[Retrospective Review] Digimon: Digital Card Battle

I first played Digimon: Digital Card Battle years after the first two games. But it was the first of the three games that I finished. The game features characters from the first two anime seasons being heavily influenced by Digimon Adventures 02.

A World of Card Battles

The game takes a place in the Digi-land. A world that revolves around Card Battling. You start by choosing your starter Deck which revolves around a Partner card out of the three main partners of Digimon Adventures 02. Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon. Then you go to the Beginner City and learn about the Card Game.You're then introduced to Battle Arenas that are held in most cities and you have to win to advance to the next area.

The story of the game simply revolves around going from a city to the next. Collecting stronger cards. Fighting Evil! And becoming a better Card Tamer. There's interesting mystery lurking in the corner of this world and the game has one intimidating villain for a light-hearted Card game.

With exactly 300 cards. Digimon: Digital Card Battle includes most of the Digimon that appeared in the anime by the time of its release and many more. Featuring Digivolutions for the protagonists partners that never appeared in the anime.

Let's Card Battle!

In Card Battles you choose a Digimon from your hand to battle with. Each Digimon Card has HP and three attacks corrispounding to the playstation buttons. (Circle is generally the strongest attack, Triangle is usually weaker, and Cross has a special effect when used.) Your goal is to lower your opponent Digimon Card's HP to zero. Doing so, you win a round. The first to win three rounds wins the battle.

At the start of each very turn, there's the Digivolution phase. Each Digimon Card has a DP value when you put it in the DP slot. Once you collect enough DP you can Digivolve to the next level. From Rookie to Campion and then Ultimate. (Mega level Digimon appear in this game but they're treated as if they're stronger Ultimate Digimon. They're also only ubtainable late in the game.) Partner Digimon can also Armor Digivolve without DP requirements, but they can't digivolve further after doing so in the battle.

The rules of the game is simple but with the many effects of the Cross attack, as well as the effects of Support/Option cards, you'll have to think before making a choose. Sometimes you're forced to choose the weaker attack because the opponent can counter your strongest attack. Sometimes you have to choose the special effect attack even if it doesn't do much damage to your opponent. The Card gameplay is very deep and no two battles feel the same.

After choosing a move and the Support Card each turn, a battle starts. If "Polygon Battle" is turned On. The fight will commence in 3D! There are more than 170 Digimon in the game, and each attack for every Digimon is uniquely animated.

Though, with Ploygon Battles On all the time, the game feels kind of slow. You can turn the feature of at any time from the Select menu.

After the battle, your partner Digimon will gain EXP. (Upgrades come with new levels.) If you win you'll also get three random cards. Winning a Battle Arena will earn you cards according to the theme of the Arena.

Best Digimon Game?

In my opinion, Digimon Digital Card Battle, is the most polished and least repetitive Digimon game on PS1. That might be the case because in Japan it was a sequel to another Digimon Card Game that was never released in English and this game built on top of that.

True, you'll see the same cares used too many times but it doesn't feel the same like grinding the same battles hundreds of times in Digimon World 2. There's always a new card waiting in the corner, and you'll fight many different opponents. This doesn't mean that this game isn't repetitive. Story will have you fight some opponents more than once and getting all 300 cards will require many hours of grinding.

I like how this game melds plot points from both Digimon World 1 and Digimon Adventure 02. The first major antagonist you'll face is Digimon Emperor from the anime, but the first real threat is called "A."(He first appeared in Digimon World 1.) Late in the game you'll fight the Mega level Digimon of the heroes of the anime. and I found that pretty awesome! (Yes, even those that didn't appear in the anime are in the game.)

While Digimon World 1 is my favorite of the bunch. I have to say that Digital Card Battle is the most polished and might be the better game of the two. Especially for card games fans.

Recommendation

It's one Digimon game I really recommend to fans of Card Games or the Digimon franchise. Especially fans to Digimon Adventure 02 anime who want to see more of the characters. The card battling is fun and the game is well paced unlike any other Digimon game on the PS1.

What do you think?

You can also check my Review of Digimon World 1, and Digimon World 2 For PS1 nostalgia there's PS1 Games of My Childhood series. For more #gaming content follow me and comment your thoughts.

First image uses the game's box art taken from gamefaqs. Other images are screenshots taken by me.