Digimon World: Next Order is the latest installment in the Digimon franchise for the Playstation Vita, and focuses a lot of course on the Digimon Universe. For those who are new to Digimon and are coming from let’s say the Pokemon world, you’ll notice that while there are some similarities to how you train your partners, how you actually conduct and manage everything is a lot more concrete in Digimon. This game is an RPG and so if you enjoy exploration, collecting items to power up your Digimon, detailed dialogue, and story, then Next Order will most definitely generate a lot of excitement from you. As a reminder, this game is exclusive only to Japan at the moment but will see a PS4 only release sometime next year.

As stated above, Digimon World: Next Order is an RPG game where you raise your Digimon to become stronger over the course of the game, defeating monsters as you progress through the story and collect as much data as possible. Digimon World: Next Order is a direct sequel to Digimon World on PS1, and caters more to the Digimon fans who've enjoyed Digimon World Re: Digitize as well as Digimon World Re: Digitize Decode. Another thing to add is that Digimon World: Next Order is quite complex, and may take a lot of time to really get accustomed to all of the mechanics such as breeding, etc.

One great aspect about the Digimon titles is that despite being in the same universe, the story and characters you encounter throughout the game are entirely fresh. In the case of Next Order, everything from the new battle system to how you can actually train your Digimon is a wonderful treat and is a nice addition to an already solid game. One thing to note is that while the game does deviate away from the traditional style of battle, the automatic fight sequence is very dynamic and truly makes you feel like you’re sending out orders to your Digimon in battle.
Story

The story starts out with your character being sucked into a new world and encounters two mysterious Digimon up ahead. When you make your way toward them they tell you that they’re in danger and need your help to defeat the evil Machinedramon, who are the enemy in the earlier parts of the story. Unfortunately, your Digimon are defeated and killed in battle, and now you are then sent to the Digimon World to reincarnate them. This is where you meet Jijimon, an old man Digimon who acts as your assistant throughout your journey and tells you of the dangers that lie ahead pertaining to Machinedramon and various other mysterious powerful entities. It is now up to you to save the Digimon World from peril, using your new reincarnated Digimon partners to protect the innocent, and restore balance for all inhabitants.

After all, it's explained in great detail, and Jijimon then shows you a group of new eggs that you can choose from, and from there your journey begins. From there you can choose from two main characters, a male lead or female lead. Who you choose will not affect the overall outcome of the story, it’s basically your own personal preference. From here the fun begins and that’s what we’ll focus next on in the gameplay section. You start out in the digital countryside known as Floatia, and from there you embark on a wild adventure seeking out new opportunities and doing a ton of leveling up as you progress with your new Digimon.

Once you’ve chosen your two Digimon to take with you, much of the earlier parts of the game are all basic training to get you accustomed to the new system, as well as how to train and raise your Digimon correctly. One of the new additions is called ‘Order Points’ where in battle, your character must decide what special attack to use before time runs out. You have a 5-second time frame to choose, so once you’ve made your decision you use up your Order Points which is displayed on the left-hand side of each attack box. Using the designated shoulder buttons for your Digimon (L and R), allow you to choose which of your Digimon should attack, or you can choose commands that allow them to charge up their power. It’s a very versatile system that allows the player freedom to choose what attacks are necessary for battle, and because everything is automatic in terms of your Digimon battling, there’s no need to figure out positioning, etc. Think of the Order Points system as a manual way to stay on track of things in a battle that’s basically carried out for you. By pressing the square button, you can access other tactics such as charge up, protect, and escape battle as well.

Once you’ve used your Order Points, you’ll need to wait for the cooldown to end before committing to another attack. Furthermore, if you don’t have enough Order Points then your manual attacks cannot be used until they replenish, which you can do by cheering on your Digimon in battle by pressing the circle button when the yellow megaphone flashes.

