Those load times are fixed by going into the options and setting the tips to button press. I have no idea why that isn't the default since it makes the loading times like 1 second.

Conclusion: Altus can’t do a noob friendly game so Altus should continue to develop games with more complex mechanics and avoid oversimplifying the gameplay.

After reading all the early reviews for the Soul hackers the main takeaway I had was that Atlus was overcorrecting the "too complicated" critique of JRPG's without really considering that the reason they've had so much success in the past is because there are quite a few people willing to learn how their games work. Gotta have that mass market appeal though

If… if they wanted it to appeal to newcomers why did they call it Soul Hackers _2_

Devil Survivor already merged Persona and Shin Megami Tensei. It had the social aspect of persona and the great depiction of apocalypse since SMT1

Now why would you release this literally an hour after I bought it Edit: guys i got a physical edition 😭 it’s all good

I love just how many thumbnails there are with the gun pointing image lmao

Ok while I get where you're coming from, I stand by the fact that the constant shouting in xenoblade fights is the best part of the experience

I’d just like to add that the unique frosts are in the original Soul Hackers too. And the way you get them is unique and applies to their lore. Seemingly that was lost in this sequel.

at least nocturne had atmosphere meanwhile ironically soul hackers 2 is just soulless

You know, for as much flack as it gets, the idea of a game that uses SMT and Persona elements is actually most applicable to Tokyo Mirage Sessions. And I can safely say that game did WAY better with it. Didn’t even need to act like it was a main SMT game to do so.

these battle encounters look so,,, lifeless

It seems like the only great part of this game is the visuals. The character design pops, and I can tell there is some real talent behind it. And even though the city is basically boiled down to a bunch of annoying loading screens, when it comes to the neon glowy look of the city itself, it has a great cyberpunk feel. Even the shop keepers have designs so well done that any one of them can easily be a party member because they just look that good. But it does not matter how good a video game looks if the "game" part is not any fun.

What interested me in devil summoner and other megaten games was that weird, half dark, half lighthearted atmosphere. In Raidou 2 for example we try to solve the mystery of luck stealing locust. TMS and SH2 could be as well published under every other franchise name by NIS or Marvelous. And it’s just my personal whining, but SH2 gameplay seems stiff. Persona 5, Smt 5 heck, even TMS had pretty dynamic animations during battles.

You know, the more i look at it the more i think soul hackers and devil summoner as a series did not deserve this. Soul hackers one was this snazzy soul/time travelling experience where we unveil a mass destruction through vr plan to destroy humanity by feeding the planet with negative emotions (iirc), and there was plenty of possessions too. Original devil summoner was mc dying and posessing body of a badass devil summoner kyouji, and then figuring out who's killing ppl and why. All while oozing and radiating style like it was a nuclear power plant

Honestly, I'm getting fed up with developers aiming for mass appeal when we've got more than enough evidence to prove that this approach rarely works and is not why this sort of series gained notoriety in the first place...

Helpful tip for loading times: go to the config menu under system and turn off the “display tips” option. This gets rid of loading screen tips and reduces the PS5 load time to about 2 seconds between each area

"Lowest Killstreak buys drinks" sounds like the type of line you'd see in an edgy newgrounds "anime" from 2011

I feel your critique of the Sabbath system is a bit harsh. The extra effects and damage can add strategy for taking out groups of enemies or trying to make up for another party member's damage if they have to buff or heal that turn. Also If you're gonna hold the assist button as this flaw worth pointing out, you have to realize this has been in the series before as well. I remember off the top of my head Persona 5 had it in it's original release, and in the end of the day it only saves time. No sense to mock a quality of life feature for some people if it doesn't work for you. Also the fact they tried something different with negotiations isn't entirely a bad thing either, demon personalities is only mostly a thing in P5 and SMTV which other times it's just completely random chance. It is frustrating if you're looking for a specific demon, that I completely agree with. It can add a good chunk of time if you're looking for something you can't fuse easily. But the new method encourages you to explore and check every corner of a dungeon, so it adds to the exploration. Which I will add, yeah the dungeons are how they're like in 90% of the series. Even SMTV had similar dungeons with the Castle and the semi-final one. It's seen as part of the series identity as this point. Whether this is good or bad, like you said is up to contention. Ultimately it comes down to preference. Calling Soul Hackers 2 generic when it has a giant supercomputer under the ocean that is essentially stalking humanity for the sake of evolution along with it bringing stuff back from SH1 like the Phantom Society, the Kuzonha Clan from Devil Summoner and reimagined Vision Quest is at best disingenuous. The Phantom Society can be a bit of generic bad guys even in SH1, but their personality and designs make them memorable. Calling something "generically anime" really feels hollow when I don't see a high school in the main cast and instead it's a cast of 25+ year old people with their unique personalities and interactions with each other. I apologize for the unstructured ramblings and I do wanna say this: Your feelings are completely valid. If you don't like SH2 then you don't and I'm sorry this was such a let down for you man. But I do believe there were better ways to phrase your points and I do feel it's worth pointing out. Again: no ill will, and I wish you nothing but the best wishes in your endeavors.

