Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (Switch Port): Just as unpolished as ever

This is a follow up review to the original review of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. Link to the original: https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com/2017/02/digimon-story-cyber-sleuth-shes-had-her.html

While Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth was a game I enjoyed when playing it on the Playstation Vita, there were some glaring problems with it when it comes to the polish of the game. From localization errors to not making story event changes depending on the player characters gender, it gave the game an awkward charm to it that players will either like, or hate. As a quick follow up to that review though, the game has come out on the Switch, and has it made any improvements in that department?

Short answer, no. In fact, using patch 1.01, it's even worse, but in an amazing way that I am surprised did not get caught earlier on in development. There isn't much to add to the presentation, it looks and sounds as good as it did on the Vita, but thanks to the Switch's Sleep Mode, and the Digi bank, it is shocking how quickly you can get powerful Digimon as the game doesn't stop counting playtime while the console is in Sleep Mode. According to the in-game clock, I've put in over 114 hours and am barely into Chapter 3 (at time of writing). According to the console though, I've put in somewhere between 10 and 20 hours. In that time, I already have 15 Ultimate Level Digimon, most of them in the level 20s to 40s, purely by having the game running in sleep mode. I honestly struggle to call that a glitch because of how easy it is to catch and use. It's baffling to me that something like that wasn't caught before release, but considering as the game gives you several Mega level Digimon in the form of smaller versions of the Royal Knights for free, I can't help but wonder if it was intentional or not.

Presentation-wise though, this is still basically the same game, just with the extra DLC (not counting the Vita themes). Some of the visual problems are more obvious now, such as some stiff animations here and there, but it does look like the localization hasn't been improved either, as I did notice some odd word choices in cutscenes every now and then. The soundtrack is still good, and fitting for the game, but some parts of the game that I didn't do in the initial playthrough, such as the Digimon missing items in Kowloon are annoying to do and were probably worse to do on the Vita. Seriously, who's idea was it to put white sparkly things for items in a dungeon that has the primary colours of light blue and white?!

Is it worth a double-dip? That depends. For me, the main reason to get it was to get Hackers Memory, a prequel to the events of the story that I'm hoping to get a proper review of done sometime in the new year, as that game only came out to the PS4. It's a solid game to play on the go and being honest, most people reading this probably don't have a Vita around, and the better investment is to get a Switch (unless you're committed to PS4 Remote Play?). Worth a look if you can find it on sale at least, but that's without judging the second half of the package.

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 4; Loss: I'd have gone with missing or missed as there's a missed opportunity here

We finally did it! We're in the Digital World! One of the main draws for Digimon and something that not a lot of Digimon series, including Adventure and 02 wasted time to get to. Secrets are bound to be revealed, friendships remade, and more... right?

Well, yes, but the way they handle it is... strange to say the least. We learn why "Ken" is evil, although that was revealed in Chapter 3, I left it for here as it flowed better and it's more important here. We learn Himekawa's involvement in the plot along with another new face for this series, we know who's pulling the strings, and we learn more about Meicuumon's role in all of this, but its not before the kids have to reconnect to their Digimon, as all eight of them have lost their memories. It's honestly amusing to see how the Digimon interact with their partners, how afraid, confused, mad and the like that they all are. I can't help but smile at things like Nyaromon being one of the first to trust their partner thanks to the connection Kari has with the whistle. One of the last ones though is Biyomon, who is mad at Sora until pretty much the end of the film. What brings some stakes into this though is that not only are the team eventually separated, but a villain is trying to take Meicuumon. That villain is... Gennai? You remember that old man that helped the original team in Adventure, then suddenly became a lot younger in 02? Had a whole thing about the balance between the Human and Digital World, was even giving information to the organization Himekawa and Diago Nishijima (I'll get back to him) on the Infected Digimon. Well... Apparently, he's evil now, working alongside Himekawa, and serving King Draisel, an entity those who are familiar with Digimon Data Squad would know of. Turns out, Draisel was behind all of this and is intending to go to war with the Human World. To do this though, he needed the Digital World rebooted so that all the powerful Digimon that the Digidestined have defeated return, including those who fell in the human world, and never became Digi-eggs again.

One of the rare times we see all of them in their Rookie forms together.

