While Digimon games have typically focused on the monster collection elements of the original anime, Digimon Survive instead turns towards the storylines as players make difficult decisions and accept their consequences.
Though this emphasis on narrative choice is a departure for Digimon games, it's not a foreign concept for the anime. Since its inception, the Digimon anime has explored mature themes which has made for many emotional and heartfelt moments over the years. As Digimon Survive shifts towards narrative-driven gameplay, it should try to live up to the anime's most memorable moments.
Digimon Survive's New Direction
While the Digimon series has been around for over 20 years, it wasn't until recently that its video game adaptations begun to gain popularity. Despite its unique evolution styles and approach to monster collection, it often felt overshadowed by series like Pokemon that had much more refined mechanics. Nonetheless, over the years, Digimon games begun to shift towards what the anime series excelled at: storytelling.
While the Digimon series has always been marketed towards children, it never hesitated to explore mature themes such as death, isolation, survivor's guilt, and trauma. As a result, the anime series has its share of emotional and heartfelt moments through its storytelling. Over the years, the anime has slowly evolved alongside its primary audience to be marketed towards teenagers and adults. The Digimon series has focused on the pains of growing up, losing touch with old friends, relationships, and the complexities of adolescence in recent years. Though Digimon Survive is a departure from previous Digimon games, its new direction is very much in line with the direction that the anime series has gone over the years.
The Digimon Anime's Biggest Moments
The most memorable moments in the Digimon anime have always been centered around consequences and how the characters grow from them. In the original Digimon Adventure, Leomon and Wizardmon's sacrifices play an integral role in character development and how they learn to deal with grief. In Digimon Tamers, the series goes in a much darker direction as Digimon can no longer be reborn and one of the characters loses their partner Digimon permanently. In that sense, the biggest moments in Digimon are impactful because the characters learn to grow from their decisions and it often takes a bittersweet victory to triumph over their problems.
As a survival strategy RPG, Digimon Survive will present players with difficult choices throughout the game with potentially disastrous consequences. Players who aren't cautious about the choices they make will need to live with the consequences of characters dying or the narrative branching off. Digimon Survive is a natural extension of the mature themes that the anime has explored over the years and in order for these choices to feel impactful, it needs to live up to the anime's biggest moments. For the characters in Digimon, the choices they make aren't always easy nor do they always know what the best choice is until they face the resulting consequences. With such a unique focus on the narrative experience, Digimon Survive should look to emulate these moments of character growth in the face of potential fallout.
Digimon Survive is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
