Review by Mellie V.
Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory is a JRPG sequel to Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. The story occurs in futuristic Tokyo, where the internet has its own virtual reality world called Eden.
(Almost) Accurate depiction of real-life Tokyo! Quick tour anyone?
Eden: It's like a cyberspace version of Persona's Mementos.
The game starts with our derp-faced protagonist, Keisuke Amazawa who lost his online identity in a phishing incident. He then decides to create a new account, goes back to EDEN, and starts his own investigation with the hopes that it will lead him to the criminal. He eventually gets recruited by a group of vigilante hackers named Hudie, and together, they keep Eden safe from malicious hackers while finding the real culprit behind his identity theft.
...He's a silent protagonist.
You can customize Keisuke’s wardrobe! Shirts can be bought from a shop in Shinjuku. I wish I can dress up Ryuji as well.
It’s actually my first time playing Digimon, but I’m used to playing turn-based JRPGS so I didn’t have any problem adapting to the combat system. It features 2 types of battles:
- A classic, turn-based, 3-party-member fight – Fight ‘till K.O.!
Your usual RPG configuration
- Domination battle – A strategic, board game type of battle. Winning is dependent on the set of conditions. You can only be victorious if the conditions have been met.
The turn-based system features your usual combat commands such as attack, guard, use of items, skills, and escape. And if you’re feeling a bit lazy, esp. during grinding, there’s an auto mode option.
There’s also a random cross battle move - battling members perform a tag team/combo attack. This is dependent on the player’s Digimons’ CAM (short for Camaraderie) stats. Good CAM stats result to higher chances of performing a combo attack.
Double Trouble
Character switching ala Final Fantasy X is also available. Players can carry up to 11 Digmons in their party but can only use 3 as their main party members. The main members can be swapped out with the party backups during battle. It’s a useful feature because players will be able to mix and match members depending on the type of Digimons they are up against.
Each Digimon that y ou add to your team costs memory points. Higher memory means you can bring more powerful Digimons in your party.
Aside from building camaraderie among Digimons, you also get the chance to build relationships with other in-game characters. Both Digimons and other in-game characters can randomly message you through the Digiline. Sometimes, you are given the option to reply to these messages.
I feel giddy when my Digimon message me and they tell me about their day
Domination battles also trigger a popularity event where in-game characters have short interactions with Keisuke. It usually reveals small details or backstories about the character.
Always take note of the character’s personality before answering their questions. If you select the most appropriate answer, you gain hearts. What is it for? I still have to figure it out. ☺
I heart you too, Ryuji
Quests in Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory are mostly linear, you’ll never have trouble finishing them. And in case you get lost, you can always check your BBS or you can talk to Mirei in the Digilab. Of course, aside from gaining experience points, you also get money and hacker points from completing a quest. Keisuke needs hacker points to level up his hacker rank.
Case closed
Similar to Pokemon, Digimon has its own Pokemon Center called the Digilab. There are several facilities in the Digilab that are critical in raising your Digimon, and completing your compendium:
- Colosseum – allows you to do network battles and compete with other players online. Requires PS+ subscription.
- Medical machine – Heal your Digimon in exchange fo moneyz
- Digifarm – Digimon daycare! This is where you feed and train your Digimons. Remember that feeding increases CAM. You can also command them to do any of the following:
- Train – enhances Digimon’s stats and abilities
- Develop goods – Create items
- Investigate – Discover cases and items which can be used in battle
Players can improve stats through goods purchased from the Digilab shop.
- Digibank – There are also several activities that you can perform in the bank. Namely:
- Move Digimon – Assign/Allocate Digimons in your party, farm and box
- Digivolve/De-Digivolve – As the name implies, this is where you evolve/devolve your Digimons. It also shows the conditions that certain Digimons require to evolve
- Load Digimon – Enhance your Digimon by fusing it to other Digimons. Cannibalism.
- DigiConvert – Materialize Digimons with scan rates over 100%. These Digimons can be added in your party or in your farm. Scan rates increase every time you encounter the Digimon in battles. The higher the scan rate, the greater the abilities they get.
- Return to data - Return a Digimon to Scan data. Useful if you were not able to get a 200% scan. You can also use this to free up space in your DigiBank.
- Shop – Shop for recovery and Digifarm items to boost your Digimons’ stats
- Mirror dungeon - grants players the chance to access past dungeons. Useful for grinding for XP and Digimon scanning.
We are welcomed by a cat instead of Chansey
At first, I felt that this game was a mash up of Persona, Final Fantasy, and Pokemon. After investing 20 hours of gameplay, I think, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory is an entertaining game overall. It can be enjoyed without prior knowledge of its predecessor - Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and/or the Digimon series. It’s recommended for people who appreciate a good, old-fashioned, turn-based JRPG, and aren’t bothered by linear quests/missions and random enemy encounters. It’s also suited for individuals who don’t mind spending hundreds of hours grinding, scanning, evolving, and devolving to collect all 340 Digimons in the compendium. Oh, and experience in reading subtitles is a must.
Skip this game if you get easily bored with grinding and reading.
Will I continue to play? Yes! But just to finish the story and complete the compendium (but not to breed the strongest Digimon). Will I start a New Game + once I’m done? Probably not… However, perception and feelings change, so we’ll see… In the meantime, here’s some motivational words from Ryuji:
7Overall7.5Gameplay7Graphics7Sound7Value6.5Fun factor