Certainly one of Digimon’s largest strengths has all the time been its skill to lean into nostalgia, and that is no totally different in Digimon Story: Time Stranger, the seventh entry within the franchise’s role-playing-focused gaming sequence. Like previous Digimon Story video games, Time Stranger places an enormous emphasis on narrative, however this time round, it was the creature accumulating and turn-based battles that made me wish to hold enjoying lengthy after my three-hour preview session ended.
As an alternative of youngsters and youths, Time Stranger’s protagonist is an grownup undercover agent investigating Digimon-related phenomena. I began my playthrough proper from the start of the story, the place we see the consequences of the Digital World on real-world Earth. You’ll be able to select whether or not the protagonist is male or feminine, and the opposite one turns into a personality within the story: your associate who communicates with you thru a pocket-sized hologram. The intro units the stage for the conflict between two worlds with common residents speaking about information of unexplained disasters and protestors even accusing authorities of withholding secrets and techniques.
However that is all only a backdrop for the meat of what I obtained to play. The Digimon Story sub-series will get its title from its narrative-driven core which is, usually, complemented by turn-based gameplay. “Battle steadiness” is without doubt one of the predominant areas that producer Ryosuke Hara centered on, just like what he did when engaged on Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. At 36 years outdated, he was a part of the audience for the sequence when Digimon Journey launched in 1999.
“So there’s a couple of issues that we wished to enhance on from the previous installments of Digimon’s Story, however one factor [in particular] was the battle steadiness,”he instructed me by way of a translator throughout my session. “I suppose previously variations, individuals had been counting on sure characters far more than their being balanced. So for this title, we wished to essentially enhance on the RPG battle side of the battles.”
Time Stranger begins with introducing us to its predominant “sort triangle,” just like the hearth, water, grass triangle in Pokemon and axe, sword, and lance triangle in Hearth Emblem. This works equally to Digimon Story video games earlier than like Cybersleuth. Whereas Digimon assaults might have secondary weaknesses behind parts, the primary sort behind a Digimon’s classification closely impacts its strengths and weaknesses. To exhibit this, Time Stranger offers you one in all every sort to select from on your first Digimon: Patamon (Knowledge), Gomamon (Vaccine), or Deviveemon (Virus).
I went with Patamon, since his associate in Digimon Journey was one in all my favourite characters rising up. Patamon was capable of tackle many of the enemies I noticed inside the first half-hour or so, however from there, I wanted to depend on different Digimon like Koromon to reap the benefits of sort weaknesses. With round 450 Digimon within the recreation, lots of the ones older followers will bear in mind from the reveals and video games are represented.
In simply the primary two hours, I acknowledged virtually each Digimon from the random digital monsters seen just a few occasions in Digimon Journey to the favored mascot characters like Agumon. One of many largest targets for Time Stranger are older followers who watched Digimon Journey, but it surely’s a very new story, so that you don’t have to know something about previous reveals and video games to play it.
When requested about what made Digimon totally different from different monster-taming sequence, Hara pointed to its evolution system. “Digimon’s evolution system isn’t the identical as different individuals’s,” he mentioned. “If you happen to had been to take Agumon for instance, Agumon digivolves into a number of totally different varieties. After which from there, once more, a number of totally different varieties. If we had been to match one participant to a different participant, how they evolve their Digimon goes to be very totally different from one other participant.”
That ties into the very best a part of Time Stranger: accumulating Digimon. Digivolutions do not work like their Pokemon equal, the place every Pokemon has set evolutions that do not change and infrequently department. Bulbasaur will solely turn out to be Ivysaur, and despite the fact that Pokemon like Gloom can evolve into Vileplume or Bellossom, most Pokemon observe a singular line of evolution. In Digimon, a “child” Digimon like Koromon can digivolve into Agumon, Guilmon, Dracomon, and others. You do not get to see which evolutions a Digimon has till they digivolve and also you see how your remedy of the digital monster affected them.
You’ll be able to seize a number of copies of a Digimon or de-digivolve those you’ve got if you wish to attempt to remodel them into one thing else (I de-digivolved my Pagumon as a result of I thought it was ugly). De-digivolving a Digimon poses its personal challenges although. When my Pagumon turned again into its Kuramon child type, I needed to take care of it being degree 1 once more, so watch out for that in case you select to de-digivolve on impulse.
Digimon even have one in all 16 personalities now with their very own “matrices,” the place you’ll be able to affect their stats and what abilities they study primarily based on the way you increase them. For instance, growing your Digimon’s Valor can increase HP and assault progress. Persona Expertise can strengthen assaults, scale back the variety of ability factors that assaults use, and extra.
Your Digimon additionally speak to you. Your core group has as much as three Digimon without delay, every of which follows you round and asks you questions as they degree up like methods to be a great pal, what they need to name their subsequent particular transfer, and so forth. It provides a layer of endearingness to the gameplay and likewise some performance, since your solutions can have an effect on which manner their stats develop. This may additionally have an effect on how they digivolve, since some evolutions have necessities like a excessive sufficient HP or INT stat.
The story took a backseat to the pleasing battles and creature accumulating in my preview, however that is sensible since we did not get that far into the story or have an opportunity to bond with the characters. I might solely hope that the characters maintain up in addition to the Digimon do, however even with out that, I’d be compelled to play if solely to discover the other ways I might increase my Digimon.
Time Stranger comes at a time the place the Digimon sequence has been largely stagnant, principally using on the reminiscences of Digimon Journey reasonably than exploring new territory. Nevertheless, the truth that it’s the primary Digimon Story in a decade and introducing probably essentially the most complete battle system the sequence has seen but, I’m extra excited to revisit the Digital World than I have been in years.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger launches on October 3, 2025. Professional tip: If you happen to’re impatient, I’d advocate going again to Digimon Story: Cybersleuth (and its aspect story follow-up, Hacker’s Reminiscence!) to see the place the brand new recreation is coming from.