cheaper. I love Tokyo Mirage Sessions and I was kind of hoping the people involved in those games would've made the game at least fun through the spectacle.
The only thing I agree with is your critique on the sabbath system, you can find more then enough enjoyment in the story and characters even without the super solid core gimmick; since sabbath isn't irredeemable. It's plenty the game did right, the interesting way of obtaining more skill slots, comp upgrades that include a variety of buffs, commander skills which I'd say makes up for sabbath because it's buffs are wide and varied and very helpful if you pick the right one. I'll stop there, but everyone should really judge this game based on their own thoughts. As someone who's played 3 other JRPG other then Persona I think this game is good, it'll probably give you the most enjoyment of any JRPG in 2022... If you like these types of games.
btw, dude, play original Soul Hackers, it is a way fun, has few unique gimmicks (magnetite and demon personalities) and some nice battles. And despite plot being quite a simple, it actually works in its own settings
Do you smile when the waiter hands you cold food after you've been waiting 40 minutes for it? You better say yes, others I have to ask "does everything need to be perfect for you...?"
That last bit with "atleast I get to add Dante to my party" hits close to home for me too :D Nocturne puts you through hell but atleast you can get a funny pizza man with OP abilities and a remarkable OST, and you're beaten into submission to just like the game as I do now, but this one just feels "soul"less which is funny considering its name.. looks like I won't be throwing any coins this direction.. was thinking of getting soul hackers 2
almost all game companies will become shit eventually, we can always find new better games by newer smaller companies instead of simping to Atlus's history, but instead judging every game as a whole and not letting the good company name or history (either big or small) change our opinions.
Its not like atlus is losing steam or anything. Most good game studios worth there salt that last as long if not longer than atlus release a few games below average sometimes. Looking at you last bible series!!!
There is a differance betwern accessability and difficulty that you fail to understand here, making a game accessable makes it quick to understand and go through reducing playtime but making for a better experience and having less accessability in a game doesn't make it harder, it just makes it less fun for example p4g nightmare difficulty mod poses a great challenge while not inconviencing the player, from the looks of it this games combat seems to be the opposite giving you something that will always make good decicions so you can turn your brain off and still managing to make preperation for fights a time waste. To put it in your example imagine you buy a forza and you want to drive it but trying to get the navigation to work is taking forever and its loading between each time you go onto a new screen and then the car just auto drives for you with help from manual input occasionally is what this game looks like with a relatively easy challenge because the game shows you the optimal moves that just takes forever to complete if you want to in anyway prepare for fights
Honestly I don't think any of these criticisms land except for the dungeon design. For one, there's nothing wrong with a combat system that's more simplistic than Mainline, just look at Strange Journey and Devil Survivor. The characters are cool, the artstyle and music fuck hard, and the story isn't mindblowing but it's decent. I've been having a great time with the game. The problem is when everyone expects Atlus to only put out massive, top tier games like SMTV or P5R (which tbh I don't even like all that much). A smaller scale, shorter game like this every once in a while is cool, especially as a spinoff.
The Navigator from SH2 is more annoying than Fuuka from P3 and Morgana mixed together LOL I thought Atlus learned their lesson after EVERYONE complained about how fucking annoying Morgana was in P5, old habits never die I guess
@@CrimsonBladezz In japan a great majority of companies have mascots, even cities hace one, that could be why there's always a mascot in a lot of japanese games 🤔
From comments i'm reading here, it seems most ppl that are playing the game are liking it, while it's not on the level of others super hyped atlus games, they're still finding it fun enough. It's very clear that this game is simplified on purposed, to appeal to the more casual atlus enjoyers (IE Persona fans) and maybe spark some interest in the other SMT titles, which he says is unnecessary, but that is just plain wrong seeing as he played nocturne himself and didn't like it, for being too hard confusing, dark and isolated. I know it's kinda of a meme to say that persona fans are too casual to like "real" SMT titles (which translates to harder and darker games), but that is the unfortunate truth, so if this game makes more ppl interest in SMT as a whole (which only played persona or no atlus rpgs at all) than i'd say the game achieved what it set out to do. I guess I should say as a disclaimer that i'm a VERY hardcore fan SMT and I don't want to gatekeep anyone from enjoying it too. And yes I do like persona too.
I don't think he disliked Nocturne for being too dark or isolated, but more for it being a lot of repetitive dungeon crawling, and well the difficulty is a feature lol. Also for me the main difference between SMT and Persona are the characters, SMT being more gameplay focused with you being pretty much alone with your demons a lot of the time, and Persona being more focused on the other party members and their relations between them/with the protag, and it looks like this game half-asses both of those aspects (at least from yakko's review, I didnt play the game), the character arcs seem boring and the dungeons look worse than Nocturne's (Or Persona 3 & 4 dungeons for that matter)
I have to agree this game is kind a disappointment. I have played persona 3 through 5, digital devil saga, the Raidou Kuzunoha games and nocturne. This is the first time I felt that a shin megami tensei game felt lackluster. The combat is more less the same, hit an enemies weak point and you get rewarded with extra damage to the enemy and whatever unique mechanic that the game has, in this case being the sabboth mechanic. I don't mind the combat being the same as most of their games with a small little twist to it. The story on the other hand felt shallow. In a sense it felt like there is only surface level stuff going on. Take Ringo and Figue two beings created by a sentient AI. Made to look human and act human so they can interact better with the outside world ..and they do just that ! They act completely normal, they don't act like a logical machine but act like a person using both logic mixed with emotions. It would have been nice to see them slowly develop into becoming more human. As for the other characters in our group. Arrow our first companion is your typical friendly and responsible guy who had a best friend, best friend chose to join the opposing side, they meet each other in battle and one of them has to die . Once we kill his friend the story moves on. Next up we have Milady a moody girl that wants to take revenge, that's pretty much it . Once we do the story moves on Lastly we have Saizo, the joker in our group who wants to reconcile with his girlfriend, who gives on the hope of ever having a normal life but showing her how persistent and how he still loves her they do reconcile and she has hope again for a live that isn't being just a devil summoner. Overall I found the characters boring at one point I stopped reading the dialogue whenever we were talking at the bar since they talk about pretty mundane stuff and just focused on getting more points for the soul level. The story and well the character development is my major gripe about this honestly since the combat is more or less the same if you ever played an Atlus game. But I do have a few things that irk me for this game, gameplay wise. One of few things that irk me is having limited items. Why can't I buy a bunch of items inside of the item store !? Why !? Next up is restoring my party's mp, I don't want to constantly leave a dungeon and go to the party's hideout. It would have not minded it too much if I didn't have to see a lot of loading screens, I play on my ps5 by the way. I also don't want to search for one of my demon companions to heal my party. This would have been fine if I could buy 99x low restoring mp consumables at the store but no you can only carry a small limited amount of items. And lastly some of the soul matrix sidequests that has you kill a target, specifically ones that instant death your party after x number of turns. I haven't finished the game I'm at the part were we just got all the five covenants. The only really good thing the game does, in my opinion, is the demon fusion. The new fusion search option is great, you don't have to figure out what demons you are missing , which demons to fuse to get your desired demon and of course you can customize what skills to put on the demon. That's really the only good thing this game has and I hope future shin megami tensei games will have that.
The game gets criticized for streamlining mechanics and appealing to a broader audience… the characters being adults is part of that, I think. They did the same thing with Tales of Arise… Not to mention jrpgs are getting worldwide releases now… As this trend continues I’m sure it will effect the types of games we get. Pretty soon they won’t be niche anymore.
