Digimon fans have waited a long time for a video game adaptation that truly succeeds at doing justice to Digimon's expansive world. The Digimon games have always struggled on that front, with even games within the same sub-series having wildly different mechanics and settings. The good news is that Bandai Namco has put in the time, money, and elbow grease into making sure that Digimon Story: Time Stranger does not disappoint. Their goal was to make a stand-out RPG, and I think that even people who never touched one of the virtual pets would do well to check this game out.

Time Stranger puts you into the role of an agent of ADAMAS, a secret agency that investigates supernatural dealings. Many recent sightings of "phase electron lifeforms"--otherwise known as "Digimon"—have been reported lately, which seems to be related to the public unrest. Circumstances lead to your agent being flung eight years into the past, where they attempt to prevent a disaster currently unfolding in their future. Along the way, your agent finds themselves in what could be the trigger for the disaster: an ongoing war from the Digital World of Illiad between the Olympos XII, beings of unfathomable strength based on the Greco-Roman pantheon, and the Titans, who oppose them at every turn.

Time Stranger has a bit of an uphill battle to climb in that it has to explain a ton of Digimon lore right off the bat. Who are the Olympos XII? Were they in any of the anime? Why do Digimon go from little chubby reptiles to supermodels in fetish outfits? What even is a Digimon? The good news is, the player character is just as in the dark as you are. The story in Time Stranger is wholly self-contained, the world and its goings-on are explained in due time, and you never have to be worried about being bludgeoned with a deluge of proper nouns. Even the decision to focus on the Olympos XII (who indeed have never featured in the anime) is a smart choice, as it allows Time Stranger to explore a part of oft-ignored Digimon lore while setting up grandiose stakes. If you really need your anime references, backgrounds contain a treasure-trove of cute set-ups—if you know what to look for. Longtime fans can also look forward to vocal performances from fan-favorite Digimon voice actors like Richard Epcar. Me, I'm just happy to have a story that isn't hijacked by the Royal Knights again...

What really helps set Time Stranger apart are its character development mechanics. Digimon aren't caught, they're traced from data accumulated by fighting other Digimon, with lower-stage Digimon being easier to copy than higher-stage ones. Once you've Traced a Digimon, it's in your collection to raise as you see fit. A Digimon can Digivolve to a stronger form once it meets the requirements--normally, reaching a stat requirement. But each Digimon has a variety of forms it can evolve into. To illustrate: one In-Training-stage Digimon might have three or four Rookie-stages it can turn into, with each Rookie-stage featuring as many as six different Champion-stage forms it can turn into. There is endless room for experimentation—and because of the Bond system (which lets Digimon keep a percentage of their current stats upon evolving or de-evolving), your experimentation is rewarded with stronger monsters no matter what you try.

And you're going to need to experiment, because certain bosses will gate you if you don't pay attention to type advantages. Time Stranger includes a dual typing system wherein Digimon are classified by their base type (Virus, Vaccine, or Data) along with their Elemental affinities. This means that at any given time, the specific attack chosen by your team can deal anywhere from 30% its normal damage to up to 300%—so long as you're using the right attack from the right 'mon. In our playtime, our party of mostly-Vaccine-types struggled to make meaningful headway against a similarly-Vaccine-type boss monster. An hour of grinding later, we were able to bring in a fresh troop of Champion-level Data-types instead, which had a much easier battle. It helps that battles also have tons of quality-of-life features, like a convenient auto-battle mode and the option to speed up battles. Hit the button, queue up a podcast, and be the winner while your buddies slash butter-flys.

There is a downside to all this, though, being the Bond system itself. Normally, Digimon earn Bond by taking part in battle or by you talking to them. But you can also raise Bond points by feeding Digimon at your Digifarm. No matter, the Digifarm lets you train Digimon to increase specific stats while also earning Experience Points from battles, which is convenient enough. But feeding is a complicated process of dropping a Digimon at the farm, then finding out which food is its favorite among six options. No, you can't feed outside of the farm. And the game won't keep track of which food is which Digimon's favorite--doubly complicated because Digimon all have different personalities that seem to factor into which food they love, down to each individual Digimon. Keep a notebook handy.

There are also limitations in place to keep you from just grinding up a single Omnimon and romping through the rest of the game. First off is your Agent Rank: beating story missions or side quests earns you points that you can use to unlock Agent Skills via a skill tree. These include your limit-break-style Cross Arts or general perks for raising Digimon of specific Ranks or Personalities. At specified thresholds, your Agent Rank increases, which unlocks Agent Tiers. This is a good way of encouraging you to progress the game while balancing out your team. But there are other fanservice-y requirements that will tickle fans of the anime. Some, like the Ten Legendary Warriors from Digimon Frontier or the Armor Digimon from Digimon 02, require you to have a specific elemental Spirit or Digi-egg in your possession. So if you do have some pre-established knowledge, certain Digimon will behave as you'd expect from the anime.

Bandai Namco chose a phenomenal character development system to serve as the backbone of this game. Tellingly, the rest of the game endeavors to feel like a proper RPG and not just a monster-taming game. There are world-changing stakes, and you travel between worlds, but the goals are set much higher than needing to master taming monsters. Rather, the game illustrates how Digimon have their own society analogous to humans and how much both species benefit from cooperation. The Digital World is a weird place... but so is our own world. Digimon do silly things like talking in rap lyrics while selling you CDs... but so do people. The question of what a Digimon really is lingers over the entire game and its many vignettes, but at the end of the day, it's as complicated as explaining what a person is. The world of Digimon is a fascinating mirror that reflects what the viewer is. With a little imagination, it's not hard to see that we're not all that different.

It's unfortunate that Digimon Story: Time Stranger exists in the circumstances it does. A game like this deserves better than to be caught in the middle of a pointless fandom war or to be held up as a platonic ideal of what a game should be like or should be doing. At its most cynical, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is what happens when a team is given the time, space, and money to execute its ideas. And on that note, Digimon fans are sure to be satisfied. Bonus points if they can also find their favorite 'mon in the game's roster of 450--out of 1500 total Digimon. For people who've never played a Digimon game before, know that the entire series of games has been a wild ride from start to finish. But Digimon Story: Time Stranger reflects a darn good RPG with a charming cast, a colorful world to explore, and plenty of mechanical depth to sink your teeth into. You will walk away with a new favorite freak of nature that will slowly rotate in your brain like it's in a microwave.