This is one fantastic feature that many fans of the series will enjoy because it truly pushes your Digimon beyond their limits, and creates an incredibly powerful finishing blow to the opponent. As we explained earlier with Order Points, you need enough of these in order to use manual based attacks in battle. You accumulate points randomly which means on some occasions you’ll earn four to six, and in others as high as 50. All of this depends on what’s happening in battle but to engage your ExE, you’ll need to accumulate 150 points between both your Digimon to activate it. Once you’ve managed to collect 150, your Digimon fuse together to create an incredibly strong creature which can deal a whopping amount of damage, especially when you’re in a pinch. After the battle is over the two Digimon return to their normal selves and you move on with your adventure. The elements of your Digimon will determine the what form they take on, so it’s always careful to pay close attention to everything.

These points are associated with your main character and can be used to level up certain areas, much like a skill tree system. As you engage in battle or do sub-quests for Digimon in the area, you’ll gain experience which over time will help you level up faster. As you get further into the game, more options will be available to you by pressing the triangle button, which will allow you to dig deeper into your Digimon's evolution status and manage their stats. Evolution info is directly given to you which is a huge plus, and once you dive further into the game you’ll have the options to do such things as guarantee your evolution route, change evolution requirement values, and trade evolution items to gain partner evolution requirements as soon as you need them. You can fish and camp now in the game which allows you to gain more effects on your food, and provide more for your Digimon on your journey so that their lifespan increases.

Once they do pass on, however, you can then hatch another egg to raise. That partner who passed on passes a certain percentage of stats to the next Digimon afterward. Items to look out for and purchase are portable toilets, HP and MP disks, status pills, and most importantly bandaids. These will be your go-to items for most of your journey, with meats and other rations being collected as you travel.

As you progress throughout the game, you’ll start to notice that exploration is a huge must because it impacts the overall flow of the game. We’ll detail more on that in the next section.

One thing to note is that this game requires a lot of training and cooperation between you and your Digimon at all times. You need to be paying very close attention to every detail of your Digimon as you progress through the game, such as feeding them, ensuring they use the toilet frequently, and to always communicate with them positively when they confront you after a battle.

On your long adventure, you’ll come across a lot of different Digimon who you’ll need to recruit so that the town can grow, and various improvements can be made. So while the Digimon you encounter are mainly sub-quests, they actually do make up for a large part of the game because they reflect what you can and can’t do as you go forward. Harvesting and collecting is huge in this game since most of the Digimon you meet will ask you to provide them with certain items, which they take back with them to the countryside to build your farm. Another great point to add is just how vast the world is, and just how much freedom you have. There are of course invisible walls throughout the game, but it doesn’t really deter you because the game is still very large on its own. The map option is very helpful in getting you around the world effectively, with attention to detail at every corner.

Throwing everything that we mentioned together is what truly creates sheer excitement as you play through Digimon World: Next Order because, the game teaches you how to really take care of your Digimon, and raise them in the way that you prefer. The training aspect of the game is one of the great ways to establish a great relationship with your Digimon, as you can acquire points for certain attributes such as HP, MP, Intelligence, and Strength which all help to build your connection meter.

Over the course of the game and depending on how you treat your partners, the triangle between you and your partners will increase which actually help a lot, and prevents mishaps such as your Digimon failing to take orders. This feels so much deeper and more personal because you’ve actually taken your Digimon from their egg state all the way to their max evolution, and seeing them grow in front of your eyes is like a mother watching her children develop over time. One thing that was a small gripe to us was that there’s no option to sprint in the game so things, in the beginning, felt a little slow, especially when having to travel back and forth to speak with Jijimon and the other Digimon at the ranch. This gets a little easier once you’ve managed to collect the right Digimon and recruit them back to town since they can help fly you to wherever your mission is. They can’t fly you directly of course, but it makes the travel a little quicker.

Be that as it may, the game is tremendously fun and it really does encourage you to explore the world for items, meet with new Digimon trainers who help you progress in the story, and to really develop a strong bond with your partners. We really felt immersed in the game because there’s always something new to accomplish, and the difficulty level is manageable so that way you can truly enjoy your experience.

