Speaking to 4Gamer.net (translation via Gematsu) for its end-of-year interviews, Ishida discussed his ambitions for 2024. “I’m currently involved in an unannounced title. While the timing of its announcement has yet to be decided, I’m working hard alongside the director toward its completion. Please give us your support when that time comes.”

Interestingly, producer Shinjiro Takada, who has worked on the Growlanser series and spin-offs like Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, said “We will release Unicorn Overlord from Vanillaware, as well as one other title. At the same time, I would like to prepare for future projects.” It’s unknown whether this new title is the same as Ishida’s, but the two have worked together before on Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, so it’s possible.

As for what this unannounced project could be, it may be a follow-up to Shin Megami Tensei 5, which launched in November 2021 for Nintendo Switch. On top of a positive critical reception (check out our review here), it sold over one million units as of April 2022. Time will tell, so stay tuned for more details in the new year.

February 28 will bring Atlus’ turn-based cyberpunk RPG Soul Hackers 2 coming to the service for console, PC, and cloud, while Magic Cube’s fantasy puzzle adventure game Merge and Blade will also be added on the same day.

While those will be the final additions of the month, the early days of March will bring a couple of major new titles as well, with Codemasters and EA’s racing sim F1 22 arriving on March 2, following by Team Ninja’s highly anticipated Souslike action RPG Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty launching the next day, on March 3.

Battles now also have a “Speed Up” mode for increasing combat speed, which players can freely toggle between as necessary. Four new demons – Pixie (Soul Hackers Ver.), Aitvaras, Isis, and Neko Shogun – have also been added. These don’t count towards the Registration Percentage in the Demon Compendium.

Other quality-of-life features include adjusting the skill inheritance rates during Demon Fusion (the trailer notes skills as being “easier to inherit”) and the enemy spawn rate in dungeons. Players can also teleport directly to shops from the City Map. If you’ve had issues with incorrect input during Soul Level increases, then the flow of prompts has been adjusted to help with the same.

Check out the full patch notes below. Soul Hackers 2 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here. Though struggling to reach the expected sales level, as per Sega Sammy following its Q2 FY22 financial results, it will continue updating the RPG to “expand sales.” Stay tuned for more details on future updates in the coming months.

Soul Hackers 2 Ver. 1.02

A full list of changes can be found below:

Newly added functions:

Dash function

• A “Dash” function has been added to Ringo’s movement.
• The user can toggle between “Normal” and “Dash” at will. While in Dash Mode, Ringo’s walking and slashing speeds will increase.
• Due to the addition of the dash function, the effect of the Summoner Skill “Assassin’s Steps” has been changed to: “For a given distance, enemies will ignore Ringo.”

Fast Battle Mode

• A “Speed Up” mode has been added to battles. Players may freely toggle between normal and high-speed combat.

Adjustments

• Adjusted how long loading-screen tips are shown.
• Changed the flow of on-screen prompts during soul level increase to reduce the risk of incorrect input from accidental button presses.
• Added the ability to teleport directly to shops from the City Map.
• Adjusted enemy spawn rate in dungeons.
• Adjusted skill inheritance rates during demon fusion.
• Other minor changes.

Other changes

• Added four new demons: Pixie (Soul Hackers Ver.), Neko Shogun, Aitvaras, and Isis.
• Note: The above bonus demons do not count toward the Registration Percentage in the Demon Compendium or the achievement “Compendium Completionist”.

As a result, the company will continue to update it and aim to “expand sales.” The first major update for the title arrives in November and adds four new Demons, a Dash function, and High-Speed Battle Mode. Interestingly, Two Point Studios’ Two Point Campus also struggled somewhat.

Despite a record high number of users and user evaluations, its unit sales were “weaker than expected.” It did have one million players within two weeks, but it seems that didn’t translate into sales.

Soul Hackers 2 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC – check out our official review here. Two Point Campus is also out on the same platforms and Nintendo Switch. You can check out our review of it here.

Due to the new Dash function, the “Assassin’s Stride” Summoner Skill will now make the player “undetectable to enemies” for a fixed distance. Another new feature is High-Speed Battle Mode which increases the overall speed of battles. One can switch between Normal and High-Speed mode on the fly.

In terms of fixes, the frequency of enemies appearing in dungeons has been “adjusted.” Furthermore, fast-traveling to a shop from the City Map will now transport you inside. Load times should also be quicker due to adjusting the “Termination Processing” of loading screen tips. Check out the full notes below (translation via Gematsu) for more details. You can also read our review for the game here.

Functionality Additions

• Dash Function – Added a “Dash” function to Ringo’s movement in dungeons and fields. You can switch between “Normal” and “Dash” as you like. (With the addition of the Dash function, the effect of the Summoner Skill “Assassin’s Stride” has been changed to, “Become undetectable to enemies for a fixed distance.”
• High-Speed Battle Mode – Added a “High-Speed” mode to battle. You can switch between “Normal” and “High-Speed” as you like.

