What do you get when you mix turn-based combat, digital monsters, survival elements and a short interactive story? The answer is Digimon Survive. The game lasts around 30 hours and my first impressions are pretty strong as I expected a lot from this title. The first thing I find is a menu with design and art Unlimited Uiti Fantastic. Then I hear a wonderful theme Tomoki Miyoshi. I loved the art style used to build the game’s short story section and the music that goes with it. With such great graphics and music, I expected the rest of the game to be on the same level. I can say that it didn’t disappoint, despite a bug that cost me 10 hours of gameplay.
The title isn’t going to make you jump straight into it without giving you some background information first. It starts off quite slowly and introduces you to its story and universe. The narrative focuses on a group of children and teenagers who are drawn into a mysterious world and your goal is to survive and return home. Along the way, you’ll meet some Digimon who try to help you and others who want to kill you. And when I say kill you, I mean you. Without giving too much away, this is the first time I’ve seen blood flow in the franchise. Almost every character is prone to death depending on your choices, few are sure. When a character dies, their Digimon also dies, which is another battle loss.
As you may have seen, this isn’t a typical game in the franchise. Cyber Sleuth and previous titles had RPG elements and were much more geared towards complex gameplay mechanics. This time everything has been reduced, refined and better focused. It’s arguably reminiscent of what Pokémon Legends: Arceus did for Pokémon. The main fights and monsters are the same, but they are a bit different. It’s the first time in a Digimon game that I feel like the monsters (they don’t like being called that) talk as much as they’re allowed to. This gives the developers the opportunity to build their different personalities. This also allows for the short story style, which focuses on listening, clicking on characters, and moving around the environment via a menu, giving the narrative more real estate. It’s something I like because I feel like Michael Bay screwed up with the robots in the Transformers movies, same thing happened with this franchise. Digital monsters now have personalities, lots of dialogue, and take their place alongside humans.
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The characters are well written and I like the variety between them. You can create relationships between the characters and their lives will depend on them. Not only can you talk to them, but you can increase their appreciation for you. It goes hand in hand with other decisions about who lives and who dies. It’s not often that people die in this type of game, but in this title many of the main characters can lose their lives because of your choices, adding extra suspense and seriousness. Dialogue decisions also determine the development of Your partner Agumon. You will place some of these choices into one of three categories: Anger, Morality, or Harmony. The first is a bit what it sounds like: seek conflict, worry more about yourself, and rush headlong into danger as soon as the opportunity arises. Morality is based on doing what seems right, e.g. B. rescuing others or focusing on the best intentioned actions in any situation. Armonía tries to be circumspect when studying and communicating situations. Each Digimon is classified into one of these three types, each of which is strong or weak against each other. For example, think of the Fire, Grass, and Water Pokémon forming a triangle based on the same rock-paper-scissors mechanic.
The fights depend heavily on what types the Digimon are divided into. It is pointed out here the karma system It not only applies to dialogue, but also determines the development of your Digimon and what types it is strong or weak against. The turn-based combat system is pretty straightforward, especially with the support items you can use. That’s not to say it lacks depth, just that it’s very easy to get the hang of. You can fight yourself or let the machine do it for you. Both systems work very well. The only thing though is that the combat system is a bit too easy in my opinion. You can do more damage if you attack from behind or from the sides. The problem is that attacking this way is very easy. I would have liked to see some mechanics like the ones in Battle Brothers where if you get too close you’re forced into melee or if you try to flee the enemy attacks again. I also wish the enemy levels would scale with yours. While there is an option to change the difficulty level, for those who are already experienced with the combat system, even the most challenging mode can be made too easy. Still, I think the fighting is okay within the variety of gameplay.
It’s also fun to test your monsters on the battlefield. You can choose the peaceful option which is also fun. You don’t get as many experience points, but you can talk to the enemy. You will be presented with three dialogue options that you must answer correctly three times. If you manage to fill the marker, you can persuade your opponent to join your team or give you items. This is how you get new Digimon, which is important for filling up your team with wild monsters. These chapters unfold with items in unique story events, which I think is an interesting approach. I quickly realized how important the choice of line of development is, as it is a permanent decision.
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The best I can say about the game is that the combat, story, and gameplay all work in harmony. There is a feeling that everything is connected with a common thread that keeps everything well connected. The menus are also easy to navigate and it’s always easy to find the information you’re looking for. I have to admit that I also enjoyed the story and the voice actors’ performances. Both the human and monster characters sound great. The only criticism of the voices is that some developments don’t sound quite right. They keep the same tone of voice, which is odd in some cases. I would have liked that Machinedramon would have sounded more like a machine
Despite the criticism, the story makes a good impression with its tale of young people being drawn into a mysterious world. The combat system works well and there are always dangers with characters that can die making it difficult to let go of the controller. I was surprised at the level of production as the visual novel genre isn’t usually that flashy. Even the villains are well portrayed and have good voice actors and their motives are also well explainable and believable by series standards. Despite the simplicity of their battles, This is the best Digimon game I’ve ever played. It’s far better than any previous title in the franchise in many ways. It’s also a replayable title thanks to its four different endings and the New Game + mode that offers more lines of dialogue. It’s like watching a season or two of the TV series.
Still, it’s not without flaws. I already mentioned that the combat is a bit too easy. There are also any mistake which is no fun at all, one of which deletes backup files, which is a shame. I noticed that it only happens when you verify the game on Steam. I lost about 10 hours of gameplay because of this bug. Another weak point is the amount of creatures. There are a total of 117 Digimon in this game. which, given the nearly 1,400 in existence today, falls a little short. Still, I don’t think it’s something that gets a lot of attention. It took me almost 30 hours to complete the game and I was pleased with the variety I found. I missed a few monsters, but I also encountered many of my favorites in the main part of the game. If you like Digimon and you can tolerate games of this genre, you will surely enjoy this title. This is a really good game and very well made. It was even ranked as one of my favorites of the year.