Digimon Surviveis the upcoming survival RPG that follows a group of teenagers who get transported to a different world full of monsters and dangers. Unlike previous games,Digimon Surviveemphasizes player choices and their resulting consequences. Depending on the choices that players make, the story, ending, and even Digivolutions can change.
Digimonfans are especially curious about how Digivolutions will function inDigimon Survivenow that they are seemingly linked to the plot itself.Digimonhas always had a complex evolution process with branching paths and the ability to revert to a lower form through de-digivolution. With the concept now tied to player decisions, it’ll be interesting to see ifDigimon Surviveincorporates the branching narrative paths to the branching Digivolution paths.
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The Basics of Digivolution
In previous games and the anime series,Digimon typically have six different stages of evolutionsthat are triggered naturally or through Digivices. Digimon are also typically divided into three attributes that define their personalities: Vaccine, Data, and Virus. For example, Vaccine Digimon typically have a strong sense of justice and want to fight evil while Virus Digimon typically thirst for domination and can quickly turn violent. On the other hand, Data Digimon are more neutral as they are typically concerned with only themselves.
Somethingunique in theDigimonseries is that Digimon aren’t limited to one evolution line. During certain evolution stages, Digimon can branch off their evolutions meaning one type of Digimon can potentially digivolve into several types of stronger Digimon. For example, in the originalDigimon Adventureseries, Agumon typically evolved into the Vaccine line of Greymon, MetalGreymon, and WarGreymon but Tai’s reckless actions caused Agumon to turn into the Virus line of SkullGreymon instead.
Digimon Survive’s Approach to Digivolution
Digimon Surviveuses the flexibility of Digivolutions to its advantageby taking a different approach to evolution mechanics of previousDigimongames. Since Digivolutions naturally branch off into different types of Digimon, it’s a perfect fit for the branching narrative ofDigimon Survive.Depending on a player’s choices throughout the games, characters' Digimon will digivolve differently. Much like the anime series, having the characters' Digimon digivolve into a Virus line during a bad ending would help connect the evolution mechanic directly with the plot.
Over the years,Digimongames have made use of branching evolution linesas well as the different attributes but they have never been connected to the plot itself. At the same time though, it makes perfect sense given the direction that the anime series has gone over the years. Almost everyDigimonseason has featured the concept of Dark Digivolution at some point where a Digimon is corrupted by being forced to evolve with a dark power. They naturally lose control of themselves and can only think of wreaking havoc until they are stopped.
With the stakes being higher than ever inDigimon Survive,where wrong player choices can lead to fatal consequences, it only seems natural that partner Digimon can undergo Dark Digivolution or at least change their personalities from Vaccine, Data or Virus. Though the evolution paths for the partner Digimon inDigimon Survivehaven’t been confirmed, the unique approach to Digivolutions seems to emphasize the importance of player choices and the branching narrative presentation.
Digimon Surviveis currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
