Review for Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory. Game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 14/12/2017
We must be honest: those who have played, concluded and appreciated Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth certainly did not feel a sense of incompleteness, or worse, cut content. Concluded that then Hacker's Memory is a product conceived and developed in second place and with the main purpose of following the trail of sales and appreciation of the predecessor, it is necessary to understand if the latest work of Media. Vision is limited to a copy-paste of assets and false ideas, or if indeed this new game in the Digimon Story series manages to shine with its own light.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory is a "route B" of the predecessor more than a real sequel. The events narrated are in fact contemporary to those of the first Cyber Sleuth and it will happen several times to cross the protagonist (or the). Even most of the supporting actors arrive directly from the cast of Cyber Sleuth: surely to understand the story of Hacker's Memory it is not essential to know the events of "route A", but the constant quotationism it was designed to satisfy those who are aware of certain events and characters.
On the other hand, the plot of Hacker's Memory is faster in its development, with much fewer slice of life curtains, undoubtedly so dear to Japanese and pro-Japanese players, but who in Cyber Sleuth weighed down too much progress through the numerous game chapters. However, the longevity of Hacker's Memory is not to be underestimated, since it is always and in any case over 30 - 40 hours of gameplay, completism excluded.
La ability to import Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth save data allows veterans to accelerate the upgrade of their Digimon and avoid several hours of the farming that they already fully enjoyed, two years before Hacker's Memory, for thousands and thousands of minutes.
Hacker's Memory adds nearly a hundred new Digimon and Digimedals to collect, which add to the already large pre-existing number in Cyber Sleuth; excluding this, the entire gameplay system, from the battles, to the statistics and types of Digimon, continuing for the methods of enhancement and Digivolution of the latter, DigiFarm, equipment and Hacking Skill have remained completely unchanged. The same goes for at least three quarters of the settings, the OST, the graphics engine and animations in general; also in Hacker's Memory we will have English texts and menus and good Japanese dubbing, able to immerse players able to overcome the language barrier.
If on the one hand Hacker's Memory turns out the fair of reused assets, some small improvements, both narrative and technical, should be mentioned: the texture is smoother and denser, thanks to the fact that it is the game itself that "assumes" that many of the characters met are old acquaintances; the general mood is however more mature and less light-hearted, this because of the role and the "mission" of the protagonist.
Not even in Hacker's Memory it will be possible to jump (or even just speed up) the banters between the characters, nor accept more than one secondary mission at a time: most of them, fortunately, will automatically move the character to the place of the quest, thus avoiding steps useless to the player and, just like in Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, almost every optional activity will have its own microhistory, thus diluting the technical repetitiveness of the latter.
Digimon storytelling and aesthetic realization remain the strengths, today as two years ago: however, no matter how "winning team does not change", after two years even the most nostalgic would undoubtedly have welcomed with pleasure the insights into the game mechanics that went beyond the addition of a Digimarket , the Domination minigame and new battlemates.
The integration of Hacker's Memory into Cyber Sleuth events satisfies and allows to know new sides of faces already known, even if the constant feeling is that a player "just arrived" could find too hasty the management of supporting actors, thrown into the cauldron without having the opportunity to present themselves as seen; those who are aware of the plot of Cyber Sleuth are likely to feel the need for a breath of fresh air every now and then, since Hacker's Memory it risks looking more like a big expansion of Cyber Sleuth - sold at full price - than a title capable of being understood and enjoyed independently.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory was born as an extension of the story of the previous title of 2015 so it can be fully appreciated only by those who have previous knowledge of what will go to live and the background of most of the supporting actors. On the other hand, the objective laziness in the realization has led to what is in effect a Cyber Sleuth +, but with two abundant years of additional technical old age on its shoulders. Just like the title from which it draws its lifeblood, Hacker's Memory is a very pleasant JRPG, spoiled by the exact same problems, acceptable the first time but really annoying when presented again in this "second round".
► Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory is a JRPG type game developed by Media.Vision and published by Bandai Namco for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 14/12/2017
