Digimon Story Time Stranger preview - Three hours hands on at PAX West 2025

I didn't know what to expect when getting hands-on with Digimon Story Time Stranger at PAX West. My knowledge starts and ends with knowing what a Patamon and that little orange dinosaur are. Like the normie I am, I was more into Pokémon while growing up. With this inherent perspective, I am going to commit a cardinal sin of game journalism worse than comparing Shin Megami Tensei to Persona. Comparing Digimon to Pokémon.

Self-deprecating jokes aside, it’s this outlook that had me leaving my three hours with this latest Digimon title beaming with excitement and wonder. If Game Freak’s monster-collecting series threads the line between simplistic but engaging beginner-friendly RPGs, then what I've experienced of Time Stranger offers a more complex take on that formula while still being a comfortable starting point for non-RPG veterans. 

My hands-on opportunity was split between two demos. The first is a fresh new save file covering the opening hours and tutorials. The second dove us later into the game, getting wet and wild exploring an aquatic land’s surface and depths called the Abyss, applying the basics in a more in-depth context. Upon starting, we’re greeted with a cute little animation going over an exaggerated look at ADAMAS. Despite the over-the-top action of the chibi heroes beating monsters and saving the day, ADAMAS is actually a secret organization involved in investigating urban legends.

For this mission, we’re tasked with investigating anomalies across the city, which range from suspicious natural disasters to sightings of mysterious life forms. In other cities, these anomalies fuel social unrest amongst the public, ultimately leading to societal collapse due to war, epidemic, or natural disasters. The goal of ADAMAS is to find the link between the anomalies and the subsequent downfall of societies. 

This sets the juxtaposing tone that permeates both demos. From the thrilling heroics of the starting animation, down to the Digimon designs that feel perfect on a child’s lunchbox, there is an infectiously positive “power of friendship” energy and story content that keeps the atmosphere light. Similar to a Saturday morning cartoon, it had me excited to see how our heroes would handle the sinister scenarios that would be thrust upon them. Even within the two sections I played through, there certainly were darker elements that festered beneath the colorful and upbeat vibes of this title.

A fundamental world-building facet in Digimon is how the human world and the Digital World, where the creatures reside, are separate. In both demos, we witness judgmental reactions to each other. When the protagonist enters the Digital World in session one, a group of Digimon responds in fear an claims they are a villain. In the second session, one of the human characters praises Shellmon in comparison to the others by pegging him as a “...good Digimon” in comparison to others for practicing basic kindness. Also in this section, surface-dwelling Digimon are wary of the mons in the sea called Titians, as they both feud over ownership of land. Good ol’ passive and active racism. On the flipside, conflict with humans is shown by demonstrating the friction between a concerned father and his distrust of law enforcement, which serves as the capper to the first demo. 

Circling back to the start of session one, heading towards the specified coordinates of our first objective further hammers home Time Stranger's commitment to depicting social issues. The main character’s walking speed slows as the camera zooms in to trail their back. A protest has broken out with the civilians criticizing the government for hiding something behind a towering barrier called the “Wall of Hope”.

None of this is particularly deep from what I've played, but the bits I've experienced wear their heart on its sleeve and resolve situations in an optimistically heartwarming way. This being a JRPG, I anticipate there still being dozens of hours for the story to flesh out its deeper themes in more complex ways, especially when the game hints towards “timey wimey” shenanigans going on (if the game's subtitle wasn’t a clear indicator already). 

Upon entering the crumbling ruins behind the Wall of Hope, we're able to use our Digivice to summon one of three Digital Monsters, Digimon for short: Patamon, DemiDevimon, and Gomamon. After selecting Patamon, we're off to begin the basics of dungeon exploration and combat. Navigation through the dungeon isn't anything special, but it gets the job done. The pathways boil down to linear corridors broken up by branching forks, housing treasure. Both this initial slice and the subsequent Abyss demo retain this basic exploration loop. 

Occasionally, environmental obstacles stand in our path. These small bits are what give the dungeons a unique flair beyond their aesthetic flavoring. In the tutorial session, pressing the right trigger would command our Digimon to destroy the rubble doors and pathways. In the Abyss demo, currents would launch us across underwater cliffs, still giving player control to dodge enemies swimming in the current. Additionally, there was an attempt at contextualizing certain sequences with story set pieces, such as running from a giant monster or escorting a Digimon who's too scared to escape alone. These skew more towards illusions of varied gameplay, but they're welcome additions to keep things from getting overly stale. 

Even though I found this simplicity to be sufficiently enjoyable, I do hope the full game introduces more complexity within dungeon crawling to stave off repetition. Especially since the run speed skews towards the slower end, even with being able to ride certain Digimon to traverse faster on foot. Regardless of these concerns, there is no feeling more whimsical than seeing these cute and cool creatures walk alongside you on your adventure, both inside and outside of battle. 

Speaking of battles, I found my initial exposure to the combat system to be understandable enough for a newcomer and a non-turn-based RPG fan like me to get the hang of. It takes one of the easy-to-grasp concepts of the genre, type advantages, and adds manageable layers that make for a system with intuitive depth.

As with plenty of other RPGs, the weakness triangle system is utilized as a foundation for combat. Each Digimon possesses an Attribute, the most common being Data, Virus, and Vaccine. Data beats Vaccine, Vaccine beats Virus, and Virus beats Data. While there are exceptions that fall out of this trio, most of the creatures we encountered in both demos fell under one of those three types. 

