Is Digimon Survive Good?

The most recent Digimon game to release at the time of writing was incredibly divisive. With the last release being 2018’s Cyber Sleuth sequel “Hacker’s Memory”, fans were eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

Hopes were high as initial footage showed a more mature approach to Digimon’s relatively older fandom. Mature themes including deaths of characters and partner Digimon made the title “Digimon Survive” feel like the world would be filled with danger. The game faced delays due to an engine change to Unity.  The game finally released on last gen PS4, Switch, Xbox and Windows in July 2022 to very mixed reviews.

Digimon Survive Gameplay

Survive is a departure from the turn-based combat that the Digimon World games were trending towards. It also isn’t a return to the original Digimon World style shown in Next Order. Digimon Survive’s gameplay mirrors that of “Tactics Games” such as Advanced Wars, XCOM, or Nintendo powerhouse and character focused Tactics game – Fire Emblem.

The Fire Emblem parallels are most apparent here, as synergy with your Digimon and tamers depends on interactions made during the visual novel portion of the game. Depending on choices made, members of the cast won’t make it to the end.

Unlike Fire Emblem, where character deaths are largely due to mistakes in the combat section of the game, and “permadeath” is the default for most games, Survive’s combat will not kill off any Digimon. If a Digimon’s tamer dies though, the Digimon will not be usable for the remainder of the playthrough.

Visual Novel Problems

Survive’s long visual novel presentation is not for those that are unfamiliar with the genre. While it is a tactics game in combat, the majority of the world building and story is told through a visual novel, point and click format.

The Digimon World games are no strangers to tapping through dialogue boxes to progress a slow moving story. Digimon Survive’s marketing fully communicated how prevalent the Visual Novel aspect of its gameplay was. But particularly western fans cited these aspects as the main source of ire at launch.

Is Digimon Survive Good?

Going in with the expectations that the game is a visual novel at its core, most will have fun with the game.

It generally reviewed well with 7/10s across the board. Neither the visual novel or tactics sections are ground-breaking compared to their contemporaries, but help vary up the gameplay. The tactics gameplay only lets your Digimon possess a single move and special move. Its also worth noting the game only has a Japanese voice cast.