Now that the dust has settled, can someone explain the plot? I never played the first game so I feel like I'm missing something.
>>3690224The first game is so much better that the second game isn't even worth playing outside of Ringo-chan and Figue-chan.
What I recall from previous threads is that stuff is explained differently between the English and Japanese versions. But it's not any clearer. Theres a lot that's never said. Like, how long Aion has been around. And why it decided Arrow and the scientist deaths were important.
>>3690296The "first game" is the second game of the Devil Summoner series. This is the fifth game.
>>3690304because they had the covenants?
Hmmm, if Aion didn't intervene, what would have happened?
The game opens with Arrow watering a tree.
>>3690917Arrow's childhood friend is Kaburagi.This scene in his "safehouse" was probably meant to be symbolic. Because "kaburagi" has a lot of meanings, which includes "Tree/Wood" and "Fortress". It's Kaburagi who shoots Arrow dead in the beginning of the game. We later learn that they were childhood friends. Kaburagi is part of the Phantom Society, but Arrow is a double agent who's real allegiance is to the "Yatagarasu" faction. The game does a terrible job world building and explaining what these factions are all about and what is dividing them.
>>3690922These groups appear in other games. But if we went just by Soul Hackers 2 impressions - Yatagarasu is a kind of Ghostbusters International. While the Phantom Society is some kind of crime syndicate. Although I think they were meant to be closer to Harry Potter's Ministry of Magic who keeps the Wizarding World secret. There aren't magic wands but there are COMPs with the Devil Summoning Program which is mainly distributed by the Phantom Society, I think. The Yatagarasu group been around long before the invention of computers.>>3690746I guess the big question is what would have happened to the purple covenant.
The references to older games is very subtle. I want to say it's surprising they didn't go further with it. They never spell out "the great one" as being "God" from the other SMT games. Obviously Soul Hackers 2 takes place in an alternate timeline where Tokyo Millennium doesn't exist. The rainbow covenant thing could be an allusion to the biblical flood in Genesis, as well as the great cataclysm in SMT2 (I think). But it could also be connected to norse mythology and the bifrost (a rainbow bridge). Potentially the covenants are a big deal in SMT continuity. Because the implication is that they've always been around. They've never been mentioned before in other games as far as I'm aware. Soul Hackers 2 takes place in a different future. But why is it different? I'm not sure where to begin. But I'd start with America nuking Japan. No, not Hiroshima. Basically in SMT1 "God" aka "YHVH" learns that humans can summon demons from the expanse. So he sends Thor as an agent to get rid of the demons. So Thor was disguised as an American ambassador (or president?) and basically hits Japan with ICBMs. This is all to bring about the "Millennium Kingdom" In the manga continuity of SMT: Khan, this is more or less the same except Thor wants to establish a connection to the expanse to bring about the Millennium Kingdom, and he succeeds in any case.I assume, in order for Soul Hackers 2 to take place, YHVH and Thor have been defeated at some point.
>>3690224This game is a piece of shit, play the first one instead which is pure kino
>>3691070I've been reading developer commentary that said Ringo didn't start out as a the main protagonist, but was originally meant to be an electrical spirit like Nemissa in the first game. The rainbow thing could also lean into hindu mythology. Where Indra shoots a lighting arrow at the dragon Vritra to end a drought. The bow being the rainbow, naturally. The main character's name is Arrow. The name has to mean something, right? The game also beings with Ringo commenting on experiencing rain for the first time.Vritra is also a boss in Arrow's soul matrix, as well as a higher level enemy in the first stage of the game. On ConceptArt.org, Vritra is one of the few demons featured as well.
>>3691534They could also be blending mythologies. Vritra is "the enveloper" that causes drought by blocking the rivers. Of course he's weak to lightning. In Norse mythology, Thor is also said to defeat the world serpent, Jormungandr, during ragnarok. So they're equivalent in that regard. Soul Hackers 2 also starts by saying society has "stagnated". But this has nothing to do with anything, apparently. The OmniSystem(ENG) or Vanishing System(JP) is the most recent scientific advancement that transfers data instantly. But they never present a practical application for it. Other than hacking all COMPs simultaneously, or Soul Hacking the entire human race to end conflict. When they use the machine it warps the building into an ocean for some reason. But we're never told if this is normal.
>>3691540They must have indented to do more with this scientist character because he's featured in the Japanese promotional material. Why mention that he is "afraid of cats" when they kill him off in like the first 10mins of the game?Cat vs Dog was a recurring Party Conversation. So they might have been a potential party member. Then again he was also a non-summoner. It also says he works for telecommunications, which is never mentioned in the game. But the data transfer business makes sense. Also I saw a Japanese trailer, the subtitles could be incorrect. But it said the point of summoning the great one with the covenants was to create more covenants. Since they enhance people's special abilities. But then it leaps to "if they have all the covenants they'll destroy the world" I think they were conflating covenants with devil contracts, since OmniSystem could potentially hack everyone's COMPs. And Soul Hacking/Resurrection had a side effect of transferring demons to Aion.
