Forum - View topicGAME: Digimon Story: Time Stranger Game Review
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 816 Location: PA / USA |
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Interesting, there were two posts that got wiped before my reply went up....
I know Jean-Karlo hasn't agreed in the past with the Pokemon discourse that modern titles have lost their way, but the situation is a bit different in the Digimon IP. Two factors are at play - the first is easily that Bandai can be really sketchy when it comes to fully supporting these titles. We have no re-releases of the Digimon World line from PS1 on modern systems, and even back when those were considered new, they're bug-riddled messes with multiple versions of cut content that was rushed to print. It's important to note that if you are 100% new to the Digimon IP line of games that specifically Digimon World 2003 is the one you want because it's content-complete, NOT Digimon World 3. Why? It's the easiest to start, does the most explaining, and is objectively a complete game & story from start to finish - a perfect "my first Digimon" title. Otherwise Cybersleuth had probably been the easiest to buy until now. The second factor that quite often sabotages Digimon is its lack of identity as a game - what do I mean by this? Digimon got their start as digital Tamagachi-like battling pets. Even to this day, Bandai fixates on this as one of the main identifiers & sales avenues of the Digimon IP. As such, the games that have been made involving Digimon are often a genre-hopping mess, as rather than give Digimon its own standardised identity (the way we can clearly sort what a mainline Mario or Pokemon title is from its spinoffs), each new title is often a concept copied from another successful title or genre. It's hard to attribute anything original to Digimon in the same way we say that Pokemon is genre-defining in the creature-battle RPG genre - even something like Monster Rancher has its own pretty solid identity, but Digimon's can shift from game to game. Cybersleuth games are often compared to Persona, P4 Golden was one of the top reasons to own a Vita back when Cybersleuth originally launched. Survive shares a similar tone and story format to the sort of Danganronpa story that has become insanely popular in the age of streaming, and even as far back as the PS1, Digimon World 2 for some weird reason, shifted into the Mysterious Dungeon genre, something that largely makes it hard to enjoy due to how iffy its overall execution was. They've done Smash Bros games, Gauntlet/Marvel Alliance-style games, heck, even one of the reasons Digimon World 2003 is such a functional game, is because that's the one where they were copying the MegaMan Battle Network format (with more Pokemon elements than usual), which had only released a year prior. Time Stranger is a win for the Digimon fanbase because it delivers some key things that some Digimon games fail to achieve: colorful world to adventure in and explore freely, large cast of Digimon you can raise and evolve without just being stuck with a single one, and a story and aesthetic that plays around with the idea that these are digital creatures. It'll be a while before I can give Time Stranger a run and experience it for myself, but it's important to note that as a PS1-era Digimon fan, getting something that isn't a Smash Bros clone, a clone of a visual novel game, or an Evolution: World of Sacred Device clone immediately inspires confidence in the level of quality that I can expect from buying it. Go try Digimon World 2003 when you can. Hopefully that and the PAL-region (least bugs/crashes) Digimon World 1 game get a re-release someday soon. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 926 |
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Do not cite the digital magic at me, I was there when it was written. 
It is a disservice to any game that it not be appreciated on its own terms. Time Stranger is not good because it's better than the old games or anything like that. It is not spite-media, it is part of a franchise with its own distinct identity, for better or worse, going back several decades. It is a fun game and deserves to be appreciated for that. It should not become ammo for worthless discourse. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 816 Location: PA / USA |
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I don't personally think it is spite-media, and in fact even if it's a double-edged sword, the ability & freedom for Digimon to "adjust" its presentation a bit more freely over the decades actually gives it a freshness and ability to pivot that I think (it's a freedom) Pokemon lacks. In a similar fashion to how Ash was the headlining character on the anime for ages, but it got to a point some of their side OVAs started feeling like deeper/more mature media. My main point in posting is to give a bit of background on why the perception exists - through whatever combination of Bandai or the devs on each individual games, they've either not capitalised or executed well on the Digimon IP's strongest elements in some of their past endeavors. Keep in mind, there is actually a pretty legit following for the Smash-style fighter, and Survive should have been an engaging title - I'd love to see a really dark/brutal take on Digimon succeed (even if its combat may be copying SMT Devil Survivor), but.... It's important to call out the series' floppier moments like Digimon World 4, where there seems to be a lack of overall identity to the game, and it feels like the dev team meandered a bit somewhere in trying to pump out a new iteration. When one of these games is a wet rag, we're stuck waiting ages, worrying like a Sonic fan that the next one will be better than the last. It thankfully doesn't look like that meandering happened here. It doesn't look like they had the sort of tumultuous dev cycle that Survive did, and so I have high hopes for Time Stranger. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 994 |
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Short version: I'm glad this one got mostly A's across the board, though after DXM:TS I take this particular reviewer's audio score with a small grain of salt. 
Anyways, I'm hyped and can't wait until Friday. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20003 |
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As a Digimon fan, I can't wait to play the game!
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sayorianwinlee
Posts: 3 |
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The impression I got was he was saying people shouldn't use this game to criticize Pokemon, not arguing over which style of game works best for Digimon. But people have been comparing Pokemon to Digimon for ages, and yeah, this is what I'd love to see Pokemon games be like. Feels completely natural to see a company make a good game and want other companies maybe not making not-so-good games to learn a thing or two from them. Or to say this is the type of Digimon game you like best and want to see more of this than something like Digimon Survive or Digimon World. |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 754 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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Do the Digimon still refuse to eat expensive food on the Digifarm? That was one of the many things that prevented me from enjoying Cyber Sleuth.
I played the demo and I definitely enjoyed it but I don't know if I 70$ enjoy it, especially with all the games coming out these next few months. I'm waiting for a sale. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 926 |
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No, food has been completely reworked: you can buy a variety of food types, it's just a matter of figuring out which one is each particular Digimon's favorite food. They'll either be indifferent, like it or love it, and food they love boosts their Bond by 2%. (So with fifty pieces of food that they love, you can max out their Bond.) But you'll need a chart to track which Digimon in your party likes which food, because it's down to the individual Digimon. I think it has to do with their Personality? 
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ninjamitsuki
Posts: 754 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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Okay, I'm sold now. ...When it's on sale, that is. |
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Dancing Green
 Posts: 73 |
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I've been a DIgimon fan since the 90s and given how much I loved Cyber Sleuth I was looking forward to this game a lot. But for as interesting as Time Stranger looks I am not paying $120 for it. I'll be waiting for a Steam sale. No game is worth that kind of money, sorry. I can be a patient boy and wait until it's heavily discounted in a few months like all games end up doing these days.
For comparing this to Pokemon, This isn’t about hate, spite, or anything like that. It’s about asking them to do better. In terms of popularity and sales it's a clear coughing baby VS hydrogen bomb situation. But the coughing baby is the one putting in the most effort in it's new releases. I'm still surprised Pokemon doesnt have voice acting. Just like Im surprised this has English voice acting and isnt sub only. I'll be playing it in Japanese but I guess it shows they're taking a risk in hoping a dub will help it sell more. |
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Stelman257
Posts: 370 |
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Maybe a hot take but I actually don't mind at all that Pokemon games don't have voice acting. Sure some of their presentation choices in the latest games can be a little odd given that, but I feel like it's not a franchise where voice acting is or should be a priority. Plus not having voice acting grants them flexibility in all sorts of small little ways, and the franchise has always been one where half of the NPC or even cutscene dialogue is spewing game mechanics at you through dialogue anyway. |
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