Digimon World Ultimate

[Yvone Brem]

Digimon World (Japanese: デジモンワールド, Hepburn: Dejimon Wārudo) is a video game by Bandai on the PlayStation, released in 1999, about the Digimon virtual pets. It was followed by various sequels released for the PlayStation and other platforms. The story focuses on a human brought to File City on File Island by Jijimon to save the island. Digimon have been losing their memories and becoming feral and the city has fallen into disarray. The goal of the player, who is represented by an unnamed young boy, is to save the island by helping Digimon recover their memory and return to the city.

The gameplay revolves around raising a single Digimon from its egg form, hatching into a Fresh, up through In-Training, Rookie, Champion, and with work, Ultimate. A Digimon partner will "fade away" with age, and return to an egg eventually, so the player has to raise it again.

To raise a Digimon partner, the player must train it, feed it, let it rest, and take it to bathrooms. Training is done to increase the Digimon's stats to make it stronger in battle. Raising a Digimon well will result in the Rookie Digimon "Digivolving" into a Champion form with better stats, while not training or raising it well will cause it to Digivolve into Numemon, a Champion Digimon with inferior stats and skills.

The other main part of gameplay is battle. The player's partner Digimon fight the Digimon that have become aggressive due to a crisis on File Island, and some will calm down and work at the city when defeated. Partner Digimon begin the game with a few basic skills, but acquire more as they progress in levels through the game. The player cannot control the actions of an unintelligent Digimon, but as it gets smarter more control over its actions is given to the player.

More Digimon working for the city will make training and various other aspects of the game much easier. Many will open shops and even sell items, some which will open playable mini-games for gaining rewards and items.

The game revolves around a young boy (the player can name the protagonist in the beginning of the game), the protagonist, who is drawn into the Digital World through his V-Pet device. Jijimon greets and asks him a few questions, the answers to which determine whether he begins with an Agumon or Gabumon. His goal is to travel around File Island, locating all of the resident Digimon of File City who have turned feral and bring them back, raising Digimon partners in the process. He must train his Digimon and battle his way through all of Digimon World until the once sparsely populated city is flourishing with different Digimon from all of Digimon World. He must eventually go to Infinity Mountain (the final location) to confront the antagonist, Analogman, and the mega Machinedramon, and save the Digital World from destruction.

Developer and publisher Bandai (now Bandai Namco Entertainment) used an extensive marketing campaign to compete with Nintendo's Pokmon media franchise, specifically the video games Pokmon Red and Blue. A promotional Digimon trading card was offered to the first 100,000 North American customers to purchase the game.[4] The game was officially announced in conjunction with Digimon World 2 in May 2000, before either's release.[5]

Digimon World received a 23 out of 40 total score from editors of Japanese Weekly Famitsu magazine,[9] and went on to sell approximately 250,000 copies in the region by February 2000.[4]

The game was followed by various sequels released for the PlayStation and other platforms, though they do not retain all the gameplay elements found in the original. In addition, despite being localized as such in Western markets, Digimon World DS, Digimon World Dawn and Dusk, Digimon World Data Squad, and Digimon World Championship have no relation to the series.

Digimon World Re:Digitize was first announced in July 2011, in an issue of V-Jump,[13] as the first Digimon game for the PlayStation Portable.[14] The game was announced to be developed by Japanese video game developer Tri-Crescendo,[15] The game's premise was to call back to the first instalment's gameplay.[16]

Digimon World: Next Order was announced in the July 2015 issue of V-Jump. It was originally released for PlayStation Vita and published by Bandai Namco.[17] A trailer was released on July 31 and featured clips from the original Digimon World before showcasing its gameplay. It is based on the concept of an "evolving world," and like Re:Digitize, the player takes control of the main character, who travels alongside two Digimon partners. The first partners to be revealed were Agumon and Gabumon. It was released in Japan on 17 March 2016.[18]

After a three-year hiatus, Bandai has returned with a new installment in the constantly metamorphosing Digimon World series. Just as Digimon World 3 made the genre jump from monster-raising simulation to a fairly traditional Japanese role-playing game, Digimon World 4 tweaks the formula once again, turning it into a real-time action RPG. This may please whatever contingency there is of fans who still keep up with Bandai's answer to Pokmon, but for everyone else this is just a slapdash action RPG that seems more intent on punishing players with clumsy, tedious gameplay than actually engaging, or maybe even entertaining, them.