It's funny, I actually would love a middle ground SMT/Persona experience, but not like this. Take everything SMT5 did, but flesh out a cast of characters with optional social link style systems & call it a day. I like the darker, more occult stories, and I loved the exploration & combat too. But I'd be lying if I said the Persona social link rank ups don't give me a little dopamine hit, while also getting to learn more about other characters 😅
Damn I love damage formulas heavily relied on characters level in my smt games. I remember how fun it was to grind for huang long in smt5 and how unfun it was to outsmart boss battles with right fusions in sm3 and 4. I hate it how soul hackers forces you to sit and think through your fusions, come on atlus, why there aren't skills lying around in open world like in smt5?? It's like soul hackers devs forgot what makes smt games fun to play smh...
I really wanted this game to be good but I'm disappointed they've removed a lot of the things that made SMT iconic. I really liked what I played of the original Soul hackers and the aesthetics of this one looked gorgeous.
Last year is was SMT5 now its Soul Hacker 2. Atlus keep getting L after L. Did they fire the old writing team? Where's the people who wrote Strange Journey get those guys back.
Old writers and developers left Team Maniax (1st Development Departament) in middle developing SMT V (retirement). Some of them where merged to P-Studio/Studio Zero (2nd and 3rd Development Departament), propably because Persona is more profitable than SMT / Etrian Odyssey. Only novices left in Team Maniax after 2017, mostly people behind Devil Survivor 2, SMT IV Apocalypse, and Tokio Mirrage Sessions (people behind TMS and Devil Survivor 2 created Soul Hackers 2, people behind SMT IV Apocalypse and Etrian Odyssey created SMT V).
15:22 DEVIL SURVIVOR FOOTAGE DEVIL SURVIVOR FOOTAGE I SWEAR TO GOD YOU GOTTA PLAY Devil Survivor Overclocked if you still even own a 3DS, oh and also Digital Devil Saga exists, just saying
You can disable loading screen setting them to "Hide" - they will not show at all, by default game waits for you to read the loading screen, there is option also to wait for button press. With "Hide" location change is like instant on PS5 with only a screen fade.
I don't think Soul Hackers 2 is THAT bad. It has its many flaws, like the constant talking during battle (which isn't even that bad once you're immersed into the atmosphere and music), Day 1 DLC, endless hallway dungeons, strange Character Models (not Demons), trying to cater to newer fans to a certain degree, etc. But it definitely isn't any easier just because the gameplay was simplified. Yes, not having a form of Press Turn or anything is less engaging, but even the original Soul Hackers didn't have Press Turn. If anything, Soul Hackers 2 just tried to improve upon the original Soul Hackers gameplay by adding the Sabbath System, which I think is okay. It isn't spectacular, but it isn't horrible either. SH2 definitely doesn't lack difficulty either, actually, on the hardest difficulty (Very Hard), it is up there in difficulty. As I mentioned before and the many complaints of others, it's just a simplified gameplay like the original. Other then those flaws, SH2 is fairly atmosphericly pleasing. The music is wonderful, great artstyle, the emotional tones presented in scenes like Arrow and Kaburagi's, and more genuinely helps balance out a lot of the games flaws to make for a decent experience for the most part. I have played every Persona entry, all modern mainline SMT, many Megaten spin-offs, and I still believe SH2 isn't the absolute worst amongst them.
Why make it soul hackers if its going to be NOTHING like the original? Persona is ALREADY a more casual friendly SMT and that was loved. So why would they make something not as stylish and plays worse than ALL the games?
Soul Hackers 2 feels like a game made by a western developer trying to rip off SMT also I love the Nocturne boss theme kicking in every time you mention that game. It always kills me.
so sad that this game failed flat, but that was kinda predictable. game came out of nowhere and screams as cheap and low-budget at every level. I like aestetics (cyberpunk part obviously), music is fun and characters are okay, but that's pretty much all I can say good about it. Demon dlc is basically scum this time around.
12:24 I take offense to that, she grew up as outcast and people usually talk to themselves when alone. But at least Aloy is made to be introspective, analytic and actually react to things happening like a normal person instead, and there’s actually useful tips about mechanics. sure she could let the player think a little more and take more time before giving hints, unlike GoW5;R when they tell me exactly what to do before even a speed runner can get past it. It got better in forbidden west tho
After reading all the early reviews for the Soul hackers the main takeaway I had was that Atlus was overcorrecting the "too complicated" critique of JRPG's without really considering that the reason they've had so much success in the past is because there are quite a few people willing to learn how their games work. Gotta have that mass market appeal though
Kinda just wish they just made Tokyo Mirage Sessions 2, the battle system was flashy and I liked managing the turn order between party members and enemies a lot. Just make it less grindy and have actual english voices.
@@heroicgangster9981 Tokyo Mirage was a failure though, it barely sold around 35k in Japan and only 50k or so in the USA and people are going to relate it to censorship and other bad marketing.
i preorder this on a playstation and now im finding out it on playstation plus premium which i already have wtf
This game really feels like the newer pokemon games, bad and on autopilot but enjoyable once you ignore it's flaws
@@mausebas it isn’t really
Those load times are fixed by going into the options and setting the tips to button press. I have no idea why that isn't the default since it makes the loading times like 1 second.
Wait, does that meant that Atlus added artificial loading times in a game that can load their stuff super quickly?
the artificial loading times are most likely a requirement because of the tips showing up on the loading screen as a way to allow players to have enough time to read the tip. Not the best reason but a reason nonetheless
i can't believe i lost an hour of my life for nothing
...there load time issue there alot loafing screen but on the console it only last 2 to 10 sec
@@yakkocmn I never played them but I thought persona and smt were the same series? Like how elder scrolls, skyrim, and oblivion are all part of the same. series.
If they are part of the same series then why do you talk about them as if they are different series?
Conclusion: Altus can’t do a noob friendly game so Altus should continue to develop games with more complex mechanics and avoid oversimplifying the gameplay.
@@iAmPimmiCue Thanks for re-stating the point
Conclusion: not every game has to be triple A to be enjoyed and you should check the game out yourself and not let one person tell you if it's good or not.
Last bible is proof of it to. Its not worth it.
Nah, they just need to keep SMT games as SMT and Persona games as Persona games. Persona games would benefit if they became more difficult though, but bringing down the complexity of SMT or Persona would be a mistake.
@@CrimRui Tbh I agree a lot with him watching let's plays (yeah I'm that meme of a persona 5 fan that can't even play the game lmao) it just feels kinda dead for me and feels like it's not paced well enough, I'm not asking it to be like persona or smt (I have played p1-p3) but it's just missing anything interesting with the characters, I'm guessing it's because the player doesn't get to hang out with them as much as persona games do (though persona games are slower in general with slice of life parts) and my least favorite part is that I like the character designs a lot but I don't really like the characters themselves (no hate, just doesn't feel right)
If… if they wanted it to appeal to newcomers why did they call it Soul Hackers _2_
a name so confusing and niche, i didn't even want to put it in the title
Atlus seems so alien compared to the rest of us consumers.
The story DLC, day one DLC, DLC bundles more expensive than the game itself. Reused stories and characters (Persona), Stories and characters with missed potential (SMT), Stories and characters with very little potential (Soul Hackers 2/SMT IV: Apocalypse). Excessive merchandising. Spinoff games to milk the shit out of Persona, including multiple Persona 5 crossovers in random mobile games, and the anime/manga variations that add very little to the game, especially Persona 4 Golden Persona 5 the Animation.
This company doesn't feel like it's getting worse, but less understandable. The more decisions they make, the more it feels like it will set up for disappointment, with current main Megaten titles not doing well as they should.
Persona 6 is in an extremely dangerous place, and if it ends up ruining Atlus due to their money-hungry business decisions, it could mean a horrible downfall for the company, like Konami.
They sabotaged this game so they could have an excuse to never work on games outside of mainline and Persona.
