16/07/2019

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory: A whole new world


There am I, taking my first steps into the second most famous monster-collecting franchise of them all. And my, how auspicious those first steps are indeed! I can totally feel that this game is about to become my new obsession for the next two weeks, oooh yes precious.


Granted, the very first steps were not that auspicious. Dare I say that they were a teeny-tiny bit tedious? Yup, I'll say it. The game's weirdly disconnected mission-based structure didn't sit well with me, all the less so as the first missions were aggravatingly boring and handholdy. But then I got some welcome leeway to explore dungeons and build up my team, and things instantly got better. My love for the game has grown stronger ever since, and I expect it to grow even stronger in the next hours: because lo and behold, HM is a dungeon crawler, and dungeon crawlers are me life. Now sure, it leans on the lite side of dungeon crawling, with its pint-sized dungeons, its forgiving random encounter rate and its heavy emphasis on storyline; but still, there's definitely some crawling going on there. I wish the dungeons could be a bit more varied in terms of looks and layout; however, I have to admit that they fit the digital theme perfectly. And it's not like bleak-looking dungeons have ever been a deterrent to roaming&crawling as far as I'm concerned, now is it?


I'm still busy discovering the evolution mechanics of that brand-new beastly universe, which seem to have little to nothing in common with the Pokemon ones beyond the basic notion that more levels = more badass creatures. I really like the whole surprise factor involved in Digivolution — although I can already predict that this is gonna lead to a lot of save file reloading. I can also already predict that I'm going to have a hard ride getting used to the ugliest Digis out there, because I'm usually a sucker for looks in those monster-collecting games. But hey, we'll see! The idea that I can choose my own evolutions to a much greater degree than in the Pokemon series is pretty alluring, and it's certainly worth stomaching a couple of weird-looking Digis in the process. For now at least, my little critters are cute as buttons, as they're still lounging in the early evolutionary stages.


Did you notice that I wrote 'they're still lounging'? That's right, dear fellow gamers: no solo run in sight here! HM is a game that makes the very concept of a solo run ludicrous, as is liberally grants the exact same amount of XP to all the Digis in the party, regardless of their number. After years of solo runs, I'm more pleasantly surprised than ever when RPGs do that — because it is rare, very rare indeed. The fact that a monster-collecting game, of all RPG subgenres, allows me to do just that is priceless, because it gives me the all-too-rare opportunity to experiment with party dynamics without having to sacrifice my party's growth. This is exactly what I was missing from the Pokemon series, and you can bet your sweet life I'm gonna make the most of it — all the more so as there's no micromanagement involved when it comes to Digi care. How did I get to be so lucky here?


What else? The story looks quite decent, but I know myself: I'm probably gonna get stupidly engrossed in crawling and lose track of all things narrative before long. And to be honest, I'm much more interested in the relationships between the characters than in the overarching story right now. Like, is there some actual romancing in HM? I'd sure like to try defrosting my ice queen fellow Hudie hacker Erika, or to get that bromance going with BFF Yu. Pretty please, game? Overall, I must admit that I'm really fond of MC Keisuke: he's kinda bland and goofy, but in a really sweet and endearing way; and his naivety and kindness are cute and refreshing. However, I can sense from the game's tone so far that there's some nasty shit in store for him before the credits roll. My best guess would be Ryuji and/or Erika kicking the bucket, or Yu turning against Keisuke — or all of that at once. It's pretty obvious that we're dealing with a somewhat darker brand of monster-collecting RPG here, and not only on the narrative front — as proven by the 'Game Over' that was shoved in my face when all my Digis fainted. Ouch. After years of running to the next Pokemon Center with no loss of progression whatsoever, that kinda stung.

But anyway — so far, so good! I'll see you soon with more progress reports and detailed impressions of my first foray into the Digimon franchise, dear fellow gamers. Thanks for reading as usual, and drop by anytime!

10 comments:

  1. Ohohoh, glad you started with this one. Personally, I think the previous game had a better story overall, but this one has the most gut punching ending of the whole franchise (and of many games as a whole; not even persona 3 ends as dark), so it can even out?

