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Digimon Survive was a deeply polarizing experience for me. My adoration for some aspects of the game was tempered by my despisal for others.
The title delivered quite remarkably on its promise of a gripping narrative but failed to engage me with its tactical role-playing aspect. The visual novel style of storytelling is well done, with characters that feel relatable and easy to get attached to. However, the simplistic turn-based combat really bogs down the overall experience.
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The dark and unsettling narrative kept me intrigued throughout my journey with Digimon Survive despite its surface-level combat. The game also features a unique “befriending” mechanic, which I found to be really fascinating and enjoyable.
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While Digimon Survive might not be the complex and strategic turn-based RPG I was looking forward to, it is surely one of the most engaging and well-written visual novel experiences this year.
Digimon Survive provides an immaculate visual novel storytelling experience
Digimon Survive is a visual novel first and tactical RPG second. I spent most of my time in the game reading texts and listening to the stellar voice cast rather than engaging in the combat loop.
Presented in an anime-like art style, Digimon Survive looks great and sounds good, with a soundtrack that perfectly encapsulates the depressing yet hopeful atmosphere of the game.
The characters, both human and otherwise, are fantastically written, which keeps players hooked to the narrative from the outset.
The plot of Digimon Survive, although quite linear, offers plenty of choices over certain elements of the story, which can drastically affect players' relationship with some characters.
The pacing of the story can be jarring at first, with lengthy cutscenes and huge downtime between the combat sequences. However, once it picks up pace after the third act of the game, the narrative evolves (or rather "Digivolves") into a storytelling masterpiece only hampered by the subpar combat system.
A huge selection of Digimon to befriend and Digivolve
Although I was never much of a Digimon fan, I did really like the early anime adaptations of the series, which I used to watch religiously.
Naturally, I was really excited when I saw some of my favorite Digimons like Agumon, Metalgreymon, Patamon, Garurumon, and more in the game.
Much like the Pokemon games, Digimon Survive features a huge catalog of digital monsters for players to find and battle against. It also offers the option to recruit these monsters via the befriending mechanic, which has a surprising amount of depth and is one of the highlights of the game.
Befriending Digimons is a fairly straightforward and intuitive process. During the early sections of Part 3, players will unlock the "Free Battle" mode, where they can encounter these digital monsters in the wild. They can either battle against them or initiate a conversation with them. While conversing with the monsters, players can befriend them by responding appropriately to their questions.
Each Digimon has its own personality and character traits, which players will have to be mindful of while befriending them.
Although the system is quite robust, it still has its shortcomings, which appear towards the end of the game. While engaging with the befriending mechanic, I thought each monster had its own set of questions that resonated with its personality. However, that wasn't the case.
A Digimon's statements during the conversation are repeated among multiple monsters in the game, albeit with varying responses. This somewhat broke the immersion for me, seeing even boss monsters like Arukenimon repeat the same set of questions as Fangmon.
I understand it is impossible for each digital monster to have its own unique set of questions. However, the developers could have shuffled the statements a bit to make it feel a little unique for each Digimon encounter.
An exceptionally dark yet delightful narrative
The story is one aspect of Digimon Survive that truly shines. As I previously mentioned, the visual novel style of storytelling is really well-done. I was hooked on the game's narrative right from the get-go and never felt bored or disconnected, even during the massive exposition dumps. This was really surprising, given my low tolerance for such elements of storytelling.
The plot sees a group of quirky high school students get sucked into the digitized world of Digimons, which is a familiar setting for any fan of the series. However, a distinguishing aspect of the narrative that really intrigued me was its inclination towards a darker and more grizzly tone than any JRPG that I have ever played.
The first few hours feel much more like a horror story than a regular JRPG narrative, filled with a handful of jumpscares to contend with. Digimon stories have always had a dark tone. However, nothing comes close to the truly unsettling plot and implications of Digimon Survive.
Within the first few hours, players will be confronted with characters dying in a gruesome manner. They will be subjected to physical and verbal abuse and face consequences for their actions that result in characters dying off-screen.
Several times in the game, I faced the dilemma of choosing some characters over others, often dooming them to grizzly fates. The visual novel approach really lends itself perfectly to such scenarios, giving players a sense of the weight of their decisions.
