Even though I haven’t been up to date with Digimon in years, I’ll always hold a soft spot for the franchise. I still remember how the first two seasons of Digimon Adventure kept me company during a rough time in my country after a devastating natural disaster. Being sheltered and losing myself in the world of the DigiDestined was a bright spot in an early dark chapter of my life. And just like the kids eventually grew up and cut their ties to the Digiworld, so did I. I didn’t keep up with the countless new versions that came after, but I always held on to those early days.
That’s what made Digimon Story: Time Stranger such an interesting test case for me. It’s the seventh entry in the Digimon Story subseries, the first four being Japan-only, and this being the third one to hit home consoles following the Cyber Sleuth duo in 2015 and 2017. It’s marketed as a jumping-on point, but I wanted to see if it worked not just for newcomers, but also for someone like me. Someone who once lived and breathed Digimon, only to drift away and return years later.
Darkness Only Makes The Light Shine Brighter
In Digimon Story: Time Stranger you step into the shoes of a rookie ADAMAS agent (male or female) tasked with investigating strange anomalies threatening Shinjuku, Tokyo. After an extended opening, a sudden catastrophe sends you eight years into the past, where Digimon begin leaking into the real world thanks to an imbalance between Tokyo and the Digimon realm of Iliad. Stranded in time, you partner with Inori Misono and her Digimon companion Aegiomon, traveling through Tokyo and the different worlds of Iliad while forming uneasy bonds with the godlike Digimon, known as the Olympos XII, in hopes of uncovering the calamity before history repeats itself once more.
That’s only scratching the surface, but what stood out to me is how effective the story ended up being. Sure, it shares some similar beats with other JRPGs I’ve played in recent years and even parts of the anime I remember. And, yes, time travel threatens to tangle the narrative in knots around the midpoint. But by the end, it ties everything together more elegantly than I expected. A few twists genuinely surprised me, and the resolution was powerful, echoing the emotions I felt at the end of Digimon Adventure some 25 years ago. I can’t speak to how Digimon stories have evolved since I left, but I can say this one reminded me of what I loved about the franchise in the first place: a mix of saccharine emotionality mixed with some heavier-than-expected themes. More importantly, it’s written clearly enough that you don’t need prior knowledge of this franchise to follow along.
My Friends Are My Power
At its core, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is a turn-based monster-collecting JRPG cut from the same cloth as Pokémon and the franchise’s previous installment, Cyber Sleuth, but with its own wrinkles. You battle with three Digimon plus a rotating story ally, with three more in reserve to swap in freely. Combat hinges on you exploiting elemental weaknesses, juggling buffs and debuffs, and reacting to enemies that shift resistances halfway through the fight. Bosses in particular keep you on your toes, sometimes thrilling, sometimes dragging into trial-and-error slogs when fights run long.
Outside of the combat, you’ll be engaging in mostly middle sized hub areas within the main real world Tokyo and the separate areas of Iliad. While out and about, the game forgoes any kind of randomized encounter, always showing you the different Digimon roaming around in your areas which you can engage in battle. You can preemptively end a battle with a preemptive strike if it’s a weaker enemy, similar to last year’s Metaphor Refantazio. This also adds a strategy of prioritizing certain Digimon that you can eventually create/recruit after facing them for a couple of tries. With up to 450 different Digimon that can be scanned, recruited, and “digivolved,” there is a lot to sink your teeth into if you are into the “gotta have ‘em all” mentality.
The gameplay doesn’t reinvent the wheel for JRPG’s, but it lands in a sweet spot: not shallow, not overcomplicated. Quality-of-life tweaks help a lot, from fast battle animations, auto-battle for grinding, a clear skill tree for your agent that directly supports your Digimon, and even XP for reserves so no one falls behind. It’s all very player-friendly without gutting the challenge.
It’s not always roses and rainbows, though. While combat is generally solid, world exploration can be, unfortunately, shallow, with bouts of specific dungeons being overly linear without much in the way of fun wrinkles. There are plenty of moments where you are simply running from one place to the next for hours on end without much happening besides different conversations with different kinds of Digimon. While some great story beats eventually happen, the middle section of the game does drag, especially the moments where time travel is a more ever-present mechanic in the story that has you running through the areas twice in a row.
Once a DigiDestined, Always a DigiDestined
On top of the world exploration, Digimon Story: Time Stranger includes a management hub, called the Digifarm, where you can stash a lot of the Digimon you have scanned and created but are not actively using. This is where you can train, heal, and evolve them separately from your active party in a mode that feels more like a cozy farming game. While I appreciate that the game gives you an option to interact with the hundreds of Digimon available to you in a meaningful way besides being your active combat party, I never found the game really funneled me too much in this direction, either, to make a meaningful addition one way or another.
The game tells you there are ways to train and evolve your Digimon in this farm that will make them stronger than traditional leveling up, but I never felt the need to spend time here. I found the normal customization of your combat Digimon, where I got to kit my team, both with their included abilities and ones you acquire through normal play, more than good enough to play through the game no problem. People that love simulation style games may probably dig the way the Digifarm is set up, but it didn’t move the needle for me one way or another.
Visually, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is a little bit of a mixed bag. The anime-inspired art style works well, character designs (both human and Digimon) pop with personality, and Iliad’s skyboxes can be gorgeous (especially the later game ones). But Tokyo’s environments repeat too often, and faceless background NPCs clash with otherwise strong presentation. Performance-wise, the game is locked at 30fps on PS5 and PS5 Pro. It’s stable most of the time but stutters when the camera pans or during transitions. Considering the modest visuals, it’s hard not to wish for a smoother framerate, especially knowing the PC version can run at 60fps no problem (as seen in their launch trailer).
Audio is equally uneven. The voice acting nails the kind of big, exaggerated emotion Digimon always thrives on, especially in the heavy story moments. The soundtrack, though, left me cold. It has the expected guitar-rock DNA and a great main song, but it never hits the heights of what Koji Wada brought to the anime. Considering the mostly great opportunity this game has to induct a new generation of Digimon fans, a rather generic soundtrack is a missed opportunity for something that defined the experience so much before.
As Long As We Believe in Each Other, The Future Is Ours
So, should you play Digimon Story: Time Stranger?
That depends on what you’re after. If you’re into JRPGs with monster collecting, this is a really good one, even if you’ve never had knowledge of Digimon beforehand. If you’re a longtime Digimon fan, it’s the kind of execution that feels like a dream realized and a love letter to what you’ve always loved. And if you’re like me, a lapsed fan who still carries the old series in your heart, it’s a reminder of why Digimon mattered in the first place, and why, some 25+ years later, it still can.
Thank you to our PR partners and Bandai-Namco for the review code. You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.
Great review, made me interested in the game!
Thank you!