Developer/publisher: Bandai namco.
Platform: PS5, PC.
Official Site: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/digimon/digimon-story-time-stranger
Official Site: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/digimon/digimon-story-time-stranger
Release date: 03-10-2025
I always liked the digimon franchise and watched S1 and 2 of adventure.
I remember watching frontier too but that was kinda it. I also played
cyber sleuth OG on switch so this isn't my first digimon game.
I wasn't originally going to play this near launch but I saw the Gatomon costume
and was like this is it! this is my life now and got into it!
Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours
this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.
If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself.
Pro's
- Decent enough story.
- Fun dialogue which makes side quests worth doing.
- Its fun to raise/build your team.
Grey Area
- Takes notes from PS2 era games, in good and bad ways.
Con's
- Some pacing issues, obvious padding.
- Final boss was too scripted.
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| This game 70% of the time... |
but it only made me want to progress and find out what is actually going on.
Which is a good thing in an RPG cuz if you don't want to learn more
then what is the point of playing it? Anyway eventually all the pieces fell into its place
so it started to make sense and it only took about 40 hours for that to happen.💀
Length? shouldn't take longer than 40-50 hours if you focus on the story
I dipped on some side quests near the end though as there were just too many.
If you do it all, it might extend to 60 hours... but at what cost? momentum of the story maybe.
Atleast the game had content if you wish to engage with it that is, so its not a complaint.
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| TFW the game is pointing out my outfit choice... |
You can choose between a male or female protagonist and the one
you do not choose becomes an assist of sorts which was honestly a nice touch.
The MC is kinda self-insert and you get dialogue options to react
to story events and sometimes they're funny too which was great.
Inori and Aegiomon were fun characters as well, without them i'd feel lonely.
I liked how the story cleverly used existing digimons and incorporated them
into it all, it was such a treat even if I don't even know/recognize them all.
There were however some things that I had a hard time wrapping my head around
and it mostly involves the protagonist, needless to say just keep playing and most things
will make sense eventually. Also male MC was voiced by Shimono Hiro
so it was nice to have him be operator, don't think he would have talked as much
if feMC was anything to go by when choosing him as MC.
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| Relevant. |
The gameplay was surprisingly smooth and it didn't feel like I had
to digivolve back and forth as much as with cyber sleuth.
Well uh unless your name was Aegiomon but he had some accessories
that could put him into a specific form. So it didn't detract from the experience.
Though I did find there were a bit too many enemies on the field and its easy
to run into them if you're not careful, leading to potential jumpscares.💀
TL;DR
where I thought, are you dragging this out? but atleast they wrote
a solid and somewhat consistent story about time travel.
This theme is not particular easy and I recommend not thinking too hard about any of it.
Story and character wise there were highs and some low's. I don't dislike it as a whole.
Maybe next time a less scripted final boss? other than that the game was fine.
Very good if you come here looking for challenge especially on harder difficulties
but I am a casual player so normal or easy mode is enough for me.
As said outside of a few gripes there's not much I disliked.
Also I can't help but think that if I had done every side quest at the end...
that I would have burned out during the final act. So i'm actually kind of glad
I just winged it and only the final boss was beefier than whatever was before it.
8/10
Anyway I had fun leveling my mon's and occasionally training them... on normal
nothing was too hard and they gave useful advice during combat too.
Had I trained even more I may've made it too easy so I am glad I restrained.
I was never really too overwhelmed by this games contents and its easy to choose
what to engage with, ok maybe a little choice paralysis as to what to digivolve too
but incase I wasn't sure I just saved before it.
or want another SMT-like game to sink some time into.
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| There's not really any spoilers beyond but I do have some out of context screenshots. |
More ramblings after the jump.
The whole monster-based party system is kinda similar to SMT.
Honestly it felt like it took a few notes from them, in a good way
and digimon was already doing DNA fusion way back with adventure 02.😅
You get mon's by fighting them; simply by accumulate points and when they're around
100-200, then you can convert them to your side. From then on you can de-evolve or evolve
them and equip them with items however you can't just go to the next form...
some digimon need specific stats so you really gotta use the digifarm
and/or items that can raise them manually. I generally didn't really bother with
armor type digimon's as they were a hassle but by the end of the game
I was able to get Magnamon and Halsemon as well as imperialdramon.
Most of my mon's were from 01/02 but I really loved Taomon
and next to Seraphimon he was best support.
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| Good thing I took two steps then and made YOU my champion. |
getting stats is no problem, the game even solves your money problems via an
outer dungeon and side quests give a lot as well this made it a smooth experience.
Protect the digimeat 2 is an easy recommendation if you need money...
I don't think I took advantage of all the systems but if I did my mon's would
likely have had max stats but I am not a min maxer so I ain't doing that.
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Digiride was nice but I didn't use it as much as I would've liked?
Some definitely could carry you but I don't think they made it happen.
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Certain agent skills can decrease the digivolve requirement so its worth investing
in the skill tree! I actually liked this one since nothing felt useless it all felt like it
improved something. They do limit you when your mon's can go to the next stage
so you can't reach something like ultimate etc right away but all in good time.
I thought it did take way too long to unlock mega... most of my mon's were ults for a long time
but hahaha turns out they made the final chapter long enough to enjoy them.........
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| I actually liked this quest, it fit in well with the story. |
The dialogue felt real and some of them were funny even if is essentially a fetch quest etc.
Side quests are important and worth doing because you get agent points from them
which will in turn boost your digimon's potential in various ways even reducing
stat requirements to digivolve which further eased the experience.