While it might seem like the story only has violent and dark aspects, that's not the case at all. To my surprise, there are a lot of light-hearted moments that perfectly balance the gloomy atmosphere of Digimon Survive.
Interacting with the Digimons that players recruit to their team and characters like Minoru is always a treat. Periodically interacting with them strengthens the bond between the characters and the Digimons, which, in turn, increases their effectiveness in battle.
One complaint that can be levied against the narrative of Digimon Survive is its pacing. The flow of the narrative is severely marred by the opening sequence and some awful filler sections. These parts feel like they contribute nothing to the game.
One section had me repeatedly walking through identical halls of a waterway for a long time. This reminded me of Chapter 13 of Final Fantasy XV, which was one of the worst filler chapters in the game. Sequences like these really left a sour taste in my mouth.
While the filler sections certainly hampered the pacing of the otherwise stellar narrative experience of Digimon Survive, it wasn't enough to detract me from the game's story.
The painfully average combat of Digimon Survive
The turn-based combat of Digimon Survive is essentially a toned-down version of the same system in games like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics. That's not to say it's bad. In fact, I personally feel that the tactical combat system suits the game's aesthetics really well.
What bogs down the combat system in Digimon Survive, however, is its lack of any substantial depth or challenge in the encounters. The combat did not change much over the course of the narrative.
The way I approached combat in the opening hours of the game was still viable during the climax of the story, despite it featuring some of the most dangerous boss battles.
The combat revolves around proper positioning and strategically attacking the opponents. Digivolving monsters is possible mid-battle to give them a boost in their attack power and defense. However, doing so costs resources and drains the Digimon's SP.
I was honestly impressed with the combat system for the first few hours and was expecting it to expand and grow over time as I progressed through the story. However, I quickly realized that wasn't the case as it barely showed any signs of change or complexity even when I was almost halfway through the game.
It really felt like the turn-based RPG combat system was tacked on to the visual novel aspect of Digimon Survive. The shallow combat system of the game barely improves or presents a challenge with progression.
The few but major shortcomings of Digimon Survive
As mentioned previously, the only issue I have had with the game is its subpar combat system. I might have overlooked the simplicity of the combat mechanics in Digimon Survive if it gave me some challenge with how I approach each encounter. However, it never did, even on the harder difficulty presets.
All I had to do was select the most powerful Digimon of my team and spam attacks without thinking twice. It really saddens me to see such an incredible narrative experience be marred by a mediocre and super simplified combat system that barely requires any strategy or tactical thinking from the player.
I played Digimon Survive on Nintendo Switch, and the game played quite well on the tiny console. This isn't surprising given the low-resolution textures and character models used during gameplay.
Digimon Survive is also very battery efficient on the Switch. Even after playing for three hours straight, with headphones plugged in and brightness turned down to half, the game only consumed around 50-60% of the charge. This makes it great to play in short bursts during commute.
The only issues that I encountered throughout my 20-hour playthrough of the game were a handful of crashes. This did get annoying since the game usually crashed during some of the hectic battle sequences, causing me to replay the entire encounter all over again.
In conclusion
Digimon Survive is an excellent visual novel experience with plenty of lovable characters and Digimons who carry the story to its conclusion. The dark and often unsettling overtones of the narrative are the real highlight of the experience as players get to feel the tangible impact of their every decision.
Although the story has its fair share of fillers padding the game's runtime, it is still one of the best narrative experiences I have had this year. The combat, however, was subpar at best and repetitive at worst, which really hampered my overall experience.
The befriending mechanic was an element of gameplay that I really liked. However, it wasn't enough to redeem the mind-numbingly simplistic turn-based combat system of Digimon Survive.
The game also crashed a couple of times during gameplay on the Nintendo Switch, which was mildly irritating, but there's nothing that an update can't fix. Apart from that, the game runs pretty well on the system with rarely any issues in terms of frame rate and performance.
Despite Digimon Survive's many issues related to the combat system, I feel it is still a great Digimon experience that will satiate fans of the series. However, the game isn't worth it for players that aren't familiar with the world of Digimon and are only looking for a good tactical RPG title.
Digimon Survive
Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch (Review Copy provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.)
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC
Developer(s): HYDE, Inc.
Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
Release Date: July 28, 2022
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