I haven't been introduced to Atlus until the DS generation, so going back to playing their older games starting with Soul Hackers on the 3DS in 2016 was eye-opening to say the least. Let me preface by saying I have no problems playing "old and dated" games, but there's a lot of things wrong with Soul Hackers that I legitimately don't get how the game is perceived to be "good".
Sure, Kazuma Kaneko's art is amazing (I prefer Persona 2-era onwards though) and the game's premise was interesting. But those aren't enough to redeem the flaws that makes the game mediocre. Dungeons are very badly designed, and the demon loyalty system is garbage. Story ends up being very lukewarm as well. What confuses me is none of its peer JRPG series that I adore like Breath of Fire, Suikoden Final Fantasy or even Dragon Quest had this much fundamental flaws.
I've yet to be proven wrong at this point, but old Atlus is pretty much throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Which is good because they've figured it out in Nocturne and I've always enjoyed everything they've released onward.
Sure, Kazuma Kaneko's art is amazing (I prefer Persona 2-era onwards though) and the game's premise was interesting. But those aren't enough to redeem the flaws that makes the game mediocre. Dungeons are very badly designed, and the demon loyalty system is garbage. Story ends up being very lukewarm as well. What confuses me is none of its peer JRPG series that I adore like Breath of Fire, Suikoden Final Fantasy or even Dragon Quest had this much fundamental flaws.
I've yet to be proven wrong at this point, but old Atlus is pretty much throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Which is good because they've figured it out in Nocturne and I've always enjoyed everything they've released onward.