We simp Nemissa in this house, we let Nemissa do whatever she wants.
Originally releasing for the Sega Saturn, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers captures Shin Megami Tensei in a sort of transitional state. In many ways it's more reflective of the franchise's current style of character-driven storytelling, featuring a story that put a stronger emphasis on the personality and backgrounds of its cast. However, it also exists before the advent of the press-turn system which has largely come to define the mechanical core of modern SMT titles, retaining much of the dungeon crawling of the 16-bit era (if a bit toned down in terms of scope and difficulty.) It is less experimental with its gameplay than Persona and Persona 2 but has a very similar vibe, perfectly definable as part of Shin Megami Tensei's middle era.
In some ways this works, in others it does not. Dungeon crawling feels a lot more smooth, and individual dungeons are much less labyrinthine than its 16-bit counterparts. Exploration is intuitive, and while there's some crossover with gimmicks from the SNES games, Soul Hackers does not go nearly as crazy with slippery floors, invisible walls, and teleporters as its predecessors. The game just trucks. In fact, it maybe moves a bit too fast. I was able to complete the entire thing in less than 18 hours, which might just clock it in as the shortest SMT game I've ever played.
It's also incredibly easy. Halfway into the game I was using just the protagonist and Nemissa for all encounters besides bosses. This wasn't even because I wanted to conserve MAG or felt that summoning demons was excessive, but rather a consequence of not wanting to deal with Soul Hacker's incredibly obtuse personality system. Demons are defined by whether they're wild, calm, kind, sly, or dumb. Depending on what category they fall into, they'll have an affinity for a certain type of action. For example, a sly demon will prefer to use magic, whereas a kind demon fills the role of support. Unfortunately, you'll likely be fusing together demons with great movepools that become combative and insubordinate with the attacks you need because their nature is "wrong." There's also a loyalty system, and if you stress a demon too much by forcing it to take actions it doesn't like, it will ditch your ass.
There's ways around this, of course. You can buy booze to earn trust or change their nature temporarily, but I found they can still ignore orders when it matters the most, and the system is really just too much of a pain in the ass to be enjoyable. Soul Hackers ended up becoming the one SMT game where I actively disliked summoning demons, but uh, at least it was easy enough that I pretty much never had to!
The main question the story puts forth is "what if demons invented Second Life?" The answer, it turns out, is "make you spend all your lindens then swallow your soul." Set in a futuristic "smart city" where everyone is connected by a high speed intranet, you and the other members of the hacker group Spookies are drawn into a conspiracy surrounding the new virtual reality game Paradigm X. The concept of the Internet being a pervasive element of everyone's lives, so much so that the emergence of virtual worlds promises (or threatens) to revolutionize commerce and the way we socialize is ahead of its time. Unfortunately, Soul Hackers never has anything too interesting to say about its setting. The characters are fun at least. I like the members of Spookies, especially Leader, who has some real Captain Goto vibes. Gotta be those lazy eyes...
Soul Hackers is short and sweet enough to be a good time, but it also feels a bit lacking and at times cumbersome in a way that doesn't feel dated so much as poorly designed. At least I was able to squeeze it in before Soul Hackers 2, and its short length means I didn't give myself tendonitis again, so that's good!
Originally releasing for the Sega Saturn, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers captures Shin Megami Tensei in a sort of transitional state. In many ways it's more reflective of the franchise's current style of character-driven storytelling, featuring a story that put a stronger emphasis on the personality and backgrounds of its cast. However, it also exists before the advent of the press-turn system which has largely come to define the mechanical core of modern SMT titles, retaining much of the dungeon crawling of the 16-bit era (if a bit toned down in terms of scope and difficulty.) It is less experimental with its gameplay than Persona and Persona 2 but has a very similar vibe, perfectly definable as part of Shin Megami Tensei's middle era.
In some ways this works, in others it does not. Dungeon crawling feels a lot more smooth, and individual dungeons are much less labyrinthine than its 16-bit counterparts. Exploration is intuitive, and while there's some crossover with gimmicks from the SNES games, Soul Hackers does not go nearly as crazy with slippery floors, invisible walls, and teleporters as its predecessors. The game just trucks. In fact, it maybe moves a bit too fast. I was able to complete the entire thing in less than 18 hours, which might just clock it in as the shortest SMT game I've ever played.
It's also incredibly easy. Halfway into the game I was using just the protagonist and Nemissa for all encounters besides bosses. This wasn't even because I wanted to conserve MAG or felt that summoning demons was excessive, but rather a consequence of not wanting to deal with Soul Hacker's incredibly obtuse personality system. Demons are defined by whether they're wild, calm, kind, sly, or dumb. Depending on what category they fall into, they'll have an affinity for a certain type of action. For example, a sly demon will prefer to use magic, whereas a kind demon fills the role of support. Unfortunately, you'll likely be fusing together demons with great movepools that become combative and insubordinate with the attacks you need because their nature is "wrong." There's also a loyalty system, and if you stress a demon too much by forcing it to take actions it doesn't like, it will ditch your ass.
There's ways around this, of course. You can buy booze to earn trust or change their nature temporarily, but I found they can still ignore orders when it matters the most, and the system is really just too much of a pain in the ass to be enjoyable. Soul Hackers ended up becoming the one SMT game where I actively disliked summoning demons, but uh, at least it was easy enough that I pretty much never had to!
The main question the story puts forth is "what if demons invented Second Life?" The answer, it turns out, is "make you spend all your lindens then swallow your soul." Set in a futuristic "smart city" where everyone is connected by a high speed intranet, you and the other members of the hacker group Spookies are drawn into a conspiracy surrounding the new virtual reality game Paradigm X. The concept of the Internet being a pervasive element of everyone's lives, so much so that the emergence of virtual worlds promises (or threatens) to revolutionize commerce and the way we socialize is ahead of its time. Unfortunately, Soul Hackers never has anything too interesting to say about its setting. The characters are fun at least. I like the members of Spookies, especially Leader, who has some real Captain Goto vibes. Gotta be those lazy eyes...
Soul Hackers is short and sweet enough to be a good time, but it also feels a bit lacking and at times cumbersome in a way that doesn't feel dated so much as poorly designed. At least I was able to squeeze it in before Soul Hackers 2, and its short length means I didn't give myself tendonitis again, so that's good!