According to Famitsu, Atlus is working on a Nintendo 3DS conversion of the original Sega Saturn and Playstation game. It'll have full voice over and other new 3DS features.

For a game that was just announced, it's releasing pretty soon in Japan; on August 30th.

Some of the features written on Andriasang:

• Opening animation from Satelite

• Shorter load times

• Animations for battles

• Full voice conversion featuring a major voice cast

This will probably come out here at one point.

Source

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Edit: Between this and Etrian Odyssey 4, it is becoming pretty difficult to maintain a significant level of disinterest in the 3DS...maybe Atlus'll do a non 3D version for some other portable system.

I will buy a 3DS for this game, can't wait to finally play it.

HACKERS!!!

Excellent news. I own a 3DS for JRPG and it can't come soon enough. After the awesome that JRPG on the DS was, my 3DS is feeling unloved. I want to love it, I really do.

Soul Hackers is the most playable of the pre-Nocturne SMT games, so the curious should definitely give it a try once it's localized (since that's not even a question of "if" anymore). Hopefully they'll tweak it to be even better, with a compendium at the very least. That honestly should have been one of the first major bullet points released.

Nice.

@Eirikr said:

Soul Hackers is the most playable of the pre-Nocturne SMT games

Really? More playable than Persona? Hard to imagine, at least for an English speaking audience (I'm pretty sure Devil Summoner wasn't released outside Japan).

@Contrarian: Seeing as how well that thing's selling in japan, I doubt you'll have to wait long for jrpgs.

@Video_Game_King: As a confirmed SMT nut who couldn't make it halfway through P2: IS, I'm gonna say "yes." Having a bottom-screen map available all the time will make the game 100% better, too.

@Eirikr:

Holy shit, are you serious? I'd say that I'll have to check it out, but as we've both alluded to, pre-Nocturne (let's go with that) SMT games are pretty hard to get into. Plus, as always, I'm busy with other games and don't know Japanese.

@Video_Game_King: I mean, I'm not trying to fool you or anything: this is still a pretty serious dungeon crawler at heart. But in terms of player friendliness, it was definitely the bridge that got us from the unfairly punishing original games to the more fairly punishing modern titles. As for a couple of examples, you can do a double fusion at anytime in a dungeon, plus SH introduced the app system (seen in Strange Journey) which allowed you to control various gameplay variables. That said, SH could really benefit from a spit shine. As for how much spit the core game is getting, we'll just have to wait and see how much Index is willing to spend (which is not much, I'm guessing). Though all it really needs is a peppier pace, a bottom-screen map, and a compendium to make things more enjoyable, and that's not asking for much.

@Eirikr said:

@Video_Game_King: As a confirmed SMT nut who couldn't make it halfway through P2: IS, I'm gonna say "yes." Having a bottom-screen map available all the time will make the game 100% better, too.

persona 2 is totally playable. I played through IS on the PSX fan translation, and while it got a little tedious at times it's not like it was that hard. Once you got the upgraded Personae you could pretty much just coast through to Hitler.

@Animasta said:

Once you got the upgraded Personae you could pretty much just coast through to Hitler.

I know that sentence shouldn't be a big deal (as I knew that part about Persona 2 before (it's the only thing I know about it, really)), but it still makes me really want to play the game.

@Animasta: Tedious is the key word. I couldn't get past the terrible random encounter rate, the monotony of the battles themselves, or the inane process of garnering cards for fusion. Other than that, it's a great game. But it's a pretty serious hurdle to overcome and I just couldn't muster up enough interest to continue.

@Eirikr said:

@Animasta: Tedious is the key word. I couldn't get past the terrible random encounter rate, the monotony of the battles themselves, or the inane process of garnering cards for fusion. Other than that, it's a great game. But it's a pretty serious hurdle to overcome and I just couldn't muster up enough interest to continue.

oh no I totally get it (I took a very long break at some point right before you get your final 5th party member) but saying it's hard is probably the wrong word. Also, technically, you don't need to grind for that many cards for Persona, as the ones you get generally last a while. IS, anyway. It's really also making Eternal Punishment seem like a chore as well, but I have to because Innocent Sin was just so incredible (story wise) and the way they bridge together is fucking amazing.

@Video_Game_King: do it! I believe it's the best story Atlus has ever done, probably the best story of a PS1 JRPG as well.

God damn it, I guess I'm going to have to buy a 3DS

Neato!

This sounds great, may even warrant me getting a 3ds.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO WANT.

@Animasta: Yeah, I'm totally avoiding saying P2's a bad game. It just seems like one of those games where you can get more out of it if you already know what to do. I'm like that with a lot of old RPGs that first-time players seem to hate nowadays. But unless I am already familiar, my patience for old obtuse RPG mechanics is pretty much nil at this point. I did eventually end up downloading a save from GameFAQs for IS just to look at the compendiums and such, as those are always my main reasons for playing these games.

Also, screenshot time:

Oh thank god.

Also, a warning: the MC of Soul Hackers looks like a douchenozzle.

Part of me wonders if this game isn't the mysterious 3DS Shin Megami Tensei title that Atlus quietly revealed along with Devil Survivor 3DS (which turned out to be Overclocked) and Persona 3DS (which who knows is what at this point).

