Calvin Dimas
Digimon, digital monsters. A series about raising monsters and training them to grow stronger that many have been drawn to, not because of the allure of having a talking pet that you could battle with, but due to the darker themes and a unique world connected to modern technology.It was an IP that I adored as child but eventually grew out of it as many other kids did.
That being said, I am currently a returning Digimon fan. I got back into the franchise due to the on-going trading card game but haven’t experienced any new stories in the Digital World in quite some time. In fact the only Digimon game I had played prior to 2025 was the original Digimon World that released in the United States in the year 2000. I won’t go too in-depth on it but it was pretty difficult and obtuse.
25 years later Digimon is still going strong and its latest release Digimon Story Time Stranger, shows that the IP has continued to Digivolve into new forms with new ideas, while enhancing others in the turn-based JRPG genre. Something else to note, is that it’s hard to not talk about Digimon without referencing the most financially successful IP in the world, Pokémon. While I will do my best to share my thoughts on Time Stranger based on its own merits, I think it’s also worth mentioning the on-going conversations and discourse between this game and Pokémon Legends Z-A .
After spending 40+ hours with the game, this is my review of Digimon Story Time Stranger.
Entering the Digital World
In Time Stranger you will play as the agent, an undercover operative whose job is to investigate abnormal events and intervene if phase electron lifeforms, otherwise known as Digimon are involved. You can choose between a male or female protagonist and even swap on the fly in the menus if you decide to change your mind or get bored. Gender has no bearing on anything in the game so it comes down to personal preference. Not only is the feature to switch gender whenever you want nice, but it also causes zero to minimal loading in the game which made the game feel modern and forward thinking.
You begin your first Digimon investigation with one of three partner Digimon to choose from. However, choosing one Digimon does not lock you out from the other two as all starter Digimon can be obtained later. I chose to start with Demidevimon since it was the only Digimon that had an attack that could hit multiple enemies. It is also a Digimon that I use across a few my decks in the trading card game so for me personally it felt like the Digimon that I was connected to the most.
After choosing your partner Digimon you’ll learn the basics of the game as well as how damage can stack up against you or your opponents due to type match ups, elemental damage, and unique Digimon traits.
Digimon Combat
The majority of your time in spent in Time Stranger will be in the countless Digimon battles you’ll encounter throughout the game.
Battles begin in one of three ways:
- You attack a Digimon,
- A Digimon attacks you
- You and another Digimon run into one another
Attacking an enemy Digimon first in the field is always the goal as this gives you the advantage by taking away some of their health before the battle starts and allows you to go first. The same applies if the enemy Digimon attacks first so it is always in your best interest to stay alert of your surroundings.
Digimon in your party have several options when it comes to battles.
- Basic attacks
- Guarding against damage
- Elemental Special attacks
- Using a battle item
- Switching to a reserve Digimon
- Running away
As you progress you can also unleash a variety of ultimate attacks that will do massive damage to enemy Digimon or have other battle enhancing effects like healing and protecting your Digimon from status effects for a few turns. One of the best parts of combat is how strategic you can get due two of the battle actions not costing a turn. Those actions are using an item and switching your Digimon out. It felt like such a nice quality of life addition to not have to worry about sacrificing damage to instead use a healing item or wasting a turn to switch to a more optimal party member to maximize damage. There are limits to this, but it makes the combat flow a lot faster and made more of the fights not feel like a chore. Even if the battles do start to feel like a grind, you have the option to turn up the battle speed as much as five times if you get tired of seeing the same battle animations over and over.
Once a battle has been completed the player does not need to worry about finding a Digi-hospital or a special location to heal, you don’t even need to worry about using healing items. Instead all the player has to do is stand still for a maximum of 10 seconds and their full party will be healed up. It’s a really nice touch that helps you keep moving forward without having to worry about grinding for healing items or running back and forth to safe areas, and eliminates a lot of the tediousness that can be found in other games in the monster battling genre.
