(Surely there'll be extra brownie points for my incredibly cheesy intro?)
This time round I shall be looking at the first game I ever played : Digimon World. I shall present this in an in-game day by day account of the life of me and my Digimon Jeffer - His name has a reason behind it but more to that later - whilst presenting my views on whether there really was a lovely charm behind this game or if I was just a deluded young child happy at the simple appearance of some of the Digimon I marvelled at on the Television.
Before I delve into the metaphorical guts of the game I should explain the franchise on which the game is based on. Digimon (Digital Monsters) took the idea that Tamagochi had of having little creatures in your pocket. This idea transcended it's way into a successful Tv show in which several children are transported to this digital world and go on one journey or another with their Digimon companion; harking back to Tamagochi. It was the success of this Tv show which brought in the other merchandise of Toys and primarily for me; games.Time for the gut delving! Or to disappoint again we're actually just cutting open the skin; so to explain my analogy I'll speak you through the start of the game. What stands out to me now is the cut scene at the very start of the game, before you even go through menus. There is a rather epic battle between two really bad-ass looking Digimon, and to me, a fan of the show, this was something rather cool to watch. I give credit to this game for just how much it goes out to please it's fans, by including all these Digimon and cool cut scenes. There is however a downside to this. If I put myself in the shoes of someone with no previous experience to Digimon then I feel some of the charm the game has is lost.
After having our minds melted by a Cut scene we have to traverse through a couple of menus to begin the game before being give a quick quiz to determine what Digimon you start the game with and finally naming your first faithful companion. As you all know he was a Gabumon called Jeffer for me. His original name was going to be Jeffery - the idea being that I was trying to be as authentically like a child as possible- and of course the Y wouldn't fit. So Jeffer it was!
Gut delving time is upon us! And so I present to you the 7 day diary in which I record the incredible journey me and Jeffer embark on. Pack a hanky or two as it get's tearful. (Only if you're a sap like me mind)
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| JEFFER!! |
Day 1 - Being given the plot to essentially sell File City to the natives through the means of violence and general annoyance Jeffer and I find ourselves in the middle of an island with no means of direction other than too explore.
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| File Island |
Side note 1 - This is another double edged sword for the game. Once again for someone new to the game this creates an intimidating idea of having no clear direction but it also creates the sense of adventure which is something I like. A game which whilst still easy to understand is not 'hold your hand' linear.
After exploring the rest of the town Jeffer and I go over to Green's Gym in order to train stats and make ourselves strong before exploring the outside of the City. Along with training your Digital partner you are tasked with the general upkeep you might expect with owning a pet: feeding it; taking it to the toilet; giving it medicine and general malarkey like that.
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| Green's Gym |
Side note 2 - These are three of the key game play elements. two being good; the remainder not so good. The not so good one is the training aspect of it, it's a mutinous routine of X button followed by Triangle button followed by X button. It's fairly dull and is the one glaring negative I've found thus far. However it is certainly bearable, just not very fun. The good elements are the exploring of the island and the upkeep of your Digimon. In the exploration as it implies you are given the freedom to go where you want; when you want. So to make sure you miss nothing you are overwhelmed by this maddening sense to search every square inch of the Island. A game which makes you want to explore the landscape the developers have created is something to be proud of I feel. As the escapism I get from such exploration is the reason games are so fun for me; just being able to be anywhere I want doing whatever I want, which in real life could never be possible. And finally there's how to look after your Digimon itself. On paper it sounds like, well, not much fun at all. I doubt those are the chores of having a pet that people enjoy. But you cannot simply neglect your Digimon. If you fail to take it to the bathroom, or feed it the Digimon could loose one of it's life's or grow unhappy. Your Digimon has three lives in total, if it loses all three then the Digimon dies. The happiness meter is what determines how well your Digimon preforms in battles and also what it Digivolves into. But like a Pet your Digimon has this endearing quality about it which makes caring for your Digimon something that bonds you. In doing so ultimately it creates a genuine bond between the two of you; meaning that every encounter is tense and every goodbye made even sadder.
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| Item bank |
With a stronger Jeffer in hand we move to the first new area outside the village. Where we are promptly met with an Augumon raring to fight us! We beat him! Followed by a chorus of 'Yatta' ('I did it' in Japanese) and the reward of a sick Jeffer and a new bank back in town. I return home for some late night training before we need to sleep after our rather busy first day.
Side note 3 - The final two main game play elements are shown here as well. There is the battling system and more often than not as a by-product of that the recruiting of other Digimon. The battling in itself is like watching a Wrestling match. Just with dangerous creatures who attack with fire and poison instead of the more conventional means of fists and elbows. The analogy is made because you can scream commands at your Digimon, telling it to attack or keep it's distance, but they never seem to have much effect, and so you are left watching these two Digimon fight of their own accord. This doesn't mean the battling is bad though. It's still very tense when you are in situations where you know the next move decides that battle, however in terms of actual strategy involved there doesn't appear to be much. There is also the recruiting of certain Digimon to your town; this being the players aim of the game. This is in my opinion the best feature of the game. The more you progress the more lively and upgraded your town gets. This gives an enormous sense of satisfaction as a town which started off with nothing gets a bustling town square with a building to either side.
