Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory (デジモンストーリー　サイバースルゥース　ハッカーズメモリー) is a role-playing video game developed by Media.Vision and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment released at December 14, 2017 in Japan for the ', Playstation TV Vita, and '. The game was ported to ' and ', alongside its predecessor, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, in October, 2019, as Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition, though the PC version released a day early. The Japanese version will release one day earlier, only for Nintendo Switch. Like its predecessor, the localized release does not feature an English dub.

Plot
Accused for a crime he didn't commit, Keisuke Amasawa decided to drop out of high school. Yu Nogi, his only childhood friend, remains the only person believing him. With his Eden account stolen, he attempts to track down the culprit with informations provided by the mysterious hacker K.

Keisuke used a "proxy" account in order to dive unto EDEN and ended up to the Digi-Market. Although he was supposed to go together with Yu, he decided to head there alone instead. The Digi-Market is literally a hacker's area for selling wild Digimons and other associated stuff, Keisuke points out it is the starting point for searching the hacker who stole his primary EDEN account. He encountered a certain Digimon Dealer after asking some people around the market, and not seem out of place, he attempted to buy a Digimon with barely any currency for a, a or a. Despite that, he chose one and demanded him to free the other two rather getting erased. The dealer retaliated, called out his Digimons Ogremon and Devimon to attack. However, Ryuji Mishima alongside appeared out of nowhere to help Keisuke. Keisuke's Digimon also ran in to help. A bit of surprised to the Digimon's decision, Ryuji gave the Digimon capture program to Keisuke's Digivice. It allowed Keisuke to capture/tame the Digimon. Together with Ryuji, they teamed up to force the dealer to release the two Digimon back into the wild. Afterwards, Keisuke also narrated his reason for being there in the first place.

Ryuji saw Keisuke's potential and offered him a job as a member of Hudie, a small hacker group making jobs in the Eden like investigations, etc. His initial goal, albeit Ryuji wanted him to stop chasing the culprit, could also be achieved by teaming up with him. He accepted his offer, in the end, making him the last member recruited with Ryuji as the Leader, Chitose Imai the second in command and lastly Erika Mishima, Ryuji's younger sister, the team's best hacker and Manager of Hudie Cafe.

Their group works directly under Kamashiro's Zaxon, doing various missions, usually being assigned them by second in command, Fei Wong Tomoe Ignacio. Hudie got involved directly, sometimes helping and unintentionally making things worse for them, with the various missions of Aiba and their friends, Nokia Shiramine, Arata Sanada, Kyoko Kuremi, Yuuko Kamishiro, Makiko Date, Gorou Matayoshi and Mirei Mikagura as well as Aiba's enemies, Jimmy KEN, Akemi Suedou and Rie Kishibe - Keisuke however, is on friendly terms with Jimmy Ken and Suedou and consider them friends. Keisuke also finds himself involved with the and, though unlike Aiba who becomes acquainted with every single member of both group, Keisuke only befriends , , Veevee,  and , whilst  is a direct enemy to both Keisuke and Aiba. Despite befriending all of Aiba friends, Keisuke himself never meets Aiba however they crossed paths at the beginning of the story.

Following the leads of K, Keisuke dealt and defeated various hackers in the process, but eventually found the true suspect who stole his true account is K himself. Keisuke learned K's true identity as Yu, who was madly in love with him but manipulated entirely by a. The digimon, posing as a mask gives Yu a higher hacking ability then ended up controlling him completely. Keisuke later defeated the Matadormon and freed Yu from its clutches, though the latter, frustrated and regretted everything he's done ignores Keisuke.

Similar to Aiba and their friends, Hudie also had to deal with the Eaters. When Zaxon and other hackers group decided to capture Under Zero, Crusadermon, personifying Rie Kishibe, plans to lure most hackers by lowering the area's Security Level. The plan was not without Suedou who wants to test the Digital Wave's capability inside of Eden. Ryuji also took part but only to watch every development. The fighting became more intense at the last area when the Jude and Rebels came to interfere. Fei was defeated by Nokia and Omnimon but then Crusadermon suddenly summons Eaters using powerful Digital Waves.

