Digimon Story: Time Stranger PC settings, button config, changing protagonists, and new spoiler-free info
When I first played Digimon Story: Time Stranger at Summer Games Fest several months ago, I was very surprised at how refined everything felt. It was a vast step-up from Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory, but I only got to play a small slice of it. Bandai Namco gave me another chance to play it at PAX West 2025 and this time, they locked me in a room for three hours with the game. This time, I was able to check out the first hour and half when starting a new game and another hour and a half with a later section not too far into the game.
I usually don't put up many previews, let alone second previews, to games I'm interested in because I think any further personal thoughts are best left to the final release after that. Plus, I don't want to spoil the game as much as possible both for myself and for people. So instead of another written preview that might spoil some story stuff, I figure I'll use this opportunity to report on a bunch of new Digimon Story: Time Stranger information based on what I personally saw. I learned so much that I decided to make a separate article discussing the Digivolution system in Time Stranger alone.
Since there's a lot of info I share here, I'll include a Table of Contents that you can click on if a specific section is of interest to you.
- PC Settings
- Button Config Options
- Can You Change Your Protagonist Later?
- Starting Digimon Stats, Skills, & Resistances
- Spoiler-Free Impressions & Notes
Digimon Story: Time Stranger PC Settings
- Display Mode
- Resolution
- Frame Rate
- Image Quality Preset
- VSync
- FXAA
- MSAA
- TAA
- Depth of Field
- Bloom
- Volumetric Fog
- Screen Space Reflection
- Ambient Occlusion
- Texture Quality
- Texture Filtering
- Character Density
Although it’s been previously reported that the PC version of Time Stranger will support up to 60fps, I did notice that the Frame Rate option cycled between 60, 30, and then 144 in this preview build, so it is highly likely that the PC version does support higher framerates in its final release.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger Button Config Options
Can You Change Your Protagonist Later?
Yes! After selecting either the male (Dan Yuki) or female (Kanan Yuki) protagonist and choosing a custom name for them or not, there is a pop-up dialogue that says you can change both their name and appearance later. You can change to the other protagonist and their name as early as the first dungeon area in the game simply by going into the Game Settings and they’ll have options to change them right away. You can also change the Difficulty level here, as well.
The protagonist you don’t select serves as your Operator, and is a lot more chatty than your chosen character especially in cutscenes. You’ll hear their voice more often than your chosen main character.
Starting Digimon Stats, Skills, & Resistances
Spoiler-Free Impressions & Notes
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The start of Time Stranger reminds me a lot of the early episodes of Digimon Tamers (Season 3); it’s deliberately going for a surreal, somewhat off-putting atmosphere with a lot of mystery and tension.
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When using DigiAttacks (the attack that summons a Digimon to either gain advantage into a battle encounter or instantly killing a foe due to level disparity), it will auto-summon the most effective Digimon in your party depending on which Digimon is locked onto
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Can fully regenerate all of your party’s HP and SP by standing still for a few seconds out of battle; this takes anywhere from 2-7 seconds depending on how badly damaged your party is.
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Swapping out Digimon and using consumable items in-battle does not consume a party member’s turn.
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Smart battle UI layout where hovering over a skill will immediately indicate if the chosen skill is effective or not against any of the enemies at a glance if you’ve already discovered what they’re weak and/or resistant to.
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Post-battle Log will notify you if the Scan Rate of a Digimon has reached 100% or 200% and will provide you a hotkey to go to the Convert menu right away; this also happens when a Digimon becomes eligible for a Digivolution.
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When a Digimon’s HP falls under 30%, it gains a Brave status which will temporarily boost its ATK/INT/CRT Rate by 50% for 2 turns.
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There’s a status effect called Crystallized that turns Digimon into adorable 2D sprites! (They also can’t use skills when they become Crystallized)
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You can expand the minimap into a full transparent map overlay and can continue to move around with it open.
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Digimon that can be used for the DigiRide mount mechanic are marked with a distinct symbol on their status screen. Even when DigiRiding, players can still use the DigiAttack command against wandering foes, and even directly colliding with them when mounted will count as a DigiAttack.
