Stratadrake's Full Review: Digimon World 2 for PlayStation 1
If the word "disappointing" doesn't even begin to describe it....
I've been an avid fan of the Pokémon GB games (and a bigger fan of Stadium's mini-games), so therefore when I first heard of Digimon, I initially thought of it as a Pokémon clone. Well, after three or four years, Digimon has developed into a line of merchandise (of course), a decent animated series (soon to enter its third year) in its own right, and two games entitled Digimon World.
Digimon World always seemed like a very complex game, at least when I browsed through the strategy guides, so when I heard that DW2 was coming out and was supposed to be a lot better than the oft-flamed Digimon World, I decided to play it safe, and paid a standard $4 to rent it from my local movie/game rental parlor. I wasn't disappointed about having rented it; purchasing it would have been, for me, a big mistake.
As one video-game magazine once put it, the relationship between Pokémon and Digimon is much comparable to the Transformers and Go-Bots who existed about ten to fifteen years ago. Transformers was wildly successful in its own time, and the "Go-Bots" were often seen as a cheap clone. Likewise, currently Pokémon is wildly successful, and Digimon seems like a cheap clone in comparison.
Interestingly, Digimon has its roots more likely as a Tamagotchi clone than a Pokémon clone; Digimon were originally Tamagotchi-like virtual pets who, unlike the peaceful Tamagotchi, boasted the ability to actually compete against each other if you linked two Digimon devices together. But that was then, this is now....
...If you're glad that you didn't purchase the game....
Personal Tilt: -4 out of 5
Add one point to this rating if you're not comparing the Digimon series to Pokémon; add another point to this rating if you don't even KNOW what a Pokémon is.
If you've read any of my past reviews, you'll have noticed that I begin virtually every one with my "Personal Tilt". This is, quite simply, my overall opinion of the game in question. Zero indicates (relative) neutrality or balance, positive tilts indicate favor, and negative tilts indicate disdain. And specifically, -4 indicates that I really, really, REALLY don't like the results of Digimon World 2.
Part of my disdain for DW2 (Digimon World 2) is my experience with Pokémon (thus the "add one point if..." above)--to put it blatantly, Pokémon dealt Digimon a painful blow, and as a videogame, Digimon hasn't even tried to get back up onto its feet again. However, the rest of my disdain comes from basic observation. Now, the time to judge has passed and now it is time to observe.
...If failing to fully utilize the PSX's technical abilities is hailed as a "feature"....
Graphics: 3 of 10
Technical Merit: 2 of 5
Cinematics: 1 of 5
Ouch, this one hurts.
When the box advertised "3 on 3, polygonal 3D battling", I was shocked. Are there so few innovative features of DW2 that Bandai took the status quo of modern RPG's (real-time-3D, party-based battles) and hailed it as a "feature"? Honestly, this is a feature that you'd advertise five years ago on the PSX's debut!, when there's nothing to compare the game to. However, games like FF7/8, Legend of Dragoon, and just about every other 3D-battling RPG blow DW2's technical merit to shreds by comparison.
DW2 fails to deliver a good amount of technical merit. It seems almost as if the developers were afraid to take the PSX to its graphical limits like they should have. The hard-skin models used to represent the little (and large) digimon are crude and blocky, and they look more like stop-motion clay models than the living, breathing digital monsters they are supposed to represent.
I've explained it a lot in my past reviews, but I'll say it again for any newcomers. "Hard-skin" 3D models are constructed in a Lego-block style fashion--you take a bunch of "blocks", each being a small piece of the resultant model, and "stick" them together like a clay model. Its mutual opposite, the "soft-skin" technique, is most easily noticed with Spyro and Zelda 64, where the characters are composed of a single, pliable wireframe that can be bent, flexed, and stretched to give the fluid impression of a living object.
There are two telltale signs of hard-skin models:
- Blocky appearances and inflexibile textures. No matter how a DW2 digimon poses on-screen, their textures do not flex with them. VeeDramon's "V" along his chest, for example, is noticeably split into three pieces, and as VeeDramon flexes, the "V" appears to crack. Likewise, VeeDramon's tail is also composed of three separate segments. When he swishes his tail, it obviously cracks at the seams because the component segments don't "mesh" like they would under the soft-skin method.
