no spoilers, & this is for hackers memory & thoughts after both games
these games are just really fun~ my feelings about this second installment are very similar to my feelings about the first, so I won't go on about those as u can just read my other log in here if u want.
as for hackers memory specifically, I found the lil quality of life improvements to be welcome. the music ofc still slaps! the story is alright, similar in quality to the first mb a bit better, tho it was a bit of a bummer sumtimes to have to play a guy, I missed how much queerer it felt to play as a girl in cyber sleuth. it got better towards the end, even stirring up sum emotions at sum points which I didn't expect. I didn't appreciate the ableist aspects of the narrative though (or the slight seasoning of misogyny that popped up here n there), it's cool that one of the main characters is Disabled but u can tell that whoever wrote it still has a lot of ableism to unlearn. I also really like Yu as a queer character, tho they kinda dropped him at one point that felt jarring, & ur interactions with him didn't leave u any agency to decide how u relate with him unfortunately seeing as u are playing as a more specific character in this game.
oh, there was a certain animated sequence toward the end at one point that I absolutely loved, wud love to see more experimentation like what they did there, v psychedelic!
I liked the addition of 3-person battles to shake up the approach to combat every now & then, but sum additional things like territory battles & the whole taking-friends-on-quests thing felt a lil uninspired. I liked a lot of the additional digimon designs, tho sum are just really hard to achieve without lots of grinding...
once I beat the game, it was really confusing how continuing ur game or new game + worked... & for sum reason u can only transfer digimon from your Digibank in Cyber sleuth into hackers memory, not any of the party or farm digimon... which is really frustrating as far as I can tell there is no way to go back into cyber sleuth & move digimon into your digibank, so I don't have access to most of my Digimon from the first game- bad design. there are still a few digivolutions I haven't gotten yet & am not sure if i will be able to find a fun way to keep playing to achieve them.
overall, I highly recommend this series! despite its flaws the two combined kept me engaged for longer than most games have, and it's definitely a way better monster-catching game & overall experience (better gameplay, story, characters, queer representation, evolution system etc) than pokemon main-line games, so pls check it out if u haven't yet! i picked it up for like $15 or sumthin, it goes on sale for cheap. I hope they do another game like these- better accessibility settings, difficulty settings (something other than super-easy & grindy-hard) & better story would take this to a whole nother level!
these games are just really fun~ my feelings about this second installment are very similar to my feelings about the first, so I won't go on about those as u can just read my other log in here if u want.
as for hackers memory specifically, I found the lil quality of life improvements to be welcome. the music ofc still slaps! the story is alright, similar in quality to the first mb a bit better, tho it was a bit of a bummer sumtimes to have to play a guy, I missed how much queerer it felt to play as a girl in cyber sleuth. it got better towards the end, even stirring up sum emotions at sum points which I didn't expect. I didn't appreciate the ableist aspects of the narrative though (or the slight seasoning of misogyny that popped up here n there), it's cool that one of the main characters is Disabled but u can tell that whoever wrote it still has a lot of ableism to unlearn. I also really like Yu as a queer character, tho they kinda dropped him at one point that felt jarring, & ur interactions with him didn't leave u any agency to decide how u relate with him unfortunately seeing as u are playing as a more specific character in this game.
oh, there was a certain animated sequence toward the end at one point that I absolutely loved, wud love to see more experimentation like what they did there, v psychedelic!
I liked the addition of 3-person battles to shake up the approach to combat every now & then, but sum additional things like territory battles & the whole taking-friends-on-quests thing felt a lil uninspired. I liked a lot of the additional digimon designs, tho sum are just really hard to achieve without lots of grinding...
once I beat the game, it was really confusing how continuing ur game or new game + worked... & for sum reason u can only transfer digimon from your Digibank in Cyber sleuth into hackers memory, not any of the party or farm digimon... which is really frustrating as far as I can tell there is no way to go back into cyber sleuth & move digimon into your digibank, so I don't have access to most of my Digimon from the first game- bad design. there are still a few digivolutions I haven't gotten yet & am not sure if i will be able to find a fun way to keep playing to achieve them.
overall, I highly recommend this series! despite its flaws the two combined kept me engaged for longer than most games have, and it's definitely a way better monster-catching game & overall experience (better gameplay, story, characters, queer representation, evolution system etc) than pokemon main-line games, so pls check it out if u haven't yet! i picked it up for like $15 or sumthin, it goes on sale for cheap. I hope they do another game like these- better accessibility settings, difficulty settings (something other than super-easy & grindy-hard) & better story would take this to a whole nother level!