Digimon Story Time Stranger is Absolute Cinema

Article at a glance:

• Digimon Story: Time Stranger delivers what Pokémon Legends ZA could only dream of, an in-depth, strategic monster-collection experience with a rich evolution system and engaging combat. It’s what Pokémon should strive for, but doesn’t.
• The game blends Persona and SMT influences, giving players a ton of freedom to experiment with Digimon combinations, offering a surprising amount of depth that’ll make even the most hardcore JRPG fans happy.
• While the story and characters have their flaws, Time Stranger shines with its intriguing time-travel plot, gorgeous world design, and a soundtrack that elevates every moment. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is a must-play.

So my review for Pokémon Legends: ZA didn’t go down well with some people, pretty much what I expected. Look, I have no business telling other people what to do with their money. That’s just arrogance. But at some point, you need to teach yourself to ask for something better, especially for the amount of money you’re burning. If you’re having fun with Pokémon, you do you. But please don’t defend the terrible quality of the game. But, if you’re willing to expand your world a little, I am writing this Digimon Story: Time Stranger review for you.

Because people need to realize that THIS, this is what a Pokémon game can be. Unlike Pokémon, Digimon is not a TRILLION dollar franchise. So how is it that THEY can make a game this good while Pokémon is shilling out mediocre, overpriced slop? This game borrows some of the best elements from games like Persona and SMT, and that ends up creating so many interesting combinations of Digimon you can use. I didn’t know I needed this till I played it, and of course, the story is an absolute banger as well.

So welcome back to another game review, and today, we are talking about Digimon Story: Time Stranger. Once again, in my defense, this is anime adjacent, so I can talk about it. But yeah, let’s just get started and talk about the game.

Gameplay

Time Story has a pretty typical JRPG gameplay loop. You roam around maps, collect items, and get into fights by ambushing or getting ambushed by enemies. You have hub areas to rest and buy items. Think Tales of Arise, Persona, or what have you. Even older Pokémon games were similar. So why do I praise the gameplay so much? It’s not the exploration part that’s fun, no, it’s the combat and the sheer amount of combinations you can pull off where this game truly shines.

There is a frankly absurd level of depth to the Digimon evolutions and how combinations of different things affect their evolutions. There are actual, valid gameplay reasons for holding out on your Digimon evolutions, and heck, even the same Digimons can have completely different evolution chains. So many broken builds and combinations for you to find; there is so much min-maxing you can do. I understand that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I honestly enjoy this kind of depth in my games.

Yes, the game does have the typical JRPG late-game level grind issues and the typical jank that comes with a JRPG, but if you’ve played JRPGs before, that’s nothing new for you. I am not excusing that flaw, but everything else is so good that it’s worth putting up with this issue. Thankfully, they have an alright auto-battle too to make things easier.

Story and Quests

If I had to explain the story, I’d have to go into a whole bunch of Digimon lore, and I don’t want to do that. Besides, I think this story is something people really should experience for themselves. So I’ll just comment on the story structure and give you an idea of the narrative here. The story follows a typical nameless protagonist. Soon, you will meet Inori and Aegiomon whom you will spend most of the game with.

The broader story revolves around the Olympus XII, basically Digimon Gods who control the Digital World. Oh yeah, you are punched 8 years into the past by a GIANT Digimon fist from the sky, literally like an hour into the game lol. The story does not shy away from complicated time travel shenanigans, and I really appreciate that. I wish we didn’t have a silent protagonist because it makes some heavy moments fall flat. It is an incredible 40-hour adventure, though, and I enjoyed every moment of it despite the cheesy writing at times.

The side quests could’ve been a lot better, though. Yes, they are rewarding, but most of the side quests are generic fetch quests, which can and do get a bit annoying. But again, I promise the rewards are worth it; I just wish that the side quests actually had something interesting to do as well.

Characters

I am once again about to be a bit negative about the game here. Yes, I know, being negative in a review I am making to glaze Digimon Story: Time Stranger lol. But most of the human characters in this game, outside of Inori, are so bland. I barely remember any of the Public Safety Team members despite how much they help us throughout the story. They just exist to serve the plot and have no personalities outside of that, which is a bit disappointing. Also, once again, I really wish we didn’t have a silent protagonist in this game.

On the bright side, though, all the Digimon characters are genuinely awesome. Everyone from the Olympus XII has a distinct personality; they have important roles to play in the story, and the payoff at the end is well worth it. And thankfully, I can say the same for Aegiomon and Inori. Their character development is great, and the game’s story tests their bond time and again. Suffering builds character, as they say. Yeah, there is a lot of cheesy dialogue between the two, but come on, they deserve it after everything they’ve been through.

Visuals and Music

Here’s the thing: it’s not like graphical fidelity-wise, Time Stranger is some next-gen game. No, in fact, it looks kind of like a Switch game and not in a bad way. They just took their time with the art direction and made sure that everything is well-animated. And some of the visuals in this game are gorgeous, by the way. The Digital World stuff looks awesome. The animations, even for the general combat, are good.

Masafumi Takada cooked hard once again with the music. Every JRPG somehow ends up having good music, and Time Story manages to stand out even among that crowd.

That is all for now

That concludes my review for Digimon Story: Time Stranger. I genuinely enjoyed this game, and it was a nice surprise. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of the genre. This game actually tries to push the monster collection genre further, rather than well, whatever Pokemon ZA was lol. Okay, that’s enough Nintendo hating for a day. I will take my leave here. See ya!