Soul Hackers

Playtime: 34.8 Hours (Save File), 47.9 Hours (Total)

Main game playthrough only, with Electric/Almighty Nemissa and a En/Agi focused MC. Normal difficulty, with alignment and analyze hacks enabled. Generally kept the back-upper, back mirror, dark man, and finders keepers apps installed in the COMP for most of the game, which is probably the most efficient setup for general gameplay. I did a major casino grind right after the Astro Museum to get the swords for MC and Nemissa, and a full set of the casino armor for the MC to protect against unfair deaths; I avoided using sword attacks on the MC for most of the game to balance the game out somewhat. Instead, I proudly cheesed probably half the game with a Lv40 Byakko with Makarkarn and several demons (eventually Lv50 Yatagarasu, Lv56 Suzaku) with Tetrakarn; this trivialized most of the mid-to-lategame boss fights and made the final bosses completely free pickings.

Final playtime on the clear save was 34:45, but the 3DS activity tracker shows 47:55 because I restarted my playthrough to switch Nemissa's element, and also because I did a ton of casino grinding early in the game (which involves a lot of savescumming).

This game definitely feels archaic on all accounts, even for the time of the 3DS release. It's in the classic first-person DRPG perspective as opposed to the fully 3D navigation of most newer games, demons require a consistent supply of magnetite to stay summoned and do not level, demon recruitment is pretty much random and is heavily gated by party composition, fusion is somewhat basic and lacking most QoL inheritance options, and overall game balance has much to be desired - several easily-exploitable strategies in later SMT games are not accounted for here at all. Despite all of that, I really enjoyed my time with this game once I got going and the glimpse into the early Megaten gameplay that usually tends to be a bit too old for my tastes. It can certainly be a bit overwhelming, though - especially at the beginning when resources are far more scarce and options for demons and fusion are limited; during my first attempt at this game in early 2023, I quit about halfway into the warehouse mission at the start of the game because I couldn't really wrap my head around magnetite & demon loyalty. It was only more recently (~September 2023) that I finally gave it another shot and a chance to sink in a bit, which turned out to be quite a lucky gamble.

Speaking of gambling, I should note that my perspective is pretty heavily biased (or maybe inaccurate) by some of the 'cheats' I used in my playthrough. I grinded out a ton of casino points early in the game to get some really good endgame-worthy armor and some weapons for the MC, mostly to keep him alive. Just like many other old MT games, if the MC dies it's an automatic game over; I figure I'd been hit by stray single-target attacks enough by that point so I got him fully geared. As noted above, I tended to avoid most sword use until the last couple of dungeons to prevent the game from being too stupidly easy - but also, starting from probably the 4th dungeon or so, there are far more enemies that void or repel physical moves which makes it impossible to use the sword anyway.

Also on the subject of 'cheating', the 3DS port also has some "COMP Hacks" that can be enabled at any time to alleviate some of the more restrictive elements that were in the original game. I used the alignment and analyze hacks for conveniences' sake. The alignment hack allows you to summon demons from any alignment into the party, regardless of the alignments of other demons in your party. This is because the original game had 'incompatibility' between extreme alignments, so if you had an ExChaos demon, you couldn't summon a Law demon, and an ExLaw demon would prevent the summoning of a Chaos demon. I found this to be rather stupidly restrictive, so turning this off was an easy choice. Note that negotiations with enemy demons also use this system, though - so I'd usually keep a very neutral party when exploring dungeons to maximize recruitment anyway, thereby following the rule usually outside of boss fights. The analyze hack allows me to see the elemental affinities of a demon while fighting it; I'd be referencing the Demon List (AQIU384) if I didn't have it turned on, so this just cut out a step. Affinities change significantly between games, and it's always a stupid feeling when getting reflect killed by an attack that you'd expect to land on other incarnations of the same demon. Lastly, I don't know if anyone would consider this cheating but I kept the "Back-Upper" COMP app installed for the entire game to allow myself to save anywhere to prevent major time loss in the event of a random ambush death.

