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Digimon Story: Time Stranger is Looking like a Formidable Pokémon Competitor

Earlier this year, Bandai Namco announced Digimon Story: Time Stranger, the latest entry in its Digimon Story series, would be coming this October. While Digimon has enjoyed a sizable amount of popularity in the past, it never reached the gargantuan heights of Pokémon's fame. However, that doesn't stop Digimon from being unique, especially with its games.

As someone who's played games with similar mechanics like Pokémon, Dragon Quest: Monsters, and the Shin Megami Tensei series, I had my eye on Digimon Story: Time Stranger. I had never played the past Digimon Story games, like Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory, so I was interested to see how this series would differentiate itself from its contemporaries.

It has its own twists on the monster-catching genre, including a flexible evolution system and approachable turn-based combat. Anime News Network played a 25-minute demo of Digimon Story: Time Stranger, and it's looking to be a formidable Pokémon competitor.

The battle system stands out the most. Instead of the typical 1v1 structure found in Pokémon, it employs a 3v3 battle system. You can choose three Digimon to send out on the field at a time. In my case, I chose Greymon, Kyubimon, and Garurumon. While I had other Digimon at my disposal in reserve, I chose these three because I recognized them from watching the anime when I was younger.

Time Stranger implements a simpler weakness triangle consisting of Virus-type Digimon being strong against Data, Data being strong against Vaccine types, and Virus types being weak against Vaccines. It's a much more digestible weakness system than Pokémon's, and you can bring up battle information on a targeted enemy during battle. This way, you don't have to memorize which Digimon is weak to what type.

At certain points during the story, you can have access to up to five Digimon on the field at once. These include your own three, along with a guest Digimon and your trusty partner, Aegiomon. This mysterious humanoid Digimon plays an important part in the story, which hasn't been revealed yet. Having up to five Digimon may seem like overkill, but I liked the amount of control and power I had at my fingertips. I easily overwhelmed enemies with powerful attacks.

But that was to distract me from how powerful the boss was. Parrotmon, a giant bird Digimon, unleashed strong attacks that pushed my team on the back foot. I had to take defensive measures, such as healing and increasing my stats to keep up with Parrotmon. Eventually, I overcame it and felt satisfied. It's not nearly as difficult as a Shin Megami Tensei game, but the added challenge is a welcome change of pace, especially if you're used to easier games like Pokémon. Its difficulty is an amicable middle ground similar to Dragon Quest Monsters.

A stylish UI is a way to stand out amongst other RPG games. In similar games like Persona, flashy menus and animations can give games their own identity. Instead of a chaotic vibe like Persona 5 or an enlightenment aesthetic like Metaphor: ReFantazio's, Time Stranger's has a much more techy and sleek vibe that matches its digital setting.

The slick attack animations are a treat to look at the first several times, but they become boring and slow down the pace of battle when seen dozens of times. Similar to games like the Dragon Quest HD2D remakes, you can increase the speed of battles up, with the max to 5x speed in Time Stranger, which makes the turn-based battles feel like a breeze to get through. Additionally, cranking up the battle speed also skips attack animations, which is an extra boon.

Graphically, Time Stranger won't be pushing the graphical limits of what PCs and consoles can achieve, but it has an incredibly charming cel-shaded art style that meticulously depicts the details of the Digimon that you fondly remember growing up with. Kyubimon's flames had an extra ghostly flare that lit up the screen while Garurumon's claws looked sharp enough to pierce the screen. The detail put into these Digimon designs made me wish that recent Pokémon games looked this good.

The last Digimon game I played was 2022's Digimon Survive, a game that blended visual novel and tactics RPG elements. I was disappointed by its poor story pacing and bland, uneventful battles. However, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, so far, feels much more exciting with its dynamic animations and approachable turn-based combat. The battle system doesn't seem to have the same kind of real-time interactivity that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or the rhythm that Persona does, but not every game needs to reinvent a battle system, and I appreciate the straightforwardness of Digimon Story: Time Stranger.

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Digimon Story: Time Stranger launches on October 2 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.