@@Whatthescallop1776 Lol they will treat Persona 6 with the utmost care, without a doubt. It’s their best cash cow, they won’t fumble it. And persona fans will eat it up no matter what so long as it doesn’t stray from its roots-even if it sucks.
@@smtandearthboundsuck8400 i see someone hasn't taken their normal people pills today
Devil Survivor already merged Persona and Shin Megami Tensei. It had the social aspect of persona and the great depiction of apocalypse since SMT1
Persona already merged Persona and Shin Megami Tensei...
@@gebauzchris no.
SMT and Persona may be similar combat and enemy wise but story telling and thrmes are completly different.
@@geisterwolf397 What you say applies to more modern Persona games, but originally Persona was pretty much in line with typical SMT themes and atmosphere, esp the first one which was even a first person dungeon crawler.
@@gebauzchris P1 yes.
P2 was something pretty much unique.
P3-P5 are what most people know Persona as.
Devil Survivor yes yes yes yes
Ok while I get where you're coming from, I stand by the fact that the constant shouting in xenoblade fights is the best part of the experience
Couldn't have said it better myself
THINKYOUCANTAKEMEDONTFORGETMEYOUREDONEBEHAVE
It also admittedly works better in those becuase they are real time combat.
It's funnier in xenoblade and it's more like banter between the party so that helps too
Lanz wants something meatier.
Now why would you release this literally an hour after I bought it
Edit: guys i got a physical edition 😭 it’s all good
if its on steam, you can refund it if you have played less than 2 hours, or less than X days after purchase
if its not, i would try to refund it anyway.
@@alexisventura7191 I’m actually enjoying it so far but if that changes I’ll trade it back in quick
@@Alibaba-le2ku keep us updated mate
@@Alibaba-le2ku sure, just make sure to give it back before 2 hours if you dont like it (and you bought it on steam)
or else they wont give you anything back.
@@Alibaba-le2ku DON'T PLAY MORE THAN 2 HOURS!!
I love just how many thumbnails there are with the gun pointing image lmao
it's my backup when i don't have any better ideas
I’d just like to add that the unique frosts are in the original Soul Hackers too. And the way you get them is unique and applies to their lore. Seemingly that was lost in this sequel.
You know, for as much flack as it gets, the idea of a game that uses SMT and Persona elements is actually most applicable to Tokyo Mirage Sessions. And I can safely say that game did WAY better with it.
Didn’t even need to act like it was a main SMT game to do so.
i agree, i love tms and its more appealing to newcomers too
if theres anything good in TMS its the battle system, its honestly so fun
Def need to play tms sometime
SH2 were made by the same guys who did TMS, buy that game is even better despite what it did to both SMT & FE fans
Totally agree with this, while watching the video, the only thing I could think of was, "This is just TMS #FE, but worse, much worse." It's crazy how much they stripped from this game's origins, of the SMT title; to have such a braindead simplistic battling system, dungeons, and story. It really doesn't, in my opinion, deserve to hold the name of SMT.
Honestly, I'm getting fed up with developers aiming for mass appeal when we've got more than enough evidence to prove that this approach rarely works and is not why this sort of series gained notoriety in the first place...
Eh as someone who has never played an Atlus rpg I'm having a blast with Soul Hackers and plan to play more, just my 2 cent here.
@@platinummad4701 I'm sure you are and I mean no offence, but I really don't think it's worth alienating your core audience.
@@metaphobic people use the word alienating for everything these days, it's such an offense they try to make a game for new players?
@@platinummad4701 If it reduces the quality of the game for the fans that were already there, I'd say yes. I don't see how banking on potential new fans is better than banking on already existing ones.
Unique and Great beats Generic and Decent, any day of the week.
@@platinummad4701 Besides, what does it mean to make a game for "new players". If you try to cater to too many people the overall product always loses quality. That's a guarantee, because other games that focus on those aspects will inevitably do it better than you.
Persona is great because it does it's own thing well. Same for SMT. The first Soul Hacker also had its own unique thing going on that made it great, but they've tried to go for the persona approach and muddied the waters instead of perfecting what was already great.
The point is, if you want to make a game for new players: make a new game. If you want to make a good sequel, take what was good about the original, and expand on that. Don't just remix everything.
I'm about 16 hours in, and I hate that I'm agreeing with everything in this. It feels like Atlus outsourced an SMT game to Idea Factory.
It seems like the only great part of this game is the visuals. The character design pops, and I can tell there is some real talent behind it. And even though the city is basically boiled down to a bunch of annoying loading screens, when it comes to the neon glowy look of the city itself, it has a great cyberpunk feel. Even the shop keepers have designs so well done that any one of them can easily be a party member because they just look that good.
But it does not matter how good a video game looks if the "game" part is not any fun.
Exactly! Very well said. I'm tired of "Look how pretty our game looks!". Ok, that's nice, but what about the most important part, the gameplay?
Well what's so bad about SH2 gameplay anyway?
@@janericpaghubasan2930 For a longer more in-depth answer, watch the video.
For a TL;DW answer: It's not "bad" in the conventional since, it's more so just so bog standard that it's only as mechnically deep as FF1. With that said the dungeons are bad, they are samey and either overly maze-like or overly linear with no inbetween, recruiting monsters is a pain in the ass, and the dozens of needless loading screen outside of the dungeons do not help.
@nuj b what worse way to make a sequel feel less like a sequel than to make the art styles inconsistent 😅
@@RegalPixelKing i feel like he's overall not fair about the combat system in this game if that's the right word (don't know about the whole review but there are things he says that didn't make sense.) haven't played the game yet but, watching Nyarly's review. not only is it night and day but also the combat seems more than the meets the eye.
Funnily enough I just started SMT4 today again, after playing maybe an hour years ago when I bought it and got felt frustrated due to how hard it was. I'm having a great friggin time with it. It actually got fun once I was able to recruit a few demons (which I never managed back in the day).
The music is amazing as well!
Yeah the first couple hours of that game are ruthless, but you really get a solid grasp of the game and its mechanics once you’ve clawed your way out. Fantastic game
Congratulations. You just got hooked by a game that is a masterpiece. Enjoy.
Oh yeah, Naraku _is_ an insane start, after a certain point you'll get a grasp on everything and will be able to play without dying (too much), it has some bs moments but it's also a very fun game
Best JRPG of all time. There is no debate as far as I see it.
"The anime protagonist equivalent of unsalted crackers" had me rolling
"they gave me the game to review for free, thats pretty much the only good thing about playing it"
these battle encounters look so,,, lifeless
They really are. Its low budget bad game design when the trailers made it look so good
When all the battle design went to the trailers as it usually does
I’ve been playing this game for 12 hours now (over several days) and I swear all I’ve been doing is dungeon crawling and upgrading and equipping stuff I can’t even tell if it’s making a difference. It’s like the idea of Persona but with zero storyline. I don’t connect to the characters at all. And the costumes I bought only being seen in battle is bunk!
I feel your critique of the Sabbath system is a bit harsh. The extra effects and damage can add strategy for taking out groups of enemies or trying to make up for another party member's damage if they have to buff or heal that turn. Also If you're gonna hold the assist button as this flaw worth pointing out, you have to realize this has been in the series before as well. I remember off the top of my head Persona 5 had it in it's original release, and in the end of the day it only saves time. No sense to mock a quality of life feature for some people if it doesn't work for you.
Also the fact they tried something different with negotiations isn't entirely a bad thing either, demon personalities is only mostly a thing in P5 and SMTV which other times it's just completely random chance. It is frustrating if you're looking for a specific demon, that I completely agree with. It can add a good chunk of time if you're looking for something you can't fuse easily. But the new method encourages you to explore and check every corner of a dungeon, so it adds to the exploration. Which I will add, yeah the dungeons are how they're like in 90% of the series. Even SMTV had similar dungeons with the Castle and the semi-final one. It's seen as part of the series identity as this point. Whether this is good or bad, like you said is up to contention. Ultimately it comes down to preference.
