A Data Link Between Worlds. That’s what I went away with after my brief 30-minute hands-on session with Bandai Namco’s upcoming monster-taming JRPG, Digimon Story: Time Stranger. Despite only dabbling with the first Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth on the PlayStation Vita, Bandai Namco assured me that Time Stranger would be just as standalone as other titles in the franchise.
The art and character designs were among the first things I picked up when diving into Digimon Story: Time Stranger. With Suzuhito Yasuda returning as the character designer, the animated portraits and character profiles look like the highest definition versions of some of his previous works with Bandai Namco. The character models stand out among the muted colors of the digital realm, giving this JRPG a distinctive charm. Symbol encounters make their debut, with enemy Digimon being visible on the field to help pick and choose your fights rather than being at the mercy of random encounters.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger’s narrative focuses on the twin worlds of real-world Japan (Shinjuku and Akihabara, primarily) and the digital realm that the Digimon call their home, some eight years in the past. While my brief demo only focused on the latter, Bandai Namco hinted that it would be possible to go back and forth between the two as the story progresses. Whether there are be any time hijinx and events taking place in the past cascading into the future, and vice versa, is a mystery they’d like to leave until release. One of Digimon Story: Time Stranger’s recent story trailers centered around a citywide explosion at the beginning of the story, leading to the player getting transported into the digital realm, so surely there must be something worth going back to.
Each Digimon offshoot brings a different gameplay style altogether. Those who played the most recent Digimon Survive would remember that entry for its visual novel storytelling and strategic grid-based battles. Here, Digimon Story: Time Stranger takes after the earlier Digimon Story titles with your typical party- and turn-based encounters. With players bringing in four Digimon at a time in addition to guest characters, there’s a lot to juggle in combat, but thankfully, the Digimon themselves are streamlined, at least in one way. Digimon have a few available skills to pick from, at least in the introductory hours of the game. Most are inline with attacking with the given element of that particular monster, while others come with buffing and debuffing skills to turn the tide of battle. Digimon can also use an item before taking action, freeing up a command that might otherwise be spent recovering health after a vicious boss attack.
With nearly a dozen different elements and seven attributes (Bandai Namco only showed off Data, Vaccine, and Virus, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Free and perhaps Variable making a return), there are a lot of variables to consider when testing an attack’s effectiveness. Enemy affinities remain a mystery until attacked with a particular element, upon which it shows off whether the attack is only partially effective or upwards of 250-300% effective, depending on if you’re targeting both the enemy’s weakest element and attributes.
With over 450 digital monsters in the roster, there’s going to be plenty for new and returning players to discover for the first time. Part of the charm of Digimon is its non-linear evolution chains, so two players can play through Digimon Story: Time Stranger and come out with vastly different party compositions.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC on October 3rd, 2025.
