[NOSTALGIA] - an introspective look at Digimon World (Sidechapter B - The Legacy of Digimon World)

Please hire me as your professional shill, Bandai! I’m really cheap, I promise! Also, please hire Giromon Jukebox, Bandai! He'll do all the soundtracks and even provide coffee... He's also very talented at holding doors open for people.
Just like The Obligatory Review Segment, this video is completely optional. It’s… a bit unhinged, sorry for the tonal change.
Before releasing this video I rewatched it multiple times (in parts, but never as the complete video), but I’m pretty sure there are some errors I missed (be it graphical or typos). Probably did it even less this time as I was… quite pressured for time, so sorry for this!
In this side chapter we’re going to take a look at the LEGACY of Digimon World, meaning every game that has both “Digimon” and “World” next to each other in the title. There are… quite a lot of them, actually! These are not full reviews, just little synopses and my personal thoughts about them. …I actually ended up wasting a lot more hours than 3-5 per game (and guess what, I played Digimon World 4 the most).
There has to be a curse associated with these Side Chapters: I always think that they are going to be easy, fun and will take 2 weeks most. …and then they don’t.
I mean… I had a lot of fun making this, but I’m… quite tired now.
I cannot thank enough everyone whose work I used in this project. I am especially grateful to those who took the game apart and passed on this knowledge in an understandable way, because without them I would still be in the dark about many of aspects of the game.
[www.]fliegenfuerst.github.io/dw1/
[www.]phoenix-staffel.de/digimon/DigimonWorld/
‪@Geta92‬ / geta92
‪@ginoshie‬ / @ginoshie
‪@OperationDecoded‬ / @operationdecoded
...and let’s not forget many talented people whose music I used not only in this video but also as a recreation:
‪@GIROMONSJUKEBOX‬ / @giromonsjukebox
‪@eluukkanen‬ / @eluukkanen
‪@SadGatomon‬ / @sadgatomon
‪@GoldRangerkicksass‬ / @goldrangerkicksass
‪@ectevy2105‬ / @ectevy2105
‪@yoshiUMR‬ / @yoshiumr
THIS TIME ON [NOSTALGIA]:
0:00 Opening words
0:47 Pocket Digimon World (PlayStation, PocketStation)
3:29 Digimon World 2 (PlayStation)
22:33 Digimon (World): Digital Card Battle/Digital Card Arena (PlayStation)
30:30 Digimon World 3: The Door of a New Adventure (PlayStation)
41:30 Digimon World X/4 (PlayStation2, Xbox, GameCube)
53:23 Digimon World: Re:Digitize (PSP, 3DS)
1:05:18 Digimon World: Next Order (PSVita, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch)
1:11:08 Ending Screen
The deadline for Chapter 5 is 20 December. And I won’t break it, no matter what. Optimistic version is that I will prepare the complete video by that point, but again… that’s REALLY optimistic. …be… prepared for it though. It’s going to be another tonal shift.
Thanks for your time, as always. You mean a lot to me, dear viewer.
Chodyna
#digimonworld #digimonworld2 #digimonworld4 #nostalgia #review #ps1

[@OperationDecoded]

Thank you for the coverage of Redigitize and Decode. That being said: Decode is far more superior than Redigitize and I recommend revisiting it. The devs actually had very little knowledge of Digimon World when they did Redigitize and Decode has lots of QoL improvements and a superior story if you ask me.

[@Hodyna]

Hello! It's a really amazing feeling to be able to write with someone I truly admire, thank you for commenting! I remember when I played the original Re:Digitize and while looking for a guide for the game, I stumbled upon one that was made for Decode. ...and how confused I was that there's so much new content added that it nearly made it a new game. But yeah, I never played that version, just read about it on your blog (those updates were strangely enjoyable to read, don't know why) and by reading the guide. I never really tried 3DS emulation, nor have I used the real hardware with flashcard. I wasn't expecting that they added so much to the story! That alone makes me want to actually check it out when I'll finally have some free time. To be honest, it's really amazing how much more did they packed in with the 3DS version - it's as if the PSP version was... just a beta or a prototype, haha. I still had a lot of fun with it and it really surprises me that its devs had so little knowledge of the original. Re:Digitize DOES play really well, especially for a PSP game Once more, thanks for all your work and effort Romsstar! I'm a big fan!

