I had long been interested in the recent Digimon games after hearing positive buzz for them, with words like “underrated” bandied about. I only had slight exposure to the brand in my youth, but I ended up recognizing more of the creatures than I would have guessed after picking up Digimon Story Time Stranger for review. With the title newly arrived on Switch 2, it felt like the perfect opportunity to put the game through its paces. Does it approach the threshold of “Pokemon Killer/Competitor”? Decidedly not, but it's a decent turn-based RPG with some interesting story elements, particularly in the second half.

You're essentially dropped into the middle of the story after selecting your starting partner Digimon, with a cataclysmic event impacting the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. You play as a male or female agent of ADAMAS, a group who investigates strange phenomena, and one that effectively guides you through the story via a healthy drip feed of objectives. In a nutshell, you end up travelling to the digital world and working to stop evil Digimon called “Titans” from taking over and causing reverberations across time that can and have impacted the human world. The way that the narrative plays out is a bit odd, with certain main quests being as simple as moving across the map, while others are much, much more involved. Once the adventure gets going, you essentially travel to a new area or biome, explore a linear dungeon, and then fight a boss before heading back to base. The loop is familiar but can feel barebones at times. Fortunately, the latter half of the game shakes things up to an extent, but the early game can sometimes play out at a snail's pace.

Pokemon fans (and Digimon fans, too) will recognize the creature collecting, evolving, and battling that make up a major part of Digimon Story Time Stranger. Instead of catching individual Digimon, you can synthesize a copy of one after you've battled it enough; additionally, the more times you battle up to a 200% threshold, the stronger your Digimon can become, so it pays to let them cook as long as possible. Enemies are plentiful in the dungeon spaces, and speed up options make quick work of fights. You can also gain an advantage by Digi-attacking nearby Digimon, when you're not using the Digi-attack to destroy barriers or find hidden items. The dungeon spaces, both indoors and outdoors, end up being reused and revisited, as you might expect from a game involving time travel, but I wish they were a bit more lively or interesting.

The combat is genuinely enjoyable, with a special move called a Cross Art you can build up as you take actions in battle. While there are a number of these to unlock, you can only bring a single one into a fight, which is an annoying restriction. The turn-based fights are brisk, until you run into some of the damage-sponge bosses that are generally pretty tough, but a good measure of your team's preparedness. I skated through the first 10 hours with few problems, but the game's second half provides a much greater challenge and basically forces you to learn the ins and outs of Digimon typing and evolution, while also grinding out levels, collecting, and side quests. I didn’t notice at first that Digimon have a level cap, so you need to pay attention to small details like that.

Where Digimon Story Time Stranger suffers is in the lack of a clear villain figure. RPGs that introduce a central antagonist too late can fail to engage the player in their story and thus make it harder to compel them forward. I found the same with this game, such that I had hoped the major boss you encounter at the story's halfway mark was going to be followed by the credit roll. But as I discovered, you need to return to the digital world of the Digimon, after visiting in the past, to see how things have changed in the future. It's here where the game uses literal evolution of characters in some neat ways, tying their development as beings to mental or emotional growth and realization. I just wish we had gotten to more moments like that before the 12 to 15-hour mark.

I couldn't help but notice the DNA of titles like Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, even more specifically a hidden gem like Tokyo Mirage Sessions. There's a darkness and seriousness to some of the plot elements, and even a sophistication to Digimon progress and development that would make more sense to competitive Pokemon trainers than those who only “gotta catch'em all”. As a Pokemon fan, I can be counted among the many who have bemoaned the series' insistence of being geared towards children, and so Digimon Story Time Stranger does serve as a nice foil to Game Freak's creation in terms of being more mature. That said, even as a seasoned RPG player, I did find some of the ways Digimon were classified, categorized, or even how they could switch to different personalities a bit daunting, so fair warning if you want a more casual or straightforward experience.

Digimon Story Time Stranger is a fine turn-based RPG with creature collecting and some rough story and progression edges. A notable feather in its cap is how smooth it runs and how nice it looks on Switch 2, not to mention miniscule load times both portably and on TV. I'm glad to have finally checked out a modern Digimon game, even if my expectations weren't fully met, and I'm curious what form the next one ends up taking. Maybe start with clear bad guys that aren't just evil Digimon.