straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2024-03-06 09:43 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2024-03-06 09:43 pm
269 | digimon and more digimon (i.e, the card game & survive)
► One thing I really appreciate about the new Digimon card game (well, outside of how fun it is), is the way that it’s now giving Digimon the same treatment as the Pokemon card game: that is, that we now regularly get really lovely art of Digimon interacting with one another, their partners, and the world around them.
/brought to you by my looking at yet another email sent to me by my brother filled with links of new cards he wants me to see the art of
► Speaking of Digimon—my brother and I finished watching Pluto together at the beginning of February, and he suggested that, instead of starting a new series to watch together, we instead do a playthrough of the visual novel Digimon Survive together.
Some extra context: he’s played it before; I have not. His take on it can be summed up like this: he thought the tactical rpg elements were t e r r i b l e and that the pacing was off, but liked the characters, the story, and the concepts it plays with—said it felt to him like a full new Digimon anime series, but in game form.
We decided that I’d be the one playing the game, but that I’d be doing it on his new game plus file, in order to spare me some of the tedium of the battle system. Which I’m very glad for, because he’s not wrong: the battle system is indeed boring and terrible! I’m literally using an endgame party for beginning of the game battles, and still the battles progress so slowly! The enemies barely do anything! It takes forever to get the characters into place to battle with the enemies, and, again, that’s with me using characters with greater movement capabilities than the Digimon that I’m supposed to have at this point in the game!
He’s also right about the pacing being off: the story is good, but the way the telling of that story is handled often slows down the feeling of progression and momentum. Several times, we’re in a high stakes situation, but the way the game implements going to each area and talking to the various characters just takes so much time that it feels like the characters are waffling around, despite one of their own being ostensibly in danger. But it’s down to how those sections are designed, imo, not necessarily the in-story actions of the characters themselves. (Though sometimes it’s a little bit of that too.)
But all of that aside, I am enjoying the game! I love the characters, and I’m having a good time with the story as well, above qualms aside.
Character-wise, my favorites so far are Saki and Kaito. Though I also quite liked Ryo! Initially, I was mostly just in love with Saki’s design, but at some point, my brother mentioned that she had some aspects of her character that reminded him of Hikari from Digimon Adventure—which definitely made me go all /eyes emoji at her—and the further I get into the game, the more I get what he means. I’m excited to see where all those hints go. /vague
As for Kaito—I just enjoy sibling dynamics, and his “overprotective big brother meets delinquent vibes” is just fun for me.
One thing that my brother did tell me is that, normally, Ryo can’t be saved on your first playthrough—and since I wanted to experience the story organically, I decided that I’d stick to that for my first playthrough. This was hard, because I felt so bad for Ryo and wanted to help him! And I admit, I felt like The Worst when his death scene actually happened, since… technically, I could have prevented it…. poor bby ;_; AND THEN KUNEMON VANISHED, which made me feel even worse, because Kunemon!! I loved it so much! It deserved so much better than what I gave it!
(We’ve already decided that we’re going to do all the endings together, since I expressed an interest in it, so our next playthrough will definitely feature Ryo surviving. I’m very much looking forward to that, and to seeing how a bond between Ryo and Kunemon can develop.)
Otherwise, the relationship between Aoi and Labramon is very sweet, and I think Kaito’s little sister (...forgot her name, oops) has promise too. The main character is kind of bland so far, but fine. The only character I don’t like atm is Shuuji; poor Lopmon deserves so much better than him. After seeing what happened to Kunemon, I started trying to raise affection with him for poor Lopmon’s sake, but, uh, I suspect that I might be too late, considering what I glimpsed of the start of chapter 5 + the fact that I only have like, 3 affection with him…
(My brother also doesn’t like Shuuji, which did lead to a mildly amusing moment. In the first battle after Shuuji joins the party, I opened the menu to evolve Lopmon… and saw that he had no evolutions.
Me @ my brother: Shuuji didn’t survive in your game, did he.
My brother: …..
My brother, in a real life version of the sweat drop emoji: How could you tell?)
Anyways, I vote that Saki should get to have two partners, both Floramon and Lopmon, since her interactions with both of them were good and Lopmon Deserves Better.