Soul Hackers 2 wouldn't get the hate it got if it was just called something else, even SH: Gaiden
>>3691560There was probably more to that "Flamma" character as well. They used Flamma's voice for early Soul Hackers 2 promotional videos. She(I'm calling it a she) is meant to communicate Aion's will to Ringo and Figue. It seems a bit contrived that Aion can't speak for itself. I could see the story potential of Flamma being more relevant to the plot than just a disembodied voice. In the one ending Ringo says Flamma is "still there" but not speaking. How does that work? Unless it was suppose to have a body of its own in another draft. JRPGs are always tripping over the concept of souls, spirit, consciousness, and "will". Ascribing the identity of a person to someone else's memory, collective recognition, or -god forbid- their online "data". "Flamma" means flame. But it's also a famous gladiator who "won" his freedom multiple times and refused it. You're not really free from a system if "free" is just a status the system brands you with. I think this was part of Raven's character arc as well. Figue tried to save him, but he rejected her. The problem with Aion or any collectivist society is that they put people into boxes.
>>3692085I'd be willing to bet that if Flamma did have a body, that it was meant to be this Yatagarasu Agent that pops up out of nowhere in the final area. I mean, I'm willing to believe that Yatagarasu are just "that good" that they could get a man in ahead of Arrow's team. But they can't know that much about Aion or what Figue was planning to do in such a short amount of time. But Flamma would know exactly what's going on. And it makes sense you'd have to go through Flamma to get to Aion.
>>3692085Speaking of Raven. I assume his name was chosen as a equivalent to the shamen from the first Soul Hackers game. From a certain perspective Aion and its agents are equivalent to Manitou and Nemisa. In the first game, the "vision quests" were memories of the dead. While this game was also Soul Hacking the dead, it also revived them as a consequence and at the end it was implied soul hacking could work on the living. It feels a bit shortsighted and under utilized. They could have still Soul Hacked the scientist and Arrow's mentor to access their memories, even if they weren't trying to revive them. Instead, Figue hacks his broken phone that conveniently had a video message. And they never think to Soul Hack Iron Mask while he's alive, but I get that it's an RPG and battles are required.
>>3693250I was thinking it was like Amon in Legend of Korra who took away people's elemental bending as an equalizer.
>>3693258
I was also thinking about the covenants ability enhancement. The Red Covenant supposedly helped the Scientist create the OMNIsystem. But he was also a non-summoner. So was he able to see other covenant holders? We don't really see the Blue Covenant holder, but it's the Guy who was creating Zomas. He's more relevant to the DLC. The Purple Covenant was sealed and hidden in Arrow, transferred from his mentor, Mangetsu Kuzunoha. He created this technique as well. We could speculate that the Purple Covenant has been passed down through the Kuzunoha Clan for ages. Since the Kuzunoha have significant folklore attached to them. Yellow and Green were in Milady and Saizo. We don't know where or when they became covenant holders. They didn't seem to do anything outstanding with them. However, Yellow was transferred to Figue, who then developed body doubles. Since she was an agent of Aion it's hard to say where this ingenuity came from. Presumably Ringo could controlled the Mimi Owl too, or had a puppet body of her own. But we never see it.These 5 colors can correspond to the game's 5 element attributes. Fire Ice Lightning Wind(force) and Ruin. Orange and Indigo are missing, but the game also has a white "Almighty" attribute, as well as Physical and Gunfire(pierce) attributes with orange icons. There's also Healing and Support skills with a baby blue icon. I think the only thing stopping them from including these other 2 covenants would be the story potential.
>>3693259There's a Pixiv Illustrator that claims not to be Kazuma Kaneko. But his "Amon" looks suspiciously related to Raven/Iron Mask. Even though he uploaded in in 2017.
>>3693276I think Paul (1st Iron Mask, Milady's boyfriend) was meant to be the Orange Covenant. IIRC Milady had a thought that maybe he was only interested in her for her covenant. But how can that be? Since only holders can recognize other covenant holders. Unless Paul was the Yellow Covenant holder, and it passed to Milady only after he was assassinated. By Raven who presumably didn't have Zenon at the time to collect. I also think there was some unspoken connection between Paul and Raven. Because they both have backstories involving burning villages and children. But they were vague about what country Milady actually came from and what exactly was going on in the world.
>>3693276I saw a screenshot of the art book that showed Ash was designed with white hair and was probably always meant to represent the "Almighty" attribute. She also looked like she had a collar and chain leash, which says something about her personality and kind of explains her swapping allegiances in the story.