With regards to the core gameplay and combat of this game, it's actually very different than most other Megaten games I've played. Firstly, elemental weaknesses in this game are far less important in Soul Hackers than in most newer games - outside of doing a bit more damage, there is no mechanical difference similar to the Press Turn bonus, Co-Op attacks, or 1More turns of the other games in the general franchise. Combined with this is a general tendency towards far more aggressive affinity sets - even in the first dungeons, it's common to find demons that will completely Null or even Drain/Repel specific elements, with Null Phys demons appearing as early as the 4th or 5th dungeon in the game. This leads me to talk about the way enemy formations are handled, which is always a core part of any JRPG, and even more so for DRPGs where placement is a strategic element. Lots of formations (especially lategame) are very cleverly devised to avoid AOE spam, and to make you think about how to best handle each situation. For example, a reflect Phys demon might be positioned with a weak to Phys demon so you can't just slash or slam the entire line at once; this is just one example, but most common enemy formations will follow this to some degree, without ever getting too egregious (in my opinion, anyway). There are some absolute nightmares in the enemy placements that are actually harder than some of the bosses and can sometimes serve you some BS deaths, in my opinion; it's fun to have each of them be a little puzzle to solve. Near the end of the game, the ability to spam Almighty attacks (thanks Nemissa) makes things nice and easy again - but this is really only for the final bit, so I don't consider this a big deal.

Also, as I've mentioned before, each demon requires a resource called magnetite to summon, with a cost per step to keep them in your party when exploring dungeons; this adds a layer of strategy you need to keep in mind when exploring, as upkeep can be very difficult with a full party of 6 - especially if the demons you summon are costly. In addition to the alignments of each demon (as described in the previous paragraph), there is also a set 'personality' type for each demon and a loyalty meter. Depending on the kind of personality they have (eg. Wild, Kind, Calm, etc.), different kinds of actions must be taken to increase their loyalty - if loyalty is low or middling, there is a chance they will not follow a command that conflicts with their personality. As an example, Wild demons always want to hit things physically, while Kind demons prefer to guard, buff, or heal. In my opinion, this is quite an interesting dynamic - and the implementation of it isn't actually that bad, since it doesn't take too long to boost loyalties up. By the end of the game, I honestly even felt that it contributes a lot of the charm to a game that might have just felt like a simplified or watered down version of the newer games otherwise. Personality wise, there are also some more interesting quirks in demon behavior and conversation that I appreciated; some of the ones in your party might offer to negotiate for you when trying to recruit other demons, and others might give you tips about the game or the dungeon you're currently in! It's a really nice little touch that grounds the presence of the demons a bit better in the game's reality.

As for the overall structure of the game and the design of the dungeons, I found it quite surprising how many different landmarks in Amami City you visit in the game, with each of them feeling a little different than the others. Thematically, they all end up fitting the theme of the game quite well, though they are all based off of pretty mundane locations (ex. warehouses, a museum, a government office tower, etc.), they aren't quite memorable for the aesthetic as they might have been if the designs were more abstract in nature. Diving into the Schwarzwelt (in SJ) is quite memorable, for example - but visiting the neighborhood mall doesn't have quite the same impact. This is made up for by the predominantly excellent pacing and the gimmicks of each dungeon; most of them introduce some interesting puzzles or other mechanics, while none of them (except for the Amami Monolith) really outstays its welcome. Seeing as there are something like 10-15 dungeons in a roughly 35-40 hour game, each dungeon tends to be only a few hours long at most - which is just enough to get a good idea of the structure of the puzzles without it dragging on forever (think Womb of Grief in SJR - my goodness that's too large). Speaking of gimmicks, the different painting worlds of the VR art museum, the puzzles of the VR park, and the passcode rooms in the Monolith are all great examples of very interesting gimmicks that add some excellent flavor to otherwise "monotonous" DRPG crawling, which I also enjoy but could easily get old otherwise. The Primate Intelligence Lab side mission is also very funny; the ridiculous encounter rate (2-3 steps per encounter) pretty much forcing you to use Estoma/Repulse Water managed to get quite a kick out of me. Not all of them quite land though; that one pitfall puzzle in Leon Auto Plant 3F still haunts me.

