Line #2 YMMV/SoulHackers


1	* AnticlimaxBoss: Lucifuge in the first BonusDungeon. You'll be expecting a tough fight, given that he's the second-to-last boss in the dungeon, is one of the only opponents in the game who can act twice in one turn, and can use both Tetrakarn and Makarakarn. Unfortunately for him, he only has five moves, those being the two -karns, his basic attack, an inaccurate paralysis-causing move, and Demon Birth Cry, a weak Almighty move. He has no elemental attacks, and thus no way of hitting weaknesses, and no way of canceling buffs and de-buffs. If you buff your Endurance and Magic to the max and unload with Almighty, there's literally nothing he can do to you. The most trouble you're likely to have with him is if the paralysis move connects on your healer.
2	* AwesomeEgo: Nemissa's smug and boisterous personality is a great source of amusing lines from the normally cheerful Hitomi. Her strength in magic also means she's got more than enough power to back up her claims, too.
3	* BestLevelEver: While all the Vision Quests are awesome, Naomi's takes the cake. Other Summoners have cool demons to show off their prowess, Naomi has none. Instead, she just has a self-buff that doubles her healthbar, and a free healing spell. With that, she can tear up anything in her way, and you'll feel like a badass doing so.
4	* BreatherLevel: The Mall, save for some hard-hitting opponents like Powers and Duergars, is significantly easier than both the Amami Float and the Haunted Mansion, especially since it has no boss at all, compared to the three {{Wolfpack Boss}}es the previous two levels had between them. The Microelectronics Plant immediately after, however, ratchets up the difficulty even further.
5	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Sure, you can use all of your demons abilities and have the main character attack. But as soon as Nemissa gets her [[HerdHittingAttack ma- level spell]] and you keep putting points into her magic stat, she does so much damage there's not much reason to use anyone else besides upping your demons' loyalty[[note]]which can be done just as easily by using some sake to change their personality and have them just Guard[[/note]] and the occasional enemy who's immune to Nemissa's element. And once she gets the Megido spell? Then all you really have to worry about are a few bosses and the loyalty of your demons.
6	* CompleteMonster: [[EvilGenius Kadokura]] is the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive CEO]] of technology giant [=AlgonSoft=] and one of the most influential men in Japan. Though [[VillainWithGoodPublicity beloved by the public]] for his useful products and philanthropy, this masquerade hides a twisted man devoted to [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]]. Prior to the start of the story, Kadokura had discovered Manitou, [[TopGod supreme god of the Native Americans]], and decided to use his power for his own ends. Kadokura founds Amami City, a state-of-the art seaside metropolis, and Paradigm X, a totally-virtual city that can be accessed by Amami's computers, as an excuse to get millions of people into one place to [[YourSoulIsMine sacrifice their souls to Manitou]]; the chips that run the virtual city are infused with demonic power, sending the souls of the players via cyberspace to feed the sleeping god. By the end of the game, most of the city's population has had their souls removed. When Kadokura meets the heroes for the first time, he falsely blames everything on his demon partners Azazel and Satanael, then after the heroes kill them, Kadokura thanks them for saving him the trouble of doing it himself. When the heroes finally corner Kadokura, he swallows a number of souls himself to [[OneWingedAngel power himself up]]. Willing to exploit everyone from ordinary citizens to a creator god, Kadokura has no place in his heart for anything other than [[ItsAllAboutMe his own rise to the top]].
7	* ContinuityLockout: You don't ''have'' to know the story of the original ''Devil Summoner'', but it does allow you to understand several references, and [[spoiler:the BigBad and [[TheHero Hero]] of ''Devil Summoner'' appear as bonus bosses.]]
8	* DemonicSpiders: ''Anything'' with spells that can inflict instant death, mainly due to the main character lacking innate resistance against them and his death meaning that the game is over. And in a lot of cases, if you run into an enemy group where one enemy carries Hama, they all do. ''And'', unlike later entries in the series, Hama and Mudo spells will always hit ''your entire party''.
9	* FanNickname:
10	** The protagonist is known as '''Keiji Minegishi''' in the (possibly non-canon) ''Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: Nightmare of the Butterfly'' novel of the game. His codename is '''Cage'''.
11	** He earned the name "Katsuo" based on his earliest concept art, which featured him with a buzz cut.
12	** In the manga ''Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers Shito Kourin'', the protagonist is known as '''Kenji Semino''' and his Spookies codename is '''Sanagi'''.
13	** In the manga ''Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers'' by Shio Sasahara and Kazumi Takazawa, the protagonist's name is Arata Tsukamoto.
14	* GameBreaker:
15	** Once you reach level 59, you can fuse Kartikeya. At first, he seems unremarkable aside from his high speed stat, but if you can fuse him with Tetrakarn and Makarakarn, then you'll find that you have created a demon who can and will protect your entire party from nearly all damage. Because of Kartikeya's speed, he will most often move first, and wise casting of Tetra/Makarakarn depending on the situation, combined with those spells lasting the entire turn instead of for just one attack like in other SMT games, will prevent your team from going down. However, you still need to get his Loyalty up, and of course neither spell works against Almighty spells, but he is still a valuable asset that one would be able to keep for the rest of the game and even into the extra dungeons because of his utility.
