Digimon Story Time Stranger is a new sequel for the Digimon Story series featuring the beloved digital. These mons live in their own parallel world, sometimes visit ours (real world), and even help humans with saving both. What began as a kid-friendly monster catching phenomenon has slowly evolved (digivolved) into a mature story, meant for older fans of the series who grew up with these cute creatures. And while the kid-friendly charm of Digimon is barely present in the iteration, Digimon Story Time Stranger is still a very fun and unique game.
Digimon: Before and after
It’s pretty much impossible to talk about Digimon without comparing them with Nintendo’s creature collecting series. Even though Digimon aren’t as popular as Pokemon, the developers have done an excellent job in giving them their own identity. Long story short, unlike Pokemon, the Digimon can actually exist in our world. After all, they are just pieces of digital data that somehow grew a conscious, gained intelligence and developed a personality. They started as pocket toys with screens that kids used to swap around and battle each other, then they turned into a series where children would travel to the digital world and gain a single Digimon partner with whom they world go on an adventure with. Nowadays, especially in recent video game iterations, you play as a young adult, working for a secret organization, which uses these digital beings in order to protect the world. Gone are the days of kids having a single Digimon partner, because now you can massively produce, train and digivolve them, almost like you have a personal army.
I have to admit, as a long-time Digimon fan, I did not like these changes at first, but as I kept playing I grew a new appreciation for them, and can you blame me? In Digimon Story Time Stranger, the story takes the spotlight, the battles are swift, grinding levels is almost non-existent, and I can make my ultimate Digimon dream team without spending hundreds of hours beating up the same groups of enemies.
Time traveling isn’t really new for the series
The game pretty much throws you into the action where you pick your character and brings the action to you. As an agent of a secret organization which specializes in otherworldly phenomenon, your mission is to investigate an explosion. Apparently, there was an explosion on top of an iconic Tokyo building, and the cause is unknown. This causes protests to rally as people start demanding answers.
As you can probably guess, wild Digimon are to blame, which suddenly started showing up in our world. Using your equipment, you also get your first starter Digimon and set out to investigate. The story quickly takes a sharp turn with yet another explosion, this time on a massive scale, which causes a war between the human and the digital world. Fortunately for you, instead of dying from the impact, you get sent back in time, seven years before the first explosion. Time has always been a major plot device for the series, so this feels right at home.
Your mission is the prevent the explosion, and the war, from ever occurring, by uncovering the culprits using your small (or large) team of Digimon. While in the past, you gain the trust of the locals willing to help you, and even of some good-natured humanoid Digimon who also don’t want to see their world burn. This was a nice refreshing take on the story and I really enjoyed watching the humanoid Digimon fit in with our society and sharing their culture with ours.
It may sound complicated, but the story is pretty easy to follow, as long as you’re able to forgive some major plot holes. For example, even though you traveled back in time, your organization from the future (present) can still communicate with you, and even they aren’t sure how. Many dialogues don’t feel natural, the animations can be stiff, but at the same time, the story is a lot of fun to go through, and kept me hooked to my chair until the end.
Fast turn-based digi-battles
The term “turn-based battle” is often associated with classic JRPGs from the 90s which were slow, required a lot of level grinding, and you had to sit and watch those long attack animations. This isn’t the case fo Digimon Story Time Stranger. Just like the previous Digimon Story games (Cyber Sleuth and The Next Order, not counting Digimon Survive), the battles are fast, the rewards huge and progression can feel almost instantanious.
Sure, you’ll start with just one Digimon but even in the first hour, you’ll have an entire party. Each time you defeat a wild Digimon, you collect data on the foe. When you have enough data, you can materialize a new one and add it to your party. The process is super easy and works automatically, and soon you’ll have more Digimon than you’ll know what to do with.
Of course, Digimon can evolve (digivolve) and for this you need to meet certain Digimon levels, your own Agent rank, and meet a few attribute requirements. It’s important to note, unlike most Pokemon, Digimon aren’t locked into a single evolution but rather they can evolve into many different forms, depending on how you train or treat them.
Digivolution is somewhat limited in the beginning but as your rank increases, the mechanics open up quite a bit. You can evolve, de-evolve, boost, train, equip and even send your Digimon to a special digi-farm where they can train on their own. The whole system is made to minimize the grind and to quickly get you your digimon dream team, provided you progress through the story.
Digital and urban adventure
When you aren’t fighting, you’ll spend most of your time watching voiced cut-scenes or exploring the streets of Tokyo or digital dungeons. Instead of going open world, the devs have settled on small segregated zones, mostly a street or two per zone. These can be confusing, and I probably would have gotten lost if it weren’t for the helpful map and decent mission navigation.
The items you buy or find in the real world can be taken into battle, you can dress up your character in a few outfits and you definitely should engage in some Side Quests. These side activities are extremely important because they can get your Agent Rank up, which will unlock many powerful digivolutions. One location you’ll visit often is the mysterious Theater room, located in a realm between dimensions. Let’s not kid ourselves, this is the Digimon version of the Velvet Room from the Persona series. . Here you can buy some exclusive itemms, get a few quests, and leave your excess Digimon on the Digi-farm. If you’re worried about having too many of them, don’t be, because you simply raise your unwanted Digimon on the digi-farm and then turn them into XP which you can use to feed your main Digimon. It works similarly to a mobile gacha game, and for the sake of simplicity and reducing the grind, which is a good thing overall.
If I had to complain about something in Digimon Story Time Stranger, it would be that the game almost expects you to be familiar with the source. Players new to Digimon might find some monsters confusing because many smaller Digimon are more powerful than those really big ones. Additionally, all the different systems the game throws at you can definitely feel overwhelming, even though they are easy once you use them a few times.
When it comes to graphics and performance, the game looks very similar to previous Digimon Story games, to the point where you can mistake it for either Cyber Sleuth and The Next Order. While this may sound disappointing, the game can run well on the Steam Deck, which is a plus.
To sum up, even though I didn’t get the kid-friendly Digimon game I was hoping for, I got a fresh and modern take on the series, and a more streamlined experience with a mature story filled with nostalgic characters I grew up with.
Digimon Story Time Stranger (PC)
Digimon Story Time Stranger is another successful Digimon game that trims down on the fat of level grinding and focuses more on the story. It may not be the Digimon you grew up with, but it's a modern and polished game aimed at older fans and even newcomers willing to learn about digital monsters. Strap in and get ready for a time traveling adventure with your Digimon partners and don't forget to shout out loud those attack names... or am I the only one who does that?