Funnily enough I just started SMT4 today again, after playing maybe an hour years ago when I bought it and got felt frustrated due to how hard it was. I'm having a great friggin time with it. It actually got fun once I was able to recruit a few demons (which I never managed back in the day).

The whole Sabbath thing seems like if they took the Alignment Co-Ops from Strange Journey, then removed LITERALLY ALL STRATEGY that the system had with teambuilding. I was gonna pick this game up for my birthday, but I think I’ll just get something I’d actually enjoy.

"they gave me the game to review for free, thats pretty much the only good thing about playing it"

I was interested in buying this game but didn't to save money for other stuff. Instead I got devil survivor 1 overcloked on my 3ds before the eshop shut down and I'm glad I did.

I’m so mad they removed talking to enemies it was my favorite part of the megami tensei series especially in last Bible

Damn never heard yakko so angry at an jrpg before, sure the game is far from being great but it did something right. It's one the first protagonist in an atlus game that's not an self insert silent nobody and that's a pretty big step in a good direction, also I think it looks really good and actually nailed it with the visuals and it's theme

The first SH was a first person dungeon crawler. I knew it was going to be nothing like the OG from the beginning

It's a pretty aight Atlus rpg game imo, but like I would put Tokyo Mirage Sessions over Soul Hackers 2 any day. With all the new concepts in Soul Hackers 2, I was kind of bummed that it was not spectacular in any way other than the sabbath system. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a good casual SMT game and had much productive ambition. Soul Hackers 2 just felt like it took from other SMT games, Persona, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions but it's... cheap.

Surprisingly I am really enjoying the game, my only complaint is the annoying navigator and boring dungeons

"The anime protagonist equivalent of unsalted crackers" had me rolling

the sabbath seems like Strange Journey's weakness exploit system, except all party attacks instead of just same-alignment demons. And the flavored jack frosts already existed on SH1

You always show 13 sentinels but never talk about it. We need more people to know that it exists

"Soul Hackers 2 is the most disappointing JRPG" Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: "Hold my beer"

...So anyone remember FFX which had an amazing amount of character dialogue perfectly implemented in a way that it was rarely repetitive even when grinding combat??? And instead you'd get character interactions every now and then and it felt like little good treats and not auditory murder?

The main character design is pretty cool tho.

Hear that Noah? Lowest killstreak buys drinks!

The best way to describe this game "it's a Vita SMT game with less budget". 😅

i miss the cold, dark, grungy atmosphere of the original Devil Summoner/Soul Hackers. It made those games stand out more and gave them a creepy vibe. They were just so much more interesting to explore and take in all the little things. This just looks like persona.......again. I want things to be more SMT like. There's plenty of persona nowadays.

I really wanted this to be Devil Summoner's great comeback. That game was my introduction to Atlas and the whole SMT franchise, therefore it will always have a special place in my heart. It's also just one of the best freakin' cyberpunk themed JRPG I've ever played so there's also that... I'm so sad.

Respect and understand the disappointment 100% x Personally, im just happy to have something new to play and I appreciate a lot of whats going on that the flaws kinda don't bother too much. I went in looking for a simple but fun JRPG experience to tide me over until some big releases I was interested in and this gave me exactly that. Still really respect the disappointment however and always love seeing a Yakko video pop up in my feed!

They changed so much from the original Soul Hackers, I knew I wouldn’t even touch this one before launch. It’s a shame, too. SH1 was so cool thematically and setting-wise. And the alignment based battle system was pretty cool. It was a hardcore game and they removed so much of the hardcore element.

