I thought I'd try my hand at writing a review. It certainly took a lot longer than I expected it to, but here it is. Feel free to point out anything I missed or got wrong, but please do so gently. Also, be prepared for a long read. Thanks in advance!
Digimon Cyber Slueth Review.
First and formost, it is a JRPG, and a turn based one at that. If you've played any of the Final Fantasy games, or even Pokemon, then you won't have any trouble with the combat. The one difference from most JRPG's is what I like to call "The Line". In short, it's a small collum to the right of the screen composed of pictures of the digimon fighting, and each digimon gets a turn. This allows you (or allowed me) to plan several steps ahead. Of course there are actions both you and your oponents can take to change the order, such as increasing or decreasing someone's speed.
Before we get into the mechanics of the game, we have to tackle that plot. The game takes place in an alternate universe Japan. It's similar enough to the point where you actually see a Sega store, but different enough that you have virtual reality internet named EDEN, and Digimon "hacking programs". You start off as a high schooler- boy or girl, it's your choice and make little if any difference in the game- who agrees to meet up with two of your internet penpals- the engergetic , hotheaded read-head girl Nokia Shiramine, and the self described non geek, hacking "loner", Arata Sanada. You agree to meet in a den of hackers, effectively our 4chan, and get separated. You meet a pale looking boy named Yuugo. He gives you your choice of first partner Digimon- Terriermon (Vaccine), Palmon (Data), or Hagurumon (Virus). While you're doing that, Nokia meets an Augumon, and Gabumon. When you reunite with your friends, you are attacked by a THING known as an Eater. If it grabs you, it eats your mental data, leaving you comatose in the real world- this is known as EDEN Syndrome. After a short, scripted loss battle, guess what happens to you. Well, that was a short game, except not really as that was just the prologue.
You are thrust into the real world as a faceless mass of data, and are rescued by Kyoko Kuremi, a detective, and mission control for the rest of the game, and proprietor of the Kuremi Detective Agency. Kyoko is a very very competent detective, to the point of almost being a plot device. That said, she does have her own character, namely her coffee experiments. Let's just say that you don't want to drink coffee with green and violet sold chunks in it. She quickly figures out that your body is half virtual and half real. She helps you, regain your face, and figures out your ability to literally jump into Eden, and other devices.
While you meet other characters, the three most important ones are Yuuko Kamishiro, the heir to the Kamishiro company who created and maintains EDEN, and Mirei Mikagura, who runs the Digilab, the hub for both full party recovery (for a price), revisiting certain dungeons (after clearing certain missions), the Digifarm, Digivolving, de-digivolving, and convering Digimon from scan data, as well as party management. The space you have for your party is measured in MB, of which you start with 20. While Digimon don't increase in size from leveling, they do with Digivolution. As you play the game, you'll be able to add more and more space to your party- over 200 MB. Your Digi Bank (Pokemon PC) is similarly limited, but is expanded as you play the game. Who or what Mirei is, we don't really know, but it's obvious she knows way more than she lets on, and when she personally steps in, woo boy. Lastly, there is detective Goro Matayoshi. He's your typical, seasoned vetertan cop. He was partner's with Kyoko's late father, for whom the detective agency is named.
As the story continues you will learn that Digimon are not just programs but rather fully sentient and sapient beings from another world not dissimilar from EDEN- the Digital World, and uncover the conspiracy that goes all the way up to the top of Kamishiro. To get into it more would be to prattle on about other characters you don't need to know about, and spoilers. But rest assured, it's soon up to you and your friends to save not only the real world, but also the Digital World.
The game mechanics are simple and easy to grasp. a Digimon has ultimately 5 options: Attack, Skill, Itimes, Change, and Guard. Attack is just a generic no name attack, while Skills are the named attacks the Digimon is known for- sorta. I'll come back to this later. Items and Guard should be obvious- Items lets you use a recovery item, while Guard takes a more defensive stance. Change lets you swap out digimon in your party; you can have so many digimon in your party, but only three are allowed on the field at any given time.
Your digimon will each have a type, and an atribute. The types are: Free, Virus, Data, and Vaccine. While attributes, include Water, Fire, Plant, Electric, Wind, Earth, Light, and Dark. The Digimon types are best compared to the Fire, Grass, and Water starter Pokemon from, well, Pokemon. Virus is strong against Data, which is strong against Vaccine, which is strong against Virus. the Free type is just there, it really has no strengths or weaknesses. The attributes have three similar relations. Of course we have the Fire, Water, and Plant Triangle- again, look at Pokemon. The second triangle goes as follows. Wind is strong against Earth which is strong against Electric, which is strong against Wind. Lastly, Light and Dark are weak against each-other.
