I have the honor of bringing you a Digimon Story Time Stranger Review and I got to say, this game left me shocked in more ways than one. The Digimon franchise has been running since the year 1997, and it has been a massive hit in Japan, enough to be exported overseas. Despite all of the mishandling that has happened through the years, surviving multiple near bankruptcy situations, the Digimon IP is still going very strong and I would argue this is their best generation yet. Since 1997, there has always been an influx of toys, anime, manga and most importantly games.
The Digimon series is known for their amazing stories, not only talking about the bonds of humans with what essentially counts as extraterrestrial life forms, but also about the deeper relationships with other people too. While some may disregard important aspects in the franchise, shunning them as edgy, many ring true and feel surprisingly mature for a franchise that was meant to be a Tamagotchi spinoff for boys. In a world where technology becomes pretty much a lifeline for the global populace, there is considerations one must have regarding the system we live in.
Without further extending things, Digimon Story Time Stranger has the vibes you would expect from another entry in the Story sub series. The core elements of the Digimon world building are present and respected which is quite a surprise considering other works of the franchise often deviate too much from these elements. It is appreciated that the focus on story telling is set on trying to explain Digimon and bringing more light into what they truly are, Digital beings, and not some random fairy yokai that always existed since the beginning of the world. Along with this, even the background of humans being important and the organizations surrounding the world are also there.
Digimon Story Time Stranger has to be one of the most important releases the franchise has had since Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, bringing a new story to tell us and fixing issues from the previous iteration. For those who do not know, this franchise tends to jump between genres, but they seem to have settled for the turn based JRPG approach, the perfect genre for story telling by unwritten default. Experimentation has always been a blessing and a curse for Digimon, their first popular and acclaimed game being Digimon World 1 on the humble PSX, a masterpiece that no other game on the medium matched.
Yet again we are in what seems to be a contemporary version of Japan, forming part of the ADAMAS organization, a group who investigates incidents related to Digimon who are breaching into the real world. Along with this, conspiracy is ever present in every corner, true to the roots of the franchise and how all things started, the government is opposed as to revealing the truth that Digimon exist in the first place. An incident occurred 8 years ago which left people wondering what was behind the whole deal, but the government didn’t want to speak about such things and went as far as to censor the truth.
The plot gets more convoluted after we find Inori, a girl who is quite mysterious, as we find ourselves transported back in time before the incidents ever happened, alluding to the title of the game being Time Stranger. Our trip through the real and digital world has many highs and lows, similar to watching a season of the show but more oriented towards an older audience, the twists happening in the game and what happened during it left an impression on me that not even Cyber Sleuth was able to match. Somehow, Digimon Story Time Stranger manages to surpass the game with the best narrative in the franchise according to many fans.
The gameplay is a treat bringing a variety of features like agent levels which improves how we raise Digimon, and while its still easy, its not a curb stomp like Cyber Sleuth, a game you could merely trivialize by having your first monster with piercing enabled, which pretty much deleted important bosses in a single hit. One can argue that challenge was never the main idea of the Story series, if that were the case, then they shouldn’t have bothered giving us difficulty options that get trivialized by a feature in the game that allows you to heal your whole party by standing still for some seconds. Despite that, some bosses are particularly nasty, so stay alert.
Along with this difficulty issue, which can be fixed by just avoiding to use that feature, there’s a problem when it comes to illumination. The Digital World feels too bright, while the real world dungeons feels too dark. Bandai Namco has always had issues with lightning effects in their games, especially when it comes to the bloom effects that is an obligatory thing to disable when you play their games. Nobody knows why but they always messed up lighting in a terrible way that can become hurtful for some. Despite all of this, the additions to the battle system to make it smoother and the expansion of the roster by adding fan favorite creatures makes it an entry worth playing.
There’s no more issues after both of those things, as the game’s graphics show that there has been tons of budget put into it, there’s also a ton of environments in the Digital World, representing the world in a proper way brimming with life. The anime visuals really make it feel as if you are playing an interactive anime, and the story is pretty much everything that matters from the Story sub series, so its a perfect fit. For fans of the Persona series or even the Shin Megami Tensei series, this game is more of that, and while I’m not the biggest fan of Digimon taking this approach, at least its a quality game.
The soundtrack is good, but it really isn’t as great as the one in Cyber Sleuth, who truly captured the cyber vibe that the franchise is known for. The electronic synth music has some carefully crafted tracks, although there’s some issues here and there with some of the tracks where mixing does feel a bit off. If you really liked all of the Cyber Sleuth tracks, there’s a DLC that includes them too, but the game is rather expensive as it is, I would argue the big issue in the room is the pricing. Buying everything will make you part with 100$ or more, so it makes it a tough sell if you aren’t a fan of JRPGs.
It really feels like a long lost early PS3 entry for the franchise that should have been released, but instead we only got terrible games during those years, while the best releases like Digimon World Re:Digitize were Japanese exclusives. Its been years but the franchise is in its best position ever, even the current anime is shaping up to be a good watch after all the flops that happened with seasons since 20 years ago, we are in a Digimon Revival period. Despite all of this, Digimon Story Time Stranger, much to the like of Cyber Sleuth, is an excellent entry point for people who know nothing about Digimon.
Digimon Story Time Stranger Review – Verdict
Digimon Story Time Stranger: Digimon Story Time Stranger is quite possibly the best story a Digimon game has ever told. While held back by some minor nitpicks and the price, it is a must if you are a veteran fan, and a great starting point for new people. While the DLC aren't needed at all, the price of the Deluxe edition hurts. Regardless, this is yet another excellent JRPG entry with a story worthy of praise, one that stays true to the source material. – Hiro
[Editor’s Note: Digimon Story Time Stranger was reviewed on PC and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]
