Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory review

Is this Digimon game worth the Digimoney?

Developer: Media.Vision
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform: PlayStation 4 (Version reviewed), PS Vita
Release Date: January 19th, 2018

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory takes liberties with the term “hacking” much like the classic Angelina Jolie film Hackers. And this follow up to 2015’s Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth has a lot more in common with the movie Hackers than just having several characters that look like Mathew Lillard. The central character is a young student accused of crimes he didn’t commit now looking to find the real culprit. In cyberspace, you join up with a ragtag group of fashionable, coffee-drinking, cyber hipsters ready to dive into the seedy world of hacking with adorable creatures.

As an aside I have to point out that coffee part because it seems like many of the characters you talk to have something to say about coffee. Coffee is even used as sexual innuendo at points in the game. Maybe the devs were making a GTA reference? This is a game with some interesting and often humorous references throughout.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory is a very long-winded title for a game and this theme seems to follow into the gameplay. During the first hour, the game felt more like a repetitive visual novel until the game took a very tentacle-like turn to kick off the action.

When it comes to the actual game mechanics, Hacker’s Memory does offer a variety of options to complement its surprisingly simple battle system. Though the game gives you the ability to collect, train, and battle with 340 different monsters they only come in four computer themed types: Virus, Vaccine, Data, and No Relation. This simple way of classifying makes much of the actual battling very paper-rock-scissor like and allows for an easy flow when in battle.

You do end up spending a fair amount of time in this universe’s version of a PokeCenter, the Digi Bank. The Digi Bank serves as your primary interaction point with your Digimon when not battling. Here you can Digivolve your monsters, Digiconvert monsters, and make the necessary adjustments to your party. Within the Digi Bank exists the Digi Farm, a hub for training Digimon and even developing your relationship with them. The Digi Bank also has cats available for petting which I found to be a comforting break from the cyber-rat race.

As enjoyable as the Digi Bank is, most of the story takes place in a virtual reality Internet exosystem called Eden. However, as popular as the games make it out to be, it is not popular enough to prevent the main character from having to constantly do “real world” quests at the local mall. This became annoying as many of the missions that progress the story consist of doing menial tasks like finding a great location for a date or getting a pack of tissues. It really felt that the developers added in busy work to flesh the game out and make it feel bigger than just a minor upgrade to the first Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth game.

The interactions you have with the Digimon of this game are where the true heart of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory lie.

Much like the current state of VR, the “VR” in Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory does not feel immersive enough. Part of this is the constant checking of email and visiting people in the “real world” map to the point of breaking up the flow of the gameplay. Navigating in the virtual worlds becomes frustrating as the HUD in Eden is very bare bones. The lack of clear waypoints leads you to run around blindly in order to get the vague hints that progress the chapter.

The problem with running around in the seedier parts of Eden means that you will have to deal with random battles. If there is one thing I do not miss from the glory days of JRPGs, it is random battles. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory packs these random battles in thick. It seems like there is another random battle every few seconds. Running around in the seedier parts of Eden is also annoying in that everything in Eden looks about the same. I know they are going for a cyber aesthetic but after awhile it becomes boring to look at.

The bright point of the game is the super cute Digimon and the relationships I was building with them. As a youth, I actually preferred the Digimon animated series over Pokemon and was very excited to get a chance to have Agumon in my party.  Agumon is essentially the Pikachu of this franchise and has been a central character in the Digimon anime and previous games.

The interactions you have with the Digimon of this game are where the true heart of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory lie. The Digimon tell a tragic tale of cruelty and disrespect. Much like in my real life, the time spent with my cute creatures helped me to escape the mundane aspects of the digital world. I do hope we can get a Digimon game in which they receive a bigger story role and can carry the game more.

Despite a strong showing from the Digimon themselves much of the game does seem very repetitive and it feels like the game assets are recycled from its predecessor. I did review the PS4 version of the game but from what I have been told the graphical fidelity of the game is just a little scaled up from the Vita version. The Vita does not have that many options right now and I can definitely see Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory working well in a more mobile format. However, as a console game, it is hard to say that this Digimon game is worth the Digimoney of a full priced title. I expected a bit more from developer Media.Vision, the company behind Wild Arms, one of my top ten JRPGs of all time.

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A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.