Digimon Survival had an announcement trailer in 2018 with lots of positive feedback, especially from Digimon fans. Now that it’s out, it seems to be a lot more divisive in the gaming community. Let’s see if the rating bombs are justified or not!
Game Name: Digimon Survive
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PC
Publisher(s): Bandai Namco
Developer(s): Hyde
Release date: July 29, 2022
Price: $59.99
I think you should know from the start that this game is mainly a visual novel. You can have more tactics based gameplay if you want to grind for new Digimon or just grind levels in general, but keep in mind that this game is mostly story oriented. The tactics based gameplay is important to introduce the difficulty into strategy as well, but it doesn’t impact the story as much as the Visual Novel elements.
That said, this story is really well thought out and articulate. The dialogues and characterizations are also extremely well written. Each character has many different personality traits based on their dialogue, and it shows. This game is a must-have if you really like stories with knowledge and depth. Actually, the story is about Takuma who attends a summer school camp with his classmates. While there, they discover a sanctuary and are eventually transported to another dimension; The Dimension of Digimon. You must work together to find a way out of this dimension and back to yours.
Digital shine
If there’s one thing I’m really happy with, it’s the variety Digimon games have given us. We don’t just get some kind of game every now and then, and we also have many different kinds of games to choose from. Digimon Survive is no different. This is a very polished and well written visual novel. Does that mean you read text all day? No, but a lot of it is just text. Aside from the story and dialogue, you can choose to move your screen and look at the different areas you are introduced to.
Throughout the story you have exploration and free moments. These are times when you have to choose how to move through the area with character affinities and find secrets about the world you find yourself in. Building an affinity with characters helps you understand them and makes them more attentive to your thoughts and desires. Even if you make the right choice, but the affected character doesn’t have an affinity level high enough to give, they can make their own choice that can be positive or negative for the situation.
digital beauty
The absolute best thing about this game is the art. There are 3D CGI backgrounds for areas that really look like they belong to the 2D characters and art of this world. It’s not just the art that makes me fall in love with the look of this game, but also the art direction and game direction based on Digimon Survive.
It’s very interesting to see how well they use spatial awareness in the background. When characters are in locations, they are in specific places for a purpose. When you move in the background and start a conversation with someone, you will notice that other people in the location will also be talking and listening in on your conversations.
In story moments where everyone is sitting together, Digimon Survive focuses on each person’s location, and when a person speaks, it zooms the camera around the area to where the person is. I’ve never played a visual novel that goes into such detail about making the location so important. I’ve now honestly started to focus on spatial awareness of even non-visual new games, and it really shows how often games don’t care about being consistent with placement.
Darkness
Digimon Survive is a very, very dark game. The story and themes in this story are incredibly dark as it revolves around abuse, death, moral ambiguity and most importantly what happens when we get creatures that abuse their power and can kill entire facilities of humans. You also get to see that the consequences of making the wrong decision affect the characters in this story and leave them in extremely vulnerable states. This game handles grief very well. An entire chapter of the story is devoted to dealing with grief when you make the wrong choice. I absolutely loved a story that didn’t treat the player like a kid. That said, this isn’t a game you should be playing around kids, and kids shouldn’t be playing this either.
The battle is not too deep, but still very strategic. You get the Digimon your party has as the digi-destined people they are, but you can also befriend and bring stray Digimon who are friends to your cause. In most battles, you can choose up to 6 Digimons in your party to fight with. Some missions defeat a single opponent with respawning Digimon every few turns, but most are “defeat every Digimon on the battlefield” style of combat. You have multiple classes of Digimon. Mobility, tank, damage and all-rounders. Mobility Digimon can move far and can have special benefits with movement, such as moving twice per turn. Tanks take less damage. Damage focuses on increased damage. All Rounders have no special perks, but usually have very high stats.
General
Digimon Survive as a Visual Novel is everything I wanted from this game. Your choices affect the story, your relationship with humans and Digimon, how the final encounter in the game goes, and how the ending unfolds. If you’re looking for this game as the tactical JRPG that makes Fire Emblem run for its money, you’ll be disappointed. If you don’t think Visual Novels is a video game worth your time, you’ll be disappointed.
The developers said this game was a 70/30 split between Visual Novel and Tactical JRPG, and they weren’t lying. The most important part of this game is the story and the emotion that surrounds the atmosphere. The battles are tough and will sometimes make you rethink your strategy, and which Digimon to bring along presents you with a challenge, but it’s only a small part of the game.
Digimon Survive is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
View Disclosure Statement: Digimon Survival was provided to us for review by Bandai Namco. For more information on how we rate video games and other media/technology, please see our Review Guideline/Score Policy for more information.
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Overview
Digimon Survive is a masterclass Visual Novel that will sink its teeth into you and not pull it out until you reach the credits screen. That is, if you’re a fan of Visual Novel games that draw you in through Japanese voice acting and just a little tactical RPG combat to set the mood. Music, atmosphere and story are top notch and make you feel like you’re literally in the anime, if the anime had more death lurking with every decision.
Pros
- Beautifully well done
- Art is absolutely beautiful
- Master storytelling and telling
- Great spatial insight
cons
- Visual Novel game means it is a lot of reading and understanding
- Only Japanese voice overs.
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