Just recently I restarted a playthrough for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (just calling it Soul Hackers for short lol) for the 3DS!

I say restarted because I originally started playing this a long while ago. While I did have a good time with what little I played, at some point I got super stuck, got mega frustrated, quit, and sold the game off. Unfortunately I sold my copy for a lot cheaper than what it goes for now… Regardless, I knew that I wanted to give it another shot at some point, so I picked up a digital copy when it was on sale. With Soul Hackers 2 being released very soon, I thought now might not be a bad time to give this one another go! Yeah Soul Hackers 2 should be very easy to play without playing the first game, but I dunno. It just felt right I guess lol.

I’m not very far in the game yet (about 2 hours in) so all I’ve really done is what’s basically the tutorial dungeon. I’m having a fine time with it so far, but this would certainly be a hard sell for a lot of people. For those who don’t know, this game originally game out on the Saturn and PS1. The 3DS is basically a port (of the PS1 version I think), and it’s the first time it’s been officially available in English. I haven’t played the original version, but from what I understand there was very little done to update the game when it went to 3DS, and it certainly shows it’s age. It really doesn’t look nice for a 3DS game, and so far explanations for various mechanics have been fairly lacking. In particular, you have to assign some stat points to your characters before you even get into battle! How am I supposed to know what any of this stuff means? It’s pretty minimal on explaining where you need to go as well, so for those reasons I’ll save myself the headache and use a guide lol. Not much else going on gameplay wise though. Just whack a few demons and get some others to join my own party (most of them were basically given for free though ha).

Story wise, we’re in an imaginary Japanese city, and it’s sometime in the “future”. At least, what people in the 90’s thought the future would be like. This is a super advanced city, and every household has a computer! Wow, so advanced lol! Some game thingy (that might use VR?) recently released a private beta version, and you (as a member of a hacking group called the Spookies) hack your way into the accepted beta user list to check it out. But oh no! Demons and the company who made the game/experience thingy might be up to no good! You gotta save the day! Or something like that. The story hasn’t exactly tickled my interest yet, but I definitely need to give it a bit more time. It’s certainly fun giggling at this version of the future though lol.

Anyway, I’m hoping it picks up soon. It’s apparently not a particularly huge RPG (HLTB says it takes about 30 hours to beat), so I expect that it would take too long for that to happen. We’ll see though!