I’ll be honest, I was never a big fan of Digimon. Back in the day, it was the Pokemon rip-off anime to me. Even though Pokemon was a kid’s show too, Digimon seemed to skew even younger and it just didn’t appeal to me. I did like Pokemon for a while, but eventually grew tired of that. That left no room in my world for Digimon.
With that said, I am a huge fan of turn based JRPGs. The industry now favors action JRPGs since that is what the fans seem to gravitate towards. Actions JRPGs are all well and good, but to me, real JRPGs are turn based and always will be. Because of that, I’m able to give the newest Digimon game, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, a lot of respect for bringing a classic mechanic back into the JRPG realm.
The demo I played took place inside of a Japanese subway station. What I found interesting was that some of the actual world was becoming digitized. This is something which will be explained in the main story of the game. I was told by a PR rep that story wise, the game is geared toward older gamers who were fans of Digimon when they were kids. This means that the game will be a bit more mature than previous Digimon titles, although it will still be accessible to all ages.
As I traversed the station with three Digimon behind me, I engaged in random battles. The battle system itself is standard JRPG fare. You can do regular attacks as well as special ones. When your turn is over, the enemy attacks and then the cycle repeats itself. I didn’t get to see much of the combat during my brief playtime, but I was told that players will be able to level up their Digimon, which means that more powerful attacks will become available as the game progresses.
You’ll be able to level up and manage your Digimon in the Digi-Lab. There is also a feature inside of the Digi-Lab called Digi-Farm which allows players to train Digimon to search for more items. You’ll start the game with three Digimon but will be able to capture more throughout your journey. Even though you can only assign three Digimon to battles, you’ll be able to bring many with you thanks to Digi-memory. As you play the game, the amount of Digimon you’ll be able to store in Digi-memory will increase as well.
The PlayStation 4 edition of the game will sport new features. Besides enhanced graphics (which look pretty impressive for a PS Vita port), the game will have a difficulty setting, New Game +, and cross save between the Vita version as well.
Even if you’re not a Digimon fan, but miss turn based JRPGs then Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth may just be a game you should check out when it’s released sometime in 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita.
