For decades, Digimon has lived in the shadow of Pokémon, never quite achieving the same notoriety both in video games and animation. But that’s honestly fine, because it’s allowed Digimon to take a much different approach to its works — one that more often than not feels incredibly experimental. Digimon Survive is the kind of game that you’d simply never see from Pokémon: a dark and serious take on the franchise that manages to pack in some fun tactical combat to boot. It’s one of the most fascinating Digimon games you’ll ever play, and it’s easier than ever to get into, with its addition to PlayStation Plus.
Digimon Survive starts much like any other entry in the series, with a group of middle school students embarking on a extracurricular activities camp during spring break. You primarily play as Takuma Momozuka, a headstrong young boy trying to make the most of his school trip and get along with the ten other students there, including his friends. One day the group decides to investigate a temple dedicated to the so-called Beast Gods, and meets a mysterious man known only as the Professor. Seconds later the group is attacked by vicious Digimon, while friendlier creatures come to save them.
The “Survive” in the game’s name is quite literal — this is a game bent on sheer survival. Digimon Survive gives players agency, and depending on the choices you make, multiple main characters can perish. In fact, it’s highly unlikely you’ll keep everyone alive on your first playthrough, meaning you’ll need to go through a few times to see how everything plays out, and piece the overall narrative together.
But that story is the driving force behind playing through Survive, and it’s a much darker take on Digimon that really goes to some surprising places.
Survive isn’t afraid to dive headfirst into some really tough material — talking about dealing with trauma and grief, the nature of friendship and co-dependency, and the consequences that choices have in our lives. It’s an enthralling tale that sets the stakes sky-high and mostly manages to deliver on it — even if the pacing can get a bit stale at times. But as great as the game’s story is, it’s important to talk about its overall gameplay structure. I called it a strategy game before, and that’s true, but probably not in the way you’re thinking.
While Digimon Survive is technically in the strategy genre, the combat probably takes up roughly 25 percent of the experience. For all purposes, Digimon Survive is a visual novel with strategy elements. This is a game with a lot of text and story, and the primary thing you’re doing it reading through that story, making decisions, and exploring locations from a first-person point of view.
Immersing yourself in the world and characters of Survive is entirely the point, and the tactical combat is there to accentuate the stakes of the story and your bonds with your Digimon companions.
The combat isn’t bad; it’s a perfectly competent tactical RPG that doesn’t really do anything new. You and the enemy team take turns, and you have a host of different characters with different strengths and abilities. What is interesting, however, is that your story choices can affect how your Digimon evolve, meaning your team composition can vary vastly depending on how you go through the story.
Digimon Survive isn’t the most strategically challenging game out there, but it is a phenomenal story that might scratch your tactical itch at the same time. It’s a brashly bold and ambitious take on the long-running series that shows how much potential creature-collecting series can have with more mature themes. At the very least, it’s a refreshing change of pace.