Upon choosing one of four low-level Digimon, you venture into the Digimon World as a member of the Digital Security Guard, and you are sent off to investigate the appearance of a mysterious new server and the disappearance of a team of Digimon explorers. The story is a pretty thin excuse to dump you into environments brimming with enemies eager to pummel you into an incoherent pile of ones and zeroes.

Rather than fighting by proxy as you did in Digimon World 3, you are given direct, real-time control over a single Digimon here. Your Digimon can run, jump, block, and attack, though for the most part you'll likely just be impatiently tapping on the X button to jab away at your enemies. The controls are pretty basic and intuitive, but for a game that, at least theoretically, is aimed at younger players, Digimon World 4 is extremely punishing right from the start. The game gets easier as you pick up new weapons and armor and your Digimon gains levels and periodically "digivolves" into a more powerful form. At the beginning, though, virtually each and every enemy you face is able to both deal and take much more punishment than you can, and the game isn't shy about throwing a good half-dozen enemies at you at once. Combine this with a block system with such specific timing that you almost need to be psychic, and only the truly dedicated Digimon fans will be willing to soldier on. The game features four-player cooperative support, though why you would want to subject three people you might call friends to this experience is a bit of a mystery.

And it's not like the game offers up a stunning audiovisual feast to make up for the alternately boring and sadistic gameplay. First off, there's the camera. Since there's no kind of map for you to rely on, what you see is the only point of reference you have for where you are and where you need to go, and even when the camera is zoomed out to the maximum, it's nearly impossible to get your bearings. Additionally, the camera moves entirely on its own, and the movement usually seems arbitrary and often obscures what you actually want to see. The visuals are pretty colorful, with the whole "base" area using a Tron-inspired combination of glowing lights and weird polygonal grids. The dungeons you'll travel to still retain a little bit of this neon flair, though they tend to look more like dungeons and suffer from bland, blurry textures. Regardless of style, though, everything in the game looks simple and chunky, and at points it barely qualifies as a current-generation game. The game's sound design isn't so much bad as it is repetitive and unremarkable. Everyone makes roughly the same muddy, indistinct noises when poked, and there's not really much music to speak of.

Digimon World 4 is a dull and largely forgettable experience, which, considering the quality of the previous three Digimon World games, really shouldn't be too big of a surprise to anyone. Those who are blissfully unaware of the world of Digimon likely wouldn't have played Digimon World 4 in the first place, even by accident. However, fans who are thinking about picking this up might want to consider why the creators of Digimon would punish their fans with a game as categorically unenjoyable as this.

The third installment in the Digimon World series, known as Digimon World 3 in NTSC regions and Digimon World 2003 for PAL regions (since they never got Digimon World 2). The most significant difference is that in Digimon World 2003, it is possible to continue after what is the finale of Digimon World 3.

You play as a child called Junior who enters an online virtual reality MMORPG called "Digimon Online", which is run by the "MAGAMI" corporation. A terrorist attack on the Internet (Or so it seems) traps Junior and his friends inside the game, and he sets out to stop them with his Digimon partners. The core gameplay is similar to Pokmon, while the game graphics push the limitations of Playstation 1 hardware as it features beautiful pre-rendered 2D overworld and decent 3D animations during battle.

