Soul Hackers 2 doesn’t have much ‘soul’ so far
Soul Hackers 2 cuts straight to the stakes, and then drops them. Despite the end of the world and two “deaths” in the first hour and a half of the game, I didn’t even feel a drop of adrenaline in my blood.
Aion, the supercomputer version of God, predicts an upcoming apocalypse related to Demon Summoner turf wars. It creates two humanoid agents, Ringo and Figue, to prevent the deaths of two people who trigger the end of the world: genius scientist Ichiro Onda and Demon Summoner Arrow. You play as Ringo, the more outgoing and snarky of the two agents. Unfortunately, she and Figue arrive too late to save their targets. Ringo finds Arrow already dead, bleeding out on the pavement. Figue reports an equally grim situation on her end with Onda. Ringo “soul hacks” Arrow to bring him back to life, thus the name of this game.
However, dire circumstances and innovative gameplay can only do so much without a hook.
Soul Hackers 2 recycles the combat system used in Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games, so that part is still seamless as ever. In fact, it riffs on some of these features, which freshens the game for me as someone who’s already used to SMT and its spinoffs. It’s also more accessible to beginners as the devs said they intended in an interview with Digital Trends.
Turn-based combat and elemental affinities still play a major role in the title — like the original game. Negotiating with and fusing demons works similarly to past titles with some tweaks. For example, all demons level up with you regardless of if you have them equipped or not. The demons can also scout dungeons for you, appearing at checkpoints with demon recruits, items, and healing. They even give you gifts after learning their full moveset. There’s always
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