The Visual Novel Digimon Survive Has Gotten Review Bombed For Being A Visual Novel

The newly released visual novel RPG Digimon Survive has gotten review bombed on Metacritic primarily for being a visual novel.

Over the weekend the game had user score averages as low as 1.6 (PC), 2.2 (PS4), 3.1 (Switch), and 0.7 (Xbox). The majority of the Review Bombs have been deleted although a few still remain, leading to slightly higher averages.

The reason behind the review bombing is allegedly due to the fact that Digimon Survive is more of a visual novel as opposed to a tactical RPG as many users had thought.

Gamers are review bombing the visual novel because it’s a visual novel.

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I know Metacritic is where intelligent discussion goes to die but I really hope this doesn’t lead some people to not pick it up. pic.twitter.com/T20kseehQB

— Freezer (@GapFreezer) July 31, 2022

In fairness, Digimon Survive does have a tactical RPG battle system and has been described in the marketing on its Steam page as a “hybrid visual novel and tactical RPG”, which it is, but I suppose people thought it’d be more RPG and less visual novel. That being said, this same Steam page refers to it as a “Rich Visual Novel Experience”.

Likewise, the producer of the game Kazumasa Habu said during Digimon Con earlier this year that the game is 70% visual novel and 30% RPG. Even the launch trailer for the game heavily focuses on the visual novel adventure elements.

Some fans do however feel the review bombing is in part due to a lack of marketing for the game. Outside of social media posts and interviews specifically aimed at the Digimon fanbase, there hasn’t been a lot of information for general audiences about Survive. As such, many people who weren’t following the game closely may have assumed it was mainly an RPG since most other Digimon games are RPGs.

This post by Reddit User RedditDetector provides a good summary of these issues:

All this being said, being misinformed doesn’t justify Digimon Survive getting review bombed. It’s always good to do a little research about a game before you fork over $60 for it. Even a quick Google search would have shown that Digimon Survive is a visual novel, more akin to Danganronpa or Zero Escape than Fire Emblem.

Personally, since Survive was announced all the way back in 2018, I’ve always thought that a visual novel sounds like a perfect avenue for Digimon to go down. The most well-known Digimon projects by far are the anime: Digimon Adventure, and Digimon Tamers which are loved for their story and characters. A visual novel that focuses on these same aspects but with a darker, more adult-oriented tone makes sense for the franchise.

Digimon Survive is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. Just remember, it’s mainly a visual novel with some tactical RPG elements.