• Ability Required to Proceed: The Blue Card, whose sole use is to enable you to ride the gondola to the South Sector so you can continue the story, and only in Asuka Server.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Beneath Asuka and Amaterasu City.
• Apathetic Citizens: Justified. Most of the tamers who are aware of what's going on have either been turned into Oinkmon or joined La Rsistance.
• Awesome, but Impractical : Many finishers ultimately fall into this. Cool animations, but the damage is comparable to standard elemental moves that you can unlock and the finishers cost way more than those moves, sometimes they're even weaker than the standard attack. There's a lot of cases where a player wonders why their Mega finisher deals little damage after the difficulty spike on Amaterasu Server.
• Bears Are Bad News: Averted with Kumamon, one of the partner Digimon, and his digivolution of Grizzmon.
• Beef Gate:
• You will encounter a lot of these in this game.
• The Knightmons in the Amaterasu Bridge are even worse. Without the four colored cards, they can't be defeated at all. You can't even run away, ensuring you a game over.
• Boss Rush: Kurt's team consists of bosses from earlier in the game.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Gunslinger's second floor, Junior looks at the camera and exclaims.Junior: "Hurry! We have to defeat Lord Megadeath and get everyone back!"
• Chekhov's Gunman: Lucky Mouse and Vemmon.
• Combat Medic: Kotemon, Patamon, and Veemon's natural digivolution lines can learn healing techniques while also remain as good attackers as well.
• Combination Attack: DNA evolutions could be called that, or maybe Summon Magic.
• Competitive Balance: Althought each of the playable Rookie Digimon can be trained through using TP to adjust their stats to become potentially a Master of All by the end of the game, each Digimon generally have a specific pre-defined role in early-game:
• Kotemon is a Jack of All Trades who can learn some healing techniques midway through the game, with all-around stats aside from above-average Strength and below-average Speed.
• Monmon is a Fragile Speedster who has the highest Speed in the game, but rather relatively weak basic attacks (though is able to learn techniques that tend to deal bonus damage to certain Digimon types), has weakness to some relatively common attacking elements (Water, Wind and Thunder) and mediocre HP.
• Kumamon is a Magically Inept Fighter and a Lightning Bruiser with good Strength, Defense, Wisdom and Speed, at the cost of having the lowest MP and Spirit.
• Agumon is a Mighty Glacier and a Magic Knight who has good physical and magical offenses and defensive stats as well, but the worst Speed out of all 8 rookies.
• Renamon is a Squishy Wizard that has low physical defense, but also the highest Spirit and second-highest MP to make use of magic-based techniques.
• Patamon is a Support Party Member with weak physical attacks and lowest HP out of all 8, but gets access to support and healing techniques earlier than any other Rookie and learns the higher-tier support skills earlier, and has highest MP, good Wisdom (governs magical defense and healing techniques effectiveness), and decent Spirit.
• Guilmon is a mix of Glass Cannon and Fragile Speedster with high speed and strength, but low Defense and HP.
• Veemon, much like Kotemon, is also a Jack of All Trades, with the only difference being Veemon having medium-low Defense but high Wisdom instead.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The MAGAMI President.
• Counter-Attack: The Counter Crest, one of the challenge-killing accessories which was thankfully reimagined for the PAL version.
• Gallantmon's signature move is this. There's also Counter Strike.
• Cue the Sun: Amaterasu Server after the A.o.A. are eradicated.
• Dark World: Amaterasu server is this in relation to Asuka server.
• Disc-One Nuke: The Asuka Black Market item shop can be visited once you beat the Seiryu Leader, and contains expensive weaponry rivalling stuff you find all the way on the North sector, which you'd reach hours later into the game.
• For the most part the first or second digivolution acquired from the partner's natural digivolution line can be this. For Patamon and Kumamon, they acquired Digitamamon, a full fledged Ultimate level digimon. A lot them are Champions, which can let you get their Ultimate at digivolution level 40, and 5 levels earlier than their natural digivolution. MetalMamemon is particularly notable, being able to digivolve into MetalGarurumon at level 40 provided you have enough Machine Tolerance. While MetalGarurumon is one of the weaker Mega in this game, it can become MegaGargomon, one of the strongest.
• Dual Wielding: Almost always better than a sword-and-shield combo.
• Dynamic Loading: Well, the blue blocks that appear when the overworld graphics is loading is apparently this. Not that it's hidden, but...