Eventually their mission turned into a tragedy and the Eaters attacking numberless hackers caused them to acquire EDEN Syndrome. Hudie saw the gruesome reality as they battle countless creatures and experiencing the true intentions of Kishibe. Sooner or later that the Hackers find the Eater's source as Omnimon flies to destroy it once and for all. The incident was put to a stop but there were so many Hackers who've succumbed into the disease. One particular person, Ryuji, was struck to the reality that Kishibe gave for Erika's medical expenses is only a pretext to control him like a puppet just to reach her goal: to destroy the Real World. Suddenly, an Eater attempted to attack Ryuji but he was pushed out of the way at the last second by his best friend, Chitose. He sees his friend's avatar and digital data being taken by the creature who and goes into a deep depression for his sacrifice later on. He went missing from the real world, he doesn't seem to care with Erika's condition at all. He stands by alone in front of a structure at the depths of Under Zero; the very same place of Eater tragedy. He feels how deep his depression, his regret for Chitose's sacrifice, his anger towards Arata's cowardice, and his fear to lead his former hacker team. This seemingly attracts the sleeping Arcadiamon inside the structure. Its dark miasma envelopes him but Cyberdramon tried to block him from Arcadiamon, yet his Digimon was still absorbed. The unknown Digimon came to a term with his negativite emotion and "teamed up" with him on his mission to destroy all hackers for petty revenge of Chitose's sacrifice. Ryuji would destroy the hackers, whilst Arcadiamon would absorb or devour their Digimon to Digivolve all the way up to its highest level. He was eventually first sighted on assisting Keisuke against his battle against K at Akihabara. After defeating K's Satamon, Arcadiamon absorbed its data and fled somewhere else to gather more data. Ryuji meanwhile is mindless.

Ryuji and Arcadiamon causes massive trouble all over Eden and the real world. Whilst doing so, Erika tasks Keisuke and Wormmon to track down an Eater in order to find a way inside the Eater Network. After defeating it, they hack it and use its data to reach the Eaters home world, where they come across the real Yuugo Kamishiro. Explaining that they had come to locate Chitose's memory data, Yuugo allows them to do so, which they find due to the help of Chitose's. Chitose's data was successfully restored, causing him to be the first and only person to awaken from Eden Syndrome and then a moment of respite for Hudie.

They inform Chitose about Ryuji's recent actions adding that Hudie's base of operation was destroyed because of the latter. Worried as she is, Erika tasked Keisuke to track Ryuji's whereabouts again to give him updates of Chitose's condition. He ended up at the Akihabara District with Arata who has similar reasons for looking for Ryuji. They later found Ryuji at the reactivated Digital Wave Distorted Area who was in delusion and miasma of Arcadiamon; twisting his understanding by blaming everything to Arata. He still won't believe that Chitose is saved and tries to destroy his friend only to end up with a brutal defeat. Chitose then arrives with the help of Detective Matayoshi and yells at Ryuji for his actions. Seeing Chitose in person shocks him and his depression and influence from Arcadiamon slowly wanes away. However, Arcaidamon wakes back up and attempts to murder Chitose. Like Chitose had done before, Ryuji pushes Chitose out of the way and takes the attack instead, before flying off somewhere. As the wreak of havoc among wild Digimons and Eater alike grows, Hudie's mission remains the same. They located Arcadiamon (Ultra) at Odaiba Bridge, which the the local police had blockaded to prevent more damage. The gang faces the massive Digimon all by themselves, but their attacks didn't make any sign of damage. Erika decides to use her Eater Bits created from the recently hacked Eater's data where it analyzed Arcadiamon's data, waning its defense quickly to create an opening for their Digimons to attack. In its last moments, a fading light emits at its chest as it tries to suppress Arcadiamon, and with all of their strength, they destroy the Digimon once and for all. Ryuji appears from mid-air along with Cyberdramon, but when he faces his sister, he is still remains down for all he has done. Yet finally they reconcile their own faults, and Ryuji thanks his Digimon, after all, it has done for him.

But despite all the happy ending, Erika became a target of her Eater Bits as she exhausts her energy. They've gone rampant, and the modified Eaters attack her to merge into the Eater Legion. Even her physical body is fully assimilated with her Bits and her memory influences the creature to proceed through a small chasm at Kowloon Lvl 1 heading straight to the Digital World. However its massive size causes the virtual world to get corrupt, even assimilating into an Eater Network and all of its users were forcefully logged out.

After the battle at Odaiba Bridge, Keisuke and the rest of Hudie returned to the hospital without Erika. They even heard the news from Fei about Eden's corruption, and no one has able to log in. They know what to do, they drastically wanting to save Erika, and they need to head to her memory bank inside of Eden, although they don't have any ways to get there. Despite of what happened they were still determined, Keisuke, Chitose, and Ryuji swears for their courage—although it was cheeky to watch until Erika influenced Wormmon interrupts their encouraging convesation, largely they know it spoke like Erika herself.

