YMMV / Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory

• Adorkable: Wormmon. Whilst he initially starts off as a Lovable Coward, as his hacking skills become more advanced he becomes more assertive - though he'll still help Erika get revenge on Keisuke for sleeping on the job by drawing a face on his stomach in permanent marker.
• Awesome Music: While the soundtrack is mostly reused tracks from the original game it still has some brand new tracks, chief among them "Last Cyber Attack", the theme of the final boss. And just like the last game, it samples from classical music in its opening segment. This time it is the famous O Fortuna.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • It's pretty obvious that K is actually Yu. Aside from the similar voices, they both have the same possessive attitude, poses, and are the only two characters divorced from the other plots, that never meet.
  • Alphamon is really Kyoko. It’s standard for those who played the first game. But it’s obvious to new players as well because they call themselves “Detective Digimon” right then and there, overlapping with It Was His Sled.
• Critical Dissonance: Alongside it's predecessor it is one of those games that were obviously made on a lower budget and as such ends up with lower scores from critics but ending up being a critical darling among fans.
• Even Better Sequel: Or rather midquel. But in either case, it's generally seen by fans as improving many of the rougher spots of the original with better use of mechanics and with a more personal story, making it one of the highest regarded games in the Digimon fandom.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Gallantmon Crimson Mode requires an obscene amount of work to get, but rewards it with one of the most powerful and well-rounded Digimon in the game. Its Quo Vadis attack always hits, has a chance of inflicting Instant Death, and is a DEF-penetrating move best of all. And on top of its obscenely powerful Secret Art, it has very high stats (especially speed), a super useful Support Skill, and a movepool containing some of the best support moves in the game.
  • Arcadiamon Ultra due to the sheer overwhelming power of God Matrix. Not only is it a DEF-penetrating attack, which are all minor game breakers in their own right, but it targets the entire enemy team and heals Arcadiamon for 10% of the total damage it causes.
  • Apocalymon is a minor one because its the most powerful Free Neutral Digimon. It essentially throws the entire Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors combat system in the garbage bin and turns battles into a numbers game, and considering it's one of the strongest Ultra Level Digimon it tends to win. That its Support Skill buffs its own damage significantly just makes it worse.
  • While the original version of Alphamon is largely considered to be mediocre, barring its anti-Royal Knights Support Skill, Alphamon Ouryuken is considered significantly stronger; more well-rounded stats that offers it higher speed, a simple damage-boosting Support Skill, and its Ultimate Ouryuken Secret Art is an extra strong DEF-piercing Neutral attack that allows it to deal massive damage. The update that introduced Ouryumon somewhat made it harder to attain as vanilla Alphamon now requires a DNA Digivolution with Ouryumon, but it just makes it easier to get some key moves into their moveset.
  • The Ouryumon line itself is also fairly monstrous. All of them share very high attack and speed stats, a Support Skill that improves both attack and critical hit rate, and DEF-penetrating Special Moves with fairly high power. Ouryumon itself is particularly scary as its Secret Art, Eiseiryuoujin, is a DEF-piercing move with high critical rate to go with its Support Skill, two item slots unlike its previous forms, and it naturally learns Acceleration Boost that allows it to deal a massive amount of piercing damage in one go.
• Ho Yay: Early in the game Yu, under the guise of researching date spots for another friend, asks Keisuke out on a "fake" date, after which Keisuke realizes that Yu doesn't have any other friends. Additionally, whenever he's around he'll blush heavily when talking to Keisuke and is always talking about wanting Keisuke to see him and depend on him. Towards the end when K's true identity is revealed, Yu will claim that he assumed the identity of K to get Keisuke's attention because he was "no longer satisfied with being [Keisuke's] close friend".
  • Your interactions with Handsome Lech Chitose can have some pretty Ho Yay undertones too, especially the scenes you get after bringing him along on a mission. If you bring him and Yu to a Domination Battle, you're basically shifting the game towards another genre...
• It Was His Sled: Alphamon’s true identity is Kyoko Kuremi. The game doesn’t even bother hiding it!
