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Wednesday 16 January, 2008
Gameplay
Continuing to play Digimon World 2 has yielded several more gameplay elements. After capturing a new Digimon and raising its level to a certain point (11, 21, and 31) you can "Digivolve" it. This involves the Digimon becoming stronger (and usually visually more impressive) as it moves from "Rookie" to "Champion" (at 11), then to "Ultimate" (at 21), and "Mega" (at 31). This cannot be done so simply however, since each Digimon you catch has a maximum level it can reach. usually most wild Digimon are anywhere from 1-10 levels away from their maximum. Once at the maximum, it must be "DNA Digivolved" with another Digimon. This process involves combining two Digimon to create one. This can only be done with "Champion" level or higher Digimon and yields a Digimon one level lower than lowest Digimon used in the combination. (Champion X2 = Rookie, Champion and Ultimate = Rookie, Mega and Mega = Ultimate). This process will yield one digimon with all the moves (eventually) of the parent Digimon. Each DNA Digivolution allows the produced Digimon to level up further than the parents. In addition, each DNA Digivolution adds "DP" or Digivolve Points. Digimon with higher DP will sometimes Digivolve into rarer forms than the same Digimon with lower DP.
Design
The first and most obvious design element of this game is the way in which movement is implemented. It becomes obvious very quickly that there is a grid of squares on the floor (on foot or in a Dungeon in your Digi-Beetle) and you can move from one square to the next (only up and down on foot, but diagonally as well in the Digi-Beetle). This relatively simple method of movement can often prove frustrating and time consuming when you can't simply walk or drive where you want to, you must follow the square grid, however it does make it easier to predict the movement of wild Digimon.
Another interesting design element is the way in which Digimon are combined to create new ones. After some research on the internet, I found that there is a very specific mathematic formula for seeing what level a new Digimon can get to when compared to the parents. The formula I found in most strategy guides was: digimon1(highest level)+digimon 2's level divided by 5(round down)
Sounds are another interesting Design point. For anybody who ever watched the show Digimon (of which I was an avid fan), you know that when a Digimon attacked it said, aloud, the attack that they were to use. (i.e. Agumon would exclaim "Pepper Breath!" before shooting a small ball of fire out of his mouth). In the game, this is still true. The only spoken words in the game are attacks by Digimon. However, they seem to be a strange combination of English and the language that the Sims speak. Sometimes the words are audible and understandable, and sometimes they seem completely unintelligible. Why the designers decided to have these be audible and not take the time to make them all understandable (or in the same language) is beyond me, but it definitely adds an almost humorous air to the battles in the game.
And that is all I can come up with to say about Digimon World 2.
PS. I enrolled in the class late, Professor Whitehead said I had until tonight (wednesday) @ midnight to complete the gamelog assignment.
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