Topic: Digimon Survive

@Maxenmus I got the Amazon JPN preorder but was waiting to play the NA version since NOA screwed up on how they shipped SE buyers whom should've gotten their PreOrder day of or arrive on Release date. My GS well still waiting for GS corp to fix that.

Since Bandai didn't do a great job of informing what this game is supposed to be through interviews and such, here's an interview with Digimon Survive producer, Habu Kazumasa on noisypixel:
https://noisypixel.net/digimon-survive-interview-habu-kazumasa/

A few quotes from the interview sum up well just what kind of game the creators intended it to be:

"The first concept came from my wanting to reflect on the setting of the anime, where the Digimon is considered to be a living partner of the humans. This is something I’ve never done before. One good part of the anime is when you see the Digimon digivolve into stronger Digimon, which is linked to the heart of the human character.

If the character is good, the Digimon will digivolve into a good Digimon, but if the character is bad, they’ll be evil. I wanted to bring this to the video game, and all the different choices characters could make that reflect the personality of the Digimon. I believe that the visual novel portions of the game are where players can make choices that change the story and the lives of the partners.

I also want to tell everyone that this story will be very unique and comes from something that I have been thinking about for a long time. I want to express my understanding of Digimon following a group of kids being sucked into a new world where not everyone will react the same. You can imagine how some people might not make the right decisions after finding themselves in such a dangerous situation. We explore the human drama that stems from this, which is sometimes between strangers but also friends.

Now when these people partner with Digimon, they become a reflection of their human partners. Some will rise to the occasion and appear strong even though they are afraid. However, some humans will push back against this reflection aspect when they can’t see themselves in their partner, which could lead to fights and even abuse. We’d have to face this if Digimon was actually based in reality. Because there are so many interactions between the characters and their partners, an overall dark theme manifests, but I don’t want you to be sad. I want you to take this as just a possibility for the Digimon series."

I love this game more than ever now that it's confirmed what I've suspected: that the creators intended for this to be like the Digimon Adventure anime where your moral actions determine the kind of evolution your partner has, where your actions have consequences, and you're basically forced with other kids onto a survival adventure (or as he called it, "dangerous situation" and "human drama"). I'm only on chapter 3 so far, and I can't wait to play the rest. I'm basically taking my own sweet time now since I don't want this game to end. lol

@Link-Hero Thanks for sharing your story! I hope you'll love the game. I'll try to share more details of the game too as I continue playing.

For those who have started playing the game, please be aware that there are important items you might easily miss early on, specifically the evolution items ("mature enlightenment slabs") that can be farmed in Part 2 when you fight a particular boss Digimon that constantly shows up everywhere. I don't consider this to be that spoilerish since it's more of a gameplay feature and I didn't reveal any identities, but if you're interested in knowing how to farm those items early (you won't get them again until very, very late in the game), feel free to give that pseudo-spoiler a look.

My Digimon story is similar to yours in some parts, except that I grew up with the Singaporean English dub, which is far superior to the American Saban dub since it translated the original Japanese dialogue faithfully. They kept the original Japanese music (including the very important insert theme, "Brave Heart"), they kept most of the original dialogue without adding unnecessary jokes, and they even kept the parts of each episode where a narrator (with a somber voice) summarizes the previous episode at the beginning and gives an exciting sneak preview of the following episode at the end. That preview is easily one of my favorite parts of the anime since it not only played the iconic Digimon theme song (Butter-Fly by Wada Kouji) during the preview, but it also keeps me anticipating the next episode with excitement towards the next evolution or bad guy the heroes are gonna face. It's a shame the Saban dub removed this traditional feature of a Saturday morning cartoon. American cartoons literally had such a feature back in the day ("Will Superman make it out alive? Find out next time!"), so I don't know why they removed it.

And truly, the American dub did diminish the serious tone of the original anime, as you said, with obnoxious writing and cringeworthy jokes that would even make a seven year old wince. As a fact, take a look at this video:

One makes me cry like a baby every single time I watch it, making me wonder if it's too heavy for kids to watch; the other feels like a children's cartoon. They removed the original music that emphasizes the tragedy, and they diminished the despair in the dialogue by adding jokes in the middle of a life-or-death battle against Satan.

