Digimon Story: Time Stranger
Developer: Media.Vision
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X (Reviewed), PlayStation 5
Release Date: October 3, 2025
Price: $69.99 USD – Available Here $109.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
While some games that feature companions that battle alongside players at their command and evolve under certain circumstances have found themselves stagnating with only a few new ideas being implemented from time to time, fans of the Digimon franchise never know what they will be seeing next. Just a few years ago we saw the release of a surprisingly deep and slightly darker than usual take on the franchise through the strategy RPG Digimon Survive but this time around things have gone far beyond HYDE’s attempt at crafting a different type of Digimon game, instead we have the return of the highly experienced Media.Vision team returning with a brand new expansive RPG called Digimon Story: Time Stranger. Taking what they’ve learned from the Cyber Sleuth games years ago, this latest Digimon title is perhaps the most intriguing plotwise and in-depth offering of Digimon yet.
Story
Within the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, Japan numerous anomalous phenomena have begun to spring up beyond the “Wall of Hope” that was erected following a massive disaster that took place within the city eight years ago. No one truly knows why the massive hundreds of feet tall walls have been erected, but the player, taking on the role of an agent for a secret organization called ADAMAS, has been tasked with investigating these phenomena. Given the choice of playing as either the female or male agent, with the other serving as the player’s “Operator” through their Digi-Phone, they manage to sneak into this closed off section of the ward and quickly find themselves encountering “phase electron lifeforms” within, quickly deeming them to be Digimon. After being a choice of three Digimon Rookies to pick as an initial partner, the battles begin as the Agent begins investigating the unknown location.
Despite being impossible, a strange reading that shows a friend that already has the Agent’s Digi-Phone is within the ruins and, when meeting with the girl, they act as if they already know who the player is. With mysteries being stacked upon one another, players do their best advancing through the ruins and learning from this mysterious girl that a Digimon war is taking place and is only getting worse. This dire situation only gets worse when massive Digimon that rival skyscrapers appear and devastate the location, though rather than dying horribly to a massive blast of energy, our Agent awakens to find themselves surrounded by mysterious speaking Digimon as well as a strange shadowy figure. Although capable of interacting with one another, pursuing this dangerous shadow leads the Agent to tumble through and knock-off a precious “egg” that these unique Digimon were in charge of guarding, finding themselves slipping through time and space and waking up right back in Shinjuku.
The only problem is, this isn’t the Shinjuku they remember, it is completely normal where no signs of devastation or calamities have occurred. In fact, it doesn’t take long for the Digi-Phone and the player’s Operator to realize that they have slipped eight years into the past. The question is, will being back in time allow the Agent to stop the calamities from occurring in the future or will their presence only make things worse? This question only grows more dire as new and unknown events begin to happen in the past that have no correlation with what has happened in the future they once knew. With more questions than ever and only their few Digimon partners by their side, it will be up to the Agent and a few friends along the way to solve this time jumping and dimension hopping mystery that goes far beyond what anyone could have expected in a Digimon title.
Before we go further it is worth noting that Digimon Story: Time Stranger is the type of self-contained storyline that makes it a perfect jumping in point for anyone that might be interested in the Digimon franchise as a whole. The Agent and the human world as a whole is as clueless about what Digimon are as any newcomer might be and spends quite a bit of its opening hours introducing this fact. This is both to the game’s benefit and detriment however, as it also means that after the initial confrontation and revelation that throws players into the past, the story begins to drag heavily with very little to support itself for hours worth of content. Side-quests are unfortunately incredibly basic throughout the game, often featuring only minimal extra story development unless players happen to be a fan of a certain type of Digimon, and even teleport players directly to the target and then right back to where the quest started, making side-quests feel like an afterthought.
This means that by the time the story starts really rolling and starts unveiling its real strengths, such as the numerous little twists and opening up the far grander and more elaborate world, players will have spent quite a bit of time going through what feels like an excessively long intro. Ironically, the game even plays it off that way as it drops the title-card when players finally arrive within the digital world. Thankfully from this point on not only does Digimon Story: Time Stranger start really moving with its plot developments and various revelations but also continuously keeps introducing new and fresh environments and Digimon to keep players engaged. The story itself finds a nice balance between dark and cruel events happening alongside more hopeful developments as the core cast of characters serve as a strong set of lead characters, especially with later developments. It is worth noting that the Agent themselves is mostly bland unfortunately as they do not speak, but players can select dialogue choices that can trigger some funny responses from time to time.
