Digimon has seen a bit of resurrection on the Nintendo DS. Last December's Digimon World DS was a pretty decent RPG, and arguably the best Digimon game since, well, ever. So naturally the guys over at Bandai Entertainment Company followed it up with a more courageous endeavor: Digimon World: Dawn and Digimon World: Dusk. The double SKU title is bigger than its prequel, but unfortunately, that doesn't quite make it better.
Players that aren't familiar with the Digimon franchise won't get much help from Dawn/Dusk. The game assumes the player knows what's going on, and it was probably developed for fans of the franchise, or at least people that played its prequel, Digimon World DS. Thankfully, there isn't too much to get. The entire world is digital, and humans can enter it, befriend sentient monsters, then make them beat each other up in an amalgamation of a martial arts tournament and a cockfight.
Trouble starts in the digital world when a virus busts in and disrupts connections to various areas, and somehow turns a bunch of Digimon into digieggs. So as the hero, players have to investigate the cause of this virus and try to restore order to the digital world.
Dawn/Dusk is pretty standard RPG fare. Players control a ridiculously dressed hero or heroine through an isometric world full of themed "caves." While in these areas, monsters will randomly attack, throwing the player into a battle mode. Dawn/Dusk uses the popular collection-oriented monster team for the battle party and players can collect hundreds of different Digimon through battles, or "digivolving" acquired monsters to get new ones.
Players that did pick up the first Digimon game on the DS will likely feel very familiar with Dawn/Dusk. In fact, that's the game's major fault. The levels are all very familiar, and there is an unshakeable sense of digi-been there, digi-done that. Everything that made Digimon World stand out is back again, but this time it's not new. The previous game had made some good steps to separate the Digimon franchise from its competitors. The developers didn't add much in the way of truly unique gameplay elements to further that progression.
In fact, the biggest change the game made is actually a detriment. The story has been delegated to a Quest system. In order to progress the story, players go to an office, and talk to a Digimon behind a counter to receive the next part of the story. This is how all the quests work, and for the side quests it's fine. Digimon ask for help, and trainers can come to the office to see what requests have been made. Why, however, would the Chief of the Union go to the petty grievances office to ask the player personally to go save the world? It completely destroys any pulse the story has, and makes the main character seem more like an errand boy than a hero.
A poorly presented story doesn't ruin the game. There are still some interesting mechanics that keeps the game pretty fun. The monster collection system is intact, wherein players scan small pieces of data every time they see a certain monster, and after enough data is collected, that Digimon can be added to the collection. The collection and raising of the Digimon is a fun experience. Since many Digimon can evolve in branching paths, planning out ways to get them all becomes almost as important as trying to save the digital world. The Digimon have different personalities and players can interact with their monsters, where the personalities shine through. Dialogue differs dramatically in the digi-small talk depending on if the monster is "cool" or "scared" or "prissy."
The battles are still the same as they were in the prequel, which is good since they worked just fine. The graphics aren't amazing, but it has a stylized charm. The attacks are vibrant and colorful, and the Digimon actually look like they're hurt when they get hit with a big attack. There is a lot of strategy involved in the battle system since the field is split into five zones, and different attacks affect different zones. Positioning ally Digimon and choosing the right attack becomes crucial in the later stages of the game. The fights seem tougher this time around, another possible side-effect of this being a game aimed at fans of the first title.
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