Thank you Atlus for sending us this game to review!

The original Soul Hackers was released worldwide on the 3DS in 2013 with good reviews. While I haven’t played the first game, I do notice many similarities between this series and Shin Megami Tensei games. Thankfully, the premise of this sequel doesn’t require previous knowledge of the original game.

Soul Hackers 2 opens with the AI realm of Aion foreseeing the collapse of humanity if specific individuals are killed. Two humanoid AI constructs, Ringo and Figue are sent out to protect these people at all costs. Ringo and Figue separate to locate their targets and find both of them dead. Ringo is more adventurous and soul hacks into her human, Arrow, and brings him back from the dead. Figue is more cautious and does not attempt to resuscitate her target.

Arrow is a devil summoner who can forge contracts with demons and use them to fight other demons or human enemies roaming around. There are two warring devil summoning factions that are trying to collect the five different colored covenants that when combined, will summon a powerful being capable of destroying the planet. One faction is hoping to bring forth this “change”, while the other is attempting to prevent it.

Covenants are within a select few humans and grant their owners power. Those who possess a covenant can detect other covenant bearers. A man in an iron mask is hunting down and killing covenant bearers and your team is trying to stop him, but are often late and arrive at bloody crime scenes. Thankfully, Ringo doesn’t hesitate in using her soul hacking skills to revive the fallen former covenant bearers. With each revival, their team grows as well the drama between them.

The game world is divided into an overworld map and dungeon-like areas. The overworld view lets you quickly travel to various locations including shops, hangouts, and areas to explore. Each area draws the map for you as you explore it; there are also checkpoints that let you warp back and forth between the level. Sadly, you cannot warp between the levels so you'll have to go to the entrance of each one and backtrack from there.
Later on in the game, you can purchase a skill that enables you to warp back to the overworld instead of having to backtrack and hop through the many warp points.

As you enter into an area, demons from your party are automatically released to scavenge the area for you. While exploring, you’ll be able to interact with your demons to gather money and items they have found for you. Alternatively, you may come across demon recruiting opportunities. If you’re a higher level than the demon and are able to accommodate their bartering requests, they’ll join your team if you have room for them. I highly recommend expanding your demon carrying capacity as much as possible. Along with expanding your demon collection, you can also combine them to make them more powerful. Fusing demons requires money and you to be a higher level than your underlings.

Each demon has elemental affinities and weaknesses to exploit in battle. Whatever demon your party member equips will also share those same strengths and vulnerabilities. A helpful ability you can acquire later in the game is the option to replace one or all of your party members' equipped demons. This will come in handy to strengthen your party against boss’ weaknesses.

Soul Hackers 2 uses the same demons as those in the Shin Megami Tensei universe. Many of these demons are based off of various world religions. The devil goat Baphomet is present along with various Hindi gods. Some of the female demons wear (or lack clothing) that accentuates their body shape. Some of the higher-level demons are phallic in design. Along with equipping demons, your team members can equip accessories and one of them is pentagram themed.

Foul language is present and you hear every word in the book short of the F-bomb. The Lord’s name is also used in vain on multiple occasions. Since this game is fully voice acted, you’ll have to be mindful of who is within earshot when playing this game.

Visually, Soul Hackers 2 looks good. There is a lot of eye candy during the battles and thankfully you can skip the theatrics if you want to save some time. The character animations and facial expressions are well done.

This game can be little bit grindy in the character dungeons, but they’re optional. However, your teammates will unlock useful powers if you invest time in conquering their demons and discovering their backstories. The story can be a little confusing and trope-like at times but still worth completing. My last complaint is that there’s a section in one of the levels where the camera was stuck in an awkward position.

Aside from the many moral issues, I enjoyed my time in the Soul Hackers universe. If you’re looking for a cyberpunk twist of the Shin Megami Tensei games, and don’t have an issue with forging contracts with demons, Soul Hackers 2 is worth looking into.