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Japanese developer Atlus is famous for birthing the cult-classic Megami Tensei (translated as Reincarnation of the Goddess) video game franchise.
The first entry dropped 35 years ago as Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. The franchise went on to spawn the core Shin Megami Tensei titles alongside numerous sub-series, including the iconic Persona games.
It now looks like the studio is reviving one of these spin-offs. A brand new Soul Hackers Twitter account has emerged out of the blue, posting a link that takes users to a newly established site about the game.
A brand new Devil Summoner from Atlus seems to be coming
The background photo for the Twitter account reads:
> Checking device compatibility
> Notice: Please, do NOT take your hands off the device
> Call “Soul Hack”
> Sequence start
To avoid the END, your cooperation is needed.
The site itself has a countdown timer ticking down to February 21, 2022.
Going back to the Soul Hackers Twitter account, the first Japanese tweet reads:
"Nice to meet you, we are Aion. Follow this account. I need your help."
The second tweet reads:
"Aion predicted the destruction of humankind. The sequence to avoid destruction will start today at 20:00. Please observe and cooperate."
There's no doubt that a new Devil Summoner game will be announced soon. After all, the account mentions something is coming today at 20:00 hours. Perhaps a Soul Hackers 2?
Regardless, all of this is very surprising. Given how Persona has been ballooning in popularity over the past decade, Atlus has mostly given the cold shoulder to their other MegaTen children - relatively at least.
The developers did come out with a remake of the 2010 Nintendo DS game Strange Journey. They also released three subsequent mainline numbered SMT games, including last year's Shin Megami Tensei 5 for the Nintendo Switch.
However, there's no sugarcoating the fact that Persona has been more popular among the mainstream gaming crowd. So it's good to see SEGA hasn't completely dumped the smaller pockets of their overarching franchise.
Perhaps this is just one step towards a future where fans can finally get a Raidou Kuzonoha 3 or Strange Journey 2 from Atlus.
For the uninitiated, Soul Hackers is part of the Devil Summoner sub-franchise of MegaTen.
It was first released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn as a sequel to the first Devil Summoner. A PlayStation port came the following year. The game also saw an English release in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS.
Soul Hackers' narrative follows a group of hackers from Amami City. The sci-fi setting takes place in a Japan where everything is connected to a single network, developed by Aigon Soft. Calling themselves the Spookies, the hacker team encounters the shady Phantom Society - a group of demon summoners that aim to use the overarching network to capture everyone's souls.
Soul Hackers is a first-person dungeon crawler, with the traditional SMT gameplay involving demon recruitment, negotiation and fusion. Combat is a turn-based affair, with players having access to a variety of weapons and using demons and their magic to supplement fights with other such entities.
It would be interesting to see how Atlus evolves the formula that was established in 2013 for this upcoming title.
