The commentary and some of the in-game text is in Japanese, but it’s nice to see some pure gameplay.
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The overworld seems like a step down from SMTV. In SMTV the camera was more centered and you could actually jump and climb things. There was a verticality to it and it made for some really good exploration. So far what I’m seeing here is the overworld just being a vehicle to the next battle.
In fact I would say this is reminding me of a first person dungeon crawler, only of course this is in third person. It’s staying true to Soul Hackers 1 in that case.
I am certainly not saying it looks bad by any means though, just that SMT V seemed like a bigger leap in technology. Still very excited for Megaten series on my Xbox.
Another thing is that in SMT V you could actually see every single demon model in the overworld. While this seems like it’s going back to SMT IV’s technological limitation by making the overworld demons generic shapes until touched again.
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That might just be one area. SMTV needs a port badly though. This looks like a spin off through and through.
Still need to see better quality gameplay though. those videos are low quality
Still on my media blackout, but I do not like the sound of this. I thought the SMTV overworld was pretty weak, and was hoping that more powerful hardware would allow for a more interesting and better-running overworld in this 
I understand that it’s a different style but I was hoping for a bit more, I guess. Still pre-ordering whenever they put that up, though.
Did you ever play SMT IV? Basically the overworld seems more like that.
I think this will also have picking your destination from a list on a static map screen rather than SMT V’s “sandboxes”
I mean this is why people shouldn’t automatically assume a Japanese game not being on Switch automatically means it’s gonna be this massive upgrade. This could easily run on that platform. I’m very happy the game is on Xbox and I wouldn’t get it on Switch even if it was there, but not having it there is just a bad business move lol.
There’s a couple different divisions/teams in Atlus. SMT V was by “Team Maniax” which of course does mainline SMT games and I believe Etrian Odyssey games. Then there’s P-Studio who does Persona games and pretty sure Catherine. Finally we have Studio Zero who I think is doing Project Re;fantasy and helped with Catherine Full Body, and I’m not sure where the Tokyo Mirage Sessions team fits into those (I don’t think they are their own entity) but they are the ones doing Soul Hackers 2.
This is also out not even a year after SMT V so I guess expecting a major evolution of that was very unrealistic.
Not that any of this bothers me. I do not mind budget games even a little bit. I spend big money on first person dungeon crawlers that look like PS1 games even.
It’s just bad business that the technologically superior game is on hardware that doesn’t run it too amazingly and the more budget easier to run game is not on that hardware at all.
One thing I’m expecting this game to do better than SMT V is the story. In SMT V the story was basically nonexistent, so hopefully that is much different here.
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I think I did a poor job conveying my thoughts, because I largely agree with what you just said. I definitely see on re-reading it that I used the term “overworld” confusingly, so here are my thoughts:
The map style with a moveable indicator that was in V, 4, even as far back as 1 is fine with me, no issues there.
I enjoyed my time with SMTV but I did feel disappointed overall with how empty and samey the Da’at areas were. I knew there would be multiple areas but they were almost all “deserted landscape” and “wrecked city, featuring desert”. My view of it was that there was hardly anything in terms of dungeons and that going for open areas was kind of a step down, since they weren’t especially interesting.
I was also pretty bummed out by the poor performance. I’m usually pretty insensitive to that sort of thing, but this was really noticeable to me - especially the robotic movements of demons in the distance and the grass pop-in in the fairy village - to the point where I actually kind of resented the Switch for being so underpowered. I dropped the game originally because I was hoping for some patches to make things smoother. In the end, I got one of those upscaling dongles as a present, installed a third-party patch to even out the framerate, and connected my Elite 2 controller and I think those all helped.
I can understand moving away from the first-person dungeon style of 4/4A/SJ but I guess I was hoping more for Nocturne-style dungeons, ones I can still remember even though I haven’t touched the game in like 2 generations. Do you know if the dungeons in Soul Hackers 2 will be randomized?
I hate when people say crap like “lazy devs”. I can hardly wrap my head around what these people accomplish; it’s a ton of work with very little appreciation, I’m sure. That said, what console games have Atlus released since the PS2? Persona 5 for the PS3, TMS for the Wii U, and P5S for the Switch? I know I shouldn’t have great expectations for a pseudo-continuation of a dead Sega Saturn spin-off, it’s just a bit of a bummer, that’s all.
A very cursory search suggests that the Switch is “less powerful” than the PS4/XBO. Is it really too much to expect non-randomized dungeons, stable performance, and overworld encounter demon models from a game that’s designed for (as far as I know) the most powerful hardware they’ve ever developed for? I shouldn’t have made the assumption that SH2 not coming to Switch would mean they could aim higher with it, but it is a bit frustrating. I’m not demanding flashy AAA games - in fact I’d love to see more SMT4/4A/SJ type games and on Xbox too please. I would argue that there’s a bit of a middle ground though.
Oh, and I agree with you about the story in V, it was pretty bare-bones, and I was hoping for the alignment choice to be more significant.
All that said, since I’m intentionally not paying attention to news, this could be a big baby tantrum with no actual basis in reality 
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Really hope we see English trailer at MS’s Event. This game should make an appearance because its Atlus’s first ever RPG released on an Xbox system…oh and if it exists…Persona announcement. But They should definitely show Soul Hackers 2.
