I’ll be honest, it’s been a while since I was locked into Pokemon’s gnarlier cousin, but Digimon Story: Time Stranger has the potential to change that when it launches on October 3, 2025.

We had the 2025 release window, but this evenings’ State of Play, which is helping kick off Summer Game Fest a little earlier than we expected, has narrowed it down to that official date.

The trailer lends some serious Persona vibes to the world of the digital monsters, with a cast of anime protagonists (and villains) helping out its titular Digimon. Perhaps that’s not too much of a surprise – a turn-based JRPG in this post-Atlus era is probably well-served by paying attention to what the Phantom Thieves (and their many predecessors) have been up to.

There are some familiar faces among the Digimon themselves, even for someone like me who hasn’t paid a huge amount of attention to the franchise since the early 2000s. I’m particularly glad to see that cactus with boxing gloves-lookin’ fella make his appearance. I’m afraid the names escape me – there’s only room for one set of creature collector names in this particular noggin, and Pokemon did win out for me personally when it came to that battle. It’s been seven years since the last Digimon Story, so fans have been waiting patiently, and soon that patience will be rewarded – October really isn’t all that far away.

Our list of upcoming PS5 games is gonna need an overhaul after this evening’s show.