16	** Nemissa is, bar none, the strongest character in the game, to the point where she'll deal more neutral damage to a foe than a demon dealing strong damage to one. This is especially true if she has the Zio skill set, as she eventually learns Megidola at level 58 (and learns Megido no matter what at level 50 or 52, depending on her elemental skill set) to deal neutral damage regardless of the foe. By that point, your demons are generally better off providing support for her than focusing on dealing damage.
17	* HilariousInHindsight: The confusion between Masahiro "Spooky" Sakurai and [[Creator/MasahiroSakurai the actual, real-life game developer]] became ten times more hilarious when [[VideoGame/Persona5 a certain other SMT protagonist]] was announced as a DLC character for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''. Gets even better when you realize both characters [[spoiler:are related to Satanael]] in different ways (Spooky [[spoiler:dies after being possessed by him]], while Joker [[spoiler:uses him as his Ultimate Persona in the final battle]].)
18	* ThatOneAttack:
19	** Eat Whole, a favorite of [[VillainousGlutton gluttonous demons]] such as Ammuts and Peallaidhs. This is the strongest "Skill" element move in the game, with a whopping 60 base power, and it hits the entire party for damage. Even worse, there is no armor in the game that resists Skill damage, and many of the demons that have it are immune to electricity, largely shutting down the best Nemissa build.
20	** King Frost's Self-destruct attack, which he uses once he runs out of HP and can easily bring you from full health to zero. If the protagonist doesn't have enough HP to survive it, or is too slow to guard before King Frost uses it, you're screwed.
21	** Last Resort, a skill used as early as the airport by Moh Shuvuu. It's not automatic, but it functions the same way as Self-destruct does and can either wipe your party or get them down to a range where they're easily picked off.
22	** Meat Bullet, a rare instance of a mutual HPToOne attack. If the main character is hit by this attack, you are [[CriticalExistenceFailure one hit away]] from an instant [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou game over]]. Especially bad cases are Tuo Fei, who is so fast that you can die before doing anything, and the Romero fight that can have three to five Rolwoys, all capable of using this move. Naturally, [[ContractualBossImmunity boss fights are immune to the skill]].
23	** As per usual with these games, instant death spells. While the PC is naturally immune to Expel due to being a human, he is ''not'' immune to the much more common Death skills without proper gear. Unfortunately, said gear also tends to be outclassed by most others in 99% of battles, meaning that unless you're at a scripted fight that you know has a demon with a Mudo-tier spell in it, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.
24	* ThatOneBoss:
25	** Mayone. She appears nearly right after you finish the VR Haunted Mansion. She packs a full team of five demons; one of them a Purple Mirror that will discourage you from using spells till you break it, many of them like flinging spells your way, and she has Mudola to cheap-kill the main character and anybody else in any row she targets but his survival is key. Either you equip yourself with anti-Death armor, have a fast-enough demon with Makarakarn to nullify nearly all blows and Mudola, or have a lot of luck. It doesn't help you need to see a cutscene before you're forced to fight her.
26	** Shemyaza. He likes flinging way too many [=AoE=] spells (Mabufula, Mazionga, and Maragion) your way, especially Megidola. His Delta Pulpulae inflicts confusion on all party members, and things will get worse if your demons happen to drop out. If you lose to him, you'll need to watch a three-minute long cutscene + dialogue.
27	* ScrappyMechanic:
28	** The Loyalty system, which requires you to give orders to demons in battle that suit their personalities or risk them becoming less effective in battle, disobeying, or even leaving. It's especially annoying when it comes to demons whose loyalty can only be raised by letting them do whatever they want in battle (like, say, you have a demon who likes to sacrifice itself to restore your party, even when there's no need to do so). To be fair, the game does offer the player a few ways to tweak this, either by buying special items to raise loyalty or change demon personalities and by having demons whose loyalty is maxed out follow orders, but it is telling that one NPC you encounter in Amami Airport will tell you that it's a "pain."
29	** Magnetite is often criticized, since it forces you to pay for ''every single step you take'', with the cost increasing the more demons you have out at once. You also need to spend some MAG each time you summon a demon from your stock unless you have Nemissa cast Sabbatoma.
30	** Demon alignment, which affects both recruitment and summoning. Unlike the mainline games, alignment plays no role in the story, making it there simply because it's a (then-)series staple rather than because it's reasonable. Fortunately, you can turn this off in the 3DS version, and Neutral demons (who don't care about alignment) are enough to support Nemissa if you don't want to or can't.
31	* ThatOneLevel:
32	** The Amami Monolith requires an absurd amount of backtracking compared to other dungeons across a huge swath of space, all with a high encounter rate with powerful demons with annoying resistances, including one that can ''de-level the party''. The final dungeon is a cakewalk in comparison.
33	** The Primate Intelligence Lab. The encounter rate is through the roof (it's not uncommon to have only a few steps between encounters), and they're all loaded with pathetically weak demons. Fortunately, the latter part means Estoma or the CAPS LOCK app will kill them, and the FightWoosh appearing constantly but no fights happening will be cathartic. ''Un''fortunately, however, this also means that you'll be burning magnetite by walking around a dungeon with demons, or by summoning them again at the boss.

Context YMMV / SoulHackers