Time Stranger also has one of my favorite features of a turn based RPG. When you run into a Digimon in the wild that you have 100% success rate of defeating, instead of starting a battle when you initiative an attack, the Digimon will be deleted and you can keep moving on. You’ll receive a very minimal amount of experience and money so this is not an optimal way to grind but it once again shows how committed this game is to not slowing you down when it comes to battles. Returning to an early area for late game side quests shouldn’t be a drag when you have a party that can obliterate anything in its path. Too often many turn based RPGs force you sit through non-losable battles that end up being a waste of time. It’s an RPG feature that has been around as early as 1995 with Earthbound being the oldest game I know of that has it, but the feature may be even older than that. I understand that some games may benefit from random battles due to rare drops or stat gains but at the very least it needs to be an option people can turn on and off in a games.
Digi Management
As you encounter and defeat new Digimon you’ll be able to expand your party based on enemy Digimon battle data. Basically, the more times you fight a Digimon in the wild, the more data you collect on it. Once you have 100% battle data on a Digimon you can convert its data into a Digimon that you can add to your party. This data number can also be increased to 200% for additional stat gains when expanding your Digimon collection.
Finding and acquiring new Digimon is just the beginning. As your Digimon level up they’ll be able to Digivolve into more powerful forms, but instead of sticking to one evolution path, each Digimon have a branch of options. The branching options also goes both ways. If you Digivolve a Digimon up into one of its next evolution stages and do not like your outcome, you can always De-Digivolve it back down to its previous form and try something else.
The further you get into Time Stranger, the more rigid the requirements for Digivolution will become. At first your Digimon can only progress as far as your Agent Rank. This is a level that is separate from any of your Digimon’s level and increases based on missions you complete in the main story and from side quests. At specific Agent Ranks you’ll unlock new stages of Digivolution once requirements are met like having enough attack, or defense.
However, there are other paths of Digivolution that Digimon can take. One of these is DNA Digivolution, where two Digimon are able to combine into a new Digimon. This can be done within the Digivolution menu or within in battle if both eligible Digimon are present in your active party. This allows even more customization by taking two powerful Digimon and combining them into something even greater. It’s a concept that sounds really exciting and you would think the presentation would be super hype to match but I was left very disappointed. Instead of getting a powerful cut scene that plays out in battle, both of the two required Digimon disappear with a new Digimon appearing in their place, in a very unimpressive transition. Given how vibrant the attack animations are throughout Time Stranger I was hoping for something a little flashier then what actually appeared in the final game.
As you encounter and gain more Digimon it will be clear which ones are your favorites and which ones are going to collect dust. The good news is that Digimon that you do not plan on using can be used as fodder to enhance other Digimon that have more active spots in your on-going battle strategies.
If you’re new to Digimon or a returning fan like myself, it can be overwhelming at first with the amount of choices, but I think this ends up being a positive thing as it allows players to experiment with different Digimon, party make ups and strategies. It’s very easy early on to focus on Digimon who just hit hard and worry about nothing else. However, only focusing on damage can create some friction as later fights will require you to utilize all your battle options
Exploring the Digital World
The story of Digimon Story Time Stranger is split between two locations, our world and the Digital World. By our world, I specifically mean Japan. This is where the game starts off and I was worried that we were not going to spending a ton of time in the Digital World but I am happy to say that is not the case. Once you enter the Digital World called Illiad, you’ll be met with a city of Digimon all with their own problems and issues. It’s fun to see fan favorites interacting with one another as you explore new environments like a forest group of Digimon led by a leader that drinks too much or a factory environment where all the Digimon are machine-based. The game has super interesting smaller environments that felt other worldly, like an area made up of colorful blocks with patterns all moving in a chaotic mechanical way. It was something I would expect in the late game but not early on. I also loved the ornate golden architecture of a palace you get to visit that is complete with a bridge that materializes when you walk out over a gap. It all feels very in line with what you want to see in a strange new world made up of data, inhabited by digital monsters
While one area is full of people and the other is full of Digimon they both offer the same types of activities and side content for players to explore. Even though the environments captivated the imagination I cannot say the same about the majority of the side content.
While side quests do exist, I never found them interesting. It feels like they only existed as throwaway quests to get your Agent Rank higher so you can unlock stronger Digivolution stages faster. Yes, you do get additional items, experience, and money, but these side quests felt more like a chore than something that I wanted to seek out. This is where I think the game could have explained a bit more of the lore of the world for curious players. I will say, there is one side quest that is an exception, I will not spoil it but it has a great payoff at the end of the game and feels like it is a reference to the Knights of the Round quest in Final Fantasy VII.
