Digimon Survive review where visual novels and fights meet digital monsters

There was a time, more than two decades ago, when Pokémon had to compete for fame with other equally fascinating monsters known as Digimon. Now, with the right temporal distance intervening, the discussion seems almost ludicrous: they were actually different creatures, the sequences – apart from some commonalities – very far apart. Certainly, however, in the world of video games, Pokémon has achieved such unstoppable success that it cannot even be remotely compared to that of its distant cousins.

Despite this, Digimon Survive shows how players continue to leave a dedicated space in their physical or digital library (and certainly in this case the latter would not be more appropriate) for adventures in the Digital World. The title was not easy to develop: we went from an indie’s budget to what was needed for a more substantial production, the graphics engine was replaced (eventually replaced by Unity), at a certain point, with the need to reboot you. work almost from scratch. Finally, how do we not notice an almost suspicious press blackout on release day?

Acting with both justified doubts and the boundless love we have for one of the names that marked our childhood (and your) childhood, we embarked on an unforgettable adventure for you. Digimon Survive review. It will serve to clarify the basic and most dubious aspects of production, in order to understand whether it is right for you.

A true visual novel

Digimon Survive (current value) a true visual novel. Instead, it is important to underline immediately and strongly this aspect that seems to have sneaked up on it. If you’ve ever had a game in mind where you can get on the field and deploy teams and teams of Digimon right away and manage your hands, perhaps exploring the surrounding world with complete freedom, this isn’t it. On the contrary, we’re not exaggerating when we say we saw them a good hour after the opening titles of the first Digimon, the first fight (not counting training) perhaps went even further.

The thing is, Digimon Survive it moves very slowly, because the developers care about the player’s ability to fully, perfectly describe himself in an unknown world, accompanied by a very subtle but constant feeling of anguish. We won’t hesitate for a moment to describe it better as a visual novel not for children who will immediately get bored, but for teenagers, perhaps even adults. Nor does the Hyde team care for any sort of discount on the management of narrative rhythms: the introduction, for example, was accused (even elsewhere, even by users) of being excessively long and boring. But on closer inspection, visual novels that are nothing more than interactive novels after all, visual novels that are nothing more than stories that continue on the screen due to the slow buildup of dialogue, lots and lots of lines of text, go like this.

Fortunately, in addition to the Japanese dub, all the lyrics italian language, it’s not clear why (possibly due to omission) in English, except for a few words during the remaining fights. Other than that the localization is however complete and allows for hassle-free use of the title. Progress is what you can easily imagine: you read the dialogues between characters indefinitely, reach a new area (defined by an equally unprecedented backdrop), and start over. Why should this matter to Digimon fans? Because for the first time in this particular genre, they are the main theme.

An unprecedented and mature story

Digimon Survive a unpublished story. Kazumasa Habu and Tsuzuki Katsuaki decided to introduce human heroes never before seen in various anime series; Accompanying them are some of the Digimon you’ve probably learned to love for decades, as well as relatively new faces. For example, it is impossible not to get to know Agumon and Gomamon, perhaps you will meet the new Falcomon and Labramon for the first time; the latter debuted, for example, in the third anime series Digimon Tamers.

In total, along the way you will meet approximately a hundred different DigimonIt’s a fair number but still limited compared to past video games like the full-bodied Digimon Story: Cyber ​​Sleuth. Alongside the heroes’ companions, other Digimon can be summoned during fights via a curious mechanic that requires you to dialogue with enemies mid-battle and guess their personal tastes.

when it comes complo The judgment of Digimon Survive, which must take personal taste into account, is positive. We didn’t pull our hair out for revelation along the way or at the climax, but we still appreciated the mature tone, which can sometimes even evoke feelings of anxiety and restlessness. The truth is, Takuma and his friends find themselves suddenly thrown into a parallel world, very different from anything seen in any animated series in the past. The dangers are real here, the evil Digimon has no qualms about attacking and killing people, they always have limited knowledge, it is unclear where their friends have arrived and how they will get home. Even the supporting Digimon don’t know exactly what’s between that world and Earth. The biggest mystery, of course, will be revealed by continuing the narrative and defeating one very, very dangerous foe after another.

Structure: exploration and turn-based combat

Due to the supremely narrative (and slow) nature of Digimon Survive, all that’s left is discovery free and real fights; as you can see, the latter only takes up a minimal portion of the product, not even the basic one. The menacing parallel world, which only partially resembles the real one, is home to several areas: The initials consist of an old school and the surrounding forest, but soon become a temple, dam, etc. Continuing the plot is very simple, as you are constantly guided by the developers: it is enough to even interact with the surrounding environment (or characters) until you look for the red indicator marked with an exclamation point. Second, it actually allows us to unblock the necessary dialogue to move forward.

However, in some moments you will really be freer: so much so that you can choose certain paths over others, as well as dialogues with certain characters at the expense of the remaining gift. this elections It will affect some later aspects of the adventure, such as the trust of his co-stars in Takuma (even some choices in the final stages will determine whether some characters will survive).

Also, when there are several opportunities for dialogue, care should be taken to choose the left, center, or right, as this system of “morality” (or mixed). Namely: on Agumon, Digimon’s transformations, which can unlock alternative (and irreversible) paths depending on karma, not just in the relationship with that character. In our case, Agumon became Tyrannomon, but could easily have turned into Greymon. In particular, we cannot say which choices influenced evolution; Even if the karma system seems very difficult to implement, it’s sure to support massive replayability in the future.

Analysis on the topic war: left to the end because with some regret we have to accept a very, very simplified turn-based strategy in Digimon Survive. Digimon fights by moving around on a chessboard, can attack (and defend) in four directions, talk to human partners during battle to gain a stat boost, evolve to get stronger (but loses surrounding mobility points). Boss fights aside, the Game Over screen is really hard to see.

In reality, it always gets the impression that the fights themselves are an almost unnecessary practice (although in reality they also provide an “autopilot” mode) due to the need to at least partially avoid passive use of the helmet. Of course, Digimon gains experience points, levels up, gets items that change some of their parameters; but one always gets the feeling that one chooses the other. After all, even if players are able to use Takuma’s smartphone in various hostile Digimon environments (thus going into battle), there are few truly forced conflicts to go on; There is free war in the main menu to solve the problem.