I got this game on release, but the rather slow beginning led me to putting it on the shelf for about half a year before I randomly got the urge to play again, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. SPOILERS: I played through the “Wrath” route and at first I didn’t really take the character deaths too seriously because all the previous games and even the anime had conditioned me to expect everyone to somehow survive in the end. When I finally realized this wasn’t going to be the case this time around, I got fully invested. And the Wrath ending was something straight out of SMT, loved it.
What I loved about Survive was that it took so much inspiration from the anime and told a genuine story. It was like watching a new season of the show back in its heyday (seasons 1-4). Obviously, all the same architypes are there, Takuma = Tai, Aoi = Sora, Kaito = Matt, Saki = Mimi etc. Several moments in the story are straight out of Adventure 1 and 2, along with some of the more out there, dark and cerebral moments being similar to Tamers and Frontier. All that just connected with me a lot more than other Digimon games. I also adored the art style, even in battles, it's so much more appealing than the 3D models in the recent Pokémon games. I liked how Survive brought that mystical aspect back to Digimon, as opposed to the Persona feel of the Cyber sleuth games. The combat is indeed something that could have been improved, and this is just a me thing, but I would have appreciated an English dub, but that's neither here nor there.
There were a lot of problems with the dialogue that became infamous. They also used used the wrong pronouns for the professor once and their biggest mistake was having Takuma read a script of actions that was happening during a scene. It felt like a group project where different translators were assigned specific chapters and they never looked over each others’ work for consistency or errors.
@@rietzhu Nah, what I’m expecting is for characters to not say stuff like “Takuma’s portrait and name are not shown for this line.” at the very least. Spelling and grammar is one thing, including those instructions into Takuma’s dialogue is totally different.
@@rietzhu I guess expecting someone to proofread their work is asking for perfection? I’m assuming you felt the same way when you were in school and your teacher said your essays were poorly written.
What I find really interesting about this game is that it takes many aspects of the original Digimon Adventure (and the other series as well), but shuffles them around, and goes with a general "what if" approach. For example, the leader with the dino/dragon is the same trope as in basically any other iteration. But the dog is typically the partner of the lancer/foil to the leader like Yamato/Matt in Adventure. But in this game, the loyal dog is the partner of Aoi who narratively fulfills a role much closer to Sora. And Kaito, the character most similar to Yamato has Dracmon, a demon/vampire with a dark and disturbing aesthetic, unlike any partner in the original anime. Only one pair looks vaguely similar to one it Adventure: the plant-princess pair with Palmon and Mimi, or Floramon and Saki in this case. But once you get to know Saki, you see how completely different from Mimi she is even though she might seem aloof and uncaring at first. But the rest is completely shuffled around. The water based one is partnered with the little sibling, the holy/light based one with the older more "responsible" one, the bird is partnered with an absolute goofball, and the bug is with a deeply traumatized, antisocial troublemaker. Not to mention how many characters mirror characters from the original Adventure series. Especially Kaito and Shuuji are basically mirrors of Yamato and Jo, just more traumatized and prone to violence. To me, it felt a lot like someone adapted the original Digimon Adventure into a series for adults while subverting a lot of expectations. And I'm all here for it.
Great review. I hadn't considered/realized Kunemon's chirping was a representation of Ryo's inability to express himself. He was a tough one to get through to. It seemed like all the right answers were reaffirming his anxieties. Which, I guess affiration is nice, but when the answers are something like "You're right, we're all doomed" I didn't expect his response to be wry acceptance. To add to the post-dark-EVO thing, I also think that was an awkward time to trigger the Ultimate-EVO sequences. I'd go from having these strong character bonding scenes, only for them to completly revert once I got back to the main story. They should'a held it back til after the reconsiliation sequence.
I'm playing through NG+ right now after not touching the game for a year lol. My eyes popped wide open when I got Kunemon to Digivolve to JewelBeemon and it started talking lol
I always found it was a little bit fucked that the one guy in the group that desperately needed someone to talk to was the one guy to get a "mute" digimon it is so poetically tragic
I played this game 5 times because i liked this games story and gameplay alot would have been 4 but i missed an important collectible so yeah 5 times it is, i do hope that there will be an other Survive game since they its an good game.
Oh man, I wanted nothing more than to help Ryo and was so devastated when I found out I couldn't save him on the first play through. I had to put the game down and process when it happened
SPOILERS I think the fix the true route needed in regards to Shuuji and chapter 6, is simple to rewrote the chapter to be focused on Shuuji and Lopmon. The original story about kids being afraid of their digimon like you said, works in the original route cause that's when the dark digivolution happen, but not in the true route, which just does not work and I think the only reason why they repeated the plot line was more for time (which I could say about the true route in some aspects, mostly how Ryo after surviving feels more like copy paste to original events when he was dead, only to say one like ala "I'm here" and not didn't felt like he was organicly part of the events unfolding). So I think the chapter 6 while it was originally focus on Minaru and Falcomon's relationship, just change focus to Shuuji and Lopmon instead and maybe even make that the moment Lopmon digivolves (and maybe in chapter 5 make Kunemon digivolve, since Ryo was the one that stop Shuuji and I think this could have been his actual story moment, as supposed to being sort of a extra scene in chapter 5). Survive is one my favourite games, but like you said, it's not perfect and true route has some writing issues, that could have been fix after a rewrite.
Dude thank you for mentioning that weirdness with the true route. The script needed to have been looked over and the conversations needed to have drastically change in the true route. It didnt make sense for them not to trust their digimons since the death didnt happen. Also didnt make sense that everyone was “shooked” and freak out after seeing the hands not kill ryu. It made sense in the other 3 routes due to the death but when the deaths were avoid it still plays out the same which doesnt make sense. Glad someone else is thinking this as well.
