A look back at: Digimon World

What a tiring game. And for the Playstation and for a one-disc game, this is surprisingly impressive. It takes a lot to figure out what to do in this game and even then there are still areas of the game which even guides have yet to figure out. Man, did it really take years to figure out the Digivolution? Because that certainly was a core mechanic that I feel this game really should have done better. Anyways, yeah, Digimon World, this is my first foray into this small series and I plan to play more, but this first game is easily the most unique.

As unique as it is, it takes a ton of balancing in order to just beat the game, and even far more to complete it. I don't think I'm gonna try that latter half. See, you have one Digimon as your pet, you gotta take it to training, feed it, have it battle, and have it go potty. All while balancing what appears to be general RPG navigation and other mechanics. Well, apart from the battles, which ends up being another key point as in the beginning their entirely AI controlled. I've never really been a fan of "letting things play out" with little in the way of influencing the battle, and I would argue that there should be more commands available early instead of when you can increase their Brains stat. With AI control, you're bound to see your or enemy Digimon just run around, determine whether or not to block attacks, or use the right techniques you want, and what could have been a short battle ends up much longer. Battling is necessary for extra skills and for stat increases of course, but then you gotta deal with that and getting the RIGHT stats up for Digivolving, all the virtual pet stuff I mentioned earlier, oh, did I mention that Digimons can lose their lifespan and start completely anew? Yeah, they can.

And all this while you try to rebuild a town. I actually like this mechanic a lot, reminds me of the Suikoden games and recruiting people for your castle. Except for a fleeting moment where a Greymon can ambush you outside the main house, which can be unwinnable if you just have a rookie Digimon at the moment. Definitely not fun. Of course, time-based events are at play, meaning there is quite a lot of waiting, but having to combine that with training the Digimon makes it quite easy to miss the event you were hoping to trigger. But hey, I hear the other Digimon games have significantly different gameplay, and I do applaud the many things to do, even if they take up most of the game that the plot of this game doesn't really take off.