I got the oink oink! Let's Play Digimon World 3!

Digimon World 3 (or if you live in Australia or Europe, 2003) was released exclusively for the Playstation back in 2002. As the third game in the series, it made completely no sense at all by abandoning just about everything the series has been so far: Digimon World was more of a pet-raising sim with RPG elements while Digimon World 2 was a dungeon crawler, while Digimon World 3 is a much more traditional JRPG, with one-on-one battles, equipment, and backtracking.

10-year old me didn't know all of this, of course. All he knows is that his parents bought him a brand new Playstation, and that this is one of the first games he'll play on it. He wasn't a fan of Digimon, but everybody knew about Digimon - just like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh.

In fact, Digimon World 3 is the first RPG I ever played. I guess I should be thankful for the persistence of 10-year-old-me, then, because this game has some serious flaws that I would find very hard to accept in a game nowadays. The only reason I can play it now is because I can turbo through the slower parts with the wonders of emulation.

One of the more interesting features of DMW3 is the fact that any of the eight playable digimon can digivolve into all of the available digimon in the game, and these digivolutions have their own levels and can be switched around at any time (only 3 are available at any given time, which may be switched in any town with other known digivolutions). Sometimes you'll have to take rather convoluted routes to get there, but the fact remains that the only digimon who are permanently missable are digimon you chose not to start with, and even then you'd have to be playing very strangely due to the way you recruit the digimon you didn't start with.

But let's cut the intro here. I'm not doing much of an update right now; This is just the initial choices you guys will have to make!


First, we'll have to pick a name for our Hero. By default he's called Junior, so go wild (but I reserve the right to veto any and all names, especially clothing-related ones).

Second, we'll have to pick our staring three digimon. They have been sorted into three seperate packs, so here they are:


First, the balanced pack. This is the only pack that I have never finished the game with, and I must say that it does not look very good, mainly because it only contains one physical attacker. However, it must be noted that natural growths don't matter much in DMW3, outside of HP and MP, and the original team only has serious impact on the early game.

Kotemon is a balanced physical attacker, from the few times I tried replaying DMW3 on my actual PS1. He's decent enough, though rates very low on the coolness factor.

Renamon is a magical attacker, putting her on rock bottom as far as offense goes. She's not bad, just not very useful - although when I last used her, I pretty much solo'd the game with another digimon, so she may not be as bad as I seem to remember she is.

Patamon is pretty good early on, but later his only saving grace is his great healing techs. It should be noted that the only time I've played with Patamon to the end, I went for an unusual digivolution path that may have been inoptimal.


Second, the Powerful pack - the pack that I chose for my original playthrough. It's pretty great offensively, but the lack of healing techniques stings for the early game.

Monmon is the game's glass cannon - immensely strong, but rather fragile. He's also my favorite digimon, because his digivolution line will contain a mix of the following: Pirate, Robot, Centaur, Dragon.
I pretty much solo'd the game with him when I originally played it.

Agumon is another of the casualties from my original playthrough, but I'd expect him to play much like Kumamon - a physical tank, which makes him a very good digimon. I don't like the actual design much, mind.


Finally, the Maniac pack. It's the pack I used for my recent test play of the game, and despite what the game suggests it's very balanced, and probably has the best selection for the early game, mostly due to Patamon's presence guaranteeing healing.

Kumamon is a very good physical tank who solo'd the final dungeon for me, not because he was the only one who could, but because he was the most convenient - with 160% the HP of the other digimon on the team and great physical attacks. His digivolution line is kind of meh, though.

Guilmon is Kumamon without the HP advantage, but with a little extra strength. He also has access to better equipment. He's hard to use at the beginning, but quickly becomes a very powerful, very useful digimon - and I mean quickly, because he levels up hilariously fast. Case in point: At the final dungeon, Kumamon and Guilmon were both at the same level, but Guilmon had 70% of Kumamon's total experience.


As I mentioned before, You can eventually obtain all eight digimon, so don't fret if you want to see a party of, say, Kotemon/Monmon/Kumamon.

"Wait, Alpha, those are seven digimon."

Yeah, but you can't get the eighth one in the starter packs.


And that's all for the intro! Any digimon you want to see me use - including specific digivolutions - just ask.

Next time: A tutorial on how to rip off Pokemon.

There's centaur mode? Go do that. Centaurs are kind of neat.

You can only count on Patamon.

Go with the Balanced Pack and find out if the game is actually suggesting a gimped team.

I think I used the Powerful Pack when I played through the game, because I distinctly remember having a badass monkey pirate with a revolver that could completely destroy most encounters. I think I'll vote for the Maniac Pack, though, because I don't think I ever tried it out (and because Guilmon is my favorite Digimon ever).

As for our protagonist... is that pink hair I see? I think we should call him Pink or something similar.

Balanced Pack, and name the guy Goggles.