As much as I liked the ending of the Truth Route, I did feel like that particular route was kinda...bolted on to a degree. Like the first three had been planned from the beginning but someone higher up the food chain came along and said "Add a route where nobody dies," and that was how the Truth Route came to be.
@@canisblack actually, it comes off more as a fate stay night type of thing. By the true route the player themself will see and understand the reasonings of the suspicion, as a result instead of treading the same ground it instead transfer over prev path feelings to continue to a different plot
I agree that True Route part 6 shouldve been completely overhauled or atleast have a more positive tone Also Takuma coming back from the real world at the start of part nine asking Minoru how everyone is doing and proceeding to list off everybody except for Ryu and Shuuji
@@rhysjonsmusic I do hope its gets a sequel I wouldnt mind it. I just hope they tackle each story path in a better path way for when it diverges so thats these inconsistency’s dont happen again if they make a true path again
I've been watching a bunch of reviews of survive to see if it's worth buying, and it seems like it is, tamers has always been my favorite season of the anime. Im excited to get to play it this weekend!
Frankly, I really do enjoy this game. Mostly because I came to it for the story and was glad to see some really decent characters and partner Digimon that really complemented them. After playing the Truth Route, it’s clear that Kunemon is the one who needs to be protected most. Yeah, Shuuji needed some more work in the True route but I wonder how much of it is down to Japan’s cultural handling of familial abuse. Harmony and Wrath really got under my skin but in a good way. I wanted to at least unlock all the partner digivolutions so I played through those. Aoi, Saki and Miu have to be the best female cast this franchise has had in years. Miyuki also comes into play here as well. All four do have interesting beats in each route and it does help that their partner is something that adds to them as characters as opposed to some of the least great additions where there’s one girl and they either get a partner because they’re a feminine Digimon or a more masculine Digimon where the personality is all about protecting her and not really being her friend. Great review.
As beautiful as this game was, it took me a long time to get the motivation to complete this game. Was just slow to me. Still an amazing game. Still haven't forgiven Shuji
Map designs are honestly the main thing holding the combat back. The mechanics that are already in place can actually provide for a decently challenging game. I haven't played the moral or wrath route yet, but in both the harmony and truthful route, maps get more creative and combat is a lot more fun as a result. Before that, there's the Arukenimon boss, the Wendigomon boss and the Piedmon boss. Those are the best fights before the third act, because they actually get creative with the map design and have tough enemies. As for what people say about nobody stepping up to Shuji, I want to say this. These characters are all children. Not his therapists. None of them are in a good place to try talking him out of his behavior. Aoi is far too insecure. Minoru is a goofball nobody takes seriously. Saki is 12. No way is he going to listen to her. Don't even get me started on Kaito and Miu. That only leaves Takuma and Ryo. Both of whom actually tell Shuuji to go easier on Lopmon at some points.
I can excuse the combat in Survive being too simplistic. They've been trying to make the games more newcomer friendly and this their first Tactical RPG in over 20 years. Since it wasn't really the focus of the game and they've been commited to try to not dumb down the franchise, I think it was a fair deal, especially considering how much troubled the development was. I do agree that they should improve it in the sequel, though. My main criticisms with the game are in the post game route and translation too. They really should have started showing the changes Story sooner in that one. They really struggled to find things to do with Ryo and Shuuji in the chapters they weren't in during the other routes and the ending could use another 5 minutes of dialogue before they went into the epilogue (they could space out the dialogue better in the whole game to be honest, most the dialogue was in the first 5 chapters). Sometimes they tried too hard and end up with something that feels too much like a "Hello, fellow kids" script that was either cringe or made it straight up harder to understand, other times the lines didn't match at all to what the characters were saying. As much Cyber Sleuth and Next Order had issues with translation, they stayed in line with the original script for the most part. Those game's translations were also handled by non-native english speakers with the help of machine translation, while Survive was meant to be the big step up from that, since the game is mostly text, with "Professional English Localizers" that didn't even bother typing all the names in the interface cause the higher ups didn't care that they were abbreviating everything (Yes, it was not for due to Character Limit, people from Localization Quality Assurance even reported on it and they just didn't care. I even modded the game text myself and the the UI just adapts itself to the amount of text). The fact that a lot of other languages were translated from the english script instead of the japanese one was another slap on the face for a lot of people. As much as I love this game, it's also probably the reason why Habu was removed from the leadership of the game series production. Not because it performed bad (it was one of the most successful games in the franchise), but because he was commited to not cancel the project and only deliver it complete. Because of this they spent the biggest part of 5 years with nothing actually new to show to their higher ups. Just by reading his interviews you can tell how much he cared for the series. Unfortunately, this probably also meant he loved the franchise too much for his own good, considering the corporate environment around him.
Great video! I had a lot of fun with Survive and, despite its flaws (not enough Digimon, stunted SRPG gameplay, questionable pacing at some parts mainly), I won't argue with anyone who does say that Survive IS the definitive Digimon game experience. Spoilers below . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . Seeing Ryo go from (understandably) "scared wimp" to an absolute Gigachad (with an equally Gigachad Digimon partner in Kunemon) was one of the most satisfying character developments in any JRPG for me. I do wish we could simply unlock the Truthful route in our first playthrough, but it is what it is.
Playing this for the first time. I come from SRPGS like Shining Force and GBA Fire Emblems, I for one, appreciate the combats simplicity. The story segments are also just as, if not more engaging to the solid combat system. 9/10 game for me
As someone who is playing through the original Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time, this gameplay looks so bare bones for a tactical game that came out in the 2020s, but considering how I everyone I’ve listened to or talked has said that the writing and story and characters more than make up for that, I’m excited nonetheless to dive into it
be prepared as someone that bought the game because it looked like FFT but with digimon i was terrible dissapointed by this game. it has to be my worst purchase of the last decade regarding games.