In between fights you can utilize a space in between worlds known as the Digi Farm. This is an area where you can place multiple Digimon to train specific stats over time if you’re running into walls while going after a specific evolution or are trying to optimize your party. The way the farm works, is that Digimon will be left alone for a set amount of time and will complete training once the timer is up. You can also pay money to instantly train them with no downside other than a smaller wallet. While on paper this feature sounds very useful I only felt it was necessary towards the end of the game when I was going after specific Digimon. It’s a monster raising mechanic that I wish it was a bit more useful in the beginning of the game and had more going on. It is a nice feature that can help steam line your party’s growth, but it lacks depth and honestly you can also finish the game without ever touching the farm.
While I was hoping the Digi Farm would be a deeper mini-game than it turned out to be, there is actually only one true mini-game that exists and that is card battling. As I mentioned earlier, the current Digimon trading card game was my re-entry point to the franchise, so I was super excited to see a form of the on-going card game show up in Time Stranger. That being said, what I found was not very impressive. The card battles take place by you playing a single card that has a Digimon’s type and power level based on the Digivolution stage. Even if you play a card with a type advantage and high power level, it does not guarantee a win, just the likelihood that you will win. The opponent will play their card and two sprites based on the early Tamagotchi Digimon will battle it out over the course of five rounds. It’s something that I appreciated at first as a nod to the current and past Digimon card games, but it grows stale pretty quickly and isn’t a very engaging in the long run.
In addition to all of this, if you get stuck or are wanting a challenge, there are Outer Dungeons and Arenas that offer new objectives and challenging fights to overcome with rewards to help streamline your party growth but once again are no required to finish the game.
On paper all of these additions sound great but the execution is a bit lacking. While I am thankful that Time Stranger made an attempt at interesting side content, I hope the developers can learn from this game and create deeper options in the future.
Digital Hiccups
Side content is not the only spot where the game runs into issues. I mentioned before that I was impressed by being able to switch genders on the fly with no obvious loading issues and how that made the game feel modern. You can imagine my surprise when I later ran into loading screens and choppy frame rates for flying Digimon in the distance. I was playing on a PS5 but these technical issues appear just as often on higher-end PCs as well. It’s clear that there were some additional optimizations that were needed and my guess is that these performance challenge are due to the amount of Digimon on screen at once in multiple environments. I am sure the frame rate issues are something that will be patched out but it was a little distracting when seeing flying Digimon struggle to animate happened over and over again.
There is also some story related fluff that felt like padding so that more Digimon could be shown off. It truly felt like the developers really wanted to cram as many Digimon as they could into Time Stranger to try and appease long term fans, especially since not very many new Digimon were created for this game. The majority of Digimon come from previous games and media. Some of these Digimon are expertly woven into the world of Time Stranger while others just show up for no reason other than being cool and iconic. It would have been nice for some of the bigger boss fights to have more impact on the story instead of being a gauntlet of references.
As a returning fan, I wish the game also did a better job of introducing or re-introducing players to the Digital World. It feels like you’re expected to have a history with Digimon before even booting up the game. While I still stand by the fact that side quests need some work, I think having these unlock additional lore would have made them a bit more impactful. What was strange to me is that the game does provide exposition dumps but not to give you more information about the world. Instead, the monologues are over events you literally just experienced. It felt like there was no faith in players being able to piece together events they just witnessed and needed them to be spelled out. It is a shame, because these exposition dumps are accompanied by cut scenes that use a unique art style that I think is beautiful but more often than not, I chose to skip them due to their redundancy.
Final Thoughts
Overall, if you asked me if I would recommend Digimon Story Time Stranger, the answer is yes. It is a game that can easily be enjoyed by newcomers to the Digital World or veteran DigiDestined that have been following Digimon for quite some time. While the battles and Digimon management are where the game is the strongest it’s the rest of the game that pales in comparison.
While technical aspects could be improved they ultimately do not ruin they the overall experience. With an emotionally impactful story, game play that will challenge even the most experienced players, Digimon Story Time Stranger is worth your time if you’re looking for something different in the creature capturing and battling genre.
Digimon Story Time Stranger released on October 3rd, 2025 and was developed by Media.Vision and published by Bandai Namco. It is available for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S and even has a demo.
