You'll really have to love Digimon in order to appreciate this game... and even then you won't have a whole lot here.

User Rating: 6.3 | Digimon World 3: Aratanaru Bouken no Tobira PS
Digimon World 3 from its outset is basing its entire success on the popularity of a waning franchise that came itself from the rabid explosion of its inspiration Pokemon of which it bears an uncanny resemblence to. This being said, its also being created for an already aging console, the original Playstation, and well, you can't really expect a whole lot from the game simply by looking at the facts.

The basic premise of DW3 is the whole role playing scheme of going around a large world training your Digimon, to make them stronger. Good or bad, its the basic element of an RPG. A good deal of the process in the Digimon anime was the eventual growth of the characters from their small and somewhat cute Rookie forms to their monstrous and downright powerful Mega forms. That part of the franchise is pretty much recreated here fairly acceptably, if that.

By gaining experience from fighting other monsters (which deviously appear randomly when exploring the "vast" world) your Digimon eventually learn new moves at certain levels and ever so often gain a more powerful form. The only thing somewhat confusing at first is why your Agumon or whoever randomly gained a form of another Digimon. The designers of the game basically made it so that any one Digimon could gain ALL the Digivolutions in the entire game. While its good because some forms are easier to obtain by certain Digimon, you are limited because at the beginning of the game you're forced to choose from three sets of three Digimon each. But in the end you're able to gain all the other ones as well, but only after a long run in the main game.

Of which, is not very amusing. There is an insanely unneeded amount of backtracking in this game. The worlds aren't exactly very interesting in themselves, but you'll grow to hate the actual process of leveling up your Digimon. The only incentive are stat increases, and more forms. While the story itself surrounding the RPG is acceptable to say the least, you're left with hardly any desire to play the game unless you REALLY want to play as a certain Digimon, of which you need to be a hardcore fan to even know half of them.

While the graphics are acceptable for a PS game, they aren't spectacular. The sound can and will get annoying. The same monotonic tunes play in every battle, and after battling hundreds of times trying to get to any one location and having to backtrack, you'll want to turn off the sound.

With that said, the game is needlessly frustrating and the awards for your toil can only be appreciated by the hardcore Digimon fan. And even for them, its frankly a huge waste to play the game in its entirety unless you're really interested in the story.

To emphasize, you'll really have to love Digimon in order to appreciate this game... and even then you won't have a whole lot here. If you're really into Digimon, and love mindless hours of sitting at your couch playing older games, then this game could be for you. Anyone else, should be advised to steer away from this game, despite the VERY conservative rating.