Digimon Story: Time Stranger’s Combat Has Me Worried

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In my childhood days, I often felt like an unusual one among my peers on the playground, as I preferred stories about chosen kids battling through hardships with virtual creatures, compared to ordinary pre-teens venturing out to capture pocket monsters. To this day, Digimon remains special to me in a way Pokemon never could. However, when it comes to video games, I’ve found myself enjoying the Pokémon series more than Digimon. Yet, I still cling to hope, yearning for a Digimon game that can match my love for Pokémon Platinum, Omega Ruby, Legends: Arceus, or Scarlet.

I’m still unsure if Digimon Story: Time Stranger is indeed the game we’re talking about. This newest installment of the Digimon Story series finds you as a covert agent in Tokyo, Japan, who witnesses an event causing massive destruction. Suddenly, you’re catapulted eight years into the past, armed with knowledge of the impending disaster. Your mission is to delve into the mystery surrounding this calamity, using your foreknowledge to alter the timeline and reshape history. This journey takes you and your companions through various alternate realities. Furthermore, as your investigation unfolds, it leads you to the Digital World, a realm where Digimon exist. Here, you can forge friendships with these digital creatures, training them as allies to aid you in battles against hostile Digimon.

It’s likely clear from its title that the Digimon Story series has consistently delivered compelling narratives, immersing players in narrative-heavy experiences. However, when it comes to gameplay, the results can sometimes be hit or miss, and I’m not convinced Time Stranger breaks this pattern.

At Summer Game Fest, I only had around 20 minutes to delve into Time Stranger. During this brief time, I traversed a central area reminiscent of a hub, encountering various Digimon characters such as Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon, and Wormmon socializing together, which was a delightful nod to Digimon Adventure 02. I participated in two combats: a swift skirmish against a horde of smaller Digimon, followed by the initial rounds of a battle against Parrotmon. The combat system in Time Stranger is based on the classic Rock-Paper-Scissors principle; certain digital monsters are resistant to specific attacks and vulnerable to others.

In the traditional format of the franchise, Stranger employs the Data, Vaccine, Virus system where Virus distorts Data, Data modifies Vaccine, and Vaccine heals Virus. Generally, a particular Digimon leans towards mastering moves of its own kind, but stronger ones adapt to learn techniques from at least two distinct categories to address vulnerabilities.

It’s quite clear-cut when handling new Digimon; players must do some sleuthing to determine if it’s a Data, Vaccine, or Virus type. However, testing out different moves will quickly uncover the answer. This isn’t challenging at all, given that there are only three possibilities to consider.

The concern I have is that in order to increase the difficulty, Time Stranger has chosen to make enemies’ health bars quite extensive. During a battle with Parrotmon, I managed to figure out its type and which of my Digimon would be most effective against it – I swapped out my Virus team members who would sustain extra damage from Parrotmon’s Vaccine attacks, and ordered my Data allies to join the fight. For the following three rounds, I repeatedly launched super-effective attacks at Parrotmon. Despite my attacks causing immense damage and Parrotmon’s attacks being minimized, only a small fraction of the boss’s health bar was depleted each round. After four rounds, Parrotmon still had over 75% of its health remaining, and no new enemy appeared, leaving me with no choice but to persist with my proven strategy for several more turns.

If I had continued playing, the initial excitement of adapting my strategy to Parrotmon’s type and executing a victorious plan might have transformed into monotony as I found myself repetitively using the same moves against the large parrot. Although it’s uncertain if this would have occurred, as my gameplay session with the demo concluded at that point without showing me what followed, the grinding aspect isn’t enticing. Instead of increasing complexity and encouraging strategic thought about which move to employ next, it adds difficulty by extending the length of the boss fight rather than shortening it.

For quite some time now, Digimon games have faced a persistent problem – one that I also brought up regarding Digimon Survive in 2022. In Survive, battles became increasingly challenging by extending the duration of each fight progressively. While it did introduce one of the two unique Digimon types, Free, this all-resistant type only made fights last even longer. Instead, I would have appreciated boss battles that shifted between Variable or Hybrid types, forcing players to adapt their strategies swiftly during gameplay. This change could have elevated Survive beyond just another Digimon game with a compelling narrative and decent mechanics.

In a similar fashion to how Survive captivated me with its appealing characters and mind-bending timeline, Time Stranger’s narrative has piqued my interest thus far. I believe it will shine particularly in areas reminiscent of past Digimon games. The initial part of the demo had me fascinated as I explored the hub area, finding delight in seeing Digimon employ their typically aggressive abilities for everyday tasks, such as Zudomon using its lightning-generating hammer to function as a blacksmith. The culture of the Digital World has not been extensively covered in any of the games or anime before, so having a hub that explores this aspect sounds intriguing.

Again, I found myself yearning for a Digimon visual novel game as I stepped away from Time Stranger demo. Despite this longing, I must admit that I didn’t fully explore the combat system due to limited interaction – I experienced only a brief skirmish and part of an initial boss fight. It is suggested that these encounters are located near the heart of the narrative, implying they offer a solid representation of the game’s overall combat. However, as it was merely a demo, there could be significant differences in future fights, such as facing off against numerous Digimon types for a more tactical gameplay experience. Unfortunately, what I witnessed at Summer Game Fest didn’t seem to offer that strategic depth.

We won’t have much time left until we can witness the final form of the game. The release date for Digimon Story: Time Stranger is fast approaching, with launches scheduled for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC on October 3rd.

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2025-06-17 17:42