Digimon Story Time Stranger - Review

 Genre: RPG

Developer/publisher: Bandai namco.

Platform: PS5, PC.
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. 

 

This game 70% of the time...

Story was surprisingly solid? it has some cheesy moments and a lot of wtf is going on moments

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. 

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. 

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

 Mostly had a good time with this game but there were moments

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.

 

Definitely gets a recommendation if you always want to play a digimon game

or want another SMT-like game to sink some time into.

 

There's not really any spoilers beyond but I do have some out of context screenshots.

More ramblings after the jump.

Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn DLC - review

Atleast they made new camp menu images...

  Since Bamco decided to a very belated DLC episode/expansion for Tales of Arise

I did have some mixed feelings since it had been so long BUT since

I really liked the main characters I decided to just get it anyway!

Honestly it was really nice to just see everyone again...

I remember the ending of the original made me really warm and fuzzy

so I was kind of apprehensive at some story set before the end credits.

 

If I had to be really honest I am not really fond of DLC this late after the launch

of a single player RPG. I basically thought Arise was done... yet here we are!

this felt so weird and so out of left field that at this point i'd expect a new tales of

to be announced and not a DLC for a two year old game, wtf bamco?!

 

Pro's

- Fun character interactions.

- Decent story about Nazamil.

 

Con's

- Recycled bosses and hardly any new ones.

- Half the stuff doesn't even carry over from the main game, so relearn/reforge etc.

- No proper epilogue for Alphen's busywork.

The story mostly focuses on a girl named Nazamil, I had a soft spot for her quickly...

she has been through some shit alright and she is also a kid still so I couldn't

be too hard on her. Some aspects of the story like the rifts between the Dahnan and

Rena peoples were kind of cheesy and predictable... but cheesy is how I remembered

my tales of arise so I didn't mind it that much. I personally loved the skits

and character interactions which was basically what pulled me through the DLC

after I initially put it on hold till I felt like I wanted to see the gang again.

More rambles after the jump, I won't be detailing the plot much but there are screenshots.

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - review

 Genre: RPG
Developer/publisher: Bamco/tri crescendo/monolith soft.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: N/A

Release date: 14-09-2023.

 

So I decided to get Baten Kaitos remaster for the switch, this contains two games eternal wings

and the lost oceans + origins. I will be playing eternal wings and the lost ocean first.

Also disclaimer: this is all just my personal opinion that got formed while playing the game, it could differ from yours and that is fine we all can't like or agree to everything. This review is relatively

spoiler free, I won't really go into the story at all but I did joke about it at the end of the post.

Pro's

- Interesting world/setting and good story from part 2/disc2 onwards.

- Good BGM.

- Nice QoL features like no encount/1hit KO and auto save.

- Peak boss design because someone in a dev meeting dropped the P word.

Con's

- Story doesn't pick up till later and most characters can seem pretty bland cuz of it.

- Long battles, especially boss fights if you don't know what you're doing.

-Time consuming item change system, also annoying how some degrade when in fact they're just cards.

 

Final stats b4 heading to final dungeon, I skipped some sidequests cuz I couldn't be bothered anymore by the end of it I was lvl 70 cuz the final boss was annoying I bet he hated Avocados and Tea.

 

IMHO it was OK at best for a game from 2005, I did think it was a little cliche and i've

seen it somewhere before and the only really good thing was the lore and environments.

Most of the characters were bland, humor was few, far and between which is a disappointment

cuz character interactions are a necessity in rpg's for me! it also has this whole go collect four/five?

thingitis and the biggest offense is how slow this game is in the first half. Then the second half 

fully kicks in after a certain event and I hate to admit how I was blindsided by it, there were

some things throughout as hints but you'd probably wouldn't think anything of it

and well the game sort of keeps doing it like that.

A timeline of my enjoyment of the game would be like:

Beginning: Ok... Eh.. oh... eh.. OH... meh... eh... oho ok..:End.

Literally this game in a nutshell.

This game has a habit of baiting you with interesting tidbits but never actually letting you get

to know the characters till way later, Xelha is the biggest offense at this since she is the one

with the most potential but also who are you?! all will be explained in due time

but this game can test your patience. I wish there were more character interactions too

there's not much romance either but maybe Xelha liked Kalas? i've played many rpg's and BK1

in terms of romance is almost non-existant so by the end it all felt so flat? like okay that's how it is?

the narrative didn't carry it well enough even though characters did care about someone in that way.

I was not amused that I had to find this all out post final boss along with some other small twist...

Sooo I suppose they had other issues on their minds and honestly a lot of the characters

felt closed off even though they're friends.

 

Next the combat while it seems interesting is slow and boss fights often drag on 

due to having bad hands of cards which you use to attack,defend or heal.

It was neat how the player had a role as guardian spirit but... I just don't get why we have

to play out our turns with cards, it just felt so weird to be suggesting things to the characters.

I think my favorite character was Lyude since I sympathized with him, seconded by Kalas

since he wanted no part in taking on the whole empire LMAO which was such a mood early on

but idk about him in part two that is when I just said whatever mate suit yourself.

Xelha grew on me in part two and ended up being my favorite but everyone else

was pretty much whatever. I understand they already went above and beyond trying

to make this game different in many a ways but at the same time make these design decisions

that could make it delve into kusoge territory when its story/narrative is far from it.

Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings certainly had potential but it just was not for me and often wish

I moved on to play something else but by that point I hit the halfway point so I was like okay

let's just gooooo. The only way I'd recommend this game is if you really like to take your time

to get the most out of the combat system and just like slower paced rpg's or just old games

in general! This game is not perfect but you can get something out of it and the plot does get better

so hang in there I guess? its just blergh old game is old and it has old game issues despite

some QoL improvements that're there as last resort which I definitely used at times.

6.5/10

An rpg with a lot of potential but it is old and it has old game problems.

More ramblings after the jump. Its just more detail of my experience with the game

and some screenshots as well as my final thoughts. Nothing important I haven't said.

Scarlet Nexus - Review

 Genre: RPG
Developer/publisher: Bamco.
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site:

Release date: 25-06-2021.

 

I bought this game on a sale a while ago, this goes on sale quite often

and for that price I couldn't say no! since I wasn't sure what to play

till something else interested me I decided to work on my backlog

before adding more to it and honestly it feels better to look at what

you have instead of adding one more game to it from yet another sale.

 

I'm mostly positive about scarlet nexus, while I had a few minor gripes here and there

I enjoyed this game a lot more than the previous dumpster fire that I sat through! 

Pro's

- Good story and great cast of characters.

- Bond episodes are fun and definitely worth doing as you play the game.

- Combat was good but can get repetitive...

- BGM.

Con's

- 80% of the scenes are told like skits, it very obvious they had a budget.

- Late game dungeons were too long and felt different from the pacing early on.

(Its like they finally paid their dungeon designer or something...)

 

This game has two scenarios with different MC's and from what I read before playing

you're basically forced to play it twice for the full picture, I decided to start with Yuito

first since that's who everyone seems to recommend. It takes place in a post-apo

setting about a bunch of kids that're part of a gaurdian corpse that protect citizens

from weird creatures. Not a lot of things made sense at first but as I played

through the game most of my questions were answered! and when I finished

for some reason I didn't feel the need to go through Kasane's route atleast not right away.

 

More rambles after the jump. I don't think there are any real spoilers in this post

atleast not those that are about the plot, I do talk about the characters a little but nothing major.

Tales of Arise - review

Genre: RPG
Developer/publisher: Bandai Namco.
Platform: PS4,PS5,PC,Xbone.
Official Site: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/tales-of/tales-of-arise
Release date: 2021-9-10.

 

Wasn't sure if I was going to write about this game... or even like it cuz at first sight

it seemed rather edgy with some shining tears/wind vibes.

Just by watching the OP you could see what i'm talking about that is if you're familiar with that trope...

So my initial impressions of Tales of Arise were kind of hmmmmm? its no wonder after

what happened with Zestiria and Berseria trying to fix it that bait and switch mess

either way I was pleasantly surprised Arise turned out better than I expected!

Pro's

- excellent story(better than i expected atleast).

- a likable cast of characters that can grow on you.

- Plenty of side content to keep you busy.

Con's

- Bosses can be a bit unforgiving.

- CP system is terrible.

- Loading screens are a plenty(kinda makes me nostalgic) 

There won't be any plot spoilers discussed in this post but there will be a few screenshots without much context

I should add here that there is a minor one in a screen but I don't really consider Alphen's mask thingy

that much of a spoiler considering one could unmask him with dlc stuff right from the start (weird)

needless to say I had to add this warning here since this game is fairly new i've made

those screens as small as possible so you can scroll past however considering the jpn

twitter openly posted artwork and you can see his face on dlc item the dev's didn't really care......

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders Review

サモンナイト6 失われた境界たち

  Game: [Summon Night 6: Ushinawareta Kyoukaitachi]
English Title: Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.
Genre: SRPG.
Developer/Publisher: Mediavision & Bandai Namco.
Platform: PS4, PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.summonnight.net/sn6/
Release date: 2016-03-10

I decided to write a review for Summon Night 6, I finished it a while ago
and I really wanted to write about it so here we go!

Ah yes Summon night that one game series that got screwed over in the western world.

As only three spinoff games were localized in the past by Atlus, two for the GBA and one for DS.

Recently the 5th main entry Summon Night 5 saw a western release courtesy of Gaijinworks
which had a hilarious weird translation choices, I also found 

certain renamings quite offensive and you'll know it when you see them.  

But lets not go deeper into that seriously let us not...
And as turns out Gaijinworks is back... to localize this game.
Well atleast it is coming, if it isn't GW who else? i'm sure Bamco themselves wouldn't do it.
I might not like Gaijinworks but I do appreciate the fact that they give this series a chance in the west.

 Summon night 6 is a crossover game it brings together characters from 

the main series (Summon night 1,2,3,4 and 5) together in a new game.

The protagonists of Summon night 6 are Raj and Amu along with Yst.

The first 13 chapters are basically the introduction the first five focus on Raj

and the next 5 on Amu, chapter 11-13 are with Yst after that you can finally select

which protagonist(Raj or Amu) you want to stay with, there are no major story changes

except for chapter 24 and the general POV but even then again its not that different.

Pro's

- Character interactions.

- Beautiful Graphic and Stable FPS on PS Vita, even better on PS4.

- Fun minigames.

- 300 hours of gameplay.

Con's

- Weak story.

- Partially voiced.

- Strategy elements could have been alot better with more interesting gimmicks.

- Characters and the world of lyndbaum might be hard to understand without having
played the main Summon Night games.

More ramblings after the jump and yes there are minor spoilers.