The release of Digimon Survive has been in the air for quite a while now. While the wait may have been difficult, especially for fans of the Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth titles, it might serve as an indicator that Digimon Survive is going to be a very different game.
After the release of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and its sequel, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory, it seemed like the Digimon franchise was finally primed to make its steady return to the world of gaming. Fans have been mostly in the dark when it comes to Digimon Survive, wondering when it would release and what to expect. There's still a lot of mystery around the upcoming Digimon RPG, but fans of the Cyber Sleuth titles will likely be in for some drastic changes.
Turn-Based Strategy Gameplay
One of the most obvious differences between Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and Digimon Survive would be their approach to combat. While it was unique in its own ways, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth featured more traditional turn-based RPG combat. This has been a standard for the Digimon Story series since the beginning and likely won't change by the time that the next Digimon Story title is announced.
Digimon Survive will be a turn-based strategy game, similar to the Fire Emblem series. The Digimon series isn't exactly a stranger to the genre (having released a few games for the WonderSwan in Japan), but it isn't a genre most fans are used to seeing the Digimon franchise take on. This change alone could make Digimon Survive completely different from not only Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, but every Digimon game before it.
A Branching Story
As its name suggests, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth places a large emphasis on its story. While there are side quests for the player to take on that offer a little more exploration, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is mostly a linear adventure that guides players in the right direction to continue to its narrative.
From what's been revealed of Digimon Survive, the way the game's story will unfold is decided almost entirely by the player. Being told in a visual novel format, players will have to make choices that not only impact the direction of the main story, but the evolutions their Digimon evolve as well. Likewise, choices will influence player's allies as well, even possibly leading to their deaths. Digimon Survive sounds like it will carry a much darker tone than previous Digimon games and that could be a big refresher.
Purely 2D Visuals
One thing fans of may be disappointed to learn is that Digimon Survive doesn't feature the same 3D graphics as the Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth titles. When it first released, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth gained a lot of praise for its beautiful visuals, especially when it came to the Digimon models themselves. Although a great number of Digimon did make it into the game, it's a shame that some fans will have to keep waiting to see their favorite characters in 3D,
Digimon Survive's visual direction may be entirely different from previous titles, but that isn't to say it's any less appealing. From what's been shown, Digimon Survive does an amazing at capturing some of the franchises' key artwork and brings it to life with smooth and clean 2D animation. This applies to the visual novel segments as well, which mesh well with Digimon Survive's animated cutscenes and make the game look like an interactive anime. It may look simple compared to Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, but Digimon Survive is looking to be a beautiful game.
It's been a long time since fans have gotten a new look at Digimon Survive, but with a 2021 release date, new info is sure to come out soon. Digimon Survive is looking to be a very different experience from Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and it might be able to draw in an entirely new crowd as a result.
Digimon Survive is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
