Post by thegamerfan on Jul 16, 2005 18:15:05 GMT -5
The digital world of the Digimon has long provided an alternative realm for those poké-masters who have managed to catch them all or have simply tired of trying. Bandai’s digital monsters may not fit in your pocket like Nintendo’s Pokemon will, but they’ve managed to be reasonably popular just the same, enough so to warrant the creation of a fourth sequel in what has been a mostly mediocre series. While Digimon World 4 is a very different game from the last three, it is not a better one.
Hacking in a Digital World
Digimon World 4 is a pretty typical action-RPG in execution, dropping the turn-based combat found in the previous World titles in favor of some real-time hack-'n'-slash gameplay. You start by choosing one of the four playable digimon: Agumon, Veemon, Guilmon, or Dorumon. Your digimon will have a few weapons at its disposal to begin, mostly swords and laser guns. Each weapon falls into a certain type, like slash or stab, and as you use these weapons your proficiency increases for that type. Unfortunately, experience is the only thing that you’ll receive, as using these weapons is no fun at all.
As mindless hacking games go, this one takes the cake, with only a single attack button and no combination attacks to speak of. Being able to equip guns or swords gives a bit of variety, but that bit only goes so far. Finding and collecting new weapons is always a greatly rewarding aspect of RPGs, but many of the weapons you’ll find early in the game have high skill requirements, meaning you can’t use them until much later on. And should you discover a weapon the game thinks you’re qualified for, you still won’t be able to equip it until you exit whichever mission you’re currently slogging through and jump back to your home base.
No Turning Back
The game’s biggest flaw is that constant necessity to return home anytime you want to do anything. The game’s missions all branch out from a central hub area. The only place that you can buy items, equip weapons, and save your progress is in the central hub. So if you find a killer new sword in a crate somewhere, you can’t play with it until you go all the way back to the central hub.
Likewise, with no mid-mission saves, if you get deep into a mission and die you’ll have to start again from scratch. And given the game’s high level of difficulty, with swarms of brainless monsters re-spawning and attacking at every turn, you’ll find death to be a way of life.
Each mission area features a few emergency gates, allowing you to jump back to the home server, buy some stuff, heal yourself, and then return where you left off. However, should you choose to save your game while you’re visiting, the return gate will be disabled, and you’ll need to start the mission over. With many of these missions taking upwards of an hour to complete, the inability to save mid-mission is a deal-breaker.
Not Worth the Wait
When you do get back home after or during a mission you’ll feel like you’re being punished with loading screens. Your home server is a very small area that has senselessly been divided into even smaller segments, each separated by an agonizing loading screen. You can walk across these segments in 10 seconds, yet each one takes 15-20 seconds to load.
All that loading could perhaps have been forgiven if the game featured amazingly-rendered environments and detailed enemies pushing the limits of the PlayStation 2. Instead, the game sports laughably simplistic-looking enemies and areas that would have looked more at home on Sony’s original console than even its now-aged sibling. The game’s sound effects are just as unimpressive.
In fact, the only thing here worthy of praise is the game’s seamless support for multiplayer. Back at the hub, a second, or third, or even fourth player can load his or her own saved Digimon or quickly create a new one and jump right into the game. Missions are much easier and more entertaining to play when you’re suffering your way through with a few friends, but it should be noted that misery loves company.
Digi-Disaster
Where the colorful Pokemon games are finely polished and well-oiled machines, Digimon World 4 feels like a junker thrown together out of rusty spare parts. It fails to provide the simple, fun, and addicting experience this type of game should offer. Halfway-decent multiplayer serves as its only redeeming feature, however, friends don’t let friends play games like this.
we here at XForums give this game a
1 out of 5
Hacking in a Digital World
Digimon World 4 is a pretty typical action-RPG in execution, dropping the turn-based combat found in the previous World titles in favor of some real-time hack-'n'-slash gameplay. You start by choosing one of the four playable digimon: Agumon, Veemon, Guilmon, or Dorumon. Your digimon will have a few weapons at its disposal to begin, mostly swords and laser guns. Each weapon falls into a certain type, like slash or stab, and as you use these weapons your proficiency increases for that type. Unfortunately, experience is the only thing that you’ll receive, as using these weapons is no fun at all.
As mindless hacking games go, this one takes the cake, with only a single attack button and no combination attacks to speak of. Being able to equip guns or swords gives a bit of variety, but that bit only goes so far. Finding and collecting new weapons is always a greatly rewarding aspect of RPGs, but many of the weapons you’ll find early in the game have high skill requirements, meaning you can’t use them until much later on. And should you discover a weapon the game thinks you’re qualified for, you still won’t be able to equip it until you exit whichever mission you’re currently slogging through and jump back to your home base.
No Turning Back
The game’s biggest flaw is that constant necessity to return home anytime you want to do anything. The game’s missions all branch out from a central hub area. The only place that you can buy items, equip weapons, and save your progress is in the central hub. So if you find a killer new sword in a crate somewhere, you can’t play with it until you go all the way back to the central hub.
Likewise, with no mid-mission saves, if you get deep into a mission and die you’ll have to start again from scratch. And given the game’s high level of difficulty, with swarms of brainless monsters re-spawning and attacking at every turn, you’ll find death to be a way of life.
Each mission area features a few emergency gates, allowing you to jump back to the home server, buy some stuff, heal yourself, and then return where you left off. However, should you choose to save your game while you’re visiting, the return gate will be disabled, and you’ll need to start the mission over. With many of these missions taking upwards of an hour to complete, the inability to save mid-mission is a deal-breaker.
Not Worth the Wait
When you do get back home after or during a mission you’ll feel like you’re being punished with loading screens. Your home server is a very small area that has senselessly been divided into even smaller segments, each separated by an agonizing loading screen. You can walk across these segments in 10 seconds, yet each one takes 15-20 seconds to load.
All that loading could perhaps have been forgiven if the game featured amazingly-rendered environments and detailed enemies pushing the limits of the PlayStation 2. Instead, the game sports laughably simplistic-looking enemies and areas that would have looked more at home on Sony’s original console than even its now-aged sibling. The game’s sound effects are just as unimpressive.
In fact, the only thing here worthy of praise is the game’s seamless support for multiplayer. Back at the hub, a second, or third, or even fourth player can load his or her own saved Digimon or quickly create a new one and jump right into the game. Missions are much easier and more entertaining to play when you’re suffering your way through with a few friends, but it should be noted that misery loves company.
Digi-Disaster
Where the colorful Pokemon games are finely polished and well-oiled machines, Digimon World 4 feels like a junker thrown together out of rusty spare parts. It fails to provide the simple, fun, and addicting experience this type of game should offer. Halfway-decent multiplayer serves as its only redeeming feature, however, friends don’t let friends play games like this.
we here at XForums give this game a
1 out of 5