Do whatever destroys the game and ends with us all laughing to death. Oh, and he should be Red/Blue/other pokemon character name. Or Mega.

Ah... When I played this, I was the kind of little kid that cheated. So I always chose the Balanced Pack, because that was the only one that the money code worked with, and I wanted to buy equipment some time before five towns in.

Let's go with the Powerful Pack, and name our kid Simon. He looks like a Simon.

I'm feeling an overwhelming amount of nostalgia.

Powerful Pack (mainly because of Monmon) and I seconded Goggles as the name.

You know, now that you mention it, he kinda does. I'll change my naming vote to Simon if that's okay.

Maniac Pack, and name him Goggles

Um.

Not to spoil too much, but no matter what I use, I'm going to destroy the game.

In the same way.

(I'd choose Powerful personally, but that's because I want to see how much my nostalgia holds up)

I say balanced pack, because thats the one I used back when I played this game (I can go find my copy somewhere still too but I'd prolly restart)... Just because I never finished the game and would like to see my digis actually do so ^_^

Maniac Pack! Let's see some Guilmon in action! Also, let's be named Goggles. If that falls under the clothing umbrella and is therefore invalid, Simon'll do just fine.

Man, I basically hate this game. I wanted to like it, I really did! But between some really stupid marathons backtracking, obscene loading times, and the card game brutally beating fun and enjoyment to death in front of me as a child, I'm obligated to hate it. It always makes me yearn for a good Digimon game with the more modern mons. I would kill a man to run around in DW1 with a Terriermon or a Renamon.

All the same though, I'm happy I'll finally see the ending of the game, even if it's via a Let's Play.

I say Monmon. Because that name is hilarious.

Name the guy Mon as well.

Because more Mon!

Right, let’s start this Let’s Play up for real!

First, I’d like you all to watch the opening FMV. I won’t be linking to any other FMVs – my computer can’t record them without audio stutters, but this one’s pretty awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cjmar4jTr0

And while you’re watching, let’s start one of those fancy running gag things people use in Let’s Plays.

How many things (events, digimon, etc.) in the opening FMV either never happen in the game or are a misrepresentation of something in the game?
The winner gets the chance to feel good for having guessed the correct answer to a meaningless question!

Okay, NOW we can start.


Huge DMW3 flaw #1: Loading times
Would you look at that, we haven’t even started the introduction and already there’s a problem. In this case, it’s the bloody loading times. See that screen? Whenever you switch areas, the game feels the need to inform you exactly where you are, and once that screen pans out into the actual area (which takes a few seconds) the game will often not be done with the loading – I’ll show more of that once we’re at the actual game. So if you want to sit down and play the game on a console, be ready to sit through a lot of loading. This is even more egregious for loading your saves, but that’s for later.


Meet our hero: Junior. Oh, you thought you were actually naming him? Don’t be ridiculous.

Incidentally, the sprites in this game can be rather expressive, but due to the size of each image I’m not going to show too many of those. Junior will be checking his watch and shaking his head in addition to foot-tapping constantly during this scene, for example.

Junior: We won’t have time to play Digimon Online…
Junior: I didn’t want Ivy to come, but Teddy and his big mouth told her.
Junior: They should have gotten a login pass ahead of time…

Suddenly, The TV screens flash a bright red NOTICE!


TV: International Police, S.A.P have located the European HQ of the crime group A.o.A.
TV: Together with the Army, they raided their headquarters at midnight last night…
TV: And have arrested the leaders of the A.o.A inside the compound.
TV: Officials believe these arrests will connect recent internet terrorism to the A.o.A.
Junior: A.o.A… That’s the group that did bad things with digimon.
Junior: I can’t believe anyone would make digimon do bad things!

I have to say, as someone who isn’t a fan of digimon I have no idea what most of these mean. I get that S.A.P is some kind of international police, but what does it stand for? I get that A.o.A are a terrorist group, but what do they actually do? In fact, the game provides very little information about the A.o.A’s background other than ‘they’re terrorists’.


Ivy and Teddy come out of the door. I’m not entirely sure what it’s supposed to be, but my best guess is that Junior, Ivy and Teddy live in the same apartment building, and Junior is waiting outside of it.

Junior: About time Teddy!
Junior: And why is Ivy here in the first place?
Junior: You always say that Digimon are for kids!
Ivy: Hey, I’m interested in Digimon Online, OK?!
Ivy: …And I never said that I hated Digimon!



It’s a little hard to see, but while Junior and Ivy are facing each other with clenched fists, Teddy spins around on the spot a couple of times with what appear to be sweatdrops spraying out.



(Ivy is obscured by that textbox)

Teddy: Yeah, this is the Matrix System!
Teddy: It digitizes our ideas and thoughts and sends them to the net.

