Bandai Namco held a Q&A with Digimon games producer Kazumasa Habu at Digicon 2022 on February 27 (26 EST), and the first segment focused on Digimon Survive gameplay with a trailer and tons of details, revealing it’s pretty much a Shin Megami Tensei (or Persona) game.
Digimon Survive new gameplay details revealed in Digimon Con 2022 Q&A with Kazumasa Habu
As we have already known for years now, Digimon Survive is a darker Digimon game for adult fans. We learned much more about the game now most notably on the gameplay flow, the story chapters and different endings, difficulty, New Game +, and the tactical RPG battle system.
Digimon Survive will release soon, wait “just a bit longer” says producer
Kazumasa Habu explained that while he cannot announce a release date yet, after switching to a new development team, Digimon Survive is getting closer and closer to completion. It is expected to take a little longer for a release date as adjustments are still being made internally. Kazusama Habu apologized numerous times for the delays and asked fans to wait “just a little bit longer”.
New Digimon Survive trailer coming soon
The new trailer was shown at the beginning of the Q&A, but was not officially uploaded yet. The trailer introduced all of the main cast and showed some new gameplay. We’ll update this story with the trailer as soon as possible when it’s available. For now, you can check out this reupload.
Digimon Survive release platforms and languages supported
PS4, Switch, Xbox One, Steam are the release platforms of Digimon Survive. Later in the Q&A, outside of the Survive segment, it was confirmed the game will be localized in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. (Bandai Namco already announced these languages in 2018 but it was reconfirmed now). More languages are also under consideration. This is thanks to feedback from fans who were dissatisfied that Cybersleuth was only translated into English.
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Digimon Survive is part text-aventure, part tactical, new story details
Digimon Survive is set in a world where Digimon weren’t known as Digimon yet and are fantastical monsters.
Digimon Survive is around 70% text adventure and 30% tactical RPG battles. The game progresses through conversations, moving around the map, and investigating the background and environments like in a typical ADV Japanese game (Eve Burst Error, Ace Attorney, Danganronpa).
There are 12 story chapters in Digimon Survive, and each is divided between Free Expedition and Exploration. Free Expedition lets you pick destinations on the map, and your time is limited. Each time you go talk to someone or trigger an event, time will pass, like in many ADV games and similar hybrid games like Sakura Taisen. It’s pretty much like Social Links in Persona to take a mainstream example.
During Free Exploration, you can increase Intimacy with the characters, and get items and new Digivolutions. Friends with high Intimacy will help you out during Free Battles too.
Lastly, you can also observe through your phone camera to see things invisible to the naked eye.
Branching routes in the story and secret ending
Digimon Survive has 12 chapters, and the story branches into 3 routes starting chapter 8: “Morality”, “Harmony”, “Rage”. When you clear any of the three, a new secret fourth route will appear. Again, it sounds a lot like the Lawful Neutral Chaos routes of Shin Megami Tensei.
Digimon Survive tactical RPG gameplay explained
Digimon Survive uses a tactical RPG system similar to Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and the upcoming Triangle Strategy. This means that the direction your character is facing matters, as well as the terrain’s elevation.
You can pick up to ten units to deploy in each battle. Battles are turn-based, with an order determined by unit speed.
Each Digimon has different movement capabilities and can only cross certain heights up to a limit. Each Technique they can use have different ranges. The damage dealt varies depending on whether it’s a side or back attack, height, etc. It’s typical Tactics Ogre stuff.
Your monsters can spend SP to Digivolve during battle into previously unlocked forms. When a monster is digivolved, it will constantly consume SP each turn. They will recover SP each turn if they’re in their base form. You can also recover SP by talking to friends or using items. SP management is vital.
Battle difficulty modes in Digimon Survive
There are four different difficulty levels you can pick in battles: Difficult, Normal, Easy, Very Easy.
How long it takes to beat Digimon Survive, official answer from producer Kazumasa Habu
Kazumasa Habu explained it will take around 40 hours to clear a single route, and 80 to 100 hours to complete all routes and clear all the optional, challenging content of Digimon Survive. Those estimates will vary if you skip dialogues or use the turbo feature in battle.
Digimon Survive: How many monsters, how to recruit new monsters and unlock new digivolutions
There are Digimon ranging from the original toys up to Digimon Pendulum appearing in Survive. It’s mainly those who look like wildlife to fit the game’s theme. There will be 113 monsters in total, including digivolutions.
During Free Battles, you can use Conversation to talk with monsters. If you pick the right dialogue choices, you can recruit them, just like in Shin Megami Tensei. You can unlock digivolutions for monsters by finding specific items.
For the monsters partners of the main characters, you unlock new digivolutions through events. The destination of the digivolutions depends on the Karmic points, which depend on the choices you pick in dialogues with the characters. You won’t be able to unlock all digivolutions in one playthrough. These digivolution unlock events seem to be very similar to the persona awakening scenes in Persona 5, as illustrated here with Aoi saying ” I want power!!” with a crazed expression.
New Game + in Digimon Survive explained
After clearing the game once, you will keep in New Game Plus:
- Monster levels
- Unlocked digivolutions
- Items and equipments
- Wild monsters you have acquired
Special high difficulty dungeons appear in New Game + and contain high rewards, such as powerful skill equips not found in the main story.
Regarding anime cutscenes in Digimon Survive, and if the game is fully voiced
The game has no anime cutscenes besides the opening sequence, and it’s not fully voiced. The main story is partially voiced only.
No multiplayer gameplay in Digimon Survive
There are no multiplayer online battles or co-op in Digimon Survive. It’s a fully single-player game.
That’s all the new details for Digimon Survive. The Digimon Digicon 2022 stream with the Q&A is included below. What are your thoughts on all the new Digimon Survive details? Let me know in the comments section below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHJc24SJ0is
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