I can definitely see why SH2 is getting hated on. The game feels incredibly rushed especially in terms of pacing and story. I didn't even realize I was on the final level when I got there. Like when I complain about story stuff in Atlus's other latest outings, P5 and SMT5, I can at least say they did a good job of having themes and carrying out on those themes. Literally every theme and story concept in SH2 gets brought up and then never actually expanded on. A huge shame because some of the concepts like the societal stagnation could have been something really thought provoking that stuck with you.
I know everyone goes on and on about the dungeons but besides of some frustration in the later Soul Matrix I thought it was fine if fairly uninspired. I will say I do quite like the battle system. It felt like they took what worked in Strange Journey's battle system and made a massive improvement. Building up the sabbath stack was a lot of fun. I will echo a common criticism that not seeing your demons very much in the fight was a huge mistake. Or at least if that was something you were deadset on not doing, maybe the weapons could've changed depending on who's equipped to who with some varied attack animations... like literally anything. I also, don't know why some things didn't carry over from SMT5 like the physical elemental skills which would've opened up way more builds for the Sabbath system. As is, it doesn't kinda make you value magic way more than physical. I also think the system could've punished you more for hitting enemies with the wrong element.
Atlus has also been progressively worse and worse with DLC. I personally find it easy to ignore the demons and costumes and just pretend they aren't in the game. I unfortunately can't ignore the Lost Numbers dlc though. If you don't get this DLC then you're looking at an incredibly short game for a modern RPG and I don't just mean in terms of hours. Without Lost Numbers you're party only really needs to get into early level 60s at most to beat the game meaning there's a lot of demons in the game you're just never going to need to use. If you're wanting to get the most out of this games content then that DLC is basically a requirement.
Outside of the combat, I did like the core 4 characters. I wouldn't say my enjoyment of those 4 being all that much beyond surface level though. Figue is just the worst though for spoiler reasons. I can't blame anyone for disliking this game but I still found fun in it.
I know everyone goes on and on about the dungeons but besides of some frustration in the later Soul Matrix I thought it was fine if fairly uninspired. I will say I do quite like the battle system. It felt like they took what worked in Strange Journey's battle system and made a massive improvement. Building up the sabbath stack was a lot of fun. I will echo a common criticism that not seeing your demons very much in the fight was a huge mistake. Or at least if that was something you were deadset on not doing, maybe the weapons could've changed depending on who's equipped to who with some varied attack animations... like literally anything. I also, don't know why some things didn't carry over from SMT5 like the physical elemental skills which would've opened up way more builds for the Sabbath system. As is, it doesn't kinda make you value magic way more than physical. I also think the system could've punished you more for hitting enemies with the wrong element.
Atlus has also been progressively worse and worse with DLC. I personally find it easy to ignore the demons and costumes and just pretend they aren't in the game. I unfortunately can't ignore the Lost Numbers dlc though. If you don't get this DLC then you're looking at an incredibly short game for a modern RPG and I don't just mean in terms of hours. Without Lost Numbers you're party only really needs to get into early level 60s at most to beat the game meaning there's a lot of demons in the game you're just never going to need to use. If you're wanting to get the most out of this games content then that DLC is basically a requirement.
Outside of the combat, I did like the core 4 characters. I wouldn't say my enjoyment of those 4 being all that much beyond surface level though. Figue is just the worst though for spoiler reasons. I can't blame anyone for disliking this game but I still found fun in it.