• Eldritch Abomination: It's hinted that if Galacticmon merged with the Earth, the Digimon called Gaiamon would have been created. This would not only have killed all humans but also made the most powerful Digimon to have ever existed. Just think that over a bit. Then again, Galacticmon can itself be considered one, being the merged consciences (for lack of a better world) of Megadeath and Snatchmon combined with a giant Kill Sat and multiple forms with which to kill you.
• Elemental Powers: Most moves in the game have an element tied to them, and you can even add element to normally non-elemental attacks like your regular attacks and a few other moves, by using certain accessories.
• An Ice Person: For example, Cold Slash and Giga Freeze.
• Blow You Away: For example, Sylph Storm and Vacuum Cannon.
• Casting a Shadow: For example, Black Dart and Darkness Chaos.
• Extra-ore-dinary: For example, Mechanical Bash and Metal Attack.
• Making a Splash: For example, Grand Wave and Divine Rain.
• Playing with Fire: For example, Giga Fire and Heat Cutter.
• Shock and Awe: For example, Heaven Hit and Electro Bolt.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors. When you realize it's there, you will be almost done with the adventure. But once a player figures this out, they will feel a lot better.
• Fake Ultimate Mook. There are many Ultimate and Champion digimon that aren't really strong at the begining of the game, such as Kuwagamon and Triceramon. When going to the North Sector and to the Amaterasu Server, the game inverts it. Many Champion-level digimon and sometimes even Rookie-level are stronger than an Ultimate that you fought at Asuka server.
• And when you enter in the Amaterasu Server, it just gets nonsensical. You can have an area with Megas, Ultimates, Champions and Rookies dealing the same damage.
• Fetch Quest: This game has so many of them, they could get their own page.
• Finishing Move: All playable Digimon have a finisher, as do a few of the bosses.
• Fishing Minigame: The only way, other than not having a full party of three, to cut on the time spent on...
• Forced Level-Grinding. You can go from pwning in one area to being pwned on the next in less than 10 minutes of game time.
• Foreshadowing:
• Right in the opening scene in the human world, with its mention of the A.O.A., who've recently been done for misuing Digimon.
• Talking to Baronmon before he learns of Account Change and he'll mention seeing the future, with "pigs. Pigs everywhere." At the climax of the game, everyone save you is turned into an Oinkmon.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: You can use Submarimon and Digmon as transportation, even though you have no way of getting hold of an Armadillomon partner.
• Genre Shift: From a standard JRPG to a 1-versus-1 JRPG in vein of Pokmon.
• Gentle Giant: BlackWarGrowlmon, found in Amaterasu Server's Dum Dum Factory, is a dark recolor of what is already a Virus-type cyborg dragon worthy of the Digital Hazard symbol. He is also extremely nice and polite, only fights you because he wants to play (and NOT in a twisted way, either) and after the battle, he cheerfully thanks you for the good match and gives you Hazard Armor, Guilmon's Infinity-1 Armor.
• All of the other "Black" Digimon found on the Amaterasu server are this to varying degree. Either they give you encouragement and praise, or is genuinely happy to see players having fun.
• Get on the Boat: I mean, on the Submarimon.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: While on the Gunslinger, an Armageddemon appears to attack you.
• Groin Attack: There are two variants of Numemon, purple and icy blue, whose only attack is biting your Digimon right in that spot, especially if you fight them as Angemon, HolyAngemon, or Angewomon. The purple ones' attack will also reduce your Digimon's defense, so it's pretty dangerous.
• Guide Dang It!: The part where you have to cross between island by obtaining the Submarimon. Most NPC didn't know when asked.
• To get the fishing pole, you must talk to the fisherman Tai Kong Wong at Shell Beach and he will tell you to bring him a pole, string and a hook. While the hook is easy enough to get (you get it from an NPC), the pole and string may cause some head scratching. The "pole" in this case is Bamboo Spear, a relatively cheap weapon you can buy from vendors. While its description mentioning that it is "like a pole" may be considered enough of a hint, the "string" is next to impossible to figure out without a guide: it's Spider Web, a Random Drop from Dokugumon. It's an in-battle item that lowers the opponent's speed and nothing in the game hints at it being the string Tai Kong Wong is talking about.
