Soul Hackers 2

Soul Hackers 2 is the sequel to Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, both part of the Devil Summoner series. The game was developed by Atlus Co., Ltd..

Plot
Soul Hackers 2 is set in the near-future where 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.

A world-ending catastrophe brought by a being called the Great One is predicted by the previously-neutral Aion, a higher artificial intelligence that emerged within cyberspace. Aion manifests two parts of themself, Ringo and Figue, to enter the human world and save certain humans determined to be key to preventing the Great One's arrival. The individuals are Arrow, a Yatagarasu agent, and Ichiro Onda, a renowned genius and innovator in the technological industry.

Upon investigating their two targets, they discover both to be already dead. To prevent the guaranteed end of the world, Ringo performs a Soul Hack on Arrow and revives him with his cooperation. She will later revive Milady, a Phantom Society Summoner and lover of the Iron Mask, leader of Project "C"; and Saizo, a freelance summoner whose Phantom Society lover Ash becomes involved in his murder. The primary reason for the upcoming apocalypse is the Iron Mask's search for the five Covenants, five magical beings housed inside humans which act as symbols of an ancient pact with the Great One. Milady and Saizo were both assassinated for their Covenants, although Ringo and Arrow's intervention in Milady's dead preserved the safety of her Covenant, which transferred itself unto Figue. Iron Mask already bearer of a Covenant of his own would collect Ichiro Onda's.

The group investigates the other bearer of a Covenant, Mangetsu Kozunoha, a man that went into hiding. Upon investigating his several hiding places, they discover that he's been tracking Arrow's moves to an uncanny extent. When they reach to him, it's too late, as Iron Mask has already disposed of his body to ensure he cannot be revived, and would have Zenon, an artificial demon, be both the bearer of the Covenants as well as protect them and Iron Mask. Unable to break through Zenon's defenses, the party backs out.

Upon investigating Zenon, they learn that as an artificial demon, his power weakens on New Moons, and with discovering Iron Mask's new hiding place, they plan on ambushing him several days later on a New Moon, only to be caught off-guard and captured by Iron Mask. With Ringo hostage, Iron Mask pressures Figue to give up her last Covenant. Figue, however, sends out a dummy version of herself with the Covenant infected with a virus, leaving Zenon vulnerable. They manage to take down Zenon, but Iron Mask escapes with the remaining Covenants with the exception of Mangetsu's, which disappears. Figue explained that Mangetsu was carrying a fake Covenant he developed while sealing the real one inside Arrow's, making it impossible to be spotted but at the cost of muddling his memories.

The Covenant is unsealed within Arrow, giving him the ability to see that Raven has the others, exposing him as the false Iron Mask and mastermind behind the Great One's summoning. Transferring Arrow's Covenant to Figue, the group then stop Milady from attacking the orphanage in revenge for Iron Mask's death, then they end up in a final duel at the city docks. Despite Figue's plea, Raven fights to the death, having been broken by the constant fighting between Yatagarasu and the Phantom Society and seeing no other way but the Great One to end it. A devastated Figue takes the other Covenants and decides to use their power to enact a humanity-wide Soul Hack to remove the will for conflict, causing Aion to shut down as her will begins influencing it. In the normal ending, Figue fades away after the group defeat her, and Ringo is left the only Aion agent remaining, vowing to observe humanity and report to Aion when it returns, while the summoners part ways. If all Soul Matrix quests are completed, Ringo can perform a Soul Hack on Figue, rescuing her with help from Raven's spirit. In this ending, the summoners agree to help end the fighting somehow from within their groups, and Ringo and Figue restore Aion who then decides to reveal themself to humanity.

Playable
The story stars outlaws living in the underworld faced against the end of the world.


 * Ringo: One of Aion's agents. Newborn being that has a strong curiosity about society, culture and human emotions.
 * Figue: One of Aion's agents, born simultaneously with Ringo. She is cool, composed and thoughtful. She does not participate directly in battle, but is responsible for analysis and support. She operates an owl-shaped drone called Mimi.
 * Arrow: A Devil Summoner belonging to Yatagarasu. One of the "protected objects" detected by Aion. A young man who is usually quiet, straightforward and calm, but has strong morals.
 * Milady: A Devil Summoner belonging to the Phantom Society. Logical in her decision making, which might make her heartless. This has been influenced by past experiences.
 * Saizo: A free Devil Summoner. A romantic and a man capable of reading the air. He often butts into and settles Arrow and Milady's fights.

