Soul Hackers 2 is a 2022 role-playing video game created by Atlus. It was released by Atlus in Japan and by Sega worldwide for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is the fifth in the Devil Summoner series, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise, and it follows the story of the original game, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (1997). The story centers on Ringo and Figue, who are representatives of an artificial intelligence named Aion. They search for and recruit members from competing groups of Devil Summoners to stop an upcoming disaster. Players control Ringo and her team as they explore futuristic city dungeons and battle enemies in turn-based combat.
The game was developed by a team that included members from the Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE project, such as Eiji Ishida and Mitsuru Hirata, who served as co-producers and co-directors, and Makoto Miyauchi, who wrote the story. The team worked with artist Shirow Miwa to design characters and with composers from the Monaca studio, led by Keiichi Okabe, to create the music.
Critics gave Soul Hackers 2 mixed reviews. Some praised its visuals, combat system, and storyline, but others pointed out issues with dungeon design, extra content, and how downloadable content was included. The game did not reach the sales goals set by Sega.
Gameplay
Soul Hackers 2 is a role-playing video game where players control an artificial character named Ringo. During the game, Ringo teams up with three human allies who each have unique abilities. The story is shown through 3D movie clips created within the game and through dialogue sections that mix 3D character models with 2D portraits of the characters. Players advance by completing story-based tasks, moving between safe zones that have shops for items and equipment, and exploring dungeon areas where they fight enemies called Demons. Side quests, called Requests, can be completed to earn money and items. In addition to regular dungeons, there is the Soul Matrix, which is a special dungeon linked to each of Ringo’s party members. Exploring and clearing these areas gives the party new skills. The size of a party member’s Soul Matrix depends on their Soul Bond, which strengthens when players spend time with them outside of battles or make specific choices during story scenes.
Enemies in dungeons are shown as humanoid symbols, with their colors indicating their strength and aggression. Ringo can either stun enemies to avoid fighting or choose to engage. If enemies attack first, they get the first move in battle. If Ringo starts the fight, the party gets the first move and may trigger a powerful opening attack from a party member. Battles are turn-based, meaning each side takes turns to act using attacks and skills assigned to their COMP weapons through Demons. A key part of combat is targeting weaknesses, which cause more damage. Weaknesses include elemental attacks, or melee and ranged attacks depending on the enemy type. Hitting a weakness adds points to a Stack, and at the end of the turn, the accumulated Stack is used in a Sabbath, a strong attack that grows stronger with more points. Some demons can learn Tamdem Skills, which add extra effects like causing status changes or restoring magic points during the Sabbath. Later in the game, players can use Commander Skills, a special ability unique to Ringo that gives the party helpful advantages in battle.
Like other Megami Tensei games, demons are important in combat and can be recruited and customized by players. When entering a dungeon, Ringo sends out assigned demons to explore. Finding them gives new information, items, healing, and the chance to recruit new demons. Demons join the party after completing tasks, such as giving an item. Once recruited, demons can be equipped to COMPs, changing the skills available to each party member. Players can also combine two demons through Fusion to create a new type of demon at a specific location. Players choose which skills from each demon carry over to the new one. Fusing specific demons triggers a Special Fusion, creating a stronger demon. After a demon learns all its skills, it gives the party a Mistique, an item that provides permanent benefits. Demons can be recorded in a Demon Compendium, allowing players to summon them again for a cost. In New Game Plus, players carry over their current Soul Bond level, unlocking more story scenes, costumes, and accessories from the first playthrough. Players can also optionally carry over character levels, items, money, and unlocked demons.
Synopsis
Soul Hackers 2 takes place in a city near the future where humans and demons live together in secret. Some humans can make agreements with demons to become Devil Summoners. These summoners are divided into two main groups: Yatagarasu and the Phantom Society. These groups disagree about how humans should progress. At the beginning of the game, a terrible disaster caused by a powerful being called the Great One is predicted by Aion, an artificial intelligence that appeared in cyberspace. Aion creates two parts of itself, named Ringo and Figue, to enter the human world and save people who are important to stopping the Great One. The people saved are Arrow, a member of Yatagarasu; Milady, a summoner from the Phantom Society who is in love with Iron Mask, a leader; and Saizo, a freelance summoner whose lover, Ash, is involved in his murder. Ringo uses a power called Soul Hack to restore their souls and bodies. The group investigates the death of a researcher named Ichiro Onda and the disappearance of a Yatagarasu leader, Mangetsu Kuzunoha. They learn that Iron Mask is searching for the Covenants, five magical objects that represent an ancient agreement with the Great One.
