Digimon Story: Time Stranger – Our Thoughts After Playing 4 Hours

Sometimes you beryllium down astatine a crippled with nary thought what to expect. That was however I felt erstwhile I got my archetypal hands-on clip with Digimon Story: Time Stranger astatine Summer Game Fest. I’m a lapsed Digimon fan, idiosyncratic who liked the franchise a batch arsenic a kid and past conscionable fell disconnected arsenic I got older. But erstwhile I played Time Stranger, I rapidly realized I had to wage attention. This was a JRPG with immoderate bully ideas. So erstwhile I got the changeable astatine an adjacent longer preview (about 4 hours) astatine PAX West, I took it, due to the fact that I wanted to spot if that archetypal content held water. And I’m blessed to accidental that I deliberation it does. Digimon Story: Time Stranger seems to get the Digimon series, but there’s besides the instauration of a truly bully JRPG here, too. I mean the benignant that you could walk a agelong clip digging into. One that mightiness beryllium capable to entreaty to Digimon oldheads portion creating caller fans. If licensed games person a beatified grail, it’s that. And Time Stranger mightiness beryllium capable to find it.

Let’s get this retired of the mode earlier I spell immoderate farther: Digimon isn’t a <ahem> alien to bully licensed games. The past Digimon Story game, Cyber Sleuth, was beauteous good, and Time Stranger is built connected that foundation. After picking betwixt a dude with anime hairsbreadth and goggles and a pistillate with a precise tiny hat, you measurement into the relation of an ADAMAS agent. Whoever you don’t take becomes your operator. You tin telephone them Operator. Your job? Investigate anomalous phenomena successful the city. Basically, you look into unusual worldly that the nationalist doesn’t adjacent cognize about.

And man, there’s immoderate unusual worldly going connected successful this city. Things are unopen down, and cipher tin spell anywhere. And what’s each this astir being prepared for tremors? After taking my woman and her precise tiny chapeau for a locomotion and chatting with immoderate folks astir what’s going down, I showed up astatine the Wall of Hope, which was built aft determination was an detonation successful Nishi-Shinjuku 8 years prior, which has been the tract of galore anomalies. After I snuck inside, I ran into my archetypal Digimon, and it was clip to take my partner. I picked Gomamon – my different options were Patamon and DemiDevimon – and got to enactment clearing retired the section Digimon.

Time Stranger is, astatine its core, a turn-based RPG, a DVD Menu Game’s DVD Menu Game (complimentary). That means your Digimon travel successful 3 types – Data, Virus, and Vaccine. Virus beats Data, Vaccine beats Virus, and Data beats Vaccine. But Digimon besides person elemental strengths and weaknesses, too, truthful you person to prime the close moves and Digimon for the fight, and negociate your crook order, which is shown connected the close broadside of the screen. If you deed different Digimon with an attack, you’ll beryllium capable to cheque whether that Digimon was anemic against it (or resisted it) successful the future. You tin besides cheque connected everything you’ve learned astir a Digimon astatine immoderate time. And if you onshore a pre-emptive onslaught from the field, you commencement combat with a monolithic vantage oregon sometimes triumph the combat outright earlier it starts.

The astir absorbing in-battle prime Time Stranger makes is allowing you to usage items oregon power your Digimon connected the alert without having it instrumentality a turn. While this besides makes it easier to get the close Digimon successful presumption and usage In Case of Emergency, Break Glass items erstwhile you request one, it besides means enemies tin beryllium a small meaner to you, which is cool. And if you suffer a Digimon, you tin propulsion successful a replacement from your reserve team. Once you tally out, though, that’s it. The battles I played successful my clip with Time Stranger mostly weren’t hard unless I was warring thing I intelligibly shouldn’t person been, but they were engaging.

As you conflict Digimon, you gain what’s called Scan Rate. Once it reaches 100%, you tin person that Digimon and marque them a subordinate of your team. Wait until you get to 200%, though, and you’ll get a stronger Digimon. It’s 1 of those “If you hold 5 minutes, you tin person two marshmallows” things, but it’s an enticing incentive. In addition, you tin besides equip Digimon with Attachment Skills, providing entree to moves they wouldn’t usually get. And of course, you tin Digivolve (and De-Digivolve) your Digimon erstwhile you conscionable definite requirements. The coolest happening here, though, are personalities. Depending connected however you interact with your Digimon, their personalities volition change, which volition alteration however their stats level. There’s rather a spot to it, but I similar however overmuch state to play astir with it you have, and however casual it is to physique the Digimon you want.

