Blurring the Line between what is real and what is Digital
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was originally released on March 12th, 2015 in Japan for the PS Vita. It later saw an international localization for the PS Vita and PS4 on Feburary 2nd 2016, and a Nintendo Switch/PC release as a Complete Edition bundled with its sequel Hackers Memory on October 17th, 2019.
First Impressions:
Cyber Sleuth is one of the newer entries in the "Story" line of Digimon games, focusing less on world exploration and more on a central narrative that drives the player character's progression. TThere is a good balance between the main story missions that advance the plot and the side missions that add depth to the world and the characters you encounter. Tutorials frequently appear as you explore the world or when new elements of battle or story are introduced, such as explaining type advantages and disadvantages or when you acquire a new hacking ability. I've played quite a few Digimon games and Cyber Sleuth is among the more beginner friendly games to jump into as a new player.
Story and Gameplay:
The game takes place in a futuristic version of our world where VR/full-body immersion technology has made huge leaps to where commerce, business, and entertainment are predominantly done in EDEN, a cyberspace network that connects the world mirroring the internet of our world. It's in EDEN that Digimon exist, particularly in the shadowy regions known as Kowloon. These areas are largely avoided by respectable users and are mainly inhabited by hackers, misfits, and criminals. It is on one of these visits to the lawless area of Kowloon that the MC has an encounter with a strange entity that sets the story in motion. Due to circumstances outside of your control you end up in a half-cyber state, where your body in the real world retains its abilities from EDEN, allowing you to interface with data sources/EDEN connected electronics and using programs you obtained as a hacker in the real world, such as making yourself entirely invisible. With the use of a program appropriately named "Digimon Capture" users are able to scan, analyze and acquire Digimon to control, people with this program are what are commonly referred to as hackers. You are recruited by a cyber detective named Kyoko Kuremi to act as her assistant in exchange for her investigating a way to return your body to normal, in the meantime people bring cases to solve that often involve needing to hack into electronic sources which thanks to your half-cyber body is your forte.
Combat in Cyber Sleuth is turn-based with a dynamic turn system where the action you perform during your turn will dictate how fast your next turn will come up. Battle damage employs 2 "Rock-Paper-Scissors" systems to determine damage. You can have a maximum of 20 Digimon in your party, but the number is restricted by your available memory. More powerful and higher-ranked Digimon require more memory, so realistically, you can usually have 4-6 Digimon with you. As you progress through the story, you'll gain additional memory.
Type: Double damage with advantage, Half damage with disadvantage
Virus- Strong against Data, weak against Vaccine
Data-Strong against Vaccine, weak against Virus
Vaccine-Strong against Virus, weak against Data
Free- No disadvantage or advantage
Attribute: 1.5x damage on advantage
Fire over plant
Plant over Water
Water over fire
Electric over wind
Wind over earth
Earth over electric
Light and Dark weak/strong against each other
Neutral no advantage/disadvantage
Digimon will have one Type and Attribute. Any attack made by a Digimon will always include type advantage/disadvantage in the calculation. The attribute only gets added when the specific move used has an elemental advantage. A Digimon's basic attack will use the elemental attribute of the Digimon attacking. For instance, if a fire virus Digimon attacks a wind data Digimon with a basic attack, it will do 2x damage due to type advantage. Now, if the fire virus Digimon uses an electric skill against the wind data Digimon, it will do 3x damage due to type and attribute advantage applying simultaneously.
We Need More Power:
One of the most iconic features of Digimon is "Digivolution," the process where Digimon transform into a stronger form. In Cyber Sleuth, you have the ability to Digivolve and De-digivolve your Digimon. In order to Digivolve, you will need your Digimon to be at a specific level and to meet specific stat requirements depending on the Digimon you are attempting to Digivolve into, and often you will have multiple Digivolution options. The higher rank the Digimon is, the higher the requirements are, with some being locked behind story completion or items that you will need to progress deeper into the story to unlock. There is also a special type of Digivolution called DNA Digivolution, where you combine two specific Digimon into a single Digimon (the second Digimon will be sacrificed, so make sure you Digivolve the Digimon that has the preferred nature and stat bonuses as the primary Digimon). When you Digivolve, you will be reset to level 1, and stats will be reduced to reflect that, so it's best not to Digivolve right before a tough fight.
