Digimon Story: Time Stranger seems like a season of the monster-taming anime made playable. I don’t simply imply within the sense that it exhibits people and digital monsters banding collectively to avoid wasting their respective worlds of actuality and a digital simulacra, however that it ebbs and flows from mundane slice-of-life to devastating melodrama. Sadly, these contrasts in tone are sometimes matched by contrasts in high quality, with the sport’s distinctive moments typically sandwiched between much less compelling ones. Time Stranger oscillates between what seems like slow-burning filler and an angsty, tragic catastrophe story that facilities the digital monsters you meet, practice, and befriend over the course of your journey. For nearly 30 years now, I’ve constantly admired Digimon’s want to make it possible for the digital monsters are simply as a lot folks because the people who tame them. That very same inclination is woven into the mechanics of what, with out it, may simply have been a rote turn-based RPG. Like an excellent friendship, Time Stranger is an funding you must be prepared to make, enduring its awkward early moments to get to the uncooked and sappy heart. It’s price it.
Like most Digimon tales, Time Stranger is pretty separate from any of the earlier video games, although its lore and mythology will probably be acquainted to anybody who’s been on this journey for some time. You’re an agent of a company referred to as ADAMAS, which investigates unusual digital anomalies within the human world, just for one mission to finish up with way more dire penalties than you or your superiors may have anticipated. As Digimon start to spill out into the human world, an enormous, humanoid machine descends upon Japan. The following battle creates a cataclysmic explosion that wipes out everybody in its path…apart from you, who miraculously survives however is thrown eight years previously. The world is headed towards apocalyptic spoil, except you’ll be able to cease the catastrophe set to occur in eight years.
Because the identify implies, Time Stranger is a time journey story, and its timeline-hopping is likely one of the greatest contributors to its typically uneven pacing, with lengthy stretches feeling oddly disconnected from what you had been simply doing, till they’re very out of the blue not. Time Stranger wades into well-worn “fix the past to save the future” tropes till it takes some stunning left turns that reveal it to be a much more elaborate story than it initially seems. The script typically betrays the story with awkward, unnatural, and overexpository dialogue, however the emotional heartbeat continues to be pulsating beneath that stilted supply. The principle trio consists of your agent and a pair of stragglers ADAMAS suspects could also be on the heart of the incoming apocalypse: the faun-like Digimon Aegiomon and his tamer, Inori.
For a lot of Time Stranger, the participant is a voyeur to their rising partnership, however because the get together’s time-traveling antics steadily turn into extra difficult and everyone seems to be extra invested of their success, these bonds could find yourself endangering everybody. Aegiomon’s childlike gusto and want to avoid wasting these he cares about are the unchecked and unrestrained catalysts for a lot of Time Stranger, to the purpose the place he, moderately than the agent, is arguably the principle character. However I nonetheless discovered my function in the entire story compelling, because it was my obligation as an agent that was consistently at odds with the pair’s loyalty to 1 one other. Time Stranger is aware of the facility of friendship conquers all, however it’s also such a strong, untamable pressure that it threatens to unravel the identical ties that strengthen it. Everybody on this recreation is searching for someplace to belong, and so they’re prepared to take it from even essentially the most imperfect of locations.
Digimon has all the time tried to make the monsters themselves really feel extra like characters than only a cute or cool face for stats and numbers, and Time Stranger extends this to your individual get together who, together with preventing your battles for you, have distinct personalities which are influenced by your choices. You possibly can discuss to them as they observe you round within the overworld and have temporary back-and-forths which are each very particular to the monster in query and lean into one of many designated inclinations they’ll have that decide their stats and dialogue. Speaking with the cat-like Digimon Gatomon in regards to the highly effective Holy Ring she wears round her tail, or the werewolf Digimon WereGarurumon about his sick, ripped denims, are small interactions within the grand scheme of issues, however they do so much to make the particular monsters you’re journeying alongside really feel like extra than simply disposable, interchangeable models in an RPG get together. Time Stranger has so many pleasant touches that make your get together really feel like a part of the world, whether or not that’s in these chats or when it permits you to journey in your Growlmon’s shoulders to get round quicker.