Adjustments

• Adjusted “Termination Processing of Loading Screen Tips” to speed up load times.
• Revised “Choice Controls During Soul Level Increase” to reduce mistakes caused by button mashing.
• When selecting a shop from the City Map, you will now fast-travel directly to the inside of the shop.
• Adjusted “frequency of enemy appearances” in dungeons.
• Adjusted ease of inheriting skills during Demon Fusion.
• Other minor adjustments.

Other Additions

Four New Demons

• Aitvaras
• Isis
• Neko Shogun
• Pixie (Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers Ver.)

The highest selling game of the week, however, is Earth Defense Force 6, which recently launched in Japan. It also occupies two places, with the PS4 version taking the top spot with over 68,000 units sold and the PS5 version coming in at No. 4 respectively with over 24,000 units sold.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is the next new release of the week that figures into the charts, and it also occupies multiple places. Its Nintendo Switch version takes the second spot with over 38,000 units sold, the PS4 version comes in at sixth place with over 17,000 units sold, and the PS5 version slots in at No. 10 with over 9,000 units sold. The final new release of the week in the top 10, meanwhile, is Saints Row, selling over 10,000 units and taking the ninth spot.

On the hardware front, meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch is dominant once again, collectively selling over 113,000 units across all of its models. The PS5 trails by a massive gap, having moved over 25,000 units over the course of the week, while the Xbox Series consoles follow with over 16,000 units sold.

You can check out the full software and hardware charts for the week ending August 28 below.

Software sales (followed by last week’s sales):

1. [PS4] Earth Defense Force 6 – 68,341 (New)
2. [NSW] SD Gundam Battle Alliance – 38,634 (New)
3. [PS4] Soul Hackers 2 – 31,604 (New)
4. [PS5] Earth Defense Force 6 – 24,363 (New)
5. [PS5] Soul Hackers 2 – 20,257 (New)
6. [PS4] SD Gundam Battle Alliance – 17,950 (New)
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 11,644 (4,802,581)
8. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports – 10,576 (706,637)
9. [PS4] Saints Row – 10,013 (New)
10. [PS5] SD Gundam Battle Alliance – 9,625 (New)

Hardware sales:

• Nintendo Switch – 113,530
• PS5 – 25,109
• Xbox Series X/S – 16,726

Ringo won’t be venturing alone. She’ll be joined by Arrow, Saizo and Milady, who each have connections to the Yatagarasu and Phantom Society. Back from the dead, they oppose the mysterious “C” and attempt to prevent his plan from coming to fruition. Along with the usual Press Turn system from previous Shin Megami Tensei titles, Soul Hackers 2 introduces some new mechanics like Stacks.

Exploiting enemy weaknesses results in Stacks, which can be used to unleash powerful attacks called Sabbaths to damage all foes. Ringo can also hang out with each party member to delve deeper into their pasts and unlock powerful Commander Skills. For more details, check out our review here.

First and foremost, there’s demons, of course, which remain central to the gameplay as ever in Shin Megami Tensei. The trailer also details various Realms, where players will be able to purchase materials, fuse demons, and more. Get more details in the trailer below.

In our review of Soul Hackers 2, we awarded the game a score of 8/10, saying, “While it does have its stumbles, Soul Hackers 2 is a stylish JRPG with an intriguing premise and a compelling cast, and a fantastic battle system that more than makes up for the flaws it does have.” Read the full review through here.

Soul Hackers 2 launches on August 26 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Recently, Atlus also unveiled the game’s opening movie- check that out through here.

In spite of those fumbles (which we’ll get to shortly), there’s a lot that Soul Hackers 2 does well that it shares with its sister franchises – the UI and sense of style is almost overwhelming, for example, the music is predictably great, and the battle system is a thing of beauty.

That battle system is probably the single strongest thing about the game (which makes sense). Deriving from the excellent Press Turn and 1-More systems in SMT and Persona, but also diverging from them to stake out its own distinct take on the same concepts, it’s familiar but different in all the best ways. Like SMT and Persona, striking elemental weaknesses is paramount to get a leg-up in battle; doing so even once lets you launch a powerful all-out attack against the enemy (called Sabbaths in this game), with these attacks getting progressively more powerful the more party members you managed to hit enemy weaknesses with. Hit an enemy weakness with a party member, and their demon joins the tag team (called a “Stack”) that powers the Sabbath at the end of the turn; the more demons in the Stack, the more damage the Sabbath dishes out.

