At ChinaJoy 2023 Bandai Namco held a special booth showing off a playable demo for the upcoming turn-based RPG Digimon: Source Code (数码宝贝：源码). The game was rumored to be canceled in April 2022 when its websites vanished from the internet but have squashed those rumors and made it truly official with it being in a playable state.
The game has an official website where players can pre-register, but more than that at ChinaJoy there was a fully playable demo of the game for two levels of the game with high-level units including WarGreymon, Metal Garurumon, Metal Seadramon, and others showing off their powerful attacks, combos, and even team-based fusion mechanics!
The game is currently only available in China, and players in that region can pre-register for the title via its official website, and the game will be available for iOS and Android upon launch.
▍Digimon: Source Code Gameplay Preview
▍Digimon: Source Code Gameplay
Digimon: Source Code is a turn-based RPG that’s based on speed. Each turn consists of all of the units performing an action, with each Digimon, having a variety of moves from basic attacks, evasions, and special attacks that each cost energy from its own pool, with enemies also acting under this rule by having their own resource counter.
If you lack the energy to perform certain attacks, you can also “overload” a skill to still be able to execute them, at the cost of having negative effects on your Digimon.
You click an action, then select one or more targets depending on the action. The game also works on a damage weakness system, as certain units take more damage from certain attacks, adding to a layer of strategy in your team building and who to bring in combat.
Your team also plays a major role not just in the type of damage they deal but, thanks to Digimon’s synergy. Certain Digimon when brought together in a team can occasionally perform team attacks as a follow-up to one character’s action. These unique team attacks are as flashy as they are powerful and serve as some great fanservice and a way to reward players for digging deeper into the game’s team-building system and recreating the coolest moments from the anime.
These don’t just end in powerful attacks, as having the right pairs of Digimon means you can fuse them together and Digivolve into their final forms, like Omnimon! Since the cover of the game features Digimon from other series, expect to see more forms like Omegamon, Alphamon, and other powerful fusions, as the game initially announced that players can expect over 300 Digimon on launch.
We were also able to get a bit of information on the nature of its progression. As you’d expect from a game featuring Digimon, each creature has multiple evolution paths that require materials, and the pre-requisite monster to go down that path. This means if you want to get to something like Tyrannomon, and Greymon, you will need to pick up Agumon multiple times to unlock those evolutions.
Each Digimon also has access to several different abilities that can be unlocked, and players can mix and match which usable abilities they want in battle for certain boss encounters. Swapping them around also costs no resources, letting you freely customize their playstyle.
