Key Highlights:
- Digimon Story Time Strangers releases on October 3.
- This is the newest mainline Digimon game in 10 years.
- A lot is riding on the success of this particfular video game.
Digimon Story Time Stranger is nearly upon us, being poised to be released on October 3, 2025 for both PC and consoles. The game was first announced in December 2017, and it has been a rather long 8 years since that announcement.
With all that in mind, the hype train is at an all time high, and we should have ourselves a grand time in what also happens to be a proper video game in the often underrated Digimon franchise.
Digimon Story Time Stranger Is Shaping up to Be a Treat
Digimon Story Time Stranger can be best described as a monster collection game, much like the Pokemon and Shin Megami Tensei series of video games. That being said, the game is still intrinsically Digimon at its core, and brings with it staples of the source material.
This also extends into its story, where players have been promised the best Digimon story to date (with traversal between the real and Digital worlds), coupled with some rather complex RPG mechanics to go along with.
The city has an almost Persona/SMT like presentation to it, most of which you will go on exploring as you attempt to crack peculiar mysteries.
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Like most other turn based JRPGs, Digimon Story Time Stranger does feature some intricate gameplay, and has you pay close attention to the individual abilities, weaknesses and strengths of each unit.
This is in the form of a rock-paper-scissors system, and is rather easy to grasp. This is true for the entirety of its gameplay loop, and Time Stranger should be easy to learn but difficult to master.
Visually, it does look like a 2025 game, and features a good deal of sharp textures and well animated objects. The game also uses the stylized cel-shaded look, which gives it the desired cartoony, anime esque appearance.
This game took nearly 8 years to make, and also happens to be the first standalone Digimon game in a decade. Expectations are quite high, and while the material showcased so far appears to be fantastic, it might just not be enough in 2025.
There’s Still a Few Things to Consider
This game was knee deep in development hell since its inception way back in early 2017. The original idea for Time Strangers was formulated after the release of the Hacker’s Memory expansion for Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, but was delayed due to narrative refinement requirements.
As such, there have been a ton of changes to the original concept since then, and there is a very real chance that Digimon Story: Time Stranger might not live up to the hype. All things considered though, this is very unlikely to happen.
There’s still a lot more to consider here though. Time Stranger releases in a month jam packed with blockbuster releases, and gamers are just recovering from the impact of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s launch.
It’s also going to face some stiff competition from Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei, a ‘sequel’ to the rather excellent Ghost of Tsushima.
Digimon has always been a rather niche franchise, and having it break into the mainstream is something that is relatively new for the series. While the game will no doubt be a fan favorite among long time fans of the series, how accessible it will be to newcomers remains to be seen.
It’s clear that Time Stranger has a lot to prove, but the extent of his success still remains to be seen.
