Digimon Survive

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 222 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 159 out of 222
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 222
  3. Negative: 56 out of 222

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  1. Astram
    Aug 5, 2022
    6
    I've beaten the game about three times. Put in about 50+ hours. I'm somewhat of a Digimon Fan because I liked the show's first three seasons. If you don't want to read everything, just head to the bottom.

    This is how I graded this game: 10 points total. 1 point for graphics/lighting/models 1 point for story/believability/makes sense/flow 1 point for gameplay 1 point for    I've beaten the game about three times. Put in about 50+ hours. I'm somewhat of a Digimon Fan because I liked the show's first three seasons. If you don't want to read everything, just head to the bottom.

    This is how I graded this game: 10 points total.

    1 point for graphics/lighting/models
    1 point for story/believability/makes sense/flow
    1 point for gameplay
    1 point for characters/development
    1 point for music
    1 point for customization
    1 point for the time of play
    1 point for content
    1 point for UI/fluidity
    1 point for emotional impact

    Graphics: .7

    The graphics are in 2.5D. This is fine with me, but to get a 10, you need to be somewhere in the realism dimension. The drawings are delicate, and the effects are pretty simple—nothing to complain about here, but nothing special.

    Story: 1

    I won't say much because I don't want to spoil anything. The story is dark compared to the original series and only gets dimmer based on your decisions. But, I'll say that in my first playthrough, I lost two of my comrades. And wow, that was dark and awesome all at the same time. However, on my second run, I was able to save everyone; honestly, it didn't feel as awesome as the first run. So, I'll grade this game based on my first run.

    Gameplay: .3

    The gameplay is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, but if we're being honest here, I would rather play FFT than this game. FFT may be a PS1 game, but it's worlds better than this one. This game is straightforward and stale.

    Characters: .5

    I do like that your decisions affect the characters and what becomes of them, but I'm not too fond of the fact that some of these characters jump 180 with their personalities once their arc is over and done with. Really? No one changes that fast.

    Anyway, for some characters, I feel they won't even die or betray you based on your answers. The decision affects die after you progress a particular portion of the game. As for the characters themselves, they're pretty JRPG structured. You have the best friend, the cute girl, the older sister type, the cool guy, etc.

    Music: .7

    I will say that the music gave me the feeling that things were going to get dark. So that was the most memorable type of music for me, but as for everything else, it fit, but it wasn't unique or special.

    Customization: .1

    This game is absolutely simple. One skill per Digimon, every Digimon can digivolve to mega, two equipment items, items to use during battles, items to use to increase stats, and that's about it.

    Time of Play: 1

    If you plan on doing multiple routes or just doing the new game+ -- that'll take about 30-40 hours, which is a good amount. However, it's not worth $60. Let's be honest here. Again, 70% story and 30% gameplay, and again, the gameplay is dull.

    Content: .1

    This game is a visual novel with a lot of story, but outside of that, it's empty.

    UI/Fluidty: 1
    The UI fits the story, and the loading times are super fast. But, of course, the game itself is pretty shallow so it would make sense. Emotional Impact: .7 A lot of nostalgia, which was awesome, and the deaths of those characters due to my decisions were pretty impactful too. However, once you dissect the game, it's a rather shallow game. However, this grade will be based on my first playthrough. Total Score: 6.1 Digimon Survive is a game for Digimon Fans and those who enjoy Visual Novels. I, for one, am both. However, I don't believe this game is worth $60. The game is hyped up by its reputation and not by its substance within the game itself. DS has its moments, but those moments don't overcome all the other flaws within itself. The flaws are so significant that I will tell you that this game is probably worth about $30 max. Similar to when I bought a PS1 game as a kid.    … Expand
  2. Zaregoto
    Aug 26, 2022
    5
    Was looking forward to this one but turned out to be a snooze fest. Very boring.
    I will explain to you how boring.
    At first I played the game myself, but because everything was progressing SO slowly, i switched to watching a walkthrough and increased the speed. At first I thought 1.25x would be enough but in the end I had it on 2x and it STILL felt sluggish. After reading through half    Was looking forward to this one but turned out to be a snooze fest. Very boring.
    I will explain to you how boring.
    At first I played the game myself, but because everything was progressing SO slowly, i switched to watching a walkthrough and increased the speed. At first I thought 1.25x would be enough but in the end I had it on 2x and it STILL felt sluggish. After reading through half the game (about 15 hours) there were like 2-3 interesting things that happened. So I dropped it.

