The mainline Shin Megami Tensei series has always been overshadowed by its Persona spinoff subseries. Going the other direction is Soul Hackers, the spinoff that was released for the Sega Saturn all the way back in 1997. Sega has announced that the game will be getting a sequel, and it will be out later this year.
The publisher has also put up a trailer on its YouTube channel. From it, you can see all the familiar motifs in the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series. Which is no surprise, since as a spinoff subseries, the premise is also a very familiar one. The Soul Hackers 2 plot synopsis that serves as the video’s description is short and sweet: “In a war between devil summoners, it’s up to Ringo and her team to decrypt destiny and save the world from apocalypse!”
All that being said, there are a lot of elements in Soul Hackers 2 that look like they were lifted straight from Persona 5. This is especially prevalent when the menus pop up, as well as a little during the turn-based RPG combat sequences.
Soul Hackers 2 will be out on 26 August 2022 on both console generations and PC. Steam is listed as an available platform, but the game doesn’t have its dedicated page just yet.
(Source: Sega / YouTube)
