izigame.me

This review is both to people checking out the game and feedback for the developers. As a word to the developers, please take my feedback into consideration.
For players checking out this game, Digimon World is a series I really love, but I cannot recommend this specific game as your first exposure to the World series. Go check out Re:Digitize Decode for the Nintendo 3DS. It's a far smoother and far much grindy experience that you will probably have a lot more fun with and is a lot closer to what its predecessor on the Playstation 1 provided, and is my personal favorite Digimon game in the franchise. Please Bandai Namco, port that gem of a game to PC and modern consoles for more people to play.
Moving on to feedback for the developers. I'll discuss what this game does differently from World 1 and Redigitize:Decode. Let's start with positives
The biggest change is having two Digimon partners. I absolutely love EXE evolution as a mechanic and death exe evolution is the most hype thing whenever it happens, thinking the fight is lost and then hearing Accentier kick in and steamrolling the enemy. What an awesome random comeback mechanic. Two Digimon partners is also really useful for dealing with quests that require specific Digimon, such as needing a fire Digimon or ice Digimon for something specific. I like how the game has an English dub (although I do question Rina's voice direction and the choice of pronunciation for MachineDRAYmon). I love how almost every NPC in Floatia has some use and the additional services offered (ie: all the quality of life and information offered by the hospital, evolution Dojo, and the NPCs in town that provide mood or discipline boosts, as well as the move tutors in the research lab). Tamer skills is a really cool addition, and it would be cool to see something like it return.
Alright, how about what I don't like. Oh boy, quite a bit! I even hit a character limit and needed to continue in the comments!
Next Order introduces material gathering in which to upgrade certain facilities, you need a bunch of things like wood, water, gems, metals, etc. that you farm from resources in the open world. It asks for really rare and uncommon materials in HIGH quantities a lot of the time and those materials only spawn a few times a day in specific places. This is terrible, I hate it, please never bring it back. I installed a mod just to max out all my materials so I could just play the dang game without wasting my time on that bullpoop. Next, combat. Let me explain how combat works in World 1 and Re:Digitize Decode. The World series gives you the most immersive experience of being a human partnered to a Digimon in that you are not in control of your Digimon directly. They will fight and move about on their own while you play a support and strategy role. Unlike in a traditonal RPG in which you select "attacks," the World games have you selecting "Orders" that your Digimon won't always react to immediately, might follow, or might even ignore depending on their obedience and whether they are in a status ailment. You can also throw out items to your Digimon to heal them. I really love this system. The gameplay is also in real time, so the action is continuous and constant. There's no pausing to pull you out of the game. There's a special meter as well, and it generally gets charged up by giving or taking damage. There's no cooldown on calling out commands. Next Order changes this system up quite a lot. I understand it was probably necessary for managing two Digimon, but if this solution was needed, I would rather just have one Digimon if it meant more would require ruinining the combat system. In Next Order, a value has been added called "Order points" and using any orders consumes order points as a resource. In previous titles, it just took from the same MP pool the Digimon uses for moves. You gain order points with the "support" button, which needs to be cooled down each use and has a limit of 150. A change for this game is that the finisher uses 150 order points. Again, this is using the same resource you use for any other order, which means you're only really incentivized to save up for this powerful finisher and ignore all other orders except maybe the block command. This removes any element of strategy, and I hate it. When you pull up the order menu, the battle also pauuses. This makes it feel way more "turn-based," which if I wanted that, Digimon has the Story subseries for that kind of gameplay. I'd rather things stay in real time for the World series. Don't pull me out of the action! As I was saying, yeah. Keep the finisher using its own recharge mechanic like in World 1 and Redigitize so that it's not in conflict with the other orders. Likewise, remove the cooldown on orders and change it to just using MP rather than having the order system. Speaking of finishers, hoo boy. Next Order handles them the worst. How they're handled varies from game to game. PS1 had the most interesting version of it where a finisher can be outright INTERRUPTED if the enemy attacks at the right timing, using up your special, and it can even miss! It made it so that timing mattered a lot. Re:Digitize has combat pause when the finisher activates and give you a quick skill check to either block the enemy's special or boost your own damage and it can still miss (I honestly prefer this one). Next Order makes your Digimon invincible when they're getting ready to use the special, it seems to never miss nor have any range limit - truly, the most braindead version of the finisher that has all reward, no risk, and no skill. The worst part? That darn finisher can take an eternity to actually come out. I have no idea what kind of spaghetti code the game's finishers work off of, but something is very clearly wrong with it especially when you're doing a double-finisher with both Digimon. Speaking of things affected by having two Digimon - praising and scolding! This mechanic is important for adjusting happiness and discipline values of a Digimon to meet evolution requirements or manage other things affected by happiness and Discipline. In Re:Digitize Decode and World 1, you can scold or praise freely at any time. Next Order only gives you the opportunity to do so randomly, and often times, your choice will affect both Digimon at once. This is NOT ideal if you have one Digimon that needs a high discipline and the other that needs low discipline. I will say that having the mechanic unlock evolution hints is cool, but I would rather have that mechanic placed somewhere else rather than limiting this mechanic to specific opportunities. More things I hate about next order - the nerf to training. In Re:Digitize Decode, you will spend a lot of time in the gym raising your stats. It's safer than battles, cheaper than battles due to not needing restore items, and doesn't require a guide since the gym is pretty accessible. The stats it gives are worth the hour of lifespan you spend on training, and the variety of minigames make it fun. You can get a lot of upgrades in the game to make it even more worth your time. Re:Digitize has a satisfying loop of raising up a Digimon, going out and doing as much exploration as you can with a fullly-raised Digimon until it dies, raising up something new, going out to explore, and repeat. I cannot stress enough how important the gym is and how useful it is due to it being in the town and not involving combat. There is no risk of your Digimon dying, no need to have money for traveling or recovery items, etc. Next Order's gym is a scam. The gains you get from it are nowhere near enough to rely on alone. This game makes the stats you get from combat actually matter. Maybe to some people, the idea of getting stronger through combat sounds fun, but trust me when I say that it is executed really poorly in this game (seems I'm hitting a character limit. I'll see if I can continue in a comment)