Ryuji and Chitose are also hospitalized, Hudie needs a leader for the moment so they nominate Keisuke instead. He insists but his senpais know that he is now capable although for temporary post. Fei comes in for a conversation to give them info and a way inside of the virtual world, she also wants them to use it to save Erika. With the help of Yu and various hacker groups Keisuke had fought against, they manage to gain access to the massive device, although it has only enough power for Keisuke, Wormmon, Chitose and Ryuji to enter.

Hudie dives into Eden and lands into the infested Eden entrance and seeing all of the virtual world's area assimilated with the Eater Network. They force their way through hence with all Eaters targeting them and dive deeper and deeper to reach Erika's Memory Bank still free from any corruption. Yet it looks like a half-sunk white metal sphere. But the Eater Legion appears from above and descends into the sphere that easily penetrates any security protocol on it. The cyberspace eventually rumbled; the process of corruption undergoes. Chitose and Ryuji proceeds to fight it with their "It's my hacking business" style while Keisuke with Wormmon attempts to stop the Eater inside the bank. As the two floats into the bank's network, Erika's memory flashes into them, and eventually, they found the Eater Legion trying to eliminate them.

Keisuke's Digimons fight back, they strike its company and the Legion but with bad results; it can't be defeated at all. The duo outside couldn't even keep up with the corruption either then suddenly a "ghost" like memory of Erika appears; saying it's futile to fight it. She knows they want to save her but it is inevitable, since her physical body will be destroyed one way or another. Erika wants them to stop now to save themselves however Wormmon never backs out. Wormmon knows she doesn't want to give in, she wants her to go to the Digital World together with Hudie, even Ryuji tells her that he'll do everything for his beloved sister. She solves her doubts eventually because of her teammates, especially with Keisuke, and lifts Wormmon to embrace it. She glows so bright the warm light surrounds Wormmon, and Erika's remaining data merged to it and a miracle created a new Digimon: Hudiemon. The Digimon stands firm like Erika on a Hudie Butterfly Costume and her voice merges like her and Wormmon. Soon after the introductions, Hudiemon uses her ultimate skill to null the Eater's defences and finally defeating it. Erika's body is also destroyed by the process.

A sudden silence looms at Erika's Memory Bank until Keisuke and Hudiemon comes out. She introduces herself to Ryuji and Chitose then searches for Keisuke's whereabout - whom she stood at. Ryuji can't firmly accept Erika's transformation at all, Chitose seconded, while Keisuke feels her she's that person and welcomes her back to the team. And yet the problem wasn't resolved, the remaining eaters lost their primary vessel and set their sight, merging with the memory sphere to a gigantic brain-like creature called Eater Eden. Hudiemon, Keisuke, Ryuji, and Chitose decided to end its suffering for good as they finally crushed it with all their might.

Hudiemon senses the change from the Digital World as she watched the outcome and decision of the Chosen Children to revert the world without the Eden Cyberspace. Hudiemon or Erika chooses to go to the Digital World too in order to preserve their memories but Ryuji never wanted this parting way. As the world will be restored, the person they know as Erika will not exist. Even if she will, the fact she will die with the same disease won't change. She insisted to go still until Ryuji and Chitose are forced to log out, yet as Keisuke is about to be pulled away, he manages to reach her arm and followed her to the stream of collaborated information that will be restored into the new one.

The two manages to talk alone but with Hudiemon turning to Wormmon, and Erika as she shares her reason of going into the Digital World. Keisuke doesn't want to part ways with her at all and asks her to come back, yet so selfish. Then he finally decided to not let her go alone and asks his Digimons to accompany her- together with Ryuji and Chitose's. In their parting ways, they say good to one another and tells him the Digital World will always be connected to the Real World.

A moment later, Keisuke stands at the streets near Hudie Cafe. He went back to see his gang wanting to celebrate Ryuji's acceptance to the Kamishiro Enterprise and heads out for a meal. Keisuke gazes into Erika's room, knowing he still believes she's there, but tears fell after seeing an empty room. Later on, a Hudie Butterfly flies through the room and prompted the monitor with bit images of Erika and Wormmon along with Keisuke's Digimon.

Development
Like Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, the western version Hacker's Memory has English and German subtitles.