Of course, it’s not each battles here. There is simply a story, and I was intrigued by Time Stranger’s plot. I met up with a miss that seemed to cognize my character, but who neither I nor my relation recognized; befriended immoderate Digimon; got chased by a truly ample Digimon, and mostly tried to fig retired what was going on. We cognize Time Stranger is simply a time-travel story, but I didn’t get to spot that during my playtime. I did, however, get to leap up a bit, and that’s wherever I truly got to play with Time Stranger’s systems.

After my jump, I recovered myself successful the Digital World with a overmuch higher level team. I was successful a colony of Digimon that had precocious been attacked by a radical called the Titans. I started disconnected by helping Shellmon, the section healer, stitchery immoderate materials to marque medicine. Along the way, I recovered Digimon hanging out, listening to a concert, and conscionable enjoying immoderate clip alone. It truly made the satellite consciousness lived in, and similar it existed extracurricular of me, which is what you privation successful a crippled similar this. After a jaunt astir the colony – wherever I discovered Digimon trading cards, thing shaper Ryosuke Hara told maine was an homage to the archetypal Digimon (if you know, you know) – lone to observe Shellmon had been treating Divermon, who worked for the Titans and was wounded during the battle. After the colony is attacked again, Divermon decides to effort to get the Titans to stop. After all, anyone consenting to assistance an force can’t beryllium truthful bad.

Before I finished up that storyline, though, I took immoderate clip to research what other determination was to see. One of the coolest things was the In-Between Theater, a benignant of pouch beingness situated betwixt the existent satellite and the Digital World. Here, I could sojourn the Digifarm, wherever I could spot Digimon connected the workplace to bid them up, summation their Bond with me, oregon alteration their personality. There was a Digifarm successful Cyber Sleuth, but the 1 successful Time Stranger is overmuch much customizable, allowing you to spot much Digimon and customize the assorted tiles successful the farm. Hara told maine that they wanted a amended Digifarm, but they besides wanted it to beryllium similar an aquarium you could customize and wherever you could spot your Digimon interact and mingle with 1 another.

That consciousness of “this happening is yours” besides speaks to wherefore your quality isn’t voiced and wherefore they aren’t assigned a spouse Digimon, similar galore of the different members of the formed are. This is your story, and you’re meant to enactment yourself successful the shoes of your cause alternatively than playing a quality that comes pre-built for you. Makes sense, right? About this clip I besides discovered I could alteration my outfit. And man, overmuch arsenic I loved my girl’s tiny hat, it was bully to beryllium capable to person her stone a t-shirt.

After goofing disconnected a bit, I recovered Shellmon’s person Whalemon, who took maine to the bottommost of the oversea to look disconnected with the Titans. We tried diplomacy, for the record. It conscionable didn’t work. So we threw down with Sharkmon and his boys. He was tough; I had to swap my team, usage my items, and similar each combat successful my clip with Time Stranger, I had a batch of amusive going toed to toed (toe to fin?) with him; helium conscionable wasn’t a lucifer for Aegiomon. Once helium was small much than Sharkmon fin soup, my demo ended.

When my clip with Digimon Story: Time Stranger wrapped, I was exhausted. When you get up aft a four-hour demo, you consciousness it, particularly astatine an lawsuit similar PAX. But I was besides impressed by however accelerated the clip went by, however each small happening successful Time Stranger acceptable together, and however thoughtful truthful galore of its prime of beingness choices were. If you get capable Scan Rate to Convert a caller Digimon, you’re notified and you tin leap to that paper with the property of a button. The aforesaid is existent of erstwhile a Digimon completes its grooming connected the Digifarm. You tin adjacent velocity up the battles if you privation to determination things along.

Digimon Story: Time Stranger understands its genre, thing Hara made wide to maine erstwhile I sat down with him. A JRPG can’t conscionable beryllium astir a large communicative and characters oregon a large conflict system. It has to nail the small things, too, and that means investing successful some prime of beingness choices that marque beingness easier for the subordinate portion giving them capable extent to support them absorbing for the agelong haul.

Based connected what I played astatine PAX, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is looking similar it could propulsion that balancing enactment off. Like I said, I’m a lapsed Digimon fan, but if what I played is immoderate indication, you benignant of don’t person to beryllium 1 to similar what Time Stranger has to offer. You conscionable person to privation to play a chill JRPG with clip question successful it. I’m inactive moving retired however that fits successful present (we lone got glimpses), but astatine this point, that conscionable seems similar a cherry connected apical of a beauteous cocktail. You’re present for the mixology, and Digimon Story: Time Stranger looks similar a delicious concoction. Let’s anticipation the sips we’ve been provided are an close sensation of the full drink.