Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers (Nintendo 3DS) Second Opinion Review

The game takes place in Amami City, an originally small town that has been transformed into a high-tech city as part of a redevelopment plan by the government. The main attraction is a virtual 3D city called Paradigm X in which users can interact with each other and even shop at realistic stores or go to a casino or theatre. While every citizen of Amami City has access to a PC with a high-speed internet connection, Paradigm X is still in the testing phase and access is restricted to a few lucky winners of a lottery.

The player takes control of a silent, unnamed protagonist that's part of a hacker group called Spookies. Without giving away too much, the player eventually meets a mysterious personality called Nemissa and acquires a device called the COMP and the ability to interact with and summon demons, marking the start of his adventure which leads him into plenty of dangerous dungeons and encounters with members of a mysterious group that resides in Amami City. It should also be noted that the game features something called the Digest Mode which allows players to quickly read up on previous story events after long breaks between play sessions.

The core of the game is a deep and challenging turn-based combat system complete with traditional random encounters. While this may sound fairly standard for an old-school RPG, many other aspects of it are anything but that. The only fixed party members are the protagonist and Nemissa and while they cover the basics fairly well with a melee-based character and a magical attacker/healer, it's essential to recruit demons to fill up the remaining four slots in the group. This is done by talking to them during battle, with the ways to make them join the party varying a lot; sometimes it's as easy as complimenting them while others demand a gift before even considering the option. While it takes some time to get used to the way demons think, it becomes natural later on and similar kinds are usually recruited the same way.

Only the protagonist can talk to the demons but that isn't an issue as talking to them doesn't take up a turn. Choosing wrong dialogue options can make them angry and attack the entire party, though. An alternative to dealing with those pesky creatures all the time exists, as well, and it's called Demon Fusion. Two or three demons can be fused to create completely new ones and it comes with an added benefit over simply recruiting them, too. Fused demons can inherit magic spells or skills they wouldn't normally know from the previous ones, giving the player a huge amount of options for customising their team. Speaking of customisation, the protagonist and Nemissa earn one stat point for each level up which can be assigned to typical stats such as Strength, Intelligence, Endurance or Agility.

Summoning demons is extremely useful but it comes with a cost. Magnetite is a vital currency in the game and it's required to summon a demon and maintain their physical form while exploring dungeons. This presents an additional element of strategy and challenge. Stronger demons typically come with a higher Magnetite cost, so it's up to the player to balance Magnetite consumption and power in battles. The COMP can hold a total of 12 demons and they can be summoned in battle, as well, meaning it's easy to keep more situational ones in reserve and the Magnetite cost as low as possible. Magnetite is also necessary to obtain Yen, the currency used in Amami City. Yen is used to buy equipment for the human characters, healing items and more unusual things such as Sake. This alcoholic beverage isn't intended for the player to drink and is actually useful for another key mechanic concerning demons.

Each demon has one out of five different personalities which are Wild, Sly, Calm, Kind and Dumb. The personality determines which action they prefer to perform in battles. For example, wild demons prefer to attack physically while sly ones want to avoid physical contact and instead attack with magical spells. Paying attention to personalities is more important than one would expect, as it influences their loyalty. Demons with high loyalty gain additional benefits such as more attack power and are also much more likely to follow commands that don't suit their style. Some of them might be more geared towards a role in battle that doesn't match their personality and this is where different kinds of Sake come into play. With them, it's possible to temporarily change a demon's personality to one's liking and turn otherwise useless demons into very helpful allies.

Much like the party members, the COMP can also be customised by installing additional software in up to five blocks of free space. These add-ons can have a variety of functions. For example, some make it easier to talk with certain demons, while others allow the player to customise the overall experience to their liking by being able to save anywhere - as opposed to a simple temporary quick save - or avoid random encounters with lower level enemies. Most of them take up one block of memory while more useful ones require two. The software can also only be changed at designated Save Terminals.

On top of the customisation of the COMP, it's also possible to change the game's difficulty at any time and make other aspects of the game more convenient and accessible. First of all, the map normally only displays explored areas but it can be changed to show everything including traps or warp points right away. Secondly, demons typically have certain alignments which can prevent ones from the opposite alignment to be summoned at the same time but that can also be changed to allow any desired party formation. Lastly, each demon has an analysis that includes their stats, strengths and weaknesses and can only be viewed after defeating one of them. Those who'd rather know their enemies beforehand and don't want to experiment in the first battle can also disable this restriction at any time.