Digimon Survive review: A gripping finale can’t save shallow writing

School trip itineraries usually include safe and normal things. For example, visiting historic buildings and learning how to work with people from other schools. You are less likely to encounter classroom-sized spiders and intense personal trauma. I also hope that my friend doesn’t take responsibility for not coming home. Digimon Survive.

Developed by Hyde Digimon Survive It carries the heavy burden of evolving the series’ blend of traditional monster breeding and turn-based role-playing. In other words, it adds visual novel elements. But the burden is a little too heavy to carry.The visual novel aspect seems ideal for the story Digimon Survive I’d love to tell you, but it falls short of its rich potential, either out of a lack of confidence in its own character or a misunderstanding of why visual novels are such a powerful storytelling medium in the first place.

Digimon Survive Open with strong similarity to the original Digimon: Digital Monster Anime: A group of students from different schools gather in the countryside for an educational camping trip. Your normal personality is riding a vehicle, whether you want to or not. Digital World, series name for an alternate reality inhabited by Digimon.

Digimon Survive Divide long running times into exploration, free time, and combat segments. While exploring, you’ll chat with fellow students, look for important items and paths to take, and generally gain a better understanding of what’s going on in this strange parallel world. Digimon Survive is rigorous when it comes to worldbuilding, leaving most of it to the last three of the game’s eight total chapters, or about 15-20 hours of its 60 total runtime.

Still, despite a promising start, the broader narrative’s main beat doesn’t go far beyond surprises. Digimon Survive At its core is a story about what we owe each other and how we can work together to balance tradition and progress towards a better future.

Here, more than in any other Digimon game or anime, a character’s monster companion is essentially a digital representation of their subconscious self, an aspect that is either difficult to recognize in normal life or one that one wishes to forget entirely. Learning to survive in a cruel and threatening world is as much a practical matter of finding food and shelter as it is of identifying your weaknesses and learning to live with them.

the problem is how Digimon Survive Try to tell these stories, or more specifically, avoid telling them. Four of his eight chapters in the game stretch a plot worthy of two twenty-minute anime episodes into twenty hours, depending on your playstyle. The first chapter basically consists of two hours of his four characters discussing what to do next, but remains complacent.

Image: Hyde/Bandai Namco Entertainment

The second chapter is pretty much the same, only now they discuss finding food and whether or not they should look for others before doing nothing again. Digimon Survive Too happy to drown them in meaningless repetition so they don’t stand out. Even after finding six months’ worth of food, the next thing the group does is discuss where they can even find food. more food.

See how solid these ideas look on paper. Naturally, finding supplies is an important part of survival, and deciding whether to risk searching for a missing campmate when going outside could lead to death is not so much. It’s not an easy choice. You don’t use them for character development or building tension, and they rarely use them to move the story forward.

If Digimon Survive is inspired by Aquaplus’ Utawaremono games, and the hybrid style of visual novel and tactics certainly suggests it.That’s true mask of truth It spends nearly 80% of its run time on vignettes and character moments, and the plot that unfolds at the end makes little sense. However, along the way, you’ll gradually piece together the complex personalities of each important character, so once the major storylines unfold, you’ll be strongly invested in what’s going on.

Help Minoru in the forest Digimon Survive He showed me that he wants people to see him as an effective leader. In a later scene with Saki, Takuma accidentally walks into the gym where he is changing clothes. It’s heartbreaking to see the normally stoic Shuuji relentlessly scrape Lopmon’s spirit in Chapter 5, making the loyal Digimon feel as inadequate as Shuji. By that point, the game had barely seen Shuji’s background, and the unrealistic pressure his father placed on him was eroding his own confidence. do not have.

Regardless of who survived or what consequences my choices had when the credits rolled, the cast felt much the same as when I first met them. and it was a missed opportunity Digimon Survive‘s broad theme, but so are the initially vivid characters.

Possibility not realized is also a good explanation. Digimon Survivebattle. This system is standard in most tactical games (which is why he spares just three paragraphs on its complexity). Digimon have normal attacks and some special attacks that require stamina. Attacking from the flanks or rear deals bonus his damage, and defense can be increased by choosing not to act that turn.

Image: Hyde/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Digimon can evolve depending on certain choices made in the story, but this almost feels unfair. can be overwhelming. Recruitment of new Digimon takes place in Shin Megami Tensei-style dialogue. There, you try to guess the answer to a random question, hoping that the answer will match that Digimon’s personality. I get annoyed.

Combat isn’t revolutionary, but there’s a simple joy in crushing tough enemies with well-timed evolutions or watching Agumon spew fireballs across the map. Also, in line with the comparison with the song, Digimon Survive With so little combat and even less variation in map design, combat feels more like an afterthought than an important factor.

Digimon Survive Hard to play, boring first half and mostly disappointing.Beneath the chatty, insignificant combat, and shallow character development, lies the framework for something much more compelling, offering a glimpse into some of the story’s better moments. I hope you get the chance to create another visual novel style Digimon games, basics surviveThe foundation for creating lasting and more memorable experiences.

Digimon Survive Released July 29th on Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Bandai Namco. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.