izigame.me

The Cliff Notes:

Buy this game on sale for when it's less than 30 dollars, or even 20. It is not worth a 60 dollar price tag
Raise digimon as virtual pets, taking care of needs like hunger and bathroom use, while training them to get stronger and digivolve in specific forms
Digimon battles are a bit of a hands off approach, with your partners fighting on their own accord with you occaisionally being able to shout commandss
Has a barren plot that's generic, forgettable, and is just weak fanservice that does little with the characters it brings
Loss of atmosphere and the feeling of a larger world you're exploring that the 1999 original has


Summary:
If you're like me and have been on a weird itch to play a game like the original Digimon World from 1999, then you might find something here. It still plays like the original, but with a lot more improvements in conveying information to you and making Digivolution less of a mystery. In my time playing, I don't think I ever had a digimon pass away before hitting ultimate. However, unlike the original game, I don't think it presents its world and setting as well as the 1999 Digimon World.
This game is a monster raising game where you have to take care of and raise the stats of a virtual pet. Unlike a certain other franchise, your monster does not have just one strict path of evolution, but multiple paths which depends on how you raise and train your Digimon. Furthermore, on the day to day you also need to tend to your Digimon's hunger and bathroom needs as well.
You will also travel various areas in the game world, along with finding numerous NPC Digimon to recruit to bring back to the city of Floatia where they will take on jobs and services that can help you through the course of the game.
I must stress above all else here, however, I do think you really have to love the idea of playing a game where the core loop is mainly about raising monsters, evolving them, and making them stronger. Because if you're looking for a deep and engaging story, you may want to look elsewhere.
I have to stress this a lot because what story there is is extremely short, and acts as an awkward roadblock recruitment more than anything. So you really have to be sold on the monster raising experience as something to sink hours of gameplay into.
Gameplay:
The main loops of the game will find you in the day to day feeding your digimon, taking it to the bathroom, and training your digimon to fight other stronger digimon.
In battles, you do not directly control the Digimon. Your digimon fight of their own accord, however you are able to issue orders which your Digimon can enact. Pressing the L1 or R1 button on your controller will bring up a radial menu for either of your digimon, which in turn gives you commands that can be activated with Order Points. From this menu, you can either directly tell your digimon to use one of its attacks now, or if you have enough Order Points accumulated you can use their special ability.
A caveat I will give is that while there is a gym you can take your Digimon to train at, this really isn't the most optimal way to train. Your best means of training your partners stats actually comes from battles (especially when they are still Rookies), and because a battle doesn't progress time at all, it is extremely optimal to find a spot, do battle, leave the screen, and come back again until your gains depreciate. There are a number of guides online about where you should go and what to fight, and at what stat ranges, and I stress this knowledge greatly.
I do wish in that way that way this game struck a far better balance in how to train, because it does feel like they were aware of combat EXP being as effective as it was and chose to purposely limit it.
Story:
The story of this game is extremely disappointing. You should not be coming into this game expecting an especially good story, and honestly you should feel insulted for the weak fanservice they attempt to do with the story.
It's a real shame, because they are clearly trying to pull on something with some things they pull from the 1999 game, but they really do amount to "blink and you miss it" cameos (especially in one instance at the end of the game).
It is disheartening to listen to a review shrug and say "It's bad, but you weren't really here for the plot, were you?", because I think it misses something.
Touching on the original game, a lot of the backstory could actually be missed even by the time you beat the games final boss. The game let you recruit all sorts of Digimon at your own pace, and none of the content was gated off by plot, just by recruitment alone. I think that worked a lot better, especially for the kind of person who is just here for progression and monster raising.
There's also a loss of atmosphere between these two games. Words I'd use to describe the original would be things like "Lonely", "Dingy", "Rebellious", "Grimy", "Mysterious", and more. The original game certainly had an atmosphere that has greatly struck a chord with me for over twenty years now, along with the feeling of exploring a large and mysterious world.
In a way then, I lament the loss of a feeling of "Exploration" the previous game did well that this game just does not do whatsoever.
I wouldn't mind them acting like this game never happened and just focusing on making another game that attempts to capture Digimon World 1 and improving upon it.
Music:
Alot of the original tracks aren't all too memorable or just feel really out of place. The song that plays in the first area you can explore, "Blue Sky Big Step", sounds like something from some sort of Sonic game for example. It's not bad, but it does feel out of place. It's not tonally dissonant with what's on screen, but I think that just brings to mind a critique of aesthetics.
There are also a number of tracks are re-arranged versions of songs and tracks from the 1999 game, and I'm not sure how to feel about them. For the most part, something about them just doesn't land too well to my ears, like some tracks have lost a bit of their soul being re-arranged the way they have. They're passable tracks, but I don't really appreciate the File City Day and Night re-arrangements among others. I do appreciate the Entertainment District remix though, somthing about that clicked
There's another neat tidbit with this game where it also uses a lot of sound effects from the 1999 game as well. Things like menu sounds and even the calls and cries of some monsters. Something tickles me about that, and they've been mixed in a way to not feel too out of place in this game. That's one bit of pandering I'll give a thumbs up on, especially with execution.
Closing:
I really wish I could be more positive about this game, but unfortunately I feel like that bit with the writing is just inexcusable. I don't deny the fact a lot of hard work went into this game, and it's clear to me people who were big fans of the franchise were also working on this game. It's in those little failings that all this hurts a lot more.
I think they got much of the core gameplay right, but I'm also not the kind of person who plays games like these for hours on end trying to get all the Digimon, collect all the things and stuff like that. I'm not a huge achievement hunter, collector in these kinds of games, and so forth. I do like addicting systems though, and I do wish there was something that really clicked that gave me more of an excuse to just go through the cycles of the game, raising digimon, and wanting to keep on going back at it.
In the original game, that was the desire to explore the world. In this, what world is there to explore?
I give the game a thumbs up simply because the gameplay loop fundamentally did scratch an itch for me. Were I able to, I'd gave this a sort of "Eh" hand gesture.