I love this idea in theory as it's an easy excuse to bring back old villains, especially if the team have to relearn how to get their partners up to Champion, Ultimate and Mega again. That last part though is a missed opportunity, as not only does Biyomon become Phoenixmon, her mega form, but Tentomon becomes HerculesKabuterimon, and Patamon suddenly becomes Seraphimon... something he hasn't been able to do since the third film that made up Digimon The Movie... Ok? Unfortunately, that is probably down to the release structure of Digimon Adventure tri. What were six movies became 26 (I think) episodes of varying length, which have been turned into films again for the home releases? Because that's not redundant at all! If it was allowed to breath more, we could have seen some interesting ideas, like the return of villains and Digimon that mean a lot to the kids, such as Devimon (the one that gave T.K some strong trauma as Angemon died that episode), Wizzardmon (who sacrificed himself to protect Kari and Gatomon from Myotismon, imagine if he was brought back as a villain), Diaboromon would be cool to see again. We do get the return of Machindramon and Metal Seadramon, but they're relegated to mukes now and lost what little personality they had. The reboot restoring the Digimon who didn't get revived is also a reason why Himekawa is working for King Draisel. She and Nishijima were two of the original Digidestined, the team before the Adventure team we know, and her partner Digimon was killed in a battle against the Dark Masters. Her partner was the only one who died that battle, as the other four, including Nishijima's partner, became the four Digimon Sovereign from Adventure. It's another thing that sounds great in theory, but I get the sad feeling that it's not going to be developed fully by the end of this.

I have no idea why they went back to the Digital World in their school uniforms though. They're on summer vacation right?

So, where do we end this marathon? Seven of the eight digi-destined can reach the Mega level, Meicoomon is about to rip Genai a new one as her anger and Meiko being harmed got the best of her, turning her into one of the two Meicrackmon forms, Himekawa's insane, and Draisel's getting ready to go to war in the human world, intending to use Meicrackmon in the plan. Could I review chapters 5 and 6 now? I could, however, I do stick to English dubs to make it easier to review, and Chapter 5 hasn't hit home media yet, with Chapter 6 not even out yet in English. Chapter 4 only hit DVD and Blu-Ray here last week to the day, so this is another extremely timely review. However, that is the reason why this marathon is being called here. I will try and review Chapters 5 and 6 when they come out, but that is easily going to be a while. The anime content isn't over though because next week, we're looking at a team that fights evil by moonlight, stretches the definition of strong female characters depending on who you ask, and was stupid enough to try and hide a lesbian couple with an incest one... that flew over well! Regardless, I'll leave you here, Sunday will be the Tamagotchi review I promised (that I've been meaning to do since I launched the Toybox...) and next Wednesday will be the start of another marathon of reviews with Sailor Moon.

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 3; Confession: Still not going to put any real effort into finding out what happened to the 02 Team? No?

It should be said right at the outset that this is one of the hardest chapters to watch. Not because of quality, but for the story, it's trying to tell. You know how I brought up the Death of Leomon and the D-Reaper arc in Digimon Tamers last week? Well, this is probably up with it. It's brutal if you've grown up with these characters. If you don't want to be spoiled, turn away now. What I can say about it though is that this is a far better chapter then Chapter 2 was, at least overall. If you want to know why, then read on.

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 2; Determination:Leomon really can't catch a break can he?

It should be noted that for these reviews, I won't be covering things like the presentation in every review. It would be like reviewing a TV show's art style every single episode, there's no point. I will, however, do things like give a brief summary. What do we know so far? We know the 02 team is basically dead (as far as this story is concerned), we know that Infected Digimon is stronger and more aggressive than regular Digimon, and the original eight are reunited with their partners, and joined by a mysterious 9th member. So, where does the story go from here? It involves a coward learning to be brave, an arrogant girl learning to accept others views and becoming more flexible... Betrayal? A death longtime fans will see coming... oh this is going to be rough...

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1; Reunion: Kuwagamon, why does it always have to be Kuwagamon?