- PSX flaws. The PSX hardware, almost as a rule of nature, exhibits a large number of glitches with hard-skin models. The most noticeable ones are "sorting/clipping" errors, in which some object polygons are noticeable from sides that they should not be. For example, you may be able to see Agumon's left arm blatantly showing through his torso (from his right side!), or (more often) you'll see small appearing-and-disappearing "flickers" in the textures, where a normally-hidden polygon was suddenly superimposed on the object.
As for cinematics? They fail too. The human characters walk at a slower-than-molasses pace. Not only that, their pace is rigid and inflexible. The people of DW2 don't seem to have any ankle joints, because their feet are as stiff as boards as they walk.
During battle, the aforementioned hard-skin modelling technique used for DW2 creates a lot of noticeable glitches. They're even more noticeable by comparison (that is, if you've played games like Pokémon Stadium, Zelda 64, and Spyro). And on top of that, the graphical effects used in battle grow old pretty quickly. Tentomon's "Super Shocker" is a graphical dissapointment. Biyomon's "Spiral Twister" isn't a spiral. At least they couldn't go wrong on Agumon's "Pepper Breath", and Veemon's "Vee Headbutt" (albeit a punch), looks as powerful as it actually is. There is also a lack of any lighting effects, dynamic or otherwise. The scenes used for battles are plain and universally identical to each other. In fact, the only visible difference between various battle environments is the floor, which occasionally is of a different color (lending power to specific elements) !
The scenery is another flop. Why, when the animated series portrays the DigiWorld as such a lush, scenic, lively planet, is that same DigiWorld portrayed in DW2 as a bunch of less-than-nondescript "domains"?!? Texture counts are at a pitiful low inside of the domains. The walls are all one color, the floor is all one color (unless covered by acid or an elemental color), and on top of that, the domains change randomly every time you enter, which means that you'll never take the same path twice from start to boss. Not that you'll want to enter the same domain after having beaten it, but still....
If the soundtrack hasn't been completely localized (translated)....
Soundtrack: 2 of 10
Musical Score: 2 of 5
Sound FX: 0 of 5
DW2's musical score is mediocre. There are some "happy" tunes, and some just plain nondescript tunes, and I haven't seen enough to know if there are any good "sad" tunes. The music used for the battles, boss battles, and domains, is for a large part, the same--mediocre.
Don't even mention the sound FX...although renting it, I can only shudder to think, is this what the actual retail release sounds like???? For some arcane reason, Bandai failed to translate the Japanese voice-overs heard during battle. Serious! All of the game's text was translated from original Japanese to familiar English, but the sound FX are still in Japanese. If you've seen Digimon, you'll know that virtually every time any Digimon launches an attack, they shout out the attack's name (in warning to the opponent, maybe?). It's a sad cliché of the animated series, but it's even worse in DW2. The voice-over for Agumon's "Pepper Breath" sounds somewhat like (pardon me for butchering the Japanese phrasing but...) "Fleddy flavuu". Biyomon's "Spiral Twister", amongst a lot of other attacks, is even less understandable by Americans like myself. At least there are some cognates--i.e., words that have not only the same meanings between languages, but the same sound as well Toyagumon's "Toy Flme" sounded some what like "doi flavuu", and Starmon's fearsome "Meteor Stream" sounded like "industr orm" in my ears.
I sincerely hope that the DW2 I rented was a "pre-release" of sorts given only to rental houses, and that the actual retail version has some English sound FX. However, given the timetable between my local rental parlor's and electronics store's putting DW2 out for sale (happening approximately the same time), I in all probability doubt that the retail release contains some english-speaking sound FX. If it wasn't for the Japanese sound FX, I would've given DW2 a 2 of 5 sound rating. Japanese lingo aside, DW2's sound effects match the soundtrack--mediocre and nondescript.
