English Teaser Trailer Drops For Digimon Survive

First announced in 2018 and given a 2019 release date to coincide with the franchise’s 20th anniversary, system overhauls and the COVID-19 pandemic are just some of the reasons why Digimon Survive has faced repeated delays. The game’s darker premise and aim towards older fans have made it a highly anticipated title in the series though, and now a new trailer has dropped.

If you’ve been keeping up with the game and watched the Digimon Con event that streamed about three weeks ago, you likely have seen this trailer already. It’s two minutes long and shows the cast and their voice actors, the visual novel elements, and a small bit of the tactical battles in action. What’s different here compared to the previously released trailer is that the gameplay text is in English. Overall it’s a nice reminder that the game is being worked on.

For those who haven’t watched the Digimon Con event, it did reveal some interesting tidbits about the game in a Q&A session that can be seen below or read through a translated transcript here. An especially important piece of information is that game has a new development team, with developers HYDE taking over from the previous developers Witchcraft. This change understandably has led to some delays, but the game seems to still be on track for a release this year. The ratio of visual novel segments to tactical battles is also estimated to be 7:3, which should properly set some expectations.

After all this time I was worried that my excitement for the game would die down, but I’m still looking forward to it. I’ve always enjoyed the darker elements and themes in the Digimon series, and a game that focuses on those themes for the older audience is incredibly appealing.

Although I’m more interested in the tactical part of the game than the visual novel aspects, I am nonetheless excited for something new after Digimon World: Next Order and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. If the story manages to handle its heavy themes well enough, I would certainly be willing to take it in visual novel format. My fingers are crossed that we hear more about the game soon and hopefully have a proper release date given.