"The battle system is probably the single strongest thing about Soul Hackers 2. It’s a simple variation on concepts already made familiar by Atlus’ other games, but it works, and it leads to some pretty exciting battles, particularly with bosses, which are long fights where you can get the chance to plan and execute some really elaborate strategies. "

It’s a simple variation on concepts already made familiar by Atlus’ other games, but it works, and it leads to some pretty exciting battles, particularly with bosses, which are long fights where you can get the chance to plan and execute some really elaborate strategies. It also helps that there is (obviously) more to battles than just this simple elemental weakness exploitation and follow-up; the emphasis on buffs and debuffs that Atlus RPGs always place is here, and can change the tide of battle depending on how you leverage them. Special abilities tied to cooldowns (known as “Commander Attacks”) let you gain special advantages at opportune moments, such as being able to switch out your party’s equipped demons, or increasing the power of your Demon Stack.

Battles are also kept fresh thanks to the intermeshing of multiple progression systems the game employs; you level up, getting a lift to your base stats (obviously); your demons level up with you, giving you further stat boosts and learning new abilities; you find materials to unlock more abilities for yourself; you fuse demons to make stronger demons, you recruit new ones to join your party; you meet new characters and get access to stronger gear and facilities to help you do even better in battles, all coming back around to perpetuate the loop further. It’s addictive, it’s well thought out, and it’s really fun to experiment with.

Even the changes the game makes to some longstanding MegaTen mechanics actually work out for the better. Take, for instance, recruiting new demons to join your party. Gone are elaborate negotiations where you talk to the demon that catches your fancy in battle and try to win them over to your cause. Rather, in Soul Hackers 2, the more you battle demons, the likelier the chance that they come up to you as you traverse its dungeons and tell you they want to join your party. When they do, they make one single demand – which if you meet, they join you, no questions asked. It’s a smart simplification of a mechanic that while fun, has often been considered obtuse in the past. While it does give up randomness in the actual negotiations in exchange for not being able to recruit demons when you immediately encounter them, in practice, battling any demon even a couple of times is usually enough for them to start showing up and offering to join you, so any potential frustration there is prematurely allayed.

"Dungeon design in Soul Hackers 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, which is an issue because this game is ultimately a dungeon crawler at its core."

While combat is an unmitigated triumph in Soul Hackers 2, the dungeon crawling can feel more frustrating. The core dungeon design in Soul Hackers 2 is great; every single dungeon is hand-crafted (and there are a lot of them), and all of them feel like daunting, exciting affairs when you get around to exploring them, presenting dizzying labyrinths for you to map and some really imaginative navigational challenges and puzzles. However, there are some unforced errors and quirks that hold the dungeons back from being the home run that they otherwise could have been, and do introduce some caveats to what comprises the core gameplay loop in the game. Soul Hackers 2 is, after all, a dungeon crawler at its core, with almost all gameplay in the game being just that.

The issues with dungeons come down to a bunch of things; primarily, the themeing and aesthetic of them is far too repetitive. While some later dungeons do get more creative with their theme and how they look, for far too long, all dungeons look very samey, if not outright reusing the same look (two of the first three dungeons in the game are set in an underground station, for example, and even when the thumbing is technically different, in practice it ends up looking very similar across multiple dungeons). This can really make the whole thing feel dreary, particularly since, as mentioned, these dungeons are where you’re really spending most if not all of your time.

This dreariness gets exacerbated by minor QoL misses that only make the whole dungeon crawling more frustrating than it really should be. For example, take the encounter rate, which is absolutely insane. Now, to be clear, Soul Hackers 2 doesn’t have random battles – demons spawn on the field, and you engage them by walking into them to initiate the battle (or attacking them to disable them, and either get the initiative in the encounter, or to just get them off your back). However, demons that spawn on the field do chase you once they see you. Why is this an issue? Because it means you literally cannot stop to get your bearings or orient yourself in the very aforementioned samey looking dungeons for even a couple of seconds without risking being accosted by a demon and pulled into a battle (at the end of which you better hope you remember your bearings, or you just end up feeling even more lost).

"Outside of the dungeons, Soul Hackers 2 doesn’t have a whole lot going on in terms of gameplay. The world itself is a bunch of smaller areas acting as hubs for you to manage your party’s gear, abilities, demons, and inventory, as well as to get more side quests."

Take those fun navigational challenges and puzzles I mentioned earlier, for example. A lot of these are ones that require you to stop, take stock of the layout of the dungeon as a whole, and plan your route through them to be able to clear them. Except, and here’s the problem, you don’t get a dedicated map screen to do this. There is an automapping overlay on top of the main screen as you play, and that’s all you can refer to to try and figure out your way. The lack of a dedicated map screen would already be a pretty big QoL miss by itself, but when you consider the fact that even referring to this overlay map without being harassed by demons who continue to spawn and attack you while you try to get your bearings is impossible, the whole exercise becomes a lot more frustrating.

