Digimon World Dawn/Dusk 17 Years Later

[@prezmer]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A WONDERFUL 2025 TO EVERYONE WATCHING THIS! This was meant to be released back in September but alas, life really screwed me on that one. It's here now though, and I'm super happy with it, so that's what matters! Hopefully those of you that watch it also enjoy the video. If you do give it a shot, thank you. And again, I wish to all of you a wonderful holiday season and new year

[@robertsonmcnaughton4850]

The games just needed a functional map and a repell mechanic and it would've been gangbusters

[@prezmer]

@@robertsonmcnaughton4850 yeah… two very simple fixes that would help a lot. But like I said in the video, they’d also need to adjust the grind required to beat the game, because forced encounters every few seconds and bunch of dead ends result in you grinding “organically”, per say. Tis’ a bit of a tough balance

[@Jimbob_42]

I wonder if anyone has potentially made a romhack that adds those mechanics?

[@prezmer]

@@Jimbob_42 There is/was a digimon world dawn/dusk 2.0 remake being developed, possibly more (@plasmi99 on twitter/X is the one I know of), but no news for some 9 months now as far as I'm aware. Regardless, I'm not sure if they'd add these mechanics or just new digimon.

[@joeshmoe9204]

Had Dawn as a kid but got stuck at the very beginning since I didn’t understand the need to do side quests. I vividly remember the sprite work though. Phenomenal looking game. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!

[@prezmer]

Thank YOU for going down the nostalgia lane with me!

[@RayOfTruth]

It gave us the Lunamon line so I will always appreciate them.

[@prezmer]

@@RayOfTruth I’m with you there, such a good line!

[@jokerproxy5345]

Basically the same I have to say about the Coronamon line. I love the twins. Cybersleuth not having both of them hurt my soul.

[@tylamcgilverson3923]

It let me have Lucifer on chaos mode.

[@OverlordMegamax]

Played through all of the DS Digimon games this year, and I honestly I thought pretty much exactly the same as you about this one. "What an aggravating game a lot of the time, yeah it was pretty fun" was what I was left thinking afterwards!

[@prezmer]

It really is puzzling, so many issues and yet an enjoyable experience. Rare to see such conflicting traits but here we are!

[@brendoncoyle5905]

I recently played dusk when the emulators came to Apple and suprisingly enough having a go fast option fixed most all of my issues with the game.

[@prezmer]

Speed up really does make this game a lot better, it’s impressive!

[@lazertazer1251]

This is a fun video I love these games but I can also remember how grueling were the side quest.

[@prezmer]

Thank you! Yeah, as fun as these games are, they are rough to come back to nowadays if you’re not a digimon/creature collecting lover

[@sunstrid3r44]

This game was one of my fav games as a kid... I replayed dusk AND dawn multiple times when i was younger (i love dawn's theme, colors and etc, but in dusk it was easier to get mugendramon, gigaseadramon and millenniumon so it was my fav version). That being said, i cant bring myself to play them again bc of the grind and pacing. But i'm happy that, as you said, cyber sleuth/hacker's memory fixed a lot of dusk/dawn's problems!

[@prezmer]

Absolutely stellar taste in digimon there! Millenniumon especially is awesome! And yeah, replaying was rough... but I'm actually shocked that I want to play more despite going through all I mentioned in the video lmao not sure I'd manage to enjoy it nearly as much without the speed up from the emulator to skip the grind though. As for cyber sleuth/hacker's memory, they really did improve a lot of stuff, and it makes me super excited to see what they do with the next digimon story title! Especially since it takes place in the digital world again (unless that changed - it's been forever since we got news on the titles). Thanks for watching, and for your comment!

