Digimon: Digital Monsters was the standout classic from my childhood. Although overshadowed by Pokemon, this was the show I would happily get up at 6.00 am on the weekends to watch when it aired earlier and earlier in the morning. It also served as arguably more appealing content as I journeyed the preteen pressures of transitioning from “children’s cartoons” to more mature shows. While I can look back at these shows and admire them for what they were as an adult, children’s anime by its very nature doesn’t typically age with its original audience, or at best hovers around “all-ages friendly” territory. Digimon has proven a little bit different. Although the broadcast anime still sticks around the younger demographics, with few exceptions, the series’ OVAs/films, as well as their video games, have grown with its audience.
The appeal to mature gamers was most prominent in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and its sequel Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory on last-generation platforms. Both games were surprise hits for their time, combining post-modern hacking and otaku culture with a wave of gripping mysteries and a society that is heavily integrated with the online world. This provided a seamless way of integrating Digimon in a way that benefited the narrative without sacrificing much of anything to make the game “appeal to children”.
Now in 2022, developer Hyde and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment have united for Digimon Survive, a visual novel with tactical RPG elements which is easily the darkest chapter in the franchise yet. A twist on narrative tropes and entire character personality types from Digimon Adventure 1 & 2, Digimon Survive follows a new set of Japanese youth who on the first day of a school holidays camp find themselves crossing over into a new world – much like their own but with many things out of place. But danger lies ahead, and your actions can very well determine the fate of these characters… and just who will survive.
Is Digimon Survive a visual novel or a tactical RPG?
Digimon Survive sits somewhere between the heavily narrative-driven nature of Utawarerumono and the gameplay approach of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor – featuring some of the best elements of each with a Digimon flair to them. Digimon Survive is very much a narrative experience first and a tactical RPG second, which is surprising given how virtually every other instalment in the multimedia franchise has focused on monster vs monster combat. If you go into Digimon Survive expecting it to be the other way around, then you will likely walk away underwhelmed. As a visual novel, I would argue that the game has nailed all required elements perfectly – from providing a sense of player immersion through animated character portraits, rich and varied backdrops and ample progression of the plot with plenty of twists to keep the narrative chugging along at a satisfactory pace. This is not a linear visual novel experience, with Exploration and Investigation phases giving some player autonomy in progressing the narrative, and occasionally unlocking new ways to take down some of the nastier bosses should you stray away from just the required prompts.
However, the tactical battle system on offer is rudimentary at best, and while at first there is enough to keep your attention, the difficulty and complexity is never there and is slow-paced enough that I found myself tempted to mash the auto-battle button during all but the most important of battles. I say that, but going back to the video game comparisons above, it is not much worse than Utawarerumono, which also used its battle system as more a means of pushing the story forward than being the focal point. It does its job fine, and it could be argued that the game would need a battle system, but I would have been happy with just the visual novel experience with animated cutscenes for battle. That is just me, of course.
When it comes to merging the visual novel and battle system, there are some clever ideas presented – especially around the alignment of protagonist Takuma Momozuka. At regular intervals you will be presented with 2-4 responses to an action, some of which will shift his alignment to one of three categories in a karma system – Moral (Associated with Vaccine or Law), Harmony (Associated with Data or Neutral) and Wrathful (Associated with Virus or Chaos). In addition to determining what evolutions you will unlock and which Digimon you will recruit, these options also determine which main arc you go through. While the means of determining which response corresponds to which trait is fairly easy once you are in the know, going into it blind and choosing options can lead to multiple very different routes. In some, you will lose access to certain Digimon and allies (sadly, not in the nicest of ways), but in return gain access to new Digimon to collect.