Finally, when that Mysterious Adult Woman appeared in the game, I instantly went, THAT’S ARUCHENIMON. Look, we already had that plot twist in Adventure Two, you can’t fool me again!
/brought to you by my looking at yet another email sent to me by my brother filled with links of new cards he wants me to see the art of
► Speaking of Digimon—my brother and I finished watching Pluto together at the beginning of February, and he suggested that, instead of starting a new series to watch together, we instead do a playthrough of the visual novel Digimon Survive together.
Some extra context: he’s played it before; I have not. His take on it can be summed up like this: he thought the tactical rpg elements were t e r r i b l e and that the pacing was off, but liked the characters, the story, and the concepts it plays with—said it felt to him like a full new Digimon anime series, but in game form.
We decided that I’d be the one playing the game, but that I’d be doing it on his new game plus file, in order to spare me some of the tedium of the battle system. Which I’m very glad for, because he’s not wrong: the battle system is indeed boring and terrible! I’m literally using an endgame party for beginning of the game battles, and still the battles progress so slowly! The enemies barely do anything! It takes forever to get the characters into place to battle with the enemies, and, again, that’s with me using characters with greater movement capabilities than the Digimon that I’m supposed to have at this point in the game!
He’s also right about the pacing being off: the story is good, but the way the telling of that story is handled often slows down the feeling of progression and momentum. Several times, we’re in a high stakes situation, but the way the game implements going to each area and talking to the various characters just takes so much time that it feels like the characters are waffling around, despite one of their own being ostensibly in danger. But it’s down to how those sections are designed, imo, not necessarily the in-story actions of the characters themselves. (Though sometimes it’s a little bit of that too.)
But all of that aside, I am enjoying the game! I love the characters, and I’m having a good time with the story as well, above qualms aside.
Character-wise, my favorites so far are Saki and Kaito. Though I also quite liked Ryo! Initially, I was mostly just in love with Saki’s design, but at some point, my brother mentioned that she had some aspects of her character that reminded him of Hikari from Digimon Adventure—which definitely made me go all /eyes emoji at her—and the further I get into the game, the more I get what he means. I’m excited to see where all those hints go. /vague
As for Kaito—I just enjoy sibling dynamics, and his “overprotective big brother meets delinquent vibes” is just fun for me.
One thing that my brother did tell me is that, normally, Ryo can’t be saved on your first playthrough—and since I wanted to experience the story organically, I decided that I’d stick to that for my first playthrough. This was hard, because I felt so bad for Ryo and wanted to help him! And I admit, I felt like The Worst when his death scene actually happened, since… technically, I could have prevented it…. poor bby ;_; AND THEN KUNEMON VANISHED, which made me feel even worse, because Kunemon!! I loved it so much! It deserved so much better than what I gave it!
(We’ve already decided that we’re going to do all the endings together, since I expressed an interest in it, so our next playthrough will definitely feature Ryo surviving. I’m very much looking forward to that, and to seeing how a bond between Ryo and Kunemon can develop.)
Otherwise, the relationship between Aoi and Labramon is very sweet, and I think Kaito’s little sister (...forgot her name, oops) has promise too. The main character is kind of bland so far, but fine. The only character I don’t like atm is Shuuji; poor Lopmon deserves so much better than him. After seeing what happened to Kunemon, I started trying to raise affection with him for poor Lopmon’s sake, but, uh, I suspect that I might be too late, considering what I glimpsed of the start of chapter 5 + the fact that I only have like, 3 affection with him…
(My brother also doesn’t like Shuuji, which did lead to a mildly amusing moment. In the first battle after Shuuji joins the party, I opened the menu to evolve Lopmon… and saw that he had no evolutions.
Me @ my brother: Shuuji didn’t survive in your game, did he.
My brother: …..
My brother, in a real life version of the sweat drop emoji: How could you tell?)
Anyways, I vote that Saki should get to have two partners, both Floramon and Lopmon, since her interactions with both of them were good and Lopmon Deserves Better.
Finally, when that Mysterious Adult Woman appeared in the game, I instantly went, THAT’S ARUCHENIMON. Look, we already had that plot twist in Adventure Two, you can’t fool me again!