The most horrifying thing about this game is the deaths are locked by route so if anyone goes insane there's literally nothing you can do about it, and there are multiple attempts by in game characters to console these people back to their senses but you already know it won't work. And I am 99.99% sure this is a conscious design choice and not programming incompetence.
@@Berdomlikesgames I didn't mean in the sense of a programming error, I meant it in the sense of poor writing/design. Like that actually makes things freakier especially when you know it will happen.
Thank you! I've not played through all of the routes myself, but of the ones I've played, my favorite goes to the true route for its purely happy ending after how dark a normal playthrough can be. That being said though, from what I've seen of the wrath route, it might be a close second!
I just can't get into the digimon games that give you more than one partner. I was SUCH a fan of the anime that it really threw me off. It felt like it took away that companionship for a more pokemon like approach but that's just me. It's why I didn't like Xros Wars or Cyber Sleuth, etc, yet Digimon Adventure (PSP) and Survive felt so spot on in terms of what I was looking for.
Honestly, I really get that. Frankly, while I still really like the other games and their stories, i do wish we had more games like survive in that regard cause I like what the friendship between the tamer and their partner adds to the stories in digimon.
I think sorely the game suffered from the success of Cyber Sleuth. I think most people heard visual novel and were like oh like the cutscenes in cyber sleuth without realizing the combat wouldn't be the focus much like CS and Hacker's Memory! As a lifelong fan of the franchise, I did enjoy the story even though I hate replaying games because things are hidden behind new game plus but all in all enjoyed survive as a whole
Thank you! And yeah, the map design really does hurt the gameplay, buy hey, that's just one more reason why I would love it if Digimon survive got a sequel!
Even before 13 sentinels, theres still a lot visual novel that have more beautiful art and story if you played decent or even some visual novel, the bar suddenly get much much higher if you want to compare survive with other visual novel
The miagenedering thing is an annoying issue that goes beyond just Labramon. Spoiler kitsune and other Sakyomon among others had this issue too. It's probably the worst part of the translation and embarrassing. Still I love this game and glad you covered it. I agreed with a lot of the points you mentioned and love how it's darker tone is handled. Survive is fantastic.
I love this type of dark, "what if", non-conventional takes on traditional and already established series. I'm playing with the Japanese dub so VA is not an issue for me.
I would say, Digimon Story lost evolution (fan translate) is the best Digimon Game for me 😅 But i never played Digimon survive, maybe i have to play it, but money says no right now 😬 i focus on play on this🙏
I really really love this game. Cyber Sleuth really wanted to be like a Persona game, but Survive felt like one. And the storytelling is shockingly good for a video game. The choices feel like they matter, and it is a really clever play on the goggle head pov to make you have to become a leader that brings everyone together and they make you earn that shit, since people are just dying left and right. I also really like the combat. It could be spaced better out, it takes too many hours until you get to a point where there is a lot of it and then it is almost too much in parts. But especially on hard it is pretty damn fun. Probably too easy, but it is also a Digimon game so it's fine. It's not easier than a Persona game.
I wish they had made this an anime. The story was fantastic. Hecj, even if we had juwt gotten some more ofntgose animated cutscenes for the big moments. The intro scene was gorgeous animation. Had me expecting more througout the game but I guess that woukd have cost too much.
I would say Survive makes for a fairly average game, whereas it could have made a terrific anime. It's really everything the Adventure remake should have been. It also has the best characterisation of Agumon in any piece of media. 😎
"There's no reason to not use the form that's the strongest, in my experience." You say, while LITERALLY SHOWING THE DIGIMON IT'S BEST TO NOT USE THE STRONGEST FORM OF. Crowmon has the highest movement and lets you double-move. His higher evolution loses both those things. If you have a battle where you need a digimon at a certain point soonest, Crowmon is you best option.
You actually make a pretty pretty good point there! Honestly that's something I never considered because Digimon survive is easy enough that I personally never needed the extra movement, but I can see how you genuinely might need that in certain scenarios.
My problem with this game was selling it for $60 when the gameplay is all backloaded. I wish there was more. Oh also losing a character on your first playthrough if you don't befriend shuuji
@IAmMightyMike Yeah, it's tied into whether or not Ryu survives first, and it's impossible to gain enough affinity with him outside of a New Game+ to save him. Personally, while I tried really hard to get everyone through it on my first playthrough, it was really cool to see how my choices affected the story and Agumon's evolution. Without gaming the system, it really felt like I was in full control over Takuma and even if I couldn't control everyone else, I could control my reaction.
@@wardencommander616 > Yeah, it's tied into whether or not Ryu survives first, and it's impossible to gain enough affinity with him outside of a New Game+ to save him. And I'm sure it's deliberate
11:24 "Hopefully inevitable sequel"... yeah... i don't think thats happening, the game sold like garbage, the future of the digimon game franchise is going to be turn based RPGs for eternity. which is unfortunate, because i loved this game and characters. i just wish there was a bigger roster of digimon
(SPOILERS for Cyber Sleuth in the first line) Anyone know if Cyber Sleuth's story changes gears past when Arata uses that eater arm to kill that Royal Knight? I've been playing for a while and I kind of hate the game. I'm fine with the gameplay (at least in battle) but I literally fell asleep trying to read the dialog. The only character I half way like is Nokia, because she's insane, and I find the rest of them to be bland and uninteresting. I mostly just want to know if it gets better or if this is all I'm going to get and I should take the mons I have and finish it already. I feel kind of ripped off since I bought the double feature with Hackers Memory and I'm not sure if I'll ever even play it.