It took a little while to get here, and even then it's not going to be the full trip, but here we are, the return to Digimon with Digimon Adventure tri. The films that celebrated the 15th anniversary of the series (which was for some reason spaced out to include 2013 and 2015, even though the anniversary was 2014...), and a direct continuation of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. The original eight are back in action once again, for something that will send you on a rollercoaster of emotions one way or another. For the record, these reviews will go off the assumption you know who the characters are from Adventure and 02, if you want to watch tri., it's recommended that you watch at least Adventure first. This is also going to cover spoilers as each chapter builds on each other.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: “She’s had her body digitized, she hasn’t had a sex change” #BlameKurata

So... this week's review has tentacle monsters, clothing designs that raise more questions then answers in terms of usefulness, a tentacle monster that evolves to use a teenage girl as a energy weapon, and was made in Japan. I swear this isn't a hentai. This one was recommended to me by a store clerk when I was picking up another Digimon game, Digimon All Star Rumble. Once I finished with Shantae, I gave it a shot, just for a different style of RPG. And… well it is different, at least for me, forewarn I haven’t played Atlus RPG’s so if some of these feel tamed by comparison to it, you don’t need to bring it up, I’ve heard. I’ll be using the PSVita version for review, and there is free DLC and themes for the game, should you be into those.

Opening Impressions: Digimon Fusion Season 2: "We finally realised 'we're stronger when we act as one'... kinda...

So, with more news coming out for Digimon Adventure Tri, Digimon Fusion Season 2 decides to make its appearance (why it took a year is beyond me, seeing as it was first aired a few years ago in Japan). Jeremy and Angie (two people I didn’t bring attention to in the Season 1 review) take their leave, and we now focus on all three of the Digi Destined, who actually have Digivices.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Fusion. Dr Frankenstein would be proud

It pains me to conclude the Digimon Marathon so quickly, but sadly schedules can be a pain sometimes. There is however, one last completed season to review, and with both Season 2 and the upcoming Digimon Adventure Tri to look forward to, I guarantee this won't be the last time Digimon makes an appearance here. Time to delve into the world of Digimon Fusion.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Data Squad: #BlameKurata

One problem I see with projects, in particular fan works, is the poor combination of either parts of franchises, or franchises completely. It’s not something I see often enough to be a large problem, but when I find one, it really stands out, like the subject of this review, Digimon Data Squad.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Frontier. All smiles, Spirits and world deletion... wait...

So, after the feels trip that was Digimon Tamers, its not surprising that the next season would be more on the chearful side. Unlike its even predecessor and more like its actual predecessor, Frontier is once again, a reboot (which actually makes more sense seeing as this is a Digital World). A brand new Digital World, new Digi destined and the concept of Spirit evolution, it's true what they say, the past can come back to haunt you: Digimon Frontier.

Digimon Marathon: Runaway Locomon... So long as its not Let it Go, you can start up a Barbershop Quartet for all I care

Remember those last few seconds of Such Sweet Sorrow? Yeah, that's the connection to this. Turns out they do get to keep their Digimon with no repercussions of them returning to the In training phase at all. But, if they're back, it means there's a new problem to deal with, and sure enough, this is no exception. Time to hit the railroad running, we've got a train to catch: Runaway Locomon.

Digimon Marathon: Battle of Adventurers... "Can't we have a break?"

So depression and the idea of lost was a common trend in Digimon Tamers, all building up to the D-Reaper. But Tamers also had two films linked to it, so you can guarantee that the themes will be there as well. Let's start with the first one: Battle of Adventurers.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Tamers: Dark reboots before they were cool

It's not often you see the same team do a darker reimagining of their own idea. "You thought Adventure and Zero Two was to cheerful, well, time we hit you in the feels". It's a brand new world, new Digi Destined and the kid friendly version of hacking. Time for the Tamers to take the lead.

Digimon Marathon: Revenge of Diaboromon. You can never keep a good devil down

One thing of note about a lot of the Digimon movies, is that they aren't full movies length wise. So as a slightly longer episode, how does the sequel to Our War Game fair? Time to review Digimon: Revenge of Diaboromon.

(No cover as I can't find one that I can confirm to be the cover)

Digimon Marathon: Digimon the Movie: Look at how far we've come

Oh Fox, you truly know no limits when it comes to what you'll do for a quick buck... even when I'm certain it would have given you more money not to do what you did to these films. No that's not a typo, there are three movies spliced into one here... and it shows. Digimon fans hate this movie, and with valid reasons. But lets take a look at this blatant cash grab. Digimon the Movie...