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Yep. Plus I’ve always been saying that MS should make sure to give the niche games/smaller JP developers (even though Atlus is owned by Sega lol) good spotlight on major events like E3 too.
It was a common complaint when Persona 5 was coming out that Sony wouldn’t ever give it the time of day on major events along with many other Japanese games (that were all exclusive) for some inexplicable reason (“too Japanese?”)
This video’s from 2016 (!) and describes it perfectly. And Sony’s only gotten so much worse about it now that they’ll only show Final Fantasy or Resident Evil (until they did that “Japanese focused” state of play, which still had the problem of everything in it being from big publishers)
Meanwhile Nintendo will put a whole trailer for a game like Danganronpa in the E3 direct and give NIS games many minutes to shine on directs.
So I want to see MS do something like that as well and get a nice SH2 trailer (not footage in a highlight reel) in the showcase. The game needs Western advertising and Xbox needs advertising on a JRPG. Seems like a win/win.
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Probably selfish, but Soul Hackers is the last thing I want them to spend any of them 90 minutes on lol. Unless they announce it as coming to Game Pass day one.
They cant just show gamepass games. They need to promote third party games too
If we got 3 minute demo of BF last year which wasnt gamepass. Im sure people will live with 30 second soul hackers tease. Atlus game on xbox is a big deal
If they dont show any jrpgs but have a 4 minute cod demo gonna go on a rant.
I’m expecting the showcase to have segments that are just rapid fire trailer after trailer. I don’t see why this being a 1 minute slot there is a big deal? It makes sense to have it considering with the non-marketing I think this game is going to underperform (on all platforms, but it would be even harder on Xbox). So Xbox can assist there and get the message out that Atlus is on Xbox. Sony’s not going to do anything about it, you can see above for proof.
If not this specific game then the showcase needs another -distinctly- Japanese game (meaning I do not count stuff like Resident Evil, or Dragon’s Dogma 2 if that actually gets revealed here). It’s important to have a game like this hit every Xbox showcase to show people that Xbox can be a good place for JP games.
If Xbox actually did more than 1 event a year then I wouldn’t be so preachy about this but as it stands it’s important to get content like this in the showcase to send a positive message.
As for Game Pass day 1, won’t happen. For non indies there’s specific kinds of games that are chosen to be day 1 GP games and let’s just say JRPGs are not what get chosen.
I’m still holding out hope for Persona ports launching on Game Pass.
BF was supposed to be one of the biggest games last year, people are more interested in this game because of Atlus on Xbox than the game itself lol.
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And there lies the problem. An iteration of an absolute exhausted genre being overhyped. Surprise suprise game turned out to be awful.
And theres nothing wrong with that. Soul hackers is a very niche sub series of games from a niche line of games anyway. If it gets people interested. Good. I rather they be interested in a game theyve ne er hesrd of and might be good then one theyve played 5 billion times and may as well just go and play the same game they own from last year.
BF2042 being bad had nothing to do with the exhausted genre. The game just had a lot of bugs and was released too early. If it launched the way people expected it to lauch - basically bigger scale BF4 - it would have a great launch. Just like CP2077 if it launched in a complete state.
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I dont think you can compare the two. Bf would have been a bf5 at launch. Decent game but dead after a few months. People stopped playing vanguard too and that game like all cod games are polished at launch
Cyberpunk had legitimate issues that hurt it badly. Bf had a ceiling being the genre it is. Cyberpunk didnt.
Playing Shin Megami Tensei V on my Switch, got to say the game is growing on me. At first I was whatever about it but the more I play the more addicting it starts getting the more it starts feeling like a Monster Hunter game.
Anyways hope MS gets game streaming working for games you own. Want to play Soul Hackers from my bed.
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I mean if its on Gamepass it will be there eventually. I do get what you mean.
Especially for long gmaes like that
ITs why Persona 5 not ever coming to switch is baffling…I’ve never beaten Persona 5 and the main reason is its too long and back then I didn’t have time to sit in front of my TV and spend 100 hours on a single game. 4 Golden I spent entirely playing through on comutes to work on my Vita back in 2012.
I have played SMTV and its pretty good in handheld mode but I don’t like how the game runs when its docked. Loks a bit blurry and has frame rate issues.
I’ll buy the game but they REALLY need to get this on Game Pass day 1 or it’s DOA on Xbox
No its not. It will still sell well and ill buy it day 1. I woul like physical though. Scarlett nexus wasnt day 1 gamepass and it sold fine on xbox as did arise
Not everything has to be on gamepass day 1. Lets get rid of this narrative that everything has to be on gamepass day 1. People were clamouring elden ring to be a gamepass game when thst pretty much outspld every other game on xbox for the entire previous 12 month period excluding cod.
Even if SH2 comes to gamepass 6 months down the line it will get the much needed attention there anyway.
Series consoles are selling well. Any sort of jrpg espeiclaly atlus will do well on it.
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I hope this game is as successful on Xbox as you think it’ll be. I plan on buying it, but not all that excited about it at the moment.