For as long as I can remember, both Digimon and Pokémon have been a big part of my life. The two monster-taming franchises roared to life in the late ‘90s with a friendly rivalry pitched to the public as a war of monstrous proportions — but they’ve always been rivals, not enemies. Digimon and Pokémon are walking parallel to each other, not crossing paths, but for a couple decades now, Digimon has fallen behind, and Pokémon… well, it’s the highest grossing media franchise in the world. Need I say more? 

That could be changing, though. Digimon has been slowly building to a renaissance in recent years, and I think it’s about to explode in popularity (again) this October with the launch of Digimon Story: Time Stranger. It’s the newest game in the Digimon Story series – the more laid-back, more Pokémon-like subseries of the Digimon franchise – and it’s shaping up to be a worthy rival for Pokémon once again. 

At a preview event in Sydney, I spent about three hours with Digimon Story: Time Stranger, split up into two sections — the opening 90 minutes of the game, and a segment midway through the story. My time with this game was spent on the PlayStation 5 version of the game, and unfortunately no Switch 2 release has been announced yet. I’d like to imagine such a release is on the way, but we’ll have to wait and see on that front. Anything is possible, and publisher Bandai Namco is a strong supporter of Nintendo consoles. 

From the get-go, Time Stranger wowed me with its cinematic direction. It opens with a delightfully animated 2D cutscene, an in-universe anime inspired by the actions of the main character and the organisation to which they belong, ADAMAS. ADAMAS investigates strange goings-on in the world, much like the detective agency in prior Digimon Story games, which seems to almost always tie back to Digimon. Funny that. 

The first major thing I noticed about Time Stranger was just how snappy its opening was. Mere minutes into the game, I was picking a starter Digimon (Gomamon, of course), tackling other Digimon in the wild, and obtaining new Digimon. It’s still got plenty of story and exposition, but it’s blisteringly fast compared to a modern Pokémon game. 

From there, I progressed through the story to find a curious environmental hazard — a large chasm that couldn’t be crossed just by leaping. I was tasked with finding a Biyomon, a type of bird Digimon, to help me cross the chasm, and she joined my team as a temporary Digimon until the task was over. This reminded me greatly of the Pokémon Ranger series, which has players collecting specific Pokémon that can help with tasks in the wild, before going on their way. In a later section of the game, I did something similar with Submarimon, which let me swim through strong currents. 

During that later segment of the game, I was thrown into the middle of a story where I had to collect medicine for a sick Digimon. There’s some story-related stuff that I won’t spoil about this, but I will say that the story is maturely written, but not in a way that necessarily precludes children. There’s no doubt that Digimon Story: Time Stranger is aimed at older teens and adults – it has an M rating in Australia – but with some guidance and support, I think it could be enjoyed by most people. 

It’s very well-written, and importantly very-well voice acted, with most lines of dialogue in the game being acted in both English and Japanese. This is something else that sets it apart from Pokémon, which has notably been absent of any voice acting throughout its main series games, sometimes to its own detriment. As Pokémon becomes more focused on storytelling, with more cutscenes and cinematics, its lack of voice acting becomes even more apparent, and while I don’t think voice acting is required, I do think it would go a long way to selling the moments Pokémon is trying to sell in recent games. Digimon Story: Time Stranger is evidence of this — it could have easily been achieved without voice acting, but it’s so much more impactful when there’s a voice to the words you’re reading. 

This later segment showed off the depth of the combat system, which I was very pleased with. It’s turn-based, with some speed and turn ordering shenanigans similar to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but Digimon gets the credit for the system here — this style of turn ordering has been a mainstay of the series for a while. Every Digimon feels sufficiently unique in combat, and combat encounters aren’t afraid to ask you to use a bit of strategy. Thankfully, there are easy and hard difficulties you can switch to at any time, too, for anyone who wants an easier or more difficult time with the game, something Pokémon could stand to take note of. 

I don’t mean to make so many comparisons between Pokémon and Digimon, but playing through Time Stranger really made me reflect on my recent years with Pokémon. I’ve enjoyed every Pokémon game released to date, and every Digimon game too, but up until now both were always left feeling a little bit under-budgeted. That’s not to say they weren’t good – they absolutely were – but there were clear limitations that seemed like they’d stick with both series forever. 

Now, with Digimon Story: Time Stranger, it’s clear to me that these limitations aren’t set in stone. Time Stranger feels like the biggest budget Digimon game to date, going bigger and better than ever before. It looks amazing, with a sharp, consistent, and very pleasant art style, it has fantastic voice acting, great localisation, very tightly-refined combat, and countless little bits and pieces that make it feel magical. 

Pokémon can do the same. We don’t know when the next generation of Pokémon games is due to be released, but it’s likely to be a Switch 2 exclusive, and it seems to have had a little bit of extra time in the oven. I can only hope that, like Digimon, it’s a big leap forward for the series, finally stepping out of the presentation issues that have plagued it in recent entries and evolving it into something that feels made for the modern age from top to bottom. 

That friendly rivalry I spoke of earlier, it’s not a competition. I don’t think Digimon is ever going to be on the verge of taking over Pokémon, nor should it — they can, and should coexist. But I think each series can push the other to do better, to aim higher, and to achieve more. They take little bits and pieces from each other – things that make sense – and refine them. There are undoubtedly people working on Time Stranger who have played a lot of Pokémon in the past, and there will undoubtedly be people working on the next generation of Pokémon who play Time Stranger, too. With any luck, they’ll be taking notes. 

Digimon Story: Time Stranger is set to be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 3rd, 2025. Hopefully, Switch 2 won’t be too far behind.