Digimon Story: Time Stranger has become quite a success. In the first days on Steam, the player numbers are impressive.
Collecting and training monsters is fun. Pokemon knows this, and so does Pal World. But now, a new game has been released on Steam that has instantly struck a chord with the community. Because Digimon Story: Time Stranger seems to be exactly the game that Digimon fans have been waiting for many, many years.
What kind of game is this? Digimon Story: Time Stranger is a single-player RPG set in Tokyo. As an agent of a secret organization, you pursue a strange creature before an explosion devastates the entire city. When you awaken again, you find yourself 8 years in the past, with a clear goal: to find out what events lead to this catastrophe and how to prevent them.
It quickly becomes clear that this has something to do with Digimon, and you rapidly switch between the digital world and reality to advance the story, build connections to the Digimon, and level them up to overcome all dangers.
Digimon Outshines Final Fantasy
How great is the success? If you look solely at the player numbers, you could answer that with “pretty big.” Because just 2 days after the launch, the game reached its peak of over 81,000 simultaneous players (steamdb.info).
Thus, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is ahead of many JRPG greats in terms of simultaneous players (on Steam), including all single-player installments of the Final Fantasy and Persona series.
How good is the game really? Even though it is a bit too early for final ratings, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is scoring quite well. At the moment, it has an 84% positive rating. Reviews praise how well the monster-collecting game feels compared to its competition from Gamefreak (Pokemon). Here are some excerpts from the reviews on Steam:
- “How the hell did a team with a fraction of the budget manage to outdo you so much, Gamefreak? This is the monster-taming game frustrated Pokemon fans have been waiting for. The perfect mix of the more casual tone of Pokemon and the more mature tone of Shin Megami Tensei.” – Flareono
- “I was a huge Digimon fan even as a little kid. I played all the games. Every world. Every story.
This is by far the best story-driven Digimon game to date.” – Digi Destined Aurlyion
However, there is criticism regarding the many DLCs that can be purchased additionally to unlock further bonuses, such as new costumes or alternative music tracks – including the anime openings of the Digimon series. While the base game costs €70, those who want to buy all the DLCs need to pay around €150. However, most of these DLCs are merely cosmetic, optional adjustments, although there is also a season pass for story DLCs and additional tamable Digimon.
Our MeinMMO Weeb Jasmin Beverungen finds much to praise for Digimon Story: Time Stranger.
