Being a kid who was immersed in anime and series in the 90’s, there was no escaping Digimon in my childhood. And it was really impossible to avoid it, the adventures of Tai, Agumon and company They took over absolutely every magazine, kid’s show, and place I can remember. However, what I remember most is the great passion that trip through the digital world aroused in me.
Beyond a few sporadic dalliances with a toy Digidevice or Digimon World PS1, I have never gotten to taste any virtual installment of the franchise. Thus Digimon Survive It has been presented as an opportunity, an outstretched hand to return to those childhood moments so dear.
A trip to nostalgia
A group of children and young teenagers embark on an epic that they will never forget together with some digital monsters the sea of strangers A premise as unexpected as it is attractive more than 25 years ago as now, although the way of telling it has changed.
One of the worst situations that a video game can experience in the industry is the always hated review bombing. Hundreds of users who have no better pastime than to go to Metacritic, Opencritic or any place where they can write that the current game is a cheap hoax. A burden that no developer deserves.
Genres are not bad per se, they have their strengths and weaknesses and visual novels are just one more. I admit that I am not a regular in this formula -certain wild birds of Hatoful Boyfriend they look at me from a distance-, but not even for those reasons am I going to get away from a title that opens the doors for you with a fabulous soundtrack.
There is no doubt that the themes of Digimon Survive they will go directly to one of my Spotify lists. Tomoki Miyoshi has managed to make the music perfectly match what happens between each speech bubble and battle thanks to a nostalgic touch. No less can I say about Uiti Ukumo and his illustrations, scratching at a high level and looking better than ever in the cutscenes.
In spite of everything, I have felt that the game has become a gum that has to be chewed a lot until it expels its flavor. The warning from Bandai Namco had been clear, weighing around 70% towards the visual novel aspect and leaving the remaining 30% to some fights for which I beg.
And this thought does not settle in my head because the plot is boring or uninteresting, quite the opposite. I couldn’t be more attentive to what happens to Takuma, Labramon, Aoi and the rest of the camp group who have been teleported to a place they recognize, but it is foreign to them. From the first moment a series of really good wickers are placed.
step on the accelerator
Two mysterious children appear at the beginning, suffer a terrible fate, and later return in an almost ghostly state. Simply For this thread of history I would continue, but there is more. You don’t necessarily need to know anything about Digimon idiosyncrasies to enjoy Digimon Survive.
After all, all the bases of an initial adventure are here and they are being put on the table, but very slowly. It can perfectly be a letter of introduction like the first season of the series, although the excess of padding in the conversations ends up weighing down the rhythm.
You can talk to many characters, interact with elements of the environment, investigate, pick up objects and gather information, but the tedium of the game is constant. Many of the dialogues are reduced to repeating hackneyed ideasheard through the mouths of other characters and with a plot that progresses at full throttle.
Digimon Survive He insists that we do not come across a constant nagging, since we can choose some options to answer, which will bring us affinity with that character. The best thing is that the consequence of this translates into the rewards that we can obtain for the battles, and there may even be certain variations depending on the order of character selection that we make.
However, on more than one occasion I have activated the Skip mode for the dialogues, which makes them advance at high speeds. This is so true that I have not missed an iota of what was happening at any given moment. It is no longer just the padding presence in conversations, it is the slowness with which momentous events unfold.
Digivolution in full battle
It is surprising, at least in the first hours, the little presence of the fighting. It’s a shame, because they are really good and you miss being able to enjoy them more often. Tactical turn-based combat, in which the movements of the characters and placement are absolutely decisive.
It is noted that, despite the fact that its weight in the game is less, it has not been a section disdained by the Bandai Namco team. Appreciate and enjoy a great depth of options, with really interesting mechanics and that offer great possibilities in expert hands. I notice that I have barely been able to scratch the surface of a system with enormous potential.
Decide if Agumon uses his Baby Flame, if Falcomon stands behind a Gotsumon, or if Labramon is able to heal his allies. Nothing particularly striking for the most seasoned of the genre, but of course I have enjoyed it a lot in the moments that I have been able to take advantage of it.
Also, the mechanics are amazing. being able to talk to digimon opponents to try to cause altered states or even recruit them to our cause. The Digimon associated with the protagonist children are far from the ones you always use in Digimon Survivebeing able to deploy an unprecedented formation.
On the other hand, seeing Agumon digivolve into a Tyrannomon is a delight, becoming an unstoppable tank. The best thing is that he has an evolution branch with different forms, although for now I don’t know how to get the most out of it.
I have to admit that Digimon Survive has given me one of lime and one of sand for now. I knew what I was coming for when I found out it was a visual novel, but any title would suffer from such an excessively leisurely pace. I will continue at the foot of the canyon, because the plot has caught me and because I need to get Wargreymon to appear in front of me.