For decades, Pokémon has dominated the monster-catching scene, and everyone else has simply tried to play catch-up. But while others have tried to copy Pokémon’s homework, one series has flourished by doing its own weird thing and expertly leaning into it. Few series have managed to carve out a niche like Digimon, and that’s become more and more true in recent years. Digimon Story: Time Stranger is the next evolution of that idea — a confident RPG that celebrates the strangeness of Digimon, while feeling like a throwback to the PS2 era in all the right ways. It’s one of the standout surprises of the year, and a monster-catcher that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Time Stranger is technically the seventh game in the “Story” subseries, following in the footsteps of 2017’s Cyber Sleuth — Hacker’s Memory. That’s a pretty long gap between games, but the wait has genuinely been worth it as Time Stranger is a fairly monumental improvement. But it’s important to note that this is a largely standalone game; you don’t need to have played any of the other Story games, or even know Digimon at all. But if you enjoy building a party of charming little creatures, and riding said creatures through a bizarro world — this is the game for you.
