History VideoGame / SoulHackers

** The Spookies are a group of teenagers investigating odd, seemingly supernatural phenomena out of a brightly colored RV.

* ActingForTwo: Done in the Japanese version. Averted in the English version as Atlus [=USA=] wanted to give players an easier time on [[spoiler:who's speaking as Nemissa and Hitomi after the latter's body is possessed.]]

* NamesTheSame: Masahiro Sakurai (Spooky) shares his name with {{Creator/Masahiro Sakurai}}.

* NoExportForYou: Neither the Playstation or Saturn versions were ever released in the West, although the 3DS remake has received an official localization in North America.
** The sequel cellphone game, '''Soul Hackers: Intruders''', which is set a few months after the conclusion of the original game where the group is reestablished to take on a new enemy. This wasn't released by Atlus overseas. The manga/novel versions are also not released outside Japan.

* DubNameChange: Redman was changed to Kinap to avoid UnfortunateImplications.

The usual ShinMegamiTensei components are here: devil fusion, elemental weaknesses/strengths, conversing with monsters to convince them to join your cause and an incredibly dark storyline. An important part of Devil Summoner is Loyalty. Devils gain Loyalty if you command them to use moves that their personality type prefers (eg: physical, magic, etc.) and lose Loyalty if you tell them to use a move that they hate. A Devil with high Loyalty is more likely to obey you and even make a DivingSave. A Devil with low Loyalty will routinely ignore your commands and may even leave the party. (Yes, it's as annoying as it sounds.) The only Devil that isn't subject to this is the Zoma (default name Zeed), an artificial devil who will always have complete loyalty to you and grows not by traditional fusion, but by "stealing" the stats and abilities of devils that you sacrifice to it.

* ArtificialHuman: Artificial devil made via fusion known as Zoma Fusion.
** [[spoiler: Nemissa is eventually revealed to be an artificial devil too]].

* EvilCounterpart: Dark Summoners, devil summoners who work for the Phantom Society.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Apparently, you can stick a devil-summoning computer on ''anything''. COMP variations include guns, guitars, saxophones and brass knuckles.

* {{Expy}}: Want to know what Fox Mulder's nickname was in ''TheXFiles''? "Spooky" Mulder.

* ShoutOut: Nata Taishi is ''Manga/AstroBoy''.

* BittersweetEnding: Despite the fact that the Spookies were able to defeat Manitou and save all the residents of Amami City, Spooky is killed in the battle against Phantom Society[[note]]In a New Game plus ending, Spooky can be saved.[[/note]] and [[spoiler:based from the story of Soul Hackers: Intruder, Amami City has been made expendable by the Japanese government due to the events of Soul Hackers, forcing all the residents to leave the place with the city deserted.]]

''Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers'' is the second game in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' spinoff series ''Devil Summoner''.

--> '''Motto of the Spookies.'''

* CallBack: The presence of Madam Ginko, Rei Reiho [[spoiler:and Kyouji Kuzunoha]] from the original Devil Summoner game in order to help the player take on the bad guys.

* CampGay: Beta.

** It could be argued that he meant it, since he did use the absorb animation. [[HintDropping Though the hint before entering the picture [[spoiler: Aqua Dolphin]] from the student says otherwise]]

Amami City is a modern {{Cyberpunk}} metropolis where every home has a networked computer and the Internet is tightly controlled by the government. When the Algon Software MegaCorp announces [[{{MMORPG}} that a new virtual city called Paradigm-X will be hosted on the network]], you and your PlayfulHacker friends poke into it and discover that something is seriously wrong... as in "attempt to suck out your soul" wrong. Fortunately, you are saved from the impending de-soulification by a mysterious figure called Kinap, who tells you that you have several souls trapped inside of you, and that if you wish to solve the mystery of Paradigm-X you must [[AnotherMansTerror experience the last moments of those souls' mortal lives]].

Amami City is a modern {{Cyberpunk}} metropolis where every home has a networked computer and the Internet is tightly controlled by the government. When the Algol Software MegaCorp announces [[{{MMORPG}} that a new virtual city called Paradigm-X will be hosted on the network]], you and your PlayfulHacker friends poke into it and discover that something is seriously wrong... as in "attempt to suck out your soul" wrong. Fortunately, you are saved from the impending de-soulification by a mysterious figure called Kinap, who tells you that you have several souls trapped inside of you, and that if you wish to solve the mystery of Paradigm-X you must [[AnotherMansTerror experience the last moments of those souls' mortal lives]].

