There am I, taking my first steps into the second most famous
monster-collecting franchise of them all. And my, how auspicious those first
steps are indeed! I can totally feel that this game is about to become my new
obsession for the next two weeks, oooh yes precious.
Granted, the very first steps were not that auspicious. Dare I
say that they were a teeny-tiny bit tedious? Yup, I'll say it. The game's
weirdly disconnected mission-based structure didn't sit well with me, all the
less so as the first missions were aggravatingly boring and handholdy. But then
I got some welcome leeway to explore dungeons and build up my team, and things
instantly got better. My love for the game has grown stronger ever since, and I
expect it to grow even stronger in the next hours: because lo and behold, HM
is a dungeon crawler, and dungeon crawlers are me life. Now sure, it leans
on the lite side of dungeon crawling, with its pint-sized dungeons, its
forgiving random encounter rate and its heavy emphasis on storyline; but still,
there's definitely some crawling going on there. I wish the dungeons could be a
bit more varied in terms of looks and layout; however, I have to admit that
they fit the digital theme perfectly. And it's not like bleak-looking dungeons
have ever been a deterrent to roaming&crawling as far as I'm concerned, now
is it?
I'm still busy discovering the evolution mechanics of that brand-new beastly
universe, which seem to have little to nothing in common with the Pokemon ones
beyond the basic notion that more levels = more badass creatures. I really like
the whole surprise factor involved in Digivolution — although I can already
predict that this is gonna lead to a lot of save file reloading. I can also
already predict that I'm going to have a hard ride getting used to the ugliest
Digis out there, because I'm usually a sucker for looks in those
monster-collecting games. But hey, we'll see! The idea that I can choose my own
evolutions to a much greater degree than in the Pokemon series is pretty
alluring, and it's certainly worth stomaching a couple of weird-looking Digis
in the process. For now at least, my little critters are cute as buttons, as
they're still lounging in the early evolutionary stages.
Did you notice that I wrote 'they're still lounging'? That's right, dear
fellow gamers: no solo run in sight here! HM is a game that makes the
very concept of a solo run ludicrous, as is liberally grants the exact same
amount of XP to all the Digis in the party, regardless of their number. After
years of solo runs, I'm more pleasantly surprised than ever when RPGs do that —
because it is rare, very rare indeed. The fact that a monster-collecting game,
of all RPG subgenres, allows me to do just that is priceless, because it gives
me the all-too-rare opportunity to experiment with party dynamics without
having to sacrifice my party's growth. This is exactly what I was
missing from the Pokemon series, and you can bet your sweet life I'm
gonna make the most of it — all the more so as there's no micromanagement
involved when it comes to Digi care. How did I get to be so lucky here?
What else? The story looks quite decent, but I know myself: I'm probably gonna
get stupidly engrossed in crawling and lose track of all things narrative
before long. And to be honest, I'm much more interested in the relationships
between the characters than in the overarching story right now. Like, is there
some actual romancing in HM? I'd sure like to try defrosting my ice
queen fellow Hudie hacker Erika, or to get that bromance going with BFF Yu.
Pretty please, game? Overall, I must admit that I'm really fond of MC Keisuke:
he's kinda bland and goofy, but in a really sweet and endearing way; and his
naivety and kindness are cute and refreshing. However, I can sense from the
game's tone so far that there's some nasty shit in store for him before the
credits roll. My best guess would be Ryuji and/or Erika kicking the bucket, or
Yu turning against Keisuke — or all of that at once. It's pretty obvious that
we're dealing with a somewhat darker brand of monster-collecting RPG here, and
not only on the narrative front — as proven by the 'Game Over' that was shoved
in my face when all my Digis fainted. Ouch. After years of running to
the next Pokemon Center with no loss of progression whatsoever, that kinda
stung.
But anyway — so far, so good! I'll see you soon with more progress reports and
detailed impressions of my first foray into the Digimon franchise, dear
fellow gamers. Thanks for reading as usual, and drop by anytime!
Ohohoh, glad
you started with this one. Personally, I think the previous game had a better
story overall, but this one has the most gut punching ending of the whole
franchise (and of many games as a whole; not even persona 3 ends as dark), so
it can even out?
