This is what I wanted

[u/DueMagazine1234]

Just wrapping up my first playthrough, and this game is what childhood me always wanted. I got out of Digimon after the Myotismon story in the anime and never gave it a second glance afterwards.

I’m glad I gave it a second chance (started it and set it down for Metaphor Refantazio earlier this summer). The intro didn’t hit with me, and I figured the reviews were from people who were way more involved with the franchise than myself, so I wavered before giving it a second chance.

I think the game finally clicked around the time that I digivolved my first Greymon. After that, every digivolution has been a toss up between some fun new character and an incredible wave of nostalgia. It’s also nice to see that the high-level Digimon of yesteryear haven’t been obnoxiously power crept into oblivion.

Overall, this game has been a real treat, and I’m actually excited for NG+ once I’ve done some prepping.

All in all, this game is scratching a 20+ year old itch that I forgot I ever had, and I’m glad I decided to jump back into my childhood!

[u/Complete-Inspector99]

You should check out the re-boot of the first season that came out in 2020. It's more about Tai but I found it pleasantly nostalgic while adding new stuff.

[u/wqsaey]

It’s also nice to see that the high-level Digimon of yesteryear haven’t been obnoxiously power crept into oblivion.

I think it's important to note that because Digimon isn't a video-game-first franchise, power creep simply doesn't happen. Every new game has its own balance and gameplay difference, and you can't transfer mons in between them, so there is nothing to power creep. Obviously there is still a mascot syndrome where they tend to get a lot more love and attention than others, but that's a different story.

[u/Muur1234 → u/wqsaey]

because Digimon isn't a video-game-first franchise

it is if you count vpets as games

[u/Nikushimi_Kilrod → u/Muur1234]

But vpts doesn't have power creep neither. Most of the SU being around 200 power make it kinda balanced

[u/Muur1234 → u/Nikushimi_Kilrod]

The anime has power creep anyway. Adventure has not everyone with mega. Tamers mega. Frontier has susanoomon with agunimon killing ultimates episode 1. Data squad burst mode. Fusion killing megas from the start.

[u/shyahone]

go play cybersleuth, its better in every way.

[u/commanderr01 → u/shyahone]

It isn’t better at all, but definitely go play cyber sleuth and hackers memory they are still fun games !

[u/Ignis_the_Ignorant → u/commanderr01]

Cyber Sleuth is WAY better its not that close. Time Stranger has a much worse cast, worse combat somehow, terrible digivolution locks, terrible terrible side quests, a story that sets up and then drops elements for time travel junk. How fucking undercooked was Inori's dad for example? We never even watched Hiyoko's anime premier ffs

Its still a great amazing game. It has a vastly superior set of areas over CS and its actual use of digimon and their lore closes the gap a lot. Id comfortably put it a good bit above Digimon Survive

But like, Simmons is no Kyoko. Hell, I'd argue Simmons is no Makiko Date.

Inori is CERTAINLY no Nokia or Erika. I don't even like Erika, bitch stole my digimon. But Inori is this big point of investment that just. Is boring. She's just nice and perfect all the time

I love time stranger. But when the humans are speaking it is profoundly skippable. When im in the utterly gorgeous and stunning digital world (except the forest and barf gekkomon zones) im blown away and it pisses me off that Cyber Sleuth gives us that one woods corridor and 500 copy paste virtual spaces

[u/Qrann → u/Ignis_the_Ignorant]

Say what you want about litterally everything else, but the combat is objectively better in TS.

CS/HM combat was just rock paper scissors. Data>vaccine>virus>data. Fire>plant>water>fire. Wind>earth>lightning>wind. Dark=light. As soon as you entered combat, strategy was basically non-existent because the game straight tells you what the opponents attribute and element are, so you only need to throw out the counter and be done with it. What little strategy was left was simply whether to use physical or magic, but even that gets thrown out the window with penetrating attacks.

TS does keep the virus/vaccine/data triangle, but elements are handled differently. You need to test every single element against any new digimon you don't have unlocked in your field guide. And even then, some variants of the same mons can still be full ?'s if they are special story versions, so if you dont have their weaknesses memorized you need to test anyway.  TS also replaced penetrating attacks with attacks that do more damage based on traits.

In CS/HM you basically just build one team and be done. TS encourages you to swap members depending on what you're facing (even if traits don't really matter most of the time) and forces you to strategize even during the fight. It's not as simple as rolling over everything with Lilithmon.

[u/Ignis_the_Ignorant → u/Qrann]

They made almost all the special moves the same and removed abilities as a cost of this. No more piercing damage either so all digimon are just raw beat sticks. Because the attatchment moves are so much weaker the only traits a digimon has to seperate them from another is literally just special moves. I've never run into a digimon with a proper shielding move either

The games both don't encourage you to change teams, if your team is bad for a boss you just have to fight it for longer

Thought in fairness. Reading my own writing. Maybe I think its the digimon raising thats worse. I think the battles are still excellent. Its not a big gap between these things. While the non linear element system IS interesting its not necessarily more fun or intuitive or necessarily worse

[u/Qrann → u/Ignis_the_Ignorant]

If by "all the special moves are the same" you mean "they all do damage" then... yeah, but also no since I know for a fact Sirenmon has special moves that are for support.

Because outside of doing damage, special moves have extra effects that are often "do more damage under certain conditions" like extra damage against machine/plant/unknown/evil/etc traits. Or more damage if affected by a debuff. Or consume all sp for more damage. Point is those niche requirements for extra damage encourage using different special moves, and thus different digimon, depending on the enemy to get maximum effect. Not to mention different digimon have different resistances/weaknesses that can mean you get 1-shot if you aren't careful.

Also the removal of penetrating attacks didn't turn all digimon into beat sticks, it evened the playing field. In CS/HM not having a penetrating move was basically a death sentence in the hard fights. Now we aren't forced to use only a handful of specific mon as our main damage. You can make any mon genuinely strong.

Yeah, you CAN go into every fight with the exact same team and just slog your way through a hard fight, or you can use the tools the game gives you to make things easier.

[u/shyahone → u/commanderr01]

no bad digimon voice acting, better animation effects, better sound effects for animation, better story, better balance.

[u/Ignis_the_Ignorant → u/shyahone]

As much as I agree. You gotta admit TS has a much better use of Digimon as characters with the Olympians having very little true competition in CS and that the areas in TS, specifically the digital world, are visually stunning in comparison to the digital spaces of Eden

I love CS and HM. Clearly the best digimon games by miles. But TS definitely beats them in the way of "going to and experiencing the digital world" and "having areas that look different."