I have to say, the mere existence of this system makes me wonder about the human race. There were a lot of cars outside, but do humans actually drive anymore, or is there a system for driving-by-thought? I’d imagine half the population of Earth is constantly playing MMO’s with this technology, too. And since three kids are going to play Digimon Online, it can’t be that expensive – are there private versions for basic housekeeping and/or single player video games?
Or maybe I’m overthinking this and it’s just a plot device used to introduce the game’s plot and characters, and will never be important again.

Teddy: I wonder how it works? I want to see what makes it tick.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Teddy’s the nerd of this trio. Junior is stereotypical anime hero #2476, and Ivy appears to be the plucky girl but is actually the only one with an actual motivation for her actions… But that would be spoilers, now!

Junior: Hey, what are you two doing there?
Junior: Come on, let’s set up our account and login to the Digital World!

The trio walks up to the counter.


Account Clerk: This service is for those traveling into the Digital World.
Account Clerk: Is this your first time playing Digimon Online?

Everybody nods here. Again, just mentioning it here once, I won’t repeat ‘everyone nods’ every time it happens (which is a few more times during this scene alone).

Account Clerk: Before we set up your account…
Account Clerk: You will have to choose your partner Digimon.
Account Clerk: Choose one Starter Pack: A, B or C.
Account Clerk: Each pack has three types of Digimon.
Account Clerk: A is a Balanced Pack: Kotemon, Renamon, Patamon.
Account Clerk: B is a Powerful Pack: Monmon, Agumon, Renamon.
Account Clerk: C is a Maniac Pack: Kumamon, Guilmon, Patamon.
Account Clerk: Which of the three would you like?


Ivy: Just pick a pack that has a Digimon you like!


Ivy: Which Digimon don’t you like, then?
Ivy: Don’t get the pack that has Digimon you don’t like, and pick!



(If you remember the starter pack setups, the only option Teddy has left here would be the Balanced Pack)

Junior: I love all Digimon!
Ivy: Well, if you like all Digimon, then you don’t have to worry!
Ivy: Come on – choose, and let’s go to the Digital World!


Character will often express themselves with those clouds (for frustration) or exclamation marks (for practically everything else), too.

Ivy: Junior! You still haven’t made up your mind?
Ivy: You better make up your mind or I’m going ahead!

Weren’t Ivy and Teddy supposed to have already made their accounts?

Account Clerk: Have you all decided?

(As you might expect, Junior gets Clouds again)

Ivy: Junior! I’m really going to leave you here.
Account Clerk: Okay, then I’ll register you and your partner Digimon now.


Console: The account name will be your name in the Digital World.
Console: Please choose your partner Digimon from one of the three Starter Packs.
Console: We will begin registration of your online account and partner Digimon.
Console: We will now start the process.


Account Clerk: Registration complete. Please head to the Chamber Room.
Junior: OK, Teddy, Ivy! Let’s go to the Digital World!



Junior: I can start playing the game… This is exciting!


Junior: It’s Goggles!
Operator: Confirmed. Thank you!
Operator: Please enter the Chamber Capsule over there.
Junior: OK!


Teddy: Junior, wait up!

Junior enters the pod thing.


The second FMV plays here. It’s kind of cool, but since I couldn’t find it online you’ll have to look at a bunch of screenshots I took.

As I was saying: You’re not naming Junior, you’re naming his digitized self.


Account Clerk: Please retrieve your Digimon data at the lobby.
Goggles: Huh? Digimon?
Goggles: Oh, I understand. I’ll go right now!

I have to wonder if this is a translation mistake, or if Goggles really did suddenly forget all about Digimon.


At this point, we are free to wander around the lobby. The guy right next to us is Newbie Shiro, who finds the Matrix Chamber amazing and can’t believe we’re inside the net. There are a few more people around, but I’ll just mention the ones who have something relevant and/or funny to say.


Maniac Phillip: You can Card Battle with your cards!
Maniac Phillip: You’ve got to be good at both to be World Champ!

There’s our motivation, ladies and gentleman: To be a Pokemon master World Champ. As you may expect, we’ll need to defeat the eightfour gym leaders first. As for this Card Battle business: That’s for the next update (probably).


If we try to leave through the front door or the passage pictured here, Goggles just says this (after an exclamation mark).


This door over here leads to the Arena Front Desk.


Arena Reception: Oh? You don’t have your partner Digimon yet.
Arena Reception: Go to the lobby to download the data from your satellite.

As far as I know, there is literally no reason to come here for the entirety of the game (but spoilers etc.).
Oh, and that satellite he mentioned is the orange-red ball with the three little blue balls orbiting it that is floating to Goggles' right, in case you haven’t noticed it in the previous pictures.

Moving on.


This door here leads to the Administration Center’s first floor.


Goggles automatically leaves.

Lazy Alan: Of course I have one too, but you can’t see it.


This Guide teaches you the basics of the game. I, of course, am going to ignore him.



Tamer Service: I understand.
Tamer Service: I will download the Digimon data from your satellite now.
Tamer Service: Please wait at the online mark on the floor.

