SOUL HACKERS 2
Developer Atlus Publisher Sega Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release August 26
As a sequel to a game that was released a quarter of a century ago, and existing in a subseries of a subseries of Shin Megami Tensei, Soul Hackers 2 has its work cut out for it, especially in the west. But then, at one time similar could have been said of Persona. The surplus of style in those games is equally evident here, and it has a similar visual-novel-meets-dungeon-crawler structure, but aged up. Rather than high-school students, Soul Hackers follows a group of colleagues, whose Social Link-equivalent bonding sessions generally take place over a beer. Oh, and it should be noted that their jobs involve hunting and battling demons. With that blend of relatable day-to-day and larger-than-life stakes, it’s easy to see why Atlus might be positioning Soul Hackers – for all its tangled backstory – as an entry point for Persona players into the broader series.