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| Part of the complete city |
Day 2 - Today ends in disaster for me and Jeffer. The day begins with the development of the Injury into a sickness. With no cure available it looks like Jeffer's on his last legs. To add to our despair on our attempt to go out and scout the Island we are almost defeated by the first Digimon we encounter, leading to retreat back home with our tails between our legs. The final icing on the cake though is that my initial suspicions were right and Jeffer looses a life from my poor care of him. We go to sleep on a low that night ; a low we never hope to stoop to again.
Day 3 - I vow to train Jeffer up strong so that we can start our exploration of the Island and further upgrade the town. Of course with the rigorous training we encounter two problems. The training is making Jeffer unhappy and hungry, so hungry that he is eating more than the amount of food available. This creates a dilemma as I need to keep Jeffers hunger up and yet I do not have the food to do so. In a last ditch effort we explore the surrounding area outside of town for food and come across a Happymushroom. This cures Jeffer of both his ailments of hunger and unhappiness. This journey however leads to a risky sleep in the middle of nowhere for the night.
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| BIG STRONG JEFFER |
Day 4 - Our troubles have not been in vain though! Due to our rigorous training the other day Jeffer has made leaps and bounds in terms of strength and after accidentally running into a Digimon we learn we have the power to crush them! (Or maybe got a bit lucky) This leads us being overcome by a Cocky nature and so we explore to the south of the Island tackling every Digimon we can to show our power! This of course leads to us fighting the wrong guy (who Ironically is a girl Palamon but I'd rather not have my power undermined any further) and once again we find ourselves running away like cowards towards the safety of the town. This turned out to be a wise decision as my small little Jeffer the Gabumon became big strong Jeffer the Monochromon!
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| Digivoloution chart |
Side note 4 - Digivoloution is where your Digimon evolves into it's new, more powerful stage. What makes this system so much fun is that it starts out basic. With 4 Baby stages, 4 In-training stages, but this is where it branches out. Depending on what you train and how you train your Digimon can Digivolve into a new Digimon. So to give you an idea there are then a further 9 Rookies, a whopping 29 champions and finally 18 ultimate Digimon. What this means is that the game has lots and lots of re-playability as you try to figure out how to get the most powerful Digimon you can. Also lots of cool references for fans of the show.
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| The Dreaded Kunamon |
Day 5 - Today started on a high and stooped to a very low point. With my new and Improved Jeffer I felt ready to take on the world and recruit some new Digimon! So this led to me defeating another Palamon (Eat that previous Palamon!) who joined my town and improved my Meat farm. This then plummeted as in my mad power rush I tried to defeat Kunamon so he could join my town, but of course he defeated me by the skin of his teeth and so poor Jeffer was down to only one life. By the time we'd awoken in the town we decided to explore the Island some more, making sure to avoid all contact. This led to us coming across a Beach where a kind Digimon transported us over to this Tropical place where we had to sleep for the night.
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| Slightly less dreaded Palamon |
Day 6 - We awake in the early morning when it's still dark with the sole mission of exploring this new territory. We soon found our way into Amida forest where a mysterious figure threatens us. Thinking I could take him we and Jeffer try to proceed through this area when we are blown back twice taking our health down to 1 HP. We take the hint and scurry off home via the newly repaired bridge and train with the intention to tackle him the next day.
Side note 5 - It's by this point I begin to notice a flaw in the game; it's formulaic. This means that each day eventually begins to from the same sort of structure. And sadly that leads to it becoming a bit boring at times.
Day 7/ The end - With our wounds profusely licked after our embarrassment yesterday I instead decide to take the different approach of exploring the area to the right of the Town, which is the Drill Tunnel. There we are quite randomly attacked by an Angry Drimogemon (God the people here are violent! ) before agreeing to shift dirt for another one. The dirt shifting proves boring and mutinous so we leave the tunnel and decide to go explore the rest of the Tropical region. Whilst there we run into several dead ends before entering a spooky graveyard, which in typical fashion also leads to a dead end. It is this which spells death for Jeffer as at the exit lays two powerful Digimon whom are literally undodge-able. After several failed attempts at trying to dodge them I accept defeat and Jeffer goes out like the hero he was. May a salute be held for our valiant hero!
So after my 7 in-game days with Jeffer I feel ready to pass down verdict on the game, and well it's mixed. The game is fun, and in the way it gets you to care about the Digimon and the Town/Digimon progression systems are great! However it's not perfect. The training for example is a big part of the game, and yet it's boring and tedious. This boredom it creates is worse now as I'm older. If I was a child then I'd have a lot more spare time on my hands, so a lot more time to put into the game. Whereas now I want my games to be for the majority of the time fun and so something which was just an annoyance several years ago becomes a problem which hinders my fun.
Overall then the game is still fun. It has it's flaws but I feel the game overcomes them with the amount it does right. So for these reasons Digimon World makes it into my recently made Hall of Fame!Thanks for reading!
But before I go I was toying with the idea of doing a similar plan to this where I'd do the Diary plan for each Digimon's life. However I'm not sure whether people would enjoy that so I'd like to ask you to drop down in the comments below whether you'd want that or not!
Thanks Guys - Ross
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