This isn’t a deal breaker by any means. It happens rarely enough that it does not really impact the experience too much on the whole. It is just added frustration on top of the dungeons themselves feeling tedious thanks to the visual repetition they pose. What makes these problems more unfortunate is that they all seem like they are unforced errors, easily fixed; a simple dedicated map screen would probably be enough to help players orient themselves in dungeons, and just slightly more visual variation and distinction would address the issue at its root to begin with. They also feel more annoying than they would otherwise given the strength of the dungeons at their core.

But in spite of that, the bulk of these dungeons are really fun and engaging affairs, especially if you pace yourself. The visual repetition aside, the core design and layout is extremely fun, featuring some rather clever challenges and massive labyrinths that make traversing their depths an exciting proposition. Finally understanding the full layout of a dungeon, or unlocking a shortcut that loops you back to an earlier location and gives you a sense for the physical spread of the place, is an exhilarating feeling, and really gives you the sense of you slowly uncovering, and even conquering, a hostile maze through sheer determination and audacity. While these dungeons do have their issues, they’re still more than compelling enough to substantiate the meaty experience they comprise the bulk of. For those who were disappointed by the lack of traditional dungeon crawling in last year’s Shin Megami Tensei V, what is here will be more than enough to satisfy your cravings.

Outside of the dungeons, Soul Hackers 2 doesn’t have a whole lot going on in terms of gameplay. The world itself is a bunch of smaller areas acting as hubs for you to manage your party’s gear, abilities, demons, and inventory, as well as to get more side quests, meaning the compelling and hugely addictive exploration that was SMTV‘s biggest strength is absent here. There are party members you can spend time with in hangout events, and based on what you say, you get closer to them. Getting closer to them also unlocks more of a special dungeon that each party member gets dedicated to them; and traversing that dungeon and clearing more of it gets you closer to the party member in turn. The bulk of the “gameplay” in this side of things comes from the dungeon crawling (which comes with all the issues with the dungeons I already mentioned above). Hangout events are mostly cutscenes, offering you one or at most two dialog options (and even telling you upfront who will like what you say the most), meaning the mechanical and interactive nuance that makes the social elements in RPGs like Persona so compelling isn’t actually present as much here. As mentioned previously, Soul Hackers 2 is primarily a dungeon crawler, and the dungeons are where the bulk of its gameplay resides.

Soul Hackers 2 is also an interesting game as far as the story and characters go. It doesn’t make a strong first impression (the game feels too low budget initially for the amount of focus it places on the story in its opening hours, and the writing feels clumsy too), but it manages to find its footing, and starts to present some extremely interesting themes. Like other MegaTen games, Soul Hackers 2 gets pretty heady with the things it talks about, from ruminations on the human condition (both on an individual and collective social level), as well as the nature of death, existence, and what it means to be human to begin with. And as is the norm for most MegaTen games Atlus games JRPGs, there is some bonkers escalation of stakes by the end that really adds some gravity to proceedings.

"While Soul Hackers 2 does have several problems that feel frustratingly unnecessary, and like they hold it back from achieving the greatness that it often hints at, the final experience feels well worth the time."

Soul Hackers 2 is technically a sequel to the original Soul Hackers (and therefore a continuation of the Devil Summoner line of games that spawned the original Soul Hackers to begin with), but it is almost entirely disconnected from those games. While it has some references and cameos that will make fans of those games extremely happy, you can jump into it knowing nothing about those games (or even their existence) and still follow all of it without trouble.

Stronger than the story are the characters. Your party members in this aren’t friends trying to save the world together as much as they are professional adversaries thrown into an uneasy alliance forced upon them by circumstances. This leads to some pretty fun character dynamics and interactions mostly atypical for the genre (which tends to be about the power of friendship usually), and it makes learning about them feel more fun, since each revelation feels narratively earned. Each character has far more to them than meets the eye at first – and what meets the eye at first is already incredibly intriguing and compelling from the get go.

While Soul Hackers 2 does have several problems that feel frustratingly unnecessary, and hold it back from achieving the greatness that it often hints at, the final experience feels well worth the time. A great cast of characters, intriguing story, snazzy UI, excellent soundtrack, strong aesthetic and art style, and incredible battle system are all enough to help Soul Hackers 2 rise above its several issues, and deliver an RPG that is well worth playing in the end, particularly for JRPG and Atlus fans.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

As we approach its launch later this month, Atlus has been sharing new details and trailers for the game, and now, they’ve unveiled its intro cinematic. It starts out fairly low-key, but quickly escalates, as you’d expect, with a number of key characters and story sequences being shown off. Of course, it goes hand-in-hand with a high octane musical track in the background. Check out the full cinematic below.

Soul Hackers 2 is launching in just a few days’ time, on August 26 (though in Japan, it launches a day earlier on August 25). Upon release, the game will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.