    Some hints: some digimon have passive skills that doubles exp gain. Get 3 of those in your party, and you'll evolve the rest of the party in no time. This is essential, because you are forced to de-digivolve in order to get a Digimon's ABI up, and the best evolutions have high ABI requirements.

    The digimon with this skill is PlatinumNumemon, and I recommend going down this path: digiconvert Wanyamon, evolve it to Kudamon, evolve it to GoldNumemon, evolve it to Vademon and grind until level 45 so you can get the skill Nightmare III, de-digivolve to GoldNumemon and then finally evolve it to PlatinumNumemon. Get 3 of those, go near a teleport to the digilab, and use nightmare III to get through encounters quickly. If you get your hands on tactician USB's you can get even more exp.

    You can wait on this though, since I doubt you have enough party memory for now to hold 3 mega digimon + whatever digimon you want to level up.

    Get a free type digimon in the party rookie or above when you're grinding, so you have access to the skill that summons an encounter immediately. Once you're far along to get 5 megas, you can use the skill that nullifies encounters in every map so you never have to bother outside of bosses.

    You keep all your skills when you de-digivolve, so it's a good strategy to digivolve to a digimon you don't want just for the skills, then de-digivolve into the line you want. This is not crucial if you're not playing hard mode though (or doing the DLC battles of the previous game).

    Some digimon require certain stats. If you can't get them with a maxed out 99 lvl, then stick them in the farm and either feed them certain foods, or install equipment to raise that stat and do something else for a while. Throughout my playthroughs, I only needed to do this to get Lucemon. It's much better than the DS entries, where each digimon gave a certain 'type' of exp (like beast exp, dark exp, aqua exp) and you needed a certain amount of that type to evolve. Problem is if your digimon needed, say 150 000 aqua experience, and the max you could get from encounters was 673 because aqua zones were all early in game...I speak from experience if it isn't obvious.

    I hope you like it enough to try the previous entry, because that one has some sidequests that literally kick you in the gut, and I'd love to gush about them with you. Also, I like Arata, and he's a main character in that game instead of a cameo. Sadly his cameo here actually spoils a big part of his story...

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  2. Oh, and while there's no actual romancing, there's always one female and one male character that stops short of outright flirting with you (notice I said, at least one, not just one). I actually wonder how long they'll keep romance out, considering there can be some moments that are just outright shipping fuel...on the plus side, you get lots of time with each character.

    Also, this game had more male characters important to you despite Keisuke always being male, whereas the previous entry only had Arata and the rest where all female until *spoilers I will not reveal in case you play it*, despite being able to choose your gender. That said, Arata was worth 3 female characters, so it evened out for me.

    (Personally, in this game I liked Chitose myself, and Arata in the first game. The last world title, I actually liked the digimon NPCs better, but there was still one of each to have hints with you. Digimon survive also already introduced one of each.)

    The mission structure is because this the 'Platinum' to the previous' entry 'Diamond' and in that game, you were employed by an actual detective. So in between developing the story, you had your employer whip you into picking up cases (aka missions and sidequests) and it made sense there.

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    1. Why Kumiko, I knew I could trust you when it comes to Digimon tips! Thanks a million! I'll definitely heed your advice! In fact, I already have 3 Vademon lounging at the back of my team and getting stronger by the fight, until they can help pimp their fellow Digis. :P And it certainly doesn't hurt that they have reviving abilities and are pretty strong in their own right, which allows them to step in if/when one of my fighting Digis bits the dust. My run is going to be much easier with those three in tow — so thanks again! ^^

      I really like Chitose, and the fact that they made him a flirty yet not outright pervy character. He manages to be funny and cool without being a jerk, which is quite the feat! He's actually my favourite Hudie team character — although to be honest, I have a soft spot for all of them. Heck, Erika is probably the best ice queen-meets-genius I've seen in a long time — I'm really, really fond of her. It pains me to think that all those lovely characters will probably be slapped in the face with an harrowing ending... Although I'll accept it gladly if the narrative payoff is good.