The usual ShinMegamiTensei components are here: devil fusion, elemental weaknesses/strengths, conversing with monsters to convince them to join your cause and an incredibly dark storyline. An important part of Devil Summoner is Loyalty. Devils gain Loyalty if you command them to use moves that their personality type prefers (eg: physical, magic, etc.) and lose Loyalty if you tell them to use a move that they hate. A Devil with high Loyalty is more likely to obey you and even make a DivingSave. A Devil with low Loyalty will routinely ignore your commands and may even leave the party. (Yes, it's as annoying as it sounds.) The only Devil that isn't subject to this is Zeed, an artificial devil who will always have complete loyalty to you and grows not by traditional fusion, but by "stealing" the stats and abilities of devils that you sacrifice to it.

* ArtificialHuman: Artificial devil made via fusion known as Zeed.

* EvolutionaryLevels: Zeed and Nemechi can evolve. Zeed evolves by being fused with demons of certain species, taking him down a certain evolutionary path. Nemechi does it using D-Souls, and can be devolved back to its original form, though it has less of a chance of evolving down a path it's already gone down.

* GottaCatchThemAll: One has to evolve Zeed down his different evolutionary paths by fusing him with demons and must unlock the demons gotten through evolving Nemechi, then buying them using D-Souls. And how do you get D-Souls? Play Coins.

* MirrorBoss: Finnegan will summon the same demons the Protagonist has in their fight, with the only exceptions being Zeed and the demons you get by fusing Zeed.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Some affinities were translated incorrectly. For example, Greyman and Rakshasa are NOT [[NoSell immune]] to [[LightEmUp Expel]]. Rather, they are [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak]] to [[OneHitKill it.]] Note that this is referring to their stats page; the Judgemental Eyes software gives this away by not showing the immunity markers over them when targeting with an Expel skill, meaning the coding is still truthful to the player. There may be other cases as well.

* {{Brainwashed}}: What happens to people caught by Paradigm-X. [[spoiler:Including Yuichi]].

* ContinuityLockout: Downplayed. You don't ''have'' to know the story of the original ''Devil Summoner'', but it does allow you to understand several references, [[spoiler:plus the BigBad and TheHero of ''Devil Summoner'' appear as bonus bosses.]]

* CyberPunk / PostCyberPunk: The creation of Amami City (and the integration of technology) is played up here. Plus the presence of a hacker group that tries [[spoiler:to stop a plot concocted by the bad guys from stealing people's souls via a virtual reality game.]]

* DemonicPossession: Hitomi by Nemissa. [[spoiler:Moowis does this to Carol J briefly and attempted it on Hitomi after his defeat. Later done to Spooky by Satanael]].

** Casino Blizzardon is accessible early in the game. The most expensive prizes there are [[InfinityMinusOneSword some of the best swords and armor in the game]], and unlike the other shops it is all available as soon as the casino is unlocked, you just have to be persistent enough to play the minigames until you have enough coins. With that equipment you are basically a demigod for most of the game; you can very easily blaze through without even having to summon any demons. The only things you need to watch out for are demons with Charm or immunity to swords.
** The Copernicus Install Program is obtainable by trading a Fortuna(level 30) in the Pet Shop. Fusion Accidents ignored your level to an extent, which allowed you to fuse demons of a higher level than you are. This can give you quite an advantage, notably this can result in getting Salamander and Ara Mitama much earlier than you are supposed to.
** The Pet Shop Demons can be used regardless of your level. Which means, if you can complete a certain requests when you are relatively low levelled, you can get a demon that is 10+ higher than your level.
*** A good example of this is the Pet Shop Lugh. In order to get Lugh, you need to complete the request that ask for a demon with at least 10 Mag(ex. Principality) which gives you a Scathach and a demon with 20 or more strength for Lugh itself. Normally, a 20 STR demon is pretty hard to acquire,but you can get an Ara Mitama or Salamander(which you can fuse into Ara Mitama) through fusion accidents. Fuse an Ara Mitama or two to a demon with 10 or higher STR around your level(which is easilly provided by a demon from a 3rd stage Nemechi, or the Scathach that you acquired from the previous request). Trade it with Lugh, and watch as you walk around with a Demon that is more than ten levels higher than you are.

