Created by Hyde and published by Bandai Namco, Digimon Survive is the newest instalment to the Digimon series. It is a visual novel story-driven game with tactics-style combat, so for those that are thinking it will be like Digimon World or the Cyber Sleuth series, be aware, that it is nothing like those.

The story features a bunch of teens getting lost on a school camping trip who end up being transported to the Digital World filled with monsters. Players will be taking the role of the lead character, Takuma, and his Digimon companion, Agumon. You will need to interact with the other characters, make choices that will impact the story, and decide who will survive at key moments. Given player choices and how their karma is sitting will impact Agumon, and when it comes time for him to Digivolve, fans of the series will know one possible outcome for Agumon when going to his champion form, Greymon. However, that may not be the champion you get, so choose your path wisely and try to keep your karma on track if you want certain results for the evolution tree for Augmon.

Takuma is joined by seven other kids that also have their own Digimon partners. Sadly, some characters may not be happy around their partners and treat them with distaste or constantly put them down. As I discovered, if choices are left unresolved with certain characters, they can die in the story as it progresses.

One of my first disliked characters was treating his partner poorly and met this fate, and I was fine with it as I watched their story come to an end, but I was hit hard when I discovered that his Digimon partner is also removed from existence. If you don’t want to lose any cool-looking Digimon, pay attention to the character and their mood to try and sway them back to being in a good zone.

The story of Digimon Survive is a large piece of the game. You will be reading more than fighting, and Takuma and his friends are trying to return home safely, and this falls upon you, the player, to try and keep as many of the teens alive and hopefully make it home.

Using a turned-based tactical format, each Digimon will be given a chance to move across a battlefield and attack, assuming they are within range of a target. Each Digimon is different in terms of stats, some will have a higher speed which results in them going first in the turn order and being able to move further, while others will have slower movement stats but can attack at a larger range. This means picking a team that has balanced coverage of the battlefield is a good idea. Players are also able to fight outside of story progression with free battles that will pop up on the map. This is one of the ways to expand your team roster outside of the story, as you can talk with a neutral Digimon and sway them to join you.

In terms of controls, it is really easy to learn as the majority of the game is dialogue. The spoken segments are in Japanese but they do come with subtitles. The sounds and music during combat could be a bit better, but at the same time, hearing Agumon saying, “Pepper Breath” while doing his classic fireball was so great for a season one Digimon fan. Early into the game, players are given a nice animation segment that shows just before the school trip starts and it was a great opening, but sadly, this is really the only time you’ll see something like this during the game.

Digimon Survive is the latest game to be targeted by review bombing on Meta Critic, and this is due to people not looking into what the game is before buying it. The fact that it is a visual novel does sway people away from playing it, but the story is well worth it.

Combat is fun, but it is in the shadow of the story, so if you are looking for Digimon fighting action, this is not the title in the series you should be grabbing, but I personally love the making choices that impact the storyline. The characters are great to interact with, and while there are clearly some standout characters players will dislike, as the story progresses, players will easily get hooked on all how they develop.

Written by: Shane Walsh