• The Tree Boots, whose purpose is more or less identical to the fishing pole's, qualifies too. You begin the Side Quest by approaching an NPC in Plug Cape, who sends you to find a Gabumon card he lost. While he says that he thinks he lost it at Asuka Inn, to find it you must check a shelf that does not even look interactable, being a part of the background. After you return the card to the NPC, he tells you that you must befriend Veemon to get the boots. To find Veemon, you must go to Lamb Chop in Asuka City and speak to the waitress there to learn that Veemon is at Wind Praerie. You run over there, find Veemon and end up playing a game of hide 'n seek with him. So where does he hide? Behind one of the Kicking Trees in Kicking Forest. Or rather, behind the leaves of the tree, making it impossible for the player to see him and forcing him or her to blindly mash X behind every possible tree. And woe betide you if you accidentally exit the forest, in which case you must run all the way back to Lamb Chop and speak to the waitress again to make Veemon appear at Wind Praerie!
• Many maze areas in the game can be rather complex to figure out by adults without a guide, let alone kids. Is there even any kid who ever heard about "toroidal grid" before they wander into Mobius Desert? And there's just no real pattern on how the Underground connects one place to another. You can even enter from Asuka server, and exit at Amaterasu server! And then there's also that one invisible stairs on Bug Maze.....
• It doesn't really matter in DW3 due to lack of postgame, but nothing in DW2003 tells you that you have to collect all 5 legendary/epic weapons, otherwise you can't fight the bonus bosses in the postgame tournament. Oh, and getting all of them involves a specific order (for example, you can't make Supernova before making Eternally first), which is also not hinted at anywhere. The quest to make the weapons is an even bigger example - it's a multi-step process of making the old/rusty weapon (considered as Level 1) into Level 2 weapons, which are then used to make Level 3 weapons, which are needed to make the Level 4/legendary/epic weapons. Hope you didn't sell any of the materials... not to mention the 'mons who ask you for the weapons only show up if the appropriate partner is at level forty-five. Nothing in the game tells you that, either.
• Acquiring Veemon. There's no hint you can get him, besides an extra spot in the partner selection tab at the labs. In order to do so, you need to have a Digimon at exactly level twenty, and be in Byakko City.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Justified; you don't name the player character per say, but rather, you come up with a username for Digimon Online for him. And because Digimon Online apparently is such Serious Business, even his closest friends refer to him by his made-up moniker instead of his real name. Baronmon also somehow learns of "Account Change" after you get the Digi-Egg of Knowledge, which allows you to change your Digimon partners' names, again justified by it being a gameplay feature of Digimon Online.
• HP to One: The Ragnarok Cannon, used by the final boss in the game. God forbids you if your Digimon is slow and you are only using one.
• Humongous Mecha: Destromon and Galacticmon, a Humongous Mecha IN SPACE!.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: WaruMonzaemon's justification for attacking Lisa.
• Improbable Power Discrepancy: Amaterasu server is home to Champion level Digimon stronger than Mega level ones on Asuka server.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The second tier Mega Level Digivolution are this. A notch weaker than the strongest Digivolutions of the game, while being stronger than the standard Mega level Digivolutions. Most of them are required to unlock the strongest Digivolutions in the game. This list includes Imperialdramon Fighter Mode, Omnimon, GranKuwagamon, MegaGargomon, and MaloMyotismon.
• MegaGargomon is particularly notable for having a lax unlock requirement, only requiring a single evolution chain with MetalMamemon at level 40 and MetalGarurumon at level 99 making it relatively straightforward to unlock provided the digimon in question have enough Metal Tolerance to unlock them. Conversely, it's the only one that doesn't lead into unlocking the strongest digivolutions. Similarly GranKuwagamon stands out for not requiring a single level 99 Digivolution skill level in any of its unlock requirement and learned Impact Rush, the most powerful physical technique in the game.
• Infinity +1 Sword. And wand, and claw, and gun...
• For Monmon, you can buy the Raven's Bow, which grants it several hundred attack power and the ability to confuse its enemies, before you've ever met Bulbmon.
• As far as Digivolution goes Imperialdramon Paladin Mode, Beelzemon, and Diaboromon are the three most powerful Digivolution in the game, each requiring the Infinity -1 Sword Digivolutions to be leveled to unlock them.
• Irony: The Amaterasu Server looks like a creepy night version of Asuka Server. Amaterasu is the name of the Sun Goddess.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Basically most Mega level mons' finishers.
• Killer Rabbit: All joking aside, if you meet an Antylamon in the Amaterasu Server, you're probably screwed. It's not invincible per se, but it's pretty powerful.