I think the biggest insult is that they replaced the part where Angemon literally apologized to Takeru before he fired his Heaven's Knuckle; he apologized because he knew he was gonna freaking die. lol I guess Saban deemed that too dark for the kids, which is a freaking shame because it diminished how emotional the anime was supposed to be, making even grown men cry in their 30s. Also, "Heaven's Knuckle!" and the way the voice actor shouted it just sounded waaaay cooler than the cheesy "I WILL STAHB YOU!" line from the scene. Like, what the heck was that?!

Yeah. I have no regrets never watching the dub.

Also, no Brave Heart (the music you hear when Patamon evolved). Listen to that sweet masterpiece, the sound of that iconic guitar riff rising from the abyss when "all hope is lost." Way better than what Saban picked for the evolution theme music.

Hollymoses, I finally got my Amazon JPN version and love the cards they are still sealed but love the game play. Worst part is the intro gameplay I thought some where longer but hollymoses this one is long before even getting into the story. Just remind anyone wanting to play you got lots of intro before even getting into the game. I saw it on YouTube and thought well not long til I started into it. Was I wrong.

If you're referring to the visual novel element of the intro, that's gonna be part of 70% of the rest of the game too, not just the intro. But yes, the prologue is pretty lengthy for a video game, but as a visual novel, it's actually quite short compared to the prologues of other VNs like Fate/Stay Night.

hmm...I got that game but that stilled sealed with charm from myself opening it....

Just watched the Nintendo Life video of "is it worth it". Cool video. Does this game have something like a golden perfect route? And how long does one playthrough take?

@Jhena Yep, it does have a golden perfect route, much like many visual novels.

One playthrough took me about a week and a half, but only because I spent about 30% of my time grinding, so maybe it's more like a week if you take your time reading. Some people are fast readers though and could probably finish it in less than that, maybe five days. Some people simply skipped the dialogue (in a visual novel) and finished it in two days. lol

@Maxenmus

Thank you for the good answer. This is good too hear. Now I can do a simple playthrough, without using the internet ( no spoilers) and not having to fear being burned out on my perfect run. I can not skip dialogue ( edit: at least on the first run) and cutscenes and I am thankful for it.

The part in the Nintendo Life video, about caring for the characters and wanting to help them survive, really made me want to play this game again.

I really like NL's review about the game. I'll post it on the front page. Thanks for pointing out the review.

Hope you'll enjoy the game! And yeah, not using the Internet during the game is probably the best idea since I got spoiled plenty just Googling simple keywords.

@Maxenmus

The video seems to confirm the game is aimed at people who grew up with the series. A point you also brought up if I remember correctly. And I think it is great.

@Jhena Yeah, I think that's easily the biggest draw for me as a fan of the anime's first season since it feels like I'm living out the adventure I watched, but as an adult, and with all the consequences such an adventure might pose.

I’m really intrigued by this game. After playing 13 Sentinels and AI Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative in the last few months it being 70% a visual novel is not a problem for me at all.

More so is not being able to find a physical copy to make an impulse purchase. My local Game had 4 boxes on the shelf but none in stock.

I have now started Xenoblade 3 and have my Steam Deck coming so I’m broke and have plenty to play. I know it’ll get a deep sale like Cyber Sleuth one day, and I really should get further in that game first.

Light Spoilers for the Wrathful Route
So I've already finished the Moral and Truth route of the game, and currently I'm working my way through the other routes mostly as "cleanup" see to what I missed. I wasn't expecting much going into the Wrathful route, since after you beat a JRPG or visual novel's "true end" you probably think you've seen everything this game could throw at you. I did hear that it's darker than the four other routes, but that description alone didn't surprise me because that sounded like what a "Wrathful" route would be like, wrathful and full of negative emotions.

But man... I was not really prepared for what's in store for me... I didn't think I'd be crying again playing this game after finishing the Truth route. Even what happened in the Wrathful route, the one scene that got me crying earlier, was pretty predictable once you give it some thought about the things that were said at the beginning of the chapter. But even though I saw it coming... man, I wasn't emotionally prepared for it. It's quite a well-done scene. Aoi's voice actress did a good job especially.

But yeah, it's definitely a dark route, possibly worse than the abrupt bad end you get in Part 8. Reminds me of Digimon Tamers, and then some...