From what I’ve seen from the Cyber Sleuth videos and this one Cybersleuth and Survive are two sides of the same dark coin, Cyber sleuth seems to have mediocre stories with some really good gameplay, while Survive has really good stories with some mediocre gameplay
It's understandable when you realize that whoever is behind the translations for the games do an incredibly bad job 80% of the time look at Cyber sleuth is probably one of the best games but it has some God awful translation issues hackers memory did a better job but still had some pretty bad moments it's just something I expect from a Digimon game nowadays
i don't agree it is one of the best. but i still love it. it story telling is amazing. but as a digimon game, it misses the mark on how digivolution should work (items) digimon story's cyber sleuth hits that mark better.
"the combat and strategy is the weakest part of the game" and that is why i have the exact opposite opinion i think its one of the worst digimon games because its combat is bad it tried to do the disgaea style gameplay and failed pretty hard and led to it being very boring to play and sometimes just feeling like you are playing some weird puzzle date-sim game like huniepop where you have to play some wack minigame with no thought put into it to unlock more story bits which for someone like me who plays games almost purely for the gameplay or trophies means its pretty ass to get through
Did they really misgendered the puppy? Or is Labramon is supposed to be a boy, the same way that Lopmon was always male. Cause they often use he/him for both of them
No, the game has trouble keeping pronouns consistent. The video mention how often it happens to Labramon, but I remember Syakomon and Renamon also having the same problem in the late-mid game.
Just made it to island 2 but biggest gripe with this game is i care more for the digimon amd hate that in order to save a digimon i have to care the character so unfortunately they had to go too
Everyones entitled to their own opinion and if you like survive thsts perfectly fine. I personally found it rsther boring snd the story was trying way to hard to be serious.
Honestly, i can totally understand why you'd feel that way. I love this game, but I know full well it's not gonna be for everyone for a good few reasons.
Honestly for me survive was fun when I was actually fighting but that’s it I didn’t like the story and I also hated how there are 2 characters you can’t save unless your in a ng+ playthrough
I hate this game. The story is good, and the art and music are perfect, but the pacing is trash. The tactics gameplay is trash, and plenty of dialogues make no sense or are totally unnecessary. The replayability is terrible. A movie with this story and characters would have been better and easier. It's a "meh" visual novel at best (because of the replayability and dialogue problems; if you consider it the best VN, then I guess you haven't played many VNs) and a really bad tactics game. After the development hell that it went through, how much it delayed the next Digimon Story game, and how much it cost at launch, I pirated it because I wasn't going to pay $60 for this shit. Elden Ring costs the same, and it's a perfect game. If it wasn't a Digimon game, this game would have been forgotten a long time ago.
No no no no no no no no Just, no No no no no no no no no I know the game have its moment, and ofcourse a big potential, the game was unique for a digimon game, one of its kind and a new experience, again, FOR A DIGIMON GAME, but it fell short on a lot of aspects, qol, story, gameplay, performance, and the battle were just boring by lack off skills/technique, the map were bland, and for a digimon game, it doesnt have enough digimon. The absolute great work from the game is just the art, it was beautiful, i hope they make anime with this art style. Ofcourse the game can be enjoyable at times, and people can enjoy playing the game, especially if you like visual novel and digimon, but imho the game was at best a decent game, good game?maybe, but one of the greatest? Not a chance
The games mature tone was good, but the rest of it wasn't. cyber sleuth is the best direction ahead down for digimon, that why it's the best selling because its the better game.
Just made it to island 2 but biggest gripe with this game is i care more for the digimon amd hate that in order to save a digimon i have to care the character so unfortunately they had to go too
Question of The Video: Alright People, Lopmon or Terriermon, which is your favorite also counting Evolution Lines?
Terriermon!
Hm, rabbit vs dog. Will go with terriermon line. Like the cybernetic focus.
Lopmon. I love how mystical all its evolutions are
Lopmon. Deva line specifically, though I prefer dianamon as the mega cause that's what I did in cyber sleuth
Lopmon because I was an edgy teen and Wendigomon and Antylamon from the movie were the right kind of creepy and strong.
great analysis! Hopefully we'll get more digimon games with mature stories like Survive.
I got this game on release, but the rather slow beginning led me to putting it on the shelf for about half a year before I randomly got the urge to play again, and boy was I pleasantly surprised.
SPOILERS:
I played through the “Wrath” route and at first I didn’t really take the character deaths too seriously because all the previous games and even the anime had conditioned me to expect everyone to somehow survive in the end.
When I finally realized this wasn’t going to be the case this time around, I got fully invested.
And the Wrath ending was something straight out of SMT, loved it.
What I loved about Survive was that it took so much inspiration from the anime and told a genuine story. It was like watching a new season of the show back in its heyday (seasons 1-4). Obviously, all the same architypes are there, Takuma = Tai, Aoi = Sora, Kaito = Matt, Saki = Mimi etc. Several moments in the story are straight out of Adventure 1 and 2, along with some of the more out there, dark and cerebral moments being similar to Tamers and Frontier. All that just connected with me a lot more than other Digimon games. I also adored the art style, even in battles, it's so much more appealing than the 3D models in the recent Pokémon games. I liked how Survive brought that mystical aspect back to Digimon, as opposed to the Persona feel of the Cyber sleuth games. The combat is indeed something that could have been improved, and this is just a me thing, but I would have appreciated an English dub, but that's neither here nor there.
Almost done with my first playthrough of this game and I looooove ittttt.
There were a lot of problems with the dialogue that became infamous. They also used used the wrong pronouns for the professor once and their biggest mistake was having Takuma read a script of actions that was happening during a scene. It felt like a group project where different translators were assigned specific chapters and they never looked over each others’ work for consistency or errors.
luckily fan translations fixed that. But it sadly shows incompetence on the devs part
Oh hush… you people, always expecting perfection.
