So I got these two games with absolutely zero expectations. My interest in Digimon had been down in the dumps after the 1,2 punch of Xros Wars and Tri sucking so hard. And because since I was a kid who played the shit out of "Digimon World 3" no Digimon game has ever come even close to scratching that itch for me. All those weird experiments like Rumble Arena and World 4 just kept turning me off from Digimon Games
At first glance, I passed on these 2 games entirely because I judged to book by it's cover, mainly due to the character designs.
Now don't get me wrong, I love me some anime waifus and I think the designs look good, but I felt like they really don't fit my idea of Digimon. I felt like the "sexy" female character and "edgy" male character character design was a sign that Digimon had finally hit the "Medabots: Girl's Mission" rock bottom you could not recover from.
I couldn't have been more wrong, I gave both games a try during vacation this year and I got pleasantly surprised, while not perfect in any way, I can safely say that I have never had so much fun with a Digimon game before.
Pros:
At first glance, I passed on these 2 games entirely because I judged to book by it's cover, mainly due to the character designs.
Now don't get me wrong, I love me some anime waifus and I think the designs look good, but I felt like they really don't fit my idea of Digimon. I felt like the "sexy" female character and "edgy" male character character design was a sign that Digimon had finally hit the "Medabots: Girl's Mission" rock bottom you could not recover from.
I couldn't have been more wrong, I gave both games a try during vacation this year and I got pleasantly surprised, while not perfect in any way, I can safely say that I have never had so much fun with a Digimon game before.
Pros:
- The Mechanics: The battle mechanics are very traditional RPG like 3 v 3 battles where each Digimon has a special set of attacks and abilities you use, you gain EXP and you can get your Digimon to digivolve at the "Digi Lab", however, to access several evolutions, you have to play around your Digimon's stats, and the game offers you all sort of tools to do so, from consumable items to a training farm, I spent hours Digivolving and De-Digivolving my monsters with different stat altering stats or training routines until I got the perfect Mega-level Digimon I remembered from my childhood and teenage years. This never got old as the game offers lots of ways to quickly grind levels and evolutions.
- Cyber Sleuth's characters: Man I loved how quirky and unique every character is. From Kuremi's hilarious coffee recipes to Yuuko's obsession with food, every character surpassed my expectations from the vibes they gave me with their design, I expected Kuremi to just be the "Femme Fatale" girl and Arata to just be the "Edgy" dude but they all had their fun moments and interactions. My biggest fear was for Nokia to just become "The fanservice girl" and I was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be DA QUEEN.
- The Digimon Roster: Unlike Pokemon, Digimon has never committed to a full roster of Digimon, so I cannot give it shit for not having every single Digimon, but I loved that they made sure to squeeze as much fan favorite Digimon as possible and then some. I do feel a bit sad that Digimon Frontier's mons were shafted out of their Digimon, when Hacker's memory added even more anime Digimon like Shoutmon and Lobomon, I expected to find every single one of Frontier's Legendary Warriors so some of my favorite Digimon like Kazemon,Ardamon, Ranamon and MetalKabuterimon were nowhere to be seen
Please add these guys next time!!
- Cyber Sleuth's Story: It's Kingdom Hearts tier of nonsense, and the terrible translation made it really hard to follow, it took me a while to realize they had mistranslated "Bakemono" to "Bakemon" instead of simply "monster" so I kept wondering why that Digimon was so important. The whole stuff about the main character losing it's body and becoming a digital being was nonsense too, and it brought nothing to the table...Then it turns out Kuremi was Alphamon all the time...Wha? I can't say I didn't enjoy all the craziness, I did, but I'm more used to the anime's more straightforward stories.
- Hacker's Memory's characters: I really liked Hacker's memories story waaaaaaay more, as it focused on the elements of Cyber Sleuth I really liked, Hacker's and Digimon in a more grounded setting until the craziness catches up at the very end. Problem i that unlike CS, every single character was so predictable- They all played exactly like I thought they would based on their design.
This guy?
Yeah TOTALLY not a villain, no sir!, they all played their roles in such a predictable way that it kinda bored me, also their designs are so much boring than CS's character designs, they all looked like regular background NPC's
- TOO MUCH TEXT: Every single background NPC with a quest tells me the story of their lives in unskippable dialogue that brings nothing to the story and more often than not brings nothing to the overall story except padding. Both games are guilty of this.
- Difficulty: Normal is too easy and Hard is way too fucking Hard
Overall, really enjoyed my time, best Digimon games I've played in a while for sure, I can't wait to see what's next