It must be said that while Digimon Story: Time Stranger does take its time to get going and can feel a bit lackluster when it comes to side-story content, it does feel like the most well-realized Digimon title in a long time perhaps due to world building alone. Not only does it feature over four hundred different Digimon, many of which players can talk to within towns and use as party members, but it also happens to feature what feels like some proper ecosystems for the Digimon to thrive in. Combine this with the fact that for longtime fans of Digimon there are also constant references to other underutilized pieces of lore or directly featuring characters that haven’t been used properly before and there is plenty to love here for fans of the franchise, making it almost essential for die-hard fans despite being written in a way for newcomers.
Gameplay
At its core Digimon Story: Time Stranger is a fairly straightforward turn-based RPG where players will find themselves traveling along and completing main story missions while occasionally tackling simple side-quests along the way. There are a few optional bonus “challenges” that have specific unlock conditions and are hidden away for players to discover, but these are literally treated as “outer ring” locations that can be revisited anytime after they are first found. As players are traveling around they can have up to six active Digimon in their party with three on the frontlines and three in reserves, though usually the storyline will also provide at least one or two guest characters that will either fight on their own or, in one Digimon’s case, be completely under the player’s control as well. Players can swap their frontline Digimon out with either of the three in reserve during combat but it is worth noting that players will also always be carrying a massive “box” of Digimon with them at all times.
Unlike past entries in Digimon RPGs and other franchises, any Digimon the player has acquired through either “converting” them, “Digivolving,” or even getting them from completing a side-quest, can be stored in the box and will level up at a slightly slower rate than the active party members, which is useful since any Digimon obtained from conversion or Digivolving starts at level 1. The primary way to obtain Digimon is through battle and every time the player’s party defeats a certain Digimon in battle, they will obtain a certain amount of data from the foe, with “In-Training” Digimon being the easiest to gather and so on with lower percentages with each rank increase. Once players obtain 100% they can immediately convert that data into a potential party member right there in the middle of a dungeon, but it is worth noting that gathering up to the max of 200% will spawn the same Digimon only with increased stats and abilities, making it worthwhile to wait.
Digivolving the player’s current Digimon is actually quite interesting as every single Digimon has a number of different forms that they can Digivolve into with each form requiring a specific stat requirement to be obtainable. It is also worth noting that certain ranks of Digivolution are also locked behind “Agent Rank” which can only be increased by spending anomaly points earned through completing main and side missions and applying them to the agent skill tree that buffs various stats of Digimon of different personality types, reduces stat requirements, and more. This last element is more designed to prevent players from dumping all of their upgrade materials into one Digimon and pumping up its abilities to make it instantly able to reach Ultra ranks, trying to keep progression a bit more fair though there are certain armored Digimon and other unique Digivolutions that require special items, eggs, or even abilities that can trigger unique transformations or even swap between forms at will.
Interestingly enough, not only can players Digivolve their favorite Digimon to try and see what each one will eventually turn into, there is also the ability to De-Digivolve afterwards. This is useful not only because sometimes players may not like the way their new Digimon handles in battle or simply as a way to boost stats in an attempt to reach a new form that was previously unobtainable. You see, while De-Digivolving does return the Digimon to its prior form, it does retain a certain percentage of its stats with more of these stats being retained the stronger the player’s bond is with the Digimon. The bond itself can be raised by talking with the Digimon while out exploring, fighting alongside them or even feeding them in the often useless feeling Digifarm. This allows for some rather interesting combinations and ways to try and experiment freely with how players want to build a team and obtain their favorite Digimon to pad out their party and, as mentioned before, since the title features roughly a third of all total Digimon there is a good chance that at least a few of the player’s favorites have made it into the game.
