Digimon Story: Pokemon needs to take notes Edition!

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What's good, PC. Hakumane here (Formerly known as Tatsuma/White Glint/That one dude who plays fighting games too much) with another game review as part of boredom. Now due to circumstances, I actually forgot to put this up a while ago, and I had gotten started on the first week review of Street Fighter V. However, I decided to get Cyber Sleuth out of the way first due to the fact that it's a slightly older game. SO here we go. Without further ado, I present...

Pictures again! Woohoo!

• Digimon? This is a Pokemon website! You're a traitor. Whatever, tell me about this game. What's the story?

NO SPOILERS, GET OUT

• Alright, sheesh! Describe the gameplay?

Note: Beelzemon Blast Mode is not included in this review. No freebies, scrub.
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Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (Just Cyber Sleuth from here on) is a somewhat traditional RPG. It's pretty much run on FFX's ATB system (described on the side in the picture above). Actually, it's exactly the same. You control a team of 3 Digimon which you select from your party (which grows in size as you play the game), and each Digimon takes memory based on how strong they are. The more memory you have, the more powerful digimon you can keep on the front lines and in the back row. Digimon makes use of multiple elements from other RPGs, such as Pokemon, Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers, and Fate/Grand Order for those who have played it. Digmon follow a basic weakness chart which is as follows.

Thanks for posting pictures! Now we don't have to read like normal people!

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The weakness chart also includes elements, which most of you should be familiar with just due to common sense. (Fire > Plant > Water > Fire, and Earth > Electricity > Wind > Earth. Light And Dark oppose eachother.)

Aside from that, Cyber Sleuth is VERY similar to Pokemon, and those of you who are competitive Pokemon players (like yours truly) will feel right at home with this system, while appreciating the fact that it is literally better in just about every way. And in the overworld, you can do lots of hacker like stuff to solve puzzles, such as break firewalls, turn invisible, and even force/disable encounters if you want! Great stuff.

Gameplay/Mechanics: 10/10

• Not bad! This sounds like something I'd play. How's that soundtrack? It should be good right?

You bet your damn head it's good. The same guy who did the OSTs for Killer 7, No More Heroes, God Hand, and even the Danganronpa series worked on this. I don't need to explain this anymore than necessary. The music is all fitting, from the overworld tracks, to the pedestrian ambiance while in Shibuya, to the .hack sounding music that occurs while you're roaming in EDEN. And in some stages, the floor you walk on makes this holographic projection like sound. It's nothing short of perfect.


Soundtrack: 10/10

• Baller! How bout them Jraphics doe? You know my game has to look good.

Well sadly to say, it's not the most visually appealing. Typical JRPG graphics here. It's not that it's terrible looking though; 60FPS all across the board if you're on PS4, stable but choppy on PSVita. Keep in mind that if you're on the Vita version it's not gonna look that great anyway. It's a damn Vita. But for the sake of the review we'll use the Vita version as the staple here, and it's not really the game's fault, moreso the Vita being the Vita. Take what you can get.


Graphics: 6/10 (I'll say 8/10 on PS4 since it's 60FPS and clear)

• Ah well. What can you do? It's a handheld. How bout unlockables and extras?

It's a JRPG. Of COURSE there's a buntload of them. Post endgame you can do quests to obtain the Royal Knights/Demon Lords, there's a New Game Plus that lets you KEEP YOUR DIGIMON FROM THE PREVIOUS PLAYTHROUGH, and there's a ton of Digimon to collect. And there's an Online Colosseum! Bet you Pokemon players are getting interested now, ain'tcha?



Extras: 9/10 (Arguable: New Game + is a big deal for me, but some people might care more about side quests and things. I'd say 8 for the sake of being fair to those who don't care much about it, but I'm giving it a 9.)

• Sounding great so far! How about the story? It better be good.

Yeah, it's pretty good. The story is from the same guys who wrote for the Wild Arms and Chaos Rings series, and those stories are pretty good. There's a couple of tropes here that get to me (Uh, hello protagonist? FRIENDSHIP IS GETTING OLD HERE PLEASE STOP HE'S DOING BAD THINGS WHAT ARE YOU DOING) and some characters are completely headache inducing (Rina please leave my goddamn screen already), but the rest of the game pans out well and some characters (Kyoko ily, Nokia stop breaking the 4th wall already holy god) are fun to watch act. All in all, no complaints here.


Story: 8/10

• Final Verdict, then?

8.6/10 (personally a 9 but the calculator said otherwise)


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Don't let the cute cover fool you: This game is absolutely full of pleasant surprises. I bought it day one cause I love JRPGs and have been waiting for this game to hit, and I wasn't expecting it to be this good. Even people who haven't dabbled in Digimon ONCE will find a lot to appreciate here. Everything in this game clicks well together, and Pokemon players will DEFINITELY feel right at home with everything in this game. The game can hit you hard too, and it isn't some little picnic if you choose to sleep on it. But don't fear picking this game up brand new. You will NOT regret what this game feeds you for dinner, and if I were you, I'd ask for seconds immediately.

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BUY IT. NOW.

Take it easy guys, and I'll see you out there in the Colosseum.
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