There’s a cardinal sin among usDigimonfans:neverlet anyone compare Digimon toPokemon. Too many years of the public thinking it was a rip-off spoiled our mood. That said, even sins have exceptions, and I for one am happy to break the rule if it’s to say"Hey, if you like Pokemon you should play Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth!"
It was a great game that offers everything Pokemon players crave, but I’ve noticed other DigiDestined fail to communicatewhatPokefans would like about it. I often see more direct comparisons with thePersonaseries, but how that’s supposed to reassure people whoonlyplay Pokemon is beyond me.
If you’re the kind of fan who wants a bit more maturity with their Pokemon, this is your game. And I mean that both in terms of mature themes, as well as, well, the more immature side of maturity.
After Years Of Not Caring, I’ve Finally Become A Pokemon Shiny Hunter
Just one more sandwich and I’ll be done I swear.
Using Hacker’s Memory (the interquel game that’s somehow even better), you can see for yourself that current-day Digimon doesn’t mind having a potty mouth. Even the E10+ Digimon World: Next Order allowed a lot of “what the hell!” and “Dammit!”, but it’s the T-rated Cyber Sleuth games that start throwing s-bomb around, like Yu up there in the picture.
But of course, swearing doesn’t signify actual maturity, and you’ll be happy to know the swearing is well integrated and not gratuitous or overbearing. It happens when it should, never in long bunches for a joke. Just in ways people naturally talk.
Cyber Sleuth is surprisingly thirst-trappy, with some, shall we say, suggestive imagery (Exhibit A, Kyoko Kuremi, above), but beyond that Kyoko is a lot more than just a pretty face, and her design is very well-crafted. She’s friendly, headstrong, confident, intelligent, and, errr,puts mayonnaise in her coffee. Yep, bit of a quirky one.
Consider Kyoko like a Pokemon Professor if you must. She’s the one who hires you to solve cases and is the intelligent older character that will figure out most of the details of the plot to explain them to you. As it’s a detective game she’s far more involved than a Pokemon professor, so if you’ve wanted Professor Oak to actually matter to the story, you can finally have that. Or I guess Professor Juniper considering both are, noted, for their attractiveness.
The original PS4 and Vita ports of the games are hard to find, but the Switch and PC release bundled both games and even added clothing options to Cyber Sleuth. If you want games with mature storytelling, that dual pack is perfect for you.
Cyber Sleuth and Hacker’s Memory have some seriously grim side-quests. In the above screenshot, you’re called to find out why a bunch of arcade machines have been hacked recently, erasing high scores and replacing them for no reason. It turns out that the culprits are a bunch of ToyAgumon, and it’s because they were actual toys turned into data, and they’re sad they’ve been abandoned by kids whose attention has swayed to video games.
Pokemon does tackle mature elements from time to time, but its darker and more philosophical stories tend to stop before they get too much for the children. I’ve seen Gamefreak fully abandon plotlines in side quests and never mention them again. Ask any Pokefan about “The Ghost Mansion” and they’ll say they love that story, and then immediately wonder why it was never referenced again.
But then you get something like Hacker’s Memory where the entire premise is a full-on existential crisis! The main character is not the good-at-everything hero, he’s even constantly made fun of for being plainlike a background character.Because he is. To put it in words a current Pokemon fan would get: imagine if they made a direct sequel to one of the games, and youplayed as a trainer from a route near the middle. No way to be better than you’re allowed, taking on a story that’s important to you, but not the world of the game. Hacker’s Memory has so little to do with the main plot that you end up surrendering to it while your player avatar wonders what’s going on.
Then there’s the side quest called “Living Doll, Dead Person.”
In the first Cyber Sleuth, you take on a case about missing people. All these people logged into EDEN (a virtual reality world) but never logged out. It’s creepy even at the start, but it gets worse as you uncover that it’s basically a human-trafficking operation.
I remember being shocked when I first played this mission. How on Earth did a T-rated game get away with this? They weren’t even subtle. Kyoko skirts around words they likely weren’t able to say by going"You can imagine what they do with to the bodies,“and, just like that, your brain fills it in. Sex slavery? Organ harvesting? Pick your poison.
There’s a lot to talk about with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and Hacker’s Memory. Their gameplay, story, and characters are phenomenal and now easier to play than ever before with the Complete Edition bundling both for PC and Switch.
But I think the core base to recommend these two wonderful games are the people who wish Pokemon would be a little braver in its storytelling. Pokemon knows its audience is children, so a real T- or M-rated mainline Pokemon is beyond unlikely. But Digimon embraced an adult fanbase years ago, and the result made the perfect experience for those Pokemon fans craving maturity. Both in terms of dirty words, and serious storytelling.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
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The Digimon franchise has put out a great number of games over the years. This list breaks down the best Digimon games of all time.
