Sega recently revealed an interview with Soul Hackers 2 producer Eiji Ishida and director, Mitsuru Hirata, which allows players to learn more about its worldview, battle systems, and unique charms. In this interview, the developers have discussed a lot of interesting topics, such as character design, worldview, and soundtrack development.
As a long-awaited sequel to the Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, a spinoff of the Megami Tensei series, Soul Hackers 2 is set to release on August 26 worldwide for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Other featured staff includes music composed by MONACA, character designs by Shirow Miwa, and production manager Shinjiro Takata.
▍What Makes the Soul Hackers Series so Appealing?
As a spinoff to the Shin Megami Tensei, Soul Hackers has an immersive world concept and background that stays true to the original series.
“There’s our human society that we are all too familiar with, but there are also Demons. There are many deep layers to society, but the layers to the Demon world are too deep to comprehend. This is where the story of Soul Hackers begins to unfold. It is a story of humans and Demons.” Ishida mentioned in the interview.
In the Shin Megami Tensei series, the player sees the destruction of the world from a wide point of view. However, In Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers, this point of view is narrowed down. Society and individuals are now the focal point and the events of the story unravel in just a single town. The Devil Summoners get together to rescue the town, playing the role of investigators.
According to Ishida, the Soul Hackers series revolves around three key elements: people, technology, and the occult.
“Back when the Shin Megami Tensei series was first unveiled, thoughts of how the networking industry could become the cornerstone to facilitate modern development and play a vital role in our lives captured our imaginations,” Ishida said.
The concept of summoning Demons with a device can date way even back to the 90s. The mix of the occult and technology is what made the game so appealing at the time.
▍What Makes the Sequel’s Story Unique?
Since nowadays technology is a normal and essential part of everyday life, the director thought portraying technology as a threat to humanity would be seen as rather inappropriate. so they decided to put the characters and dramatic interactions between humans at the heart of the story.
At first, the story was based on the question of whether artificial intelligence has a soul. “Although the subject is rather philosophically intriguing, we decided to not go down that path because we wanted to give our audience a taste of something more unique. The theme we went with for Soul Hackers 2 is rather different,” Hirata stated.
“When asked about the protagonist, director Ishida answered that “the protagonist in Soul Hackers 2 is a form of technology that transcends life, letting players immerse themselves into characters who lack any kind of emotion would be pretty much impossible to develop. Which is where the two female characters Ringo and Figue came into play, who serve as entities to this “technology that transcends life.”
▍Character Design of Soul Hackers 2
The story of Soul Hackers 2 focuses on the attitudes that the Summoners have towards life and is a drama involving friends. This is precisely what makes this more than just a sequel to the series and elevates Soul Hackers 2 to be a completely new work in itself.
And this time, manga artist Shirow Miwa, who was known to create the Dogs manga series, works on the character design for Soul Hackers 2. From hardcore male characters to the adorable female characters and fierce older characters, it seems that Miwa’s designs were very compatible with the Atlus’ RPG themes.
“Miwa did ask us if we intend the designs to resemble those of previous installments in the series, however, we did not. We preferred to go with what Miwa had in mind. This is because the staff working on the previous games had created character designs based on their own ideas and whatever they were influenced by at the time,” Ishida mentioned.
▍Music Production with Studio MONACA
For the music production, the developers chose the MONACA studio. According to the producer, this was done by “giving them information on the theme of the game, scenarios from the storyline, and characters so that they could get an image of the kind of atmosphere the game is supposed to convey.”
Some of those topics include storylines that put the spotlight on complicated relationships, the latest technology and the concept of God and Demons.
▍What Is So Special About the Game System?
Thanks to the immense fan positivity on the Press Turn System, the same system was utilized in this sequel. For those unaware, the Press Turn System, or PTS for short, is a classic type of battle system where each enemy has a weakness.
If players manage to figure out what that is, they are capable of dealing more damage. Figuring out the strong and weak points is what made the series so fun, after all.
But there are also new features in this game, for example, Sabbaths. This is a battle system where you can summon your stocked demons to deal immense damage. This function was created with the intention of allowing you to summon all of your demons for a full-scale assault.
Hirata stated that: “the designers and programmers worked hard to make it come true. After experiencing that exhilarating feeling of summoning your army then unleashing everything you’ve got, I think we can all agree that it was well worth it!”
But Ishida reinforced that the battle system of Soul Hackers 2 isn’t just about summoning Demons to fight, but rather, Ringo is at the core of operations and the other characters join her party to fight alongside her.
“As this new system does not involve the player giving commands to Demons, we had to take an extra step to preserve the exciting usage of Demons in gameplay. We made sure to implement lots of scenarios where you also fighting alongside your Demons,” he said
“It’s possible to summon a large number of Demons if you succeed in hitting an opponent’s weakness, and we put a lot of effort into showing these sorts of aspects to our players. For example, we even have a scene where Jack Frost rolls around. I’m sure fans will really appreciate these sorts of animations.”
▍Messages for Fans
At last, the developers shared their gratitude for the long-time support from fans and makes sure that they will get a completely new experience in this new game.
“Soul Hackers 2 carries on from the previous games in the series, but is also a brand-new game released 25 years after Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. It builds on the foundations set by Soul Hackers but is also a completely new game. You can enjoy this it even without having played its predecessors, so please, give it a go!” Ishida said.
“We’re releasing this as a brand-new game, so keep an open mind while playing. If you are a fan of Ringo, the game’s visuals, and worlds where you can interact with Demons, this game is definitely for you, so be sure to try Soul Hackers 2!” Hirata added.