If the game and its corresponding TV show have diametrically opposite definitions of the same terms....
Gameplay: 5 of 10
Controls: 3 of 5
Mechanics: 2 of 5
I have but two complaints about DW2's control mapping (which will make this by far the most positive aspect of my review) --why is the in-game menu mapped to the rightmost "Circle" button rather than the topmost "Triangle" button like most RPG-style games have done in the past? It took a bit of adjustment.
My second complaint about the controls is the relative lack of diagonal movement. While in the domains, you can move diagonally; but everywhere else (Digimon City and other safe havens), you are restricted to horizontal and vertical directionals. At least the character travels at a moderate speed...but for some reason, he still "runs" slowly. Walking about happens at about one square per second, and running goes at a "brisk" rate of two squares per second. That's pretty slow...even the tile-based FF1 thru FF6 had travel speeds of twice that as their norm.
Loading sequences are tolerable, but noticeable. Most noticeable is a 6 second delay immediately before combat starts, and the 2-3 second delay whenever any Digimon in combat performs one of their techniques. I understand that some data takes awhile to load, but this seems a tad too long for the midst of combat, and even the now-lowly PSX can do better.
If the entire plot can be summed up as "lather, rinse, repeat"...
You see, DW2 has a pretty simple story, at least as far as I was able to get. Your character is about to partake your last training mission before being granted a "Tamer's License" and joining Digital City's perimeter guards (which is, coincidentally, exactly what your character has always "dreamed" of doing with their life; "Tamers" are to Digimon the way Trainers are to Pokémon). As soon as you decide which of the three guard teams to join, you'll be given your first Digimon and sent out on your missions. And while there are some subplots that are supposed to happen, the storyline consists of mission, mission, mission. Aside from some minor events happening in Digital City and other "safe havens" like Meditation Dome, most of DW2 consists of you taking your vehicle--a tank-like "Digi Beetle"--into drab, nondescript domains, fighting or befriending the wild Digimon you encounter, proceeding, and defeating a boss at the end.
Speaking of the domains, when you go out on a mission, you do so in a "Digi-Beetle", which is your vehicle. It's like a tank, considering how you can arm it with sensors, mech arms & hands, and cannons. To use items in combat, you need cannons installed on your tank. One cannon fires healing items, another cannon fires attack items, and yet another cannon can be used to take out domain hazards like bug nests, electrical barriers, and concrete blocks.
Your Digi-beetle tank is, interestingly, more versatile than your actual Digimon. Almost everything you put on your Digi-beetle can be upgraded, up to a level of five. This is, in fact, necessary for your missions. Your initial equipment for the Digi-Beetle is very shabby. Initially, your tank can sustain only 100HP of damage and it can only travel 100 squares before its fuel supply runs out. With a lot of money, you can upgrade the tank to over 2,000 HP and over 2,000 squares of fuel. Which is a darn good idea, considering how domain obstacles can potentially inflict anywhere from 50 to 500 points of damage on your tank (per hit!) and that the later domains require at least 200-300+ squares of travel just from start to finish!
There are three natures of Digimon in the Digiworld--virus, data, and vaccine. The three guard teams you can join specialize in one nature of Digimon--the Black Swords specialize in strength, power, and Virus-nature digimon; the Blue Falcons specialize in peace, liberty, and Data-nature digimon; and the Gold Hawks specialize in truth, honor, and Vaccine-nature digimon. If you're a fan of the animated series, I recommend joining the Gold Hawks; you get Agumon as your initial Digimon and you'll have an easy time befriending familiar Biyomon and Tentomon, as well as raising a versatile Veemon. If you join the Blue Falcons, you get Patamon as your first digimon, and you can easily catch Gabumon. If you join the Black Swords, you get DemiDevimon as your first, and you can easily befriend digimon like Gazimon, Gizamon, and Betamon. When you join a Guard Team, the other two Guards will no longer tolerate you entering their HQ's. Each Guard HQ is similar to each other, and that is for good reason.
