Game Over: Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

After writing my review of Digimon Story Time Stranger, I decided to replay some of the earlier games in the series. Inevitably, this will most likely lead to me playing all of the other Digimon games, because this series has had me in a chokehold since childhood. But despite having owned Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth for a good number of years, I never actually finished it. So, it was time to go back to the beginning and try again.

Just as a general warning here, there will be spoilers ahead for those who haven't played before. 

In Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, you choose between your male and female avatar, who, after chilling in a chatroom with their friends, is invited to EDEN by a Hacker known as Mr. Navit. Only three of the group decide to go, but you don’t formally meet them until you go to EDEN and head into the Kowloon Area.

While in Kowloon, Mr. Navit offers you the ability to catch Digimon. While exploring, your friends are conflicted. Nokia, who had the idea to visit the Hacker, is terrified now. While your other friend, Arata, is curious, he also wants to know more about a mysterious Ghost who has been haunting the virtual streets of EDEN. With a possible lead, he goes to investigate, and as you can’t leave due to a firewall, it’s up to you to follow him. When you meet the “Ghost”, he introduces himself and three possible Digimon partners: Terriermon, Palmon, or Hagurumon.

Naturally, I chose Terriermon. As much as I love the other two, as we know, Terriermon’s influence has been decreed by Digimon: The Movie and his role in the Digimon Tamers anime. With the Digimon being chased by Kurisarimon, you go to help them, and Terriermon is quick to join you. So, you’re invited to your first battle. It’s a turn-based battle system that’s, unsurprisingly, not that different from Time Stranger. While the interface is a little bit different, it’s not got any major changes. So, I wasn’t struggling too much with the tutorial.

After this, I went to look for the others, and upon finding them, was attacked by a mysterious monster that wasn’t a Digimon. While the others could escape… I became some kind of weird digitised form as I returned to Earth, where a detective picked me up before I was arrested. Because what else would anyone do? Offer help? Nah, arrest that weirdo.

With this, you find yourself working with Kyoko Kuremi, the detective who picked you up and has you live with her in Nakano. While your mother is working abroad, you also must maintain a semblance of normalcy. But as you learn more about EDEN Syndrome, you discover that your physical body is in a coma. So you need to use your newfound digital abilities as a Cyber Sleuth — hence, you know, the name of the game — and while most of the others are unaware of your body’s condition… You’re running around Tokyo with a digital body in the same form as your EDEN avatar.

Naturally, you learn more about EDEN as you go, but part of the game is also solving other cases. In some of these, it leans into Digimon’s horror elements, and honestly, it just made me want to watch Digimon Ghost Game again (despite Ghost Game coming out after Cyber Sleuth, I would say there are a lot of similarities there), where you are approached by those who believe spirits are after them, and in some case, being threatened by someone who tries to hit several teenagers with a truck. Yes, they did try to isekai some teens, but they failed.

As this goes on and you learn more about EDEN and its founder, as his daughter, Yuuko, hires you and Kuremi to investigate the mystery surrounding his suicide. There’s actually a lot going on here, with hacker groups such as Zaxon, account raids, mysterious deaths, and… spirits? Frankly, Cyber Sleuth was already feeling like it should have deserved its own anime series. And I came to this realisation by Chapter Four.

The further you progress, the more you learn about the different characters that you’ll meet. We’ve already met Yuuko, Arata and Nokia, as well as Yuugo, the leader of Zaxon, but then there’s also Jimiken — a musician who is aptly referred to as a KISS knockoff. There are also plenty of NPCs, such as Ryota and Sakura, who were friends with Takumi from school, and Date, a police officer. Of course, they’ll all interact with you through the DigiLine, and if you communicate with them, you’ll find more Cases available on the board in Kyoko’s office.

While you’re also learning about what happened to Takumi’s body, there’s even more going on with the Eaters — the monster that essentially caused Takumi to become digitised — that are attacking humans within EDEN. But then there’s more to that, as there’s Agumon and Gabumon, who have attached themselves to Nokia (and who also make a later appearance in Digimon Story Time Stranger) and an entire conspiracy where they’re learning about the Eaters to save their own world.

So, it will come as no surprise that the Digimon who have found themselves lost in EDEN are then brought into the real world, as the Royal Knights, under orders of King Drasil, are out to destroy humanity. For you see, they observed that the Eaters came from the real world, specifically cyberspace and so they came to that conclusion. Not all of the Royal Knights agree, but some of them are keen to see humanity destroyed.

Everything began when five kids found their way into the Digital World in the past. You can already guess who those kids were, can’t you? That’s right. Takumi, Arata, Nokia, Yuuko, and Yuugo all went eight years ago. Except, Yuugo got attacked by an Eater, and has thus been in a coma for eight years. What makes the Digital World different from EDEN? Well, EDEN is more similar to the internet as it appears in Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, while the Digital World is more akin to the world in Digimon Adventure.

There are also parallel worlds, which makes sense, as you can only travel to such a world with the assistance of Mirei Makigura, whom you will recognise as she also appears in Time Stranger. She still has many of the same elements, but she appears older in this version, which is ultimately due to being an alternate version of herself. She can help you to get UlforceVeedramon into your world, as well as the mysterious Rina, a tamer who is partnered with the aforementioned Royal Knight.

I should say that not all of the Royal Knights are out to destroy humanity, but there’s at least half of them. Some are, of course, on our side. For example, Omnimon, — the Mega DNA digivolution from Agumon and Gabumon — Gallantmon, Magnamon, and Jesmon, amongst our allies. While all this is going on, you’ll still need to solve your cases. It’s hard to ignore, but at this point, you’ll find that these get easier as you’ve figured out how to assemble your party with a mixture of Data, Vaccine, and Virus Digimon.

Many of these cases will involve you running around on errands or entering cyberspace and finding a Digimon who is affecting a website or other digital infrastructure. Other cases are simply a matter of travelling to different locations to appease the hunger of your digital friends. Throughout this, you bond with a lot of the characters, and it’s got a compelling story that I struggled to put down.

Admittedly, I did want to complete the side quests, but I also figured I needed to leave some cases for when I started on New Game +. While I was happy to get some of the megas, I feel like I could save a lot of unlocking more digivolutions for my next playthrough. In this case, I was just happy to have reached the end, as the last chapter involved returning to the digital world to take arms against the Mother Eater. While not a difficult fight, it could get tedious, but I was glad that they didn’t drag it out.

All in all, I really enjoyed Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. It was a fun experience, and I could clearly see a bunch of improvements made throughout the series to reach Time Stranger’s level. I appreciated how much there was to do, and even how much there still is, and I look forward to going back to try and get all achievements and get all the digivolutions. Plus, it really felt like a homage to the anime for the 15th Anniversary it was made for.

There are so many Digimon to unlock in the Field Guide, and I really enjoyed the dungeon-crawling atmosphere as I travelled around EDEN. Even the side cases are a lot of fun, and I liked seeing how humans and the digital monsters interacted with one another. Upon finishing the story, all I could think was that I wanted to return to this again. But for now, I’m going to dive into Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory. Especially as that was one that I hadn’t played before, and I’m keen to take a closer look.