Digimon World: Next Order starts with the human player being sucked into the other world. They have a War Greymon and a Metal Garurumon and do battle, and these two Digimon are the partners of the main character, after barely getting through the battle alive they wind up in a village. In the village, the hero. who can be male or female learns of the situation and finds out that evil forces attacked the village and things are dire, so the village chief asks the hero to find his citizens and helps restore his Digimon.
This is where the real fun begins. Egg hatching is cool, especially in the beginning, as the player can choose which Digimon their eggs hatch into, and these Digimon are connected to the original Digi Destined Digimon like Agumon, Gabumon, Palmon etc, and a few others. Once hatched the player can begin to raise the Digimon, and they can go to the gym and choose different stats to raise. These different stats are actually far more important than one might think., since as the player raises stats they learn what stats they need to get certain Digimon.
Each Digivolution requires certain thresholds that aren’t known initially. Of course, the Internet does exist and players can find out that way but it feels more genuine to play naturally and find out by playing though. This might be a tedious part of the game for some, but for me, it was a highlight.
The Digimon also need to be fed and need rest. They will act up and it’s up to the player to either reward the behavior, act neutral, or punish the behavior. The Digimon will grow closer to the human or push back, but in the end, it’s all about balance.
Meat can be picked up daily meat from the meat garden. to feed the Digimon, who need to go to the bathroom. If the player doesn’t watch it, the Digimon can go to the bathroom anywhere and this upsets the Digimon making them upset with the player. It’s just another thing to watch out for but is a neat touch.
The game itself is a survival game and maintaining the health of the Digimon and keeping them happy is par for the course. The enemies are truly wild and will take down the player without batting an eye. It’s not easy to grind for experience as the enemies are unforgiving and even on the lowest difficulty, without proper planning the player might lose repeatedly.
A key point about this game is that it’s about earning enough money and learning the battle style. The game doesn’t really tell the player anything unless they look for it which can take some getting used to.. It’s a game that prides itself on being complicated but offers a lot of players work for it.
Digivolution for the uninitiated is the evolution of Digimon. They can evolve from basic to mega and each form offers up more power. The stronger the form, the more power it takes, so often the Digimon set themselves back to earlier forms. The branching Digivolutions are pretty cool as well, and some require fusions of particular digimon so it might take a while to get the Digimon the player wants. Though again guides exist if someone might not have a lot of time, the game will give back what the player puts in and that’s good.
Once ready it’s time for the adventure to begin and the hero and his partners can walk out into the world and can take quests from other Digimon and battle wild Digimon. This is where the other half of the game takes place and the game itself is a challenging one, with battles different than other RPGs. The Digimon hit hard and the player has to time their partner’s attacks, while cheering for the Digimon allows them to use more attacks. The battles for me aren’t perfect, it’s a little more involved than it needs to be.
Players will cheer for their partners as they jump around the screen, while the enemies can overrun the battles and attack in quick succession. The battles just don’t feel very cohesive to me and can get a bit frustrating. For instance, cheering allows for stronger attacks, but it’s all about timing, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
As players complete quests, they will slowly but surely add to their home base. The village will also grow as its residents return and will feel more and more like a place worth living in. It’s a nice progression from starting at nothing and moving on up.
The game is dubbed in English which is great, and as it is an older game, this makes sense. The dub is pretty solid, though they do pronounce the word Draco weirdly and in fact they over pronounce it. Still, a solid English dub can make an okay game a great game.
Digimon World: Next Order is a solid RPG. For fans of Digimon and monster raising it might just be right up their alley. It is a little hard to really master but it’s a solid adventure and one worth taking. The Digital World is in trouble will the player help save it from calamity?
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
Images taken from Nintendo.co.uk