Cyber Sleuth, the last game in the Story subseries, came about primarily in a smooth our on-line world that centered many of the human characters and made the Digimon themselves really feel like applications above all else. Although its story delved into a few of the sequence’ greatest mythology and had a extremely novel noir premise, it typically felt like my favourite little guys had been simply mechanical extensions of my character, moderately than residing, respiratory folks on their very own. Time Stranger splits its time between real-world Tokyo and the Digital World of Illiad, which is stuffed with bustling villages and delightful vistas. Strolling via Central City, seeing Digimon in their very own society and residing out little mini-stories that span the sport’s lengthy timeline does so much to make the Digital World really feel like an actual place that I can contact and exist in alongside my Digimon associates. After I first set foot on this world, I met younger, scrappy Digimon who would turn into older, world-weary warriors after I jumped ahead in time. Your time-hopping in Time Stranger modifications the world in massive and small methods, and seeing these mini-narratives repay every time you progress via the timeline is sort of as rewarding as watching your individual Digimon digivolve over the course of your journey.
These digivolution mechanics are nonetheless some of the enthralling elements of Time Stranger, as they had been in Cyber Sleuth and different video games. Digimon don’t have set, linear evolutions, and some of the difficult and charming elements of elevating these critters is coaching them to attain a desired evolutionary end result. From the outset, you’ve got entry to many of the Digimon in Time Stranger’s roster as a result of you’ll be able to create a number of of the early-stage creatures earlier than you allow the primary dungeon. Inside an hour of play, I had my three favorites able to go, and so they accompanied me all through the whole thing of Time Stranger’s 40-hour runtime. That is potential as a result of you probably have the persistence and forethought to maneuver via the evolutionary chart, you’ll be able to flip nearly any Digimon into every other within the recreation. Your complete roster is interconnected in an online of evolution and devolution that you could transfer via at will so long as your stats match up. Evolving and devolving will aid you attain extra highly effective kinds, as each change, whether or not it’s up or down the evolutionary line, will enhance your stage cap and aid you break via the ceilings that forestall you from reaching your favourite, strongest monsters. Once more, Time Stranger is an funding that rewards persistence, and when you perceive how one can recreation its programs, it turns into a a lot more malleable and experimental monster tamer than most of its contemporaries.
Time Stranger makes these probably overwhelming programs extra accessible because of a swath of quality-of-life modifications that allow you to adapt, practice, and create Digimon extra simply than ever. Quite a lot of the administration has been moved to the pause menu, sparing you the necessity to head again to the Digimon equal of Persona’s Velvet Room each time you wish to digivolve a monster or swap your get together round. Digimon who’re in your storage nonetheless acquire expertise after they’re not in battle, so the grind has turn into just about a non-factor. In case you discover you’ve bought a bunch of Digimon you don’t need, you’ll be able to switch their knowledge into your major get together to stage them up rapidly, and all of that is conveniently at your fingertips moderately than being a separate detour you must take once you’re in the course of doing one thing else. Greater than most monster tamers, Time Stranger provides you the instruments to write down your get together’s story proper out the gate, and should you’re something like me and have a neurotic attachment to your favorites, you understand how a lot of a distinction it makes to have your mains with you as early on the journey as potential.
That’s all sentimentality, although. What does having your favorites early on really imply in the long term on this turn-based battle system? At a look, Time Stranger’s fights aren’t something particular or game-changing for the style. It has a few of Digimon’s bespoke dressings just like the Knowledge, Vaccine, and Virus attributes that give each monster an inherent rock-paper-scissors-style power and weak spot, however in any other case leans into the usual elemental and bodily/magical assault break up which might really feel fairly unremarkable. Time Stranger’s new thrives come within the type of randomized timing-based talents and reactions that don’t fairly attain Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ranges of problem and affect, however can activate passive talents tied to every Digimon’s persona. So a Pleasant Digimon may throw a buff on their staff should you hit the shock QTE, whereas a Brave one may land an additional assault earlier than their flip ends. This, on prime of the dialogue you’ll be able to trade along with your Digimon within the overworld, incentivizes you to nudge your get together to completely different persona archetypes, each to spherical out the get together dynamic and to greatest complement the methods you’ve constructed alongside the way in which. In many of the random battles, this doesn’t quantity to a lot, however in Time Stranger’s many, many boss fights, they’re a boon that may assist flip a scrap round.
Even on the conventional issue, Time Stranger’s greatest fights can typically really feel like drawn-out wars of attrition moderately than encounters that require a lot technique or have you ever cleverly outsmarting a system. I gave myself self-imposed challenges to amp up the problem, comparable to solely utilizing my three-person staff of the Guilmon, Gabumon, and Salamon traces, regardless of having six slots accessible in my get together. Doing so meant I didn’t have an expansion of all three attributes for many of the mid-game, which required me to get inventive when dealing with sure Digimon with out weaknesses I may readily exploit. The attribute system is often a key place to begin in figuring out your greatest match-ups, however elemental affinities also can bridge the hole should you’re missing in a Knowledge Digimon to tough up the opposing Vaccine. Even so, the largest problem of Time Stranger’s battles isn’t often strategic; it’s within the HP partitions the sport calls boss fights, which might take ages to whittle down.
