Digimon has often struggled to find a competitive advantage against the other ‘mon’ franchise in the west. Digimon’s anime has often been unafraid to dabble with darker, more mature topics, put its characters through their paces, and pursue new stories and characters each season. The games, however, never landed firmly outside of Japan untilDigimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. The story-RPG focus of thetwo Story titlesfeatured strong gameplay mechanics, an intriguing story and a slew of Digimon to collect made for an irresistible pair of games. As such, the announcement of Digimon Survive was exciting, promising a new blend of story and RPG mechanics, albeit this time from a tactical perspective. Now, after numerous delays, Digimon Survive has finally arrived. Does Digimon Survive easily reach Mega level or is its data doomed to be deleted?
Digimon Survive follows Takuma and seven fellow teenagers as they’re accidentally whisked into a mysterious world filled with monsters intent on hunting them down. Lost, confused and worried for their lives, each character partners up with a friendly monster hoping to find a way home. But first, they’ll need to forge relationships with each other and their partners and overcome an evil threatening to destroy this mysterious world. Digimon Survive’s premise should sound familiar to anyone who has been a fan of Digimon since Adventure. The game cleverly pulls references to the Adventure saga, Tamers and Data Squad to craft a unique narrative filled with characters that fill the stereotypical roles in the anim,e but still manage to craft their own unique niche. For example, Takuma might be the goggle-wearing leader like Tai or Takato, but he evolves into someone wholly different through player choice.
The game provides ample time to give each character time to shine. In typical visual novel fashion, much of the story is conveyed by interacting directly with the characters and their partners to build up Affinity, collect items and dictate who lives and dies and even how your partner, Agumon, Digivolves as the story progresses. All the characters are well personified with dialogue that bounces well off their partners. Not all are likable from the start, but by slowly getting them to open up and learning their past, it’s possible to forge a bond with all the characters.
Digimon Survive’s plot is full of twists and turns and is enjoyable, but it takes time to get through. The story’s pacing drags along, especially in the opening chapters. The game frequently stops all story momentum and asks players to open up menus and travel to multiple locations several times, and talk to the same characters before you can move the plot forward in any meaningful way. Usually, once you leave the main hub (a school), the plot moves along fast, but getting out of it is a chore. Lasting about forty hours for a first playthrough, Digimon Survive feels too bloated with too much unnecessary backtracking and filler. To add insult to injury, it’s impossible to get the true ending on a first playthrough. Seeing how Digimon Survive is genuinely meant to end means a second playthrough on New Game+. At its best, Survive’s story and character moments match Adventure and Tamers' best moments. At its worst, Survive feels overstuffed and aimless.
If you only followed the marketing and trailers, you’d be forgiven for thinking Digimon Survive is a story-based tactical RPG. The truth is that Digimon Survive is a visual novel that just happens to have a tactics-style element buckled onto it. While several vital moments occur on the grid-based battlefield, the vast majority of the runtime focus on the visual novel experience. As a visual novel, you’ll jump between different locations, pointing and clicking your way through environments to talk to other characters, inspect items in the world or use your phone to uncover hidden items. You’ll define Takuma’s personality through interactions and player choice as the main character. For example, the higher your Affinity with certain characters, the more their partners will be able to help you in combat, and that high Affinity might just help save some from death. There’s also the trait system that tracks your Moral (red), Harmony (green) and Wrathful (yellow) choices, which also dictate who lives and dies as well as Agumon’s evolution line.
The visual novel elements are generally well thought out with a good amount of player choice. There’s plenty to explore and interactions available, but there’s also a lot of backtracking and filler. So be prepared to open the world map, travel to an area for one thing, and then travel all over again. It can be a pain, even running the game off an SSD. Visual novel gameplay takes up about 70-80% of the game, depending on whether you’re b-lining it through the plot or taking some time to participate in free battles. Combat will feel familiar if you’ve played any type of tactics game. Battles take place on a grid with you maneuvering your Digimon into favorable decisions to attack while finding ways to protect your back and sides. The fundamentals are there, and additional layers like the ‘Talk’ and Affinity systems add variety, but battles don’t evolve beyond the basics. The grid-based battlefields are often barren with few defensible areas or height and rarely does combat feel challenging.
Digivolution should offer an additional layer of strategy to the proceedings, but how the game handles it is perplexing. Partner Digimon gain the ability to Digivolve as the story progresses but always return to Rookie by the end of a battle. During battle, players must spend an amount of SP, which is also required for special attacks, to first Digivolve and then lose an amount of SP per turn. On the flip side, Digimon you recruit in Free Battle permanently Digivolve and don’t cost any SP to maintain in battle. Considering Digivolved Digimon have more health, are stronger, and have better movement options, using recruited Digimon is the smarter option, which is paradoxical considering the emphasis placed on the partner Digimon in the story.
Digimon Survive’s combat ultimately feels tacked on. Mandatory battles are rare and can be beaten quickly, the grid design is too simplistic to allow much strategy, and the Digivolution mechanic does no favors for your partners. Combat is a brief break from the heavy use of dialogue, but it’s clear which aspect of gameplay developer Hyde put most of their focus on.
While Digimon Survive isn’t the most technically impressive game, it does have a beautiful artistic design. During visual novel segments, the static backgrounds pop with color, while the characters' emotions feel properly conveyed thanks to solid animation work. In battle, the 2D art meshes with beautiful 3D character models to create a unique visual experience. The audio is also memorable, with beautiful orchestrations both in battle and when exploring the world. While it’s a shame that there is no English dub, the Japanese voice-over is good at conveying how each character feels. It all adds up to a beautiful presentation.
Closing Comments:
Digimon Survive isn’t quite the game anyone was expecting based on the marketing. As expected, the story is engrossing, blending darker moments with the character drama that made for excellent viewing in some of Digimon’s best seasons. The visual novel aspect of the game is rather good by allowing players to form intimate connections with the other characters and partner Digimon. When the story works, it works amazingly well. When pacing issues do arise, however, they bring all that momentum to a halt. Combat is interesting and can be visually exciting, but it lacks the depth and complexity needed to carry the lengthy run time. It also frequently butts heads with the story when it comes to the partner Digimon, with the story emphasizing the bond but combat emphasizing recruits. It’s a combat system that ultimately feels tacked on and a side activity to the main course, the visual novel. Digimon Survive is a strange combination of genres that, taken as a whole, is enjoyable, even though the sum of its parts doesn’t wholly mesh. Digimon Survive is a worthwhile adventure for those looking for a strong story, but expect things to move slowly and not much actual gameplay.
Digimon Survive
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 (Pro)