I’m pretty sure this is a mistranslation, too. What he means is the dog/wolf head shape, which is the symbol of the server we’re playing on, Asuka.


Teddy and Ivy walk into the screen.


Goggles: Hey, what were you two doing? You’re so slow!
Teddy: What? No, no, you’re the one that’s fast.
Teddy: Right, Ivy?


Goggles: Kail? That’s your account name?
Goggles: That’s weird. It sounds like a guy’s name!

I’m with Goggles on this one.

Kail: Hey, it’s my choice. OK?!
Teddy: I was too lazy so I’m still Teddy!

SUDDENLY





Goggles: Oh, cool! Here are my Digimon!
Teddy: Wow! I wonder who came up with this?

Thinking too much about the plot tends to give me headaches. Why is Teddy so amazed by this, what with it apparently being around for a while already (judging by all the people playing it)? Why are people sometimes amazed about Digimon, sometimes completely ignorant of their existence, and the rest of the time acting as though Digimon have been around for ages? Why does an MMO need humans inside the MMO to run it, instead of everything being done automatically?

Kail: Me too.
Goggles: Hey everyone! I’m Goggles. Nice to meet you.




Is there any wonder as to why Monmon is my favorite Digimon? And this is only the first reason.

Goggles: OK, everyone, I’m counting on you!
Goggles: Let’s go!


(Agumon is making a pretty good case for himself, mind)

Goggles: OK, I’m heading out!
Kail: …alright. Let’s split up from here.
Teddy: See you later.


Whew! Finally, we’re done with the lengthy introduction sequence. Let’s get to the meat of the-


Oh no.


Tamer Genji: Are you new here?
Goggles: Yeah! I just got my Digimon!
Tamer Genji: Then I’ll battle with you boy.
Tamer Genji: Don’t worry if you don’t understand the rules!
Tamer Genji: Getting experience is the important thing!

NOT THE FORCED TUTORIAL PLEASE ANYTHING BUT THI-

(For the record, there's no tutorial. The game just throws you into the battle)

Battles in DMW3 are a rather simple business. As you can see, my first Digimon in the lineup (Monmon) is fighting Genji’s Kuwagamon.


Here’s a frontal view of Monmon.

Let’s go over the options:
-Fight: The standard physical attack.
-Tech: Special attacks which are learned individually for each Digimon.
-DV: Short for digivolve. Change the digimon’s current form to one of up to three other options (The base form is always available and three learned digivolutions may be set). This will change the digimon’s stats and skills. Fortunately, you can set a learned digivolution to automatically apply before battles start.
-Tag: Switch out for another Digimon. You can also choose what digivolution that Digimon will be in. For some combinations, this will enable a powerful attack – more on this once I get the first one.
-Item: Use an item. Notably, you can’t use items on other Digimon (apart for a single item we’ll see soon).
-Run: Self-explanatory, but note that you’ll often need to wait a turn before you know the results.

Now, what Techs does Monmon have?


Just the one.

Unlike most Digimon, Rookie (base) forms never learn additional Techs, and always start with their Finisher. The Finisher is unique to each Digimon, and you can identify it in two ways: One, the Tech’s name will be in orange. Two, when the technique starts up it will show a special circle expanding outwards from the Digimon, together with a special sound effect shared by all of the Finishers:


And the rest of the technique will be in a special field, no matter where the actual battle is taking place.



I managed to time my screenshots very impressively, what with Monmon’s closed eyes and the complete lack of the big yellow energy ball he shoots out from his slingshot.


After every single action, the game will announce what it is. After I chose the technique, it said “Monmon <line break> Swing Swing”. After anything happens, the game will announce what happened, as shown above. This slows down the already slow battles even more, as even regular attacks take care to show the Digimon jumping towards the opponent, hitting, then jumping back. This, in fact, is Huge DMW3 flaw #2: Excrutiatingly slow battles. The main reason I am thankful for the emulation turbo option is that it means I don’t have to sit in battles for longer than 10-20 seconds at worst (for non-boss battles).


Kuwagamon attacks back for some rather substantial damage. Get used to this: Most enemies in the game will take between a third and half of your health when you are appropriately leveled for the area. Early on this is mostly fixed by being strong enough to win before the enemy hits you; Later, you’ll have to heal after every battle. Oh, have I mentioned that this is Huge DMW3 flaw #3: Difficulty curve?

This is the main reason I recommend having a healer for the early game. The only difference is how often you’ll have to restock healing items at towns, but with a healer you can easily triple your staying power early on (later, healing items are good and cheap enough to make a healer only double it at best, and you won’t need that much staying power because you’ll have enough to go anywhere anyway).

The difficulty is so egregious that most guides recommend grinding to level 5, which is the first digivolution for all Digimon. Generally, I agree; I always grind to that point before really starting the game, in the area with the easiest Digimon in the game. This time, though, I’ll try not to do that and see what happens.

