90s is probably the most overused term to describe soul hackers, but what better way is there to put it? your love for this game will totally be down to how much you vibe with this era's design sensibilities. there are an array of random experimental mechanics like loyalty you'll either find incredibly endearing or unnecessarily clunky. personally i love the genuine attempt at immersing the player in the summoner's shoes. try to form a perfect team for a tricky fight and demons of opposing alignments might refuse to cooperate. or you may run out of magnetite and they'll turn their backs on you altogether. managing your demons can be a real pain in the ass and i'm all for it.

how can i forget the soundtrack? the perfect soundtrack to complement its atmosphere. every sound is drenched in this dreamy digital echo, with lots of spacey synths that invoke feelings of the mechanical nature of this rapidly digitising world. trudging through algon headquarter's narrow hallways as the ominous tune transforms into a hopeless synthetic melody is fucking beautiful. or wandering aimlessly through the vr art museum in that droning ambience, as if lost in a dream you can hardly make sense of. a beautiful work