Supporting

 * Flamma: A mysterious being that has been born to support Arrow and Figue. She only appears via voice.
 * Iron Mask: A mysterious man of the Phantom Society and the leader of Project "C."
 * Zenon: An artificial demon created by the Iron Mask.
 * Ichiro Onda: A talented engineer who has been gifted with the Red Covenant. He would recently finish a project called the "Vanishing System," before getting killed by the Iron Mask and Zenon.
 * Raven: A veteran Yatagarasu member and Arrow's master that would retire, and is now working at an orphanage.
 * Kaburagi: A man of the Phantom Society with a strong sense of justice. His mission is to kill Arrow, although the two have been acquainted in the past.
 * R.S.: The man that assassinated Milady. Eccentric and outrageous, he expresses himself through rap.
 * Ash: A Devil Summoner of Phantom Society. She was romantically involved with Saizo, but they broke up. She later helped in killing him, but apparently it was unintentional.
 * Victor: A suspicious circus ringmaster at Cirque du Goumaden. He seems to be doing research to uncover the secrets of life through fusing demons.
 * Madame Ginko: A bewitching woman in charge of Club Cretaceous, the hub for requests. She is calm, intelligent and responsible.
 * Yume: A high-school student and a part-timer at De La Mancha, a general store for items.
 * Lina: A merchant at Yang Yang Palace, a store frequented by Devil Summoners that trades materials for rare magical items.
 * Tatara: Runs the COMP Smith facility and can be had to modify the party's COMPs.
 * Mannequin: Runs Zafiro and sells accessories for combat.
 * Hughes: Runs Bar Heidrun, a spot where Ringo and her allies can spend time together through Hangout Events.

Combat and Equipment
Combat takes inspiration from the Persona series, emphasizing on exploiting weaknesses. Stacking weaknesses will unlock a special technique called "Sabbath," a stylized name for an All-out Attack, allowing Ringo's demons to strike the enemies.

The 4 party members are able to equip a demon, which serves as an upgrade to their stats and lets them use their skills. Under normal circumstances, they can re-equip a demon mid-battle, but it'll take them a turn to do so. Demons may also be fused at Goumaden to produce stronger demons, with the system allowing to filter demons according to certain properties as well as recommend demon fusions.

The party members' COMPs can be customized at a COMP Smith, allowing them to enhance their devices with special effects, assuming that they have the materials and the respective fee required for the upgrade. They might also be upgraded with Mistiques, items that can be equipped onto the COMPs to grant special effects, such as boosting the damage dealt by a specific element.

Additionally, these COMPs also have additional properties, such as "mistique adaptation," which is separated against all elements on the affinity chart, as well as miscellaneous skill types, such as Recovery and Support.

The affinity chart of the game is simplified, only featuring Fire, Ice, Electricity, Force and Ruin, as well as Almighty. Physical skills are also paired with Gunfire. Ruin skills in particular are able to deal damage while simultaneously afflicting certain ailments.

Aside from the elements, there are different forms of skills that activate in certain aspects of battle: Commander skills have a cooldown period but cost neither MP or a party member's turn to use. Tandem skills are demon-oriented skills where 1 may be activated during a Sabbath.

Dungeons and Navigation
Enemy symbols in dungeons trigger combat when interacted with. Ringo may slash them and knock them down, giving the option of either attacking them for a bonus attack or avoiding them altogether. On the other hand, if the enemy symbols catch up to Ringo, the enemy might go first in combat. Enemy symbols spawn randomly, sometimes right in front of Ringo. The dungeons themselves have a pre-determined layout.

Ringo can also have her demon allies do Demon Recon by sending them to scout the area. Finding them and interacting with them may have the demon give them money or items they've found, and even other demons that they can forge contracts with to join her.

One side dungeon is the Soul Matrix, which looks deeper into the past events of Ringo's allies, and is divided into 3 sectors for each character. The areas will be blocked off at certain points, opening up as the game progresses.

