Digimon World

The "Isekai" format has existed in fiction since the concept of fiction has existed. While many works are unique in many ways, with there being worlds of difference between Inuyasha, .hack//, The Wizard of Oz, or Ready Player One, there is a similarity between works that I've noticed. That similarity being how quickly the main character gets accustomed to the new world they inhabit. Language, culture, customs, social norms, all mastered in minutes. Suddenly finding yourself in a whole new world wildly different than the one you've known your entire life would at least be confusing if this were the real world, right?

The protagonist of Digimon World is a kid who is abruptly warped into a digital world full of digital monsters and, with little direction given, is instructed to raise and train a Digimon, while also being tasked with recruiting more Digimon to move into the city he's suddenly found himself in. There's no map, at least not in-game. The chart that shows your Digimon's growth and path to further "Digivolutions" is barebones and not particularly informative. Some of the steps you need to take to recruit a new Digimon to File City are obtuse, to say the very least. Any progress you make is in spite of the game, and not because it provided a guiding hand. Better learn how to take notes and draw up your own maps, because you aren't getting shit otherwise. You are lost in the world of Digimon. This is a game that takes the standard Isekai formula, and does something a bit unique with it.

Or it could just be bad game design capped off with a bad localization.

Either way, Digimon World is an awesome game. Intentional or not, the lack of direction leads to some very satisfying moments. Raising your little monster, and watching as it becomes something really cool, like a guy made entirely out of fire, or Robocop if Murphy was even more of a rotting corpse, or the massive skeleton dragon. I'm finding out very late in life that Digimon designs are fucking amazing, and I'm invested in seeing and raising as many variations of Digimon as I can. Not just making them look cool, but making them stronger. Digimon World can be a hard game beyond its lack of direction. Enemies can be downright brutal, and going from barely surviving encounters to making Ogremons and MetalGreymons fall at your feet like overgrown weeds never really gets old. Something I really love about RPGs and the various growth and experience systems they have is they act as a real-time measuring stick showing how far you've come in your journey. Digimon World does this really well, despite not being a "traditional" RPG.

Some of the quests in the game are pretty ridiculous in their methods, at times feeling like older obtuse games like Castlevania II or The Tower of Druaga. You probably wouldn't immediately figure out that you have to find a plant that only grows on the 15th day of the year in order to recruit a Vegiemon to File City. You probably wouldn't know about the secret island that can only be reached by fishing for a Seadramon that only shows up at two very specific times of day that you need to catch with a fishing rod that you trade for with trading cards that you can only buy from a secret shop that's only open for a specific time of the year. I think most people would read those previous sentences, and think that this game is a bunch of bull shit. I, on the other hand, love this kind of thing. This is the kind of game design that keeps me up at night, thinking about the amount of thought and effort that goes into meticulously hiding these things.

Digimon World is a very old school kind of game. A solo experience that is somehow also a community-driven one. I already mentioned Castlevania II and Druaga, but there's also Zelda, Mortal Kombat, or Dark Souls. Games with secrets buried deep within them that lead to a community of players trading information with one another, thinking outside of the box in order to solve a mystery presented to them by the developers. Digimon World fits perfectly into that particular style of game, turning the adventure of a single Digimon Tamer and their Digimon into a group project with a multitude of Tamers talking to one another.

This all goes back to my original point. A normal isekai sees its protagonist getting their bearings very quickly due to helpful people within that world. This particular isekai sees you slowly, awkwardly getting your bearings by having to find people outside of the digital universe that were thrust into the same position you were, but we're all still figuring it out together. From playground rumors and sketchy tips in gaming magazines, to message boards and fan-run wikis, we have also Digivolved. Literally growing and changing along with our digital monsters. Hopefully, we can continue to grow in the ways that we help one another, pulling each other through both the metaphorical and real digital worlds that can feel so isolating and hostile.