Some hints: some digimon have passive skills that doubles exp gain. Get 3 of
those in your party, and you'll evolve the rest of the party in no time. This
is essential, because you are forced to de-digivolve in order to get a
Digimon's ABI up, and the best evolutions have high ABI requirements.
The digimon with this skill is PlatinumNumemon, and I recommend going down this
path: digiconvert Wanyamon, evolve it to Kudamon, evolve it to GoldNumemon,
evolve it to Vademon and grind until level 45 so you can get the skill
Nightmare III, de-digivolve to GoldNumemon and then finally evolve it to
PlatinumNumemon. Get 3 of those, go near a teleport to the digilab, and use
nightmare III to get through encounters quickly. If you get your hands on
tactician USB's you can get even more exp.
You can wait on this though, since I doubt you have enough party memory for now
to hold 3 mega digimon + whatever digimon you want to level up.
Get a free type digimon in the party rookie or above when you're grinding, so
you have access to the skill that summons an encounter immediately. Once you're
far along to get 5 megas, you can use the skill that nullifies encounters in
every map so you never have to bother outside of bosses.
You keep all your skills when you de-digivolve, so it's a good strategy to
digivolve to a digimon you don't want just for the skills, then de-digivolve
into the line you want. This is not crucial if you're not playing hard mode
though (or doing the DLC battles of the previous game).
Some digimon require certain stats. If you can't get them with a maxed out 99
lvl, then stick them in the farm and either feed them certain foods, or install
equipment to raise that stat and do something else for a while. Throughout my
playthroughs, I only needed to do this to get Lucemon. It's much better than
the DS entries, where each digimon gave a certain 'type' of exp (like beast
exp, dark exp, aqua exp) and you needed a certain amount of that type to
evolve. Problem is if your digimon needed, say 150 000 aqua experience, and the
max you could get from encounters was 673 because aqua zones were all early in
game...I speak from experience if it isn't obvious.
I hope you like it enough to try the previous entry, because that one has some
sidequests that literally kick you in the gut, and I'd love to gush about them
with you. Also, I like Arata, and he's a main character in that game instead of
a cameo. Sadly his cameo here actually spoils a big part of his story...
Oh, and while
there's no actual romancing, there's always one female and one male character
that stops short of outright flirting with you (notice I said, at least one,
not just one). I actually wonder how long they'll keep romance out, considering
there can be some moments that are just outright shipping fuel...on the plus
side, you get lots of time with each character.
Also, this game had more male characters important to you despite Keisuke
always being male, whereas the previous entry only had Arata and the rest where
all female until *spoilers I will not reveal in case you play it*, despite
being able to choose your gender. That said, Arata was worth 3 female
characters, so it evened out for me.
(Personally, in this game I liked Chitose myself, and Arata in the first game.
The last world title, I actually liked the digimon NPCs better, but there was
still one of each to have hints with you. Digimon survive also already
introduced one of each.)
The mission structure is because this the 'Platinum' to the previous' entry
'Diamond' and in that game, you were employed by an actual detective. So in
between developing the story, you had your employer whip you into picking up
cases (aka missions and sidequests) and it made sense there.
Why Kumiko, I
knew I could trust you when it comes to Digimon tips! Thanks a million! I'll
definitely heed your advice! In fact, I already have 3 Vademon lounging at the
back of my team and getting stronger by the fight, until they can help pimp
their fellow Digis. :P And it certainly doesn't hurt that they have reviving
abilities and are pretty strong in their own right, which allows them to step
in if/when one of my fighting Digis bits the dust. My run is going to be much
easier with those three in tow — so thanks again! ^^
I really like Chitose, and the fact that they made him a flirty yet not
outright pervy character. He manages to be funny and cool without being a jerk,
which is quite the feat! He's actually my favourite Hudie team character —
although to be honest, I have a soft spot for all of them. Heck, Erika is
probably the best ice queen-meets-genius I've seen in a long time — I'm really,
really fond of her. It pains me to think that all those lovely characters will
probably be slapped in the face with an harrowing ending... Although I'll
accept it gladly if the narrative payoff is good.
But back to Chitose: I had a popularity event with him, and the outcome was
hilarious! Chitose asking me not to be embarrassed when pulling some dirt out
of my hair? This is otome level, I swear! I certainly didn't expect a Digimon
game to be rife with yaoi innuendos, and that was quite the pleasant surprise.