@@rietzhu Nah, what I’m expecting is for characters to not say stuff like “Takuma’s portrait and name are not shown for this line.” at the very least. Spelling and grammar is one thing, including those instructions into Takuma’s dialogue is totally different.
@@rietzhu I guess expecting someone to proofread their work is asking for perfection?
I’m assuming you felt the same way when you were in school and your teacher said your essays were poorly written.
Don't forget misgendering some Digimon during the main part of Part 5. Constantly calling Labramon a he lol
What I find really interesting about this game is that it takes many aspects of the original Digimon Adventure (and the other series as well), but shuffles them around, and goes with a general "what if" approach.
For example, the leader with the dino/dragon is the same trope as in basically any other iteration. But the dog is typically the partner of the lancer/foil to the leader like Yamato/Matt in Adventure. But in this game, the loyal dog is the partner of Aoi who narratively fulfills a role much closer to Sora. And Kaito, the character most similar to Yamato has Dracmon, a demon/vampire with a dark and disturbing aesthetic, unlike any partner in the original anime. Only one pair looks vaguely similar to one it Adventure: the plant-princess pair with Palmon and Mimi, or Floramon and Saki in this case. But once you get to know Saki, you see how completely different from Mimi she is even though she might seem aloof and uncaring at first. But the rest is completely shuffled around. The water based one is partnered with the little sibling, the holy/light based one with the older more "responsible" one, the bird is partnered with an absolute goofball, and the bug is with a deeply traumatized, antisocial troublemaker.
Not to mention how many characters mirror characters from the original Adventure series. Especially Kaito and Shuuji are basically mirrors of Yamato and Jo, just more traumatized and prone to violence.
To me, it felt a lot like someone adapted the original Digimon Adventure into a series for adults while subverting a lot of expectations. And I'm all here for it.
I think it captures the essence of what made the OG series so great.
Great review.
I hadn't considered/realized Kunemon's chirping was a representation of Ryo's inability to express himself.
He was a tough one to get through to. It seemed like all the right answers were reaffirming his anxieties. Which, I guess affiration is nice, but when the answers are something like "You're right, we're all doomed" I didn't expect his response to be wry acceptance.
To add to the post-dark-EVO thing, I also think that was an awkward time to trigger the Ultimate-EVO sequences. I'd go from having these strong character bonding scenes, only for them to completly revert once I got back to the main story.
They should'a held it back til after the reconsiliation sequence.
I'm playing through NG+ right now after not touching the game for a year lol. My eyes popped wide open when I got Kunemon to Digivolve to JewelBeemon and it started talking lol
I always found it was a little bit fucked that the one guy in the group that desperately needed someone to talk to was the one guy to get a "mute" digimon
it is so poetically tragic
I played this game 5 times because i liked this games story and gameplay alot would have been 4 but i missed an important collectible so yeah 5 times it is, i do hope that there will be an other Survive game since they its an good game.
Oh man, I wanted nothing more than to help Ryo and was so devastated when I found out I couldn't save him on the first play through. I had to put the game down and process when it happened
Ryo was my favorite character too. I really wanted to see that bond grow, but to be fair, I didn't play a second play through.
SPOILERS
I think the fix the true route needed in regards to Shuuji and chapter 6, is simple to rewrote the chapter to be focused on Shuuji and Lopmon. The original story about kids being afraid of their digimon like you said, works in the original route cause that's when the dark digivolution happen, but not in the true route, which just does not work and I think the only reason why they repeated the plot line was more for time (which I could say about the true route in some aspects, mostly how Ryo after surviving feels more like copy paste to original events when he was dead, only to say one like ala "I'm here" and not didn't felt like he was organicly part of the events unfolding). So I think the chapter 6 while it was originally focus on Minaru and Falcomon's relationship, just change focus to Shuuji and Lopmon instead and maybe even make that the moment Lopmon digivolves (and maybe in chapter 5 make Kunemon digivolve, since Ryo was the one that stop Shuuji and I think this could have been his actual story moment, as supposed to being sort of a extra scene in chapter 5). Survive is one my favourite games, but like you said, it's not perfect and true route has some writing issues, that could have been fix after a rewrite.
Dude thank you for mentioning that weirdness with the true route. The script needed to have been looked over and the conversations needed to have drastically change in the true route. It didnt make sense for them not to trust their digimons since the death didnt happen. Also didnt make sense that everyone was “shooked” and freak out after seeing the hands not kill ryu. It made sense in the other 3 routes due to the death but when the deaths were avoid it still plays out the same which doesnt make sense. Glad someone else is thinking this as well.
As much as I liked the ending of the Truth Route, I did feel like that particular route was kinda...bolted on to a degree. Like the first three had been planned from the beginning but someone higher up the food chain came along and said "Add a route where nobody dies," and that was how the Truth Route came to be.
@@canisblack actually, it comes off more as a fate stay night type of thing. By the true route the player themself will see and understand the reasonings of the suspicion, as a result instead of treading the same ground it instead transfer over prev path feelings to continue to a different plot
I agree that True Route part 6 shouldve been completely overhauled or atleast have a more positive tone
Also Takuma coming back from the real world at the start of part nine asking Minoru how everyone is doing and proceeding to list off everybody except for Ryu and Shuuji
@@rhysjonsmusic I do hope its gets a sequel I wouldnt mind it. I just hope they tackle each story path in a better path way for when it diverges so thats these inconsistency’s dont happen again if they make a true path again
You've earned my eternal subscription with your digimon videos 🥰 keep em coming!
I've been watching a bunch of reviews of survive to see if it's worth buying, and it seems like it is, tamers has always been my favorite season of the anime. Im excited to get to play it this weekend!
