Earlier this fall Bandai Namco released Digimon All-Star Rumble in North America. That's not the game long-time fans wanted. We wanted Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, the sleek and stylish role-playing game coming to the Japanese Vita in March.


It was an honest mistake, really. Unless you're a pretty hardcore fan of the monster collecting series, the GIF above barely registers as a related property. Where are all the cute little creatures? Why is no one wearing goggles? This looks like a much more mature role-playing game.

That's because it is.


Meet Kyoko Kuremi, the police detective who's trying to help the game's protagonist figure out a way to restore themselves from a half-digitized state. The hero — who can be male or female (hooray!) — was hacking around in the digital world when strange creatures known as "Eaters" (working off Siliconera's translation here) consumed thier data, leaving them essentially trapped between worlds.

So they hop back and forth between the real world and the Digiworld, building a team of Digimon to aid them in their quest. The are over 230 different Digimon (counting evolutions) who can join the player's team and battle it out, active-time RPG style.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth reminds me less of a Digimon game and more of something from the Shin Megami series, which spawned my beloved Persona. That's exactly the sort of game older Digimon fans want to play.

So what do you say, Bandai Namco Entertainment? Make your North American fans' holiday dreams come true? Maybe Europe as well, while you're at it? I promise I'll stop calling you Namdai Banco if you do.


Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth arrives in Japan on March 12, 2015. If I can't learn Japanese by then, we're going to have a problem.