Social and Hub
The game also has social mechanics, where Ringo can spend time with her allies and increase their Soul Level: raising each party member's enough will open deeper parts of the Soul Matrix, hence unlocking Summoner Skills, which grant stat boosts and other bonuses in battle.

Meals can also be bought and fed to the party before dungeons, which can strengthen their performance depending on how much each individual ally likes the food.

At Club Cretaceous, Ringo may take on requests which will yield various rewards when completed.

Downloadable Content
Purchasable DLC includes:
 * Additional story arc: "Lost Numbers," featuring the character Nana;
 * Several themed costume and BGM DLC:
 * Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers costume DLC, which adds "Opening Music" as a battle BGM;
 * Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha costume DLC, which adds "Battle -Raidou- 2008" as a battle BGM;
 * Persona 5 Shujin Academy costume DLC, which adds "Last Surprise" as a battle BGM;
 * Persona 4 Yasogami High School costume DLC, which adds "Reach Out To The Truth" as a battle BGM;
 * Shin Megami Tensei IV Samurai costume DLC, which adds "Battle A2" as a battle BGM;
 * A swimsuit costume DLC;
 * 8 DLC demons: Mara, Masakado, Anahita, Zaou-Gongen, Tzitzimitl, Armaiti. Satan and Nemissa;
 * DLC that makes it easier to earn EXP, as well as money and incense;
 * Ai-ho demo DLC;
 * Mary's maid outfit DLC (for Ringo);
 * Very Hard difficulty (Free DLC.)

In Japan
In Japan, the "first" limited edition celebrates the 25th anniversary of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers:


 * Includes the game (for PS4 and PS5 only);
 * An Ai-ho figure (8cm );
 * Aihoo-kun DLC;
 * Soul Hackers 25th Anniversary book (100 pages, includes "Soul Hackers Visual Story," staff interviews, setting materials, etc. );
 * Soul Hackers 25th Anniversary Music Album (3 CDs, 30 songs total; 20 arrangements of Soul Hackers songs & 10 soul jazz-style arrangements of previous and current songs )
 * Special costume DLC (Mary-style maid clothes for Ringo )

In the West
The western collector's edition includes:
 * Ai-Ho figure (same as JP edition);
 * Steelbook case;
 * Mimi plushie;
 * Pin collection;
 * USB soundtrack;
 * Shark keychain (Based on the one attached on Saizo's COMP);
 * Branded box;
 * Character art cards.

A Launch edition version of the game only includes the premium character cards.

Development
During a post-announcement interview, Ishida remarked that they decided to develop Soul Hackers 2 primarily due to fan requests for a sequel of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, but his own reason for planning the title was that he found the inclusion of science fiction elements in the original to be quite sharp for games among the Shin Megami Tensei series. He thought he could replicate the feeling of the original by making use of themes, such as technology, people, the occult as well as the relationship between those elements. But in spite of fan request, Ishida worried that said original entry might have been forgotten, since it came out 25 years prior, and even the DS remaster came 10 years ago.

On the title and why it omits mention of Devil Summoner, Hirata explains there are various reasons for the choice, one being that the theme revolves around technology, but he also wants to bring the name "Soul Hackers" to the front.

On the themes of the game, where the first focused around a network, the second would revolve around the existence of Aion, which is created from accumulation of information. Soul Hackers 2 instead observes people, depicting "what a human being is" from the viewpoint of technology. Another topic the game covers is the problem of "mutual understanding," where although people might have completely different and even contradictory ideas, if there's even a little in common, they can create something based on that.

Ishida and Hirata both worked as directors and producers, co-operating in the process. Ishida explains one of the reasons for that is that the evolution of game consoles has increased the scale of development for each game, making it difficult for one person to take the initiative. From their time on Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, the saying "if you want to develop a big title, let's do it together" was since used as the basis of their plan to work together. As collaborating directors, Ishida is primarily in change of the worldview of the game, while Hirata observes the system side, and they both use their roles as producers to view the big picture.

Ringo was initially not designed to be a protagonist, but rather an "electronic fairy" that would support the party, similarly to Nemissa from Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, but the developers felt like that would not be fresh enough, so they gave her the role of main character and the rest were adapted accordingly. Additionally, Ishida was at one point considering of having the world be dystopian with the network dominating it.