Might I add, this is a crap promo poster. I thought we were past the days of bad box art...

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Adventures 02: "Why can't we send in the competent ones?"

Ah Zero Two. One of the most debatable seasons of the series out there. Both praised and hated by many. But as with Adventure, how well does it hold up now? Four new Digi-destined, new Digivolution (mechanics?) and more, Time to review Digimon Adventure 02.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Adventure: Happy Birthday my two blogs, for your present: time to delve into the Digital World

Two days early? Yes, but still... Happy one year anniversary!!! This Wednesday will mark the launch of Blaster's Projects (pop quiz, who still remembers the original name of the site?) and one day later, the launch of Blaster's Reviews. Cue the dancers:

... Note to self, work on better theme integration...

So yes, almost one year on, I thought it would be fitting to have some sort of celebration, and what better way then to review something I talked about early in the sites life and a clear contrast to what my first review was: Digimon. Ah Digimon, the tabu of my Primary School. Everyone knew about it, but you either hated it as a Pokemon clone, or never looked at it due to several reasons (me being one of that second). I remember watching a few episodes randomly, Australian TV at the time wasn't known for its speedy and consistent arrivals. It wasn't until several years later where I'd sit down to watch them properly, thanks in part to vague memories and a friend of mine randomly mentioning it (good luck conducting the band for Violet by the way). As I mentioned last year, I prefer the Digimon Anime over the Pokemon one nowadays, but I think its about time to go into detail. From today, up until near the end of March, three posts a day, will be nothing but Digimon. I also want to stress that, aside from the last review due to lack of localization to my knowledge, I'll be covering the English Dubs as I can analyze them in greater detail. Time to delve into the past that was late 90's-early 2000's children's television and the generally accepted rival to Pokemon and how it has survived almost 16 years later (in two weeks, it'll have been 16 years since the original run). Time to start the Digimon Marathon, up first: Digimon Adventure.

One of the most well known nerdy battles. Pokemon verses Digimon

Well, it might not be a Tamer’s review, but I thought that this might be a good intro to Digimon (my review at the moment has a lot of backstory and it that reason why I haven’t posted it yet). For this, I’m reviewing the Digimon Franchise and its pros and cons over its rival, the Pokémon Franchise.

I should note, before I cover the games, I have only played (and still working on) the DS games, Digimon World DS, Digimon World Dawn and its counterpart Digimon World Dusk so my review might be a bit biased. That being said, the Digimon World games haven’t held my interest like the Pokémon Games have. The plot is pretty simple, you’re a kid who has either been sucked into the Digital World (the world of the Digimon, they are digital monster’s after all) or has been living in the Digital World already (these are for the before mentioned games so intro might be different depending on the game). For World DS, because your being sucked into the Digital World, you can choose your partner, who are the three “In Training” forms of the partners in the, current at the time of release, main members of DATS, the organization in Digimon Data Squad, more on that latter. From there, you complete objectives to improve your Digimon’s residence, collect information about other Digimon and raise your Digimon so that they can “Digivolve”. Dawn and Dusk’s plots might be similar to the late game as DS (again, haven’t played that much of it yet at the time of post). You are a member of one of two organizations (depending on which version you play) and you have to stop something from causing havoc on the Digital World using the Digimon you already have and anymore you collect on the way. While I haven’t played a lot of the games, I do like the evolution method the games use. When your Digimon reaches a certain level and has a specific number of special experience based on the species (Insect, Machine, Dragon ect) it can Digivolve to the next level. In order, these are Baby/Newborn, In Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega and some species have the ability to go further, but I’ll explain latter. What makes this better then Pokémon for me is that most Digimon can Digivolve into multiple forms depending on the circumstances. Take the “mascot” for example, while I won’t explain how, Agumon can turn into either Greymon and from there it can turn into Metal Greymon and then War Greymon, or it can turn into GeoGreymon, RiseGreymon and then ShineGreymon (this is a basic toned down version but you get the point). This gives the game a lot more replay ability because you could choose the same In Training Digimon but get a different Mega.