We could literally go over every aspect of this game in great detail, but that would most surely take up more than one page, so we encourage you to really get your feet wet in this game once it drops.

Digimon World: Next Order takes you to a whole new universe with a fresh cast of characters to keep you fully engaged for hours. The first chapter itself took well over 7-9 hours to complete, that is, if you’re the type to really explore and search for just about everything. We felt the story, despite it being very entertaining and strong in dialogue, wasn’t truly the main focus of the game as most of it was placed upon the improved battle system additions. They wanted the player to feel tied to the game as if they were actually a part of it themselves and training their Digimon on the go. There’s an emotional connection that you receive each time you cheer your Digimon on after a battle or feeding them when they’re hungry, and that felt like the true selling point of the title.

When compared to Cyber Sleuth, the gameplay felt fresh and more interactive which kept the level of motivation to play very high, and the transitioning just feels smoother. Perhaps one unfortunate mishap is that the game lacks diversity with regards to how many Digimon you encounter, with only roughly 210 species to discover. Now, of course, that is surely a big number, but with such a massive overhaul to the game’s environment, we were looking forward to a much larger database to keep us on our toes. Nevertheless, with a very deep evolution system, great soundtrack as you run through the many terrains, and a solid story, Digimon World: Next Order is sure to please many new fans to the genre as well as the veterans.

With the game now out on North American shores, many of you can now embark on the wonderful Digimon adventure, breed and battle other enemies, and encounter new obstacles along the way. We hope you found this review useful and resourceful to ensure your purchase was worthwhile. What do you think of Digimon World: Next Order? Did it live up to your expectations, or did it fall flat in some areas? Let us know what you think in the comments section down below, and be sure to support us on social media by sharing our articles with your friends to help keep the community grow!

As always for all things sweet, with all the buzzing news straight from Japan, be sure to keep it locked here on Honey’s Anime.

Digimon World: Next Order is the latest installment in the Digimon franchise for the Playstation Vita, and focuses a lot of course on the Digimon Universe. For those who are new to Digimon and are coming from let’s say the Pokemon world, you’ll notice that while there are some similarities to how you train your partners, how you actually conduct and manage everything is a lot more concrete in Digimon. This game is an RPG and so if you enjoy exploration, collecting items to power up your Digimon, detailed dialogue, and story, then Next Order will most definitely generate a lot of excitement from you. As a reminder, this game is exclusive only to Japan at the moment but will see a PS4 only release sometime next year.

As stated above, Digimon World: Next Order is an RPG game where you raise your Digimon to become stronger over the course of the game, defeating monsters as you progress through the story and collect as much data as possible. Digimon World: Next Order is a direct sequel to Digimon World on PS1, and caters more to the digimon fans who've enjoyed Digimon World Re: Digitize as well as Digimon World Re: Digitize Decode.

One great aspect about the Digimon titles is that despite being in the same universe, the story and characters you encounter throughout the game are entirely fresh. In the case of Next Order, everything from the new battle system to how you can actually train your Digimon is a wonderful treat and is a nice addition to an already solid game. One thing to note is that while the game does deviate away from the traditional style of battle, the automatic fight sequence is very dynamic and truly makes you feel like you’re sending out orders to your Digimon in battle.

The story starts out with your character being sucked into a new world and encounters two mysterious Digimon up ahead. When you make your way toward them they tell you that they’re in danger and need your help to defeat the evil Machinedramons, who are the enemy in the earlier parts of the story. Unfortunately, your Digimon are defeated and killed in battle, and now you are then sent to the Digimon World to reincarnate them. This is where you meet Jijimon, an old man Digimon who acts as your assistant throughout your journey and tells you of the dangers that lie ahead pertaining to Machinedramon and various other mysterious powerful entities. It is now up to you to save the Digimon World from peril, using your new reincarnated Digimon partners to protect the innocent, and restore balance for all inhabitants.