What gives Time Stranger its unique flair is how each attack synergizes this Attribute system with elemental weaknesses when determining damage calculation. Every skill will take on the Attribute of the user. As a result, a foe can be weak to or resist the same attack from two different Digimon depending on their Attribute. Let’s take a Data Digimon that has a weakness to water, but resists fire. A Virus Digimon will inherently have an advantage with most of its moves thanks to Virus beating data in the weakness triangle. That advantage will skyrocket if you command it to use a water skill, combining the two enemy weaknesses to multiply your own damage. Conversely, if the attack chosen is fire, the advantage of Virus will cancel out the resistance of fire, dealing normal damage. The same is true if a disadvantageous Vaccine Digimon uses a water skill.

What further compounds this being a good entry point for non-genre veterans is how items and Digimon switching are handled mid-fight. Performing these actions does not cost a turn, allowing the player to turn the tides of a hairy battle with ease. Occasionally, a brief QTE prompt will pop up after hitting an enemy, adding a slight real-time element to keep things engaging. For those who want battles to go by faster, I’m happy to say that the battle speed can be modified on the fly, going up to 5x. Furthermore, utilizing skills will charge up the player character’s Cross Art. Essentially, this is an Ultimate skill where the protagonist turns their Digivice into a gun to shoot their party to buff them, or blast the enemy for massive damage. It all contributes to making standard fights feel snappy. 

As for the boss fights, they play nearly identically to regular battles except for a larger health pool. I found the extended lengths of these bouts to allow the deeper nuances of a largely simple battle system to shine. Same turn switching becomes an effective tool at setting up offensive or defensive buffs for the party members without wasting a precious turn. Each boss was not shy about applying their own buffs on themselves in addition to charging powerful charge attacks. It’s overall a nice change of pace compared to the regular overworld battles. 

So, as I've described with my impressions of dungeon crawling and combat, these are pleasantly enjoyable systems, if nothing impressive. So why did I leave my hands on time with the biggest grin on my face? Well, as with other monster-collecting series, the star of the show is the Digimon themselves. Specifically, the team building aspect, which came as a shock to me.

I won’t lie to you, despite being the namesake of the sub-genre’s identity, I'm not a big fan of the monster-collecting aspects out of the few I've played. I have zero desire to “catch ''em’ all” in Pokémon, or hypertuning synergistic teams for competitive play. I just pick the mons that look cute or cool. For Atlus RPGs, I found their demon fusion systems to be mechanically dense, but too overwhelming for someone who plays them casually. 

From what I’ve tinkered around with Time Stranger, it is an easy-to-grasp system to create strong fighters, but with enough layers for those looking to hyperoptimize their team compositions. Since the weakness system is critical in performing well in skirmishes, a fantastic mechanic is the ability to freely attach skills to your Digimon in addition to moves they naturally learn. It provides flexibility in making your faves viable by expanding their type coverage.

So yes, that meant the adorable little slime freak Numemon was able to stand strong against the giant mechanical Sharkmon boss fight, even when the green booger’s signature move is yeeting a pile of pink poop with that goofy smile. This is on top of the typical equipment slots each Digimon possesses to boost their stats. 

But my favorite aspect of team building is acquiring and evolving Digimon, as they elevate the by-the-book exploration and combat. The more you fight a foe, the more data you acquire about it. The game keeps track of the number of times you defeat a said monster with a percentage. Once that number reaches 100%, you can summon that Digimon to fight alongside you. The percentage capped up to 200% during our session, and summoning a monster at this value will increase its stats. This incentivizes players to get into fights more often, tying together the dungeon exploration by making preemptive strikes auto-defeat an enemy, or starting the fight with foes taking damage. The streamlined nature of stealth's integration into the dungeons makes this process makes collecting Digimon a breeze.

Another great feature is the personality system. Each party member has a personality that gives them stat buffs or passive effects during battle. These have the potential to be modified when talking with the Digimon walking with you in the overworld, further tying together the whimsical nature of walking around with these fantastical creatures into the RPG gameplay. 

As with most monster-collecting series, Digimon has a transformation system called Digivolution. Upon clearing certain conditions, such as learning a skill or breaking past a stat requirement, Digimon can Digivolve into new forms. What makes this unique is how this system is nonlinear. These digital creatures can transform into multiple monsters, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses. You can even evolve backwards with de-Digivolution, further adding to the experimental nature of team formation. 

While you can only have three party members on the field with three reserves at a given time, the game offers player and AI-controlled guest squadmates, further adding flexibility to choosing which Digimon to build your team. While I didn’t access it during my playtime, there is the Digifarm, which serves as a daycare to level units without the need to use them in battle. It’s this engaging process of preparing their battles that makes the actual fights themselves satisfying to watch unfold despite their simplicity. 

Ultimately, this preview of the latest entry of this beloved series did its job for me as a newcomer. Concerns about mechanical depth and repetition aside, the three hours I spent familiarizing myself with this entry sold me on experiencing this game and the wider world of Digimon. I eagerly cannot wait to get my hands on the full package when Digimon Story Time Stranger launches on October 3, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. A public demo is currently available to download with save data carrying over to the full game.