Calling Soul Hackers 2 generic when it has a giant supercomputer under the ocean that is essentially stalking humanity for the sake of evolution along with it bringing stuff back from SH1 like the Phantom Society, the Kuzonha Clan from Devil Summoner and reimagined Vision Quest is at best disingenuous. The Phantom Society can be a bit of generic bad guys even in SH1, but their personality and designs make them memorable. Calling something "generically anime" really feels hollow when I don't see a high school in the main cast and instead it's a cast of 25+ year old people with their unique personalities and interactions with each other.
I apologize for the unstructured ramblings and I do wanna say this: Your feelings are completely valid. If you don't like SH2 then you don't and I'm sorry this was such a let down for you man. But I do believe there were better ways to phrase your points and I do feel it's worth pointing out. Again: no ill will, and I wish you nothing but the best wishes in your endeavors.
goofy aah
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Totally agree, and we're talking about the same company that made a Hello Kitty game, not ever single game they bring out should be holded with expectations to beat P5 and such. Sometimes we just like continuing of classic games in PS5 quality.
10/10, I'm 30 hours in the game and it's super fun and memorable.
@@gamingdormouse2677 Yeah but this like one of the very few instances in the series where it drops the SMT moniker in an attempt to distinguish itself, just like how Persona did. But then it does nothing interesting and is flat out boring in a lot of areas.
"Lowest Killstreak buys drinks" sounds like the type of line you'd see in an edgy newgrounds "anime" from 2011
Funny how SH1 has an intro that would fit this description exactly
You know, the more i look at it the more i think soul hackers and devil summoner as a series did not deserve this.
Soul hackers one was this snazzy soul/time travelling experience where we unveil a mass destruction through vr plan to destroy humanity by feeding the planet with negative emotions (iirc), and there was plenty of possessions too.
Original devil summoner was mc dying and posessing body of a badass devil summoner kyouji, and then figuring out who's killing ppl and why.
All while oozing and radiating style like it was a nuclear power plant
"Soul Hackers 2 is the most disappointing JRPG"
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: "Hold my beer"
The whole Sabbath thing seems like if they took the Alignment Co-Ops from Strange Journey, then removed LITERALLY ALL STRATEGY that the system had with teambuilding. I was gonna pick this game up for my birthday, but I think I’ll just get something I’d actually enjoy.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions sounds like a good idea. Managing the weaknesses between party members and enemies on both sides. And also having control in the turns of your party members with high budget attack animations.
Lmao I thought the same, but forgot the alignment team building thing since I spammed neutral demons.
Yes, including against Mem "kiss your demons of one alignment goodbye" Aleph.
Which was a nasty but cool counter mechanic btw.
get xenoblade 3 if you want a game that lives up to the hype, has great characters, and really fun combat unlike this dogshit
Atlus PLEASE
Don’t be afraid to design a system that both punishes player and enemies alike
Yes, we know it works for Persona but not everything needs to be a Persona game
@@snailthelostcow63 That said, NEVER bring back Smirk or instakill-only Hama/Mudo. Both were just cheap mechanics
Hear that Noah? Lowest killstreak buys drinks!
Mostly fair tbh. Will say to nitpick tho, the assist doesn't actually choose a good recommended move. The only time I used it, it had me use an electric move on an enemy I hadn't seen before and that enemy reflected electricity and instakilled me lol. Also it could be that I was underleveled but I found the fights pretty challenging in early game if you use no DLC items (I was like 6lvls under the bosses but still)
Oh also I would def play this again before I did a fresh run of nocturne. It was a fine experience the first time but I'm not sure If I wanna ever play nocturne again
Assist only works once you know the enemies weakness. Otherwise its gonna just pick your highest damage attack.
You always show 13 sentinels but never talk about it. We need more people to know that it exists
One of my favorite games of all time 😩 I’m about to replay it again just because it’s THAT good
13 Sentinels is HIGHLY overlooked… The game deserves the praise it gets, and more people need to experience it.
13 sentinels really is the ghost trick of jrpgs
the goated goat game of goat, but unfortunately you can't talk about it without spoiling it
@@puer4787 Tactical time pause tower defense game with a non-linear story that is packed with Scifi elements is how I would describe it to someone who has no clue about. It and The House in Fata Morgana are the best games I've played in my life, and coincidently both have non-linear stories, a trans character, is fairly unknown and SPOILER has a happy ending
Damn never heard yakko so angry at an jrpg before, sure the game is far from being great but it did something right. It's one the first protagonist in an atlus game that's not an self insert silent nobody and that's a pretty big step in a good direction, also I think it looks really good and actually nailed it with the visuals and it's theme
well, guess what game had a character that was not a silent protagonist in this whole franchise? Soul hackers 1
@@lucasbittencourtnogueira5858 The main protagonist was silent from what I remember playing the game. Are you referring to Hitomi/Nemissa?
@@rouge49000 yes, i misused the word there. Should have said "main character" instead of protagonist, but then my point kinda becomes null, so...
Plus after a long time it's protagonists aren't teenagers
i too love bright colors and xenoblade characters
1:48 SMT has always been more about philosophical questions and trying to make the player think; they want to present all ways of reformation fairly and they want the players’ genuine answers to their prompts. Often times characters are sidelined in order to get more pure answers from the player.
Persona is about exploring people; it’s about the critiques of the current society in addition to exploring complex emotions and trama of others. Each entry goes for a slightly different theme, makes you think, but overall doesn’t ask the player too heavy of questions in comparison.
While being similar combat-wise, both of these series have different asks and expectations from the player. It’s the reason they are separate to this date. To me there is nothing wrong with that.
And Tokyo Mirage Sessions is about the passion of being creative and passionate. Even if the game is not like SMT or Persona, I like the craft the game had put into it.
@@heroicgangster9981 I agree. When I play Nocturne, I think of how I think a world should be governed/made (although I always feel weird when these games have a secret ending, because it encourages players to think that way even if I think in Nocturne it’s the most valid one) and when I play Persona 5 I see all the injustices of the current system and feel the need to fight back and rebel.
These don’t need to be mixed together; it would be hard to achieve both mechanically. Not impossible, but imo, it wouldn’t be as good.
@@kriminal7009 Devil Survivor exists
@@kichiroumitsurugi4363 that's not all I think Devil Survivor should be known for, I do think that it does enough of its own stuff to be more than "SRPG SMT with a hint of Persona", but like who cares literally anything goes for game better than Soul Hacky Too
What interested me in devil summoner and other megaten games was that weird, half dark, half lighthearted atmosphere. In Raidou 2 for example we try to solve the mystery of luck stealing locust. TMS and SH2 could be as well published under every other franchise name by NIS or Marvelous. And it’s just my personal whining, but SH2 gameplay seems stiff. Persona 5, Smt 5 heck, even TMS had pretty dynamic animations during battles.
YEAH!!!! The only thing that makes me interested in Soul Hackers 2 is some cool designs like the masked guy and the sabbath demon animations that look cheap as heck! Tokyo Mirage Sessions was basically Persona 4.5 imo in terms of how a battle system and animations could be for an SMT Persona game.
oh my god there are some B A N G E R S in TMS
at least nocturne had atmosphere meanwhile ironically soul hackers 2 is just soulless
Define "Soulless" I'm tired of people using these non constructing buzzwords
@@BitchChill uninspired
this game doesn't hold a candle to the look and atmosphere of the first game.
@@BitchChill it means it feels generic. When you think of Nocturne, most people almost immediately think of oppressive, dark red, apocalyptic, high pressure, suffocating.