Kuzunoha studied the Covenants, which can be used together to summon the Great One and change the world. Onda helped Kuzunoha with his research to improve humanity. Onda was killed while working on his goals. Kuzunoha later died, and his Covenant was taken. Milady and Saizo also had Covenants, but Milady’s was attached to Figue when Ringo revived her. The group is helped by Raven, a former Yatagarasu summoner who becomes connected to Figue. The group is captured by Iron Mask and his artificial demon, Zenon, who demand Figue’s Covenant. Figue infects Zenon with a computer virus, making it weak. Zenon is killed with Ash’s help, but Iron Mask escapes with four of the Covenants. Figue later reveals that Kuzunoha created a fake Covenant for himself, hiding the real one inside Arrow and blocking his memories. Milady also tells the group that the real Iron Mask is dead, and the current one is an imposter.
The real Covenant is found inside Arrow, revealing that Raven has the other Covenants and is the fake Iron Mask who planned to summon the Great One. After transferring Arrow’s Covenant to Figue, the group stops Milady from attacking an orphanage out of revenge. They then fight Raven in a final battle. Despite Figue’s attempts to stop him, Raven fights until he dies, believing the only way to end the conflict is through the Great One. A sad Figue uses the Covenants to perform a Soul Hack on all humans, removing their desire for conflict. This causes Aion to shut down because Figue’s will overrides it. In the normal ending, Figue disappears after the group defeats her, leaving Ringo as the only Aion agent. Ringo promises to watch over humanity and report to Aion if it returns, while the summoners go their separate ways. If all Soul Matrix quests are completed, Ringo can use Soul Hack to revive Figue with help from Raven’s spirit. The summoners become friends, and Ringo and Figue restore Aion, who decides to reveal itself to humanity.
Development
Soul Hackers 2 was created by Atlus, a company known for making games in the Devil Summoner series and its parent franchise, Megami Tensei. Eiji Ishida and Mitsuru Hirata, who worked on the game as co-producers and co-directors, had previously made games in the Shin Megami Tensei series and the spin-off title Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (2015). Makoto Miyauchi, the scenario writer, had worked on games in the Etrian Odyssey and Megami Tensei series. Since the first Soul Hackers game was released in 1997, the Megami Tensei franchise became more popular, especially through its Persona subseries. The developers wanted to return to the Devil Summoner series and make a sequel to Soul Hackers that would be easy for new players to enjoy while keeping classic elements from the series. Work on the game began after Ishida and Hirata finished Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE. Because the project was large, the two worked together, with Ishida designing the world and Hirata focusing on the game’s structure.
Unlike the original game’s 2D first-person view, Soul Hackers 2 used a 3D third-person perspective to help players feel more immersed and to create a movie-like style. The battle system used the Press Turn system, which allowed players to take advantage of enemies’ weaknesses while reducing the time and risk in battles. COMP devices were redesigned to keep their original features but added new functions to match the game’s new setting and mechanics. Soul Matrix quests were compared by Hirata to the Vision Quests in the original game. Dungeon designs included realistic locations with horizontal layouts and Soul Matrix dungeons with more fantastical elements. Character relationship mechanics were compared by Ishida to the Persona series, though the game’s tone and adult cast made it different from Persona’s high-school setting.
A recurring theme was the clash between technology and the occult in the modern world, which inspired the game’s non-human lead character. Unlike the original Soul Hackers, which had dystopian themes, the story focused on shared goals among fighting groups and how a non-human character would interact with them. Hirata wanted to explore the conflict between Yatagerasu, the Phantom Society, and freelancers, which had not been explained in detail before. Originally, Ringo was not the main character but an important secondary character like Nemissa from the first Soul Hackers. This caused storytelling issues, so she became the lead, and other characters were rewritten. She was more active in the story than previous Megami Tensei protagonists, and all playable characters had detailed stories tied to conflicts between Summoner clans. A concept for a parallel setting like the Metaverse in Persona 5 was dropped. Ringo and Figue were given strong personalities to help players connect with them.