I love when games break the usual boobs&butts fan-service mold and try to
cater to different audiences, it's refreshing. ^^
Cheers for
Chitose! Part of me thinks the game was written with custom gender in mind, but
given that they chose an existing character from the previous game, that likely
wasn't the case. Which is great news, because digimon survive also has a male
protagonist, and given the deeper story and how the games it seems to be based
on (devil survivor) were the most ho yay ridden games in Atlus' history, it
will be a shame if they skip that part.
I mean, the previous entry to this game had moments where it assumed your
character liked girls even if you were female, but also had moments with
Arata...but I just assumed it was laziness on the developers part, because the
girl option is often an afterthought and it's not rare for that stuff to be
kept just because they can't be bothered, and I assumed the Arata moments was
just my otome heart reading way too much into it. But come the sequel...nope,
it was intentional, and it was honestly a bit shocking. Oh please let this be
in Digimon Survive.
That said, these games are LGTBQA+ positive as a whole. There's a side-quest in
the first with a male character declaring he's gay with no shame, and another
with a gender fluid NPC. Other than some female clothing, it's very equal, but
the fault of that is with the character designer, and he does that with every
woman he touches. I like his style, but he's really one of those artist who
acts like it's the last time they'll ever draw a woman...and in one character's
case, it actually clashed with her character a little. But he wasn't the
designer for the last world game or the upcoming digimon survive, so there's
hope on that front too. Not that I mind the boobs&butts, but given how the
male characters dress, the previous game felt especially off. This one is
better.
Either way, really proud of the digimon team, especially since they don't do it
in a way that screams "we're so inclusive, love us game journalists,
plz!!" which makes it feel a lot more genuine. And coming from Japan of
all places.
Yeah, the characters are really good in general. I usually hate female
tsunderes and flirty guys, but they've managed to make both work in these
games. And again, they keep saying Digimon survive will the a game with a
deeper story, which is why I'm so excited, but they haven't given away any
story details. Oh the pain.
BTW, Digimon Survive has been delayed to next year (probably because the
spin-off turned out to be bigger than they expected and they had to pull some
people to work on the next story game), which means you'll likely have a switch
by then. I don't usually like ARPGs much, but given how much I love Devil
Survive, I can clearly overlook that. I hope to see you then! (and I actually
respect the digimon team for having the balls to delay it when a surprising
amount of people were really looking foward to it...unlike Pokemon).
One last hint:
the best skill to get, in my opinion, is character reversal. I changes the
enemy's type to what it's normally weak against (example, a vaccine type turns
into data type). Invaluable if you don't want to switch your team around much.
The easiest way to get it is: get a Haguromon (the gear starter digimon) and
evolve it to PlatinumSukamon and level it up until you get it (lvl 25).
Personally, I prefer to have this skill on a virus type, but a lot of people
like to have it on UlforceVeedramon, a really good digimon.
To get UlforceVeedramon: evolve platinum sukamon to metalmamemon, and then
evolve it to PrinceMamemon. De-digivolve to Mamemon, then again to to
Tyrannomon. Grind until you get Accel Boost (lvl 10), trust me, and then evolve
it Megradramon. Finally, evolve it to UlforceVeedramon.
If you're getting this skill, get a Lilithmon to go with it. Her skill Phantom
Pain, can be devastating to vaccine types if you get character reversal on
them. Or get the skill on her and save a digimon slot, since she’s the virus
type I talked about.
To do this: After you get the skill on platinumSukamon, de-digivolve it to
Keramon, and then de-digivolve it again to Tsunemon. Digivolve it to
DemiDevimon, and then to IceDevimon. Grind till lvl 18 to get spirit drain,
then digivolve it to LadyDevimon (you can also get spirit drain from her). Then
evolve it to Lilithmon, and do your best to max out her int.
As you can see, part of the fun is jumping around and see what skills you can
get. With enough jumping around, you can get all the best skills for your
favourite digimon, though it takes a bit of a grind, which is were the
platinumNumemons come in. You'll have to delete some skills along the way, but
thanks to this, all mega digimon are viable. No useless mons here!
That said, the game isn’t hard, so it doesn’t need this. But the option is
there. If you ever want to do a solo run, it’s possible to maximize a digimon’s
potential, while only using the platinumNumemons to level grind. Flexibility is always loved.