The Navigator from SH2 is more annoying than Fuuka from P3 and Morgana mixed together LOL I thought Atlus learned their lesson after EVERYONE complained about how fucking annoying Morgana was in P5, old habits never die I guess

Man that's a shame, I was willing to overlook how it didn't really have much relation to the first Soul Hackers in it's systems/mechanics due to how stylized everything seemed to be and with hopes that the new/unique stuff would make up for it but this just looks painfully average at best :(

So far one review told me its eh pretty good, one of them told me its mediocre and this one is telling me its shit Sigh... guess I'm waiting for a sale I guess

I think the biggest disappointment for me was the dungeon design. Like, I actually like Tartarus from P3, but this just looks lifeless. I was genuinely excited for this game before looking at gameplay of it, granted I might still pick it up eventually, but school made me broke anyways. Also, as a Xenoblade fan, the constant voice lines of the navigator are just too much, I'm even surprised I find them annoying.

Mostly fair tbh. Will say to nitpick tho, the assist doesn't actually choose a good recommended move. The only time I used it, it had me use an electric move on an enemy I hadn't seen before and that enemy reflected electricity and instakilled me lol. Also it could be that I was underleveled but I found the fights pretty challenging in early game if you use no DLC items (I was like 6lvls under the bosses but still)

Yakko, I thought you were making some good points, but then you started being nitpicking and biased. I win. Bye bye.

Literally anytime Yakko does a bit where its just him irl I always end up cackling, it's just too good. It's the perfect break between review (which is always done spectacularly and keeps me fully hooked) and gameplay (which is always perfectly timed) which honestly just makes it all so much better. Fucking great dude...

The party banter sounds like you played 4 completely different KZfaq videos at once. Good job Atlus Also saying "we all have our moments" while slightly showing conception gameplay is perfect

Now that I think about it, I think you’re right about them trying to convince Persona players to get into SMT. Between this super stylish (Persona-like) look and the SMT-ish (toned way down) combat, AND putting this on PS consoles (where SMT hasn’t been for YEARS), I’d almost put money on this game being made to try and bridge SMT and Persona. Honestly a MASSIVE shame because the art is so incredibly gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve seen a single character yet from this game whose design I didn’t love

Does everything need to be perfect to you...

almost all game companies will become shit eventually, we can always find new better games by newer smaller companies instead of simping to Atlus's history, but instead judging every game as a whole and not letting the good company name or history (either big or small) change our opinions.

10:57 OH YEAH! Gonna pick up this game now, brings me back to my Tokyo Mirage Sessions days right there. (To make it clear, Tokyo Mirage Sessions fans don't really like the story but more so the character interactions, neat combat system, and spectacle. Just buy Tokyo Mirage Sessions if one wants an more anime-fied SMT game on Switch)

It's even weirder cause most people I know who like both series were able to switch from say SMT V to Persona 5 or Persona 3 to SMT III. SMT and Persona work off each other despite being different in tone and structure thanks to combat still being Risk vs Reward. (even in easier titles like P5R or SMT IV) Kinda makes me wonder if they should of given SH2 an extra year and a bigger budget or just not made it at all.

Besides small things like the navigator talking a bit too much, I fully disagree with just about everything you said. And I don't mean stuff like you didn't like the characters, but also the combat system. I'm really surprised that someone who didn't dislike neon whites story and characters would dislike this story and the characters. Now I'm only 12 hours into the game, so maybe I'll dislike the game more at the end, but for now it's easily a game I could recommend to anyone who likes turn based rpgs and anime. I liked the removal of light and dark spells, since random insta kills aren't fun to fight against and almost never usable against enemies that you would want to use them against. I really loves that status abilities did damage, made them good and used them way more than any other SMT game. I understand you can be annoyed at the assist button but, in general you already know what you want to do, so it's basically just a short cut. I think what this game does extremely well is having a full party of voice acted characters, including the main character, who is also female, which is stupidly rare in SMT. This review to me felt like a rushed angry reaction, or a bit like when people say persona is bad because they want people to play the "real" SMT games. I think SMT nocturn is the best game atlus has made, if played on hard mode, and besides this game being easier, talking a bit too much and being a completely different part of the franchise, I don't see what makes this game the worst jrpg of 2022 but so many other SMT games the best jrpgs ever

Game is good. I’m tired of playing as high schoolers who “save the world”. Adults who save the world under neon lights much better

Funny you briefly showed Tokyo Mirage Sessions when you mentioned how everyone has their moments even Atlus considering Soul Hackers 2 is made by the TMS developers. Honestly explains a lot.

