Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth PS4 review

 

Developed by: Media Vison
Published by: Bandai Namco 
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 (also available on PlayStation 3 and Vita)

For people that love classic JRPGs,  Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth stays true to the genre with a turn based battle system, dialogue between characters, and a Japanese voice track with English language subtitles. Cyber Sleuth is heavily Japanese centric, taking place in between Japanese cities and the online cyber world EDEN.

Starting Cyber Sleuth, players will assume the role of either Takumi or Ami,  male and female amateur hackers. They receive a device called a Digimon Capture from a mysterious stranger in a chat room which allows them to capture and befriend Digimon. These creatures inhabit a next-generation version of the internet called Cyberspace Eden in which users can physically enter. After traveling to the lowest levels of Eden, they are attacked by a data-based entity called an “Eater” which leaves their bodies half-digitized. They find that they can now freely travel between the real world and the virtual world via terminals. They are approached by a woman named Kyoko Kuremi, head of the Kuremi Detective Agency, who recruits them as part of their cyber division. You then scan, raise, and train your Digimon companions to battle by your side against a group of hackers and uncover the mysteries within EDEN. Along the way you’ll continue to level up your Digimon to Digivolve and unlock powerful Digimon.

One of the biggest problem I have with Cyber Sleuth  is the dialogue. There part where you just wanna know whats happening or where you need to go in the story. Often times Kyoko Kuremi goes off on side tangents; after a while you’ll just start pressing X so you can get to the point of what she trying to explain or  to get intel about information regarding a case. The world map is big but broken up in areas. The problem here is that most of the areas  you can visit and can explore are linear space to move in. It’s clearly obvious that this was developed around the limitations of the PlayStation Vita. On the plus side, the game does support cross save function.

Throughout the main story you’ll be working for Kyoko. She’ll assign cases for you to solve in order to help your digimon level and build your character stats. There is plenty to do within the game, which adds plenty of content and will keep you involved. One of the thing I enjoyed was the digi farm. In the digi farm you will train your Digimon and build up their stats and help them digivolve into better and more powerful Digimon. Within the digi farm you can also have your Digimons build you items like HP spray in packs and hard to find items or special items. If you need a break from cases, there’s an online battle arena where you can go head to head with other players. There’s also offline battle arena mode for local duels.

The battle system is pretty much straight forward. Your Digimon can attack, use a skill, guard, or change out. On the right side of the screen there’s a timeline showing the turn order of the battle. Moving around on the map in an area will lead to random enemy encounters. Most battle in the game are pretty easy but there is a little thinking involved when using a Digimon. Digimon have types and element attributes that you need to pay attention to . There are four types of Digimon in the Digital World: VIRUS, VACCINE, DATA and FREE. The first three types are strong and weak against one another in the same way WATER, FIRE and GRASS types are in the Pokemon franchise. FREE types are neutral so they don’t take more or less damage from other types. The other three are cyclical and they go as such: VIRUS is strong against DATA, DATA is strong against VACCINE, and VACCINE is strong against VIRUS. This advantage can either double the damage you deal or half the damage. When it’s time to initiate a boss battle, it’s always good to take these types into consideration. Your battles can have very different outcomes depending on your lineup.

Cyber Sleuth is really a solid game but with a battle system that’s been done by other JRPG. It doesn’t add anything exciting, has linear maps, the story is unfocused, and there’s no English voice language option. These takes away from the experience but not by much and in no way is this a bad game. Both the worlds of EDEN and Japan are bright and vivid. The battles are quick and if you don’t want to do actively participate, there a Auto battle option you can select when its your turn to make a move. There are virtually no load times with this game. When you boot up the game you’ll actually be playing in the game world. From going to menu to menu or area to area or fighting battles to battles, the game just works. That’s how it should be considering how many games today are developed with bugs and requiring patches.