I have been a long-time Digimon fan. I may have got into Pokemon first, but the Digimon cartoon always grabbed my attention way more, what with it's more mature plots and serialized storylines as opposed to the episodic, daily life lesson style of the original Pokemon cartoon. So when I first played Digimon World, I was at first disappointed that it wasn't like a traditional RPG. Only to be disappointed that the monster-raising element was largely removed come Digimon World 3. Since then, I never really game much attention to the games other than Digimon World: Next Order, which I loved. But I've always been hesitant of the Digimon Story series, largely because it seemed to get rid of the intimate monster-raising elements in favor of something more akin to a Pokemon collect-a-thon.
So when I saw that Time Stranger was getting rave reviews and had high user approval on Steam from a franchise that normally doesn't get that kind of exposure, I got insanely curious. I happened to have Hacker's Memory because it was free with PS Plus, so I started with that game to see how much I liked it. I was pretty surprised by how deep and awesome the story ended up being. For a game of limited assets, they did a LOT with it. The Digifarm loop finally grasped me, and I found myself loving it, even though it was clearly lacking polish and depth of a modern game. So I pulled the trigger and bought Time Stranger.
Wow. I loved this. It's just about everything I loved about Hacker's Memory but with a AAA level presentation and way less corner-cutting. The gameplay loop is effortlessly addicting. The voice-acting is charming and endearing. It honestly felt like a truly great JRPG that called back to a lot of classic tropes, but spinning it in the world of Digimon to make it feel unique. I also loved the sheet amount of Digimon they fit into this game. I don't know how many were brand new to this game, but almost every Digimon from the shows I've watched were represented while the ones I weren't familiar with had some awesome designs that made me opt for them over some of the more familiar ones.
Of all the games I played, this was a story and setting that felt the most like the shows, one where you're going back and forth between the actual Digital World and the real world. And then you throw time travel in it? It made for an unpredictable journey that did everything to reawaken that kid that wanted to go on a Digidestined journey all those years ago. On top of that, I was genuinely surprised by how dark the story got, to the point it basically became a tragic looper story in a vein similar Higurashi or Summertime Rendering. This was strengthened by having a great cast of side characters that made me care deeply. Perhaps the most impressive was meeting Shellmon and Divermon. It starts with Shellmon, a medic, treating an injured Titan, the bad guys of the game, and how the village would likely frown upon her for doing so. This seemingly one-off story becomes a series of both side and main quests that ends up being one of the big emotional twists that leads us directly into the looper reveal. It was a moment that legit made me drop my jaw and almost tear up.
One MASSIVE mechanic improvement over the last game is the streamlined ability to handle Digivolution, Conversion, and almost all Digimon functions from the menu, as opposed to having to go to the Digilab every time. I also liked that the Digifarm now lets you specify what each individual Digimon is training up. That said, the DigiFarm is clunkier than ever, and not having the ability to Digivolve or at least look at the charts from in there was a huge misstep.
The amount of post-game content is just right, and I love that the sidequests all end up being deeper explorations if lore, character development, or filling in the blanks of time skip changes (Like helping Divermon ends up foreshadowing him becoming the leader of the Abyss Titans). That said, it was a little disappointing that most post-game quests don't have voice-acting. And while I still have to fight the Olympus XII to say I got the Gentleman's 100%, I'm disappointed that defeating the Royal Knights doesn't give you anything special. Like not even a special bit of dialogue.
Also, Aegiomon is a great character, but he's fucking useless in the party. Would have been nice to be able to train him or give him stat-boosting skills