[@TheJerbro69]

About Meramon,you could also activate the Invisible Bridge of Great Canyon and go to Freezeland,Misty Tree,Geko Swamp,Gear Savanna and Mt Panorama...in other words,you can go the other way around and unlock the path of Meramon that way. You just need to be very skillfull with dodging enemies and if you are lucky,you can even unlock Toy Town in the process,allowing you to get a Fish from ShogunGekomon.

[@Hodyna]

Yeah, I did that and even showed it in the Chapter 2 of the series! I remember being really curious how the rockslide looks from the Mt. Panorama... and was surprised that it just isn't there (and that the path is now opened). Removing the rocks by going the roundabout way is... really annoying, though. Like... the random element of Misty Trees and tricky enemy placement make it so not fun. I like how the developers thought about it and placed a special reward for those who got to Cherrymon without the audience to ShogunGekomon. It's amazing how many little tricks and weird secrets are in this game. Thanks for the comment!

[@Marcin.K.Kwasniewski]

Da Memes are golden.

[@Hodyna]

And here I thought that I went too far :V

[@Douglas628]

I actually decided to play DMW2 to the end earlier this year and I agree, it's the game in the series that I want a remake the most. There are so many easily fixable issues with that game and the chibi artstyle would look really good with more polished graphics. We already got to see polished versions of the world 1 formula and the improvements from the Story series would certainly help this game a lot. Decode actually put a Bathroom next to the Gym, but you gotta unlock it first, since it's tied to a recruitment. There were so many new things on it and they even changed the Story. Even the ending is different, and kinda links it to Cyber Sleuth. My only problem with Next Order is that the gym is basically useless, which sort of counter-intuitive to anyone that played older games. This was an issue caused when they rebalanced the Vita version to PS4, which consisted of pretty much making everyone twice as strong and a scaling up the evolution requirements. They made battle training too good in this one, so people complained the game was too easy.

[@Hodyna]

DMW2 is a game that makes me really angry, even more than DMW4 (which is just a really average game that shouldn't include Digimon at all). Because it could be really great, if diffrent from the original, game. It's just... so slow and full of so many questionable design choices that it simply crashes and burns. ...and yet... deep inside, there lies a very solid foundation that simply needed a lot more polish. Looking at the release dates of both DMW1 and 2 shows that either Bandai worked on DMW2 while working on DMW1 OR they had extremely short developement process. It makes you wonder what they could do with DMW2 if they had one year more, huh. But yeah, dungeoning and resource management from DMW2 paired with the battle system and Digimon acquisition of the newer Digimon Story games would make for a KILLER game. Damn. Decode REALLY looks like a great game (and I thought that the original Re:Digitize was good). ...it makes me even angrier that they didn't release it anywhere outside Japan. It could bring a golden age for Digimon. Oh well. I'll be sure to check it out. I knew that it added a lot, but didn't realize that it also changed the story! Hm. But wasn't the ONLY thing changed about difficulty levels in Vita and PS4 versions are their names? Like Vita had "normal" and "hard", and we got "easy" (which was the Vita's "normal") and "normal" (Vita's "hard")? I dabbled a bit in the Vita version after I imported it and didn't feel like the game was anything different. But yeah, after a while, battles are DEFINITELY the way to go (I mean... it made them more rewarding, but it is a bit of an overkill). Let's be real, though: there are so many ways to break Next Order that it isn't funny (like using Searphimon to basically make Digimon live forever). I mean... I always thought it was part of its charm? And postgame content is pretty bullshit, so you also have to play dirty most of the time. Thanks for watching!

[@Douglas628]

@@Hodyna Bandai sorta lost faith in the Digimon outside japan on the late 2000's, so by the time of Re:Digitize, they didn't even bother.Both fans and devs had to fight to bring Cyber Sleuth over here and revive the franchise in the west. As for Next Order thing, yeah, I'm entirely sure on that. The story that only the names changed comes from a mistranslation from a Gematsu interview. If you look up old japanese playthroughs from the Vita version, you'll see that the Bosses Levels' are a lot lower. For example, Omegamon Alter-B is 25 in the Vita version but 45 on PS4 onwards. I do know that Vita version also got all the updates from the International Edition (excluding graphical ones), so maybe it also got rebalanced at some point.