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: Downplayed example compared to the first game, but Kowloon Lv. 5 opens up much earlier than in Cyber Sleuth, due to not being required for story progression. This allows you to easily train up your party against the strong Ultimate-level Digimon found there.
  • In Chapter 14, the Tokyo Metropolitan Office (The Very Definitely Final Dungeon from the previous game) is unlocked and can be explored to your heart’s content, with many Ultimate-level Digimon that offer plenty of experience.
• Polished Port: The Nintendo Switch & PC version of the game contained in Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition contains all the DLC of Hacker's Memory wrapped up in one package for no extra cost. This is especially great as some DLC was removed from the PS store a while ago making them inaccessible.
• That One Attack: World Nostalgic, an attack used by the final boss is an attack where a great degree of luck is involved. It deals a random amount of damage to the whole active party. This amount however can vary wildly. Sometimes it deals damage just in the single digits, but other times it can easily inflict a Total Party Kill through outright absurd damage values. And unlike its other signature move, Ain Soph Aur, there is no charge up beforehand, meaning this move can come out of nowhere to wipe your whole party if you are unlucky.
• That One Boss: Matadormon can be hair-tearingly annoying (if not outright very difficult) to beat if you don't have a Digimon or item that blocks the Panic status, even on Normal difficulty. It is very fast and starts the fight by using Vampiric Cajolery, which inflicts Panic on your entire team and it also increases their Attack, lowers their Defense (the two combined meaning that Panic friendly fire hits much harder) and Intelligence. So for two or three turns you cannot do anything but pray your Digimon don't hit each other while Matadormon takes its time to buff itself or get free hits on your team, not to mention it will use Vampiric Cajolery every two or three turns as well, so even if your Digimon break out of Panic, they will almost immediately fall to that status again. Matadormon will even start applying Counter statuses and will even buff its Evasion in a pinch. It is possible to beat Matadormon with a group of hard-hitting Vaccines even without anything to block Panic, and with Panic blockers it is actually very easy to beat, but if you take on it without knowing what will happen... you're in for a really bad time.
• The Scrappy: Ryuji is considered one of the least developed and likable characters in the game. His sudden Face–Heel Turn was divisive and basically turned him into an edgy puppet for much of the game. But beyond that, he's extremely self-righteous, he often refuses to provide useful information or acts obtuse for the sake of it, and frequently gets mad at the player for stupid reasons. It doesn't help that, as a Guest-Star Party Member, he'll often boost your stats or lower your enemies', rather than do anything to directly help.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Ryuji is devastated after the Under Zero events, with Chitose going into a coma and Erika's terminal disease being unfixable, lamenting that no matter what he does everyone he loves dies.
  • Erika's situation is heartbreaking, as she lives with a terminal disease and was raised by her older brother after their parents both died. After the Under Zero events, she blames herself for Ryuji being manipulated and Chitose disappearing, and the end of the game has her being a willing subject to a Cosmic Retcon that erases her from human existence and everyone's memories. The epilogue, where everyone but the hero is happy without her, hurts to see.
• The Woobie: Keisuke, full on stop. At the start of the game he's already made an outcast by his old high school thanks to getting his account getting stolen with only his best friend Yu believing he wasn't a hacker. Then just as he's starting to adjust to his new life and befriend Erika, he learns she suffers from an illness and he can do nothing to help her. It get's worse as he confronts Ryuji with Chitose thanks to Kishibe manipulating him and watches as Chitose gets devoured by an Eater to save Ryuji as well as Erika's sickness getting worse, and Ryuji getting brainwashed by a Digimon and destroys Hudie leaving him the only effective Hudie member. Even worse that he finally does find the person who stole his account only to find out that it is Yu who is actually K. Though he does forgive that person, it doesn't make the betrayal any better. Then just when things were finally looking up after getting Ryuji and Chitose back, Erika is assimilated into an Eater and precedes to erode Eden leaving him to rescue her before her memories are gone forever. Finally after defeating the final boss he says goodbye to Erika one last time as the Cosmic Retcon won't prevent that person from dying so they decide to stay in the digital world and you entrust your Digimon to them. While everyone else forgets the events that happen, he remembers everything and even cries upon seeing the room his friend is no longer in and no one else even remembers them.