• Kill Sat: Gunslinger. And then Galactimon, which is made from Gunslinger.
• La Rsistance: While there is no specific name for the group in the game, this is basically what you joined into the moment A.o.A. announced its intentions and took over Amaterasu server by turning everyone into Oinkmons.
• Limit Break: The Blast Gauge, filled as your Digimon takes hits. When full, your monster skips to its next natural digivolution, heals to max and its finisher is usable at zero MP cost.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: The game push the limits of Playstation 1's processing to power a JRPG. The results are obvious.
• Magic Knight: Veemon, the only playable partner not in a starter pack. Seeing as his role is that of a pumped-up Jack of All Stats, it's understandable.
• Magikarp Power: Patamon starts out relatively weak, but once it reached level 20 on Angemon, its able to digivolve into Digitamamon, an Ultimate level digimon who have a proper Ultimate level of power in this game. Considering that Ultimates are naturally a level 20 digivolution, with off-branch mainline Ultimates requiring level 15, and level 40 on their respective Champion this is quite a notable advantage in their favor.
• Metal Slime: Not really metallic, but Numemons of all colors are always swift and brutal to your own mons, regardless of evolution. Maybe to compensate them for their Butt-Monkey role in the anime.
• Cardmon can only be encountered by using items obtained from Side Quests, they are always tougher than other Digimon in the same area, can "Curse" your Digimon's stats, weakening them (Curse also happens to be the only status condition in the game that lingers even after the end of a battle and higher level Cardmons can curse more than one stat) and can potentially flee from battle leaving you with nothing. On the other hand, if you manage to beat them, they award more experience and Bits in addition to dropping powerful booster packs.
• More Dakka: Armormon, Monmon's Ultimate form, is essentially a robotic centaur outfitted with enough guns to take on a small army... and its Finisher has it fire every single one of them at the enemy. Of course, there is no such thing as enough dakka... though Cannondramon, its Mega stage which is a giant dinosaur with cannons up the wazoo comes pretty darn close.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Equipping weapons/armor with special effects will null those provided by accessories (yes, that's why your Counter Crest stopped working).
• Mythology Gag: A Terriermon in the Asuka City inn murmurs "Momentai" in its sleep.
• Nintendo Hard: Insane grinding, high encounter rate (also it didn't help that backtracking required is also insane), and even the card battle minigame wins the game in the opponent's favor should you managed a draw...
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?: It's very easy to get lost on what you were supposed to do or on who to talk to.
• Oddball in the Series: The Water element, among a series of attack elements in this game. For unknown reason, even though there are four Water element attacks in the game, only two are available to playersnote not including use of accessory that adds Water element to any non-elemental attack (other elements have such accessory too, so it doesn't count). The two that are available to players, are only accessible via Angewomon and Rosemon evolution, which are part of the same evolution line. This is odd, because all the other elements have at least three attacks accessible to players, many having at least four, and many are shared among different evolution lines.
• Paint It Black: All of the Amaterasu boss Digimon are the black colored versions of certain Digimon.
• Palette Swap: Most of the Digimon you fight (or at least see) have alternate color versions you can also fight. These alternate colors also indicates that they are either stronger, or has different element, or has added effect to their attack, compared to the original color one. The most extreme example is Numemon, who appears in at least four other colors. Subverted with Meramon and BlueMeramon, who are separate Digimon, as well as all the "Black" Digimon.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: When Junior and Kail need to dress up as Agumon to get into the Admin Center, her Agumon suit/costume is pink, while Junior's is blue.
• Point of No Return: Amaterasu's Admin Centre is this in the American version.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Digimon are supposed to be genderless. Say that to Cute Monster Girl Angewomon, Rosemon, Sakuyamon or Persiamon.
• It makes more sense to say "sexless." Digimon definitely have genders, but they're functions of the Digimon's data instead of DNA. And since data is changeable, a Digimon's gender can change, particularly as it evolves. This game shows that with all the overlapping evolutions (Angew