TL;DR / Quick Summary • If you have or had any interest in the original PS1 Digimon World, then you should really consider buying this game. If the game is on sale, then just go for it. • You will need a controller. Preferably one with Xbox button layout. There is a mod for Playstation button layout. • Select "Easy" for less grinding. • Start by following the story at the beginning. You can wander around, but can't do very much without story progressing a little bit first. How this game compares to the original If you have ever played the original Playstation Digimon World on PS1 and liked it even a little, then chances are high that you'll also like this one. This game is more casual, with an actual story, and has more endgame content than the original. If you don't know about the original Digimon World, then you should watch some gameplay to understand how this game works. This review is mostly for those who are already familiar with the mechanics. At the beginning, it's a little annoying that you can't really freely choose the path you want to take, since recruiting Digimon usually requires certain progress in the story. If you see recruitable Digimon "too soon", then they just say something like "go away", and you can't fight them. Later you can more freely choose where you want to go and who you want to recruit, so this annoyance lasts only during the early game. Here are some differences compared to the original game: • The new version is more casual and explains most of the things quite well. This was the biggest question in my mind: does this game require the same kind of reading guides and trying to figure out what to do? You should be able to finish the main game without guides. Endgame probably requires tips about how to make your Digimon more powerful. • Two Digimon make the game more exciting, and you can either level them up at the same speed or have their lives desynced. Then you can benefit from higher training stats and fighting rewards since those are determined by the more powerful Digimon. Keeping care of your two Digimon is easier than the one in the original. • There are many quality-of-life improvements, and at the later stage of the game, you have quite a big collection of digivolution items, ways to modify Digimon stats, hints about evolution requirements, and the possibility to block digivolution into Digimons you have already had, and so on. You will eventually also get access to reliable ways to make your Digimon live longer or die sooner. • You will get tamer points that can be used to permanently unlock various new skills and boosts. In the original game tamer points only affected how much stats new Digimon inherits after reborn. • After recruiting certain Digimon, you can upgrade your city/buildings using materials. • There are a lot more recruitable Digimon than in the original. • There are also new endgame bosses and dungeons that offer more challenge for those who want it. Controls You basically need a controller for this game. Battling with two Digimon is actually quite well thought out, and I don't have any complaints about controls with the controller. If you don't have a controller, then you will have a tough time. Grinding • If you dislike grinding then select "Easy" because "Normal" just overall requires more grinding. Naming should be: Easy = Normal, Normal = Hard. Comparing to this game the originals only setting was Hard/Very Hard. • If you want to get all achievements then you need grind a ton regardless which difficulty setting you choose. • Tip: this is not mentioned anywhere in the game but fighting freezes in-game time so fighting wild Digimon will eventually give you better stats compared to using gym which uses one in-game hour per session. Mods There are some minor annoyances, but there are also some great quality-of-life mods at Nexus that made this game more enjoyable: • Always Running : You run a ton during the game, so faster running speed is very nice to have. I had it doubled. You will probably save some real-world hours just running back and forth. Faster running speed technically gives a better chance to avoid wild Digimon, but there are very few Digimon that you can't dodge with default speed, and when those few faster Digimon appear, it shouldn't really matter anyway. • Camera Distance : Having larger camera view is godsend with larger Digimons that otherwise block the whole screen. It's also generally nicer to be able to see more surroundings. Try to disable depth of field in case of lag. • Instant Care Menu : You open this menu million times, and it is just a lot nicer when the menu open in an instant without delay. • One Hit Resources : Grinding resources shouldn't need more un-needed clicking. Click resources once and get them. Hope this was the default behaviour. • Static Minimap : This should be built-in option, but at least we can stop spinning map with mod. • Battle Stats Multiplier : With default settings, this will provide actual Easy mode, offering more stats when grinding. Endgame requires you to grind a ton, even with Easy, so instead of repeating the same basic actions for several hours, you can optionally save time and grind for an hour or less for the same results. It doesn't make stats free but makes grinding more rewarding. • (Playstation button prompts) : By default the game uses Xbox style button prompts. You can change them into Playstation ones if you happen to play using a Playstation controller. ...and some more. Check the mods, and spend something like 30 minutes, and you’ll have a better time during the dozens of hours you probably spent with this game :)
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