SMT VI, a bit of that, but also a weird civilization that's some what comfortably nested in hell, while thinking about your choices to choose a false heaven or to burn the world to shit, or just wipe it all out.
wtf is going on in Soul hackers 2? Neon lights and mini shorts? licking fingers and zoomer jokes?
I was interested in buying this game but didn't to save money for other stuff. Instead I got devil survivor 1 overcloked on my 3ds before the eshop shut down and I'm glad I did.
You're lucky you can get Overclocked on your eshop, It's not available on Australian eshops as well as the physical being impossible to obtain without spending a stupid amount of money and I've heard nothing but praise, some even saying it's the best of the smt franchise :(
@@DeepMoon45 I was originally going to get the second game but it was too big for my 3ds. I know there's ways to emulate 3ds games but I've never done it before So I may just fork over 80 bucks for the second game if I have the money
@@GradMeat I own the second game digital and it does take up a tonne of space. I'm probably going to have to resort to emulation for the first game but I've also never done so for 3DS either and don't love the idea but some games are only playable that way sadly, both Raidou games as well
@@DeepMoon45 yea I get you. Second reason I got the first is because I heard it was easier to emulate the second one. Atleast for the emulator I found. Haven't used it yet though and I'm not9 sure I will until like 10-15 years form now and nintendo provides no alternative to buying these games
Fuck, it shut down now?
I’m so mad they removed talking to enemies it was my favorite part of the megami tensei series especially in last Bible
the sabbath seems like Strange Journey's weakness exploit system, except all party attacks instead of just same-alignment demons. And the flavored jack frosts already existed on SH1
Respect and understand the disappointment 100% x Personally, im just happy to have something new to play and I appreciate a lot of whats going on that the flaws kinda don't bother too much. I went in looking for a simple but fun JRPG experience to tide me over until some big releases I was interested in and this gave me exactly that. Still really respect the disappointment however and always love seeing a Yakko video pop up in my feed!
I saw this game and just played dq 11 again lol
@@omensoffate lmao
I might give this game a try in the future, right now i started the Trails of series and im loving every second
@@kev8202 Aaaaa nice one! Gotta say Tales of Arise is really cool. Im just not a fan of the 3D Arena style combat JRPGs personally. Soul Hackers 2 is pretty cool but I can understand waiting. I very much see it as a simple adventure that is also acting as a testing ground for ideas and such. I recommend it but understand waiting.
@@lillybareham1257 it's def on the list for me to try because im a big turn based guy myself, prob will get ut after i finish all Trails of series
The party banter sounds like you played 4 completely different UA-cam videos at once. Good job Atlus
Also saying "we all have our moments" while slightly showing conception gameplay is perfect
Man that's a shame, I was willing to overlook how it didn't really have much relation to the first Soul Hackers in it's systems/mechanics due to how stylized everything seemed to be and with hopes that the new/unique stuff would make up for it but this just looks painfully average at best :(
Why not try it yourself? Many people enjoy the game.
Make your own opinions because it’s actually not a bad game.
@@aidankhaos7687 I don't feel like spending 60 dollars to find out if a game I'm already iffy/not all too interested in is worth the time, especially when I've watched multiple videos from multiple people that are and aren't SMT fans that kinda all pitter out to the game just being ok or only very slightly above average at best
@@SuperT380 Yea, it’s good decision. Atlus must see how awful this game and didn’t make second SH2. It’s really boring. I waiting SH2 and saw review but I thought, “nooo it’s can be so disappointing” but it is! Everything in this review is true. For information. My play time 38 hours. I make side quests and alleys dungeons and still don’t finish SH2. I can’t continue play this game because it’s boring T-T
Now I’m little nervous about persona 6 (
P.S. sorry for mistakes I’m not native speaker, but I can’t not write about this game)
i really enjoy getting your perspective on Megami Tensei games. You’re a relatively experienced fan of SMT and Persona but you’re not one of the megaten gamers who are in so deep they can’t compliment or criticize the games fairly. As one in the latter camp, there are definitely moments when watching these reviews that i’m like “wow i must be a freak for not minding endless spirals and excessive menus”
The constant voices blaring throughout the game, and the DLC nonsense however… that does not sound good.
Literally anytime Yakko does a bit where its just him irl I always end up cackling, it's just too good. It's the perfect break between review (which is always done spectacularly and keeps me fully hooked) and gameplay (which is always perfectly timed) which honestly just makes it all so much better. Fucking great dude...
It's even weirder cause most people I know who like both series were able to switch from say SMT V to Persona 5 or Persona 3 to SMT III. SMT and Persona work off each other despite being different in tone and structure thanks to combat still being Risk vs Reward. (even in easier titles like P5R or SMT IV)
Kinda makes me wonder if they should of given SH2 an extra year and a bigger budget or just not made it at all.
It also doesn't help that this game came out smack middle of SMT V's success and P5R's multiplatform release and, if I'm right, we might see SMT go multiplatform along with Persona, making SH2 go even more into the background and be forgotten.
I think you overestimate the prevalence of weakness targeting in RPG gameplay. You can ignore enemy weaknesses in like 95% of final fantasy battles.
10:57 OH YEAH! Gonna pick up this game now, brings me back to my Tokyo Mirage Sessions days right there. (To make it clear, Tokyo Mirage Sessions fans don't really like the story but more so the character interactions, neat combat system, and spectacle. Just buy Tokyo Mirage Sessions if one wants an more anime-fied SMT game on Switch)
I mean, if you buy the game and end up enjoying it then good for you dude.
TMS is the bomb dude
It's a good game. It's basically just a very dumb down version of SMT and Persona. It has its flaws but the game is by no means bad. As someone that has played both series extensively, I'm enjoying it so far
11:02 I assume that would be this games equivalent of alignment reps, and I feel like thats a result of trying not to lock players into an alignment too early, but its an overcorrection that makes alignment meaningless until the very end. This was also an issue with SMTV that alignment choices didn't matter at all until the alignment lock in the final dungeon.
And like I get why the choice is made in the sense that, you want your players to be actively playing the game and not having to worry about what dialogue choices matter and make a difference vs which ones don't. Like you want to shy away from forcing players to have to pull up a guide and play from that, but it takes a way a lot of the differences that routes would have in other games. Its an unfortunate case of player choice being exchanged for the illusion of choice that SMT largely didn't have an issue with before.
Now that I think about it, I think you’re right about them trying to convince Persona players to get into SMT. Between this super stylish (Persona-like) look and the SMT-ish (toned way down) combat, AND putting this on PS consoles (where SMT hasn’t been for YEARS), I’d almost put money on this game being made to try and bridge SMT and Persona.
Honestly a MASSIVE shame because the art is so incredibly gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve seen a single character yet from this game whose design I didn’t love
People are overreacting, everyone trashing this game, and after i played it myself, i enjoy it.
i played persona from 1-5, devil survivor 1 & 2, Devil summoner 1 & 2, SMT mainline game.
and i like the aesthetic, the vibe, the character design, it's refreshing,
not to mention the Music is also good
Atlus/sega rarely make SMT game, so a new title is very welcomed
i just play it with open minded, and not to bend it into whatever it should be
and not compared it into other SMT game,
i'm used to a variety of mechanics from different SMT game that, i just let it happen,
let the game be on its own.
just enjoy the ride.
it just i hope that Atlus/sega won't get discouraged from creating a new title,
because the effort that their pour into this game shows
Surprisingly I am really enjoying the game, my only complaint is the annoying navigator and boring dungeons
Me too big SMT and Persona fan and still really enjoying the story
You guys are so lucky I want to play it so badly but my entire will being is telling me to finish all the other Atlus games but never finished because I have a bad habit of jumping games after I play like at least half of the game.
