Digimon World: Next Order

Digimon World Next Order is the latest title in the Digimon World series based on the Digimon (short for Digital Monsters) virtual pet toy and anime franchise. While it's a worthy successor to the first Digimon World game and modernizes the gameplay, it still is littered with numerous quirks some may not enjoy.

In Digimon World Next Order, you play as either the male of female protagonist, who get pulled into the Digital World through their digital pet toy. As it turns out, Takuto or Shiki may have been sent to deal with the Machinedramon -- for some reason pronounced MachineDRAYmon in this game, although it's not pronounced that way in any other Digimon media -- that have been running rampant and causing havoc throughout the world. The story is one you might expect from a Digimon game, with a plot similar to a Digimon anime series and certain events which hearken back to the first Digimon World game, but not noteworthy otherwise.

In the beginning, you start out with two familiar mega level Digimon, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, but they're only meant to help explain the battle tutorial. The battle system in Next Order takes some time to become accustomed to, as it plays in real time and aren't always able to order your Digimon as directly as you might like to. You can command each of your Digimon separately, deciding whether you want them to use a certain attack or just defend before the end of a five second time limit. Before doing this, however, you have to have enough order power for that command, gained by cheering them on with the press of a button. This cheering can't be done indefinitely, and you have to wait for a small gauge to refill before you can use it again. The gauge only takes a few seconds to refill but in those seconds your Digimon can move, attack, and defend on their own as well as get hit by opposing Digimon. Battles all take place in a wide circular space, but sometimes one of your Digimon will be on the opposite side of the enemy and walking on the border, being too far away to hit them with an attack. Luckily, you can order each of your Digimon to target an enemy, making distance less of a problem albeit still a minor inconvenience.

After the explanation of the battle system, you choose two out of 10 different Baby Digimon to be your new partners. It doesn't actually matter which Digimon you choose as your first partners, due to the life cycle system which causes Digimon to die after a specific number of in-game days and then be "reborn" as the same or another one of the baby Digimon depending on what you choose. I chose Gummymon and Kokomon respectively, since they have the ability to digivolve into twin Digimon, Terriermon and Lopmon, and provide nostalgia from both Digimon: The Movie and Digimon Tamers, but these Digimon turned into something completely different once they attained their rookie forms due to Next Order's digivolution mechanics.

To elaborate further, digivolutions in Next Order take in a number of different factors: how high or low certain stats are, how much in-game time has passed since each Digimon's birth, friendship and bond as two weirdly separate values, and even weight. Your baby Digimon evolve into in-training level within the first few minutes and you already know what they'll turn into. Following their first digivolution, your in-training Digimon partners digivolve to Rookie level after about nine in-game hours, as long as they meet the requirements for at least one of their possible rookie digivolutions. I did still end up getting twin Digimon, but instead of the ones I thought I was planning on getting, I got ClearAgumon and ToyAgumon (Black), two Lego versions of the well known Agumon. Although I was disappointed, I was also intrigued, as the game doesn't do the best job telling you how all the different values you impact what your Digimon will turn into. Of course, there are stats like HP, MP, Strength, Speed, Stamina, and Wisdom, somewhat similar to the Digimon Story. These stats can be increased by both training your Digimon in the training area or by having them participate in battles out in the field, although training provides a greater increase and no risk of injury or defeat. In addition to the more normal stats, there's also the aforementioned weight --which increases or decreases depending on what type of food you feed your Digimon -- , victory, which is how many battle victories your Digimon has, Digi Friend, and Digi Bond, which can be affected by a number of different things you do while raising your Digimon. Controlling these stats becomes much easier as you progress through the game and unlock new items and skills, but after putting all that time and investment through at least several different Digimon partners by then, they feel more like a chore than a reward. The life cycle also makes training your Digimon even more aggravating, since you won't know how much time each of your partners will have and may not be able to extend their longevity yet.

While your Digimon have digivolution levels and no numbered levels, your tamer level increases as you progress through the game. When your tamer level increases, you're rewarded with tamer points which you can use to gain tamer skills from several varied skill trees which include being able to give your partner Digimon more than one order, extending the life of your Digimon, finding items more easily, and other similarly beneficial abilities. These skills help make the game easier to get through as you cycle through different Digimon partners and power your way through the story, but the continuous cycle remains just as annoying as it was when you started, even if it's not as frequent as it once was.

Like the first Digimon World, your Digimon partners become fatigued, sleepy, hungry and need to be taken to the bathroom. When fatigued they can rest in certain spots to recover and when sleepy they can sleep anywhere once you order them to. Food is often given to you through Digimon either in the main hub town, by finding in out in the field, or by winning battles. Additionally, taking your Digimon to the bathroom, usually some time after they eat, is an unnecessary inconvenience. It's understandable that the feature was put in to make it feel closer to the original Digimon World gameplay wise, but it adds absolutely nothing to the experience as a whole.

In addition to becoming hungry, fatigued, or sleepy, Digimon can become injured during a battle and will gradually lose HP after said battle until they either sleep it off or you use a bandage on them. This can be irritating in the beginning when you might not have the item on you, be far from a place you can get the item, not have enough money for the item, or it's not yet a time where your Digimon aren't yet feeling sleepy. It's even further irritating when your Digimon make annoying noises to constantly tell you that they're injured while you're trying to get somewhere you can purchase bandages or just waiting for them to get tired.

Digimon become injured or knocked out far too often, as there seems to be an imbalance between your Digimon and wild Digimon. You have to dedicate much of your time to training your Digimon, and because it can takes up to 20 hours to properly train them up and digivolve them, you might not know when they'll either turn into something you don't want them to or "die," starting the process all over again. Both of my Digimon partners were Champion level by the time they could defeat Digimon in the first area without struggling, and by the time I got to the next area one of them died and had to be reborn while the other made in to ultimate level, and they were yet again having trouble against supposedly weaker Digimon. As your tamer level increases and you progress through the game, your "reborn" Digimon yield better stats, making it easier to defeat other Digimon and meet certain digivolution requirements, but this overly repetitive process becomes tiring over time.

Another infuriating problem is that there is no way point system and the map can be confusing if you don't know exactly where you need to go. Some characters give you directions, but due to how the players compass constantly turns with how the map is, it makes certain areas more difficult. This causes players to check the map more often, which can be further enraging due to the lack of a dedicated map button. This is something that's an issue throughout the entire game, as many story quests have you seeking out specific Digimon to recruit or fight. Due to the imbalance of Digimon strength, this flaw can also cause you to encounter wild Digimon more often than desired, leading to the repeated injury or defeat of your Digimon partners.

While Digimon World: Next Order has some intriguing mechanics and provides a true sequel to the first Digimon World in terms of gameplay and story, it consists of of an inordinate amount of micromanagement, becoming too hefty of a time investment to interest most players. It's best recommended for the most hardcore Digimon and Digimon World fans, as it's far less accessible than its turn based Digimon Story counterparts.