Digimon Survive review roundup: Is the Switch, PC, Xbox & PS4 game worth it?

By Rob Leane

Published: Friday, 29 July 2022 at 12:00 am

The Digimon Survive release date is here! So, we’ve decided to pull together a Digimon Survive review roundup to help you decide if the new game is worth checking out on Switch, PC, Xbox One or PS4, Xbox Series X/S or PS5.

Published by Bandai Namco, Digimon Survive is a tactics-based game with a big focus on story, and it is one way of celebrating the franchise’s 20-year anniversary.

Here in the UK, the Digimon Survive release time has already happened, with the game available to download now from the Nintendo eShop (find it on your Switch console), as well as Steam, the Microsoft Store and the PlayStation store. You can also order physical copies from the likes of Amazon and GAME.

The Digimon Survive price appears to be £42.99 or thereabouts, but is that price worth paying? Keep on reading for our review roundup which might help you answer that question.

Digimon Survive review roundup

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An official promo pic of Digimon Survive.
Bandai Namco

In an interesting turn of events, none of the major publications have published reviews of Digimon Survive as of yet. We haven’t had a chance to play it ourselves, either, but opinions about the game are starting to eke out onto the internet now that the game is out.

One handy feature on Steam is that user-posted reviews of games include the data on how many hours the review-writer has played, so you know when they’re talking from experience.

For example, a Steam user named Waytodawn has played the game for 2.7 hours, and their review says: “First things first, this is a visual novel first and a tactical RPG second. […] You will spend A LOT of time in dialogue and cutscenes. It took me 2 hours before I had a real battle outside of tutorials.”

Waytodawn added, “The art and music (rather addictive actually) are fantastic and the voice acting is good. Not everything is voice acted but the main dialogue usually is. The combat is fun yet basic until you get the ability to evolve during them.”

A Steam user called Ultimate_Linkage said after 40 minutes: “Have really enjoyed the game so far, no issues or crashing [and] runs smooth in 4k. The gameplay overall seems interesting, I enjoy tactics style games, and this includes that with new things. The animations are very well done and the story/dialogue are great as well.”

However, a number of players on Steam have been posting about technical issues, with some saying the game crashes for them after the first cut scene. The solution to this, apparently, is to go into your Program Files and uninstall something called K-Lite (or any other ‘codec’ you may have).

A user called Procyon said after 2.3 hours, “I was lucky that my game worked well on PC, so I got a chance to play it. I think it is great thus far with the Final Fantasy Tactics-esque gameplay.”

Echoing sentiments from other players, Procyon added: “However, this is a very dialogue-heavy production, so that is something buyers should keep in mind. Expect more reading than playing, though the story is interesting with its darker (and frankly scarier) tone overall.”

Another Steam review, from Iggyruu, offers a couple of comparison points: “If you like Visual Novels and Or Tactic Games, you’ll love it. Kinda like Digimon meets Fire Emblem with a hint of Persona.”