Digimon Story Time Stranger Preview

After almost eight years since the previous instalment in the Digimon Story series, fans have been eagerly waiting for Digimon Story Time Stranger. Naturally, I’ve been excited. So excited that I’ve been debating playing through Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and Digimon Story Hacker’s Memory just to try and find out about specific events that I saw in the Time Stranger demo.

Allow me to explain, where I’m a fan of Digimon as a franchise, I’ve never really had a chance to get around to playing the Digimon Story games all the way through. However, I know enough about the series to be familiar with other entries, such as Digimon World: Dawn and Digimon World: Dusk (which, ironically, are not entries in the Digimon World series as the English titles would have you believe), and trust me when I say: this entry? It’s made me want to fully embrace this specific series.

So first, let’s talk about what Time Stranger is. While being the seventh entry in the series, I’ve never known the Digimon Story games to require full knowledge before playing. Is it a bonus? Yes. Can you get away without playing the previous entries? Also, yes. The Digimon Story games differ from the other series in the way that they are RPGs with a turn-based battle system — and boy, do I love me a turn-based battle system — where you scan the data of other Digimon and then get them to fight for you. Of course, to do this, you’ll need to defeat them. If you want to digivolve them, you’ll need to increase your stats for said Digimon to fit the line you want. But, of course, to digivolve further, you’ll need to up your Agent Rank.

But what’s an Agent Rank? Well, in this game, you play as Dan Yuki, or Kanon Yuki, depending on the gender you selected for your protagonist. Names can, of course, be changed if you so desire; but, for the demo, I selected Dan. Our protagonists are agents of a special Anomaly Investigation Agency known as ADAMAS. Their adoptive father was the founder of it, and they have been working to identify the different Anomalies and rescue civilians to ensure that there is still an equal balance.

You’ll need at least Agent Rank 3 to digivolve to Champion (or Adult, depending on whether you watched the subbed or dubbed version of the series), so naturally, this doesn’t happen in the demo. After all, you can only play a certain amount of story before the demo ends, and you’re persuaded to buy the game. And might I say, I’m definitely tempted.

At the beginning, Dan/Kanon is investigating an Anomaly in the same area where a protest is currently taking place. The atmosphere is impressive, and I found it fun to talk to the different civilians hanging around Nishi-Shinjuku who are all either frustrated or chill about the situation. The roads are blocked, so naturally, you need to go in the direction of the plot, which is easily done as you just need to follow the Quest marker on the mini-map. Upon getting to the Quest location, you’ll see some enemy Digimon hanging around, and it’s there that you decide on which partner you want to select.

Now, don’t worry about never being able to unlock your other Digimon partners — After all, this isn’t Pokémon. Whether you pick Patamon, DemiDevimon, or Gomamon, there’s always a chance to scan another Digimon’s data and then digivolve them to the Rookie/Child you want. Now this may surprise many of you, but I actually chose Gomamon here, as he’s actually one of my favourites. While I love Agumon and Gabumon, man, Gomamon really is great.

But I digress. Gomamon fought quite a number of enemies, allowing him to level up nicely, and I could add more Digimon to my party by defeating some and converting them. If you’ve converted one type already? Don’t worry, because you could always use them to Enhance your other Partners, allowing them to level up. It’s a pretty good method, especially with an army of Koromon re-spawning around you.

While exploring, you can find Treasure and Materials, which can be really helpful. There are HP and SP Capsules, along with Chips, and other equipable moves. These make it easier for many players, plus, if you stand still in-game for a few seconds, your party will heal. It’s a good method, and a great way not to waste capsules outside of combat. If you want to find Treasure and Materials, you can just analyse your surroundings with the left trigger.

Upon investigating underground, you’ll get another Mission which includes saving a girl who will, in turn, save you from being ground up by a MetalGreymon (Blue, the classic edition), who will — in turn — be defeated by you, and a surprise appearance from the Royal Knight himself: Omnimon.

Of course, there’s another battle going on and you need to work with this mysterious girl to stop it. All around you, Digimon are fighting with one another, and other ones are also trying to kill you. But of course, there are also some digital monsters who are inevitably stronger, such as, oh, you know… Kuwagamon. In order to defeat him, you’ll be able to use Cross Arts, which is a special move in combat allowing you to provide Stat Boosts to your party. As an additional point of combat, I really like that using Items won’t take up a turn. You can use one item, once per turn, and still do your Attack, Skill, or Guard.

Upon defeating Kuwagamon, there will be another issue, where you’ll find yourself in another world, accused of stealing an Egg. There’s a shadowy entity that’s come with you, and your allies, Coronamon and Lunamon (both of which are the mascots respectively of Dawn and Dusk), as well as Minervamon, request you follow them. Soon, you’re transported to another world, one similar to yours, where you find yourself in Shinjuku. There’s another Anomaly, and a father searching for his daughter, and of course, as an agent of ADAMAS, you need to help.

In terms of what I thought? I have to admit that I couldn’t put it down throughout the demo. I was disappointed when I had no choice but to stop playing. The soundtrack has such a great atmosphere, and it absolutely put me on edge. I wanted to know more about the story, about the characters, and of course, about what war was going on in the Digital World.

Upon completing the story part of the demo, your save file will be transferred to your retail copy of Digimon Story Time Stranger. But, if you wanted to keep playing, there’s also an Adventure Trail, which doesn’t transfer over, but you can run around, battle, and explore the Digital World. I have to admit, that was pretty fun, and it offered a nice little bit of dungeon crawling for me to enjoy.

If you want to try it out for yourself, Digimon Story Time Stranger will be available internationally on 3rd October. Until then, you can play the demo on consoles or PC, and maybe, if you’re like me, play Cyber Sleuth and Hacker’s Memory.