There's a Digivolve lab where you can Digivolve your Digimon at certain levels, a standard-issue Item shop, a guard-specific Item Shop (they sell items that help certain natures of digimon), and a Tamer's room.
No one digimon can win the game, so in order to progress, you'll need to "befriend" wild digimon. To do so, when you spot a wild Digimon in a domain, press Square to view them from a distance, then press X to give a "gift". You can purchase specific-nature gifts (which work only on the nature of digimon they're made for) from your Guard's HQ or find all-purpose gifts in domains. You toss gifts at them from a distance, and if they receive the gift, a small heart sppears above them. Throw more gifts, and the heart increases in size. This heart indicates the probability of them wanting to join your team after being bested in combat--so if you really want to capture a specific digimon, make sure to use high-grade gifts, and lots of them if necessary. Sometimes, wild digimon come in pairs or threes, in which case you'll have to decide which digimon to befriend, and make sure they are the last enemy taken down in combat. Even after renting it, I still prefer the Pokémon method of weaken & capture. After all, it takes less skill to simply defeat an opponent than it does to weaken an opponent WITHOUT defeating it.
At levels 11, 21, and 31, you can "digivolve" your digimon. This is like Pokémon evolution, except that instead of happening instantly & automatically at those levels, you *MUST* go back to Digital City, find the Digivolving lab, and have the attendant there digivolve your digimon.
Ack...I've been using the prefix "digi" too much, so perhaps I'll use the term "evolve" instead of "digivolve" from now on.
When you evolve a digimon, their stats go up, their HP/MP goes up, and one level later, they'll learn their special technique (i.e., "Nova Blast" and other powerful techniques).
Eventually, you'll reach a point where: a) your digimon cannot evolve further, or b) your digimon's level maxes out and he cannot level-up any further. At this point, you opt for the "DNA Digivolve" option, to merge two digimon into one.
Stop right here. Forget everything you know about the animated series's concept of DNA Digivolving; in DW2, when you "DNA Digivolve" two digimon, the result is a lower-level, lower-rank, (albeit more versatile) offspring Digimon. Two level 11 Champion-rank digimon, when merged, do not result in an immediately more powerful Digimon as portrayed in the animated series. I.e., according to the TV show, champion-rank ExVeeMon and StingMon can DNA digivolve into Ultimate-rank PailDraMon. However, if this familiar example was used in DW2, the result would be a Rookie-rank digimon.
For example, level 11 Greymon, when paired with a level 11 Airdramon (both Champion rank), produce a Level 1 Veemon (Rookie rank) as their offspring. I don't know how that works, but Veemon is pretty versatile and his techniques seem to pack a larger wallop than pure wild digimon. It's kinda like Pokémon breeding, except that with DW2, you don't get the parents back! Also like Pokémon breeding, the resultant Digimon of DNA evolution has a higher potential than his parents.
Which brings to mind a double-edged sword about DW2. In DW2, you can give nicknames to your digimon (which is nice considering how all Digimon species names end in "mon"). However, you can't change them. So if you name your Veemon "Micro Vee", he's stuck with that name even after evolving into Veedramon or Flamedramon. If you turn down the opportunity to nickname your digimon, their species name is used for their nickname, and likewise can't be changed. I.e., if you refuse to nickname a wild Tapirmon, then at level 11 when he evolves into familiar Unimon, he's still stuck with the name "Tapirmon". At least with Pokémon, when an un-nicknamed pokémon evolves, its name changes to match its new species, and you can re-name it whenever you want.
If battles are won by "he who has the most HP"....
Speaking of special techniques, one of Digimon's (not just DW2) largest flaws is the few techniques that Digimon learn when compared to Pokémon. A wild digimon will usually have but one technique (although some have two). Similarly, your own Digimon will generally have but one technique, and they learn techniques only through digivolution. The exception here is that if you have an offspring digimon, bred from two parent digimon, your offspring digimon will be able to learn the techniques that its parents knew. So, a Veemon bred from Greymon and Airdramon will not only know "Vee Headbutt", but he'll also be able to quickly learn "Pepper Breath" and "Spiral Twister". And when Veemon digivolves, he'll learn his trademark technique ("V Nova Blast"), but also inherit his parents' "Nova Blast" and etc. Compared to the multi-technique Pokémon, Digimon are initially very NON-versatile. At least Digimon techniques are classified in four categories. There are pure attacks (best used by fast digimon), counter-attacks (best used by slow digimon, because their strength increases when attacked), "intterupt" techniques (defensive techniques that take effect if you're struck first), and support techniques (i.e., healing).
