Soul Hackers 2 Review - I Am Very Disappointed
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This is my Souls Hackers 2 review which I have been putting off writing for more than a week now because I just did not want to come back to this game in any way either gameplay wise or just mentally.
Going into Soul Hackers 2 it looks like a Shin Megami Tensei game just with a neon cyberpunk coat of paint. I figured cool why not.
Soul Hackers 2 runs about 45 hours which is fairly short for a JRPG especially a SMT related JRPG. Here's the thing though most of that run time is all stripped down repetitive grindy gameplay. The game has only 8 main dungeons. 2 of those are reskinned subway tunnels, 2 are reskinned shipping districts, 2 of them are just ancillary parts of the persona style mementos super dungeon and the last two are towers that have no distinct visual differences from floor to floor. In fact of those towers one of them is the final dungeon and it only finally gets some interesting visual design in the last half before disappearing into nothingness.
All of the side quests in the game take place in these same dungeons or in slightly rearranged reskins of them. None of the side quests have any distinctiveness and only serve as a means to get cash or experience points. The only side quest I can truly remember is the DLC story which I paid like 10 dollars for. I'm not lamenting spending money on the quest; that was my choice but I do wish the other side quest had been as fleshed out as the DLC side story because as it is they are literally just a list of things to do.
Besides the repetitive dungeons we have a future version of Tokyo called Amami City. The city is broken up into the areas you go to for shopping, for upgrading your weapons and for fusing your demons. Each of these areas looks way more visually distinctive and interesting than the game's dungeons. That said these are very small areas and something I found weird about them is the way these super small areas are separated by a crap ton of loading screens.
The only other area of the game is the persona style mementos dungeon. This is the soul matrix which you must delve into if you want any snippets or inconsequential tidbits about each party member. There are 20 floors total and each floor can only be unlocked by achieving a certain level of affection with each party member. Not a problem as you are presented with plenty of affection boosting options throughout the main story. You might think from the way I have described it thus far that the soul matrix is entirely optional like mementos from persona 5. You'd be wrong. You need to explore the soul matrix because it is the only way to unlock a ton of quality of life features that are immediately accessible in the other SMT games. As well you need to fully clear the Soul Matrix if you want to be able to access the good ending to the game.
So much of your game time has been devoted to repetitive gate clearing gameplay that the story is barely present. As I said earlier the characters have barely any time to shine or breath so it feels like there are just individual stereotypes. When you play persona or SMT you can feel the passage of time and the growth of the characters. In Soul hackers i coulda sworn the game took place over the course of one week and the characters barely knew each other by the end of it. As well, the one big twist in the story was hugely telegraphed and easy to spot from a mile away. Believe it or not there were actually a few really hype moments in Soul hackers that got my blood pumping but then those scenes would end and I realize nothing had really changed and the plot was still meh, So there are a few really hype moments but they feel unearned.
After spending the last several minutes tearing this game a new one you must think I hate it. I don't hate it. I'm just disappointed with it because the framework for a good game is here but it was obviously a low budget project or a B team effort. I went into Soul Hackers 2 knowing it would not be as good or expansive as Persona or SMT. I knew that but it ended up being so much less. It's not bad, what's there works but there just isn't enough there for it to be anything than meh.
That's my experience with Soul Hackers 2 I'm sad to say. And after you finish the game if you want to see the other ending i highly recommend you watching it on youtube. It's not enough to justify another playthrough.
Have you played Soul Hackers 2 yet? If so let me know how you feel about it and if you agree or disagree. If you have not played it yet I hope I painted a good picture of my experience but at the end of the day whether you choose to buy the game is your choice and if you enjoy it I cannot fault you for that. Let me know in the comments down below and I'll catch you next time. Later.
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