[@sunstrid3r44]

@@prezmer Mugendramon (and Chaosdramon) is my all time favorite digimon, and i love Millenniumon since i was a kid (i remember trying to play the wonderswan games in jp just so i could see it haha, when i discovered him in Battle Spirit it became the most iconic bad guy in my mind). The game is a banger, it's really simple when you think about it, but it sure does hook you. I think i should give it another try with an emulator. Last year i played the sequel, Last Evolution, and i had a lot of fun (specially bc it have some digimons that you couldnt get in DS or Dusk/Dawn, like the sovereigns or Aegisdramon). When you began talking about the issues i was 10000% sure you would talk about the level design (limit valley, loop swamp and resistor jungle are nightmares for me). I laughed so hard when you talked about the problems with Resistor Jungle (and spawining npcs) bc when i replayed Lost Evolution i made a post about how more than a decade later i was still getting lost in Resistor Jungle on twitter. And i remember me as a kid almost plucking my hair off during that lillymon's quest. And yeah, the hacker/sleuth skills of cyber sleuth/HM solved a lot of gameplay issues (there is a "repel" skill, a "fast foward" skill, etc) and most of the quests were really nice and fun. But the lack of a proper digital world section was a let down... Not enought to make the game bad, the game is amazing, but i miss a digimon story on the digital world. The cyber space parts, and the eden/kowloon sections, kinda help, but there isnt variety with the backgrounds/themes so everything is kind of samey. I cant wait for the next story title, i hope it still is about the olympus XII and their digital world! (sorry for the long comment, hahaha)

[@keikoshirogane3715]

I played Dusk when I was 7-8 years and I never minded how grindy the game could get in order to be able to continue the story, and now that I'm in my early to mid 20s not only I still find it enjoyable I now find that grinding is kinda relaxing. Just play some music or a long video in the background and I'm hooked all day!

[@prezmer]

I'm with you there! I usually find repetitive tasks very relaxing for some reason, so yeah, this includes grinding in games. So long as I have spotify or youtube to keep me company, the more grind, the merrier! But I do think we're in the minority here hah

[@Enzo_gigoRPG]

As much as i love the lunamon line, i prefer the coronamon line. I feel like both digimon lines are well design, so i kinda felt bumped out that only lunamon can get to be playable in recent titles.

[@prezmer]

@@Enzo_gigoRPG While I prefer the lunamon line, I also love the coronamon line, so it really is a bummer to not see it more often… that being said, the next digimon story game will be about the olympos XII or whatever they’re called, so we should get the coronamon line in there!

[@Enzo_gigoRPG]

Hopefully we can get it over here in the west, for a while I thought we might never get an digimon game in the west as they would never translate them and keep them Japan only.

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@@prezmerthe Olympus 12 are based on the GrecoRoman gods, Jupiter/Zeus, Pluto/Hades, Apollo and Diana/Artemis, etc, they live on a server separate from dawn and dusk tho, as they don’t have Yggdrasil as a host, they live on Homorous

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

17:56 it’s just general digimon lore actually, this is MEANT to confuse those who didn’t play Digimon story 1, or world DS, and to make those players realize this sequel did in fact take place within the same world as the first game, albeit on a different server held up by a different version of the Host Program, or God in the V-tamer Manga, this is Yggdrasil, and Ymir is an in game thing you talk about, the project to put lifespans on Digimon

[@prezmer]

Thanks for clarifying! I know most of this, but yeah, I just feel bad for people who jumped into dusk without any other exposure to the franchise, as I imagine all these terms must've been very confusing coming out of nowhere

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@ idk, maybe I’m too Digi-pilled by now but to me that sounds like they should look into it, or enjoy the game and figure the lore out later

[@PankaikeAussieShep]

great video!! i played this again a couple years ago on emulator… speed up function was REQUIRED!! i have a soft spot for these games… i love the variety of digimon you can play with, but lord that grind is something else!!

[@prezmer]

Thank you for the compliment, and for watching! Yeah, it's insane how much more enjoyable speed up makes these games. Acts on the grind, the confusing maps (as you spend less time walking since it's sped up), the encounters (since they're sped up), etc. Really a great fix!

[@orlandolazardi9818]

Even tho I know I played this as a kid on my NDS and enjoyed it, this game is literally unplayable now. Without speed up in emulator it’s insane. With speed up I actually really enjoy it.

[@prezmer]

Yeah, agreed! This game becomes a LOT better with speed up, it's insane.

