Digimon Survive Review – Teenage Wasteland

After a tragic event in our group’s lives, we gather to try and calm ourselves down. I plead for trust among us. Blood’s been spilled, and tensions are at an all-time high for this lost party of teens trapped in a dangerous land. That’s not quite the scene I had imagined going into Digimon Survive, a tactical RPG by way of a visual novel based on the sometimes-kid-friendly monster franchise. While the dramatic play dynamics are riveting, my frustration with grid-based battles made it difficult to enjoy what would have been a captivating and complete package.

Digimon Survive, a visually novel with beautiful characters and stunning scenery, is a delight. Every location features well-planned character staging that includes zooms and camera pans. This gives the places an illusion of depth. I’m often put off by the sparse production values of visual novels, but Digimon Survive keeps the flow of conversations visually interesting, enhanced by a partial Japanese voice-over.

You’re put in the shoes of 14-year-old Takuma, flocked by a cast of other young teens trapped in a dangerous world after getting lost on a school trip. Each child will be paired up with their Digimon partner through an uneasy bond. This unease leads to many difficult situations testing the group’s trust in one another, their Digimon, and some characters’ grip on reality.  While the story starts slow, I’m impressed by the depth of the characters and learning the interactions and roles each plays within the group.

My decision making process was simple. I knew who would be on my side. Who was more likely to worry about me, who tends to get anxious, who is stubborn and headstrong, as well as who to trust. I wouldn’t say I liked many of the characters for a while (or ever), which is great, and why Survive succeeds in its characterization and relationships. I enjoyed how each character was treated throughout my playthrough. It required me to teach them to handle situations or tell them the things they need to know for survival. The fate of these kids’ lives is on the line, leading to an enjoyable tension. It is possible to have a casual conversation with a character and find interesting points that lead them away from being a problem in the team. Or, it can set them on an anxious path for all those around.

As the kids enter this new dimension, a Digimon is there to accompany them. While series mascot Agumon is paired with you, others such as Floramon or Lopmon, Falcomon are tied to other recurring teens. They play an important role in the story, and they are emotionally connected to their human counterparts. I’m disappointed by some underwhelming evolutions for the main Digimon, but overall, the interactions between you and the monsters are fun and rewarding. I enjoyed learning how their budding friendships pan out or not, leading to powerful moments in the story that I’ll remember for some time.

Conversations can have a significant impact on the Digimon’s evolution and their behavior. This is particularly true for Agumon. Because emotions drive the connection between the partners, if your conversation choices lean towards one of the three traits of wrathful, moral, or harmony, Agumon’s evolutionary tree will shift throughout the game. These choices have overarching narrative consequences, and are the link between story structure and turn-based combat. While I understand that my path can have different effects on my creatures, the section of the game in which evolutions really matter is much less than the visual novel.

Digimon Survive’s tactical turn-based combat is overly simplistic and lacks excitement and strategy. Digimon are able to move around the map grid in order to place themselves against enemies monsters. Digimon come equipped with a basic attack, a signature move, and up to two more equipable skills. The management is what I love most about skirmishes. Using special attacks and assuming an evolved form consumes SP; remaining in base form for any of the main party’s monsters restores the precious resource. It was interesting and stimulating to have to manage stages of evolution in order to preserve SP for the last-ditch attack. Still, that’s far from the norm when most battles are far from mentally taxing encounters.

Instead of depending on formations and team compositions or strategically intriguing attacks, encounters can be fought by simply getting your opponent’s team closer to you and hitting them with everything in your power. While there may be some elements that are advantageous, depending on whether your attack is from the flank or the rear flank, you can cause additional destruction. However, brute force usually wins the battle. The part that I found most exciting in this game is the padding. It brings down the experience.

You can also recruit additional Digimon by joining your party through battles, although the process can be tedious. You can only recruit these Digimon by engaging in free battles while exploring. To start a conversation, you will need to use the talk command. To be eligible to request their membership, the enemy Digimon will ask three questions. It’s clumsy and tedious, with many interactions resulting in failure. Although I wanted a new Digimon to add to my team, it wasn’t worth the effort.

Digimon Survive deserves my praise for being dark, heartbreaking, and beautiful. It subverts everything I had imagined a Digimon tale could be. While I wish the combat evolved as much as the surrounding story presentation, it’s not enough to deter someone from seeing the narrative through. Don’t expect a tactical masterpiece, but rather a well-made melancholy tale depicting Digimon in a light they haven’t been in before.