      But back to Chitose: I had a popularity event with him, and the outcome was hilarious! Chitose asking me not to be embarrassed when pulling some dirt out of my hair? This is otome level, I swear! I certainly didn't expect a Digimon game to be rife with yaoi innuendos, and that was quite the pleasant surprise. I love when games break the usual boobs&butts fan-service mold and try to cater to different audiences, it's refreshing. ^^

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    2. Cheers for Chitose! Part of me thinks the game was written with custom gender in mind, but given that they chose an existing character from the previous game, that likely wasn't the case. Which is great news, because digimon survive also has a male protagonist, and given the deeper story and how the games it seems to be based on (devil survivor) were the most ho yay ridden games in Atlus' history, it will be a shame if they skip that part.

      I mean, the previous entry to this game had moments where it assumed your character liked girls even if you were female, but also had moments with Arata...but I just assumed it was laziness on the developers part, because the girl option is often an afterthought and it's not rare for that stuff to be kept just because they can't be bothered, and I assumed the Arata moments was just my otome heart reading way too much into it. But come the sequel...nope, it was intentional, and it was honestly a bit shocking. Oh please let this be in Digimon Survive.

      That said, these games are LGTBQA+ positive as a whole. There's a side-quest in the first with a male character declaring he's gay with no shame, and another with a gender fluid NPC. Other than some female clothing, it's very equal, but the fault of that is with the character designer, and he does that with every woman he touches. I like his style, but he's really one of those artist who acts like it's the last time they'll ever draw a woman...and in one character's case, it actually clashed with her character a little. But he wasn't the designer for the last world game or the upcoming digimon survive, so there's hope on that front too. Not that I mind the boobs&butts, but given how the male characters dress, the previous game felt especially off. This one is better.

      Either way, really proud of the digimon team, especially since they don't do it in a way that screams "we're so inclusive, love us game journalists, plz!!" which makes it feel a lot more genuine. And coming from Japan of all places.

      Yeah, the characters are really good in general. I usually hate female tsunderes and flirty guys, but they've managed to make both work in these games. And again, they keep saying Digimon survive will the a game with a deeper story, which is why I'm so excited, but they haven't given away any story details. Oh the pain.

      BTW, Digimon Survive has been delayed to next year (probably because the spin-off turned out to be bigger than they expected and they had to pull some people to work on the next story game), which means you'll likely have a switch by then. I don't usually like ARPGs much, but given how much I love Devil Survive, I can clearly overlook that. I hope to see you then! (and I actually respect the digimon team for having the balls to delay it when a surprising amount of people were really looking foward to it...unlike Pokemon).

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    3. One last hint: the best skill to get, in my opinion, is character reversal. I changes the enemy's type to what it's normally weak against (example, a vaccine type turns into data type). Invaluable if you don't want to switch your team around much.

      The easiest way to get it is: get a Haguromon (the gear starter digimon) and evolve it to PlatinumSukamon and level it up until you get it (lvl 25). Personally, I prefer to have this skill on a virus type, but a lot of people like to have it on UlforceVeedramon, a really good digimon.

      To get UlforceVeedramon: evolve platinum sukamon to metalmamemon, and then evolve it to PrinceMamemon. De-digivolve to Mamemon, then again to to Tyrannomon. Grind until you get Accel Boost (lvl 10), trust me, and then evolve it Megradramon. Finally, evolve it to UlforceVeedramon.

      If you're getting this skill, get a Lilithmon to go with it. Her skill Phantom Pain, can be devastating to vaccine types if you get character reversal on them. Or get the skill on her and save a digimon slot, since she’s the virus type I talked about.

      To do this: After you get the skill on platinumSukamon, de-digivolve it to Keramon, and then de-digivolve it again to Tsunemon. Digivolve it to DemiDevimon, and then to IceDevimon. Grind till lvl 18 to get spirit drain, then digivolve it to LadyDevimon (you can also get spirit drain from her). Then evolve it to Lilithmon, and do your best to max out her int.

      As you can see, part of the fun is jumping around and see what skills you can get. With enough jumping around, you can get all the best skills for your favourite digimon, though it takes a bit of a grind, which is were the platinumNumemons come in. You'll have to delete some skills along the way, but thanks to this, all mega digimon are viable. No useless mons here!

      That said, the game isn’t hard, so it doesn’t need this. But the option is there. If you ever want to do a solo run, it’s possible to maximize a digimon’s potential, while only using the platinumNumemons to level grind. Flexibility is always loved.