[@Aurinor]

So just finally watched vid to the end (always watching long videos in multiple attempts) and really glad to hear you will also review modern Digimon Story games too. Imo they are really great in their own right, even despite the fact they always have their issues. Also yeah, honestly they really fixed issue with side quests in them, by making those quests at least somewhat interesting at worst, and at best some of them were the highlights of these games.. Like, I still remember that one quest in Hacker Memory, about students trying to cheat on the exam.. Which was EXTREMELY dark for such franchise like Digimon.. (and there was a plethora of really creepy and interesting quests in both those games)

[@prezmer]

omg I remember the students cheating quest. Threw me for a loop with how dark it was, but (perhaps because of that?) it ended up being one of the best quests in there. Very interesting issue raised with the technology and I just love to ponder about the potential side effects - whether good or bad - of this sorta stuff. Damn you just made me more excited to look at the games! Might take a few months if not years because I still want to do lost evolution, and might also take a look at some digimon world titles (the proper ones, like 1, 2, 3, etc), but I promise I'll get there eventually LMAO

[@thelegendofxander]

New pris video let’s goooo!!!! I’ll watch tonight but I comment now to sate the algo’s hunger

[@prezmer]

Thanks my friend!!!

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

36:45 Machinedramon is gotten from choosing the attack pack, as Skullgreymon requires itself to have been obtained to evolve back into it, because of the whole force de-evolution at the start of the game, from there get Metalseadramon and fulfill some aight requirements like a lot of machine EXP, and it’s yours, hands down best thing in the game that isn’t a pain to go after

[@prezmer]

Oh yeah, Skullgreymon is in the attack pack! So not too bad, thankfully

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@ no it’s still like, hard, but more so hard from time spent on it, like Dark knight in final fantasy tactics war of the lions, it’s tedious to get that strong

[@franknova987]

I played bith World DS and Dusk when i was a kid, i enjoyed it very much, tried yo play it again recently and... yeah... wasnt able to even 100% the quest list since some of them where cryptic on what digimon and specific personality it needed to unlock the last few quest...

[@prezmer]

Oof, I feel you... the quest unlock requirements are very much a problem. Much like the DNA digievolution recipes, I have no idea how a random player is supposed to discover them all without the internet (save for the few the game outright tells you about, obviously)

[@AliHussein-z4u]

Great review on this game

[@prezmer]

Thank you!

[@WildArmACF]

if i did a remake i'd have them completely redo all of the dungeons. I would have it more like how breath of fire 3 does them. No longer all the same, have designs that let you feel like you are exploring the world. Lower the exp requirements and insane encounter rate. Add far more to the story including explaining refrences and make side quests more interesting. It would be a remake.. not a remaster. Also be less insane with fusion requirements.

[@prezmer]

Someone hire this person to create a remake! Honestly would fix most of what I mentioned. Also, thanks to your comment I now realize I need to play breath of fire...

[@Aurinor]

Honestly for me it is the third installment in these series that is the best of them all. That is - Digimon Story - Lost Evolution. Well, there is a catch though, because it was never localaised in the world and was Japan Only.. Until probably previous year, when fans finally translated it. And it is honestly really good, combining gameplay from previous games but now the game had an actual presentation for its story and the story itself felt better than previous two. Also the amount of grind was lessened because there is no more that awfully grindy fusion system from Dusk/Dawn, instead to get Digimon there was a mini game where you cleaned Digimon memory-plates, and it was basically just Fossil Fighters style minigame, and it actually was fun

[@prezmer]

I've never played Lost Evolution, though I did hear about the translation. I'm glad to know it fixes a lot of the issues I had with dawn/dusk! I'll definitely check the game out sometime. And thank you for also reminding me about fossil fighters! Haven't played those games either!

[@Aurinor]

@@prezmer Well, it fixes some I’d say, but definitely not all.. Cause there is still very similar style of overworld where you traverse dense mazes of a location basically, and all that without any ability to reduce encounters.. So.. Yeah..

