Digimon Survive: Digimon returns with a dark and captivating adventure

Visual novel games are a very niche game genre and don’t usually have as large an audience as other styles, but if you combine it with a tactical RPG system and creature collecting theme? Would it work?

“Digimon Survive” gives us a strong opening presentation with beautiful animation and an amazing soundtrack. We are introduced to the characters as they go about their daily lives on a high school field trip and gradually learn their personalities, tastes, and simultaneously how the game will work and after a good amount of text, we face our first danger situation and combat gameplay. If you have played “Final Fantasy Tactics” or “Disgaea” you already know what to expect here, however the combat is quite simple.

“Digimon Survive” has a fascinating story but with a slow pacing

The “Digimon Survive” storyline hooked me right away. The digimon are presented beyond the usual “creatures created by technology and digital world”: here they are presented as Kemonogami and already known to mankind for a longer time.

The characters are attacked by wild digimon in an abandoned and destroyed version of their school, with a very creepy setting, but not to give away too much of the plot, I won’t go too deep, after all the brilliance of the game is in this.

However, the game is too slow to take you to the exciting parts, there is too much unnecessary talk and moments that tire the player who is looking for a better balance between the mix of visual novel and combat.  

You could say that the game is 70% text and 30% combat. You can explore some areas and do free fights to get stronger or recruit other digimon to your group.

Influences of your choices

The game has multiple endings and your choices will affect your progress and happenings with characters and in the story, this is a very positive thing, however, it has its potential affected by the slowness in which the story unfolds.

Your main digimon get evolved during the story and the ones you recruit can be unlocked later with items and can evolve at any time during your turn in combat.

In a live stream, this game requires a little more effort

Visual novel games can be very popular in lives, but the streamer needs to be constantly reading or engaging their audience, after all the game does not have many action moments and it is the unfolding of the story and the choices he makes that will draw the attention of those who are watching.

Tested on the Steam version, the game runs super light and without problems. The game is translated into several languages, allowing the streamer to broadcast the game in a much more accessible way, both for those who are playing it and for those who are watching it. Another positive aspect for bandai for continuing to bring games in multiple languages.

Fezudu