Awesome. I've always been really interested in playing this game. I'm glad I(probably)don't have to settle for a fan translation.
 
@Eirikr said:

@Animasta: Tedious is the key word. I couldn't get past the terrible random encounter rate, the monotony of the battles themselves, or the inane process of garnering cards for fusion. Other than that, it's a great game. But it's a pretty serious hurdle to overcome and I just couldn't muster up enough interest to continue.

Part of me wonders if this game isn't the mysterious 3DS Shin Megami Tensei title that Atlus quietly revealed along with Devil Survivor 3DS (which turned out to be Overclocked) and Persona 3DS (which who knows is what at this point).

@Hailinel said:

Part of me wonders if this game isn't the mysterious 3DS Shin Megami Tensei title that Atlus quietly revealed along with Devil Survivor 3DS (which turned out to be Overclocked) and Persona 3DS (which who knows is what at this point).

But Soul Hackers isn't a real Shin Megami Tensei game, is it? Atlus USA will no doubt put the SMT name on it, but I don't think Atlus Japan would.

Pics:

More here

For those of you who have played it, what sort of game is it?

I'm a fan of the Persona and Devil Survivor series, but those are both JRPG heavy endeavors. Is this similar or something totally different?

For those of you who have played it, what sort of game is it?

I'm a fan of the Persona and Devil Survivor series, but those are both JRPG heavy endeavors. Is this similar or something totally different?

Very pleasantly surprised that this is going to happen. I figured that boat had sailed when it didn't get ported/emulated on the PSP along with that re-release of the original Devil Summoner, but it's nice to see it getting renewed on the 3DS with some pretty nice-sounding features. I never actually got around to finishing it, but I do agree with @Eirikr when he says that it's the most playable pre-Nocturne SMT game. It's still got its mechanical hurdles you have to jump through, but I feel that the barrier to entry is definitely nicer than a lot of its other SMT contemporaries in that era. I'll definitely nab either the English or Japanese language version of the 3DS edition when it comes out, but this is a weirdly motivating me to go back and actually beat my Saturn copy.

Staying far away from this.

I honestly don't know how you guys can put up with first person SMT dungeon crawlers. Strange Journey is the only one I have experience with and I found it totally excruciating to play.

@Chop: They definitely aren't for everyone, no. In fact, they probably aren't for most players. Still, the main series and direct spin-offs like Soul Hackers offer a lot of unique aspects like the focus on religion and mythology, gameplay features like fusion, and (the newer ones anyway) a level of party customization that most other games can't match. Mythology and micromanagement, that's SMT in a nutshell. But yeah, if you didn't like Strange Journey, Soul Hackers isn't going to win you over.

Freaking yes! I love older SMT games that I never got the chance to play... well untill now that is (: assuming that they port this one over to the states as well.

Freaking yes! I love older SMT games that I never got the chance to play... well untill now that is (: assuming that they port this one over to the states as well.

so this is strange journey but made in the 90's, i could be down for some of that

I don't know if I like Strange Journey. I haven't opened it. I also haven't opened my SMTDS2RKVKA Raiho Special Limited Numbered Edition.

@LordAndrew: strange jouney is fun if you like etrian odyssey mixed with persona and you caring for random battles. Also devil summor is cool game, but i did not get the jack frost edition

@Eirikr: I just wish they'd drop random encounters and the first person view. I can handle a dungeon crawl and grinding but the movement in Strange Journey actually made me sick. I just...don't understand why they'd keep the games in first person at this point. Makes no sense to me as there can't possibly be anyone out there who enjoys that more than third person.

@Chop: I hear you. But SJ being first-person was likely a result of both meager budget and it being on the DS. Not that the DS has no third-person RPGs, but with the style of game they wanted to make, first-person just fit the art assets a lot better.

@Chop said:

@Eirikr: I just wish they'd drop random encounters and the first person view. I can handle a dungeon crawl and grinding but the movement in Strange Journey actually made me sick. I just...don't understand why they'd keep the games in first person at this point. Makes no sense to me as there can't possibly be anyone out there who enjoys that more than third person.

I wouldn't find strange journey any better or worse being third person really. probably look worse since those art assets would look sketchy as fuck in 3d.

There's something about 1st person tile-based movement in EO and SJ that I really loved. Also, I found the random battles infinitely more tolerable in those games simply because you have a little indicator telling you how close you are to getting in a battle.

I have little knowledge of soul hackers, but this looks interesting.

Fun fact: Atlus USA was planing on bringing the game over when it was on the Playstation but Sony turned them down. It possible now that Atlus USA has a lot better respect on what games they can localize and that Nintendo will have a say on this game this time. Hey, Sony can't be the only ones getting Atlus games that'll help their systems out.

@metalsnakezero said:

Fun fact: Atlus USA was planing on bringing the game over when it was on the Playstation but Sony turned them down. It possible now that Atlus USA has a lot better respect on what games they can localize and that Nintendo will have a say on this game this time. Hey, Sony can't be the only ones getting Atlus games that'll help their systems out.

Yeah, SCEA has a weird history of refusing certain titles for North American release. It doesn't really happen that much anymore, but their old policy could be blamed in part for the death of Working Designs.

For those interested, the Japanese Soul Hackers 3DS website is live and has some information (all in Japanese, of course).