Soul Hackers 2: Hardly Soulless, Hardly Flawless

I remember in the mid-2010s, the beginning of the more polarized and divisive era of discourse in which we are all accustomed to now, an even more idealistic and naive version of myself would ask upon seeing people clash so aggressively and with such reckless abandonment: “why can’t we all just get along?” A perfect harmonization of the human experience amongst so many, a eusocial insect hive in essence, does not suit our kind. Conflict is inevitable when every perception, every experience is unique amongst now 8 billion strong. Conflict is a symptom of pain and pain an inescapable reality of the living. To take away any is to undo a status quo of thousands of years of evolution. So why is it, that when given the chance to do so we would try to subtract these cores?

As I’ve been making my way down the pipeline of Atlus RPGs that are available to me and the systems that I have, Soul Hackers 2 was one that intrigued me as not only had it been the most recently released new Atlus-developed RPG (excluding Unicorn Overlord which was developed by Vanillaware and Persona 3 Reload which was a remake) but it was a non-narrative sequel to Devil Summoners: Soul Hackers originally released on the Sega Saturn all the way back in 1997. In the same way that each subsequent Persona entry is not narratively connected to the other, there was nothing standing in my way to experience another, new to me, Atlus game. Developed by the team that worked on Tokyo Mirage Sessions back in 2013 led by co-directors Eiji Ishida and Mitsuru Hirata. 

Set in near-future Tokyo, Aion, a higher artificial intelligence that emerged from within cyberspace manifests two humanoid pieces of itself, our player character Ringo, and their opposite number Figue are directed by the intelligence entity to enter the human world and save humans calculated as key to avoiding a predicted world ending catastrophe which has been set in motion. Humans and demons coexist in secret, with some humans able to form pacts with demons to become Devil Summoners. The Devil Summoners are mostly split between two main factions, Yatagarasu and the Phantom Society, who hold clashing ideological views on humanity's progress. Each of the three individuals who are to be saved by Ringo and Figue are involved with either the Phantom Society, Yatagarasu, or both. The group eventually uncover that a high ranking member within the Phantom Society is working to bring together five “covenants” together as a catalyst for the world ending catastrophe to take place.

To those familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei/Persona gameplay loop as I have become over the past 5 years or so, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into here. A mixture of social sim elements, monster (or I suppose in this case “Demon”) collection, and dungeon explorations along with a fair share of narrative to dig into. 

In a similar way to Persona and SMT the combat is turn-based. Magic attacks are elemental with the occasional physical or ranged option where if weaknesses are hit certain amounts will be added to the “stack” of your party’s turn. The higher the number the greater lump sum of damage will be dealt to the entire enemy party as well. As you level up each character you’ll also gain chances to level up their “soul level” a numerical representation of Ringo’s connection with each respective party member. As that number increases your teammates will each gain new combat ability such as increasing their statistics or increasing their number of stacked attacks.

The design of the city itself is remarkably aesthetically pleasing even if mechanically it feels a bit more like a museum than a place for genuine engagement and simulation. The neon-soaked cyberpunk colors, flashing lights, futuristic tone is a place I always wanted to be if for nothing other than to ogle it. It’s glowing size and scale portraying the power of corporate influence and greed as well as any line of dialogue could.

Dungeon design is one of the biggest and most glaring flaws of the game with the exception of the final one which feels as though it could’ve been stretched further throughout the games run time. In contrast to its city and the lavish saturation, the dungeons lack all of this visual variety. Often taking place in abandoned subway tunnels, office buildings and shipping depots. Bland and without personality they all blend together to the point where if you showed me two screenshots without context I might not be able to tell you which dungeon was which.

Narratively the first two thirds of the game are expositional which is not a criticism. Exposition can be executed remarkably well when it comes to tethering us to characters, building a sense of place/world, and creating intrigue for its major plot reveals. Soul Hackers 2 unfortunately does very little in this regard. I always felt a sense of distance between myself and the world, like it existed purely for my convenience as a player. Nothing meaningful changes to the places I am inhabiting which creates a sense of static and unchanging variables. The characters themselves are given context for joining Ringo and Figue, the actions that led them up to this point but none of them have enough to them that make me feel connected to them on a deeper level to actually remember them as people, not just “video game characters who help me progress.” They feel very much “by the book” in that way, clean enough to be depicted but not explored in meaningful ways beyond what we are told by the storyteller. Ringo and Figue being the outliers as they themselves are the most well written and realize characters of the bunch having the most meaningful and well written arcs of the bunch. Every other non-main character feels there to facilitate plot progression, not an important and irreplaceable presence to it’s world and story.

Thematically speaking the story goes to very interesting places but rarely does so in a cohesive or consequential manner. I often felt like I was only for a ride as opposed to a philosophical dive into the deepest parts of our being. Its dances with cerebral enlightenment but doesn’t fully commit to it when it has the chances to explore before its final act and its final moments within that act.

My personal interpretation of this work is that it is a criticism of those who seek the idealistic and impossibility of a world without conflict and those who would waste their lives doing so. Celebrating the value of memetics in that our death can mean something beyond the end of a life. Our soul remains as long as we trust our successors to carry on our will and continue to give our passing meaning. “A perfect world is a pretty idea, But it’s the struggle to get there that makes it all mean something.” The world is far more complex. We can’t allow one experience, one moment of pain decide how the entire world should be.

Soul Hackers 2 has a lot going for it that it unfortunately never feels allowed to realize. A Frankensteins monster of Atlus games that came before it, it has a hard time finding any sense of individuality it seems to so desperately want to have. The game it had me most thinking about as it concluded was actually not a game from the same creative muse of Atlus, but the Bandai Namco work “Tales Of Berseria” a game among my personal favorite JRPGs of all time. 

However unlike Soul Hackers 2, which is all potential and no consequence as much as it alludes to it, the latter does a much better job at conveying its mutually intelligible themes and messaging than Soul Hackers 2. Which is truly unfortunate because there is an undoubtedly unified vision and attempt at something meaningful not just from a universally human perspective, but one unique to our time and our real world future. But its biggest failure is in its execution, not in it lacking a beating, tangible heart and soul. And in a world losing its collective desire for that soul, that is enough for me to want to remember it for what it did right.