At the end of most dungeons is a boss fight, naturally - I didn't really go into it earlier, but the boss designs are pretty cool. Just like the dungeons themselves, a lot of the boss fights have some interesting gimmicks. The VR dolphin is probably the most memorable offhand; with a comment earlier in the dungeon that 'dolphins always lie', the dolphin will continuously assert that he loves magic attacks while also draining them. This is somewhat of a ruse, however, since the most reliable way to beat him is to completely overload him by attacking him with magic until he gets overloaded and dies. A bit later, you are also given a choice when fighting Finnegan (a rival summoner) to go man-on-man, or to fight him with Nemissa in your party; this majorly changes the format of the fight. The final boss also has a bit of an interesting trait, in that it can take one of two forms (physical or magical) depending on a path you take in a side mission earlier in the game. With that being said, a huge ramification in the design of these bosses is the sheer absurdity of the Tetrakarn and Makarakarn skills in this game, which are broken beyond belief in the player's favor. Not only do they cost 6MP to cast, allowing pretty much any demon to spam it the entire fight, several very fast demons can also easily inherit these skills (Byakko and Yatagarasu in my case), meaning that you have guaranteed physical AND magical protection at all times. Very few boss fights in this game are able to circumvent this spam - boss stats tend to have fairly low Agility, and maybe only a couple of them have any form of Almighty attack at all; the rest use plain physical or magical attacks on you. Makarakarn also works on Expel/Death skills so you can't be instakilled, as well as all status moves - making Tetraja moot. With this glaring oversight in mind, the final bosses of the Amami Monolith and the Underground Ruins are completely free; I beat Azazel, Satanael, Kadokura, and (physical) Manitou with hardly any damage taken, in particular completely damageless on Manitou. Also of note, the buffs/debuffs are insane in this game too - buffs can scale your damage up to 350% and debuffs can drop enemy stats by up to 80%; Nemissa was hitting for almost 2K per hit on a +4/-0 stack on Manitou, who couldn't do anything in return.

The last thing I've pretty much neglected to write about here is the story, and it's because it really isn't fleshed out much. Obviously, the glaring exception is Nemissa, who I think is a phenomenal character (one of the best in the entirety of Megaten for sure) and completely elevates the game. The way she gradually comes to care about Hitomi and the Spookies while retaining most of her inner brat, and the slow reveal as to her true identity and purpose formed a major motivator for me to continue playing, especially during the relatively rocky start. Otherwise, for the most part, it's just a slightly more optimistic take on the standard SMT formula, with different characters appearing and events happening mostly to push you to different dungeons. There's only one ending, with an achievable alternate ending in NG+ if you decide to do it - there are no alignments and very few choices of what to do or who to side with. That being said, the characters by and large don't suck - I really liked Spooky and Lunch, and Finnegan is a pretty badass rival with a surprising sense of honor and self-consciousness; each member of the Spookies also undergoes somewhat of a mini-arc throughout a dungeon or two of the story, which is reflected in the comments they make in the ending of the game.

I'm kind of noticing now that most of my comments above feel like a pretty wishy-washy take on whether or not I actually liked the game. It definitely feels old and clunky, but it has plenty of good parts too. Personally, now that it's been a couple of days since I finished it, I think I still absolutely loved my time with it and remain very glad I decided to give it a more proper shot after the overwhelming first impressions during my first attempt. I don't think I want to continue down the road to the extra postgame dungeons and NG+ though; the endgame already started to show signs of the balance shifting with heavy Almighty spam & Tetra/Makarkarn usage, and the overleveled superbosses would mostly likely prove more frustrating than gratifying by the time I got to them. So I'll leave it here for this game while my thoughts of it are still very positive.