Time Stranger Is a Solid Game

If you played Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and its sequel, then Digimon Story: Time Stranger should feel relatively familiar as the game follows a similar sort of pattern. We begin by exploring Tokyo in the human world, encountering hostile Digimon in certain set areas or encounters, then eventually also gain access to the Digital World. There are quite a few areas to explore and, when you hit certain exit points, there are fast travel options to certain spots. (I preferred running and exploring, as there are a lot of incidental items you can pick up along the way for the DigiFarm or battles.) I will say that I think Iliad is the more visually interesting of the two. Human NPCs are rather nondescript and uninteresting and the human world, though generally accurate, felt a bit bland compared to the more vibrant and unusual Digital World. Though, that could also be because it was fun to see Digimon around and the effort put into ensuring those areas feel different, and the DigiRide mount system is fun.

Combat involves turn-based battles, and there’s also a means of gaining initiative that feels really satisfying. When exploring, you can “investigate” to search for breakable walls, materials, or chests or send out a Digimon to attack. (There are even times when you’ll need ones with certain elemental capabilities to trigger a situation.) The “attack” option can also be used on a Digimon seen in the field in a “dungeon” style situation. If the opponent is weak enough, you automatically get the experience for your characters and Convert data that builds toward acquiring it yourself. If it isn’t enough to defeat it, you’ll enter the turn-based fight, but will find the enemies’ HP affected or fewer there because of your initial assault. It’s great! (Also, said experience earned applies to the three characters in the front of your party, the three in reserve, and ones that happen to be in your general on-hand storage.) 

During fights, UI is clear, the pacing is pretty good, and there are a lot of attacking options. Each character has innate Special Skills they just know. You can equip Attachment Skills, regardless of their innate type, to bolster a build. It’s also possible to assign two pieces of equipment to each character. You can have them attack, use a skill, or guard, and it is also possible to have your agent change to a different reserve Digimon of the three on hand or use an item for that round. After using a Digimon for a while, it’s also possible for an attack to multi-hit. You select actions on each character’s turn. It’s also possible to use a Cross Art to support your allies or attack if you spent Anomaly Points on Agent Skills, with even the initial Cross Art: Field ability that boosts stats for two turns being pretty great. I will say I appreciated being able to speed up animations once I hit around the ten hour mark, as battles started featuring full parties and lots of attack animations.

The Convert and Digivolution systems also really make Digimon Story: Time Strange feel compelling and encourage battling without making the grind feel too all-consuming. Requirements to reach new evolutions are quite clear, and they’re typically reasonable given we can reach many by leveling up, others by saving and using items to bolster stats, and use the DigiFarm to influence builds. There’s a handy history on a character’s profile page, so you can see evolutions and devolutions. I will say the wait to reach Agent Rank 3 to finally Digivolve my starter felt like it took forever considering how many others I got to level up before that point, but the requirements feel like they make sense, are reasonable, and keep you from ending up being OP too early. (Unless you use the early unlock Special Agumon and Gabumon.) I do wish the requirements for Digivolving would be visible in DigiFarm, since I used that for filling gaps in my collection, and I think that could get tedious for completionists.

The funny thing is that I feel like the odd quirks in Digimon Story: Time Stranger are the things that get to be the biggest issues. There’s a notification system that can alert you to sidequests or opportunities to automatically renew training at the DigiFarm. That’s handy! Except I found those notifications go by far too quickly for me to catch and press the shortcut to immediately respond without going into the menu. And even if I did go into the menu, the UI isn’t great about letting you know which ones are new and need addressing. The game also isn’t great at letting you know when the three active Digimon in your party around you are able to talk so you can influence their personality! Sometimes, if I moved too suddenly in a dungeon style space where they would appear, I’d see a conversation icon pop up, but if I turned to face them, the prompt wouldn’t show. I’d really need to find a clear, open, safe space and sometimes inch around folks to trigger the option. The story pacing can feel a bit off at times, especially during the first five hours, so it takes a bit of time to “pick up” even though everything going on can be pretty interesting! Speaking of pacing, it’s also a bit annoying when for “story reasons” our avatar is prevented from running at their typical gait and forced to walk. (Though this doesn’t happen all that often.) 

It also bothered me that our character is a silent protagonist. Dan and Kanan both have voice actors when you don’t choose one of them and they act as a supporting cast member. But once you select your avatar, you’ll see their mouth move after selecting dialogue options. They’re clearly saying the line you chose. However, Bandai Namco didn’t choose to actually have them be voiced. So there will be these awkward gaps in conversations where we’ll “watch” them respond and everyone else will talk, but they never speak. I get not voicing everything, but some critical story moment audio clips would have been nice.

Also annoying is that the Jogmon card game in Digimon Story: Time Stranger isn’t fun! I was so excited when a kid wanted me to pass along a deck to Aegiomon. Digimon Card Game is great, if you’ve never had a chance to try it, and I hoped that maybe this meant a “lite” version of it would be included. Nope! What’s here is really bland and involves fake Digivices and cards representing characters with different power levels and types assigned to them. You drop one on your device on your turn and hope it’s stronger than the other. It lasts five rounds, with one card played each round and “winning” or “losing,” and the side with the most wins… wins. The aesthetics for the devices and character sprites are great, but it’s so disappointing.