If you are after a Digimon game for actual gameplay, then I would highly recommend checking out the Cyber Sleuth franchise which offers much more in the way of traditional RPG gameplay. But for what Digimon Survive is, it carves out its niche well – at least, it should if the narrative holds up…
If Digimon Adventure were more grounded in reality
Fortunately, the narrative does hold weight, and from first impressions, it feels like what Digimon Adventure 1 could have been like if it were more grounded in reality and aimed at a more mature demographic. Loosely using the setting of the first TV anime, Digimon Survive follows a group of youth who are on a holiday camp in the rural countryside, where there are shrines dedicated to the kemonogami – this universe’s version of Digimon. Crossing the borders between their reality and the world of the kemonogami, they find themselves trapped in a world much like their own – only devoid of human life and filled with the creatures we have come to associate as Digimon. Partnering up with their own individual kemonogami, the group seek to reunite with each other once more and escape this world. But with evil creatures threatening their lives at every turn from their first night, and two mysterious children appearing before them having seemingly been in this new world for the longest of times, leaving will be a struggle, and not everyone may make it out with their lives.
The story is satisfying and well-paced, with each in-game chapter being at least a good hour or two long and having enough meatiness to grip my attention from start to finish, and left me not wanting to reach for a skip button. While some content is ultimately more important than others, I would argue that they have mostly avoided putting filler content into the game, with everything feeling like it belonged – either to build the world in a meaningful way or progress the narrative. My only word of warning would be that it might feel like a slow burn for some readers, taking a bit longer than other Digimon games to get into battles and the like.
The characters are what makes Digimon Survive, and keeping with the comparisons with Digimon Adventure 1, many characters can be considered more mature versions of that show’s lead cast – with their concerns, anguish, fears and mental health all taking their toll to the point, which leads to some interesting character and plot development down the line. The Digimon cast is also well juxtaposed against their human partners, and while you have the traditional inclusion of Agumon, the matching of human and Digimon paired well, even if not every match may lead to the best outcome.
As noted several times above, Digimon Survive’s story clearly fits into the “Digimon for Adults” bracket, feeling much more experimental than any experience the series has offered in the past, and I think paying off for it. While Cyber Sleuth still holds a place in my heart as being such a unique and memorable experience, I think Digimon Survive is another worthy instalment in the series. My only question is whether Digimon needed to be included in the game at all, or whether any sort of yokai creatures could have been included instead, as there are multiple occasions where it does feel like they were shoehorned into the experience to give it some name recognition. Not a bad thing by any means, and it works for what it is, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the experience lacks many of the things that make Digimon, Digimon, including the use of the name outside of one isolated use.
Audiovisually En Pointe
One of the key takeaways from other recent video games in the Digimon franchise is that even though they don’t offer AAA-game visual quality, each has its own unique setting and atmosphere that the development team commits to, and they do it well. With Digimon Survive, the darker, more claustrophobic and traditional Japanese-style locations lend themselves to the experience well, with backdrops rich in detail. These are complemented by some excellent animated character portraits, and some very satisfying animated cutscenes on occasion. Where the visual elements falter is whenever 3D assets are used, such as on the overworld map or during battles. They are passable for what they are but are little more than that, passable.
With some amazing visuals comes a surprisingly strong soundtrack by composer Tomoki Miyoshi, who has previously worked on games such as Lost Sphear and I am Setsuna. Given the settings of these previous two games alone, you can quickly see why his work and style is such a great fit for Digimon Survive. Digimon Survive also features the original Japanese voice acting, although like other recent Digimon games does not come with an English audio option which is a bit of a shame. Fortunately, the Japanese voice cast do a terrific job, with the cast including returning Digimon voice actors such as Chika Sakamoto, and some new voice actors including Kohei Amasaki, Kaede Hondo and Atsushi Abe to name a few.
Final Words on Digimon Survive
Ultimately, Digimon Survive will not win over every fan of the Digimon franchise, especially since it plays much more of the visual novel, choose-your-own-adventure playstyle than the tactical RPG mechanics. But for those who are after something a bit different from the norm, and something with a strong narrative, then I think Digimon Survive is a game you will want to consider.
Developed by Hyde and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Digimon Survive is now available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC – with backwards compatibility support for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. This review was conducted on a PlayStation 4 review code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia for the purpose of this review.