Same here. I enjoyed the game. The navigator audio not being something you can turn off and the boring dungeon design are the only negatives, imo. I liked everything else. The game is getting a little too much hate. I honestly feel like I got more out of it than SMT V, mostly cause SMT V hardly had a story and characters.
The dungeons are not bad at all if you just rush through them and grind later if you need to.
So literaly 60% of the game
They changed so much from the original Soul Hackers, I knew I wouldn’t even touch this one before launch. It’s a shame, too. SH1 was so cool thematically and setting-wise. And the alignment based battle system was pretty cool. It was a hardcore game and they removed so much of the hardcore element.
This is a sequel to a 20 year old game what did you expect lmao. Did you shit on persona 3 when it came out?
@@yusufyasaf8010 Age of the game has nothing to do with drastically simplifying and dumbing down of core series mechanics. Persona 3 did something really interesting while updating some of 2's mechanics for the better. This game went the opposite direction and turned a series known for being hardcore and stylistically interesting into a generic, beginner level RPG. The setting and theming for this one is all over the place, as well.
@@tornekotaloon9732yes it does when the dev life probably changed and the games designers
my friend was excited for this game for the past month or 2, he doesn't like smt much but when I asked how this game was, all he said was "I kinda want to go try smt again instead"
I really wanted this to be Devil Summoner's great comeback. That game was my introduction to Atlas and the whole SMT franchise, therefore it will always have a special place in my heart. It's also just one of the best freakin' cyberpunk themed JRPG I've ever played so there's also that... I'm so sad.
The first SH was a first person dungeon crawler. I knew it was going to be nothing like the OG from the beginning
It's a pretty aight Atlus rpg game imo, but like I would put Tokyo Mirage Sessions over Soul Hackers 2 any day. With all the new concepts in Soul Hackers 2, I was kind of bummed that it was not spectacular in any way other than the sabbath system. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a good casual SMT game and had much productive ambition. Soul Hackers 2 just felt like it took from other SMT games, Persona, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions but it's... cheap.
The dungeons of Tokyo Mirage easily looks better than the one from Soul Hackers 2.
I'm pretty sure they only released this game due to the fact the P3P, P4G and P5R are coming out soon on PS5 and XBOX. Just something to keep people busy until than. Overall the game isn't bad, but certainly isn't great either
@@chizdip8192 along with the fact that the success of smt V gave them courage to explore some of there past games and not just be seen as the persona guys. Also something tells me Soul hacker 2’s budget was kinda small. Probably explains why this game is the way it is.
...So anyone remember FFX which had an amazing amount of character dialogue perfectly implemented in a way that it was rarely repetitive even when grinding combat??? And instead you'd get character interactions every now and then and it felt like little good treats and not auditory murder?
The art and designs look stunning… everything else just leaves you stunned in confusion.
Funny you briefly showed Tokyo Mirage Sessions when you mentioned how everyone has their moments even Atlus considering Soul Hackers 2 is made by the TMS developers.
Honestly explains a lot.
The best way to describe this game "it's a Vita SMT game with less budget". 😅
currently rewatching a 9 month old video accidentally paused at 13:11 and i'm fucking crying because of the caption and this legends face
The main character design is pretty cool tho.
Soul Hackers 2's best feature was not supporting running at launch so you can stare at Ringo for hours.
generic really 🤷♂️
I just finished the game and to me one of my biggest complaints is the slog of traversing the labyrinth like dungeons in the mid to late game. the barriers in Subway Line 14 were a little annoying to deal with but it was somewhat simple and at least you can get rid of it. but all the energy vortexes in the final dungeon's and the absurd number of teleporters in everyone's 3f and 4f in the soul matrix legit gave me a headache trying to remember where they all went so I just had to use a guide to find out which ones to take. I mainly pushed through to the end was because of how much I loved the characters though, they were just that good.
i miss the cold, dark, grungy atmosphere of the original Devil Summoner/Soul Hackers. It made those games stand out more and gave them a creepy vibe. They were just so much more interesting to explore and take in all the little things.
This just looks like persona.......again. I want things to be more SMT like. There's plenty of persona nowadays.
Yea, I just want something more bleak, and more muted color palettes for the cities and outfits and all that
Fun Fact: The frost aren't even new, they appeared before in other SMT Games like Devil Survivor 2
Besides small things like the navigator talking a bit too much, I fully disagree with just about everything you said. And I don't mean stuff like you didn't like the characters, but also the combat system. I'm really surprised that someone who didn't dislike neon whites story and characters would dislike this story and the characters. Now I'm only 12 hours into the game, so maybe I'll dislike the game more at the end, but for now it's easily a game I could recommend to anyone who likes turn based rpgs and anime. I liked the removal of light and dark spells, since random insta kills aren't fun to fight against and almost never usable against enemies that you would want to use them against. I really loves that status abilities did damage, made them good and used them way more than any other SMT game. I understand you can be annoyed at the assist button but, in general you already know what you want to do, so it's basically just a short cut. I think what this game does extremely well is having a full party of voice acted characters, including the main character, who is also female, which is stupidly rare in SMT. This review to me felt like a rushed angry reaction, or a bit like when people say persona is bad because they want people to play the "real" SMT games. I think SMT nocturn is the best game atlus has made, if played on hard mode, and besides this game being easier, talking a bit too much and being a completely different part of the franchise, I don't see what makes this game the worst jrpg of 2022 but so many other SMT games the best jrpgs ever
From comments i'm reading here, it seems most ppl that are playing the game are liking it, while it's not on the level of others super hyped atlus games, they're still finding it fun enough.
Also I find it strange that he says ppl don't need to be eased into the SMT games other than persona, seeing as he probably only forced himself to play nocturne to make a video on it, and didn't like it.
And i'm glad you said that bit about hard mode, Nocturne is honestly not hard at all on normal seeing as you can very easily progress with very underleveled demons with sub optimal builds. The game is much more enjoyable on hard because it actually forces you to engage with all it's machanicc. You will struggle and die a lot but that is just a part of the process. Unfortunatelly most ppl these days don't like the struggle part in games at all.
@@Danielss250 Weak minded fools
It's the only SMT game I dropped out of boredom...
PD: Ringo's cake is beautiful, though
I think the biggest disappointment for me was the dungeon design. Like, I actually like Tartarus from P3, but this just looks lifeless.
I was genuinely excited for this game before looking at gameplay of it, granted I might still pick it up eventually, but school made me broke anyways.
Also, as a Xenoblade fan, the constant voice lines of the navigator are just too much, I'm even surprised I find them annoying.
Tartarus atleast changes appearance and adds an instrument to the music every area.
..and now that i think about it, P3 has way more options with shadows in the dungeon, as getting the ambush takes strategy, rather than just pressing a button when the shadow gets near you (like soul hackers)
At this point I've just been programmed to assume anything with a "neon tech sci-fi" design is shit. Which is a shame, cause I used to really like that design, but nowadays apparently that's all anyone thinks "sci fi" is.
It's been absolutely watered down to hell. I used to adore the style, but now I actively avoid things using that setting/design
Watered down cyberpunk.
Yea, I personally preferred more muted color palettes and dystopian aesthetics anyway
I'm not really surprised that they wanted to bridge SMT and Persona fans, they already did it before with the great side series of Devil Survivor 1 and 2(1 especially has an amazing atmosphere and great characters), but it's really sad to hear that they botched their 2nd attempt so badly
To be honest, I played with the dialogue in Japanese and totally did not notice the annoying dialogue repetition. I definitely enjoyed my time with SH2 more than you did, but I would agree that the game is disappointing, and there's obvious place for improvement. I think the worst thing I could say about it is that I finished in around 30 hours, and it felt so much longer than that. Getting to the end of a Persona game always leaves me with the feeling that it flew by, and they're 3x as long. Party prep never felt like that much of a slog to me, and while I am definitely not a fan of teleporter dungeons, most of them in this game are pretty easy to get through (also helped by having 'assassin's step' going all the time).
