Over a year since its announcement, there is still no sign of Digimon Survive. This upcoming title from Bandai Namco was revealed in the July 2018 issue of the Japanese magazine V-Jump, and has been getting sporadic updates ever since. Fans have been eager to hear more about this unusual title, which is said to support multiple story routes and a potentially dark tone. Making the game a strategy RPG crossed with a visual novel was also a very strange genre choice for a Digimon title, but one that makes it all the more enticing.
Unfortunately, the game has been subject to many delays. Digimon Survive was originally slated to come out in 2019, but was delayed to 2020 halfway through the year. On July 29, 2020, Toei Animation Europe stated Survive would release for Europe in January 2021, but this was quickly removed from its website. On October 8, 2020, game producer Kazumasa Habu stated on Twitter that Survive was delayed again. On October 15, it was officially announced that the release date of the game was delayed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there may now be hope for fans to hear more concrete news.
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It's almost E3 season again, and E3 2021 has been rapidly picking up exhibitors for its digital event. Plenty of developers and publishers have been confirmed to attend, and a major one is Bandai Namco. Namco often brings plenty of licensed anime products to its events, and Digimon is a particularly special case due to it being primarily owned by Bandai Namco itself. Survive's producer has stated that something will be announced about the game in spring 2021, and it remains to be seen exactly when that will come. If there is something meaningful to announce about Survive's progress, it will almost certainly be a part of Bandai Namco's E3.
Namco may also be setting up a better platform for which to announce such news. According to recent copyright rumors, Bandai has trademarked something called "Bandai Namco Next." This sounds potentially like a Nintendo Direct-style digital presentation series, and E3 would make the perfect stage to premiere it. There is even a rumored date for it, courtesy of a leaked Elden Ring promotional image. Apparently, the show will take place June 14, which is within E3's scheduled period. Also, even if Digimon Survive does not get a nearby date at E3 2021, the Bandai Namco Next presentations can pick back up a few months later and deliver the news then.
All that remains is for the inevitable news to be released. There are a lot of particular pieces of information that fans are still waiting to hear, the most obvious of which is the release date. There is a good chance that after being in development for so long, Digimon Survive is finally going to come out this year. A fall or holiday 2021 window seems the most likely, as the game needs some room to breathe now that it has returned to the public eye after so long. With that said, the delays didn’t happen for no reason, so it's difficult to say how complete the game is right now. Its next reveal will be very telling.
A number of other details about Digimon Survive are still outstanding. The exact number of Digimon present in the game is not clear, and has the potential to be very large due to the use of 2D sprites for battle screens. Not to mention, with Digivolution available as a command, plenty of different Digimon can show up during a fight. It's also still unclear exactly how much the narrative will branch. It has been confirmed that it will, but not a lot is known yet about this important feature. At any rate, the answers to these questions and more should be made clear before the end of this year.
Digimon Survive is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
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