Two stats that will not reset across Digivolution are ABI and CAM. CAM goes from 0% to 100% and increases when they are used in battle or through consumables that you will occasionally come across. It is often a requirement for Digivolution, especially for some of the more iconic ones from the anime. It is also a core requirement for DNA Digivolution, where both Digimon used must be at 100% CAM. ABI is the harder of the two to increase, as it only increases through Digivolution and is required for almost every Digimon of Mega level and higher, and it sets your Digimon's max level. ABI ranges from 1 to 200. The higher level/rank you are when you Digivolve, the bigger increase you will get. You may find yourself in a situation where an Ultimate Digimon may not be able to meet the requirements for any Digivolution option given (maybe you can't reach the level needed to Digivolve, or you don't have the stats needed to reach the thresholds). That's where De-Digivolution comes in. ABI also increases during De-Digivolution and gives a bigger increase to ABI the higher level you are when you choose to do so. You will be constantly going through both Digivolution and De-Digivolution as you strengthen your Digimon or take them down a different branch to get different skills as you fine-tune your Digimon to be exactly what you want.
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly:
Cyber Sleuth excels in many areas, particularly for Digimon enthusiasts, but it does make sacrifices in certain aspects, some of which are quite noticeable. The primary highlight is the inclusion of many iconic Digimon from the various TV series. Omegamon/Omnimon playing a central role in the story is certainly a delight for older fans who grew up watching the original series. The story has a nice flow that progresses at a decent pace with side quests helping flesh out the rest of the world. All of the main cast have distinct personalities and clear motivations that make their actions and decisions believable and make you want to follow their story to see where it will take them. the game also does a good job at balancing light hearted and comedic moments with the dark and serious moments and doesn't try to force one or the other when it doesn't fit.
Now for where the game falls short, you will immediately see that most of the non-main cast characters reuse the same character models with static expressions or recolors of the same models, each one for general archetypes like teenage boy/girl, adult man/woman, or male/female child. Then you have ones who represent tropes like geeky nerd, catgirl cafe maid, and generic hacker with their specific team emblem on their clothes. A more subjective visual quirk that applies to all human characters is the mouth movements. Like many early 90s anime, the game doesn't sync the characters' dialogue to the mouth movements, which, while in Japan isn't seen as a big deal, in Western media it's seen as cutting corners. The developers' decision to not hire an English voice cast to make a dub of the game might be a negative for some players. Instead, they kept the original Japanese voices with subtitles in your preferred language. Unfortunately, the translations don't always come out clean; it's most apparent in the text messages you receive periodically in-game. There are some translations that look like they were just run through an online translator without having someone look it over to make sure it was translated well or grammatically correct. Looking at some gameplay, the game can have some pretty severe difficulty spikes at certain points that might require you to do some serious grinding to either strengthen your Digimon or to train up an entirely new Digimon to overcome the next fight, which can slow down your progress significantly if the enemies have a type advantage and you don't have a counter for.
Final Score 4.4 out of 5
Rating score card
Cyber Sleuth is a great entry point for new fans or older fans to get into the Digimon story games. With a centralized story to follow and a multitude of various side quests and objectives, there are many hours of enjoyment to be had. Branching Digivolutions and the ability to De-digivolve mean that you can build your Digimon with skills they normally wouldn't have access to and give you another objective to chase as you move along the story. Cyber Sleuth is often packaged alongside its follow-up game "Digimon Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory," which is a standalone game that takes place in parallel to the events of Cyber Sleuth (a review for Hacker's Memory will be posted in the future). With the recent announcement of a new Digimon story game coming this year, there is no better time to jump into the series.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If you enjoyed the content, please consider leaving a like or comment. Feel free to share it with friends who may appreciate honest game reviews from fellow gamers.
