Tucked away in a meeting room just off the main show floor during PAX West 2025, MP1st managed to score a four-hour session with Bandai Namco's upcoming RPG, Digimon Story Time Stranger.
With a month to go until release, we give the latest game from the franchise a spin and see how it's shaping up.
2025 marked three years since the last console release in the Digimon franchise, 2022's Digimon Survive. That game was a mixture of genres, but it was chiefly a visual novel. There have not been any new Story entries since 2018's Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory. In fact, Time Stranger was also announced back then, in 2017, before the launch of Hacker's Memory. Seven years is a long time to go without a release, but fans of this series don't have much longer to wait.
Digimon Story Time Stranger is a turn-based RPG, which is typical for this franchise. Digimon have elements that they may align with, in addition to their attributes. While there are a handful of different elements, each weak or strong against at least one other element, there are only three different attributes: Data, which is strong against Vaccine, which is strong against Virus, which loops back around to be strong against Data. This adds to the strategies of some battles, as you learn enemies' strengths and weaknesses over time the more you are exposed to them.
Defeating other Digimon is a key component of obtaining them. Each time you encounter a Digimon, your Digivice obtains analysis data. Once enough data is collected, the scan level will read at least 100%. At that point, you can convert this data and summon a copy of that Digimon. If you continue past 100%, the overall rating of the summoned Digimon will increase, until the scan level reaches 200%, at which point your summon will be as powerful as can be. For the most part, you'll have a competent enough party of Digimon that waiting for a 200% scan will likely always be worth it, but perhaps for speed runs, converting at 100% may help.
There are numerous ways to power up your Digimon, or change how they evolve, or Digivolve as this universe calls it (there are a lot of words for things in this series which begin with the "Digi-" prefix). Besides earning XP from simply being an active member of your battle party, there is also a Digifarm (told ya!), where you can train multiple Digimon on a globe-shaped grid world. Training takes a certain amount of real-world time, which can of course be sped up for a price. You use currency which was earned in-game; no confirmation of whether or not this currency can be purchased for real-world currency has surfaced yet, but the game's official website notes that certain editions of the game come with Season Passes, so presumably, there will be some DLC in the form of additional content, at least.
Finally, your character can also occasionally participate directly in the fight, via Cross Arts. As a battle progresses, your Digivice will collect research, and once enough loads up, a special Cross Arts move will unlock. There are various Cross Arts moves available to unlock, with offensive, defensive, support, and other moves to discover. As the move takes time to build up to, you don't have to use it in the same battle in which it was earned. It's usually worth it to keep it ready during smaller fights, and unleash it as your first action in a boss fight, for instance.
Digimon Story Time Stranger sees you play as a new recruit for the ADAMAS organization, tasked with clearing so-called anomalies, which are strange events that occur whenever the world of humans overlaps with the digital world where Digimon live. Digimon may look friendly with a bright, cel-shaded color scheme and generally upbeat characters, but stories within this universe can also have a dark side. During the second half of our session, we were taken to a later portion of the story, and witnessed the aftermath of an attack where several Digimon died. While the story isn't dark overall, it certainly has its moments, even in our brief time with the game.
Digimon Story Time Stranger is leaving the previous generation of consoles behind. While this entry was originally announced for the PS4, it is now launching only on current-gen hardware, eight years later. In a first for the entire franchise, while we may lose PS4 compatibility, we do gain the very first Digimon game to launch on an Xbox platform, as it will also launch on the Xbox Series of consoles. While we didn't see the specs of the system we were playing on, it was playing just fine, at a perceived steady 60 fps or higher. With minimum specs calling for an 8th-gen Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen5 3600, 8 GB RAM, and a GTX 970, RX 580, or Arc A580, there is a wide range of hardware the game should run on without much issue.
Digimon Story Time Stranger is shaping up to be the kind of turn-based RPG fans might expect when they think of a Digimon game. It'll be good to play a game in this style, within this universe, with modern game sensibilities and conveniences. Watch for our review when Digimon Story: Time Stranger launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on October 3, 2025.