Digimon World- Misunderstood Masterpiece
Predating a phenomenal anime series, this game is an achievement in artistry. The abstract and surreal prerendered landscapes to the harmonic melodies give this game unmatched ambience. Digimon World is a virtual pet raising, battling, and recruiting simulator. You start the game with a fantastic cutscene setting the premise of the setting. The hero of the game is in the real world with his virtual pet device (at this point I am not sure if they were proclaimed Digivices) where he is drawn into the Digital World and thrust into File City. Depending on your answers to the prompt at the start of the game you are given a fantastically realized “Rookie” Digimon.
As you train and raise your Digital monster it can evolve further into a “Champion” Digimon. The final stage of evolution is the “Ultimate” level however it is an impressive task to reach this level as you are hoisted a timer your Digimon lives by. After your digital monster reaches a certain age, it fades away and is reborn through the egg you pick. Each egg hatches a baby that turns into a “Training” Digimon which comes full circle to “Rookie” and so forth. When training at the designated training segment of file city you can boost your stats which increases the chances to evolve into a respectable creature. I will get more into a Digimon’s stats in future paragraphs and what is essentially a large outdoor gym is placed conveniently to the left of the starting area.
Now that we have expounded upon the evolution and reincarnation system, let’s get into the combat system. Every Digimon can learn moves from battling other Digimon or as a base move. Your trainer learns commands through experience. Your Digimon has a variety of stats that you increase at the gym or through battle. These stats serve as prerequisites to evolution. This leads to quite a bit of depth and mastery in raising your monster. In actual battle, it is a hybrid of real time and turn-based as you issue commands to your Digimon, who enacts them in real time against other Digimon as you watch on in third person. When your Digimon’s special meter fills up, you are granted the chance to mash the buttons to power up your most powerful attack.
File City, the place you start in is in shambles, the few Digimon there powerless and Jijimon the village elder essentially tasks you with rebuilding the city via recruiting various Digimon. As you embark on his task you stand in awe as your city grows in utility, granting you not only pleasant vistas but also useful components to your gameplay. One such ancillary gameplay function that is the first you obtain is the bank from defeating a Digimon called Agumon (essentially an orange Dinosaur that can shoot fire) that likely mirrors the starter Digimon you have.
You must be careful when venturing into the new frontiers as each zone has multiple levels of threats. Another precaution is using the toilet because having your Digimon defecate outside of the background can lead to your monster evolving into a “useless” Digimon that eats the excrement of your previous monsters (which enables a janitorial simulator of sorts and lends to Digimon World’s crude sense of humor).There are multiple “final bosses” and even after you beat them you can still recruit the Digimon you missed to obtain a one hundred percent completion rate. The game is just packed full of content and is more content rich in my opinion than many multi disc games of the era. This is possibly due to the lack of “CGI” cutscenes relative to the games.
Pros
- + Surreal landscapes
- + Arguably the some of the best 3D models on the system
- + Fantastic soundtrack
- + Depth of the virtual pet system
Cons
- - Overwhelming amount of information
10
Gameplay
Simple to play. Hard to master.
10
Graphics
Absolutely stunning.
10
Story
Simple Isekai done creatively.
10
Sound
Absolutely harmonic soundtrack, unique monster sound effects that are a delight to behold.
10
Replayability
So much to accomplish and witness.
10
out of 10
Overall
I feel this is the best game ever created and is certainly my favorite one.
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