To purchase this item click here!Digimon Word: Dawn

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Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Digimon could never forget the songs, the monsters, and most importantly the goggles. Well fortunately the songs are the only thing missing from this gem of a game.

Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Digimon could never forget the songs, the monsters, and most importantly the goggles. Well fortunately the songs are the only thing missing from this gem of a game. So lets begin with the basics, this is a game for the Nintendo DS ~$30 at the time of this review. I would file it under the farming genre much in the same vein as pokemon games. The main story line should take you roughly 30 hours to finish, but that puts you at about 60% quest completion, and even lower on the digimon completion. If you are a completionist you could probably find at least another 30 hours. Finally, it comes in two versions Dawn and Dusk.

In my reviews I am sure you will see that I find three things very important. First, is the game fun to play? Second, does it satisfy some genre craving I am having at the moment? Lastly, does it have a good story (I am very forgiving)? As I said in the podcast, I was having a craving for a DS game either in the card battle or farming genre. Well I decided to go with the farming genre, and I think I made the right choice with Digimon World: Dawn. I haven’t played any of the Digimon World games since the first one on the PSX, and that game was horrible. After a co-worker told me since Digimon World 3 they have really improved the series I decided to give the latest incarnation a go. If you read the reviews on the major game sites, they will all tell you this is more of the same, but fortunate for me I haven’t played any of the previous games, and some times I just want more of the same, so that works for me. More importantly, more of the same is good when you have the right formula.

If you have never played a Pokemon or Digimon game because you think they are for kids I would encourage you to get over that fact and pick one up. They are probably some of the best RPGs out there. You have hundreds of potential characters, with even more combinations of abilities, and in Digimon you can evolve and devolve almost indefinitely, from what I can tell, to make the most powerful digimon team in existance.

So how about the story? Well the story is fairly weak in this game, and if there was anything about this game that is “for kids” it is probably the story. It isn’t bad so much as it just isn’t very deep or complex. The two versions are basically the same. I know this because I have a friend who got Dusk when I got Dawn. The main differences are the available starting sets of digimon, starting locations, exclusive islands to travel to for digimon gathering, and most importantly different exclusive digimon. If you want to collect all the available digimon you will have to trade with a friend or create digieggs through the Nintendo Wifi connection.

This game was my first experience with the Nintendo DS online experience. Let me say, Nintendo needs to get their act together. I am not sure how much control the developer has over the experience but they make it very difficult to find anyone to play with online. I tried numerous times to log in and start a random match with someone, and the game never found a competitor after letting it sit for five minutes. I could have let it run longer, but I assume most people get bored pretty quick, so why would they wait any longer than five minutes.

There are a few items I believe could be improved on future versions. First I think it is great to see the Digivolution path for your digimon, but Armor and DNA digivolution are not included in the Digivolution path, so unless I check a guide online it is just guess and check. This does not make for a fun experience. Next I am glad they don’t try to incorporate any of the television story elements or characters, I always got annoyed with that in the Pokemon games, but I would like to see a deeper story. Most importantly my favorite thing about digimon is the song they play as the digimon evolve. It gets me pupped up, and it isn’t in the game at all. I would have enjoyed the game so much more if when my Agumon digivoles to Greymon I heard that class voice….”Agumon Digivolve to…..(in a deeper voice) GREYMON!”. Not quite as important but still a nice to have would be a more complete list of digimon. They added new digimon, but they haven’t even included all of the classic characters like Raidramon, or Pegasusmon.

In summary if you are a fan of the Digimon series, farming games, or looking for a great RPG where story doesn’t matter, than Digimon World: Dawn or Dusk is for you. If you don’t fit into any of those, than go play some more Halo 3.

My rating: 4.0 stars