Frankly, I really do enjoy this game.
Mostly because I came to it for the story and was glad to see some really decent characters and partner Digimon that really complemented them.
After playing the Truth Route, it’s clear that Kunemon is the one who needs to be protected most.
Yeah, Shuuji needed some more work in the True route but I wonder how much of it is down to Japan’s cultural handling of familial abuse.
Harmony and Wrath really got under my skin but in a good way. I wanted to at least unlock all the partner digivolutions so I played through those.
Aoi, Saki and Miu have to be the best female cast this franchise has had in years. Miyuki also comes into play here as well. All four do have interesting beats in each route and it does help that their partner is something that adds to them as characters as opposed to some of the least great additions where there’s one girl and they either get a partner because they’re a feminine Digimon or a more masculine Digimon where the personality is all about protecting her and not really being her friend.
Great review.
As beautiful as this game was, it took me a long time to get the motivation to complete this game. Was just slow to me. Still an amazing game. Still haven't forgiven Shuji
Honestly, that's fair.
@@Berdomlikesgames the game feeling long or the dislike for Shuji? 😅
@@ethanleach1252 probably both.
I think Shuji made me turn away from the game because I could not stand that guy.
Man I LOVE the art style of the battles, and the battle system in general. But I'm just not a visual novel kind of person.
Map designs are honestly the main thing holding the combat back. The mechanics that are already in place can actually provide for a decently challenging game. I haven't played the moral or wrath route yet, but in both the harmony and truthful route, maps get more creative and combat is a lot more fun as a result. Before that, there's the Arukenimon boss, the Wendigomon boss and the Piedmon boss. Those are the best fights before the third act, because they actually get creative with the map design and have tough enemies.
As for what people say about nobody stepping up to Shuji, I want to say this. These characters are all children. Not his therapists. None of them are in a good place to try talking him out of his behavior. Aoi is far too insecure. Minoru is a goofball nobody takes seriously. Saki is 12. No way is he going to listen to her. Don't even get me started on Kaito and Miu. That only leaves Takuma and Ryo. Both of whom actually tell Shuuji to go easier on Lopmon at some points.
I can excuse the combat in Survive being too simplistic. They've been trying to make the games more newcomer friendly and this their first Tactical RPG in over 20 years. Since it wasn't really the focus of the game and they've been commited to try to not dumb down the franchise, I think it was a fair deal, especially considering how much troubled the development was. I do agree that they should improve it in the sequel, though.
My main criticisms with the game are in the post game route and translation too. They really should have started showing the changes Story sooner in that one. They really struggled to find things to do with Ryo and Shuuji in the chapters they weren't in during the other routes and the ending could use another 5 minutes of dialogue before they went into the epilogue (they could space out the dialogue better in the whole game to be honest, most the dialogue was in the first 5 chapters). Sometimes they tried too hard and end up with something that feels too much like a "Hello, fellow kids" script that was either cringe or made it straight up harder to understand, other times the lines didn't match at all to what the characters were saying. As much Cyber Sleuth and Next Order had issues with translation, they stayed in line with the original script for the most part. Those game's translations were also handled by non-native english speakers with the help of machine translation, while Survive was meant to be the big step up from that, since the game is mostly text, with "Professional English Localizers" that didn't even bother typing all the names in the interface cause the higher ups didn't care that they were abbreviating everything (Yes, it was not for due to Character Limit, people from Localization Quality Assurance even reported on it and they just didn't care. I even modded the game text myself and the the UI just adapts itself to the amount of text). The fact that a lot of other languages were translated from the english script instead of the japanese one was another slap on the face for a lot of people.
As much as I love this game, it's also probably the reason why Habu was removed from the leadership of the game series production. Not because it performed bad (it was one of the most successful games in the franchise), but because he was commited to not cancel the project and only deliver it complete. Because of this they spent the biggest part of 5 years with nothing actually new to show to their higher ups. Just by reading his interviews you can tell how much he cared for the series. Unfortunately, this probably also meant he loved the franchise too much for his own good, considering the corporate environment around him.
Ryo is my absolutely favorit Character in this game ❤
And Kunemon my favorite Partner Digimon ❤
Great video! I had a lot of fun with Survive and, despite its flaws (not enough Digimon, stunted SRPG gameplay, questionable pacing at some parts mainly), I won't argue with anyone who does say that Survive IS the definitive Digimon game experience. Spoilers below
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Seeing Ryo go from (understandably) "scared wimp" to an absolute Gigachad (with an equally Gigachad Digimon partner in Kunemon) was one of the most satisfying character developments in any JRPG for me. I do wish we could simply unlock the Truthful route in our first playthrough, but it is what it is.
Playing this for the first time. I come from SRPGS like Shining Force and GBA Fire Emblems, I for one, appreciate the combats simplicity.
The story segments are also just as, if
not more engaging to the solid combat system.
9/10 game for me
As someone who is playing through the original Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time, this gameplay looks so bare bones for a tactical game that came out in the 2020s, but considering how I everyone I’ve listened to or talked has said that the writing and story and characters more than make up for that, I’m excited nonetheless to dive into it
be prepared as someone that bought the game because it looked like FFT but with digimon i was terrible dissapointed by this game. it has to be my worst purchase of the last decade regarding games.
I loved survive but I wish it was more like an rpg and the tactics mechanics expanded. I love that the digimon have proper dilution s
The most horrifying thing about this game is the deaths are locked by route so if anyone goes insane there's literally nothing you can do about it, and there are multiple attempts by in game characters to console these people back to their senses but you already know it won't work. And I am 99.99% sure this is a conscious design choice and not programming incompetence.
