Digimon World 4 Ps1
Flaviano Bada
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.
It is disappointing because Digimon World: Next Order has some great polish to it. The graphics are a bit dated now but they still hold up thanks to the cartoony nature of the characters. The soundtrack, however, is fantastic. From the opening theme song to the music that plays as you walk around the world, there are some great tracks there.
Trent has been writing about video games for over ten years and playing them since he stumbled on the shiny gold Legend of Zelda cartridge as a kid. Since then, he has played anything and everything from AAA RPGs to ultra-niche visual novels and dating sims, reviewing many of them right here.
I wasn't expecting a 4, maybe a 6 or 7. As a big fan of the original Digimon World this scratches that itch for an updated one. I'd probably give it around an 8 or something. I can acknowledge that it has an... acquired taste. Once you get a hang of the gameplay loop it gets much easier and rewarding
After watching some "Digimon ghost stories" and having a vivid flashback of watching some of the very first series as a little kid, I so want to get into this franchise, but they aren't making it easy for me.
@MajorTom Pokmon Scarlet and Violet was the most fun Pokemon game of the past decade with the best story so far. If not for some technical issues, it would've been a 10. Hence, a 7 is a very fair score.
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