Digimon Survive is the latest upcoming title in the Digimon franchise and it appears to be an interesting departure from previous entries. With the recent success of the narrative driven Digimon Story games, it looks like Digimon Survive will also feature a heavier emphasis on the story alongside difficult decisions and strategic battles.
One of the more interesting concepts introduced in the Digimon Survive previews is that players will be presented with branching narrative choices that will affect both the story and endings. Furthermore, not only will these choices influence the direction of the story, they will also potentially change the evolution branches of Digimon in the game. Though the finer details have yet to be revealed, these choices and their subsequent consequences could drastically influence future Digimon games and the franchise as a whole.
The Mature Storytelling of the Digimon Franchise
Over the years, the Digimon series has become associated with mature, darker themes in storytelling despite being marketed towards children. The franchise has regularly explored themes of death, survivor's guilt, isolation, and trauma through the lens of kids trapped in a digital world surrounded by terrifying monsters. Over the years, Digimon has slowly shifted its primary target audience to teenagers and adults, almost as if to appeal to the people who grew up with the franchise as children. As a result, the games and anime series often go in darker directions and this enables Digimon Survive to have fatal consequences alongside the difficult decisions.
Similar to other games and anime series in the Digimon franchise, Digimon Survive places players in the role of Takuma Momotsuka, a student who gets lost in a parallel digital world while attending a picnic. He soon encounters Agumon, who tries to help Takuma find his way home while surviving the digital world infested with monsters. Though the premise of Digimon Survive remains similar to other games in the franchise, it appears that players will have a much larger role in determining the ultimate fate of Takuma.
The Focus on Choice and Its Subsequent Consequences
Designed as a survival strategy RPG, Digimon Survive has a heavy emphasis on choices that players will make throughout the game. Split into multiple kinds of gameplay, Digimon Survive will often feature "Drama Parts" where the story is presented to players as a visual novel. Much like other games in the genre, players will interact with other characters and make choices that will branch the narrative through different paths. Multiple playthroughs will result in different stories, endings, and will even affect the evolution of certain Digimon. It seems that player choice will play a big role in shaping the narrative of Digimon Survive and the final ending for Takuma.
However, players will also need to be cautious with the choices that they make during the game. Choices in Digimon Survive can have potentially disastrous consequences with characters being killed off. As a result, players will have to carefully deliberate their decisions during the story in order to find a way to survive. This unique emphasis on player choice is something new for the Digimon franchise and feels like a natural extension of the mature storytelling themes that have become commonplace in the series. Though fans will have to wait to see if this risky departure works out for Digimon Survive, it's exciting to see how Digimon continues to innovate and evolve.
Digimon Survive is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.