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News Soul Hackers 2 announced, coming to PS4/5, XSX/S, XBO and Steam this August
- Thread starter Belinda Blumenthal
- Start date
snikdasnek
Koopa
Honestly though, this made me realize how much I hate looking at most threads tangentially related to Switch on Era, You'd think the console was hot garbage if you spent any time there lol
thoughthaver
Tektite
japan's still the second biggest market for games so ignoring it seems a bit dumb to me. but that's just my opinion.
Japan doesn't have to lead in sales to still be a significant market for JRPGs. Just for an example relevant to Soul Hackers 2, gamedatalibrary has SMT V physical sales in Japan at 192,518. The worldwide sales numbers we got from Atlus were 800k. SMT V should have been over 200k in Japan by then even if digital sales were much lower, and I would absolutely say 25% of overall sales is significant (especially for more niche games like SMT).
JoshuaJSlone
Moblin
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I think y'all are really overreacting to the fact that 9 years after PS4 came out, some games will indeed be built from the ground up for hardware beyond Switch's capabilities. This isn't a Persona situation where it's weirdly stuck on PlayStation, and Atlus hasn't otherwise been afraid to release games from this franchise on Switch. A late port on the next hardware will be no shock.
What major Atlus home games releasing during the "Sony handheld" era were announced for portable at the same time as the home versions? The Persona games were by far the most successful and came years later.
Full Body was an eight-years-after-the-original port for both home consoles and Vita. The original version came out a few months before Vita and released on neither PSP nor Vita.
I honestly fail to see how SH2 is beyond Switch's capability especially when SMTV looks graphically more advanced and the team behind SH2 is the very same team that made Tokyo Mirage Sessions and ported it to the Switch.
thoughthaver
Tektite
gonna post that sh2 screenshot and claim it's a leaked switch version
Like its ridiculous to say that SH2 looks significantly better than SMT V
MarcelRguez
Write me an endless song
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May I refer you to post #399 in this thread.
It's still too early to say either way, but the frustrating part of all of this is that the game does not look like something out of reach for the Switch. That's why some of us were left scratching our heads after the announcement.
MarcelRguez
Write me an endless song
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It looks like a very 'clean' game IQ-wise, so I can see where some people are coming from, but overall it looks way more budget, imo.
yeah exactly.
thoughthaver
Tektite
the way they talk about developing for the switch makes it sound like it requires some forbidden arcane knowledge or some shit like that. meanwhile devs just push a button and a whole game is made and works perfectly on every other platform. kudos to the like 2 people pushing back tho.
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gaming twitter is wild
Clix
Paratroopa
Whaaaaat? Give it a chance! It’ll grow on you and the dungeons and battle system are just sooooooo good. Beats the pants out of Persona and SMT battle system IMO.
Xaltmas
Bob-omb
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That's not what I meant lol. I'm talking in regards of Soul Hackers 2 not coming to Switch, if TMS can run and look as good as it does then there's really no excuse for SH2.
JoshuaJSlone
Moblin
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It doesn't have to be amazing to be a problem. All it takes is a decision in 2018 like "OK, we're going to develop this thing assuming a baseline of at least 6 GB of RAM". If they were clairvoyant, maybe they would not make such a decision. In 2022 it might just seem like too many hoops to jump through to make it work on Switch rather than waiting a while to release it on the next thing.
Charamiwa
Piranha Plant
That random dude managed to shift an entire narrative that will now stick forever, his power is too great.
RenHojo23
Tektite
Like its ridiculous to say that SH2 looks significantly better than SMT V
If i show this to someone who doesn't know, for sure they'd think the one on the left is the PS5 game.
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That's just the power of confirmation bias.
Clix
Paratroopa
Ohhhhh got it lol carry on then! I love TMS. Still shocked the game didn’t do well considering it has a great combat system but it’s also weeb as hell, which is your average Nintendo fan lol
marmoka
Shriekbat
Honestly I'm not enough convinced about this game. I don't care much about the Switch version as I can play it in PS4, but I agree that the decision of skipping the Switch does not make any sense, as the game is not technically amazing at all. Even SMT V looks more impressive than this.
However, I still think it's pretty early to decide if the game will bomb or not. The marketing campaign has already started, and we will know more about the game as months go by. We will probably see one trailer per month like they did with SMT V, and the new trailer will make us feel more interested or gain no interest at all. It wouldn't be the first time that we see a trailer of a new game that we don't care and the next trailer makes us get ultrainterested in it. Just let's keep calm and let's see how things go as the release date is getting nearer.
