After finishing Hackers Memory, I can say it. I don't know why people are so hot on this game. The only thing it has going for it is the digimon, which rock and are beautifully designed and animated. But the story is just empty mush, the world is static and dead and there's nothing to do in it besides go directly to quest markers, and the dungeons are completely devoid of personality. Hackers Memory has the bigger problem of being a bunch of shit happening off to the side of the actual story of the first game - it tries to get around this problem by focusing on characters, but ultimately the game doesn't take itself seriously enough to get the payoff it wants - it's constantly toeing right up to the line of actually saying something, or having a REAL emotional moment, and then backing off and making a joke - I know persona has jokes too and undercuts its own seriousness sometimes, but it isn't afraid to get really emotional and honest, and this game is TERRIFIED of that. The times you visit Erika's memory server are easily the high points of Hackers Memory - the art direction in those levels feels like something from a game that is 10 times better than the one I spent a million hours playing.