Gameplay loop that drove me crazy | Digimon World Dusk
Digivolving and degenerating until the end of my days
My partner and I have made it a habit to visit local retro game stores. We love to peruse the selections and brainstorm about what to buy next. I tend to do most of the shopping, between the two of us I collect more. Because of this, the thought of repurchasing some of my childhood collection always bounced around my mind. But, I’ve let many games slip because I kept second guessing whether I should purchase.
I always try to be intentional about what I buy, but when I saw Digimon World Dusk displayed I decided to say “whatever!” and purchase it because it was obviously meant to be. I’ve been thinking of repurchasing this because I had fond memories of it when I was younger but I couldn’t recall if I beat it. As a child I had a habit of restarting games when they got too difficult.
I placed this newly purchased old game into my newly refurbished Nintendo DS Lite and got to playing. The first thing I immediately noticed was how charming the art style was. The pixel art of the Digimon looked amazing, and the different evolution stages were unique. I forgot how much Digimon incorporated mechanical aspects into their evolution designs
The combat system of Digimon World Dusk also differs from other monster collectors I’ve played. It’s turned based with a party of 6, but 3 are active battlers. I’ve seen people make elaborate teams, but this can take so much time and effort. To build up your Digimon, you need to be constantly digivolving and degenerating them. Which is to level them up to when they can evolve into their next stage, ideally level them until they reach the aptitude (level cap), and then reset them back to their previous stage, and repeat.
The only way to raise the level cap is to degenerate and digivolve. This also results in a greater increase of stats. I feel like it’s required to interact with this mechanic because my impression is that you would have a difficult time getting through some of the bosses. I’m not against optimizing levels for greater stats, but this is where the biggest con to this game came out for me.
It was so much grinding! I’m not against the occasional grind, but this was way too much. You navigate the dungeons using the bottom screen and they are filled with dead ends which force you to turn around and deal with more random encounters than necessary. I made navigating the maps more difficult because I didn’t know you could use the stylus to scout ahead. When I realized this feature existed it was a game changer for navigating.
Regarding team building, I don’t know if I imposed too much on myself. I was determined to get my Digimon to a specific level, but at the end of the day I was able to make it through all the bosses without feeling overpowered. Maybe that was a part of the problem. It felt like I was doing so much work and I was barely making it by.
All this tedium along with the story being lackluster made the game frustrating to play. Not even my nostalgia could push me through and make things easy. I am happy I can finally say that I’ve beaten this game, and I’m happy to have it in my collection again, but sadly it’s been a bit tainted now. It’s a lesson that even if you love things when you’re younger it doesn’t mean they were good, but you can appreciate them for what they were.