At this point I've just been programmed to assume anything with a "neon tech sci-fi" design is shit. Which is a shame, cause I used to really like that design, but nowadays apparently that's all anyone thinks "sci fi" is.

what do you use in your hair? also, is your normal curl pattern tighter or looser than you style it? thanks. :-)

I really wanted this game to be good but I'm disappointed they've removed a lot of the things that made SMT iconic. I really liked what I played of the original Soul hackers and the aesthetics of this one looked gorgeous.

i really enjoy getting your perspective on Megami Tensei games. You’re a relatively experienced fan of SMT and Persona but you’re not one of the megaten gamers who are in so deep they can’t compliment or criticize the games fairly. As one in the latter camp, there are definitely moments when watching these reviews that i’m like “wow i must be a freak for not minding endless spirals and excessive menus” The constant voices blaring throughout the game, and the DLC nonsense however… that does not sound good.

"Accessibility" ruins games. Oh, forza can drive the car for you? Why the fuck are you playing a game then

I'm not really surprised that they wanted to bridge SMT and Persona fans, they already did it before with the great side series of Devil Survivor 1 and 2(1 especially has an amazing atmosphere and great characters), but it's really sad to hear that they botched their 2nd attempt so badly

You can disable loading screen setting them to "Hide" - they will not show at all, by default game waits for you to read the loading screen, there is option also to wait for button press. With "Hide" location change is like instant on PS5 with only a screen fade.

Im always happy to see yakko videos 😊

Meanwhile Library of Ruina with its 7 hour tutorial and verticle difficulty spike

So as a person who would be getting into the personal franchise when it releases on xbox in October would this be worth giving it a go even if a more dumb down experience?

That last bit with "atleast I get to add Dante to my party" hits close to home for me too :D Nocturne puts you through hell but atleast you can get a funny pizza man with OP abilities and a remarkable OST, and you're beaten into submission to just like the game as I do now, but this one just feels "soul"less which is funny considering its name.. looks like I won't be throwing any coins this direction.. was thinking of getting soul hackers 2

This game felt like it was made by the newer members of Atlus Someone check the credits and compare it to other recent games

The art and designs look stunning… everything else just leaves you stunned in confusion.

Loading tips purposefully make loading screens longer, you can disable them in the options and get 2 second load times

1:48 SMT has always been more about philosophical questions and trying to make the player think; they want to present all ways of reformation fairly and they want the players’ genuine answers to their prompts. Often times characters are sidelined in order to get more pure answers from the player. Persona is about exploring people; it’s about the critiques of the current society in addition to exploring complex emotions and trama of others. Each entry goes for a slightly different theme, makes you think, but overall doesn’t ask the player too heavy of questions in comparison. While being similar combat-wise, both of these series have different asks and expectations from the player. It’s the reason they are separate to this date. To me there is nothing wrong with that.

persona 5 had the assist button aswell just saying

My man really ain’t getting any more Atlus review codes now

Tip for the loading screen You can disable the tips and the loadings go from 10 to 1 second

11:02 I assume that would be this games equivalent of alignment reps, and I feel like thats a result of trying not to lock players into an alignment too early, but its an overcorrection that makes alignment meaningless until the very end. This was also an issue with SMTV that alignment choices didn't matter at all until the alignment lock in the final dungeon. And like I get why the choice is made in the sense that, you want your players to be actively playing the game and not having to worry about what dialogue choices matter and make a difference vs which ones don't. Like you want to shy away from forcing players to have to pull up a guide and play from that, but it takes a way a lot of the differences that routes would have in other games. Its an unfortunate case of player choice being exchanged for the illusion of choice that SMT largely didn't have an issue with before.

Wassup Yakko! Glad to see another upload!

Last year is was SMT5 now its Soul Hacker 2. Atlus keep getting L after L. Did they fire the old writing team? Where's the people who wrote Strange Journey get those guys back.

can someone tell me what the sound effect at 1:54 is? I recognize it but can’t tell where from

btw, dude, play original Soul Hackers, it is a way fun, has few unique gimmicks (magnetite and demon personalities) and some nice battles. And despite plot being quite a simple, it actually works in its own settings

I decided not to buy this game when I found out they stuck Mara behind a paywall.

I've been preoccupied with the Trails/Kiseki series of JRPGs so I couldn't dive into Soul Hackers 2 right away (love them btw, hoping to see a video about them someday) Still, it's kinda sad to hear that the game didn't live up to people's hype. I don't even think it was a Cyberpunk situation where the expectations were practically unattainable...

