Welcome to our review of Digimon Survive, finally we get another Digimon game and it is a tactical RPG this time around!
This is a story of survival in a strange new world. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Digimon Anime, Digimon Survive presents a brand-new adventure set in a mysterious world with characters designed by Uichi Ukumo, and music by the much-acclaimed Tomoki Miyoshi.
Digimon Survive sees a brand-new group of teenagers, led by Takuma Momozuka, get lost on a school camping trip, finding them transported to a strange new world of monsters and danger. As they fight their way back home through an animated world of difficult decisions and deadly battles, players’ choices throughout the game will impact the evolution of their monster allies, and the final ending. Battles in the game are fought in 2D, in a more classic SRPG style.
Digimon is one of those series that just seems to keep on going at its own pace and does not suffer from the usual sensory overload of useless merchandise. We get our single game every few years and this time, Digimon Survive, is a mix between tactical RPG and I would say Visual Novel. There is a lot of talking and if you read any review bombing where they complained about this, let me tell you there is some truth to it, a lot of talking compared to the action and that free action mode does very little to make up for it.
Story-wise, this is your typical Japanese storyline to expect in an RPG, whisked off to another world, our heroes must find a way to return home and all the while, making friends with some of the adorable Digimon. The excellent voice work is noticeable and it does come with a high level of familiar feelings of the anime. All while mixing 2 unusual genres together.
All has been said and done about the tactical RPG genre, you hate it or love it, I personally feel it’s been done too often lately and very few games really captured the joy this genre brings. I remember a game on Switch that was about a famous Netflix series that was just utterly boring, luckily Digimon Survive did not fall under that and aside from a few tweaks to the general system, it kind of works.
Maybe because of the nature of Digimon as a series, but the tactical side works well. When you are not fighting however, this becomes a true novel-style game. Bandai Namco has recently started incorporating this specific narration style where you get slightly animated bits and a lot of story. Add in a lot of discovering and even more talking than you’d expect and you get Digimon Survive.
In all honesty, the beginning is long and tedious and I have to say this, I would feel disappointed if I had only played 1 hour of this game. Pro tip: Keep playing, it does get less annoying.
In conclusion, Digimon Survive is a tough nut to crack, lengthy bits of reading are sometimes only mixed with short fights and if you go for the easier modes, it becomes apparent that the storyline is taking up most of the time needed to finish the game. I wish there was a better balance between both, like how you get the tutorial for battling, then followed by what feels like an hour of visual novel progress… Luckily the game itself is decent enough to make you look past it.
