I love a good JRPG as much as I love to amass an army of adorable creatures to do my bidding. Digimon Story Time Stranger by Media. Vision, published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, manages to combine a few of my favourite things into a slick package. My time-jumping journey on Nintendo Switch 2 was an intriguing and at times intense mission.
Digimon Story Time Stranger follows an agent of the top-secret government organisation ADAMAS as they delve into anomalies from the Digital World. Your agent is doing just that on the streets of Tokyo when disaster strikes with an explosion shaking the very core of time itself, sending the agent back to the past, a whole eight years back in the Human World and even into the Digital one.
Time-travelling antics aren’t at all new to the JRPG formula, but the way Digimon Story Time Stranger makes the time/space conundrum feel fresh again, with enough mystery to keep me guessing, and the urge to get to the bottom of the matter is much more interesting.
This game is undeniably stylish, with a colourful anime aesthetic ever-present in the characters and environments. Accompanied by catchy jazz, synth or, at times, more edgy or ambient tunes, I felt pretty locked into my role as an agent of ADAMAS. As if that wasn’t enough, for the most part, characters and even the Digimon themselves are fully voiced.
It did take some time to fully appreciate all Digimon Story Time Stranger had to offer as a game, as the introduction to the game was quite cutscene-heavy, with The Operator on comms tending to be a bit of a chatterbox and stunning, albeit frequent cutscenes breaking up the gameplay immersion in the opening hours.
Once I was left to my own devices some more, I was able to satisfy my curiosity and encounter Digimon. Digimon are at the very core of the gameplay experience. I have limited knowledge of their universe, but Digimon Story Time Stranger wastes no time in getting its players, whether new players or existing ones, up to speed. There is a lot to process, and it’s mostly learning on the job. I was happy to get out into the field.
With three active Digimon in turn-based battles at a time and an interchangeable three in reserve, and with a whopping 450+ Digimon to recruit, the possibilities are almost endless. Digimon can be obtained as soon as enough data, or “Scan Rate”, is achieved, allowing for “Conversion” to capture them effectively.
I did find myself wanting to engage in as many fights as possible to capture more digital monsters because there were so many to catch; I wanted to engage whenever I could. While monster “hunting” can feel moreish, it also gets quite repetitive, with the main variables being able to switch up the squad often, with many more ‘mon for my use.
Mixing up the roster to exploit enemy weaknesses is crucial, with foes at times putting up pretty tough fights. Digimon have unique abilities and stats and can be transformed into an entirely new entity
There were a heap of mechanics to take in. Encounters are relatively standard fare, with a turn-based structure, so it was easy to adapt to that. Where a little more brainpower was needed was in strategic planning between battles.
The Digivice was a gadget I became all too familiar with throughout my investigations, where the majority of monster management takes place. On top of assigning each monster skills, the Personality, Attachment, and Bond systems, a lot of attention needs to be given to your squad between battles, and at times, I felt a little neglectful of most of my monsters. Overall, the story and complex gameplay kept me engaged, but at times had me scratching my head with the overwhelming amount of systems to manage.
Speaking of systems, on Nintendo Switch 2, Digimon Story Time Stranger runs well and looks great both handheld and docked. The default setting for the game is “Quality” mode, where I experienced a few minor frame drops, but this was easily rectified by switching to “Performance” mode, which runs almost consistently at 60 FPS. There wasn’t any really noticeable loss in graphical quality on Performance mode; either way, the game looked glorious to me.
Digimon Story Time Stranger proves that being a cyber-sleuth can be an involved job, yet a very satisfying one once you wrap your head around all the responsibilities that come with the role. I have plenty of mysteries ahead, but now I’m on the case; I’m keen to get this one solved.
