Soul Hackers 2

Souls Hackers 2 is the new and fifth title in the Devil Summoner series, which in turn is considered a sub-series of the main Megami Tensei series. Despite the number 2 in the title, it is considered a standalone game with a new story and you can experience it without having a previous role in the series. . The game takes place in the 21st century in the city of Tokyo, where a war is taking place between two groups of devil summoners: the Phantom Society group and the Yatagarasu group. The goal of the Phantom Society is to collect five possessions called Covenant and prepare for the monster that will destroy and rebuild the world. The Yatagarasu’s goal is to confront them and stop them from destroying the world.

Graphics and Performance

The game was developed using the Unity engine and features very beautiful anime-style graphics using cell shading technology with enlarged images of characters during conversations. The game offers a performance option between 60 frames performance and true 4K.

The heroine of the game is a character named Ringo, and it is worth noting that for the first time in a game in the Megami Tensei series there is a non-silent hero, it is basically a supernatural creature called Aion, who along with Another character named Figue was created by a supercomputer named Famma. Their goal is to search for Covenant users and attempt to extract them from them or defend them, and the first task assigned to them is to search for a character named Arrow. When they find him, they discover that he was actually killed. Here, Ringo uses her ability, called Soul Hacking, to bring Arrow back to life, and then he joins her to search for the murderer and the Covenant users.

Gameplay and Combat System

Soul Hackers 2 presents an exciting story

Besides Ringo, there are three main characters in the game who will be part of your team of four characters throughout the game and I really liked that as you don’t have to think much about character development. The combat system in the game is of RPG type and is very similar to the game Persona 5, where you use the demon’s abilities to attack the enemies in addition to your own abilities. There are different demons in the game, and each of them has strengths and weaknesses, and these points are transferred to the character to which the demon is assigned. For example, if the demon is weak to fire, the player also becomes weak to fire. The game relies solely on the natural elements present in the game and the player must strategically plan the use of demons in battle.

Each character starts with one or two basic elements that represent their strengths. For example, Ringo’s strength element is electricity, while Arrow’s strength element is ice. It is preferable to assign them demons with the same strength element for important reasons that we will discuss later in the review. The beauty of the game is that it contains many factors that help and also facilitate the players. For example, the “Assist” option, which means support, has been added to the list of players during battle. The idea is that the ability is automatically selected that is effective against enemies, but it requires you to know what weak elements the enemies have in battle, and there are different methods. The easiest way to figure this out is to try every element on the enemy until you discover their weak point. For this reason, it is preferable to diversify the elements among the characters. One of the things that also helps is the in-game autosave, which occurs when you enter a new area or before you kill a leader or a very strong enemy. and that saved me. A lot, especially because I’m playing the game on Hard difficulty, which doesn’t allow retrying.

Dungeons and Character Development

Let’s delve deeper into the topic of using items at enemy weak points. The main reason for this is that when you use the fire ability on an enemy in the snow, you do a lot of damage, and that’s normal, but what is it? What’s special about this is that you add a number +1 to the stack in the top right corner. If another character has hit an enemy with their weak point, the cumulative number increases by a stack +1 and becomes 2 and etc. After the end of the round, the stack points are used up and a demon power is used for each number in the stack, which hits all enemies on the screen. This hit is called Sabath and is one of the most common things. An advantage in the game if you use it correctly. This happens through character development. For example, Ringo has a development option that allows her to add +2 to the stack when she hits an enemy whose weak point is electricity. Of course, the rest of the characters have the same option. For example, Arrow uses ice by adding +2, etc. You can imagine how powerful the hit is in Sabbath. When the number increases.

Each character has a weapon called Comp, and you can’t change it, but you can evolve it. Improvements range from adding +4 Strength to opening new slots to add monsters. They can also open new item slots for players. For example, for you, you can unlock the fire trait for Ringo so that he can benefit from the fire trait, etc. For all players, these developments require collecting resources from enemies or obtaining them during exploration in the trench (dungeon). And as you progress through the story, special developments called the Commander Skill become available to you. The idea is that this allows you to use the characteristics of the Ringo character to help the team. For example, you can switch to Custom Daemon. The player can only replace all of the characters’ demons in one turn during combat once per turn, and later in the story.

Dungeons and Side Missions

Let’s talk about the dungeons or stages in the game, as they are divided into two parts: basic stages in the story, which are different in form, and a stage dedicated to each of the three characters, called the Soul Matrix. At the beginning, on the first floor you can explore each soul matrix of each character, and as you progress in the main story, the remaining floors and doors will gradually open for each soul matrix and you need to increase the soul level and the spiritual level, and this will be for Each character increases through a choice made during dialogues in the story or by meeting them in side missions. After collecting a certain number of points, you can open a locked door in the character’s soul Matrix and acquire a new trait for her. To get to the other floor, you have to fight the leader of the floor. After you defeat him, part of the character’s past will be revealed. He adds: This adds depth to the main story and also links events.

Demons and Abilities

There are many side missions in the game, and they vary between fighting a specific monster or eliminating monsters and finding a lost tool. They have no depth or story, and the most important of them opens up new properties in one of the shops in the game, and that is of course a very useful thing. There are also side missions in the game. The soul matrix for each character is boringly repetitive: kill a certain number of monsters, find certain tools, kill a powerful monster… Unfortunately, the rewards in these missions are mostly worthless because you have then developed the characters to a level that exceeds beyond the usefulness of the tool. How to get new demons? At the start of each dungeon market, any demons you own will go off and be scattered around the map (don’t worry, they will be present during the fight). You have to look for them, and when you find them, they will give you a financial reward or a tool, or they will introduce you to a demon they met and you must fulfill the demon’s request so that he will join you connects. For example, he may ask you for some energy. HP, money, etc. It is worth noting that this is the only way to get new demons in the game, and of course also by merging demons.

Demon Abilities and Registration

Now let’s talk about demons in more detail. Each demon has limited abilities that are acquired as the demon’s level is increased during battle. When all of the demon’s abilities are acquired, he will give you a gift that varies between auxiliary tools and the Mystique, an accessory for the character that increases the effectiveness of the item. For example, there is a Mystique that increases the effectiveness of electricity by 20%, and there is another type that reduces the effectiveness of the item. MP consumption is 15% and so on. It is considered one of the most useful accessories in the game and can be purchased from demons as gifts or through a vendor available later in the game.

What happens to the devil when he gains all his abilities? You need to replace him with a demon stronger than him, or merge him with another demon, and he will receive the basic elemental abilities acceptable to him. For example, a fire demon gains fire abilities and not ice abilities when you fuse it with an ice demon. There’s something here that bothered me: when you develop a demon and get it to gain its abilities, you can register it in the in-game blog and spend money to summon it when you use it with one another demon combined. . but to register it you have to pay an amount of money, unlike previous Shin Megami Tensei games where it is free to register monsters and pay money when you summon them, but here you have to pay twice: register once Sign up and pay once for the summons.

Conclusion

Soul Hackers 2 took the best of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games and combined them together. There is no doubt that the game will appeal to fans of the two series, but the difference is that it requires a greater focus on variety in the demons and exploiting their weaknesses.

Edit: The game received an update that removed the requirement to pay money when registering demons, and the camera was also improved.

We received the game from the publisher before release and tested it on PlayStation 5