[@Aurinor]

But when it comes to actually acquiring and evolving Digimon it definitely less grindy than Dusk/Dawn because again, no mandatory fusions, you only have to find the corresponding memory plate and restore it in the fashion of Fossil Fighters fossil cleaning

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

Everyone saying the games force grinding too much don’t get it, it isn’t to force grinding, it’s to make sure that even if you don’t grind, your going to have the ability to at least finish the story

[@prezmer]

I guess it depends on your definition of grinding. To me, forcing encounters as frequently as every 3 seconds in a map very easy to get lost is forcing a grind, but this really is just semantics. I think we're in agreement with the actual point: the constant encounters, lack of repel, and hard to navigate maps all facilitate leveling up for the story (whether one considers this "forced grinding" or not). But personally, I don't see this as a good thing - unless I'm missing something, they could've toned down the main story/post-game level requirements and, in consequence, streamlined maps + reduced encounter rate, as there would be no need to level up as much.

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@ they wanted it to be more difficult, digimon world dawn and dusk are actually story games like cyber sleuth, part of the persona/shin megami tensei inspiration was wanting more difficult gameplay, so I figure at the time the devs thought it was a necessary evil to have so many encounters so that you’ll never get slapped entirely until like the final boss, you’ll almost always have a way to clutch things out if you don’t run from most encounters, I’ve done a minimum battles run (only Wild encounters on spaces I haven’t moved counted), I was still in my early 50’s by the end, so the game clearly is balance for what it’s doing, it just isn’t doing something that everyone thinks is good

[@BlueMageDaisen]

As a Veedramon lover, I used the Degenerate and Digivolve system to get a max stats Champion Veedramon Since Ulforce isn't in the series until Lost Evolution it seemed like the next best thing

[@prezmer]

That's a great use of the degenerate/digivolve system! Love it!

[@BlueMageDaisen]

@@prezmer Thanks! I just love the guy to bits, so I very much wanted to do SOMETHING special with him

[@Kurser123]

I liked these games, but yes, as you said in the video, the game has problems, but in the end, I did enjoy them. For me, I tried to replay them several times, but I usually found myself abandoning them shortly after the start, probably mostly due to a lack of patience for it, but overall, it was an experience and I enjoyed it despite the suffering of playing through it 😅

[@prezmer]

Yeah, I get you. It's rough to go back to them, I think I only managed because I both really like digimon and I had the speed up feature on the emulator. Cuts out so much of the tedium! Still, I'm glad you enjoyed the games when you did manage to play them!

[@orlandolazardi9818]

I know in the future games there are maps which show you layout

[@prezmer]

Thankfully!

[@vinzseika9826]

I have a fond memory playing this game, first playing it on my lil bro NDS and then again on emulator, which i can say the better option with fast forward and cheat. The game is kinda rough, some aspect is good, like an interesting story, fun grid battle gimmick, nice digimon sprite, and some of them, not so much. The biggest problem that i'm sure other player agree with me is the annoying encounter rate, the grinding and no minimap. If only they tone down the encounter rate or give us some repel item and give us a minimal, i'm sure this game will be better. At least this game became the foundation for the better Digimon Cybersleuth game. And speaking about this game connection to Cybersleuth, i'm kinda sad that only Sayo, the "main character" from Dusk, who appear on that game while Koh, the "main character" from Dawn not appear at all. Heck, even they only add Lunamon to Cybersleuth, no Coronamon in sight. Well, i know female character is more eyecatching, but come on, they could make it something like Megaman ZX Advent, where if we use the male character, we will meet the female character, in this case Sayo, and vice versa and add Coronamon line too

[@prezmer]

I'm glad these games are a nostalgic experience for you! Yeah, they're solid but with some glaring issues, especially the ones you mentioned. And I also missed Koh in Cybersleuth! As well as Apollomon! Blatant favoritism I tell you! ):

[@zeosummers3984]

Which emulator did you use to play this game, i think the one i use only has 2x speed? The grind for this game is just terrible.The main game is okay, since if you're too weak you can just wear them down no issue but the post game is really something else. The high random encounter are too much for this game, not to mention they give low experience yields. I found the best way to grind is to do quests and repeat them by ditching them and turning it in. Doing it that way gives far more experience and you get to do fights on the walk there. Now post game though is something else. I'm at the Boss rush fight and while i can easily win, i'm nowhere near strong enough to do the next level up method and they are the best experience as long as i lose the final fight and nothing else comes remotely close. Getting strong enough to fight the super digimon that appear for better experience just to do the last quest is insane, it's just one stat check over another.

