I recently made a youtube video laying out my thoughts on this game (shameless plug) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4-dTYHgHds
And basically, I found that aside from not being the most faithful followup to the devil summoner series, or even to the original Soul Hackers, I still think it's a pretty good megaten game that is for the most part undeserving of it's hate and controversial standing.
I think this game has a really good gameplay loop and battle system, which does a really good job of utilizing modern megami tensei's gimmick of heavily rewarding exploiting weaknesses, while at the same time being unique enough to stand alone as it's own thing. Alongside with a very solid character progression/customization system that while being similar to modern persona games, feels infinitely deeper and more rewarding. It's definitely a more casual experience but that's not something I'm necessarily against as long as it remains engaging in it's own right, which I found this game consistently was.
A lot of the sidequests and some of the later/deeper soul matrix dungeon layouts were pretty annoying, but with the inclusion of the sprint button and faster battling added post launch these issues were nothing more than just a few minor annoyances in an overall pretty fun experience.
And basically, I found that aside from not being the most faithful followup to the devil summoner series, or even to the original Soul Hackers, I still think it's a pretty good megaten game that is for the most part undeserving of it's hate and controversial standing.
I think this game has a really good gameplay loop and battle system, which does a really good job of utilizing modern megami tensei's gimmick of heavily rewarding exploiting weaknesses, while at the same time being unique enough to stand alone as it's own thing. Alongside with a very solid character progression/customization system that while being similar to modern persona games, feels infinitely deeper and more rewarding. It's definitely a more casual experience but that's not something I'm necessarily against as long as it remains engaging in it's own right, which I found this game consistently was.
A lot of the sidequests and some of the later/deeper soul matrix dungeon layouts were pretty annoying, but with the inclusion of the sprint button and faster battling added post launch these issues were nothing more than just a few minor annoyances in an overall pretty fun experience.