I'm 24-years-old and have been playing Pokemon for most of my life. I had a Game Boy Advance and a copy of Pokemon Emerald glued to my hand as soon as I learned how to read. I even met my longtime partner through our shared love of Pokemon Go. Nintendo's pocket monsters are near and dear to my heart.
But recent entries into the Pokemon series haven't connected with me in the same way as their predecessors. I still love indulging in a good turn-based RPG -- especially one focused on catching and battling wild monsters -- but I fear I'm outgrowing one of my favorite series.
While I never focused on Digimon, it was always in my periphery -- the menagerie of mechas, dragons and strangely humanoid creatures were appealing, but didn't hold a candle to Pokemon in my eyes. What Digimon does have going for it right now is that it's a series that seems to grow alongside its fans -- and Digimon Story: Time Stranger feels like a more mature turn-based competitor to Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
Stepping into the world of Digimon wasn't easy; it took some effort to learn the monster evolution trees, type matchups and battle strategies that work for me. Pokemon is so ingrained in my brain that I had to unlearn certain habits to succeed in Time Stranger. It's well worth doing, though: After a couple dozen hours with the game, I feel it more than fills the monster-battling hole in my heart.
Your adventure will take you from the streets of Shinjuku to the digital world in pursuit of anomalies. Bandai Namco
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
I wouldn't usually describe monster-catching RPGs as stressful, but Digimon Story: Time Stranger immediately drops players into a world plagued by dangerous creatures, shadowy government suits and social unrest.
I played as an ADAMAS agent -- part of an SCP Foundation-like organization created to shield the public from anomalous phenomena -- tasked with stopping a massive monster from attacking Shinjuku, Japan.
Upon arriving on the scene, however, everything quickly fell apart. The massive beast rose above the nearby skyscrapers, a wormhole let even more Digimon invade the world and dangerous battles broke out above the civilian population. These are the end times, where digital monsters and human beings are destined to destroy one another.
As the worst-case scenario unfolded, I was caught in an explosion that engulfed the entire screen in blinding white light. That would've been the curtain call for a normal person, but our hero has a bigger role -- mysteriously hurled back nearly a decade into the past.
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