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    4. What I love the most about the bisexual vibe in HM is how utterly effortless it feels. It doesn't scream forced inclusiveness, and there's some genuine character development to support it; so the whole thing comes across as entirely natural. In those crazy times of constant virtue-signaling and endless displays of SJW-ism, it feels truly refreshing to encounter such smooth relationship dynamics in a game.

      "He's really one of those artist who acts like it's the last time they'll ever draw a woman...and in one character's case, it actually clashed with her character a little": I'm totally gonna assume that you're referring to Kyoko Kuremi here. I mean, the woman is supposedly a private eye, and yet she prances around dressed like a stripper? Please b*tch! That getup makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And it's utterly ugly to boot, especially compared to the other girls' outfits.

      At least Yasuda didn't go overboard with Erika's design. Sure, her dress a bit frilly and short; but the girl is basically an autistic shut-in, so that dress could be interpreted as her own private way to express her femininity. At least, it doesn't clash with her character like in Kuremi's case.

      Thanks again for the wealth of tips!^^ I'll preciously keep all you wrote in mind — for this run or for the next.

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    5. Well, Kyoko's outfit is stupid, but...she's complicated, let's leave it at that.

      I was actually speaking about Nokia. In her cameo in this game, she seems way more confident and competent than she is for most of the previous game, because at that point she has undergone character development. That is not the Nokia you'll interact with for the majority of the game.

      To put it short, Nokia is a full on hormonal teen girl, but she's also credibility naive, especially when it comes to guys. It's downright implied she doesn't even have any male friends until Arata and possibly the player. And Arata blows her off a lot of the time, mostly to hang out with you. That’s not good for her.

      Here's a good situation that shows that: when she's first approached in Eden by a couple of guys who want to hack her avatar, she gets both frightened and super excited, because she assumes they are trying to hit on her. It takes the player and the other guys spelling it out for her to figure out what's going on. And then she's kinda disappointed, not truly thinking about the danger she was just in. No experience with boys in the least.

      And yet look at the outfit she wears. She looks like a street hooker. There's no way a teenage girl with that outfit has not been approached by a seedy group of guys before, or even catcalled in a manner that made her found out how unpleasant that actually is. No way in hell.

      The game also states several times that most other characters don't find her attractive, some even downright stating that she is ugly. But her design is made for the player to leer at her. Complete tonal dissonance.

      And when her character does develop, you still can't take her seriously because of those clothes. Couple with the fact that she's, like I said, hormonal and dumb in the start (but very good hearted, which is her saving grace), and a lot of players downright hated her. And I can't help but think that wouldn't be so bad, if she actually had an outfit that reflected her character, instead of a masochist street walker that wants to be harassed by pervs. The artist did her so dirty.

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    6. "Well, Kyoko's outfit is stupid, but...she's complicated, let's leave it at that": After clearing that particular mission in chapter 14, I think I see what you mean. If Kyoko is what I think she is, then her over-the-top design and garish colour scheme kinda makes sense. ^^

      I see what you mean regarding Nokia. She gets very little character development in HM given that she's a returning character; and yet, I couldn't help but be puzzled by the contrast between her apparent lack of self-confidence and her slutty outfit. A more sobre style would definitely have suited her better.

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  3. Interesting articles, now I'm really looking forward to get this title on PC which is supposed to happen on Oct. 18 this year... By the way, while it's not an unwelcome change, it always surprised me that most Digimon games let you lead a whole party of digimons - after all, in the anime series, only one digimon is always associated with each protagonist...

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    1. Welcome, and thank you for the kind words! ^^ To be honest, I've still not recovered from the immense joy and surprise that washed over me upon discovering that XP was not divided between Digis. It felt like a true gift from the universe — it still does.

      As a serial solo runner, I wouldn't have minded in the slightest if the games had emulated the anime and given me a single Digimon to make do with. I could recreate that setting artificially, but let's face it: with XP not being divided between Digis, a solo run would be immensely more difficult, and difficulty is not what I'm primarily looking for in such ventures. And with HM being as long as it, I probably won't try it even for challenge's sake.

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