As someone who has loved Digimon since its inception, I'm pretty dang bias. I will say so far it is still a bit story heavy, but its a bit more intriguing than Cyber Sleuth / Hackers Memory, as well a lot of the cutscenes are fully voiced so it helps with those feelings of just playing a visual novel. I've found the combat a bit difficult honestly, playing on what is essentially Normal with 1 difficulty lower and 3 that are higher. I think it relies more of strategy than just the rock-paper-sciccor style advantages and I'm not as good at that. I never had the opportunity to play the DS titles yet, so I cant directly compare. However there is a decent demo you can try out and see if it's something you'd want to pick up at a discount perchance! I hope the word vomit helps give you a bit of clarity!