I figure I’ve droned on for long enough by now, but really, you already know all there is to know about the battle system, with the possible exception of status effects which will be brought up as they appear, and the Blast Gauge which will, again, be explained when relevant.




Kuwagamon evades Monmon’s attack here (who attacks by just shooting a smaller purple energy ball from the slingshot, with the camera staying at the default point of view), which means it deals no damage. Some enemies will have ridiculous dodge rates, but we’ll deal with it; It seems to be affected by speed (Stat explanation is later too. Man, there are a lot of things to explain in DMW3…).

However, I can now show you Monmon at critical HP. Most Digimon just do this drooping thing.


The next attack finishes Kuwagamon off. And that’s all there is to know about battles! Monotonous as hell, and better yet, the encounter rate in the places with the most annoying encounters seems to skyrocket.

Fun!

This is the battle results screen. It goes by pretty fast: EXP, BIT (money), sometimes a dropped item, level ups.


Tamer Genji: You’re pretty good for a first timer.
Tamer Genji: You have potential to be World Champ someday!
Goggles: That’s my dream!
Tamer Genji: In order to do that, you should learn more about Digimon.
Tamer Genji: You should visit the Digimon Lab before going outside the city.
Goggles: Digimon Lab. OK, I got it. Thanks!
Tamer Genji: And also, do you have a Folder Bag?
Goggles: …What? What’s that?
Tamer Genji: I see. You had better go to the Yellow Cruiser.
Tamer Genji: They’ll teach you all you need to know about Card Battles.
Tamer Genji: …Now go. I’m counting on you kid. Ho ho ho!


We are immediately brought to the lab, which is that passage to the lower-right at the lobby. The clerks at the counter give information about digmon, and farther to the right you can do various actions such as switching equipped digivolutions. All of this is completely irrelevant right now so I’ll just go ahead and save; Wow this game has a long intro to transcribe. I'll just skip straight there, and introduce Asuka City next time.



This is Guardromon. There’s one in every Inn, and they allow you to save.

Guardromon: Prepare to save.



Welcome to Huge DMW3 flaw #4: Saving.
In order to illustrate this point, try guessing how long it took me to get from this picture:


To this picture:




...
...


Done thinking?


...
...


The correct answer is 21 seconds. Adding up all of the other actions involved in saving, it must take at least half a minute to save, and then you need to get to specific places to be able to save at all, and loading the game takes the same amount of time. Gaaah.


Next time: Explaining the different places in the town, card battles, stats, digivolving and basic early-game strategy… You know what, let’s just say next time is ‘explaining more stuff’.

I always just assumed the various clerks and such were NPCs. It's weird talking about NPC NPCs. And, presumably, PC NPCs.

I can confirm that the game itself indisputably confirms them to be actual people later on.

Dude, how could you talk about the battle system without including the kickass battle theme? Seriously, that theme totally makes up for the slow pace (to me, at least).

Honestly, I don't like the default battle theme much (must be a side effect of having heard it way too much when I was young). I do think the boss/tamer battle theme is kickass, though.

Fair enough.

First order of business: Let’s Introduce Asuka City!


This here is the exit from the Lobby, which is mostly just used for tutorials.


Down the ramp, we see the inn.


This is Gatomon; She serves as the innkeeper for the inns in the game, with the costs gradually increasing as you go. Typical inn stuff – pay to fully heal HP/MP/Status effects. The inn is notable for being one of three ways to regain MP in the game. Over there to her left you can see Guardromon, who as I explained saves your game.


Going back outside, we see two signs – armory and item shop signs respectively, but they’re all in the same shop.


This is Wizardmon. He handles the Item Shop.




His inventory is going to remain static through most of the game, only changing for better HP recovery items. Right now it is:

-Power Charge: You want to max out on these once you’re done with equipment purchases. Cheapest source of healing in the game, and increases your staying power dramatically.

-Antidote/Revive/Energy Disk: These cure Poison, Paralysis, and any status effect respectively. The only difference is the price, but it’s meaningless because they cost 18/20/70 BIT respectively, so by the time they’re relevant you can stock up on Energy Disks and be done with it. Note that status effects don’t actually last after the battle, so curing them is often pointless.

-Life Disk: At a mere 500 BIT, this revives all KO’d Digimon to full health. Often it will be a good idea to suicide with two Digimon, have the third use a Life Disk, and repeat until victory; This item is so cheap that there’s no reason not to carry 99 in the end of the game.

-Life Plug: At 2400 BIT, this is one of the most expensive healing items in the game. It heals 50% of maximum HP and MP – and it’s the only item that heals MP, which is the reason for the huge price. Generally? Not worth it, but I usually carry a few just in case.

-Mach/Power/Guard Plugs: Respectively, these three raise speed, raise strength/lower defense, raise defense/lower strength. I have no idea why anybody would use these. They’re cheap at least – 100, 45, 40.

