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Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers - Cyberpunk meets RPG, SMT Style |OT|

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Love Soul Hackers. Been meaning to start a new game recently.
 

vall03

Member
cj_iwakura said:
The translation, according to Tom, is completed.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for the hack. Of course, who knows how long that could take.
it was finished already?! but then isnt hacking more difficult and time-consuming than just translation?
 

MechaX

Member
Woo for translations of PSX classics. I've been personally looking forward to this one since I've always wanted to play a non-Raidou Devil Summoner game, especially this one. (That, and I've heard that the first Devil Summoner aged like absolute ass).
 

cj_iwakura

Member
So I'm slowly working my way through the game, and Turnip was right; the VR Art Gallery dungeon is indeed hell. Is there a map anywhere? I might figure it out by then, but hey.

Ha, cleared it! I just need to figure out all these demons and what their skills do. :( Curse you, language barrier!


I really love this game's aesthetic. I know I shouldn't play it before it's translated, but it keeps me coming back. My biggest translation obstacle is recruitment.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Nice find. Some of those maps look nasty.


Also, the GUMP Fusion sequence is awesome. I made a recording of it that I'll share when it's fixed up.
 

Aeana

Member
Last update was on September 2. Since the translation is done and hacking and beta testing is all that's left, I have a feeling that Gemini might surprise us with a release before the end of the year.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Some of these dungeons are just vile.

Here's the breakdown of this cavern.

Four priests at the four corners. You have to meet them at SW,NW,NE,SE, then go the opposite.

Except on the second run, EACH ONE OF THEM WARPS YOU OUT.

See what happens when you let Lucifer code your dungeons?


That said, these are some of the nicest dungeons I've ever seen. Not even the PS3 Wizardry games have interiors this well designed.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Turnip(or any SH vets): why won't Anoon let me accept her request at the pet shop? I have demons with maxed loyalty, but I just get a buzzing sound.
 

Seik

Banned
I have this game on Saturn, got it on ebay for like 3$. It looks awesome but its so text heavy it turned me off after the first hour, happy to know people are working for a translation, there's big chances I get it! It'll be really better to 'know' what's going on. XD
 
cj_iwakura said:
More awesome music from the dungeon I just did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjSQwoFFTGM (Airport)

And the Vision Quest remix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUSyq42QCiY

This game's OST is divine.
I miss the Megaten days when Meguro didn't compose every single SMT-related release. Completely oversaturated, and the jpop rendition of P1 was a crime against the franchise.

Also noted, one of the Persona 2's velvet room themes originates from Soul Hackers, Hotel Gomade
 
cj_iwakura said:
Turnip(or any SH vets): why won't Anoon let me accept her request at the pet shop? I have demons with maxed loyalty, but I just get a buzzing sound.

Which request are you trying to fulfill, and with what demon?

Augemitbutter said:
any quality differences between saturn and psx version?

The PSX version apparently has longer load times, but it also has the gamebreaking casino and another ending.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
TurnipFritters said:
Which request are you trying to fulfill, and with what demon?

I really don't know. Only her first one is available. I tried to give her a maxed out Acheri, and the request just buzzes. (The others at least let me view my available demons with Os and Xs beside them.)



The PSX version apparently has longer load times, but it also has the gamebreaking casino and another ending.

The casino isn't in Saturn? Well good thing I didn't go looking...
 

C-Jo

Member
So I have this game on Saturn and PSX. How exactly does the patch work? Will I be able to play it without a modded system?
 

cj_iwakura

Member
C-Jo said:
So I have this game on Saturn and PSX. How exactly does the patch work? Will I be able to play it without a modded system?

If it's anything like Innocent Sin, you can burn it to a disc and then play it. You will need a modded system or possibly a game shark swap disc trick of some sort.

I just played IS on an emulator, after patching it to the ripped data. (Yes, from a disc I own.)
 

C-Jo

Member
cj_iwakura said:
I just played IS on an emulator, after patching it to the ripped data. (Yes, from a disc I own.)
Yeah, that's probably less of a hassle at this point. Thanks!
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Does anyone(Akselziys!) have transparent Soul Hackers portraits, or at least some character avatars? Might as well spread the love.
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
cj_iwakura said:
Does anyone(Akselziys!) have transparent Soul Hackers portraits, or at least some character avatars? Might as well spread the love.

I'll have to check when I get home :)

I believe I have the portraits, but I think they're not transparent XD; Nothing a little magic wand magic can't fix haha
 

7threst

Member
Wow, didn't know this was being translated! Awesome!

The battle system is an improvement over the previous Devil Summoner's, for sure.

I probably sound stupid now, sorry for that, but previous, as in: there have been Devil Summoner games before this game (if so, what games are those?), or previous as in: an improvement over the Raidou games?
 

cj_iwakura

Member
7threst said:
Wow, didn't know this was being translated! Awesome!



I probably sound stupid now, sorry for that, but previous, as in: there have been Devil Summoner games before this game (if so, what games are those?), or previous as in: an improvement over the Raidou games?

There's one precursor: Devil Summoner.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/megaten/devilsummoner1.htm

That's the one with Kyouji Kuzunoha. Soul Hackers is the sequel, with some minor connections and cameos.

The first game has a neat story, music, and atmosphere, but it's nigh unplayable, like Persona 1 used to be.



The Raidou games are in the same universe, but in the past. The only major connections are Victor and the Kuzunoha name. Persona 2 also has a reference; the Kuzunoha Detective Agency.


One thing I like about the Devil Summoner universe is that Devil Summoning is more like a line of work as opposed to Persona users being oddballs.