[@Hodyna]

@@Douglas628I mean, I really don't blame them for losing faith. Digimon World had it tough in the West. Interesting. I'll have to take notes on that while playing it. Thanks for the info!

[@ChaotixBR]

man, why do you seens to tired when making videos?

[@Hodyna]

I would like to blame it on having to get up really early each day, having a stressful and demanding job and making videos in my spare time till I go to sleep... ...but the truth is more prosaic: I just sound like that and I was like this from as long as I remember. So yeah, even when everything was perfectly fine and I got enough rest I still got asked about being tired. Thanks for the comment though!

[@batmabel]

I never really liked World 2. It was too obtuse and slow, I had no idea what I was doing at any time and even after I learned, the game just wasn't very good. World 3 on the other hand I remember really liking, it was a very charming game but ultimately I always stopped playing at some point either because the grinding got too rough or I didn't know where to go. World 4 I never played and honestly I have no interest in it. Now, as for the "real" Digimon -World- games: Re:Digitize is one I need to dedicate more time to; the game seems amazing and I never got the chance to play it. Next Order on the other hand, I own for every console it's available (besides the Vita) and have finished it. It's a very good game, on a technical point of view it's the best of the series. However, I feel like it lacks a lot of the charm of the original; the general aesthetic of the first game, with the mix of nature and technology on the backgrounds, the almost chibi digimon, everything was just on point and the newer titles feel a lot more "sterile", if that makes sense. Everything is just too clean, too standard, the animations are stiff and the models are nothing special. Still, it's a great game and I'm really glad it got another chance on Switch and Steam.

[@Hodyna]

My relationship with Digimon World 2 is... complex to say the least. Is a game that really makes me angry as I would love to enjoy it (and I did, years ago). It's a game that has a lot of "good" - the setting, available Digimon, dungeoning actually being fun... but RUINED by the horrible technical issues (loading times, fights being horrendously slow) and really questionable choices. I understand what they were going for and I think that a Mystery Dungeon type game with Digimon is a great idea! ...but Mystery Dungeon games don't have slow turn combat, everything is done mostly in the overworld. Pacing in DMW2 is attrocious. I would like to be able to blame it strictly on the rushed developement... but I really don't know if it could work on PlayStation in 2000's. World 3 (or 2003) is a really, really good game. But I think that it is so good because Digimon Team have learned a lot about developing games on the system (like... really, DMW3 is technically quite amazing in my opinion and the tricks it uses are genius). It's also the most "normal" game. I haven't really researched the scores for this game (I think it still was something around 5-6 in magazines), but in Poland this game did actually quite well critically getting mostly 8s. The amount of grind you have to do is crushing and playing this game without a guide can be frustrating (and if you get back to playing the game after a long while and forgot everything... you can as well just start over again). Also, I'm not sure if you played the PAL version, but it rebalances some things and adds quite a bit of content. ...but then you have to ask yourself if the PAL framerate is really worth it. (it's 20% slower, as was Digimon World 1). World 4... meh. It's not a bad game. But it isn't Digimon World game. It's completely worth a skip. ...even if I started to enjoy it after playing it again for hours. Re:digitize IS really good. And from what I've heard in the comment section, the 3DS version - Decode is even more amazing. I exactly know what you mean and I feel similiar. Next Order streamlined a lot of things and added A WHOLE LOT of quality of life improvements. It's also really direct with all of its mechanics, making it (relatively) easy to understand. Next Order want to be approachable to anyone and it succeeds at that. Digimon World 1 doesn't really care about its players, you have to adapt to survive in this weird world. And that learning aspect is what makes it so greats. Also, the more compact design makes every location COUNT and memorable. I like the worlds in newer, 3D Digimon World games but... yeah, I really miss classic 2d designs. I hope that an eventual successor will return to the roots. And yeah, everything feels cheap. The models are ripped straight from the Cyber Sleuth, animations are pretty meh... and also, there's another glaring thing about Next Order. Something that I will have to include in the full video release for sure. Many Digimon feel the same in this game. Some even have exact available techs (and tech progression is linear too, every "higher" level tech will be automatically better than the previous one), while in Digimon World 1 each Digimon was really different. Next Order IS a better game. But it doesn't have the soul of the original. You can see that its developers tried really hard and cared, but it isn't Digimon World 1. I still love it though and think that everyone who enjoyed the original SHOULD give it a try. Thanks again for watching (and commenting)!