Which brings to mind Digimon's poor type-matching system. The damage inflicted during battle is the product of three factors alone: user's attack power, opponent's defense power, and the floor color. For some reason, Digimon lacks the good type-matching system that makes Pokémon strategy so deep. There are five elements of attack: fire, water/ice, nature, metal, and darkness. When used on an appropriately-colored floor, digimon of the same element get an overall attack/defense boost, and attacks of that same element get a firepower boost.
Shouldn't a fire-based technique naturally be more effective against certain digimon? Obviously yes, and somehow, there may be a shred of this in the game. Fire-based "Pepper Breath" seemed to be slightly more effective against snow-based "SnowGaburimon" and nature-based Tentomon, often defeating them in a single shot. However, "Pepper Breath" inflicted similar amounts of damage against fire-based Candlemon...sounds pretty funny, doesn't it?
The last point of DW2 that I find confusing regards normal evolution. In the animated series, digimon evolution is temporary, and in the later series, branching. Whereas pokémon evolution is permanent and usually single-path. This time around, in DW2, digimon evolution is permanent and still multi-path. For example, while Agumon evolves into Greymon, Veemon can evolve into either Veedramon or (the familiar) FlameDramon. Likewise, Biyomon can evolve not only into familiar Birdramon, but also into a snake-like Airdramon.
There is a hidden stat called "DP" (Digivolution Points) for every digimon that dictates upon which path they evolve (you can see this stat only at a Digivolvoing Lab). DP are the only stat that dictates how a digimon evolves. For example, it was a bit of a surprise when a wild Biyomon evolved straight into snake-like Airdramon (which has almost no visual similarity to bird-like Biyomon), and when Veemon evolved into Veedramon instead of Flamedramon (as happens in the animated series) Looking up this seeming anomaly in the DW2 strategy guide revealed the answer: DP points are generally awarded only through the arduous process of DNA Digivolution. Also according to the guide, for Veemon to evolve into Flamedramon, he needs at least 3 DP, which means that you need to DNA digivolve Veemon's evolved form (Veedramon) up to three times. Likewise, to get Birdramon, you need 4 DP, which means DNA Digivolving Airdramon up to four times. And once you cross that DP barrier, there's no going back...i.e., once a Veemon starts evolving into Flamedramon, he'll never evolve into Veedramon again.
If writing a review is more fun than playing the actual game...
Replay Value: N / A
Fun Factor: 1 of 5
I won't rate DW2's replay value, because quite frankly, I do not want to play DW2 ever again. In all probability, DW2 has perhaps 30+ hours of gameplay. I've only played perhaps 10 hours, and I'm disappointed to say that approximately 8 of them were spent wandering through domains. If that proportion holds true for the entire game, then 20 of those estimated 30 hours will be spent going through domains.
It is the slow pace of gameplay, among the various conflicts between Digimon theory and Pokémon experience, that adds up to me having a poor time at DW2. I could say that I was disappointed with DW2, except that I no longer need to. Considering how DW2 is supposed to be better than the first DW, I shudder to think what Digimon World 1 might have been like. But from what I've seen of DW1, at least DW1 had a Digi-World that was remotely comparable to that on the animated series.
* * * * * * * * * *
If there is going to be a DW3, I surely hope that Bandai can pull their acts together and produce something that lives up to the gleam of the Digimon animated series. If they can, Digimon could be remembered in video-game history as the series that competed against the mighty Pokémon for a space in kids' attention spans.
But if this injured, fledgling series called "Digimon World" continues on its present tailspin course, it could very well suffer a far more inglorious fate, and be forgotten.
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