Oh it's definitely an intentional part of the game's design, if it were a programming error that would've been patched by now
God forbid the story have choices that lead to different events moments perspectives bonds
@@Berdomlikesgames I didn't mean in the sense of a programming error, I meant it in the sense of poor writing/design. Like that actually makes things freakier especially when you know it will happen.
The game seems to have done well enough to warrant a sequel but if it's anything like it's or story 6's development, we won't see it for a decade
Alright, I'm sold
I'm over here praying for the impossible
A full remake of the whole Ryo saga of games with gameplay updates from Survive.
Survive 2 would also be nice
Nice video, pretty much hit the nail on the head. BTW Have you played all the routes? If so which is your favourite?
Thank you! I've not played through all of the routes myself, but of the ones I've played, my favorite goes to the true route for its purely happy ending after how dark a normal playthrough can be.
That being said though, from what I've seen of the wrath route, it might be a close second!
@@Berdomlikesgames Nice. Wrath is my personal favourite. Such a different tone from what we usually see from Digimon.
I just can't get into the digimon games that give you more than one partner. I was SUCH a fan of the anime that it really threw me off. It felt like it took away that companionship for a more pokemon like approach but that's just me. It's why I didn't like Xros Wars or Cyber Sleuth, etc, yet Digimon Adventure (PSP) and Survive felt so spot on in terms of what I was looking for.
Honestly, I really get that. Frankly, while I still really like the other games and their stories, i do wish we had more games like survive in that regard cause I like what the friendship between the tamer and their partner adds to the stories in digimon.
I think sorely the game suffered from the success of Cyber Sleuth. I think most people heard visual novel and were like oh like the cutscenes in cyber sleuth without realizing the combat wouldn't be the focus much like CS and Hacker's Memory! As a lifelong fan of the franchise, I did enjoy the story even though I hate replaying games because things are hidden behind new game plus but all in all enjoyed survive as a whole
Great video. A great story but the light strategy side, hurts the gameplay a bit.
Thank you! And yeah, the map design really does hurt the gameplay, buy hey, that's just one more reason why I would love it if Digimon survive got a sequel!
You've not played 13 sentinels if this is the most beautiful visual novel u played!
Right 😅
Even before 13 sentinels, theres still a lot visual novel that have more beautiful art and story if you played decent or even some visual novel, the bar suddenly get much much higher if you want to compare survive with other visual novel
The miagenedering thing is an annoying issue that goes beyond just Labramon. Spoiler kitsune and other Sakyomon among others had this issue too. It's probably the worst part of the translation and embarrassing. Still I love this game and glad you covered it. I agreed with a lot of the points you mentioned and love how it's darker tone is handled. Survive is fantastic.
I love this type of dark, "what if", non-conventional takes on traditional and already established series. I'm playing with the Japanese dub so VA is not an issue for me.
I cried when Saki died. 😭
I would say, Digimon Story lost evolution (fan translate) is the best Digimon Game for me 😅
But i never played Digimon survive, maybe i have to play it, but money says no right now 😬 i focus on play on this🙏
The story are dark and good love it
I really really love this game. Cyber Sleuth really wanted to be like a Persona game, but Survive felt like one. And the storytelling is shockingly good for a video game. The choices feel like they matter, and it is a really clever play on the goggle head pov to make you have to become a leader that brings everyone together and they make you earn that shit, since people are just dying left and right. I also really like the combat. It could be spaced better out, it takes too many hours until you get to a point where there is a lot of it and then it is almost too much in parts.
But especially on hard it is pretty damn fun. Probably too easy, but it is also a Digimon game so it's fine. It's not easier than a Persona game.
They should build on this combat system by far the funnest out of the series. Also fun to Digivolve back and forth to manage sp.
I just wished there was dub for this game.
I wish they had made this an anime. The story was fantastic. Hecj, even if we had juwt gotten some more ofntgose animated cutscenes for the big moments. The intro scene was gorgeous animation. Had me expecting more througout the game but I guess that woukd have cost too much.
It's a good game, I just don't like visual novels all that much.
That's fair, games like this won't be for everyone.
Reasons why :
1. Most digimon games suck
2. Replayability cause of 4 storyline
3. Most digimon games dont rate above survival's @ 7/10
I would say Survive makes for a fairly average game, whereas it could have made a terrific anime. It's really everything the Adventure remake should have been.
It also has the best characterisation of Agumon in any piece of media. 😎
"There's no reason to not use the form that's the strongest, in my experience." You say, while LITERALLY SHOWING THE DIGIMON IT'S BEST TO NOT USE THE STRONGEST FORM OF.
Crowmon has the highest movement and lets you double-move. His higher evolution loses both those things. If you have a battle where you need a digimon at a certain point soonest, Crowmon is you best option.
You actually make a pretty pretty good point there! Honestly that's something I never considered because Digimon survive is easy enough that I personally never needed the extra movement, but I can see how you genuinely might need that in certain scenarios.
My problem with this game was selling it for $60 when the gameplay is all backloaded. I wish there was more. Oh also losing a character on your first playthrough if you don't befriend shuuji
Pretty sure you lose then regardless in the first playthrough
@IAmMightyMike Yeah, it's tied into whether or not Ryu survives first, and it's impossible to gain enough affinity with him outside of a New Game+ to save him.
Personally, while I tried really hard to get everyone through it on my first playthrough, it was really cool to see how my choices affected the story and Agumon's evolution. Without gaming the system, it really felt like I was in full control over Takuma and even if I couldn't control everyone else, I could control my reaction.
I wished that there was a rewatch cutscene mode and quitting from the battle selection screen. Grinding is ridiculous lol.
@@wardencommander616
> Yeah, it's tied into whether or not Ryu survives first, and it's impossible to gain enough affinity with him outside of a New Game+ to save him.