What I love the
most about the bisexual vibe in HM is how utterly effortless it feels. It
doesn't scream forced inclusiveness, and there's some genuine character
development to support it; so the whole thing comes across as entirely natural.
In those crazy times of constant virtue-signaling and endless displays of
SJW-ism, it feels truly refreshing to encounter such smooth relationship
dynamics in a game.
"He's really one of those artist who acts like it's the last time they'll
ever draw a woman...and in one character's case, it actually clashed with her
character a little": I'm totally gonna assume that you're referring to
Kyoko Kuremi here. I mean, the woman is supposedly a private eye, and yet she
prances around dressed like a stripper? Please b*tch! That getup makes
absolutely no sense whatsoever. And it's utterly ugly to boot, especially
compared to the other girls' outfits.
At least Yasuda didn't go overboard with Erika's design. Sure, her dress a bit
frilly and short; but the girl is basically an autistic shut-in, so that dress
could be interpreted as her own private way to express her femininity. At
least, it doesn't clash with her character like in Kuremi's case.
Thanks again for the wealth of tips!^^ I'll preciously keep all you wrote in
mind — for this run or for the next.
Well, Kyoko's
outfit is stupid, but...she's complicated, let's leave it at that.
I was actually speaking about Nokia. In her cameo in this game, she seems way
more confident and competent than she is for most of the previous game, because
at that point she has undergone character development. That is not the Nokia
you'll interact with for the majority of the game.
To put it short, Nokia is a full on hormonal teen girl, but she's also
credibility naive, especially when it comes to guys. It's downright implied she
doesn't even have any male friends until Arata and possibly the player. And
Arata blows her off a lot of the time, mostly to hang out with you. That’s not
good for her.
Here's a good situation that shows that: when she's first approached in Eden by
a couple of guys who want to hack her avatar, she gets both frightened and
super excited, because she assumes they are trying to hit on her. It takes the
player and the other guys spelling it out for her to figure out what's going
on. And then she's kinda disappointed, not truly thinking about the danger she
was just in. No experience with boys in the least.
And yet look at the outfit she wears. She looks like a street hooker. There's
no way a teenage girl with that outfit has not been approached by a seedy group
of guys before, or even catcalled in a manner that made her found out how
unpleasant that actually is. No way in hell.
The game also states several times that most other characters don't find her
attractive, some even downright stating that she is ugly. But her design is
made for the player to leer at her. Complete tonal dissonance.
And when her character does develop, you still can't take her seriously because
of those clothes. Couple with the fact that she's, like I said, hormonal and
dumb in the start (but very good hearted, which is her saving grace), and a lot
of players downright hated her. And I can't help but think that wouldn't be so
bad, if she actually had an outfit that reflected her character, instead of a
masochist street walker that wants to be harassed by pervs. The artist did her so dirty.
"Well,
Kyoko's outfit is stupid, but...she's complicated, let's leave it at
that": After clearing that particular mission in chapter 14, I think I see
what you mean. If Kyoko is what I think she is, then her over-the-top design
and garish colour scheme kinda makes sense. ^^
I see what you mean regarding Nokia. She gets very little character development
in HM given that she's a returning character; and yet, I couldn't help but be
puzzled by the contrast between her apparent lack of self-confidence and her slutty
outfit. A more sobre style would definitely have suited her better.
KosNikon9 August 2019 at 09:48
Interesting articles, now I'm really looking forward to get this title on PC which is supposed to happen on Oct. 18 this year... By the way, while it's not an unwelcome change, it always surprised me that most Digimon games let you lead a whole party of digimons - after all, in the anime series, only one digimon is always associated with each protagonist...
Welcome, and
thank you for the kind words! ^^ To be honest, I've still not recovered from
the immense joy and surprise that washed over me upon discovering that XP was
not divided between Digis. It felt like a true gift from the universe — it
still does.
As a serial solo runner, I wouldn't have minded in the slightest if the games
had emulated the anime and given me a single Digimon to make do with. I could
recreate that setting artificially, but let's face it: with XP not being
divided between Digis, a solo run would be immensely more difficult, and
difficulty is not what I'm primarily looking for in such ventures. And with HM
being as long as it, I probably won't try it even for challenge's sake.
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