Namco Bandai once again delivers a license-based game that was never thought to come to the U.S. or Europe. However translating an RPG is a bigger endeavor than something like an arena fighting game. Luckily Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth was certainly worth it and JRPG fans will feel right at home with this game.
What are you, A hacker!?
Digimon Story starts off with the protagonist and his friends in an online private chat room when suddenly an uninvited guest shows up and requests that the people in the chat group go onto EDEN for unexplained reasons in order to receive a “gift”. Being the teenagers they are the main character and two other chatters smartly decide to go to EDEN which is a virtual reality space, and meet the stranger in order for them to receive their gift. Things, of course, don’t go as they should and through some weird events they become hackers. In this world, hackers have the ability to control virtual programs called Digimon. One thing leads to another and the player ends up becoming a Cyber Sleuth. The story sets up a few things and while there is a main story-arc it always seems to take a backseat to whatever case drops into the office. The mysteries miss the focus needed for the player to truly get invested. It’s not a bad story as much as it’s just kind of there. All characters have unique personalities and are fairly likable. However your Boss Kyoko tends to over-explain, describing and bombarding the player with exposition so much that at one point players will just skip dialogue. The biggest problem Cyber Sleuth has is that it’s very roughly translated. The sentence structure is weird and at one point characters reference something and use the wrong name. Aside from that some sentences are just odd and don’t make any sense. It makes for a sometimes confusing conversation. Digimon Story is fairly light on the story part, but the characters and world are fun enough to keep the player’s interest in what’s going on.
There are some funny moments but most of the dialogue is standard fare.
Digital Devils.
Cyber Sleuth is a standard and traditional JRPG. You have an active party of three, with 11 slots for backup Digimon on the go. players have random encounters in dungeons where they have to fight up to three random opponents with at the end of these dungeons a boss usually awaits them. It’s a traditional turn-based RPG complete with type advantages and weaknesses, status effects and buffs/debuffs. It’s strangely refreshing to have a turn-based RPG back on home consoles again. Players can choose to do either a basic attack, a special attack which uses “magic” points, Use an item guard, switch active members with backup fighters or just run. Anyone who played any turn-based RPG before will know what’s in store. Not that that’s a bad thing. Battles are quick and fun. Aside from the main story there are also side quests you can do which are displayed on the Bulletin board but most of these quests are required to continue. Most of these involve retracing old dungeons with a new boss waiting at the exit. When encountering Digimon you will automatically analyze the enemy Digimon for a certain percentage at the start of the match. When this percentage hits one hundred your can create the Digimon at the Digilab. Alternatively players can wait and get the percentage higher for better versions of the Digimon. What’s neat is that Digimon can “evolve” into different stronger Digimon. Players can also DE-Digivolve their Digimon if they are not content with what they got or just want to take a different path. Digimon can usually Digivolve into three different Digimon. This gives the player enough choices to experiment with their Digimon. The fact that you can De-Digivolve at any time means that players only need around Three or five different Digimon if they want to see every Digimon in the game. This certainly is one of the most interesting aspects of the game. Digimon is a very traditional solid JRPG experience.
Battles are fun and the team variety is endless.
A digital portrait
Cyber Sleuth is visually very appealing. Everything has a very straight and colorful look to it. The game just oozes with vibrant colors that compliment each other perfectly. From the environments to the Digimon to the characters. Blues, reds and yellow are primarily color palette and make this one of the more colorful games to come out in a while. The designs aren’t bad either. The MC and the companions you come across nail the better parts of JRPG designs. They have their extravagant clothing but it’s never too ridiculous or over-detailed and their hair is colorful and “Anime” without going off the rails. The Digimon themselves look great too. Every Digimon looks just like they should. Combine the simplistic, cute and sleek designs of Pokemon with the detailed, aggressive and ominous designs of Shin Megami Tensei. Every Digimon looks crisp and clean and the animation on each of them is smooth and pretty. The theme of Digimon is digital technology and that is done really well too. The real Japanese locations mirror the cities they’re designed from pretty much spotlessly albeit more condensed. And the EDEN world pretty much looks like what you’d expect a fictional Virtual reality would look like. There is your blue floating square areas, white and clean Mac-like locations making everything look very sleek. The music is amazing too with energetic tunes and again nailing the digital feeling of the game, all complemented with some light vocals in the background. Digimon Story is a technical beauty on the Vita and looks so vibrant and lively at all times and it retains those powerful colors and visuals on PlayStation 4 as well.
The visuals look great and evoke a Shin Megami Tensei vibe.
You know Digimon, we truly are the Champions.
Closing note:
Digimon Story Cybersleuth is a great JRPG. While its translation has a few problems and the story is rather mild those are just about the only things going against the game. It’s a standard modern day japan JRPG with all the turn based RPG bells and whistles. The Digivolve mechanic letting your Digimon evolve and de-evolve into one of a minimum of three choices gives for infinite possibilities. What Digimon Story manages to nail is the presentation. Everything is beautifully animated and colors just pop. Character and monster designs are great and the music nails the theme of the game. Digimon Story is a great game and a good JRPG just don’t write it off as a Pokemon clone, it has way more in common with the Shin Megami Tensei series. So any fans of the Megaten series might want to check this one out.
