Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is a turn-based JRPG that restored the Digimon franchise's good name and became an unexpected hit on PlayStation Vita even among players with no attachment to the original show. After an accident in digital space, the main character ends up half in real Tokyo and half in the network, where his body loses its physical form. He therefore joins a private detective agency and investigates cases straddling both worlds, from urban legends spreading online to people who have fallen into a mysterious coma.

The core of the gameplay is collecting and developing Digimon. Scanning opponents yields data from which you raise a creature, then guide it through a branching evolution tree where progress can also be reversed. Digivolving down a stage while retaining stats produces a gradually much stronger creature, a mechanic characteristic of the series and surprisingly deep. Battles are classically turn-based, with types and elements that counter one another, and a trio of active creatures drawn from a larger roster. A farm where Digimon train and complete small tasks even while you're away gives the game a pleasant pet-raising rhythm. The collection numbers in the hundreds, and obtaining many of them requires meeting specific conditions, so completing it is a very long-haul pursuit that keeps the game alive well after the main story is finished.

Technically it's a clean, colorful game with striking neon visuals for the digital world and a faithfully rendered Tokyo, whose districts you walk between cases. The music alternates calm jazz motifs from the detective agency with energetic battle tracks. Critics praised the unexpectedly serious storytelling about digital identity and the depth of the evolution system, with complaints aimed at repetitive dungeons and their plain design. Cyber Sleuth proved that Digimon could be a full-fledged collecting RPG for a more adult audience too, and it opened the way for further entries in the series.