Digimon Story: Time Stranger takes every concept from the Cyber Sleuth series and improves upon them, crafting an excellent creature-collecting RPG that fans of the series and newcomers alike will have no shortage of fun with. This is what a creature-collecting game should be through and through, and no one should miss it.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
Developer: Media Vision
Price: $70
Platform: PS5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS5 code for review
I’m a massive Digimon nerd and have been since it debuted in North America in the late ‘90s. I’ve reviewed pretty much every Digimon game since I joined MonsterVine over a decade ago, but I had a special interest in this one. Since playing Hacker’s Memory so long ago, I’ve waited for the next Digimon Story game – especially if it was to have a solid budget. Along comes Digimon Story: Time Stranger, promising to make all of my Digi-Dreams come true, and, thankfully, it certainly did.
The combat of Digimon Story: Time Stranger is brilliant. It’s turn-based, and you can see the turn order and how it can be changed as you play. There are type advantages and disadvantages, as you might expect, but they come in two layers – elemental types and Digimon types. Between the Digimon classifications (Vaccine, Data, Virus, Free, etc.) and the elemental attacks (Fire, Water, Earth, etc.), the combat system is impressively robust and thought-provoking. Plus, you can speed up battles up to x5 speed, and Time Stranger includes a pretty competent auto-battle mode, so grinding for specific Digivolutions or anything like that is easier than ever.
The biggest point of appeal in Digimon Story: Time Stranger is absolutely the Digivolution system. As is often the case, it’s an immensely complex and deep mechanic in which pretty much any Digimon can become any other Digimon with enough work. Right off the bat, I was enthralled with how I could make some of my favorite Digimon fairly quickly. This made it easy to plan my party early on, making every progression point where I gained the ability to Digivolve into further forms an exciting prospect. I still have a hankering to spend hours creating more Digimon, and I hope more are added in the future through additional content (Monmon and Hookmon, please).
“It’s incredible to see so much love put into a game like this, and it makes those tough years in the mid-2010s of having very few Digimon games come westward feel like a distant memory.“
The Personality system further enhances this system. Personalities determine which stats level up quickly for each Digimon, and they can be changed through occasional dialogue with the Digimon in the field or through the DigiFarm, where you can leave your Digimon and alter their Personality. It’s never an overwhelming amount of variables to take in. Still, it’s enough that it becomes a lot of fun to figure out how to make your Digimon into your favorites through Digivolving, Devolving, Personality alteration, and more.
If all that isn’t enough for you, there’s a very simple but enjoyable card game to take part in, too. Essentially, you and your opponent just compete by playing cards with bigger numbers against each other, with the occasional type advantage taking precedence over the numbers. It’s a blast to collect cards throughout the game, and I love seeing the nostalgic art of the cards, as it warps me right back to being an excited four-year-old who wanted nothing more than for Digimon to be real.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger has had a lot of time, passion, and budget put into it, which quickly becomes apparent. Some of the Digimon included in the game are pretty deep cuts, and I was happy to see a solid amount of representation from across the vast majority of the anime series. Not only that, but all of the Digimon have their own voices and at least one unique special attack animation. It’s incredible to see so much love put into a game like this, and it makes those tough years in the mid-2010s of having very few Digimon games come westward feel like a distant memory.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger has a good variety of environments.
Additionally, Digimon Story: Time Stranger features far more interesting environments like previous games, which unfortunately had a lot of “blue-grid” areas. This one takes you to sewers, reefs, forests, and more, providing some much-needed variety. Like I said before, this is a step-up in every single way, and it has me super excited about the future of the Digimon Story series.
Finally, the story and characters of Digimon Story: Time Stranger are fantastic. A lot more time is spent in the Digital World among Digimon, but the human side of things never feels neglected. I was consistently surprised by some of the twists and turns the narrative takes, especially later on in the game. Aegiomon plays a major role in the plot and does it well, cementing himself as a strong part of the story throughout its entirety. Even outside of the story, there are numerous side quests to complete that help flesh out both the Human and Digital Worlds in fun ways.
The Final Word
Digimon Story: Time Stranger represents the peak of creature-collecting RPGs. It takes everything that worked in the Cyber Sleuth franchise and takes it to the next level in interesting and streamlined ways, all while including great new additions as well. Once again, the first English theme song has been proven true – Digimon are the Champions.
MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