The game heavily suffers though from having so much bad level design that I just wanted to get through, rather than actually enjoy. One-way gates, teleporters, backtracking, etc., they're all obstacles that make things varied, but they never make the areas more engaging or fun. It always feels like checking a box to make sure the area has a mechanic, but they never stop to consider whether it actually enhances the experience of the game in any way.
So far one review told me its eh pretty good, one of them told me its mediocre and this one is telling me its shit
Sigh... guess I'm waiting for a sale I guess
Well, the writing was on the wall, so to speak. Because even before the game came out, there was already controversy. With that day 1 DLC which was way too much.
I definitely would not play this game after playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Soul Hackers 2 just seems like Tokyo Mirage Sessions but cheaper. I love Tokyo Mirage Sessions and I was kind of hoping the people involved in those games would've made the game at least fun through the spectacle.
@@celestialkitsune Day 1 dlc is normal
@@axionlightedge6108 it shoudnt be.
@@BARALover96 Inflation is a bitch, either higher prices, DLC, or half the budget. In this case two of those would be accurate.
The only thing I agree with is your critique on the sabbath system, you can find more then enough enjoyment in the story and characters even without the super solid core gimmick; since sabbath isn't irredeemable. It's plenty the game did right, the interesting way of obtaining more skill slots, comp upgrades that include a variety of buffs, commander skills which I'd say makes up for sabbath because it's buffs are wide and varied and very helpful if you pick the right one. I'll stop there, but everyone should really judge this game based on their own thoughts.
As someone who's played 3 other JRPG other then Persona I think this game is good, it'll probably give you the most enjoyment of any JRPG in 2022... If you like these types of games.
btw, dude, play original Soul Hackers, it is a way fun, has few unique gimmicks (magnetite and demon personalities) and some nice battles. And despite plot being quite a simple, it actually works in its own settings
Does everything need to be perfect to you...
Do you smile when the waiter hands you cold food after you've been waiting 40 minutes for it? You better say yes, others I have to ask "does everything need to be perfect for you...?"
@@KyngD469 🥴
YES. YES IT DOES HAVE TO BE
Play your shit anime game then.
That last bit with "atleast I get to add Dante to my party" hits close to home for me too :D Nocturne puts you through hell but atleast you can get a funny pizza man with OP abilities and a remarkable OST, and you're beaten into submission to just like the game as I do now, but this one just feels "soul"less which is funny considering its name.. looks like I won't be throwing any coins this direction.. was thinking of getting soul hackers 2
a half demon that kills demons teams up with a half demon....
Isn't he low level by the time you get him?
@@Mr.man712 Not at all. He is Level 80 on recruit, which means he is usually above the Demi-Fiend's level
almost all game companies will become shit eventually, we can always find new better games by newer smaller companies instead of simping to Atlus's history, but instead judging every game as a whole and not letting the good company name or history (either big or small) change our opinions.
Its not like atlus is losing steam or anything. Most good game studios worth there salt that last as long if not longer than atlus release a few games below average sometimes. Looking at you last bible series!!!
"Accessibility" ruins games. Oh, forza can drive the car for you? Why the fuck are you playing a game then
There is a differance betwern accessability and difficulty that you fail to understand here, making a game accessable makes it quick to understand and go through reducing playtime but making for a better experience and having less accessability in a game doesn't make it harder, it just makes it less fun for example p4g nightmare difficulty mod poses a great challenge while not inconviencing the player, from the looks of it this games combat seems to be the opposite giving you something that will always make good decicions so you can turn your brain off and still managing to make preperation for fights a time waste.
To put it in your example imagine you buy a forza and you want to drive it but trying to get the navigation to work is taking forever and its loading between each time you go onto a new screen and then the car just auto drives for you with help from manual input occasionally is what this game looks like with a relatively easy challenge because the game shows you the optimal moves that just takes forever to complete if you want to in anyway prepare for fights
persona 5 had the assist button aswell
just saying
I don't think they're the same thing
Honestly I don't think any of these criticisms land except for the dungeon design.
For one, there's nothing wrong with a combat system that's more simplistic than Mainline, just look at Strange Journey and Devil Survivor.
The characters are cool, the artstyle and music fuck hard, and the story isn't mindblowing but it's decent. I've been having a great time with the game.
The problem is when everyone expects Atlus to only put out massive, top tier games like SMTV or P5R (which tbh I don't even like all that much). A smaller scale, shorter game like this every once in a while is cool, especially as a spinoff.
Well said. And yeah… this video sucked
I decided not to buy this game when I found out they stuck Mara behind a paywall.
The Navigator from SH2 is more annoying than Fuuka from P3 and Morgana mixed together LOL
I thought Atlus learned their lesson after EVERYONE complained about how fucking annoying Morgana was in P5, old habits never die I guess
The Navigator is not even hot like Chrom from Tokyo Mirage Sessions. His design and voice is sexy.
I dont think they give a shit tbh. They keep giving us annoying mascots for no reaon.
i think the japanese crowd loves mascot like morgana i like em to he not that annoying
@@CrimsonBladezz In japan a great majority of companies have mascots, even cities hace one, that could be why there's always a mascot in a lot of japanese games 🤔
morgana be like: LOOKING F U C K I N G COOL JOKER!!!
Tip for the loading screen
You can disable the tips and the loadings go from 10 to 1 second
From comments i'm reading here, it seems most ppl that are playing the game are liking it, while it's not on the level of others super hyped atlus games, they're still finding it fun enough.
It's very clear that this game is simplified on purposed, to appeal to the more casual atlus enjoyers (IE Persona fans) and maybe spark some interest in the other SMT titles, which he says is unnecessary, but that is just plain wrong seeing as he played nocturne himself and didn't like it, for being too hard confusing, dark and isolated.
I know it's kinda of a meme to say that persona fans are too casual to like "real" SMT titles (which translates to harder and darker games), but that is the unfortunate truth, so if this game makes more ppl interest in SMT as a whole (which only played persona or no atlus rpgs at all) than i'd say the game achieved what it set out to do.
I guess I should say as a disclaimer that i'm a VERY hardcore fan SMT and I don't want to gatekeep anyone from enjoying it too. And yes I do like persona too.
I don't think he disliked Nocturne for being too dark or isolated, but more for it being a lot of repetitive dungeon crawling, and well the difficulty is a feature lol.
Also for me the main difference between SMT and Persona are the characters, SMT being more gameplay focused with you being pretty much alone with your demons a lot of the time, and Persona being more focused on the other party members and their relations between them/with the protag, and it looks like this game half-asses both of those aspects (at least from yakko's review, I didnt play the game), the character arcs seem boring and the dungeons look worse than Nocturne's (Or Persona 3 & 4 dungeons for that matter)
I have to agree this game is kind a disappointment. I have played persona 3 through 5, digital devil saga, the Raidou Kuzunoha games and nocturne. This is the first time I felt that a shin megami tensei game felt lackluster.
The combat is more less the same, hit an enemies weak point and you get rewarded with extra damage to the enemy and whatever unique mechanic that the game has, in this case being the sabboth mechanic. I don't mind the combat being the same as most of their games with a small little twist to it.
The story on the other hand felt shallow. In a sense it felt like there is only surface level stuff going on.
Take Ringo and Figue two beings created by a sentient AI. Made to look human and act human so they can interact better with the outside world ..and they do just that ! They act completely normal, they don't act like a logical machine but act like a person using both logic mixed with emotions. It would have been nice to see them slowly develop into becoming more human.