However, I still think it's pretty early to decide if the game will bomb or not. The marketing campaign has already started, and we will know more about the game as months go by. We will probably see one trailer per month like they did with SMT V, and the new trailer will make us feel more interested or gain no interest at all. It wouldn't be the first time that we see a trailer of a new game that we don't care and the next trailer makes us get ultrainterested in it. Just let's keep calm and let's see how things go as the release date is getting nearer.
thoughthaver
Tektite
most trustworthy twitter user
Tentacle-tropes
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Stephen 776
perpetually tired
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I don't think there's anything deep to the choice of platforms. It'll probably take a development cycle's worth of time before we really see if Japanese developers want to skip Switch; developers were unprepared for how thoroughly the PS5 failed in Japan. I'd suspect the platform selection is a choice they committed to a few years ago when the Japanese market looked different, PS4 is still okay enough in Japan, and they simply don't have the staff or people to realize a Switch port in a timely fashion.
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I actually have yet to check out Soul Hackers. My partner owns the game, and honestly most Atlus games digitially, so I'll probably wait until he goes through the game. If he likes it, I'll check the series out.
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I actually have yet to check out Soul Hackers. My partner owns the game, and honestly most Atlus games digitially, so I'll probably wait until he goes through the game. If he likes it, I'll check the series out.
9-Volt
Tingle
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I don't think he's serious. This screams late port. Both Catherine and 13 Sentinels were late ports on Switch. Atlus, like every other studio out there, relies on external support for Switch ports.
I find it genuinely concerning the fact SH2 is the first game to be developed inhouse at Atlus that does not have any contract/exclusivity deals and releasing on ALL platforms except Switch. Is this their decision moving forward? Perhaps Sega convinced them or the only games Switch will get from Atlus will be old PS2 ports and games Nintendo pays up such as SMTV.
Yoshifan31
Shriekbat
It’s crazy how Atlus of all companies basically just made the whole gaming community talk about these asinine justifications of why a game would skip a Nintendo platform. The company that is known to make AA JRPGS that are never cutting-edge and usually releases for last gen systems got people talking about the Switch 2
This confirms it even further, Atlus are simply stuck in a PS2 era mentality. I know I said I wouldn’t comment on that further but I have to let this out because so many people everywhere are saying nonsense. Fans on Twitter will try to ratio people and tell them to “stop whining” when it’s perfectly reasonable to call out how utterly incompetent Atlus are at business. I’ll try to be brief
We all know that back then, PS1/2 were the de facto platforms for anything JRPG, everything Japanese even. It was only from 360 that Xbox started getting games that it missed during the 6th gen because why not. When Nintendo started turning things around sales wise with the Wii they still didn’t bother, I don’t think the Wii’s lack of meaningful third party support was justified either but it was somewhat understandable because again, Nintendo were somewhat isolated from the rest of the industry since they were a gen behind in terms of power. While the Switch isn’t as powerful as the PS4/XB1, it was still overall a turnaround from these darker times. You had companies like Bethesda, which have said fanboy stuff about the “Nintendo audience” in the past, end up being one of the best supporters of the platform. The Switch sells the best so if you can get your game to run on it, it’s a good decision to do so.
This is especially apparent when you look at how AA JRPG makers thrive on the system. Companies like NIS, Gust and Falcom didn’t really bother building an audience on 3DS and such back then. They all thought the Otaku audience was on PS. The Switch was pretty much the first time a Nintendo platform would receive their mainline games and they are doing well. Falcom were kinda the perfect example of AA Sony loyalists up to the point they have finally realized how successful the Switch is so from now on they will actually be developing games in-house for it rather than outsourcing their late ports.
So, where are Atlus in this. Everyone thought that they would thrive with the Switch. They supported the DS and 3DS a lot, they are known to be late bloomers so they even supported the PS2 when the PS3 was out. They are pretty slow in developing HD titles. You would think that ideally, their idea of multiplatform would be at least Switch/PS4. I think this is too optimistic, the only Atlus games barring two late ports that are appearing on both these platforms are outsourced spinoffs and Nocturne HD. This kind of makes their whole Nintendo catalog seem like a fluke when you consider it was either exclusive games (SMT, TMS) or games that were made for dual screen systems. You would think that a sequel to Soul Hackers would be made for Switch before everything when Nintendo has been getting every SMT adjacent game barring Persona for quite a while now. However it’s very clear that Atlus are simply oblivous to the idea of “building an audience”. They think their superfans will just follow them everywhere. Persona 4 was milked in a bunch of different ways, yet it was never available to a modern platform besides the VITA and this one random PC port in 2020 that Sega of Europe apparently portbegged really hard for.