-Aura Plug: The in-game description is ‘Increase special effect attack’. My best guess is that it improves the odds of status effect-inflicting attacks to inflict said effects, which makes it a big waste of money.

-DV Plug: Increases the Blast Gauge, though it can’t max it out (it’ll get it to 99% though). Pretty good, though expensive at 1200; I’ll use a few to show Blasting at high levels, which can be very hard to achieve. (I’m still not explaining Blasting until a couple of updates from now)

-Various fields: These cause the field to becomes their respective element (or a random element for Unknown). Their costs vary between 65-100, and I guess the fields strengthen their own element and maybe weaken another? Never used them, so I can’t say.

Next shop is the Pawn Shop, run by Gomamon over there to the left of Wizardmon.




-Power/Guard/Spirit/Wisdom/Boost/Charisma Gem: Those increase the noted stat (with the exception of Boost, which increases Speed) by 10 points, and cost around 1000 BIT each. Not worth it.

-Flame/Water/Ice/Wind/Thunder/Machine/Dark Ring: those increase resistance for the noted element a little. I never bothered buying one to check by how much, but the only ones I would even consider buying are Machine and Dark (those being the only legitimately dangerous elements in the game). They go between 300-700.

-Antidote/Revive/Awake/Sober/Prayer Ring: These increase resistance to Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Confusion and instant death repectively. they go between 500-1200, but I generally don’t find them too useful – in theory I’d love resistance to confusion, but the sober ring doesn’t seem to have any effect when I have it on.

Finally we have the Armory, run by Gargomon.



I’m not going to go into details about Gargomon’s inventory. It’s going to be upgraded with every new shop we get to, so I’ll just tell you guys what I bought for each Digimon. It is important to remember that equipment is only equippable to specific Digimon – Only Kumamon can use Gloves, for example, while Daggers are usable by a much larger variety of Digimon.


Masato: Seiryu City is straight East from this city.

One of the reasons I enjoyed replaying this game recently is the little things that 10-year-old-me couldn’t have known; In Chinese mythology, Seiryu is the azure dragon of the East (and spring, and some other things). I used to think it was just a random name they came up with.


Up next is the... Pub? Bar? I don’t recall it ever being named in-game. Anyway, it’s only ever going to be important once or twice and you can’t for anything else in there, so you’ll see it when it’s relevant (Which is later this update).

This here’s the lab. The two clerks explain various other things that I’m not going to bother showing you guys, although they’re notable for pointing out the first divergent digivolution paths for your starters. The doctor up on the right is Doctor Kadomatsu, but in most towns there’ll be a Pixiemon for the services he provides.


Which include:

-Switch Digimon: Switch out Digimon in and out of your party. The maximum is three, but you can go solo if you want.

-Digivolve: Switch which three of a Digimon’s digivolutions it can currently access. Also allows Loading of Techs, which allows all other digivolutions currently ‘equipped’ to the Digimon to use that Tech (though it’ll cost a little more MP than usual). You can’t just load any Tech; The digivolved form must reach a high enough level to load each Tech, and not all of them will be loadable.

-Digivolve chart: A chart of each Digimon’s digivolutions. It’s not very accurate, but it does give a short description of each digivolution.
And that’s it for the upper part of Asuka City. To get to the lower part, you have to go through this area, down the ladder in the inn:


That passage on the lower-left leads to the Pub.

And incidentally, if you examine a certain spot in the wall to the upper left…


Score! This is actually a very nice amount for the equipment shopping we’ll be doing soon, though not nearly enough. I’m not aware of anywhere else in the game where they hide an item like this, mind.


The passage to the lower right leads here. You can go to the upper right…



For some more loot and a sneak peek at a dungeon we’ll get to much later, or to the lower left…


For the rest of Asuka.



The park holds nothing of note right now – just a couple of old people who want to become Digimon. To the upper right we see the entrance to the Cargo Tower…


Which appears to be empty. Back outside, to the upper-right from the entrance to this area:



Item Freak Ken: Oh, you’re not a member, are you?
Item Freak Ken: Your Digimon aren’t that cool looking either. You can’t be a member.

Oh yeah? Well… Who wants to join your stupid nerd club anyway? We’re going to the awesome club next door!

Divermon: Then I’ll give you a Folder Bag.
Divermon: You can insert three Folders that you’ve created.
Goggles: Folder? What’s a Folder?
Divermon: A Folder is a set of 40 cards that you put together.
Divermon: You can put up to four of the same card in a set.
Goggles: Set of cards? What do you do with those?


Divermon: To Card Battle! You battle other players.
Divermon: You draw cards, put Digimon in the field and battle!
Divermon: Look there! There’s someone in the heat of battle.


