Genre: RPG
Developer: Media Vision
Publisher: Bandai Namco Games America Inc.
Release Date: Jan 19, 2018
Edited by KnightAvenger
Digimon has been around for a long time, so long that people argue that Pokemon and Digimon are copies of each other. (News Flash, they aren’t copies of either franchise.) With over 20 years of digivolution, there are some really great stories told in the Digimon universe. As a child, I was a particular fan of the anime. My personal favorite series of the different anime was Digimon Tamers. Seeing Digimon be mainly a part of the non-digital world for a majority of the season was what I loved most about it. Rika wasn’t bad, either, once she toned down the edginess. My favorite parts of the series always involved the giant tower and the “hacking-like” area where they tracked the digimon that were breaching into the world.
Therefore, when the first Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth game came out, I wanted it badly even though I didn’t own a PS4 or PS Vita at the time. Last year, I finally got to play (and complete) Cyber Sleuth. It was fun and invigorating. Rather than go around and catch Digimon (similar to Pokemon) or getting randomly thrust into the Digital World from the start (isekai’d) or having a horrible gaming experience (looking right at you Digimon World: Next Order), I was able to have a similar experience with the games that I had with my favorite anime. Whether it was never breaking Nokia’s heart or getting mad clutches in battles, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was a great game to a great series.
Thus, when Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory (DSCSHM) was announced (try saying that mouthful ten times fast), I was excited. Excited enough that the game made my Top 10 in the TDM 2018 Hype List. I was interested in how a sequel of the first game would work since in the first game [redacted] retcons [redacted] when [redacted] basically [REDACTED]-s [redacted]. (#NoSpoilers) Just HOW does a sequel even work for this game series? Well, the answer is simple: Tell a different story happening at the same time as the previous game.
Storywise, DSCSHM is connected to (and even explains some of) the previous game’s events. Some guy (because you get gender-locked in as a guy in this game unlike the previous one) loses his EDEN account to some hacker and it ruins his life. Apparently, having to get a replacement account makes everyone in his school (staff included) automatically assume that he lost it due to him being a hacker. Things lead to other things and he ends up becoming part of Hudie, a Hacker team that is used by other Hacker teams. Without getting too into it, he ends up using Digimon out of happenstance like the protagonist in the previous game.
The number of references to the previous game aren’t there just for show, either. DSCSHM shows another side to what happened in that story that lead to the redacted events from two paragraphs ago. The gameplay is much the same as the original game, too. So is the DigiLab…and the coliseum. After all, this is the same universe at the same time as the other game. If everything was different, it wouldn’t make much sense to have it set at the same time and place. For the most part, if you’ve played the first game, you’ll know how this one feels in most battles.
What IS different is the fact that you are on a team in this storyline. Sometimes, you must fight together and when you do, the battles are a bit different than when fighting solo. The team battles are a simplified amalgamation of board games like chess, checkers, or shogi and Digimon battles. As a team, you must move the characters and win battles by gathering a certain number of points. Sometimes, you must gather a certain number of points within a certain number of moves.
In addition to new team battles, you also get new Digivolutions added into the mix. Thankfully, because I played the last game, I was able to download that at the start of the game and all of the paths I had uncovered in the original game were uncovered in this game (a feature that I was highly thankful for having). An early start with Lucemon made my life extremely easy. At the same time, if DSCSHM is your first foray into Cyber Sleuth, you can still have the great fun of uncovering Digimon paths…or looking them up online, thanks to the first game. The exploration of Digivolution is half the fun!
Overall, I think Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory is a pretty fun game. I can easily pour another 100 hours into the game because the story and battles are that good. I absolutely loved seeing the story of Cyber Sleuth from another direction even though I would have preferred to be able to play as a girl character. For the price of $59.99 (USD) on the PS Store, I liked what I got. While it is true that it’s kind of the same game under a slightly longer name, it’s also a very different story being told. The story part of the game’s name is very, very good. #NoSpoilers
Pros:
- Good music
- Plenty of Digivolution paths (you can be anything you want, kids!)
- Pretty graphics
- Can use data from previous game for Digilab/Digivolution paths
- New storyline within old story
- Plenty of cameos
Cons:
- If you sank 150+ hours in the first game, this one can get dull quickly
Mileage May Vary:
- Can only play as a male character
Lolinia gives Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory a Drastik Measure 8.0 out of 10.0 (80).
