The intro is not the best - the game has you walk on a straight line for half a dozen screens, then fight a bunch of low level Digimon which get one-shotted by your starter. Not very fun.
When things ramp up, it becomes more enjoyable: the scan-hatch-synthetize gameplay loop is exhilarating, the battle animations are gorgeous to look at, and the final boss was difficult but manageable (I was playing on Hard).
I also found it super awesome that my party of lovely critters followed me around during exploration, and helped me explore by removing obstacles along the road. Sometimes, the monsters showed a prompt to talk with them, and my answer altered their mood, which in turn allowed them to gain a different skill. It allowed me to have interactions with my critters outside of battle, which goes a long way to develop the bond between me and my monsters. I hope there will be even more contextual interactions in the main game.
LEVEL DESIGN.
The dungeon layout was extremely simplistic and had limited exploration: there was a very clear path forward and few dead ends here and there that housed a bunch of items. There were also a lot of map transitions, which were understandable in the Vita ports, but that I found unusual as the game is targeting modern hardware that should be able to handle bigger maps.
The locales were for the most part boring, uninspired corridors, but the cutscene at the end of the demo showed a bunch of cool places in the Digiworld, so I hope that it’ll get better as the game progresses?
GRAPHICS.
As mentioned before, graphics and animations are gorgeous in battle, but on the cheap side during exploration. For example, the standard walking animation feels and looks float-y. I also found it unusual that my character had a different walking animation for descending stairs, but not for ascending them.
The cutscenes tried their best to have dynamic camera angles, but the characters talking were stiff, and the difference in quality between main characters models and generic NPCs ones was sharp and noticeable.
While human NPCs are bland and boring, the Digimon were a lot more detailed and great too look at. The difference between walking around in the human city at the beginning of the demo, and exploring the Digimon City in the second demo was night and day: I think it’s clear that the devs prioritized one over the other.
OVERALL.
I know I sounded negative in the above write-up, but that’s not indicative of my enjoyment with the demo. A lot of negatives are things that most Digimon fans have grown to accept in most titles of the franchise (although it’s certainly surprising that the devs did not make an attempt to improve them in a fully-fledged title running on modern hardware).
The combat system showed traces of greatness, and I’m hopeful it’ll get better as the game progresses and more Digimon and strategies become available. Level design was bland in the playable intro, but the cutscene at the end and the Digimon city demo gave me hope that it’ll get better later on. NPCs looked uninspired, but the monsters were great, their animations were very well done, and it didn’t take me long to grow fond of my team of lovely critters.
Overall, I’m hopeful. with such a short way to the release of the full game, I doubt that my gripes with the title will be solved, but I’m positive that what the team has already crafted will be fun to play.
The €70 full-price looks a bit steep to me - the game has too many elements reminiscent of the low-budget handheld roots of its predecessors, which the more polished battle animations are not able to cover-up. I fail to justify the AAA price-tag for a game that looks and feels like a glorified Vita remaster. I think a €50 price tag would’ve been more appropriate, especially as players have grown accustomed, as of late, to far more polished AA and semi-indie AAA experiences selling at a lower price.
That being said, I think that hardcore fans of the franchise will have a lot to chew on. As for the others, I suggest giving it a try when it goes on sale later on - but don’t wait too much!
The difference between walking around in the human city at the beginning of the demo, and exploring the Digimon City in the second demo was night and day: I think it’s clear that the devs prioritized one over the other.
That’s true. In case they were limited with their budget, that probably a good decision. And i expect we spend more time in the digi world than in the human world.
My short bullet point analysis:
The intro is not the best - the game has you walk on a straight line for half a dozen screens, then fight a bunch of low level Digimon which get one-shotted by your starter. Not very fun.
When things ramp up, it becomes more enjoyable: the scan-hatch-synthetize gameplay loop is exhilarating, the battle animations are gorgeous to look at, and the final boss was difficult but manageable (I was playing on Hard).
I also found it super awesome that my party of lovely critters followed me around during exploration, and helped me explore by removing obstacles along the road. Sometimes, the monsters showed a prompt to talk with them, and my answer altered their mood, which in turn allowed them to gain a different skill. It allowed me to have interactions with my critters outside of battle, which goes a long way to develop the bond between me and my monsters. I hope there will be even more contextual interactions in the main game.
The dungeon layout was extremely simplistic and had limited exploration: there was a very clear path forward and few dead ends here and there that housed a bunch of items. There were also a lot of map transitions, which were understandable in the Vita ports, but that I found unusual as the game is targeting modern hardware that should be able to handle bigger maps.
The locales were for the most part boring, uninspired corridors, but the cutscene at the end of the demo showed a bunch of cool places in the Digiworld, so I hope that it’ll get better as the game progresses?
As mentioned before, graphics and animations are gorgeous in battle, but on the cheap side during exploration. For example, the standard walking animation feels and looks float-y. I also found it unusual that my character had a different walking animation for descending stairs, but not for ascending them.
The cutscenes tried their best to have dynamic camera angles, but the characters talking were stiff, and the difference in quality between main characters models and generic NPCs ones was sharp and noticeable.
While human NPCs are bland and boring, the Digimon were a lot more detailed and great too look at. The difference between walking around in the human city at the beginning of the demo, and exploring the Digimon City in the second demo was night and day: I think it’s clear that the devs prioritized one over the other.
I know I sounded negative in the above write-up, but that’s not indicative of my enjoyment with the demo. A lot of negatives are things that most Digimon fans have grown to accept in most titles of the franchise (although it’s certainly surprising that the devs did not make an attempt to improve them in a fully-fledged title running on modern hardware).
The combat system showed traces of greatness, and I’m hopeful it’ll get better as the game progresses and more Digimon and strategies become available. Level design was bland in the playable intro, but the cutscene at the end and the Digimon city demo gave me hope that it’ll get better later on. NPCs looked uninspired, but the monsters were great, their animations were very well done, and it didn’t take me long to grow fond of my team of lovely critters.
Overall, I’m hopeful. with such a short way to the release of the full game, I doubt that my gripes with the title will be solved, but I’m positive that what the team has already crafted will be fun to play.
The €70 full-price looks a bit steep to me - the game has too many elements reminiscent of the low-budget handheld roots of its predecessors, which the more polished battle animations are not able to cover-up. I fail to justify the AAA price-tag for a game that looks and feels like a glorified Vita remaster. I think a €50 price tag would’ve been more appropriate, especially as players have grown accustomed, as of late, to far more polished AA and semi-indie AAA experiences selling at a lower price.
That being said, I think that hardcore fans of the franchise will have a lot to chew on. As for the others, I suggest giving it a try when it goes on sale later on - but don’t wait too much!
That’s true. In case they were limited with their budget, that probably a good decision. And i expect we spend more time in the digi world than in the human world.