“The protagonist is an agent of ADAMAS, a secret organization that specializes in investigating and solving anomalous phenomena.
“In the course of their investigation, they encounter an unknown creature called a “Digimon” in Shinjuku, an area sealed off by the government, and are caught up in a mysterious explosion.
“They then reawaken eight years in the past…
“The protagonist then pursues the mystery of the impending world’s collapse, while searching for a way to stop it. Players can experience an epic story that depicts the bonds and conflicts arising from the complex intertwining of two opposing elements: ‘Past and Future,’ ‘The Human World and The Digital World,’ and ‘Humans and Digimon.’ Experience an epic story of bonds and conflicts between humans and Digimon!”
■ Two Worlds: Human World and Digital World
“The setting of this story will be split between the Human World and the Digital World: Iliad.”
“On the Human World side, the story will mainly be centered on Shinjuku and Akihabara. The previous Cyber Sleuth titles featured various areas from within Tokyo, but in this new title, instead of deliberately narrowing things down, we decided to prioritize recreating the city with a greater sense of scale and detail to maximize the sense of immersion in the story. Especially in Shinjuku, where we recreated part of the underground mall. To be honest, I can hardly remember the entire map. Even in the game, there might be times where you leave through the wrong exit and find yourself at a bus stop or something.
“Now, let me introduce the other side of the game, the Digital World: Iliad. This is Central Town, which will be at the center of the adventure. It’s packed with all sorts of Digimon, and also home to a number of shops that will be of great use to the protagonist. Everywhere you turn in this city, there are Digimon of course, and all sorts of trendy bars and whatnot. The city gives the strong impression that it’s a place where Digimon live their lives.
“In the Cyber Sleuth games, you would travel back and forth between the Human World and Cyberspace, but there were very few opportunities to actually visit the Digital World. In this new title, you will be making frequent visits to the Digital World, and as you briefly saw in the trailer, the game will use a symbol encounter system in which you will battle enemy Digimon by touching them. Since there are Digimon everywhere, we believe that this will give a completely different sense of immersion and impact to the players’ adventure. There are plenty of other fascinating and charming areas in the Digital World, so keep your eyes peeled for more information in the future.”
■ A Greater Sense of Immersion
“As I mentioned while introducing the Human World, we really paid attention to the sense of immersion in the story. We took extra care to enhance this, and tried to avoid making any choices that might inhibit it. We’ve especially dedicated our efforts to developing the story. I believe that the overall setting, the construction, and appearance of each area, and so on, are all important parts of setting the stage to enhance the story. After all, if the setting is haphazard or messy, it makes it hard to appreciate the story itself, so we’re taking extra care to depict everything that needs to be depicted.
“For example, Central Town, which is the center of the whole adventure, is a town full of energy, so when it comes to the three-dimensional space, the sense of life from the Digimon that live there, the distribution of those Digimon, and even the background music and environmental sounds—we created all of them with the hope that it would make the players feel the density of the place, and that its overflowing energy would invigorate players with motivation to set off on their next adventure. Also, to give you a clearer idea, the different areas in Iliad each use the gears that also appear in the game’s title logo in different ways. The gears themselves actually hold a significant hidden meaning, so if you pay careful attention to where they appear during your adventure. I think you’ll find it to be even more enjoyable.”
■ “Time” as a Keyword
“This part [the keyword of “Time”] is directly tied to the storyline of the game, so it’s a bit hard for me to talk about in detail, but I’ll tell you a little bit about it. The primary objective of the game is to identify and prevent the cause of the mystery of the world’s collapse, which is destined to come sooner or later. As briefly mentioned in the plot synopsis, the protagonist is not able to travel through time at will, but the story will progress as they grow more involved with it. From the protagonist’s perspective, Digimon are a completely unknown existence to them, and the fact that they are thrown back and forth through time on top of that makes for some extraordinarily unusual situations. The intersection of the Human and Digital Worlds was a plot point utilized in past anime and games as well, but this title will show you just what kind of developments can occur by adding the element of time into the mix. We hope that players will be able to enjoy this unique dramatic experience with their own hands.”
■ Characters
Protagonist: Dan Yuki / Protagonist: Kanan Yuki – Agent of a Special Investigation Bureau ADAMAS. Caught in a mysterious explosion and sent back eight years…
“These two are the protagonists that you saw in the teaser visual shown earlier. Their names are Dan Yuki and Kanan Yuki. They are both agents of the secret organization ADAMAS, which specializes in investigating and solving anomalous phenomena. In fact, they are the most promising duo in the entire organization.