Because of Ringo's identity as a non-silent protagonist, or rather that she's not a "player surrogate," the beginning of the story was designed to give a proper explanation to the events and background of the story, compared to their original plan for beginning the story with a scene at the warehouse. Although it wasn't an active decision, care was also put in not making people feel uncomfortable while playing, which might've made demon companions brighter and more friendly than those from previous entries.

The new demons, or rather returning demons from Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, were not something that was decided to be included initially, but would eventually put into consideration the collective desire to add them as to please fans, primarily since the team wanted to include fun elements unique to Soul Hackers.

The combat of the game was consciously designed so that players would have to do less on minimizing risk of making mistakes, and would instead strengthen the aspects that would be most satisfying, such as exploiting weaknesses to strengthen the incoming Sabbath. This was compared to the Press Turn system of Shin Megami Tensei, where errors can be fatal at the pursuit of high return. Their thought process on their design was also build on their experience on Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE.

Promotion
The game would first be teased, only via its relations to Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. On February 17th, 2022, 4 daily streams would be hosted on ATLUS' Japanese YouTube channel, each starting at 8pm JST. These streams consisted of gathering information from users, and each stream would hold 3 questions, each separated by 10 minutes. The session is most likely a replication of feeding Flamma of Aion information, who would directly speak during the streams.

At random intervals during the streams, the term "Ringo" would constantly be brought up, alluding to the game's protagonist, and several vague screenshots of the game's setting and characters would be shown.

During a stream on February 21st, the protagonist Ringo would be unveiled as part of a live-action fight sequence over at, which would end with the reveal of Soul Hackers 2. The rest of the stream would be hosted by, with guests Mafia Kajita, comedian Nobuo from Penguins, and later directors/producers Eiji Ishida and Mitsuru Hirata, who would go over more general information on the game.

Similarly to Shin Megami Tensei V ' s Daily Demon, a web-series to promote Soul Hackers 2 would be hosted starting from March 10th, sub-titled "Daily Ringo's Demon Prediction." And continuing the recent promotional model of ATLUS games in Japan, Summoners Guide would inform players of the mechanics and details of the game. Both of these series are hosted by Ringo.

Soul Hackers 2 would also receive several premium trials in Japan. One would be held on June 4th and 5th, although one that was planned to be held on July 23rd and 24th was cancelled due to the spread of coronavirus.

Within live events, several figures that would partake in the promotion of Shin Megami Tensei V, such as Chiaki Matsuzawa, Nobuo from Penguins, and.

Near the end of the promotional process, a popularity poll in the form of a tournament bracket, called Soul Hackers 2 Which Demon Show, would be hosted on the game's Japanese Twitter account. The winner, Jack Frost, was announced on the pre-release livestream, which involved having O'Samurai-chan complete several Soul Hackers 2-related challenges:


 * 1: Perform a Sabbath with 3 or more demons.
 * 2: Find ally demons in dungeons as part of Demon Recon.
 * 3: Complete the request "Revenge is on Him."
 * 4: Clear the Aion order of defeating the enemy Halphas.
 * 5: Use fusion to produce B. Hawaii Frost.
 * 6: Defeat the first floor boss in the Saizo sector of the Soul Matrix.

Videos

 * Regular, character and Summoners Guide trailers all have either English trailers with subtitles, or their respective Japanese video has English captions.

Trivia

 * Soul Hackers 2 has been estimated to have a total playtime of 30 to 60 hours per run, the pace of which is dependent on time spent exploring, taking on optional sidequests, as well as taking on the Soul Matrix dungeon.
 * The day of release, the 25th, might be a reference to the Soul Hackers series' 25th anniversary.
 * Soul Hackers 2 is the first game in the Megami Tensei series to be directly developed for the PlayStation 5, without requirements for backwards compatibility.
 * Soul Hackers 2 is the first Megami Tensei game (as well as a work created by Atlus) to be developed for both Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox One. It is also the first game to be published for an Xbox console in 8 years since Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
 * Development of Microsoft Windows and Xbox One versions of Soul Hackers 2 was handled by Japanese studio Artdink.
 * In Japan, the Xbox releases of the game are digital-only, compared to other parts of the world where they're also distributed physically.