Anyways, while out exploring dungeons or various locations players can use their scanner to “analyze” locations to find items to destroy or get an early strike on an enemy Digimon. In some cases this will instantly kill the Digimon if it happens to be a single fighter and weak, but most of the time it simply allows the player’s team to have the initiative in combat. The turn-based system is fairly simplistic to understand and master with Digimon Story: Time stranger utilizing the triangle method of weaknesses and strengths where each Digimon is either a Vaccine, Data, or Virus type and will either dish out extra damage or less damage against the opposing type. This can be layered with elemental weaknesses as well, giving players a chance to really lay damage on thick if they are using a properly typed Digimon that can also strike at an opponent’s weak element. The title even displays this readily by showing how damage can go all the way up to 400% stronger when selecting skills or as low as 25% or 0% once an enemy’s attributes are known.
The player’s Agent can even occasionally interact with fights themselves through the use of their firearm that can trigger different X-Art abilities though it is worth noting that only one can be equipped at a time. These abilities can range from dishing out damage to the entire enemy team, healing the player’s party, or even providing various buffs. The X-Art gauge fills as players dish out and receive damage, though it is boosted further when weaknesses are targeted. Combat may sound a bit complicated through all of these different weaknesses but for the most part many of the general encounters with random Digimon can be handled either through auto-battle and using an up to 5x speed up feature that makes grinding far easier. This was on the Normal default difficulty mind you and never did we find ourselves struggling in a standard fight.
It is the boss fights where the game can really pull out its claws as many of these boss fights feature unique mechanics or forms that players going into them unprepared, underleveled, or under evolved might find themselves needing to reload an old save or “give up” and reload to change their approach. That is because not only are many of the boss fights incredibly strong, they happen to feature various minions that often make themselves nuisances to compliment the boss’s skill-set. In fact, these boss battles were often the times that saw my Digimon party pushed to the limit, taking and surviving using items gathered along the way to revive teammates and dishing out attacks the same turn since using an item does not sacrifice the Digimon’s turn to attack or buff. These challenges turned out to be one of the best highlights of combat, especially since some came with some real visual flair to help make them feel actually special rather than just a generic confrontation.
Ironically, there are a few bugs here and there throughout Digimon Story: Time Stranger that we encountered in our time in the game. This included issues with certain types of Digimon having their portraits vanish entirely or display an odd error of sorts that could only be fixed with a reload, some moments that saw menu screens take minutes to load between evolving different Digimon or changing the party set-up, and one instance where the entire game went black, though was still actively playing in the background normally where even the Xbox home screen displayed normally, requiring a restart of the game to properly fix.
Audio & Visuals
It is easy to say that Digimon Story: Time Stranger is the best looking game that the Digimon franchise has ever seen. While the standard world exploration may not be the most innovative or interesting, the locations within the Digital World are absolutely outstanding and, as mentioned before, absolutely teeming with life. Exploring the streets of any of the towns in these areas, however brief, will give players glimpses and looks at Digimon simply living out their lives and interacting with one another in incredibly bright and varied environments. It also helps that this is the best that any of these Digimon models have looked, with many seeing their first actual appearances in a game for the first time. Combine this with some outstanding looking cutscenes and a decent amount of costumes to purchase using in-game currency and this is a real visual treat. In fact, it is especially worth mentioning that almost every Digimon has a unique skill of their very own that features a special animation to go along with their unique ability, something that turns out to be a rather shocking surprise given the amount of Digimon available.
Bandai Namco’s release of the game in the West features both the original Japanese voice track as well as a freshly recorded English dub. The English voice cast does feature a few prominent names that help end their voices to the main characters of the story as well as provide voice-work for when a Digimon uses their signature skill. It is a bit unfortunate that the player’s chosen character does not have any spoken dialogue of any kind, ironically only their “operator” is voiced, and if players had picked the other gender option then the voice work would be handled by that actor instead, the character’s choice is always silent. The background music throughout the game is wildly varied and works quite well from location to location, featuring a great sounding set of battle music and exploration tracks.
Overall
It is clear as players make their way through Digimon Story: Time Stranger just how much care has been put into portraying the Digital World and the countless Digimon that live within it. There is a certain level of detail and attention that just feels like this large-scale RPG is a true labor of love for the franchise and while it may take a while for the story to get going, once it does players will be in for a ride that is one of the best the franchise has to offer. With simple but satisfying combat and a roster of Digimon that will delight any longtime fan as well as countless Digivolutions and ways to build a team, Digimon Story: Time Stranger may be a bit troublesome in places but is definitely an RPG that deserves a chance to shine.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