    The group of characters takes about 2-3 hours just to start moving the plot forward a little bit, then something actually happens and right after it's boring af again for hours. The tactical rpg aspect could have been cool, but it's slow, little room for creativity and just not fun to play.

    Play Cyber Sleuth instead or Devil Survivor.    … Expand
  3. Lumber_Jones
    Aug 2, 2022
    7
    the game within is a good bit of fun and as someone who fell away from the franchise of Digimon for a few years it's actually a really nice way to ease back into things. Visuals are great, gameplay is simple to understand and the visual novel aspects are kind of nice, especially because I get to make my own dialogue options that i'm told will affect things in the later game. The biggestthe game within is a good bit of fun and as someone who fell away from the franchise of Digimon for a few years it's actually a really nice way to ease back into things. Visuals are great, gameplay is simple to understand and the visual novel aspects are kind of nice, especially because I get to make my own dialogue options that i'm told will affect things in the later game. The biggest problem I have is that the tutorial and setup for the game is SO FREAKING LONG. there are not so many mechanics in this game, at least the visual novel side, that need as much explanation as i'm given, and the battle mechanics are simple enough that even if a few tutorials were missing I wouldn't feel I was truly missing much if anything. Overall I think people are mad they can't make the dinosaurs fight more and while that's valid. it's a visual story more than anything and if you like the lore of the franchise then you will truly love this game.… Expand
  4. humulos
    Aug 18, 2022
    6
    5/10 if you don't care about Digimon, 7/10 if you do. A lot of folks focus on the idea that somehow this game is great as long as you recognize that it's a visual novel, but that's simply not the case. Not to say it's bad either, it's just a very middle of the road title. In all honesty, the story and characters are enjoyable, which is obviously a big plus for this sort of game. The5/10 if you don't care about Digimon, 7/10 if you do. A lot of folks focus on the idea that somehow this game is great as long as you recognize that it's a visual novel, but that's simply not the case. Not to say it's bad either, it's just a very middle of the road title. In all honesty, the story and characters are enjoyable, which is obviously a big plus for this sort of game. The presentation is also very easy on the eyes, with expertly drawn artwork, a mild amount of animations, and great looking Digimon rigs in battle. Some people may see the number of available Digimon and be disappointed when comparing to games with larger rosters, but the scope and progression of the game really make that a non-issue, the number of Digimon units you can recruit and evolve feels just right. However, where the game begins to lose points is in the gameplay itself, both the visual novel and tactics gameplay. Starting with the battles, there is absolutely nothing new brought to the table here. If you've played a strategy game on the PS1, then you know exactly what you are getting into. Maps are big but units don't always have movement options to account for that, so you can end up sending 4-5 turns just trying to reach an opponent, or more if said opponent is programmed to just run to the far corner of the map. It's pretty uninteresting overall, especially when playing on lower difficulty levels. I hear some people say that auto-battle makes that a non-issue, but if the preferred way to play a game is to not play it at all, then there is likely something wrong here. Similar to games like Fire Emblem, you can attempt to recruit opponents depending on the battle type, though this process is very tedious, and begs you to just use a guide. Whether you have the chance to recruit depends on whether you guess the right answers to 3 questions, with the mediocre translation making your responses nonsensical at times (a running theme in the game). Not that it matters, as there is absolutely nothing to indicate what the correct answer should be, it's a complete guess if this is your first time hearing that enemy give that question. Even if you do get every answer right, you can still lose out on recruiting simply because you only have a percentage chance to be successful, depending your character's current alignment, so some Digimon will always just be more difficult to get depending on the route you are attempting to take.

