Played through Digimon Survive, now doing the second run for the true route.
It's basically a visual novel with TRPG combat slapped onto it. Visual novel portion is pretty mediocre, more or less a Persona plot except that they are stranded in another world. Some cast members can die, but they are written to be so unsympathetic that you don't really end up caring unless you are enough of a completionist to want to see the true route. I think they could've done a better job writing them to be poorly functional group members without making them insufferable, as you have to go your way to interact with the least likeable characters. As a sidenote, the game has an interesting VN mechanic where you occasionally get a set amount of actions in a scene so you got to choose who you talk to and the scenario changes a little after using some of the actions. So you might have like 5 actions, persons A, B, C and D are initially available, but after talking to two they move out and different people or conversations happen. It's a neat way to break away the linearity and I'd like to see it used in more games.
As for the TRPG portion, it feels like it needed more iteration. The map pool is small and the designs are very basic. Elevation is basically the only environmental interaction, no chokepoints, no environmental hazards and no interactable objects beyond treasure chests. Striking from higher ground gives extra crit chance, but for some reason most attacks can't target if the elevation difference is more than 2, so it feels like a nonfactor. If you don't use attack or item action in a turn you guard from frontal attacks. This effectively makes attacking units that are closing in without attacking invulnerable until you get to flanking range. But once you can hit from side or back, pretty much anything evaporates that doesn't happen to have double resists from element and affinity. Triangle Strategy got the map design and flanking mechanics done so well that this feels substandard. Also equipment slots are limited to one per digimon, which is utterly retarded. The digimon only get autoattack + one monster specific ability and in most situations either a high range high damage ability item or a flat stat booster is better than any other item. There are a lot of utility item options (heal, (de)buff, ailment skills etc.) and elemental resist items, but they are basically never worth using over the alternatives. It's a real shame because if they had tweaked the elevation on the maps, given like 3 inventory slots per character and changed the flanking so that it's more about surrounding than just not hitting from the front, the combat could be pretty good.
It does have a shitton of recruitable digimon, which is neat if you are fan of the franchise. They did a decent job making them feel unique, everyone has a passive and monster specific skill. Not all of the passives or skills are mechanically unique, but they feel distinct enough. However, the battle sprites are pretty low effort and remind me of something I'd see on a mobile game. Wish there was a mechanical reason to use lower evolves further into the game, generic mons stay in their form so they don't have to be digivolved within combat, but it's kinda sad that much of the roster becomes obsolete lategame. All in all I wouldn't recommend it unless you like Digimon enough to go through an average VN.
It's basically a visual novel with TRPG combat slapped onto it. Visual novel portion is pretty mediocre, more or less a Persona plot except that they are stranded in another world. Some cast members can die, but they are written to be so unsympathetic that you don't really end up caring unless you are enough of a completionist to want to see the true route. I think they could've done a better job writing them to be poorly functional group members without making them insufferable, as you have to go your way to interact with the least likeable characters. As a sidenote, the game has an interesting VN mechanic where you occasionally get a set amount of actions in a scene so you got to choose who you talk to and the scenario changes a little after using some of the actions. So you might have like 5 actions, persons A, B, C and D are initially available, but after talking to two they move out and different people or conversations happen. It's a neat way to break away the linearity and I'd like to see it used in more games.
As for the TRPG portion, it feels like it needed more iteration. The map pool is small and the designs are very basic. Elevation is basically the only environmental interaction, no chokepoints, no environmental hazards and no interactable objects beyond treasure chests. Striking from higher ground gives extra crit chance, but for some reason most attacks can't target if the elevation difference is more than 2, so it feels like a nonfactor. If you don't use attack or item action in a turn you guard from frontal attacks. This effectively makes attacking units that are closing in without attacking invulnerable until you get to flanking range. But once you can hit from side or back, pretty much anything evaporates that doesn't happen to have double resists from element and affinity. Triangle Strategy got the map design and flanking mechanics done so well that this feels substandard. Also equipment slots are limited to one per digimon, which is utterly retarded. The digimon only get autoattack + one monster specific ability and in most situations either a high range high damage ability item or a flat stat booster is better than any other item. There are a lot of utility item options (heal, (de)buff, ailment skills etc.) and elemental resist items, but they are basically never worth using over the alternatives. It's a real shame because if they had tweaked the elevation on the maps, given like 3 inventory slots per character and changed the flanking so that it's more about surrounding than just not hitting from the front, the combat could be pretty good.
It does have a shitton of recruitable digimon, which is neat if you are fan of the franchise. They did a decent job making them feel unique, everyone has a passive and monster specific skill. Not all of the passives or skills are mechanically unique, but they feel distinct enough. However, the battle sprites are pretty low effort and remind me of something I'd see on a mobile game. Wish there was a mechanical reason to use lower evolves further into the game, generic mons stay in their form so they don't have to be digivolved within combat, but it's kinda sad that much of the roster becomes obsolete lategame. All in all I wouldn't recommend it unless you like Digimon enough to go through an average VN.