Now we can relax.

I was interrupted by an ad for Advil during the segment about the annoying navigator owl 😂

Haven't even seen this yet and I agree. Praise be to wanting more than generic anime bullshit with a 60 buck dlc day 1 tag slapped on top of it.

idk how much i want another raidou game after playing this game

my friend was excited for this game for the past month or 2, he doesn't like smt much but when I asked how this game was, all he said was "I kinda want to go try smt again instead"

I just finished the game and to me one of my biggest complaints is the slog of traversing the labyrinth like dungeons in the mid to late game. the barriers in Subway Line 14 were a little annoying to deal with but it was somewhat simple and at least you can get rid of it. but all the energy vortexes in the final dungeon's and the absurd number of teleporters in everyone's 3f and 4f in the soul matrix legit gave me a headache trying to remember where they all went so I just had to use a guide to find out which ones to take. I mainly pushed through to the end was because of how much I loved the characters though, they were just that good.

It's not like they can't make that sort of dungeon work, I loved strange journey, but of course it has the more solid smt gameplay as a baseline

I think this game had a lower budget than the other games like P5 and SMT5 but I wouldn’t call the game bad and I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece game because the game has flaws and is repetitive at times like the dungeons but I would say it’s a good game (also load times can be fixed easily by turning off tips for some reason)

It's funny, I actually would love a middle ground SMT/Persona experience, but not like this. Take everything SMT5 did, but flesh out a cast of characters with optional social link style systems & call it a day. I like the darker, more occult stories, and I loved the exploration & combat too. But I'd be lying if I said the Persona social link rank ups don't give me a little dopamine hit, while also getting to learn more about other characters 😅

Ah they butchered the heart of SH too try and expand market, “Ya hear that Noah? Yakko wants something a bit meatier”

Isn't this a bit over exaggerated? I'm 20 hours in and it's not as bad as you make it out to be.

Thie review brought to you by Haru from P5

From comments i'm reading here, it seems most ppl that are playing the game are liking it, while it's not on the level of others super hyped atlus games, they're still finding it fun enough. It's very clear that this game is simplified on purposed, to appeal to the more casual atlus enjoyers (IE Persona fans) and maybe spark some interest in the other SMT titles, which he says is unnecessary, but that is just plain wrong seeing as he played nocturne himself and didn't like it, for being too hard confusing, dark and isolated. I know it's kinda of a meme to say that persona fans are too casual to like "real" SMT titles (which translates to harder and darker games), but that is the unfortunate truth, so if this game makes more ppl interest in SMT as a whole (which only played persona or no atlus rpgs at all) than i'd say the game achieved what it set out to do. I guess I should say as a disclaimer that i'm a VERY hardcore fan SMT and I don't want to gatekeep anyone from enjoying it too. And yes I do like persona too.

I would love to see you do a video on other lesser known SMT games to try instead of this one

I don't know man. I liked this game overall, Loved the characters, the story was great, the music was fantastic, I personally didn't have a problem with Mimi talking a lot. Like I will of course replay SMT V simply for gameplay. But I will always skip cutscenes for that due to the story and characters being bad. Like, if I replay Soul Hackers 2, I wouldn't skip it because I loved watching the characters progress and be the better version of themselves. Yes, the battles can get braindead or annoying at times. But I felt like I was still challenged when even at level 70, A level 50 demon can still take half of my health away due to hitting my weakness. And I personally liked the stack system as well, made me strategize what demons my party had. And when I unlocked more of those skills that made the stack counter go higher. I was addicted to building demons around the things that could make the count go high. And I think Risky enemies are great at making Stacks really matter. One complaint I have is that the Frost Five didn't have a combined form like they did in Soul Hackers 1. And that's another thing, I know you said you never played Soul Hackers 1 so you didn't try comparing. But omg this game is so much better than Soul Hackers 1

Fun Fact: The frost aren't even new, they appeared before in other SMT Games like Devil Survivor 2

Is there a hard mode that makes this games difficulty somewhat similar to the other SMTs?

Your description of this game reminds me a lot of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, a game where I finished reading a manga during the combat due to the sheer length of unskippable cut scenes during fights after hitting a weakness. Similar staff too, must be a bad game design habit of theirs lol

LET'S GO NEW YAKKO VID