So again, it seems like for them it’s just their first non-exclusive HD game since Catherine, so they are picking up where they left and putting it on everything except Nintendo because that’s how the industry used to be. We all know other anime game makers like Bandai Namco have done this, they initially skip the Switch so their anime game have the illusion of being AAA, fanboys say that not every game needs to be on Switch, the game has modest sales, Bamco drops a late Switch port, fanboys that said that Kakarot wasn’t possible on Switch shut up. I don’t know how many surveys it will take for Atlus to get a grip but at this point I’m not even expecting a late port at all. Either way it’s hard to get excited about buying their games at launch when they randomly release enhanced editions of 100 hour JRPGs
This confirms it even further, Atlus are simply stuck in a PS2 era mentality. I know I said I wouldn’t comment on that further but I have to let this out because so many people everywhere are saying nonsense. Fans on Twitter will try to ratio people and tell them to “stop whining” when it’s perfectly reasonable to call out how utterly incompetent Atlus are at business. I’ll try to be brief
We all know that back then, PS1/2 were the de facto platforms for anything JRPG, everything Japanese even. It was only from 360 that Xbox started getting games that it missed during the 6th gen because why not. When Nintendo started turning things around sales wise with the Wii they still didn’t bother, I don’t think the Wii’s lack of meaningful third party support was justified either but it was somewhat understandable because again, Nintendo were somewhat isolated from the rest of the industry since they were a gen behind in terms of power. While the Switch isn’t as powerful as the PS4/XB1, it was still overall a turnaround from these darker times. You had companies like Bethesda, which have said fanboy stuff about the “Nintendo audience” in the past, end up being one of the best supporters of the platform. The Switch sells the best so if you can get your game to run on it, it’s a good decision to do so.
This is especially apparent when you look at how AA JRPG makers thrive on the system. Companies like NIS, Gust and Falcom didn’t really bother building an audience on 3DS and such back then. They all thought the Otaku audience was on PS. The Switch was pretty much the first time a Nintendo platform would receive their mainline games and they are doing well. Falcom were kinda the perfect example of AA Sony loyalists up to the point they have finally realized how successful the Switch is so from now on they will actually be developing games in-house for it rather than outsourcing their late ports.
So, where are Atlus in this. Everyone thought that they would thrive with the Switch. They supported the DS and 3DS a lot, they are known to be late bloomers so they even supported the PS2 when the PS3 was out. They are pretty slow in developing HD titles. You would think that ideally, their idea of multiplatform would be at least Switch/PS4. I think this is too optimistic, the only Atlus games barring two late ports that are appearing on both these platforms are outsourced spinoffs and Nocturne HD. This kind of makes their whole Nintendo catalog seem like a fluke when you consider it was either exclusive games (SMT, TMS) or games that were made for dual screen systems. You would think that a sequel to Soul Hackers would be made for Switch before everything when Nintendo has been getting every SMT adjacent game barring Persona for quite a while now. However it’s very clear that Atlus are simply oblivous to the idea of “building an audience”. They think their superfans will just follow them everywhere. Persona 4 was milked in a bunch of different ways, yet it was never available to a modern platform besides the VITA and this one random PC port in 2020 that Sega of Europe apparently portbegged really hard for.
So again, it seems like for them it’s just their first non-exclusive HD game since Catherine, so they are picking up where they left and putting it on everything except Nintendo because that’s how the industry used to be. We all know other anime game makers like Bandai Namco have done this, they initially skip the Switch so their anime game have the illusion of being AAA, fanboys say that not every game needs to be on Switch, the game has modest sales, Bamco drops a late Switch port, fanboys that said that Kakarot wasn’t possible on Switch shut up. I don’t know how many surveys it will take for Atlus to get a grip but at this point I’m not even expecting a late port at all. Either way it’s hard to get excited about buying their games at launch when they randomly release enhanced editions of 100 hour JRPGs
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John Omaha
Cappy
You didn't need clairvoyance to figure out the trends in 2018. And when the next thing comes out, they'll play the same waiting game to see if the platform is successful before jumping on board... even though the Xbox Series is getting this game despite doing only marginally better than the Xbox One so far and lacking an established audience for these games.