After all, it's explained in great detail, Jijimon shows you a group of new eggs that you can choose from, and from there your journey begins. From there you can choose from two main characters, a male lead named Takuto, or Tsuki, the female protagonist. Who you choose will not affect the overall outcome of the story, it’s basically your own personal preference. We decided to go with Tsuki and gave her a new name to add our own touch. From here the fun begins and that’s what we’ll focus next on in the gameplay section. You start out in the town of Floatia, and from there you embark on a wild adventure seeking out new opportunities and doing a ton of leveling up as you progress.

Once you’ve chosen your two Digimon to take with you, much of the earlier parts of the game are all basic training to get you accustomed to the new system, as well as how to train and raise your Digimon correctly. One of the new additions is called ‘Order Points’ where in battle, your character must decide what special attack to use before time runs out. You have a 5-second time frame to choose, so once you’ve made your decision you use up your Order Points which is displayed on the left-hand side of each attack box. Using the designated shoulder buttons for your Digimon (L and R), allow you to choose which of your Digimon should attack, or you can choose commands that allow them to charge up their power. It’s a very versatile system that allows the player freedom to choose what attacks are necessary for battle, and because everything is automatic in terms of your Digimon battling, there’s no need to figure out positioning, etc. Think of the Order Points system as a manual way to stay on track of things in a battle that’s basically carried out for you. By pressing the square button, you can access other tactics such as charge up, protect, and escape battle as well.

Once you’ve used your Order Points, you’ll need to wait for the cooldown to end before committing to another attack. Furthermore, if you don’t have enough Order Points then your manual attacks cannot be used until they replenish, which you can do by cheering on your Digimon in battle by pressing the circle button when the yellow megaphone flashes.

This is one fantastic feature that many fans of the series will enjoy because it truly pushes your Digimon beyond their limits, and creates an incredibly powerful finishing blow to the opponent. As we explained earlier with Order Points, you need enough of these in order to use manual based attacks in battle. You accumulate points randomly which means on some occasions you’ll earn four to six, and in others as high as 50. All of this depends on what’s happening in battle but to engage your ExE, you’ll need to accumulate 150 points between both your Digimon to activate it. Once you’ve managed to collect 150, your Digimon fuse together to create an incredibly strong creature which can deal a whopping amount of damage, especially when you’re in a pinch. After the battle is over the two Digimon return to their normal selves and you move on with your adventure. The elements of your Digimon will determine the what form they take on, so it’s always careful to pay close attention to everything.

These points are associated with your main character and can be used to level up certain areas, much like a skill tree system. As you engage in battle or do sub-quests for Digimon in the area, you’ll gain experience which over time will help you level up faster. As you get further into the game, more options will be available to you by pressing the triangle button, which will allow you to dig deeper into your Digimon's evolution status and manage their stats. Evolution info is directly given to you which is a huge plus, and once you dive further into the game you’ll have the options to do such things as guarantee your evolution route, change evolution requirement values, and trade evolution items to gain partner evolution requirements as soon as you need them. You can fish and camp now in the game which allows you to gain more effects on your food, and provide more for your Digimon on your journey so that their lifespan increases.

Once they do pass on, however, they become Digitama and from there you can then hatch another egg to raise. That partner who passed on passes a certain percentage of stats to the next Digimon afterward. Items to look out for and purchase are portable toilets, HP and MP disks, status pills, and most importantly bandaids. These will be your go-to items for most of your journey, with meats and other rations being collected as you travel.

As you progress throughout the game, you’ll start to notice that exploration is a huge must because it impacts the overall flow of the game. We’ll detail more on that in the next section.

One thing to note is that this game requires a lot of training and cooperation between you and your Digimon at all times. You need to be paying very close attention to every detail of your Digimon as you progress through the game, such as feeding them, ensuring they use the toilet frequently, and to always communicate with them positively when they confront you after a battle.