“In the previous Cyber Sleuth games, where you could choose between the two protagonist, Takumi Aiba and Ami Aiba, whichever character you did not choose would not appear elsewhere in the game. However, in this game, players will control the character they choose at the start, while the other character will serve as their operator, providing instructions and advice from the organization’s headquarters. As such, one of the endearing things about this title is that you can see the different ways in which the two characters do their work. To be frank, if you asked me which one of the two roles gets more spoken lines, I’d have to say it would probably be the operator, so it makes sense to make your decision from that point of view as well.”
Inori Misono – A kind-hearted girl embarks on an adventure across the worlds with an agent.
“Next up, we have the game’s main heroine, Inori Misono, a kind-hearted and caring high school girl. She grew to be like this because of a certain event that she experienced in her past. Her past is also related to what led her to accompany the protagonist on their adventure. Stay tuned for future updates to find out exactly what happened to her, and what kind of active role she will play in the story.”
Aegiomon – Inori’s partner Digimon. A Digimon that holds the key to the story. What fate awaits them?
“Next is Aegiomon, the Digimon that holds the key to this title’s story. Encountering the protagonists in the human world, and working together with Inori Misono, who we just introduced, as her partner Digimon. In battles, the player will control a party of three Digimon, and Aegiomon will join them as an extra battle member, making them one of the most reliable companions both in the story and in battles. I could even go as far as to say he’s one of the protagonists, so I hope you’ll look forward to seeing what Aegiomon gets up to in the game proper.”
Partner Digimon: Patamon, Gomamon, and DemiDevimon
“Up next, let me introduce the Digimon we briefly saw in the teaser visual. At the start of the game, players will gain either Patamon, Gomamon, or DemiDevimon as their teammate. Players will chose one of these three, which will then be provided to them by the secret organization ADAMAS. Digimon Story games are all about bringing a bunch of different Digimon to your side and training them in tandem, but the one you choose at the start always feels the most special, and players can’t help but favor them… I hope that everyone will enjoy their adventure together with their favorite Digimon!”
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“Next, this was designed by Oh! great. What is its purpose? How will it stand in the protagonist’s way? What is it in the first place!? Without a doubt, it is a key element in the story. You can see part of its body for a brief moment in the trailer, but you can tell how huge it is. If you’re curious, go ahead and give the trailer another watch!
“That’s all for the character introductions, but there are plenty of other characters and Digimon that I wasn’t able to share with you today, so please keep an eye out for future announcements.”
■ Olympos XII
“I had originally planned to unveil [this] information in a future announcement, but since today is Digimon Con, I’ll just come out and say it now! In this game, the Digimon that make up the Olympos XII will play an active role in the story. Simply put, the Olympos XII are 12 Digimon that serve as protectors of the Digital World: Iliad, and their powers are said to rival those of the Royal Knights. Some of their members have made various appearances as Digimon in past anime and games, but they have scarcely ever appeared all together on this scale before… A major event brings them together in this game.”
■ Over 450 Digimon in the Game
“Cyber Sleuth featured about 250 Digimon, and if you include the follow-up Hacker’s Memory, that total was brought up to about 330, but this game has one-upped them both, allowing players to train more than 450 Digimon in total! This is the largest roster ever seen in the Digimon Story series. I’m sure everyone will have fun digivolving and dedigivolving their Digimon! We will be revealing more and more Digimon in the future, so please stay tuned and look forward to it! I’m not at liberty to share any more information regarding [whether the three starter Digimon will have more possible digivolutions as well] right now!”
—English
—Japanese, 4K Resolution
“Everyone on the team loves Digimon, so we really wanted to give Angewomon the energy she deserves. The quality was pretty good to begin with, but we ended up redoing the Terra Force animation three times over. We were like, ‘We can make this look even better!’ That’s just how much the creators love Digimon, and that’s what lets the modeling and animation have such a passionate flair to it.”
A Message to Fans
“Digimon Story: Time Stranger will be the latest Digimon Story series since the release of its predecessor, Cyber Sleuth, 10 years ago. I can only express my sincerest gratitude to all the fans who have waited so patiently for this new installment, and it brings me incredible joy to be the one who is able to bring it to all of you now. We hope that this will satisfy not only our long-time fans, but also newcomers who have yet to experience the Digimon video games. The entire development team will continue to work our hardest on the game up until its release.”