It simply comes down to the big Japanese developers wanting to streamline their pipeline around a common, more predictable development environment and release schedule. PlayStation and Xbox have the same architecture, similar horsepower, target the same audience, release new hardware around the same time and have a similar approach to getting third parties involved during the hardware development phase. Nintendo, who seem like they release whatever they want, whenever in comparison, are much more inconvenient to plan your business around.
When given the opportunity, most Japanese third parties will find a reason to prioritize PlayStation (and Xbox by association). This is why a lot of them pivoted so hard to the West once it became clear there would be no truly mass-market PS platform in Japan for the for the foreseeable future. I'll gladly wear my clown makeup if I'm wrong but partnerships aside, I expect Nintendo to only get scraps and late ports from Atlus going forward, especially if Soul Hackers 2 does well.
Clix
Paratroopa
Maybe. But the writing on the wall has been there even with the PS4. The 3DS was beating it out. Heck, the 3DS version of DQ11 ended up doing slightly better. They started this trajectory with the PS3 relaxing at an abnormally high price, and then towards the last few years of the PS3, it seemed Sony just started to cater more and more to western audiences as a whole.
They could have had something with the Vita, much like they did with the PSP, but damn did Sony just drop the ball on it despite it being a really cool system.
- Pronouns
- He
Honestly there's something pretty amazing about the fact that the PS4 didn't outsell the PS3 in Japan by a few million at least. It had a mainline Dragon Quest, a mainline Monster Hunter, a new Persona game at a time where Persona was more popular than ever, and the "blowup" of Nier all on one system. All of these advantages were things that the PS3 didn't have. And yet ...
Clov
Welcome to the True Bean's World
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I was a big hesitant since this looks so far removed from the original Soul Hackers, but I think I've made my peace that those 90s Internet vibes just aren't coming back. Taking the game as it is, it looks great! Just like SMTV, it looks like Atlus is really hitting this one out of the park!
I'm really interested in what demons they're going to have! We already know that the Hare of Inaba is back. Could we see the return of some other Soul Hackers favorites in 3D this time around? Imagine Frost Five and Turbo Granny, but now in HD!
We also see that Angel is using her original SMT design instead of the SMTV one. I wonder if we'll see some other old designs for familiar demons return? Would be really cool to see Odin with his Soul Hackers look!
Anyone else excited to see some familiar faces?
I'm really interested in what demons they're going to have! We already know that the Hare of Inaba is back. Could we see the return of some other Soul Hackers favorites in 3D this time around? Imagine Frost Five and Turbo Granny, but now in HD!
We also see that Angel is using her original SMT design instead of the SMTV one. I wonder if we'll see some other old designs for familiar demons return? Would be really cool to see Odin with his Soul Hackers look!
Anyone else excited to see some familiar faces?
snikdasnek
Koopa
I imagine about 80 percent of the roster will be reused models from SMT V, and the remaining 20 percent will be dedicated to new models both returning and new demons. I think that will be the ratio for all future atlus games for a while as they build a 3D demon roster that snowballs bigger and biggerI was a big hesitant since this looks so far removed from the original Soul Hackers, but I think I've made my peace that those 90s Internet vibes just aren't coming back. Taking the game as it is, it looks great! Just like SMTV, it looks like Atlus is really hitting this one out of the park!
I'm really interested in what demons they're going to have! We already know that the Hare of Inaba is back. Could we see the return of some other Soul Hackers favorites in 3D this time around? Imagine Frost Five and Turbo Granny, but now in HD!
We also see that Angel is using her original SMT design instead of the SMTV one. I wonder if we'll see some other old designs for familiar demons return? Would be really cool to see Odin with his Soul Hackers look!
Anyone else excited to see some familiar faces?
Clov
Welcome to the True Bean's World
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There's definitely going to be extensive reuse of models for demons, though I don't know about 80%. Personally I'm thinking something closer to 70% of demons being reused from older HD Megaten games, the remaining being a mix of new demons and old demons with new models.
I personally like the Soul Hackers Odin design a lot more than the SMTIV one that he also uses in V, so I'd like that one to come back.
Tentacle-tropes
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A note on this specifically, it wasn’t that they noticed how successful Switch was. What made them do 180, after quite a few baffling decisions & comments, were their latest financials. Specifically their game sale for PS4/5 this last quarter.
I largely agree with the assessment though. I would say it is shocking but honestly it is expected from 3rd parties. They can never seemingly not do weird/say stuff on a Nintendo system.