[@prezmer]

I'm not home for the next few days so I can't check for sure, but I'm pretty sure I used desmume! I should also note 500% speed might've been exaggerated as I didn't actually check, but it definitely felt faster than 200%. Regardless, I know some emulators for some consoles allow you to customize speed up %, so if desmume isn't doing it for you, shop around, maybe another DS emulator will have an acceptable speed! Idk if retroarch has DS cores but if so, you can try there for starters.Though honestly, with this game, any sort of speed up helps... and a lot of netflix to binge while grinding lmfao. Regarding what you said about the quests, yeah, the post-game ones are ROUGH. Still, your strat of redoing quests is brilliant! Where were you when I was grinding to make this video? hahah At least now I know a better way to get through it next time I play - thank you!

[@j1t176]

I played dusk on emulator after being greatly disappointed by pokemon sword and shield, looking for something refreshing. By far, it was an eye opening experience. I loved how interesting the evolution mechanics were and how just vastly more interesting combat was because of SP and party placement. I ended up buying both physically afterwards, planning on doing a 100% playthrough eventually. Without watching the video all the way through yet, I recall navigation and the constant battles being the most draining, but clearly I enjoyed the other half of the game enough to push through because I beat the game easy enough. I got super into all of the monster designs and the franchise a bit more broadly, getting a substantial collection of actual digivices lol. Yeah, great game, fun mechanics, interesting monsters, what more is there to say?

[@prezmer]

So dusk got you into the whole digimon franchise?? That’s sick! Honestly digimon deserves way more recognition than it gets. Such great designs, and I honestly prefer these games to a lot of the recent Pokémon games. Glad you got into the franchise, one day I’ll get some digivices myself too!

[@j1t176]

@@prezmer it absolutely did lol. I got cyber sleuth and survive, along with a few other games in their catalog looking to play through all of those as well. I found out about it from a video going over alternatives for creature collecting games from a youtuber called kohdok. I'm really happy that it turned out this way, and I'm hoping they make something that has even more digimon in it than dawn and dusk. On the flip side, the new digivices have been getting really sophisticated apparently, but I haven't been able to experience them for myself.

[@zeosummers3984]

Digimon games have everything and it's all misused to an extreme. Strengths and weaknesses and even a reserves which don't help because stats mean everything. A clunky farm system which isn't intuitive, really needs a home so you can train your party. Did you know you can train resistances to attacks there, that go away if you digivolve or degenerate? It's like you're suppose to get their final forms and levels and throw them in there. I think Digimon should go the way of Disgaea games and everything around there. It already have plenty of characters and insane stat grinds, plenty of moves,it just needs more reasons to exist. They should go the route of tackling themes past the power of friendship. They still have growth and maturity which can be put just about anywhere. To me Digimon seems more like Horror. Without the light moments it's extremely depressing and real, with somber tones. At this point i want to see fans fix Digimon. The entire structure is there it just needs to be ironed out. Dragon quest does making any monster strong enough to beat the game. Disgaea and the spin off does stats and grinding well with depth. Plenty of other games do story and sidequests better and the farm is just there because digimon. Even cybersleuth has a huge problem of introducing an enemy and going well, you should have brought a piercing move. One thing i want to know is if you used your reserves. In pokemon they have type advantages which can make them very useful but in Digimon they can't do anything. I feel like mine fell so far behind they are basically just fodder. If new digimon game come out i hope it's more dynamic like DQ11 switching in theory.