On December 28, 2017, the Japanese Digimon games account tweeted that if their tweet got more than 2018 retweets before January 5, four new Digimon would be added to the game as free DLC. The amount was achieved in a few hours. Famitsu later revealed the four Digimon would be Ryudamon, Ginryumon, Hisyaryumon, and Ouryumon. They later added a stretch goal of 10,000 retweets to add one more Digimon, with the tweet reaching 10,000 one day before the deadline. The final Digimon was revealed to be Apocalymon. The first four Digimon were added on January 24, 2018 worldwide, whilst Apocalymon was added February 13.

The Sistermon Noir/Sistermon Blanc pre-order DLC was censored in North America, due to Noir being a nun and this not being suitable in North America, so Noir was changed from a black cat like nun Digimon, into a blue mouse like nun Digimon, Sistermon Ciel, as Namco USA had forced the change. Every other region however was unaffected by the censorship and had access to Noir, rather than the censored Ciel. This did not extend to the Complete Edition, which censored Noir in all versions outside of Japan.

The Steam port was done by.

Gameplay
The gameplay is identical to its predecessor, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, only with a few balance changes, such as Sleep no longer taking a turn to wake up. A second battle type however was introduced, Domination Battles. ABI has been doubled, now maxing out at 200, meaning bonus stats can now be increased up to 150, being 50+half of 200 (150). SPD was also nerfed, now only giving Digimon multiple attacks in a row if the Digimon is on the field for a long time. Penetrating attacks were also changed, now being either "medium", "strong" or "extra strong". In addition, Hacker's Memory brought back what Cyber Sleuth removed, being able to fight 4/5 wild Digimon at once, rather than three maximum.

List of obtainable Digimon
The Field Guide shows the Digimon's model, can show attack and walking animations, like previous Story games, shows stats for any level between 1 and 99, with the default being level 1, shows the attacks each Digimon can learn, shows their Digivolution trees and has a profile for each Digimon in the game.

Hacker's Memory includes all 249 Digimon from the original Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, adding 92 new raiseable Digimon, taking the total to 341. This includes the pre-order exclusive Digimon of the first game, which outside of Europe, could only be obtained by pre-ordering the game, or buying a new copy. Hacker's Memory also includes pre-order exclusive Digimon, which like the predecessor, outside of Europe, can only be acquired by pre-ordering or buying a new copy of the game. Unlike the original game however, the Sistermon, four of the pre order Digimon, were added to the PlayStation store as free DLC one month after the release of the game. The NX Digimon however, remain exclusive to pre-orders/new copies. Examon, a Mega level Digimon in Cyber Sleuth, was retconned to an Ultra level in Hacker's Memory, DNA Digivolving from Breakdramon and Slayerdramon, rather than digivolving from RizeGreymon and DoruGreymon. Due to the addition of BaoHuckmon and SaviorHuckmon, Hackmon no longer digivolves directly into Jesmon, with SaviorHuckmon and Duramon instead Digivolving into the Royal Knight. Otherwise, all digivolution options remain the same as the original game, with the new Digimon placed into the existing evolution trees. Some Digimon, MetalGarurumon and Alphamon, had their special attacks replaced (though Alphamon's attack in English versions of the game retains the name "Blade of the Dragon King", even though the attack was changed), whilst some Digimon, such as Monzaemon retained the same attack, with the attack having a completely different effect. (Monzaemon's Hearts Attack is a Penetrating Attack in Cyber Sleuth but heals one ally's HP and increases ATK, DEF and INT by 10% in Hacker's Memory). Some Digimon, such as AeroVeedramon had their attack animations changed, though the effect remains the same, whist AeroVeedramon and UlforceVeedramon's Swiftness Support Skill was changed to only work on the Digimon themselves, rather than the whole party. PlatinumSukamon's Support Skill was changed from Platinum Service to Platinum Bonus, which increases experience by a lower amount, whilst PlatinumSukamon and PlatinumNumemon had their DEF stats changed to 999, by far the highest stats in the game.

Unused Digimon
Bearmon, SkullBaluchimon, and Kimeramon have unused models in the game's code.

Credits

 * Producer: Kazumasa Habu
 * Composer: Masafumi Takada
 * Creature design: Oh!Great
 * CG scenes:
 * Digimon design: Kenji Watanabe

Reception
By October 2020, Hacker's Memory and Cyber Sleuth had shipped more than 1.5 million units worldwide combined.

Preview
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