Digimon Story Time Stranger is here, giving fans of the multimedia darling another solid JRPG experience in the vein of the Cyber Sleuth series.
Digimon Story Time Stranger is a difficult review for me to put out. On one hand, the game is a marked improvement over the Cyber Sleuth games, featuring larger areas, fleshed-out side quests, a card mini game, and other elements that make for a great sequel. Sadly, on the other hand, the console release of the game, at least on PlayStation 5, feels like a gimped experience that runs at a baffling 30FPS with frame pacing issues that make the game feel sluggish and dated.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Digimon Story Time Stranger is a good-looking game, particularly in the attention to detail to the titular digital monsters, which all feature vibrant and fully animated models that come to life on screen. However, as a whole, Digimon Story Time Stranger features average and sometimes vacant dungeons that don’t exactly scream current gen, which leaves me to believe the game could have easily hit the 60fps mark. With the lack of a performance toggle, even on PlayStation 5 Pro, it is a rather disappointing showing for an otherwise fine JRPG.
Of course, Digimon Story Time Stranger is a turn-based affair, so a lock to 30FPS might not be a deal breaker, but for me, if I could go back, I would wholly recommend sticking to the PC release of the game. One final note on performance, if you are planning on playing Time Stranger on console, or a lower-powered handheld, applications like Lossless Scaling work very well with the game, offering a convincing 60fps experience, if you have the means to set it up.
Looking past the performance issues, Digimon Story Time Stranger is a standalone JRPG which roughly borrows story elements from Greek Mythos. The game features a Digimon civil war as the backdrop of an intriguing mystery story, set between the Digital World and contemporary Tokyo, told similarly to the detective elements found in Digimon: Cyber Sleuth.
For a game based primarily on a children’s property, Digimon Story Time Stranger is enjoyable enough to keep my attention, even if it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as Persona or the Shin Megami Tensei series, proper. The real draw for me, however, with Digimon Story Time Stranger is the Digimon, which exceeds the 400 mark while simultaneously looking highly detailed and true to the anime. Even outside of battles, Digimon can be found all over the overworld, with many that feature unique idle animations and taunts that trigger when engaging before a fight, making for a world that feels dynamic and lived in.
Battles in Digimon Story Time Stranger are typical turn-based affairs. Still, the game does a good job of making each move and attack feel distinct for each monster, with dynamic camera angles and particle effects that elevate it above other Digimon titles. Interesting quirks that change things up, such as being able to use an item and attack during the same turn, in addition to X-Art phases, add some variety to the otherwise familiar battle system. X-Art techniques build up over time, allowing players to buff their squad of Digimon with powerful augments and other abilities that gradually unlock, which can come in clutch during more challenging encounters.
“Digimon Story Time Stranger gives the player the option to attack enemies outside of battle…”
Similar to games like Metaphor: ReFantazio, Digimon Story Time Stranger gives the player the option to attack enemies outside of battle, which not only dictates turn order, but can also damage and take out lesser enemies on the overworld map. Time Stranger allows players to use overworld skills from their squad of digital monsters to clear debris and make progress. I do wish this mechanic were more fleshed out, similar to the overworld skill system found in the recently remastered release of Raidou.
Side quests in Digimon Story Time Stranger are simple, but varied and often require the player to swap their outfit for one of the many different costumes available to the player. This is not only fun to change things up with, but it also adds to the mystery shounen anime hero vibe that the game strives to achieve.
“The real draw for me, however, with Time Stranger is the Digimon, which exceeds the 400 mark while simultaneously looking highly detailed and true to the anime.”
Raising and digivolving your Digimon is also a surprisingly deep process, one that at times can feel somewhat grindy, requiring the player to grind enough of the same type of enemy, which fills an index up to 200%, which then can be used to summon said Digimon, or feed it into an existing creature for a boost in EXP. Later digivolutions also require some hefty stats and optional items, which adds to the variety of the game, but can also take a lot of time, which is where the In-Between Theatre comes in.
The In-Between Theatre, in essence, is like Persona’s Velvet Room, a place that exists between the Real World and the Digital World and acts as the central hub area to micro-manage your monsters. Players can put their creatures into a daycare system, which features its own biome, which can also be customized with different themed items, but more importantly, allows players to train a specific stat.
Unfortunately, training takes time, which can be sped up with in-game money, but for an exorbitant fee. Digging through the menus also reveals forthcoming paid DLC, which seems to exist solely for making the experience less of a grind, something that feels a bit cheap, more indicative of a mobile game than a full release. Hopefully, there are other means of quickly levelling up that I have yet to discover, such as using PlatinumNumem, like in Cyber Slueth.
Ultimately, Digimon Story Time Stranger is a competent JRPG, made better through the lens of nostalgia, but one that suffers more than it should on consoles due to a lack of optimization and grind.
