If you feel jaded at all like I do by the switch-up of Pokemon Legends Z-A to full-on action combat, then Digimon Story: Time Stranger is the monster-collecting JRPG you should keep your eyes on.
While it carries the familiar Digimon Story moniker, this title is a fully standalone experience that has no apparent relation to the pair of Cyber Sleuth games. That said, while it is welcoming to newcomers, veteran fans will recognize the gameplay immediately.
The Digital World Feels Alive
Taking on the role of a male or female protagonist, you will be able to fully explore the Digital World rather than cyberspace like the last two games. My preview at Anime Expo 2025 of Digimon Story: Time Stranger featured two separate experiences, starting with an exploration of the Digital World.
Taking place early in the story, I was given a glimpse of the protagonist’s first foray into the Digital World and the central hub town you can explore. There are various Digimon NPCs to chat with, traders to barter with, and a stunning locale that feels alive.
There are Digimon everywhere and there are even Easter eggs for eagle-eyed anime fans, such as a pair of notable villains from Digimon Adventure 02.
This central hub area is beautiful, with such intriguing architecture and buildings all around. It feels immediately much more interesting and fun to explore than the bland and repetitive hacker’s world from the previous game.
Incredible New Quality-of-Life Improvements and Features
Soon after arriving here, I was treated to a tutorial dungeon in a sewer system near the town. The dungeon was pretty linear and narrow with a bunch of low-level monsters along the way, but it provided a great way to ease players into the gameplay.
If you played the Cyber Sleuth games, you will be right at home with the turn-based combat here. You have a party of three Digimon that you select, plus three reserve Digimon in case the initial group perishes or you need to switch out, and the possibility for a couple of guest characters.
The guest characters, in particular, are a new feature here. These are story NPCs that will occasionally fight alongside your party as the fourth member. You can control some of these characters, which was the case in the first part of this demo, while others are AI-controlled and automatically fight.
You have the usual elemental systems that interact with one another on top of the type triangle of Free, Vaccine, Data, and Virus. It is a complicated system and one that I don’t entirely understand even to this day after beating both Cyber Sleuth games, but this doesn’t matter too much. The game does a great job of telegraphing what an attack will do in terms of damage, such as super effective or ineffective, before you use a move.
The quality-of-life features don’t end there, either. One of the best additions to this game is the ability to freely do whatever you want with your Digimon anywhere and everywhere. In the Cyber Sleuth games, you had to go to a specific place to Digivolve, get new Digimon, and so on.
Fortunately, here, you can do it in the middle of a dungeon via the main menu if you’d like. You can get new Digimon by gathering data from fighting that particular species in battle. You can then convert them into a Digimon partner once you have gathered enough data.
Furthermore, you can Digivolve anytime you like once a Digimon reaches the appropriate requirements. Being able to do these things anytime not only provided so many more options for how to combat the tutorial dungeon and later boss fight, but it also made the gameplay much smoother.
An entirely new feature in this title is the ability to use some Digimon as rideable mounts. The likes of Garurumon, Greymon, and others will allow you to ride them around the world, which speeds up movement and makes it more personalized to your tastes.
While not every Digimon will allow you to use them as mounts, I saw at least four different possibilities this early into the story during my demo, so it is safe to say there will be plenty of options.
How the Turn-Based Battles Work in Digimon Story Time Stranger
Speaking of options, there are more than 450 Digimon in total that will be available, which is far more than the past couple of Digimon Story games. Unfortunately, I couldn’t confirm if there are any brand new Digimon arriving with this JRPG, but there is already so much variation even within this initial dungeon.
When it comes to the turn-based battles, you will take turns picking skills for your Digimon to use in battle, including the skills they learn through level-up and the ones you can optionally equip for them through attachments. It feels like you can use this to have a wide range of possible elemental attacks just on a single Digimon.
Other than this, the gameplay will be quite familiar to Digimon Cyber Sleuth fans. You can attack, guard, use skills, use items, and even switch out to a reserve Digimon. That last part is instantaneous and doesn’t take up a turn, either. If the animations are too slow for you, you can even auto-battle or speed up the fights like in previous games.
What is a fascinating new addition to this game is Cross Arts. You can think of these as the ultimate ability, which the player character uses after a meter charges up. It allows you to complete game-changing actions in battle, like dealing a ton of damage or buffing your team.
Furthermore, there is even an entire skill tree for you to put points into and upgrade. You’re able to make your Cross Art ultimate ability better, boost the appearance rate of rare personality skills for Digimon, increase stats, and more. This adds that extra layer of depth to make the experience feel more fully realized.
What I also appreciated about the short tutorial dungeon was how it showed how this game has graphically improved. Each Digimon has great detail to them and the world feels so colorful and thriving. In addition, some Digimon even have unique animations for certain skills that are visually impressive.
The short dungeon run in the Digimon Story Time Stranger preview concluded with a mini-boss battle that was quite quick and easy since I had a full team of higher-level Digimon that had swept through every enemy along the way.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger AX2025 Preview: Parrotmon Boss Battle
Fortunately, I got to experience a bit more of a challenge with a second hands-on preview at AX2025 which was a boss battle with Parrotmon. This took place a little more into the story and was a multi-phase turn-based experience that was surprisingly epic.
Parrotmon had a ton of health in this fight since it was essential to use the right Digimon and elements to take advantage of its weakness and avoid the moves that would do no damage against it. Parrotmon had powerful attacks, which often felt necessary to guard against to be safe.
Once I got Parrotmon’s health low enough, it entered into a second phase and a new guest character joined the party. At this point, you could attack the Crest of Parrotmon to lower a secondary health meter on it and prevent some serious damage.
The fight suddenly became a race against time to take out that second HP bar before Parrotmon could wipe the team out with its most powerful electrifying hits. Thankfully, I did have an overleveled team for this boss fight at 5+ levels higher than Parrotmon so it was extraordinarily easy.
However, even then, some of the Digimon’s health got quite low by the conclusion of the fight. As such, I can see that this would be a very challenging experience if you were to take it on at the recommended level Parrotmon is at or even lower.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger Is My Most Anticipated Game for the Rest of 2025
Overall, my excitement for Digimon Story: Time Stranger couldn’t be higher. While I didn’t get to see too much of the actual plot and characters, what I did see has me thrilled to play more as soon as it drops. The world is so beautiful and colorful, and a neat departure from the bland, repetitive cyberspace landscape.
Meanwhile, the turn-based gameplay takes the foundation of the Cyber Sleuth games, smooths it out, and then expands upon it in brilliant ways. For me, Digimon Story: Time Stranger is my most anticipated game for the rest of the year, and this AX2025 hands-on preview cemented that as fact.
