I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Digimon. Something about the adventures of a young group of friends trying to save both the real and digital worlds alongside their Digimon companions clicked with me in a way that Pokemon never did.
So, when it was announced that Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita would be coming stateside (to much celebration from fans who had petitioned Bandai Namco to do so for months), I knew I had to get it. The game released on Feb. 2, and so far, it's a satisfying by the numbers JRPG that Digimon fans will definitely want to check out. You can check out my impressions from the first five hours of the title below.
Minor spoilers ahead for the first five hours of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. You have been warned!
First things first: this isn't the Digimon that most North American fans grew up with. You won't find Tia, Matt, Sora and the rest of the gang here. Like many Digimon games before it, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth instead uses the idea of "digital monsters" to tell a completely new tale, separate from any existing Digimon fiction.
The world of the game is set in the near future, where virtual reality is alive and well. People frequently dive into the VR web known as EDEN to meet friends, conduct business and much, much more. In this brave new virtual world, hackers have sprung up by the thousands. These hackers often use Digimon to do their bidding, and it's here where the story of the game kicks off.
After responding to a message from a mysterious hacker, the protagonist finds himself with the ability to "scan" Digimon and fight alongside them. Having a Digimon labels you as a hacker, apparently, and so, the player character embraces their new role and seeks to be one of the "good guy" hackers who try to make the world a better place. Oh, and the protagonist also gets a digital body after a freak accident leaves their real one in a perpetual coma.
This is where the "cyber sleuth" aspect of the title comes in. After being digitized (yet still able to run around the real world, because why not), you meet up with a detective who is trying to solve the case of a mysterious EDEN disease that has been putting users in a coma, a fact that is being covered up by the corporation behind EDEN. You soon become her assistant, and before you know it, you're battling hackers with your Digimon, solving cyber crimes, unraveling the core mystery behind the VR sickness and jumping into people's TVs to fight the Digimon inside.
It's all a little silly, but Digimon have never been completely serious. The Digimon themselves are the reason fans are picking up the game, and in that department, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth so far delivers. The game boasts more than 200 Digimon to train, battle and digivolve with, and so far, I've been having a good time trying to form a team consisting of my favorites from the show. All the fan favorites and their digi-evolutions are here: Agumon, Greymon, Gabumon, Garurumon and many, many more. To digivolve, your Digimon will have to meet certain criteria, like being a certain level or having a stat over a given amount. Once you digivolve one of your partners, they'll become weaker at first and revert to level one, but will have the potential to grow much more powerful than their previous form with a little bit of training.
Battles are about as old-school JRPG as they come, with each opponent taking a turn to whack each other. There are special skills, status effects, items and the ability to flee from battle if you've bitten off more than you can chew. Like any good JRPG, there are random battles and dungeons to crawl through, but I never found the random encounter rate to be frustratingly frequent, as is often the case with games like these.
Though Digimon games in the past have steered away from being too similar to Pokemon, the two games share more than a few similarities here, namely in how the game addresses the elemental strengths and weaknesses of each Digimon. There are three types of Digimon: Virus, Vaccine and Data, as well as a number of elemental types that are all strong against certain types and weak against others. There are thematic similarities between the two franchises as well. Just as in Pokemon, where some trainers view their Pokemon merely as animals and tools to acquire power, many hackers in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth have no regard for the digital life forms they use and abuse in order to meet their nefarious goals.
Your character is one of the exceptions, of course. Over the course of the game's numerous chapters, you can go on side-investigations to help both people and Digimon, in the process leveling up your team and earning rewards in the form of money and items. The side-investigations themselves are often short, sweet and quite frequently humorous. One early side-mission involves the AC in your building pumping out frigid air. Upon investigating (by exploring the cyberspace inside the AC unit, of course) you discover a rampaging Frigimon is to blame. It's quirky missions like this that make the game enjoyable, so, hopefully, it can continue to deliver these types of scenarios beyond the game's opening hours.
While the visuals are nothing to write home about (it's a Vita game ported to the PlayStation 4, after all), the game's interface is fast, fluid and easy on the eyes. It's also worth noting that the game doesn't feature any English voiceovers. It's Japanese dialog with English subtitles, so expect to do lots of reading.
One aspect of the game I haven't gotten too deep into yet is the Digimon farm. If you've played Pokemon, think of it as that game's daycare system, but with a number of extra elements. Like the daycare, sticking your Digimon on the farm will let them earn experience points over time, simply for being there. What's different is that while there, Digimon can provide some useful functions for you and your battle team. If you have your Digimon on the farm focus on "investigating," for example, they'll find more side-investigations for you to complete. There is a lot more going on in the farm than I've had a chance to really dive into yet, but it definitely feels much better than simply storing all your unwanted Digimon in a bank, never again to see the light of day.
It's all lighthearted fun and should put a smile on the face of any gamer who enjoys turn-based battles and have fond memories of watching the old Digimon show on Saturday mornings. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is available now for PS4 and PS Vita.