Yoshifan31
Shriekbat
Yeah I’m aware of that, just didn’t want to elaborate too much on their case. I think the writing was on the wall when the random late Ys VIII port did very well on Switch, outselling basically all platforms combined in the West iirc. I wasn’t really expecting anything from them since late ports are unfortunately a norm for Nintendo platforms but I was surprised that they actually bothered to turn this around. Atlus might not be struggling like they were but they are still leaving money on the table bigtime
HylianSeven
Cappy
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Yep, this is one of the things I'm excited about. I love that we're seeing models for demons never before seen in 3D. I'm a little surprised Hare of Inaba wasn't in 3D back in Persona 4, since the town of Inaba is literally named after the legend of the Hare of Inaba lol.I was a big hesitant since this looks so far removed from the original Soul Hackers, but I think I've made my peace that those 90s Internet vibes just aren't coming back. Taking the game as it is, it looks great! Just like SMTV, it looks like Atlus is really hitting this one out of the park!
I'm really interested in what demons they're going to have! We already know that the Hare of Inaba is back. Could we see the return of some other Soul Hackers favorites in 3D this time around? Imagine Frost Five and Turbo Granny, but now in HD!
We also see that Angel is using her original SMT design instead of the SMTV one. I wonder if we'll see some other old designs for familiar demons return? Would be really cool to see Odin with his Soul Hackers look!
Anyone else excited to see some familiar faces?
I knew even from the countdown that this wasn't going to have the 90s vibe and that's fine. The first game had the 90s vibe because it was made in the 90s. I don't know if they knew it was going to be a time capsule type of thing, but that's one of the things that's aged particularly well: the atmosphere of "whoa this is the future of this internet thing", and then it turned out to not be like that. I have to wonder if that aspect of the game was received that way on the Saturn or PS1 version in Japan, but for most English speakers, we didn't get to play it until 2013 on the 3DS version.
Soul Hackers 2 carries on the legacy of looking like a product of it's time, which is GOOD thing, at least I hope it remains that way. I have a feeling there's going to be something like "the metaverse", and maybe some kind of cheeky jab at NFTs. NFTs containing a demon like the Krypto chip in the first one as a way to steal souls would be really cool! Maybe that could explain the popularity of NFTs because they're unable to stop buying and trading them due to the demon. I mentioned before, but Soul Hackers 2's art style reminds me of AI: The Somnium Files. I know many people have also cited Digimon Cybersleuth, but I'm admittedly not familiar with that.
Kaneko's was the best and still is, but he's effectively retired and I made peace with that years ago. I'm glad we're seeing a different artist on this game, it's pretty cool. I don't think they've done any Megaten game before. I never completely got the criticism of it being "anime", as I see that leveled at a lot of things that come from Japan. I think there's some cases where it's warranted, but it's not because of the art style necessarily. I didn't like the anime tropes in SMTIV Apocalypse for instance.
snikdasnek
Koopa
Idk, SMT V felt like it had its own identity and was distinct from the majority of the genre, but SH2 literally just looks like a million other mid tier JRPGs, it looks so generic and has no identity of its own. You could tell me it was made by Bamco or something and I would believe it. Match it up with shit like Cyber Sleuth and Caligula effect and you could hardly tell the difference. I'll still check it out but I really dislike the direction
Clov
Welcome to the True Bean's World
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I can definitely see this game becoming a sort of "time capsule" just like the original game did. It's strange to think, but I'm sure there will be plenty of people nostalgic for the "2020s vibe" once 2050 rolls around. Hard to imagine what that will be like!
There's definitely no replacing Kaneko's art. I kind of wish they got Doi for this one too, but I guess they wanted to go in a different direction for the future of Soul Hackers. It's definitely not a bad look, just different from what I would have expected a Soul Hackers sequel to look like.
As for new demons, I'm really hoping we'll get to see some of the oddballs like Purple Mirror show up. Happened with SMTV (with Arioch's first 3D appearance IIRC), and I'm sure we'll see it happen here.
HylianSeven
Cappy
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- He/Him
Arioch was in the Raidou games, V had zero Kaneko demons that had no previous 3D appearances outside of Dx2 and NINE.
That's why the new demons here are a particularly huge deal. I want to see the front of Shemyaza and Gu Huo Niao!
Tentacle-tropes
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The funny thing about that port was Falcom using it as justification to continue PS support. Regardless they only had two options left die out or live.
And, we can say that for many third parties still with the Switch. I’m not sure why they go with this all or nothing approach of including it with every system but Nintendo. It’s made even weirder now but I’ll just sit back with the popcorn and see where it goes.
Leica
Bob-omb
- Pronouns
- he/him
It reminds me a lot of Cyber Sleuth, first thing I thought of when I saw the game.