The game follows this up with a really long sequence of watching these kids duel each other (30 images not counting the one you just saw). It’s supposed to give you a basic understanding of the rules and I find that it works pretty well, but we’re still not going to go through all of it – You guys will have me to explain the rules.


Divermon: I don’t think you’ll get there that fast but…
Divermon: Here’s a Folder Bag that’ll fit three folders.
Divermon: I’ll give you my Customized Practice Folder too.
Goggles: Wow! Thanks! I’ll try my best!
Goggles: But I’m clueless on what they were talking about…
Divermon: Talk to Ken or Luke. They’ll show you.

Ken and Luke are the guy at the counter and the guy at the middle of the left edge of the screen. They explain the rules in detail. We’re never going to talk to them.

Divermon: As your partner improves you can battle everyone.
This is a bit of an odd line, but once you understand how the game’s stats work it makes sense. More on that later.
Divermon: A good player is also a good tamer.
Divermon: So tamers with strong partners battle a lot.
Goggles: OK! Thanks for everything Divermon!


Well, I’m pumped now! Let’s go play some children’s card games!



Understandable. Let’s try the dude in front of Nacky.


Tamer Steve: What, you’re going to fight me?


Leaving aside the fact that you did laugh… Come on, man! I wanna play card games!



Tamer Gloria is so great. This line was going to be my title for this thread, actually, until I found something even better on my replay.



Not that she’ll duel us, of course.


Tamer Wong: This is the greatest game.
Tamer Wong: But I am not yet at a level where I can fight you.


You know what? FINE! I won’t play children’s card games with you. I’ll go play the actual Digimon Online game now.

Jerks.

That’s all of Asuka explored, but I have a few more things to go over before we leave town.


Let’s go over the stats.

LV, HP, MP are all self explanatory. The column on the right, just below the word EXP, is elemental resistances (Fire, Water, Ice, Wind, Lightning, Machine, Dark). The important collumn is the one to the left of that:

-Power (A closed fist): Influences damage dealt by normal attacks and power-based Techs.

-Defense (A shield): Resistance to Power-based attacks.

-Spirit (A man with a purple aura): Influences damage dealt by Spirit-based Techs, and possibly influences the power of some healing Techs.

-Wisdom (A book): Resistance to Spirit-based Techs.

-Speed (A man leaping, with a green afterimage): The most important stat in the game; Determines order of turns in battle, but if you have enough Speed you’ll get two turns in a row. Despite that, I usually hold off on training it early on, because I’d usually rather just deal one-hit kills in the early game.

-Charisma (Sparkles): I really like this stat. It grows with your Digimon’s level and every piece of equipment will raise it, and the grand majority of Tamers will not Digimon battle/Card Battle you if your Digimon’s combined Charisma is too low. This is the reason nobody will play cards with us; It’s also the reason we can’t get into El Dorado. I think it’s a wonderful method of keeping track of the player’s power level.

Now, as for equipment. Mostly equipment doesn’t give a huge boost early on; Agumon, for example, is going to be dual-wielding the most powerful weapon he can equip (Daggers), which at level 1 puts him on 68 Power – 10 from each Dagger (plus his starting 48). The big exception to this? Monmon.


Monmon’s exclusive (as far as I know) weaponry is long-range (which means nothing in this game), usually two-handed, and really, really good. This two-handed Long Bow means he can one-hit kill anything in the starting area, where even Agumon, a physical tank, will need at least two hits right now. Monmon’s weaponry advantage will eventually disappear, as stats seem to cap at 999 (I’m not entirely sure about this; There’s a chance the game just won’t display anything higher, but as far as I can tell that’s not the case), but right now he’s going to be a beast.

I buy some armor, too, but I run out of money here. I can’t afford anything for Renamon, Agumon gets two Daggers, Monmon gets a Long Bow and a Hide Helmet.

Since it’s highly recommended to fully equip your Digimon ASAP whenever possible, I think you can start to see why I suggest grinding a little at the start of the game.


And with that, it’s finally time to leave Asuka City!


Before we do, though, let’s see if there’s anything interesting in the gate/bridge area.


Whoops, guess, not. NOW let’s move out!


Welcome to Central Park.

Central Park is probably the area you will revisit the most in this game. It contains vital passages (some indirectly) to not one, not two, not three, but to all four sectors of the map, plus Asuka City itself, and more. It is also the only area in which I consider a bit of grinding to be mandatory.


The dirt trail you could see in the previous screenshots leads here: Leomon’s dojo, the first of many (and by many I mean ten).


The dojo is the primary means of increasing your stats. Every level-up gives you five TP, but since all of Goggles’ Digimon are level 1 they have none. We’ll go over training later in the update.


Since I forgot to take a screenshot of the map (and am too lazy to load the game up for a moment and take one now), here’s a screenshot of the signpost in Central Park. The game’s perspective places North in the upper-right, East in the lower-right, South in the lower-left and West in the upper-left.

