Digital Digimon Saga
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is a fantastic monster-raising RPG with some surprising qualities.
THE GOOD:
+ Simple and engaging combat system
The combat system flows really well. The dynamic of attributes / elements is easy to understand and provides enough depth to maintain the battles fresh throughout the game.
+ Extremely addictive gameplay loop
Raising your Digimon's just feel so rewarding - there's always a new evolution to look forward to, and the way the digivolutions/de-digivolutions are structured makes experimentation in team building really easy to achieve.
+ The story is... really good?!
Really well crafted narrative full of interesting twists, clever foreshadowing, engaging character arcs and a very, very satisfying ending.
+ Great presentation, from visuals to the sounds
Originally developed for the PSVita, Cyber Sleuth punchs above its weight using sheer artstyle - I love the look of the UI in general, the visual design of the dungeons. The Digimons are also brought to life really well in the 3D models, maintaining the charisma from the 2D animation.
Masafumi Takada's OST is perfect for this game - the soundtrack fits so well with the "pop", modern setting, while also branching towards really nice eletronic music to represent the digital aspect of the story. It explores ranges from him that I haven't really seen in his other works, which is always awesome to see.
THE BAD:
- Uninteresting, repetitive dungeon design
There's a lot of repetition in the dungeon's level design - they are visually interesting locations but not really that fun to go through. The game makes you go back to some of the ones you've already cleared quite frequently too.
- Inconsistent localization quality
There are so many examples of this on the script: it ranges from small errors (inconsistent Digimon naming, smaller spelling mistakes) to outright mistranslation of major lines in the story. It's not bad enough to ruin the game, but it's noticeable.
OVERALL: Cyber Sleuth manages to achieve its goals and delivers a very well-rounded, interesting RPG. Definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to play a monster-raising RPG with an anime aesthetic geared towards a more adult audience, compared to other similar games in the market.
Bamco, please greenlight a true sequel!
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is a fantastic monster-raising RPG with some surprising qualities.
THE GOOD:
+ Simple and engaging combat system
The combat system flows really well. The dynamic of attributes / elements is easy to understand and provides enough depth to maintain the battles fresh throughout the game.
+ Extremely addictive gameplay loop
Raising your Digimon's just feel so rewarding - there's always a new evolution to look forward to, and the way the digivolutions/de-digivolutions are structured makes experimentation in team building really easy to achieve.
+ The story is... really good?!
Really well crafted narrative full of interesting twists, clever foreshadowing, engaging character arcs and a very, very satisfying ending.
+ Great presentation, from visuals to the sounds
Originally developed for the PSVita, Cyber Sleuth punchs above its weight using sheer artstyle - I love the look of the UI in general, the visual design of the dungeons. The Digimons are also brought to life really well in the 3D models, maintaining the charisma from the 2D animation.
Masafumi Takada's OST is perfect for this game - the soundtrack fits so well with the "pop", modern setting, while also branching towards really nice eletronic music to represent the digital aspect of the story. It explores ranges from him that I haven't really seen in his other works, which is always awesome to see.
THE BAD:
- Uninteresting, repetitive dungeon design
There's a lot of repetition in the dungeon's level design - they are visually interesting locations but not really that fun to go through. The game makes you go back to some of the ones you've already cleared quite frequently too.
- Inconsistent localization quality
There are so many examples of this on the script: it ranges from small errors (inconsistent Digimon naming, smaller spelling mistakes) to outright mistranslation of major lines in the story. It's not bad enough to ruin the game, but it's noticeable.
OVERALL: Cyber Sleuth manages to achieve its goals and delivers a very well-rounded, interesting RPG. Definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to play a monster-raising RPG with an anime aesthetic geared towards a more adult audience, compared to other similar games in the market.
Bamco, please greenlight a true sequel!