For Pokémon, on the other hand, you’re a 10 year old kid who gets either a Grass type, Fire type or Water type Pokémon as your first Pokémon (unless you’re playing Yellow in which case you get Pikachu). You go out, get 8 gym badges from other cities, take on the Elite 4, champion, enter hall of fame and congratulations, you’ve beaten the game, go onto post game if you wish. While it might seem that I’m hating on the plot of the games (and I am) for some reason, this keeps my interest unlike the Digimon Games. My guess is because, to me, Pokémon gets to the point faster and lets me play faster than the Digimon World games have. I prefer games that get to the actual gameplay fast (which is why I dropped Skyrim after I left the first town…). It could also be 9 years of playing Pokémon to 2 years of Digimon but I digress. The Pokémon games are much easier to get into unlike Digimon because all the Pokémon games assume you don’t have prior knowledge of games (which is good until you see the “How to catch a Pokémon Tutorial for the 50^th time which often resorts to myself saying to the game “I’ve been catching Pokémon since before you were programed”. I guess the nutshell is, Pokémon is baby’s first RPG with Digimon being the next phase up, they are worth a look but you have to have knowledge of the series (for Digimon’s case anyway) to understand what you’re getting yourself into. One of the things I like the most though in Pokémon is that it feels a lot more like a world then the Digimon games ever did, but I’ll explain why latter.

And now for the ne thing that people remember the most when it comes to Digimon, the anime. I will be looking at the English Dub’s for this so to fans, I apologies. That being said, I really enjoy the anime, it does a lot of things that the Pokémon Anime would never do. For example

1.       Changes the main character. While Ash is STILL the protagonist of the Pokémon anime, the Digimon anime changes its group of lead characters at the end of almost every season and even then, the group is generally larger than the Pokémon series. While there are 3-4 primary characters in Pokémon every season, Ash still gets the most screen time trying to flesh out a character that has run dry in my opinion. Granted I still like characters like Misty, May and Dawn, its primarily due to their personalities and how they grow as trainers. The Digimon group has 3-8 characters per season and they all have decent air time and fleshed out characters by the end of their series. Because of the new characters, it is understandable for them to get information on all the Digimon, even if it is just for the viewers but for Pokémon, it is becoming harder and harder to take ash seriously because he is using the Pokédex on older Pokémon, THAT HE HAS ALERADY SEEN AND IN SOME CASES CAUGHT!!!

2.       Darker themes. While yes, Pokémon has gotten away with some dark themes, a lot of those episodes have gotten banned as a result. Remember when Ash got his 30 Tauros, I don’t. What about when Castelia City was destroyed, nothing comes to mind…. The only dark theme that I remember in the anime was in the first move, in the “Try not to cry, cry a lot when you first see it” scene where Ash dies (And after almost 20 years, spoiler warnings are thrown out the window). But in the Digimon series, they cover death quite a lot in all the seasons. The “Digi-Destined” also have to learn how to live with their decisions “when is it alright to kill”. Family is mentioned constantly in the first season. Digimon Tamers has been regarded as one of the darkest seasons to date for several reasons. In the past seasons, when Digimon “die” their data is reconfigured and they are reborn in a special area of the Digital World. In tamers, that is never mentioned so it is assumed that if someone dies, their dead for good, so when one of the heroes, Leomon is killed, on camera, uncensored (he slowly breaks down into raw data and dissolves, the equivalent of bleeding to death) and then the famous line by the leader of the group “I’ll make you hurt, I’LL MAKE YOU PAY”, which then leads into the final ark where the villain uses the hero’s mental states against them…

Probably my only complaint with the Digimon anime is the fifth season, Digimon Data Squad and its really just a personal opinion. In the past, it has been shown that Digimon are based off of kids imaginations (hence why you can have a giant dinosaur that fires missiles out of his chest) so it seems weird to me to see late teenagers-early adults being Digi-Destined. While yes, the cast of the first two seasons are shown to have matured and become adults while still having their Digimon, they got them when they were kids so I’m willing to let that slide. Again though, its just a personal thing to me

In conclusion, I highly recommend giving both a shot, to get your own opinions on both franchises. I haven’t covered anything about the other aspects of the franchises, including the toys ect and that’s just because of a lack of experience.