Moving on to the Wes-


Ah, look! Our first random encounter. And Monmon is powerful enough to outspeed it, going first, and kill it in one attack due to his massive Power. He’s still at 20 HP because I haven’t healed after the tutorial.

Kunemon are kind of annoying because they give only 10 BIT as opposed to the other Central Park Digimon – Tapirmon, who gives 20 BIT.


The 6 EXP Monmon got from Kunemon is enough for a level up. Levels 1-4 go by very fast, actually; It’s getting to level 5 that requires grinding.
Now, as I was saying, we’re going West.


After saving.

(Monmon got a level up on the way, on 22 EXP)


Speaking of on the way, here’s a treasure chest.


Welcome to Plug Cape.

This area is the reason I wanted to save. there is no real reason not to hold off on going here until your Digimon are level 5, apart for impatience; But if you’re not ready, the random encounters in this area are as powerful as random encounters from the end of this sector.

Well, only in some of it. The start is safe; You’ll get weaker enemies there, though stronger than Central Park’s. Which is why I saved; If I fail to run away from the strong enemies, I could very well get a game over.


Fortunately, I go down the ramp with no complications to see this one dude kicking a tree.

Soccer Kid Hide: And why did I lose Gabumon…
Goggles: Huh?? Why are you kicking trees?


Soccer Kid Hide: To find a Cardmon of course!
Goggles: Cardmon? What’s that? A Digimon?

Considering that I can count the number of Digimon I’ve heard of who don’t have names ending in ‘mon’ on one finger (though I admit I’m not entirely certain that one’s a Digimon), I don’t see the question here…

Soccer Kid Hide: Cardmon is a Digimon that drops Boosters with extra cards in it!
Soccer Kid Hide: Only Divermon in the city can open boosters.
Goggles: Cardmon drops Boosters?!


Soccer Kid Hide: Heh heh heh. You need Tree Boots to kick them.
Soccer Kid Hide: So, you probably want to get the boots. Well then…
Soccer Kid Hide: I lost my Gabumon card, will you find it?
Soccer Kid Hide: If you find it I’ll tell you how to get the boots.
Goggles: Gabumon card? OK, I’ll find it and come back!

The conversation ends here, but you can talk to Hide for clues.


Soccer Kid Hide: Sorry, I don’t really remember!

You can talk to him more after this, but all he says is:


Moving on to the south exit of Central Park:


This is Shell Beach.


I encounter a Veggiemon here. There pretty tough this early on, but Monmon is strong enough to take it out in two hits. It also gives him a level up to level 4, with 67 EXP.

There are only two reasons to ever go to Shell Beach. The second won’t be relevant for some time, but the first…


Tai Kong Wang: How about it?
Tai Kong Wang: If you want to fish you need a pole, string, and a hook.
Tai Kong Wang: Then I’ll make you a fishing pole.

He’s lying, actually; You only need a pole and a string. The pole is just a Bamboo Spear from Gargomon’s store; The string we can’t get yet, as it’s a common drop from a Digimon we only meet in a later area.

Going back to Central Park, let’s head East.


This is Natsumi. Don’t talk to her more than once just yet; I’m not sure how low her Charisma threshold is, but it’s pretty low and Digimon battling her can be tough early on.


Auntie Teresa: It seems too big for a mole…

Auntie Teresa never battles you as far as I know; She just stands there wondering about the hole. There are quite a few of those holes, actually; There are two more in Central Park, and Plug Cape has two as well (though we haven’t seen them; They’re in the danger zone).

Clearly they’ll never ever be relevant.


Before leaving to explore East Sector proper (We’re technically still in Central Sector), let’s get something out of the way…


Goggles: Hmm. There’s nothing left..

I was curious to see if the game actually gave you a Gabumon card here:


Turns out it really does. I wonder if you could just get a Gabumon card from a booster and give that to Hide. Well, doesn’t matter now.


Soccer Kid Hide: You really found it! Thanks!
Soccer Kid Hide: OK, I’ll tell you about the Tree Boots, now.
Soccer Kid Hide: You can get them if you become friends with Veemon.
Soccer Kid Hide: But Veemon is unpredictable, he’s hard to find.
Soccer Kid Hide: To find out about Veemon, go where people meet!
Soccer Kid Hide: I’m sure someone can help you there.

I meet another Veggiemon on the way back; Since I have no further reason to go back to Plug Cape for a while, I guess I won’t be dying to out-of-depth encounters anytime soon.

Our next stop is the Pub.


Waitress Debbie: He was looking for something at Wind Prairie.

You can talk to her again afterwards, but all she’ll say is:

Waitress Debbie: I wonder if Veemon is still at Wind Prairie.
Waitress Debbie: I wonder if he’ll play with me next time I see him.

Talking to Debbie is a mandatory step of this sidequest. If you don’t, Veemon won’t show up. Worse, if you fail his minigame then you’ll have to talk to her again to respawn him.