As for the other characters in our group.
Arrow our first companion is your typical friendly and responsible guy who had a best friend, best friend chose to join the opposing side, they meet each other in battle and one of them has to die . Once we kill his friend the story moves on.
Next up we have Milady a moody girl that wants to take revenge, that's pretty much it . Once we do the story moves on
Lastly we have Saizo, the joker in our group who wants to reconcile with his girlfriend, who gives on the hope of ever having a normal life but showing her how persistent and how he still loves her they do reconcile and she has hope again for a live that isn't being just a devil summoner.
Overall I found the characters boring at one point I stopped reading the dialogue whenever we were talking at the bar since they talk about pretty mundane stuff and just focused on getting more points for the soul level.
The story and well the character development is my major gripe about this honestly since the combat is more or less the same if you ever played an Atlus game. But I do have a few things that irk me for this game, gameplay wise.
One of few things that irk me is having limited items. Why can't I buy a bunch of items inside of the item store !? Why !?
Next up is restoring my party's mp, I don't want to constantly leave a dungeon and go to the party's hideout. It would have not minded it too much if I didn't have to see a lot of loading screens, I play on my ps5 by the way. I also don't want to search for one of my demon companions to heal my party. This would have been fine if I could buy 99x low restoring mp consumables at the store but no you can only carry a small limited amount of items. And lastly some of the soul matrix sidequests that has you kill a target, specifically ones that instant death your party after x number of turns.
I haven't finished the game I'm at the part were we just got all the five covenants. The only really good thing the game does, in my opinion, is the demon fusion. The new fusion search option is great, you don't have to figure out what demons you are missing , which demons to fuse to get your desired demon and of course you can customize what skills to put on the demon. That's really the only good thing this game has and I hope future shin megami tensei games will have that.
Game is good.
I’m tired of playing as high schoolers who “save the world”.
Adults who save the world under neon lights much better
*laughs in demi fiend*
What does this have to do with the quality of the game tho
The game gets criticized for streamlining mechanics and appealing to a broader audience… the characters being adults is part of that, I think. They did the same thing with Tales of Arise…
Not to mention jrpgs are getting worldwide releases now…
As this trend continues I’m sure it will effect the types of games we get.
Pretty soon they won’t be niche anymore.
@@nightlyboot4888 nothing wrong with adult protagonists though honestly prefer it to playing as a teen and I hope persona 6 goes this route
What are all the games called that he shows at 00:10
This game felt like it was made by the newer members of Atlus
Someone check the credits and compare it to other recent games
It's funny, I actually would love a middle ground SMT/Persona experience, but not like this.
Take everything SMT5 did, but flesh out a cast of characters with optional social link style systems & call it a day. I like the darker, more occult stories, and I loved the exploration & combat too. But I'd be lying if I said the Persona social link rank ups don't give me a little dopamine hit, while also getting to learn more about other characters 😅
Damn I love damage formulas heavily relied on characters level in my smt games. I remember how fun it was to grind for huang long in smt5 and how unfun it was to outsmart boss battles with right fusions in sm3 and 4. I hate it how soul hackers forces you to sit and think through your fusions, come on atlus, why there aren't skills lying around in open world like in smt5?? It's like soul hackers devs forgot what makes smt games fun to play smh...
Thie review brought to you by Haru from P5
Loading tips purposefully make loading screens longer, you can disable them in the options and get 2 second load times
I really wanted this game to be good but I'm disappointed they've removed a lot of the things that made SMT iconic. I really liked what I played of the original Soul hackers and the aesthetics of this one looked gorgeous.
12:57 This is what it feels like to be a Discord call with 10 or more people in it.
hey bruvs anyone up to drinks hehe **smirk** hey uh lemme just say if yall up for it ill tell ya what heheheeh _lowest killstreak buys drinks?_
Last year is was SMT5 now its Soul Hacker 2. Atlus keep getting L after L. Did they fire the old writing team? Where's the people who wrote Strange Journey get those guys back.
Old writers and developers left Team Maniax (1st Development Departament) in middle developing SMT V (retirement). Some of them where merged to P-Studio/Studio Zero (2nd and 3rd Development Departament), propably because Persona is more profitable than SMT / Etrian Odyssey. Only novices left in Team Maniax after 2017, mostly people behind Devil Survivor 2, SMT IV Apocalypse, and Tokio Mirrage Sessions (people behind TMS and Devil Survivor 2 created Soul Hackers 2, people behind SMT IV Apocalypse and Etrian Odyssey created SMT V).
15:22 DEVIL SURVIVOR FOOTAGE DEVIL SURVIVOR FOOTAGE I SWEAR TO GOD YOU GOTTA PLAY Devil Survivor Overclocked if you still even own a 3DS, oh and also Digital Devil Saga exists, just saying
Meanwhile Library of Ruina with its 7 hour tutorial and verticle difficulty spike
You can disable loading screen setting them to "Hide" - they will not show at all, by default game waits for you to read the loading screen, there is option also to wait for button press.
With "Hide" location change is like instant on PS5 with only a screen fade.
idk how much i want another raidou game after playing this game
nah Raidou deserves no flak after this shit
I don't think Soul Hackers 2 is THAT bad. It has its many flaws, like the constant talking during battle (which isn't even that bad once you're immersed into the atmosphere and music), Day 1 DLC, endless hallway dungeons, strange Character Models (not Demons), trying to cater to newer fans to a certain degree, etc. But it definitely isn't any easier just because the gameplay was simplified.
Yes, not having a form of Press Turn or anything is less engaging, but even the original Soul Hackers didn't have Press Turn. If anything, Soul Hackers 2 just tried to improve upon the original Soul Hackers gameplay by adding the Sabbath System, which I think is okay. It isn't spectacular, but it isn't horrible either.
SH2 definitely doesn't lack difficulty either, actually, on the hardest difficulty (Very Hard), it is up there in difficulty. As I mentioned before and the many complaints of others, it's just a simplified gameplay like the original. Other then those flaws, SH2 is fairly atmosphericly pleasing. The music is wonderful, great artstyle, the emotional tones presented in scenes like Arrow and Kaburagi's, and more genuinely helps balance out a lot of the games flaws to make for a decent experience for the most part.
I have played every Persona entry, all modern mainline SMT, many Megaten spin-offs, and I still believe SH2 isn't the absolute worst amongst them.
Why make it soul hackers if its going to be NOTHING like the original? Persona is ALREADY a more casual friendly SMT and that was loved. So why would they make something not as stylish and plays worse than ALL the games?
can someone tell me what the sound effect at 1:54 is? I recognize it but can’t tell where from
Ah they butchered the heart of SH too try and expand market, “Ya hear that Noah? Yakko wants something a bit meatier”
And i was the MVP you were all thinking it
Uhh... That sparks!
Soul Hackers 2 feels like a game made by a western developer trying to rip off SMT
also I love the Nocturne boss theme kicking in every time you mention that game. It always kills me.
so sad that this game failed flat, but that was kinda predictable. game came out of nowhere and screams as cheap and low-budget at every level. I like aestetics (cyberpunk part obviously), music is fun and characters are okay, but that's pretty much all I can say good about it. Demon dlc is basically scum this time around.
Doesn't help the the actors sound like they really phoned it in as well.
I would say Pokemon SV beat it in being disappointing… but you’d need to have to have any expectations for the Pokemon series in the first place.
12:24 I take offense to that, she grew up as outcast and people usually talk to themselves when alone. But at least Aloy is made to be introspective, analytic and actually react to things happening like a normal person instead, and there’s actually useful tips about mechanics. sure she could let the player think a little more and take more time before giving hints, unlike GoW5;R when they tell me exactly what to do before even a speed runner can get past it. It got better in forbidden west tho