It’s far from an original story, and not the most compelling, getting what I’ve seen so far.
#Digimon world next order review series#
There’s a point to all this running around, of course: a mute protagonist gets sucked into an alternate world and wants to go home, but doing so means investigating a series of strange attacks and helping the local ‘mon rebuild their city. It’s much like any other JRPG – explore dungeons, kill stuff, and find treasure – but the focus on raising your Digimon and tending to their needs gives the game that simple, comfortable loop that keeps you coming back for more. Then you wake up and do it all again, while maybe going further afield or going somewhere different. You go out exploring, fighting wild Digimon, and undertaking quests to progress the story, then you come back home to eat, rest, empty your bags, maybe do some training at the gym,and hit the hay. These connected RPG and pet-raising systems creates a simple, compelling gameplay loop that’s a bit like a dungeon crawler. This isn’t some sort of optional minigame line Pokemon Amie. Those growth paths are influenced as much by simulation stats as by battle stats, so how you raise yours partners is a cornerstone of the whole game. However, where Pokemon’s evolutions are simple and almost always linear, Digimon’s branching evolution trees mean that each baby species has dozens of possible evolutionary outcomes.ĭifferent Digimon have different strengths, weaknesses, and attacks, so how your partner ‘mon evolve has a significant influence on how you approach battles.
Each Digimon starts as a baby, and shifts through increasingly powerful forms as it grows–think Pokemon evolving. A Digimon’s core stats obviously affect its performance in combat, but things like happiness, discipline, and choices of food also have a big impact on how a monster ‘Digivolves’. The best part about all this is how ties into the RPG side of Digimon World: Next Order. Even when you’re out doing more typical RPG stuff, you have to be mindful of how your ‘mon are doing – not just in terms of HP, but also hunger, stamina, happiness, discipline, and toileting requirements. You spend as much time training your partner Digimon at the gym, feeding them, praising and scolding them for good and bad behavior, and taking them to the toilet. That’s as true in Digimon World: Next Order -the 39th (!) Digimon video game - as it’s always been.ĭigimon World: Next Order is a role-playing game, but it’s as focused on the raising aspect of digital pets as on battles and exploration. There are obvious similarities, especially after 20-odd years of each franchise influencing the other, have their similarities, but Digimon still wears its digital pet origins on its sleeve. It may seem like I’m splitting hairs, but the difference is significant. Really, they’re quite different beasts: Pokemon’s always been a video game, but Digimon began life as a virtual pet – a more “masculine” twist on the Tamagotchi – and video games were a natural part of its growing media empire. After all, they’re both media franchises focused on raising and battling cute, fantastical monsters, and they both have “mon” in the name. It’s easy to think of Digimon as a simple Pokemon imitator.
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