It's being summoned this April in North America

Last year Atlus confirmed that Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, which has been out in Japan since August last year, will be coming to North America on 16th April 2013.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is an updated version of the Saturn original, and it will be the first time the game has travelled outside of Japan.

The 3DS exclusive naturally has a lot of improvements and updates over the original game, one of which was a vast increase in the amount of voice acting. Siliconera recently asked Alex Armour, the man currently handling PR duties for Atlus, if the voice acting would be as extensive in the localised North American adaptation.

He replied by saying:

We did not shy away from making the game fully English voiced. It’s almost as much as the JP version but it is cut back just a touch. It’s still a very robust production for voicing.

This led people to believe that there wouldn't be a whole lot of voice acting in the North American version, but it appears this is not that case and the game will still feature plenty of blabbering. Atlus has clarified that only some of the minor NPCs have had their voice acting removed.

In a post on the Atlus forums, the developer said:

The voicework that was cut was the map NPCs. The reason we cut that was because the JP version used one voice for every type of person: every man had the same voice, every woman had the same voice. It was pretty ridiculous, since these are definitely not the same person. To save time (and, yes, costs for studio work and actors), and to improve the work as a whole, we took out that bit.

Those who pre-order a copy of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers from participating stores will receive a limited edition box set containing the soundtrack to the game. Naturally, it'll be available on the 3DS eShop as well, but you'll get no special CD that way.

Are you looking forward to playing this, North America? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

[source siliconera.com, via atlus.com]