Devil Summoners are legion in Soul Hackers, and not people you want to mess with.
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
cj_iwakura said:
There's one precursor: Devil Summoner.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/megaten/devilsummoner1.htm

That's the one with Kyouji Kuzunoha. Soul Hackers is the sequel, with some minor connections and cameos.

The first game has a neat story, music, and atmosphere, but it's nigh unplayable, like Persona 1 used to be.



The Raidou games are in the same universe, but in the past. The only major connections are Victor and the Kuzunoha name. Persona 2 also has a reference; the Kuzunoha Detective Agency.


One thing I like about the Devil Summoner universe is that Devil Summoning is more like a line of work as opposed to Persona users being oddballs.

Devil Summoners are legion in Soul Hackers, and not people you want to mess with.


Can I just say that the art of
Kyouji Kuzunoha the 1st
is super pimptastically Kaneko awesomeness <3

There is Kaneko cover art, character art, and poster art in the Raidou novel. The poster art of Raidou vs Kyouji Kuzunoha the 1st is amazing! I want a wallpaper of it <3

Though I guess I could make one since I scanned it and the rest of the pics XD
 
cj_iwakura said:
I really don't know. Only her first one is available. I tried to give her a maxed out Acheri, and the request just buzzes. (The others at least let me view my available demons with Os and Xs beside them.)

Hmm, that's odd. Are you absolutely sure it's &#12450;&#12492;&#12540;&#12531; you're speaking with? Is Acheri in good health?

Aeana said:
Fortunately, Gemini has fixed the load times in his patch. I'm really excited about that.

I don't really remember the load times being too awful, but it shouldn't be a big deal anyway if you're emulating it.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Heh, when i saw this thread bumped i thought the translation was released already, fortunenly it seems the actual script is fully translated and it's just a matter of waiting for the patch now. Can't wait.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Akselziys said:
Can I just say that the art of
Kyouji Kuzunoha the 1st
is super pimptastically Kaneko awesomeness <3

There is Kaneko cover art, character art, and poster art in the Raidou novel. The poster art of Raidou vs Kyouji Kuzunoha the 1st is amazing! I want a wallpaper of it <3

Though I guess I could make one since I scanned it and the rest of the pics XD

You realize you have to share this now, right?
 

Aeana

Member
TurnipFritters said:
I don't really remember the load times being too awful, but it shouldn't be a big deal anyway if you're emulating it.
Emulation doesn't get rid of the load times at all, unfortunately. The individual load times are not too terrible, but they add up to be fairly annoying.

Here's what Gemini had to say about the loading:

Gemini said:
Now let’s move to something a bit different about this translation: optimization of the existing data and code. Soul Hackers, while being an almost decent port, suffers from semi-long loading issues, especially with menu executables (which is actually a 470 KB block of crap). My intention is to fix this problem by adding compression to all the sub-modules, so that loading times are drastically reduced to 1/4th in the worst case (“DGC_CMP.BIN”, the menu module files, with a simple GZip compression will take only 130 KB) or even to 1/10th in the best scenario (“DGB_MAP.BIN”, 2D map module, shrinked from 306 KB to 32 KB).
 
Aeana said:
Emulation doesn't get rid of the load times at all, unfortunately. The individual load times are not too terrible, but they add up to be fairly annoying.

Here's what Gemini had to say about the loading:

I don't understand any of that Aeana, but cutting down on loading is a really good thing.
(Hey Index, take notes. If this amateur guy can do it, you can sure as heck do it when you port games to the PSP)
 

cj_iwakura

Member
This is a long shot(I'd post at talkingtime but I'm waiting on approval :p), but after the power plant, the armor shop added a piece of armor that has 42/19 stats, but something in blue and in red.

Is it cursed or something?
 
cj_iwakura said:
This is a long shot(I'd post at talkingtime but I'm waiting on approval :p), but after the power plant, the armor shop added a piece of armor that has 42/19 stats, but something in blue and in red.

Is it cursed or something?

Blue is a resistance, red is a weakness. Some quick googling tells me the piece you're looking at nullifies electricity but is weak to force. Apparently it also requires a Vitality stat of 15 to equip.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
kai3345 said:
So is this an action rpg like the raidou games?

Or a more traditional rpg?

Turn based. It's most comparable to Strange Journey of the games we got here. First person dungeons, first person combat. The combat is fast and fluid, and it has lots of neat touches: enemy sprites die in different ways based on how you kill them. If you slash them, they get cut in half, a punch knocks them away, guns fill them with holes, etc.

Even devil summoning apps change the summoning animation.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
So I'm at Disc 2, and it's officially hit the traditional SMT 'shit has just got real' phase.

I have a feeling this will all end badly, but I hope to be proven wrong.
Might stream for a while, but I can't promise much besides dungeon crawling.

On the bright side, I've gotten dang good at reading SMT spells in Japanese.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Does the choice after Algon Software's Plant affect anything?

When you choose to stick with Spooky or not? I know what I'm going to do, just curious.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Turnip wasn't kidding about the Algon Plant boss.

My god.


Mazionga. Shock. Mazionga. Shock. Mabufula. Frozen.

Megidola. ASH.
 

pje122

Member
I don't think necessarily.
I've played the translation-patched Tales of Phantasia and Policenauts on my PSP, and I assumed you could've played them on a standard PS1 as well.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Does anyone(I suppose Turnip would) understand weapon fusion? I have the Thunderbird for the Thunder God Sword, but Bruce Campbell fusion guy isn't making it as the result.
 
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