I'll add that side quest were a bit slow to pop up, they usually appear after certain
major story events, I was about to say it never felt like there were too many at once...
well except for a bunch of them in the final chapter, I mean what?
They really took the world is ending but here's 9000 quests why don't you do them?!💀
Hahaha... no. I actually just said I am done and just progressed the plot like usual
which may've been a mistake but idk if it really would have helped since the final boss
was scripted as heck. At most i'd have more levels and some stats. Which may be good.
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| Oh hell no, I remember that clown monkey from 01 I ain't doing this. |
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Start rant:
The only quests I came across that I didn't like was the marineangemon quest.
It screamed of bad design especially if you got the wrong water. The omni championship
was likely designed to be done last or something, it was far too long to be done during
the story. Despite thinking its cool I actually never completed it because I peaced out.
Aight now for some other dislikes; Some late game dungeon was handled poorly
it was PS2 era level of BS. You get stuck in a room due to plot happenings
and you may be using scan but that won't point you to the right direction unless
you do that yourself. This honestly felt really bad design and it wouldn't
surprise me whoever worked on it also did the marineangemon quest.
TBH outside of this the game was mostly good at guiding the player in the right
direction so this stuck out like a sore thumb, gotta keep them eyes open but this
is gonna catch people when they're tired. Atleast in gear forest you know what to look for
as its pointed out but here nada, dialogue was unhelpful so I got the idea
they suddenly went LMAO go figure it out, you're endgame now.😂
My final gripe was; final boss was scripted as heck, I wondered if I wasn't strong enough
but the bosses before it all went down with ease. With the final boss it got
to the point I was hard carried by NPC's. Mind you this was on normal.
Maybe I should have done all sidequests and trained my mon's till they had 5000+ in stats?
surely this is not necessary because it hadn't been up to this point.
Eh okay now I can boast a lil that I beat it without grinding!
End rant.
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Okay back to basic ramblings of things I did like.
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| Its nice but that is all this was... |
There was also a card battle minigame and it was a fun side distraction, other than that
there weren't too many other side stuff because we already have our hands full
trying to raise the digimon's so more content is honestly not needed and i'm glad for that.
Its always fun to stop at some npc and do a few cardbattles with them.
Though when I think about it the minigame felt a bit random? maybe it was
because of a bug the game even pointed it out that it exists through dialogue.
This could make it so any card friend or foe randomly win regardless of their level.
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As I played on normal and there definitely were some tough fights
mostly early on as I was figuring stuff out and had limited mon's.
I didn't grind a lot but I am glad I did take advantage of the game systemsbecause there were times I thought bosses were a slog.
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| Magna-Angemon was actually my first ult which is funny because he was last in the anime. |
Once I had a good team and took advantage of character reversal it became
a lot easier since you remove the need to get some other team up to speed.
Later fights didn't even need it anymore just some early and midgame ones.
Boss battles weren't too hard and NPC's also give some advice or help at times
and eventually I picked up the flow, nothing too difficult.
TBH if Character reversal didn't exist I'd have dropped this game.💀
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| On my way to say hi to Kiryu-chan! |
At first I enjoyed running around the city and you can even see Kamuro-cho err Kabuki-cho!
which lead to a nice call back to having played the yakuza games.
My only annoyances mostly came from lack of proper fast travel, now while it is there
it almost never lands you in front of a store etc so you always gotta use your legs.
In the beginning I had no issues but once I got to the digimon town its wew lad i'm tired.💀
Thank god for pegasusmon and birdramon's transportation services.
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| The unsung heroes of this game that don't get nearly enough credit. |
The game wasn't fully voiced but mostly every important scene was, felt more like
they had to cut their losses at times but seeing how nice everything is I didn't mind.
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| Who came up with this...? a lot of the dialogue made me laugh so its all good. |
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| Me neither... ISTG this whole section was hilarious. |
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| Give me liberty, give me fire, give me cringe or I retire. |
Final thoughts!
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| How I really felt during the final arc... |
I thought it got a bit repetitive and nearly burned out, despite that the story did
make sense and all the pieces fell into its place! it was very well crafted
and it was truly a story about digimon. I am still glad I sticked with it to experience
some of its higher notes! My only dislikes are some random minor things as well
as the final boss being way too scripted but that's about it, still a solid RPG
and it was definitely handled with care in various ways.
 |
| Definitely some peak cinema in there but not absolute. |
CS was cool at times but when this game started and we saw Iori's dad's office
I was like oh no... this better not be the HQ for the whole game is it? but it wasn't
it actually turned into a wacky time travel adventure with some happy and sad moments!
I particular liked the story surrounding Divermon and Shellmon. Aegiomon and the protag truly
were the main character and Inori the heroine... I kinda wanted to know more about the protag
and adamas but that was a red herring. I don't want to put spoilers here but the game
got quite meta about it... so while the protag and their backstory could seem flat at first
I found the truth behind it to be hilarious. What a twist.
The game did overstay its welcome for me in the final act due to them
trying a bit too hard to create an everyone is here moment... I see nanimon
as a representation of everyone who is unmotivated to sit through the last part.😅
I do wonder if that part was necessary like it felt so random and imagine
being hype to clear the game but it throws that nonsense at you, RiP.
8/10
Pretty chill RPG to progress through with a decent enough plot
but it may benefit from a less scripted final boss fight.
Not sure what I will play next but I don't want to be an unmotivated nanimon
for too long so I will continue working on my backlog eventually.
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