    Battles of course are only a third of the equation, possibly less depending on how you play. The game is first and foremost a visual novel and it really likes to draw that out. The scenarios exist largely to waste your time, as it can take a significant amount of time for anything meaningful to happen. Characters waste time repeating information constantly, and not just single sentences. A perfect example is chapter 4, where the exact same 5-minute situation plays out at least 3 times, with no progression of any kind, followed by the most drop-dead uninteresting exploration I've ever experienced. It's clear they were really trying to include gameplay elements for the sake of simply including gameplay elements, but these portions of the game would have been MORE interesting without needless player interaction. Meanwhile for cases where player choice does matter, the localization is once again very hit and miss, making it sometimes difficult to choose an answer you would actually agree with. The free-time segments are probably where the visual novel aspect shines, as despite the confusing translation, you generally do end up at least getting to know the characters better.

    All of these complaints are mostly harmless, but they do add up to make an experience that isn't by any means new or interesting. There are much better visual novels, there are much better tactics games, go play those instead if you haven't. If you really like Digimon (which I do), then you may at least find value in this being an enjoyable Digimon narrative.    … Expand
  5. leios
    Jul 31, 2022
    7
    I am a digimon fan. I have *always* loved digimon games and regularly play digimon world 1 to this day.

    That said, every digimon game has some fatal flaw that prevents me from recommending it to a friend. Digimon Survive is no exception. Let's start with the good: 1. I honestly love the characters. They are all quite solid. 2. The story is great. 3. It is pretty polished and looks    I am a digimon fan. I have *always* loved digimon games and regularly play digimon world 1 to this day.

    That said, every digimon game has some fatal flaw that prevents me from recommending it to a friend. Digimon Survive is no exception.

    Let's start with the good:
    1. I honestly love the characters. They are all quite solid.
    2. The story is great.
    3. It is pretty polished and looks great for the most part.
    4. Combat is actually pretty good. I know it looks like a bad mobile game, but it is quite fun.

    Now for the bad:
    1. The digivolution mechanic is... not great. I would argue that the most important aspect of any digimon game is it's digivolution mechanic. In this game, your digimon changes based on your choices in the visual novel. That's cool, but many digimon only have 1 option available and there's no DNA digivolution option to spice things up.
    2. I hate agumon. This is the only digimon game I have ever played where I am *forced* to play with an agumon partner. I just don't like this guy. Never have and never will.
    3. You *must* play as Takuma. I recognize that there were some press releases that explained you would be playing through the game as Takuma, but the main website really makes it seem like he is just one of many possible main characters. I don't think Takuma is bad, but I feel like I would have preferred to play as almost any other character.

    Other notes:
    1. There aren't too many available digimon. If you are a monmon fan, you are out of luck.
    2. I had a bunch of technical issues on steam. I am completely unable to save and sometimes the game will just freeze after the intro cutscene. I recognize that this could be my fault, so I am not holding that against the game for this review.

    The verdict: If you like visual novels, Digimon Survive is pretty decent. If you like the digimon anime, you might like this game. If you are expecting a traditional digimon game, you probably will not like this game.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. TheSixthAxis
    Sep 6, 2022
    70
    Digimon Survive is an exciting alternate take on the tone and style of the Digimon series. It doesn't execute things flawlessly - those opening chapters are a bit of a chore and the tactics gameplay is simple with a capital 'S'. Still, when things kick off and the story starts to come together, it's a suspenseful and gripping journey that I'm glad I got to experience.
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  2. The Mako Reactor
    Aug 22, 2022
    75
    Blending a pure visual novel with a turn-based tactical RPG combat, Digimon Survive is one of the best surprises of this year so far despite its issues. It is held back by some localization issues, but feels great to play on PC including Steam Deck after a post-launch patch addressed most of the issues. Digimon Survive also serves as a nice entry point into the franchise for newcomers as long as you aren't turned off by the structure.
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  3. GameGrin
    Aug 9, 2022
    95
    Digimon Survive has both a well-made story and a deep combat system that will engage players through each route they may take, but the first few hours are ill-paced with long breaks away from combat.
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