That Green Dude

Ah… Digimon World 1. I have an undying love for this game. The memories I have of Digimon World are plentiful and to write about all of them, would probably take me into retirement age.

When I was a kid I was a HUGE fan of Digimon and I still am. I know the opening credits to the first Digimon anime series off by heart and I went to see the Digimon Movie multiple times. I’ve loved video games since I was a kid, so you can imagine how I felt when a Digimon game was released. Usually most PS1 games we could get from  Woolworths (We’re going back quite a bit, I know) but for some reason that I still don’t of today, Woolworths didn’t stock Digimon World. You could imagine how I felt, sad and completely and utterly destroyed.

However all was not lost. My dad said that there was another place we could go to see if we could get it, a shop called, Another World (Now known as Forbidden Planet). Back then Another World stocked video games and specialised in niche titles and imports. It was the only place back then near to where I lived, that would import games. There it was on the shelf, Digimon World and there were only two copies left. I picked the game up faster than Sonic the Hedgehog could run. I’m back home and I put the game into my PS1 and my eyes glistened, like they looked at gold.

So that’s a little bit on how I got Digimon World but how does the game play? Digimon World is a pet sim cross JRPG. You have to raise your Digimon from Baby to In-training, to Rookie, to Champion, then to Ultimate (there are some Mega digivolutions but they are hidden and very hard to get). In order for your Digimon to digivolve to the next phase you have to meet certain status requirements like, a certain amount of HP or a certain amount of strength. You can increase the stats of your Digimon by training them at the gym or by fighting wild Digimon throughout the world.

Aside from the usual stats like; HP, MP, strength, speed and intelligence there are others that can affect what your Digimon will digivolve into. There are happiness and discipline gauges and as you’d expect these would affect the Digimon’s behaviour. If the Digimon’s discipline is low, they will sometimes refuse orders in fights and not consume the item you are giving them. You can praise your Digimon to increase their happiness and you can scold them to increase discipline. Scold them too much though and their behaviour will change. There’s also the virus stat and perhaps the most interesting out of the three stats outside the usual ones. Virus increases when your Digimon does a poo in the world rather than going to the toilet or using a porta-potty. If the virus gauge is full, your Digimon will become a Sukamon or depending on your stats a Numemon. These are two virus Digimon and use virus attacks.

As I mentioned earlier Digimon World is part pet sim. You have to look after your Digimon as if it was your own pet. Your Digimon will get hungry throughout the day and as such you need to give them food that you can acquire by; going to the meat farm, finding it in the world or buying it. You need to feed your Digimon otherwise it will become sick and could lose a life if you fail to feed it. I touched upon this earlier but your Digimon will need to go to the toilet. Throughout the in-game day your Digmon will eventually want to go to the toilet. You can take your Digimon to one of the toilets throughout the world or in the hub world, File City. You can also give your Digimon a porta-potty so they can do their business, there and then. Your Digimon can also get sick in Digimon World. If they become ill or injured then you can either give them a bandage or medicine or, you can take them to the doctor’s clinic in File City (you have to unlock the clinic by bringing back Centarumon who is in Amida Forest. A basic but helpful tip). Your Digimon will also need to sleep just like real life pets do. When it goes nighttime, Z’s will appear above your Digimon’s head indicating that they are tired and want to go to sleep. Also your Digimon age and that means eventually your Digimon will sadly pass into the next world, so you have to raise a new Digimon.

Combat in Digimon World 1 is rather simple, you enter a fight and you shout commands at your Digimon to do. At first you only have two commands “Auto” and “Run Away”. You can increase the number of commands you can shout by your Digimon’s intelligence. You do not control your Digimon’s movement in combat that is left to Digimon itself.

The story for Digimon World is simple, the Digital World is in trouble and the vast majority of File City’s residents have left. You are sent for by Jijimon and you get teleported to the Digital World through your Digivice. You are tasked with bringing the former residents of File City back, restoring the city to its former glory and to find out who or what is behind all the trouble that is going on in the Digital World. It’s not the most engrossing story in the world but it does make you wonder why these Digimon left the city. It’s no Final Fantasy VII or VIII but it’s fun.

The world of Digimon World 1 is diverse and contains many locations and each area has their own music for daytime and nighttime. I’m pretty sure that the majority of the music in Digimon World 1 is engraved into my brain, especially File City and the fight music. The world features; a forest, a cave system, a savanna, a swamp, a mechanical town, a jungle, an ice-cold location and more. The game even has a town made from toys called Toy Town. The world is memorable and I can give you a tour of the place because I know it that well.

I love Digimon World on PS1. It’s one of my favourite games on PS1 and one of my favourite games of all time. I have done several playthroughs of this game and I couldn’t give you an exact count on how much time I have spent playing Digimon World 1 but, it is well into the triple digits and possibly nearing a thousand hours. The game isn’t perfect, it has got some flaws but I can look past them because of the memories this game has given me. Digimon World 1 is one of the games that was a big part of my childhood. When I die, bury me with a copy of this. So I can play this forever, wherever I go.

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