[@prezmer]

Reading your comment, I'm curious: what did you think of Digimon Survive? I haven't played that but I heard it's more mature in terms of story. Also different gameplay - both in and out of combat. And I had no idea you could train resistances that get lost if you digivolve/degenerate, that's insane! Really makes you question what the devs were thinking with some of these decisions. I did use my reserves, yeah! My team was constantly in rotation when grinding: whoever was level 1 took a backseat (until the grind made even a level 1 rookie be strong enough to take on anything). Also at the legendary tamer quest, lots of enemies I took on were holy, and that's the only time I really noticed type disadvantage acting against me in a severe way. Dianamon SUFFERED with some of those attacks, so I ended up having to bench her in the middle of some fights. Regardless, like you, I'm hoping for improvements in the next story game. Cybersleuth, even with issues, was a step up from this, so I'm cautiously optimistic!

[@Nagatem]

These used to be my favorite Digimon games until cyber sleuth came out, Honestly, its biggest problem for me was there’s no way to turn off random encounters. I can deal with not having a map, but when I’m getting encounters, every few steps it’s aggravating., I just wish cyber sleuth let you max stats like in this game, online play didn’t need to be in the sleuth games, If I can’t max out every single stat on my Lucemon then why even bother XD

[@prezmer]

Yeah, that's what really screws this game: the combination of elements that would otherwise be tolerable. Like, maze-like design for maps sucks, but it's tolerable normally. Constant random encounters are less frustrating if you know exactly where to go. But maze-like design WITH random encounters every 5 seconds is a big yikes hah. Also, I had no clue cybersleuth didn't let you max stats! That's wild, but I guess it makes sense due to the pvp...

[@TheFoolishable]

Good games just needed to add some type of repellent or ways to avoid random encounters.

[@prezmer]

Agreed!

[@lucassousa-nm1qm]

I play this game so much every now and then i come back to it and do chalenge runs where i try to get a evolution or dna fusion line before the end of the game no death or grinding and no grinding is berly possible. Also do not play dawn dusk has every digimon but less restrictions

[@prezmer]

Ohh you are brave, I'd never attempt a no grinding or no death run in these games!

[@LogisticalYedti]

Tldr, its stupid fun! But the amount of grind and backtracking gives the "ick" for replayablitity. Also what story? Dam shame what future games did to Apollomon line.

[@prezmer]

@@LogisticalYedti That’s a solid tl;dr! And yeah, fingers crossed the game about the olympos XII or whatever the name is brings apollomon back, since it’s a part of that group

[@nomuru2d]

You forgot to include the worst aspect of the games: the secrets. The games were made with multiple obtuse methods to get secret equipment & Digivolution items (most notably by going into the map areas without having an active quest to get access to encounters not available otherwise), all to sell a whole guidebook mandated by Bandai's corporate greed. If it wasn't for dedicated GameFAQs users, so much of the content for these games would've never been discovered as a result.

[@prezmer]

It's so obtuse I actually didn't know about all this, which is why it's missing from the video! I mean, I did know about the dark world or whatever, I mentioned it a few times. But I thought the items in there were limited to the digieggs you can find just by traversing so I figured the subject was covered when I talked about the terrible map design. I'll look into this further, thank you so much for letting me know about the secret equipment/evo items!

[@snakelord2234]

Honestly i always watch digimon game videos partially for the nostalgia and partially to remind nyself never to play those grindy hellscapes again :)

[@prezmer]

Hahahahah very fair! So many random encounters............ When I actually timed it for the video, I couldn't believe it. Walking 3 seconds and finding more enemies just seems a tad excessive lmao. Granted it was often around 5-8 seconds but that's STILL excessive. Hope you enjoyed the trip down nostalgia lane!

[@CarbonMalite]

If only overworld spawns were more of a thing when this game came out. They are some of my favorite DS games, but this is definitely one of those old JRPG staples. Thank god the music and visuals are nice to look at

[@prezmer]

The worst part is I don't think overworld spawns would've helped here since most maps are labyrinths made up of narrow corridors. But I guess it would at least lower the frequency of encounters since it'd look silly to have a dozen digimon littering the screen. You're right though, lots of old JRPG staples involved here that are thankfully mostly gone in today's game design

[@damianrahman9935]

Nah this game still sucks, unless you got an action replay and a guide for this bs game