Jason DittonDigimon, as a franchise, seems to be going through something of a good period. We won’t be getting into the big monster franchise here for comparison, or the many independent/smaller collectable competitors, although I do miss both Jade Cocoon and Monster Rancher. However, Digimon, after a considerable amount of time not quite having the success of the “Other Franchise,” and being the longest running competitor that’s still going, finally to be off it’s usual shelf in terms of sales, at one point being higher on the Steam sales pre-order list then Battlefield 6.
I, for one, have very much been on the Digimon side of the monster divide since my childhood, having watched Digimon Adventure 1, 2, and Tamers and the proceeded to fall off on the anime side until Ghost Game. I’ve keeping up with what non-mobile Digimon games I’ve been able to, and still have some of my Digimon card game cards somewhere around here. I’ve been a tad annoyed by Bandai Namco’s marketing tendencies in the past, although I do believe I follow the logic. It’s always had more niche series for a larger publisher, and they generally have devoted fanbases that’ll do the marketing for their titles. The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series being the other series that’s a poster child for them.
Then there’s Tekken and Dark Souls, the latter of which’s major popularity and influenced in the gaming sphere still amazes me to this day, which are it’s big hitters now. Can Time Stranger get Digimon into being Bamco’s third biggest franchise? That remains to be seen, and I’m not arrogant enough to make that assumption. Is Time Stranger a good game, and worth playing? That I feel marginally more qualified to comment on, so let’s have a look, shall we? As usual, all pictures will be from fairly early on in the game, and this review will be as spoiler light as possible.
Why Do You Look Familiar?
Time Stranger starts, after you make your choice of who’s going to be the Agent and who’s going to be the Operator, in a theatre. A character, who people that’ve played the Digimon Story Cybersleuth sub-series and apparently Re-Digitize, will be familiar with, but considerably younger, sits your Agent down and has you watch a highly stylized movie featuring someone that happens to look like your Agent, a Digimon that I’m not quite certain hasn’t had a major role in other Digimedia, and your Operator, before it pans out to your initial area of Higashi-Shinjuku: Vision Square.
It escalates fairly quickly in the hour after that, where you meet someone that’ll be an important face for the rest of the game, and get used to the combat and- something of the general vibe of the game? Tone is difficult to comment on, since the franchise has never really been one to limit itself to a specific genre or what would be thought of as it’s expected age-rating. Anyhow, at the start of the game, you’re in a park surrounded by people, and roughly a hour in you on top of a secret government building punching a Kuwagamon in the face, as Kuwagamon tend to be as an ongoing deal in the series. And then- well, then things start to pick up further. It’s extremely well-paced, and opens questions that get neatly answered throughout the game’s runtime.
Why Are You Dressed Like…?
So, after something of an unexpected event — one of many — you find yourself in a familiar but subtly changed place, and into the Digi-meat of the game. So, how is it? Battle-wise, it’s basically a largely improved version of the Cybersleuth gameplay system. Fairly simple turn-based mechanics to start, but it does ramp up starting with the third or fourth major story boss, adding new mechanics for bosses the deeper you get into the game. Admittedly, some more frustrating than others. I’m primarily looking at a big stupid bird boss for the earliest example of them getting a skosh frustrating.
There are presently confirmed to be 451 available Digimon across the multiple levels of Digivolution, from “Fresh” to “Ultimate,” and it mostly tends to stick within the simpler parameters of those stages and everything in between. Mostly. There are a few Fusions, although as far as I’m aware it the list doesn’t go too deeply into the weeds of the more- let’s say obscure versions of Digimon. As far as I’m aware it doesn’t handle some of the more recent new Digimon, although it’s my understanding that Bandai Namco does have plans to add more in future.
Wait, Who ARE-
That’s not to say that the combat is wholly uninteresting, quite the contrary. Unless you move the difficulty down to Story Mode because a boss gets too frustrating and you don’t want to deal with repeating it or grinding. Both of which are completely understandable reasons, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you do, there’s almost always a Digimon that has what’s needed to handle a situation, it might take a bit of time to get there, however. But the combat and gameplay comes a very close second to the story and characters.
This will probably be surprising for those relatively new to the franchise, or have dismissed it as not the “Other Franchise,” but the Digimon Story games and shows tend to go places, and have genuinely very human, very deep moments. Time Stranger is no different in that regard, but as part of my wanting to keep this as spoiler-free as possible I can’t go too deeply into it. What I can say, however, is that the game live and dies on how and if you come to care for it’s cast. You watch a number of folks — mostly Digimon — grow throughout, and whether you get invested in their stories or not are a major part of if you’re going to like the places it goes.
I for one, grew pretty strongly attached to the two main voiced characters, Aegiomon and Inori, and their dynamic is the big driving force of the game. Yeah, I know, I hear from the more experienced Digifans,’ a Digimon and their partner being what makes you care, “what a big surprise.” This is in fact true, but since they’re the main two, they have to carry the story and… I personally think they do so. Again, the story as a whole isn’t weak in the least, it’s Digimon, every story-based Digistory has at least been pretty good, but these two as the emotional core glue it together quite well.
…Long Story, You Say? Hmm…
So, as a whole, what do I think of it? That’s a skosh difficult to say. I’m largely a big fan of the game, the story’s great, the characters are pretty good to fantastic. The gameplay loop of battling, raising, and training your Digimon doesn’t get annoying although it can occasionally be fatiguing. The Agent Skill system where a good deal of making things easier for yourself and your Digimon to get to the stat parameters they want and need to get to the next stage is fairly simple and intuitive to to use, should you remember to regularly allocate your Agent Skill points as you earn them by going through the story and doing side quests. The Digifarm is there, and is actually fairly streamlined and simpler to use than it has been, and not super intrusive. You don’t have to keep going back to it, unless you actually put Digimon into the farm, and you just have to find the golden door in each area to get back to the In-Between Theatre in which it resides.
My only real issues are a few major boss battles, the latter two are deeper in and make sense for their difficulty. There are minor ones as well, I’m not wholly certain why the card game that I can’t remember the name of is there, unless it’s just meant to break up the battles, in which case I suppose it’s fair. Probably the weakest card game in a RPG I’ve seen since Tetra Master in Final Fantasy 9, although unlike that one it’s never mandatory to play. There’s also the usual issue with Bamco RPGs with there being $8 DLC for grinding dungeons, but that’s unobtrusive and completely not needed unless you’re pressed for time or don’t want to grind normally, which I fully understand. That and cosmetics are what DLC are meant for, after all.
Do I recommend Time Stranger? Yes, but that’s a qualified yes, if largely considering how things are as of the time of this writing. I fully recommend it if you’re a Digimon fan, like RPGs, and are open to wild, emotional rides. At full price? That’s also a qualified yes, but that’s solely because of how strong a year it’s been for games in general. I’m not going to go on at length, you’ve lived through 2025, just the same as I have — congratulations on making it this far, incidentally — it’s really just a matter of money and tastes, and the year still isn’t over. I don’t love Time Stranger as much as I do a few other games I’ve played this year, that list will come at the end of the year, God willing, but I do still love it. You might want to wait for it’s first sale if you have other concerns, it is a Bamco title and they tend to do those on a fairly common basis, but do give it a shot, at the very least.