Character designs were done by manga artist Shirow Miwa, who was a fan of the Devil Summoner series and had made fan art of its characters. Miwa was asked if he should copy the designs from the original Soul Hackers, but he was told to use his own style. The overall art design, including demon redesigns, was influenced by Miwa’s work. Demons were made to look less threatening while keeping their original features, with their designs compared to gyaru fashion by Miyauchi. The world design used a brighter look than other Megami Tensei games and was inspired by the world design of Nier: Automata, which had some similar elements to Soul Hackers 2. Environments were designed around an "urban nightlife" theme to match the game’s focus on demons in the modern world. Summoner-exclusive areas were inspired by the Continental Hotel from the John Wick movie series.
The music for Soul Hackers 2 was created by Monaca, a music studio. The soundtrack was composed and arranged by Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Shotaro Seo, Oliver Good, and Keita Inoue. The opening theme, "Hopeless Call," was composed by Okabe, with lyrics by Seo and vocals by NAHO. Hirata said Monaca was the best choice for the game’s music because of its theme of clashing ideas and the meeting of technology and magic. Monaca used setting details and character art to guide the music’s style and tone. A three-disc soundtrack album was released on October 22, 2022.
Release
Soul Hackers 2 was announced in February 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows (via Steam and Microsoft Store), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The versions for Windows and Xbox were created by Artdink. The game did not use the name "Devil Summoner." Hirata explained that this decision was made to focus on the game's themes, make it easier for new players to understand, and keep the title simple to say. The game was released in Japan on August 25, 2022, and in other countries the next day. This release happened at the same time as the 25th anniversary of Soul Hackers. The game includes English and Japanese audio, with subtitles in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. In Japan, Atlus published the game, while Sega published it in other regions worldwide. Atlus West was responsible for translating and voicing the game, with Christian La Monte as the English voice director. A video showing the game’s opening scene was shared online on August 18. Atlus released rules for streaming the game in early October, allowing players to record and share gameplay as long as warnings about spoilers were included in the descriptions.
The game was sold in different digital versions: Standard, Digital Deluxe, and Digital Premium Editions, each with extra items. In Japan, a special box set was released for PlayStation versions of the game to celebrate its 25th anniversary. This set included special packaging, an art book with concept illustrations and staff interviews, a music album with modern versions of songs from the original Soul Hackers, and a Jack Frost mascot figurine. Atlus also sold themed merchandise, such as stickers and keychains, after the game’s release. A North American collector’s edition included similar items to the Japanese 25th Anniversary Edition.
The game included downloadable content (DLC). As a bonus for pre-ordering, all editions included costumes and music inspired by Persona 5. Each edition also had a self-contained story campaign called "The Lost Numbers," an extra difficulty level, special items, additional demons, and costume and music packs based on other Megami Tensei titles, including the original Soul Hackers. The Digital Premium Edition included two extra costumes. All DLC except the Digital Premium costumes could be purchased separately. At launch, the game received a patch that added camera settings. An update in November 2022 introduced a "dash" for running in dungeons, a "Speed Up" mode that made battle animations faster, and four new demons, along with other changes.
Reception
Soul Hackers 2 received "mixed or average reviews" from Metacritic, a website that collects reviews. The Xbox Series X/S version of the game received "generally favorable reviews." Some reviewers said the game lacked originality. IGN reviewer Cameron Hawkins found the story and characters interesting but criticized the level design as uncreative. Jason McMaster of VentureBeat noted that the game was not bad but did not stand out from others. Chris Carr of Destructoid said the game's dungeons felt repetitive but kept players interested.
Willa Rowe of Inverse stated that the downloadable content (DLC) was enjoyable but necessary to improve the base game's experience, adding more variety to the otherwise repetitive dungeons.
In its first week, about 51,800 physical copies of the game were sold in Japan. The PlayStation 4 version, which was the third-best-selling retail game of the week, sold approximately 31,600 units. The PlayStation 5 version, which was the fifth-best-selling, sold the remaining 20,200 units. According to the NPD Group, Soul Hackers 2 was the 15th best-selling title in August 2022 and the third-highest new release after Madden NFL 23 and the Saint's Row reboot. Although Famitsu considered the game's initial sales in Japan positive, Sega reported in their November 2022 financial update that the game was not meeting sales goals but would continue to support it to improve long-term sales.