Maybe I'm naive, but I find it hard to imagine that Soul Hackers 2 was born of corporate cynicism. You don't make a sequel to a niche, rad as hell JRPG like that without some passion for the original. I can just imagine a small gang at Atlus lobbying for years for the oppurtunity, and being ready to give their all for it.
But dear lord, this game is such a damp squib. Divorce it from its frankly, minor relation to Soul Hackers 1 and you're left with such a by the numbers JRPG with rock bottom production values and absolutely no hook beyond some pretty fun characters and some quite pretty aesthetics.
And those bits are pretty good. Ringo in particular is a proper gremlin, a really fun MC that works well, and the game can be extremely pretty, with strong environmental design whenever you're outside dungeons. In what's probably going to be the most controversial take of this review, I also think the combat is one of my favourite incarnations of the SMT systems - It ends up very fast paced in comparison to SMTV and even P5s systems, and it doesnt fall so much into some of the series' traps. Fights in general also feel like they're a litlte less common than normal for SMT, thank god.
But man is it so fucking bland otherwise. The characters might be fun but the plot of finding the 5 McGuffins to save the world from the SECRET SOCIETY is so, so bad. There is just no hook - it could still work if it had the cool themes of the original, bathed in the 90s tech paranoia and counterculture. Alas, you're left with a plot which is Dragon Quest levels of by the numbers.
Maybe the weakest aspect though is the production. It all feels so damn cheap. Whilst the game has some pretty locations, they are all hilariously small and there's next to nothing to do with them, and you'll spend most of your time in dungeons with the same 5 assets spammed ad nauseum. It didnt have to be an issue - your average Gust game has similar production values to this and I will gladly consume cute girl game #47, coming this winter. But where Gust work within their constraints and make games suited to the stories they can tell, focused on character dynamics, small worlds and small scale conflicts, Soul hackers 2 still wants to be the biggest game in the room. It feels a bit pathetic, honestly.
The end result is quite poor. A relatively short length and fun characters/aesthetic probably just puts it over the gargantuan Persona 5 and the dull as dishwater SMTV of the recent SMTs, but its a far, far cry from the series' peaks.
But dear lord, this game is such a damp squib. Divorce it from its frankly, minor relation to Soul Hackers 1 and you're left with such a by the numbers JRPG with rock bottom production values and absolutely no hook beyond some pretty fun characters and some quite pretty aesthetics.
And those bits are pretty good. Ringo in particular is a proper gremlin, a really fun MC that works well, and the game can be extremely pretty, with strong environmental design whenever you're outside dungeons. In what's probably going to be the most controversial take of this review, I also think the combat is one of my favourite incarnations of the SMT systems - It ends up very fast paced in comparison to SMTV and even P5s systems, and it doesnt fall so much into some of the series' traps. Fights in general also feel like they're a litlte less common than normal for SMT, thank god.
But man is it so fucking bland otherwise. The characters might be fun but the plot of finding the 5 McGuffins to save the world from the SECRET SOCIETY is so, so bad. There is just no hook - it could still work if it had the cool themes of the original, bathed in the 90s tech paranoia and counterculture. Alas, you're left with a plot which is Dragon Quest levels of by the numbers.
Maybe the weakest aspect though is the production. It all feels so damn cheap. Whilst the game has some pretty locations, they are all hilariously small and there's next to nothing to do with them, and you'll spend most of your time in dungeons with the same 5 assets spammed ad nauseum. It didnt have to be an issue - your average Gust game has similar production values to this and I will gladly consume cute girl game #47, coming this winter. But where Gust work within their constraints and make games suited to the stories they can tell, focused on character dynamics, small worlds and small scale conflicts, Soul hackers 2 still wants to be the biggest game in the room. It feels a bit pathetic, honestly.
The end result is quite poor. A relatively short length and fun characters/aesthetic probably just puts it over the gargantuan Persona 5 and the dull as dishwater SMTV of the recent SMTs, but its a far, far cry from the series' peaks.