Digimon Survive, which is set to release this year unless delays hit, promises to take the franchise into its darkest storyline yet. The game’s setting is reminiscent of the original Digimon Adventure anime where several teenagers on a camping trip are transported into a digital world, and must fend for themselves while fostering a bond with their digital monsters.
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What Digimon Con 2022 Revealed
Yesterday saw the Digimon Con 2022 livestream where Digimon Survive producer Kazumasa Habu revealed more details about the game’s story. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth featured Digimon appearing in the real world, but that presented some inconsistencies between what the digital world is and the nature of Digimon. After all, if Digimon are just an amalgamation of data, so they could be considered lines of code rather than proper lifeforms.
To clear up this discrepancy, the canonical story will henceforth depict Digimon as ethereal life forms from the digital world. According to Habu, it was the director of the first two seasons of Digimon Adventure, Hiroyuki Kakudo, who told him that this was the true nature of Digimon.
Dealing With Permanent Death in Digimon
A recurring adage in the Digimon franchise is that Digimon never really die. When Digimon are defeated, they take the form of a Digi-Egg and are essentially reincarnated in Primary Village. A Digimon can be considered dead permanently if their data is destroyed, which happens very rarely. That said, Digimon Survive’s darker turn also involves permanent death, but not only for Digimon; human characters can also die. Therefore, Digimon Survive could go beyond simply exploring the theme of loss, but also dealing with overcoming grief and accepting death.
Permanent death also adds a new dimension to any branched narrative, with four different endings available based on choices the player makes. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth had a linear narrative that guided players toward a single ending, but Digimon Survive’s visual novel format could take the story in any number of directions. For example, a single character surviving could trigger a bad ending where the lone survivor of a calamity recounts the story as its narrator, as Ishmael did in Moby Dick. Considering all the potentially gruesome outcomes, the game’s producer confirmed Digimon Survive’s target audience would be adults.
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Fighting Against Evil Digimon
Over the years, Digimon has tackled increasingly serious topics from survivor’s guilt to childhood trauma, as if growing alongside its audience. However, this new focus on choice through Survive’s branched narrative not only expands the potential themes the franchise could touch upon, but also adds to gameplay elements. Digimon has long had a cast of antagonist Digimon with monstruous features such as Andromon, a cyborg with grotesque flesh appendages; or Kuwagomon, a giant flying insect. However, these seemingly villainous Digimon often happened to be manipulated by an exterior force, whether a human with nefarious goals, a virus, or an evil Digimon.
Digimon has always had iconic villains, but Survive could add to its bleak setting with the inclusion of evil Digimon. Such Digimon would not only be driven by an instinct to protect their territory, or subject to outside manipulation. They would have truly pernicious intentions, and would themselves manipulate other lesser Digimon into doing their bidding. For instance, the final antagonist of the Digimon Adventure series, Apocalymon, was literally created by the cumulation of negative, dark thoughts. With such a backstory, he would be a perfect addition to Digimon Survive.
Dark Digivolution Triggered By Emotion
Moreover, Digimon is known for its complicated digivolution lines, with a single Rookie-level digimon potentially having different paths to several Mega-level variations. This is, in part, because of special digivolution types. In addition to normal digivolution, Digimon can Armor digivolve, DNA digivolve, Warp digivolve, Warp DNA digivolve, and more. One special digivolution rarely touched upon is Dark digivolution.
Dark digivolution occurs when a tamer attempts to forcefully digivolve their Digimon through strong emotions such as a lust for power or extreme sadness. For example, when Takato Matsuki saw Jeri’s Leomon die in Digimon Tamers, his rage willed WarGrowlmon to Dark digivolve into Megidramon; a Digimon so powerful that it threatened the destruction of the digital world. Digimon Survive appears to be the perfect game to include this category of special digivolution.
In the end, Digimon Survive looks close to being ready after some delays, which isn’t unexpected for a Digimon game. While there is a lot of anticipation for this latest installment, many do wonder whether the release could only be the flashpoint for additional Digimon entries down the line. After all, there are still many games that are only available in Japan and could potentially be localized.
Moreover, the older Digimon World series entries could use a remaster to give those games a new life. Perhaps it would even be in Bandai Namco’s best interest to do so. If Digimon Survive is to expand upon the franchise’s universe, all the other games could give players a more holistic view of what Digimon, and the digital world they inhabit, really are all about.
Digimon Survive is scheduled for release in 2022 on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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