On your long adventure, you’ll come across a lot of different Digimon who you’ll need to recruit so that the town can grow, and various improvements can be made. So while the Digimon you encounter are mainly sub-quests, they actually do make up for a large part of the game because they reflect what you can and can’t do as you go forward. Harvesting and collecting is huge in this game since most of the Digimon you meet will ask you to provide them with certain items, which they take back with them to Floatia to build your farm. Another great point to add is just how vast the world is, and just how much freedom you have. There are of course invisible walls throughout the game, but it doesn’t really deter you because the game is still very large on its own. The map option is very helpful in getting you around the world effectively, with attention to detail at every corner.

Throwing everything that we mentioned together is what truly creates sheer excitement as you play through Digimon World: Next Order because, the game teaches you how to really take care of your Digimon, and raise them in the way that you prefer. The training aspect behind the game is one of the great ways to establish a great relationship with your Digimon, as you can acquire points for certain attributes such as HP, MP, Intelligence, and Strength which all help to build your connection meter.

Over the course of the game and depending on how you treat your partners, the triangle between you and your partners will increase which actually help a lot, and prevents mishaps such as your Digimon failing to take orders. This feels so much deeper and more personal because you’ve actually taken your Digimon from their egg state all the way to their max evolution, and seeing them grow in front of your eyes is like a mother watching her children develop over time. One thing that was a small gripe to us was that there’s no option to sprint in the game so things, in the beginning, felt a little slow, especially when having to travel back and forth to Floatia to speak with Jijimon and the other Digimon. This gets a little easier once you’ve managed to collect the right Digimon and recruit them back to town since they can help fly you to wherever your mission is. They can’t fly you directly of course, but it makes the travel a little quicker.

Be that as it may, the game is tremendously fun and it really does encourage you to explore the world for items, meet with new Digimon trainers who help you progress in the story, and to really develop a strong bond with your partners. We really felt immersed in the game because there’s always something new to accomplish, and the difficulty level is manageable so that way you can truly enjoy your experience.

We could literally go over every aspect of this game in great detail, but that would most surely take up more than one page, so we encourage you to really get your feet wet in this game once it drops.

Digimon World: Next Order takes you to a whole new universe with a fresh cast of characters to keep you fully engaged for hours. The first chapter itself took well over 7-9 hours to complete, that is, if you’re the type to really explore and search for just about everything. We felt the story, despite it being very entertaining and strong in dialogue, wasn’t truly the main focus of the game as most of it was placed upon the improved battle system additions. They wanted the player to feel tied to the game as if they were actually a part of it themselves and training their Digimon on the go. There’s an emotional connection that you receive each time you cheer your Digimon on after battle or feeding them when they’re hungry, and that felt like the true selling point of the title.

When compared to other Digimon titles, the gameplay felt fresh and more interactive which kept the level of motivation to play very high, and the transitioning just feels smoother. Perhaps one unfortunate mishap is that the game lacks diversity with regards to how many Digimon you encounter, with only roughly 210 species to discover. Now, of course, that is surely a big number, but with such a massive overhaul to the game’s environment, we were looking forward to a much larger database to keep us on our toes. Nevertheless, with a very deep evolution system, great soundtrack as you run through the many terrains, and a solid story, Digimon World: Next Order is sure to please many new fans to the genre as well as the veterans.

Digimon World: Next Order is slated to drop in North America in early 2017 with the PS4 version being released digitally only. While this may be a huge upset for many who own a Vita, one should feel grateful that it’s getting a western release to begin with. We can certainly admit that this game is one of the better RPG’s that has come out in Japan recently, and it’s because there’s so much to see and do. We hope you found this review useful and resourceful to ensure your purchase was worthwhile. Let us know what other Japanese only titles you’d like to see reviewed down in the comments section down below, and be sure to share our articles to keep the audience buzzing!

As always for all things sweet, with all the buzzing news straight from Japan, be sure to keep it locked here on Honey’s Anime.