I have been a fan of the Digimon series for many years now. In fact, I used to get up at 4 AM on weekdays to watch a few episodes before school. Most people have a rivalry in their minds between Digimon and Pokemon, but I enjoy both, and I was greatly excited to see Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition releasing on the Nintendo Switch. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition contains both Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory, ultimately providing two games in one package.

In either game, you will be put in the role of a user of the cyberspace network called EDEN. Under various circumstances, you are given the opportunity to use the Digimon Capture program, to fight against hostile hackers and solve each protagonist’s individual mystery. In the original Cyber Sleuth, you play as a male or female who finds themselves somehow stuck between a physical form and a cyber form. They then set out to investigate mysterious cases of Eden Syndrome.

Eden Syndrome is a unique phenomenon where people inside the cyber network EDEN go unconscious in the real world, falling into a coma for seemingly unknown reasons. You wind up working alongside Kyoko Kuremi as her assistant, taking on cases and exploring both Japan and EDEN.

In Hacker’s Memory, you play a young man framed for a crime he didn’t commit, due to his EDEN account being stolen. He joins together with a group of hackers, to try and find the real culprit and clear his name once and for all.

Both stories have very similar gameplay. They each play out in the form of a standard RPG. You have a party of three Digimon companions, which fight for you. Each Digimon has skills that either do damage or heal and buff your party. By fighting other Digimon repeatedly, you not only level up your party but also slowly scan the enemies you fight. Once you get a Digimon to 100 percent scan rating, you can recruit them to your party by using the Digi-Convert function. However, if you wait until the scan rating is at 200 percent, the Digimon you convert will have higher stats.

By leveling your Digimon, you can gain new abilities and once your Digimon hits its max level, you can digivolve it. Digivolving is a fairly simple process. If your Digimon fits the requirements for the next evolution (of which you can pick multiple possible outcomes) you can digivolve it, starting it back at level 1 but with higher stats and better stat growth.

As you can guess, you’ll be recruiting a lot of Digimon throughout the game. Because of that, you can utilize the DigiLab to both store Digimon you aren’t using and raise them using the DigiFarm. The DigiFarm allows you to train Digimon while you are out adventuring. However, you can also use it to develop items or send your Digimon on investigations, which let you acquire new side quests.

Digimon in the DigiFarm can benefit from Farm Goods, which provide a variety of effects, such as raising XP gained or even the success rate of item development or investigations. Having Digimon in the DigiFarm lets them gain XP while they’re not with you, and also allows you to evolve them and slowly build up other potential party members.

This enables you to build a balanced team over time, while also expanding your “Party Memory” which limits how many Digimon can be in your party at once. Each Digimon has its own memory cost, which usually increases depending on the strength of said Digimon. This cost gets a little annoying after a while, but it is meant to keep you from being overpowered too quickly, and it is a minor annoyance once you get into the game a bit.

When you aren’t in combat, fighting enemies and bosses, you are exploring areas either in the digital world of EDEN or the real world. Sometimes you will need to use your character’s hacking skills to get past firewalls or solve various puzzles. You can also learn keywords from NPC’s, which you use to solve investigations. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition combines typical RPG action with puzzle-solving and detective-style cases in a way that I found particularly appealing. Granted, the cases aren’t all that complex, but some of them are still challenging and enjoyable.

There are two kinds of cases, ones that are required, and side cases. The side cases are marked with various colored dots, that indicate their priority. The game tells you that red cases are a higher priority and that they give better rewards, but that is not always the case. There are also blue, green, and yellow cases and each case has a certain amount of difficulty stars attached to them to give you an idea of what kind of challenge you are preparing for.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition also contains something called the DigiLine, which is a messaging app that allows your character to communicate with their friends and family, as well as the Digimon in the DigiFarm. The fun part about this is that it also sometimes will give you fun little trivia questions, which encourage you to think about Digimon and characters you’ve met before. Some of these questions require prior knowledge of the Digimon series, but, between you and me a quick google search can answer them if you are new.

While I have praised the game in a lot of ways, it is not without its’ issues. To start, there is a mini-map available as you explore, however, there is no way to pull up a larger version of the map to figure out the best way to go. Because of this, there winds up being a lot of backtracking when you realize that you’ve missed a chest or a potential item on the ground.

The other issue I found was in regards to the game’s combo mechanic. Sometimes in battle, Digimon on your team will utilize a team-attack, where one or two of your party members will join in and either raise the damage of the attacking Digimon’s attack or will simply attack alongside them doing extra damage. They don’t really explain how to make this happen reliably though, so it tends to be a random occurrence in most cases.

Beyond that though, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition is a fantastic experience for fans of RPGs or the Digimon series. In fact, I’d say it is even more of a deal considering you’re getting two great gaming experiences in one package. Add that to the fact that you can take this on the go, and it’s a no-brainer for kids or adults on a long commute.

I would greatly encourage you to give Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition a look. Since the holidays are coming, there is no better time to start looking at potential stocking-stuffers and presents for the gamer in your life.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition was provided by Bandai Namco for this review.

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Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition

$49.99 USD

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Over 300 Digimon to Befriend and Evolve
• Great Cases and Side Content
• Two Great Stories in one Package
• Deep RPG Progression Systems
• Tons of Content

Cons

• No Full Map
• Combos are Sporadic