Now this is where the math comes in. Types and Attributes assign certain multiples to attack damage depending on what it goes up against. For types, a good match up (for example, Data to Vaccine) will deal double damage; bad match-ups will halve the damage. Attributes, if matched correctly (Earth to Electric), the damage is increased by fifty percent. It is worth noting that Digimon of one Attribute can learn Skills from another- such as a Dark Digimon learning a Wind Skill, or even a Light; it is the Skills' attribute that factor into the equation rather than the attribute of the Digimon using them. For example, let's say Dark Virus Digimon used a Light attack against Dark Data Digimon. Since Virus is strong against data (x2), and the Virus Digimon used a light move against a Dark opponent (X1.5), the damage is tripled.
The next thing to explain are the moves. Let's say that you find a Koromon, and digivolve it all the way up to Wargreymon. He'll still Terra Force, and Pyro Tornado, the same can be said for Gatomon and her Lightning Paw, but her Cat's eye Hypnotism is conspicuously absent. However, due to the translation issue I'll touch on later, I think some of these moves's names got renamed in the dub we grew up on; Wargraymon's Pyro tornado is called Great Tornado in this game.
Now, let's talk Digimon. There are just over 240 Digimon- 242, to be exact. However, if you so wished, you can build your own dream team, ranging Seasons 1-3. You may be able to pick something out of Seasons 4, and 5, but it's mainly Digimon Adventures 1&2, and Tamers shining here. So yes.. Gatomon, Black Gatomon, and Renamon are all present and accounted for;it's just Mikemon who didn't make the cut. Now, getting the Digimon and digivolving them is another matter.
As you start the game, you are "given" the Digimon Capture program. What it really is, is a scanner. You scan Digimon whenever you come across them, but you have encounter each one multiple times in order to scan it completely. A scan is only completed, and can be converted to an actual Digimon once it's been 100% scanned, but can be scanned up to 200% (for the better stats). All Digivolutions have certain requirements, usually a Digimon's level, and certain stats reach a certain value. The most troubling of which is the CAM, or Friendship stat- it's easy to raise, but can take longer than you'd like; it only grows when the Digimon in question is out on the field, and only by around 1% per battle. You can get items to raise the stat, but they come in later, and half of them aren't even guaranteed to work.
Another stat that can be annoying to work around is the ABI stat, these are effectively bonus stats you can earn at the Digfarm (Pokemon Daycare equivalent, except that there is no breeding). The highest the ABI can go is 100, but the bonus stats are always half of the ABI, which means you can only earn 50 bonus stat points). You can increase it by digivolving to a less desirable Digimon then quickly de-digivolving them. This can be a hassle since after each divivolution or de digivolution, you start at level one.
However, this can work towards your advantage if you're clever enough. Your Digimon can digivolve into multiple Digimon, often of varying attribute and type. This can allow you learn a powerful move from one Digivolution you don't like, take it back to the previous form, then raise it to the Divolution you were looking for, this is one way how Digimon of one attribute learn Skills from another.
You can further customize your Digimon by choosing which Skills it can use. Like Pokemon it only has so many Skill slots, and one or two of them are is impossible to get rid of as a Gen 1 HM move. However, unlike Pokemon, you can swap them in and out with each other as one would do a held item at any time you wish- just not in battle.
Your Digfarm starts out a single little island, but as the story progresses, you'll be able to expand it, and even add more islands to it. You can even add objects to it aid in side quests, or help improve stats. However, they are ungodly expensive, as they average around 25,000 yen a pop (that's your game currency). Unless you grind, like I did, you won't be taking full advantage of it early in the game.
This game is not without its flaws. How big they are, will vary from person to person. For me, they are annoyances that, while built upon themselves quickly, didn't detract that much from the game. Firstly, the only English dialogue is the subtitles, which if your eyes aren't the best, can make it hard to read everything on a plasma screen. If this doesn't apply to you, then this should be a relative nonissue- barring dub vs sub preferences of course. The second, and the more glaring, is the inability to skip cut-scenes. Maybe Kingdom Hearts Spoiled me, but this game has a long opening cut scene and the beginning is almost half cut-scene. While I know fully dubbing a game in English is a costly venture, and a big gamble on something not as mainstream as Pokemon, but it couldn't have been that difficult to put in a skip option for the text dumps cut-scenes.
It's also worth mentioning that it took me almost 60 hours to play the game start to finish. While I skipped many side missions, I also spent a hell of a long time grinding. I'm not sure how that fairs with typical JRPG's so I'll leave that to you.
One big plus for me is the New Game +. It allows you start a new game off of the progress you made from a previous journey- including not yet completed game files. You are able to retain all your upgrades and mega level Digimon. The only things you can't keep are the replayable dungeons, but those are mainly for level grinding and finding certain Digimon. But, be warned, this can make the entire game a joke, but if you like owning everything you come across- Like a Bawss- then go for it!
All in all, it may be considered a gateway into the larger scale turn based JRPG's, but having not played them, i can't say for sure. What I can say for sure is that if you can at least get through Pokemon, and grew up loving Digimon like I did, then this is definitely up your alley. If you're not that into Digimon, but just like JRPG's, while it isn't Final Fantasy level- or what I heard of it- it should still whet your whistle.
This game gets my recommendation, and a rating of 9.0/10