And I'm sure it's deliberate
@@wardencommander616you lied hard asf😂😂😂😂
love the tactical rpg gameplay... should have the anime storyline... should have sequels... i love digimon survive...
I love digimon but its so hard to keep up with survive but it gets boring art is phenomenal though just needs more depth
11:24 "Hopefully inevitable sequel"...
yeah... i don't think thats happening, the game sold like garbage, the future of the digimon game franchise is going to be turn based RPGs for eternity.
which is unfortunate, because i loved this game and characters. i just wish there was a bigger roster of digimon
Couldn’t help yourself with saying “consume you” during the Shuji death, huh?
Not in the slightest, lol! It just worked too well.
(SPOILERS for Cyber Sleuth in the first line)
Anyone know if Cyber Sleuth's story changes gears past when Arata uses that eater arm to kill that Royal Knight?
I've been playing for a while and I kind of hate the game. I'm fine with the gameplay (at least in battle) but I literally fell asleep trying to read the dialog. The only character I half way like is Nokia, because she's insane, and I find the rest of them to be bland and uninteresting. I mostly just want to know if it gets better or if this is all I'm going to get and I should take the mons I have and finish it already.
I feel kind of ripped off since I bought the double feature with Hackers Memory and I'm not sure if I'll ever even play it.
It would be better if it didnt had alot of conversatioms but its cool the dark side like treating digimons as demons
From what I’ve seen from the Cyber Sleuth videos and this one Cybersleuth and Survive are two sides of the same dark coin, Cyber sleuth seems to have mediocre stories with some really good gameplay, while Survive has really good stories with some mediocre gameplay
i just wish the combat was better
Fun fact: They also misgender Renamon a few times. Sometimes using "He/Him" and other tines "She/Her".
It's understandable when you realize that whoever is behind the translations for the games do an incredibly bad job 80% of the time look at Cyber sleuth is probably one of the best games but it has some God awful translation issues hackers memory did a better job but still had some pretty bad moments it's just something I expect from a Digimon game nowadays
Fun?
i don't agree it is one of the best.
but i still love it.
it story telling is amazing.
but as a digimon game, it misses the mark on how digivolution should work (items)
digimon story's cyber sleuth hits that mark better.
Honestly, that's pretty fair. Survives method for digivolution doesn't bother me personally, but I DO get where you coming from.
"the combat and strategy is the weakest part of the game" and that is why i have the exact opposite opinion i think its one of the worst digimon games because its combat is bad it tried to do the disgaea style gameplay and failed pretty hard and led to it being very boring to play and sometimes just feeling like you are playing some weird puzzle date-sim game like huniepop where you have to play some wack minigame with no thought put into it to unlock more story bits which for someone like me who plays games almost purely for the gameplay or trophies means its pretty ass to get through
I can’t stand games that require more than one play through to get a whole story is artificial padding, and is disgusting
Did they really misgendered the puppy? Or is Labramon is supposed to be a boy, the same way that Lopmon was always male. Cause they often use he/him for both of them
No, the game has trouble keeping pronouns consistent. The video mention how often it happens to Labramon, but I remember Syakomon and Renamon also having the same problem in the late-mid game.
Just made it to island 2 but biggest gripe with this game is i care more for the digimon amd hate that in order to save a digimon i have to care the character so unfortunately they had to go too
Everyones entitled to their own opinion and if you like survive thsts perfectly fine. I personally found it rsther boring snd the story was trying way to hard to be serious.
Honestly, i can totally understand why you'd feel that way. I love this game, but I know full well it's not gonna be for everyone for a good few reasons.
i never wanted my money back for something so badly.
Honestly for me survive was fun when I was actually fighting but that’s it I didn’t like the story and I also hated how there are 2 characters you can’t save unless your in a ng+ playthrough
That title is a very good joke ngl
Oof. Survive is an unpolished, rushed, VN.
I hate this game. The story is good, and the art and music are perfect, but the pacing is trash. The tactics gameplay is trash, and plenty of dialogues make no sense or are totally unnecessary. The replayability is terrible. A movie with this story and characters would have been better and easier. It's a "meh" visual novel at best (because of the replayability and dialogue problems; if you consider it the best VN, then I guess you haven't played many VNs) and a really bad tactics game. After the development hell that it went through, how much it delayed the next Digimon Story game, and how much it cost at launch, I pirated it because I wasn't going to pay $60 for this shit. Elden Ring costs the same, and it's a perfect game. If it wasn't a Digimon game, this game would have been forgotten a long time ago.
Nah
Game was FUCKIN TRASH graphic novel
sad but true
Wrong
No it's not, stop lying to yourswlf and esting copium.
Wrong
Sorry but it's not.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
its not even a game, its a interactive novel
No no no no no no no no
Just, no
No no no no no no no no
I know the game have its moment, and ofcourse a big potential, the game was unique for a digimon game, one of its kind and a new experience, again, FOR A DIGIMON GAME, but it fell short on a lot of aspects, qol, story, gameplay, performance, and the battle were just boring by lack off skills/technique, the map were bland, and for a digimon game, it doesnt have enough digimon.
The absolute great work from the game is just the art, it was beautiful, i hope they make anime with this art style.
Ofcourse the game can be enjoyable at times, and people can enjoy playing the game, especially if you like visual novel and digimon, but imho the game was at best a decent game, good game?maybe, but one of the greatest? Not a chance
The title of this video is laughable because its barely a game and far from the best Digimon game and the sales numbers prove it.
saying survive was a great game made me block your channel
Wow you're pathetic
The games mature tone was good, but the rest of it wasn't. cyber sleuth is the best direction ahead down for digimon, that why it's the best selling because its the better game.
Just made it to island 2 but biggest gripe with this game is i care more for the digimon amd hate that in order to save a digimon i have to care the character so unfortunately they had to go too