* EvolutionaryLevels: Zeed and Nemechi can evolve. Zeed by being fused with demons of certain species, taking him down a certain evolutionary path. Nemechi does it using D-Souls, and can be devolved back to its original form. Though it has less of a chance of evolving down a path it's already gone down.

* GottaCatchThemAll: One has to evolve Zeed down his different evolutionary paths by fusing him with demons and must unlock the demons gotten through evolving Nemechi. Then buying them using D-Souls.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Onryo, a race of vengeful ghost demons that appeared in the original Devil Summoner return in this game. [[spoiler: Six's sister is brought back as one thanks to Paradigm X. Inui and Butaihei, bosses fought in the original game return as optional bosses.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Said word-for-word by Lunch, and Subverted. [[spoiler: The Spookies originally intended for this to happen to the Phantom Society and Algon by spreading the info about their Soul Harvesting operation. Instead, they got outed to the public as net terrorists.]]

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Apparently you can stick a devil-summoning computer on ''anything''. COMP variations include guns, guitars, saxophones and brass knuckles.

* MirrorBoss: Finnegan will summon the same demons the Protagonist has in their fight. The only exceptions being Zeed and the demons you get by fusing Zeed.
* MultipleEndings: In the 3DS version, it is possible in NewGamePlus to unlock a second ending where [[spoiler:Spooky survives his DemonicPossession]], like in the Playstation version.

* NamesTheSame: Masahiro Sakurai aka Spooky shares his name with {{Creator/Masahiro Sakurai}}.
* NewGamePlus: You won't be able to get this until ''after'' clearing the game and facing the five original bonus bosses in the cleared saved.

* ObliviousToLove: When negotiating with some demons, they may wish to talk about girls. Choosing the option to talk about current girlfriends if it comes up will cause Hitomi to butt in and ask if you were talking about her, with [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Nemissa commenting that you probably are.]]
--> '''Hitomi''': [Name], you're not talking about... ME, are you?!

* PhlebotinumRebel: [[spoiler:Nemissa was created to aid the Phantom Society. Unfortunately for them, her program gets stolen by Urabe before they could put her to use. Thus she has no memories and thus no loyalty to the Phantom Society, and by the time they catch up to her she's found more than enough reasons ''not'' to go along with them]].

** Spooky can be a shoutout to Fox Mulder of the X-Files.
** The Frost Five is a real reference to the defunct Jackson Five.
* SkippableBoss: During Naomi's Vision Quest, she's tasked with destroying the demons Apsu and Tiamat. You only fight one of them though, as [[spoiler:Naomi gets asphyxiated before she can fight the second demon. This DOES come back to haunt the Hero proper in the FinalBoss as the choice has influence to the Weaknesses of the enemy]].
* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: During Judah's vision quest, an NPC claims that some of his friends are indian after asking Judah if his saxophone COMP summons snakes and offending him.

* SwordAndGun: Standard weapon setup for human characters.

* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: It's an SMT game.

Amami City is a modern {{Cyberpunk}} city where every home has a networked computer and the Internet is tightly controlled by the government. When the Algol Software MegaCorp announces [[{{MMORPG}} that a new virtual city called Paradigm-X will be hosted on the network]], you and your PlayfulHacker friends poke into it and discover that something is seriously wrong... as in "attempt to suck out your soul" wrong. Fortunately, you are saved from the impending de-soulification by a mysterious figure called Kinap, who tells you that you have several souls trapped inside of you, and that if you wish to solve the mystery of Paradigm-X you must [[AnotherMansTerror experience the last moments of those souls' mortal lives]].

[[caption-width-right:275:The unlikely heroes of Amami City.]]

The story is set in a very advanced place called Amami City, where every home has a networked computer and the Internet is tightly controlled by the government. You and your PlayfulHacker friends have gained access to a [[{{MMORPG}} virtual city]] called Paradigm-X on the network, created by the Algol Software Corporation. However, something is seriously wrong with this program... as you find out when it attempts to suck out your soul. Fortunately, you are saved from the impending de-soulification by a mysterious figure called Kinap (Redman, in the fan translation) who tells you that you have several souls trapped inside you, and that if you wish to solve the mystery of Paradigm-X you must [[AnotherMansTerror experience the last moments of those souls' mortal lives]].

* 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 do that 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.