The bosses on this recreation hit arduous, and so they take hits like tanks. The problem spike on a few of these battles will be so stark that it virtually makes you suppose Time Stranger’s battles are extra advanced than they really are, as a result of even with a few of the new mechanics shaking issues up just like the Cross Arts that allow you to cost up a high-impact help skill of your selecting over the course of a battle, these fights are largely a recreation of numbers going up and down. However that’s the entice quite a lot of turn-based RPGs are inclined to fall into, particularly ones that may’t assure you’ll have particular characters or archetypes in your get together. Clair Obscur is a latest instance of a turn-based RPG creating fascinating challenges and puzzles to unravel inside its fights, however that was as a result of it knew the get together you’d have and the way their varied kits would synergize with each other. Time Stranger provides you quite a lot of freedom to make your individual methods, however the finish results of its challenges is generally the identical. Sometimes, a boss will throw you for a loop by reflecting sure assaults or utilizing spells that alter its attributes, so you must pivot to creating openings for a special Digimon to use its new weak spot, however the reply to this doesn’t change; solely the Digimon who delivers it does. When Time Stranger gives you a difficult combat, it’s a tug of battle determined by who can hit more durable and heal quicker, and whereas I gave myself a number of restrictions that required me to get inventive, the common battle might be going to be a cakewalk for anybody with turn-based battle expertise.
Maybe Time Stranger’s greatest detriment, nevertheless, is in how its in any other case experimental and rewarding development system is undermined by the sport’s time-traveling story. You possibly can unlock new evolution ranges by elevating your Agent Rank, which you do by finishing quests. Time Stranger has completely different questlines accessible to you relying on the place you’re within the timeline, and for almost all of the sport, you’ll be able to’t soar between the previous and current at will. This implies should you don’t do a ton of sidequests to start with of the sport, you’ll be leaving Agent Rank factors on the desk, and will not have the ability to get essentially the most highly effective variations of your staff till a lot, a lot later within the recreation. Time Stranger does warn you that you simply gained’t have the ability to full aspect quests till later earlier than you make this soar, however it doesn’t put together you for the handfuls of hours between then and the subsequent time you’ll have the ability to cross these off your checklist. Broadly, I preferred this technique after I felt prefer it was giving me a way of how far alongside their evolutionary traces your staff must be, as each tier of transformation is gated by a chosen stage you’d, in principle, naturally attain as you progressed via the sport. However after I reached the endgame and nonetheless hadn’t encountered sufficient sidequests to succeed in my get together’s remaining kinds, I used to be irritated on the recreation’s incapacity to speak to me that the dozen or so quests I left behind wouldn’t be completed till round 30 hours later.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
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Again-of-the-box quote:
“I get by with a little help from my friends.”
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Developer:
Media.Imaginative and prescient
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Kind of recreation:
Flip-based monster-taming RPG.
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Favored:
Rewarding evolution mechanics, nice story and characters, the Digital World feels extra alive than ever.
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Disliked
Awkward, unnatural dialogue, battle system continues to be fairly unremarkable, the aspect quest gating is diabolical
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Platforms:
PS5 (performed on), PC, Xbox Sequence X/S
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Launch date:
October 3, 2025
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Performed
~40 hours
As a result of these fights are largely paint-by-numbers, the true satisfaction in Time Stranger comes from elevating your favourite Digimon from a tiny child into an typically fearsome beast of a Mega type, and even with its frustrations, it’s greater than sufficient to make up for a reasonably bog-standard battle system. It’s each the monster-taming style’s reward and its curse that you simply’re forming private connections along with your staff, typically on the expense of a extra advanced battle system. The trade-off works in Time Stranger’s favor, although, because it delivers the sort of human-Digimon human and Digimon connections you present up for. It additionally makes wonderful use of the sequence’ mythology and, like different latest video games within the sequence, it demonstrates a welcome willingness to age up together with its viewers. Time Stranger typically awkwardly fumbles its approach to the purpose it’s attempting to make, however each time it exhibits its hand, it proves it’s prepared to punch above its weight.
