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Posted By Shaun K. about 8 months ago
Namco’s New Digimon RPG Will Make Old School Fans VERY Happy,
I know guys. I am as surprised as you are.
While never as popular as say Pokemon, Digimon has nonetheless never completely dropped out of the public consciousness in the way that so many other Pokemon knock-offs have over the years. Actually starting life as a Virtual pet toy ala the Tamagotchi, it has really been the various anime series that the franchise has received over the years that is truly responsible for its continuing popularity. Indeed, the show still has such a following in Japan that it still regularly sees any number of video game adaptations, primarily RPGs, from the gaming side of owner Namco Bandai. Which brings us to the latest of said RPGs being released for the series, which this time around is taking something of a different tact from past games. What exactly do I mean? Check out the trailer for it that debuted at TGS below and see for yourselves…
So. That happened. Yes indeed, as announced back in August, the next Digimon RPG is none other than what appears to be a full adaptation of the original classic 1999 anime Digimon Adventure that started it all. The game will even will share the same exact title as its TV counterpart. Known simply as Digimon: Digital Monsters outside of Japan, the series remains to the this day one of the iconic versions of the property. Those not familiar with DA should head over here to get caught up to speed. It is also interesting to note that the laugh of the main villain for the post-TV series movie Our War Game! can be hear as the trailer ends. This would seem to point to the idea that the game will indeed be covering the entirety (or at least the greater majority) of the series, though of course this remains only speculation.
And now for the bad news: chances are very good that we will never see this game released outside of Japan. Ever. In case you did not notice, Digimon Adventure is a new PSP game and those have a tendency to no longer leave Japanese shores. After all, when even a long-hyped and much anticipated PSP Final Fantasy title cannot get a stateside release, it hardly bodes well for this game’s chances of international release. Indeed as recently as last June a new PSP Digimon game (based on an original setting and story) was released and there are no plans to bring it Stateside either. So I seriously doubt Digimon Adventure will ever see the light of day overseas. Which is a shame because between older gamers at just the right age to feel nostalgia for a game based on the original anime and younger gamers who continue as always to love bright & colorful games that features a boatload of monsters in them, DA really could have found an audience here in the US.
On any other system than the PSP that is. Unlike Japan after all, where Monster Hunter has spurred on sales of the PSP among all ages of gamers, here in NA, the PSP never had much success even in its heyday reaching any but the more hardcore gaming set. And now…? Yeah, forget about it. Still I cannot blame Namco Bandai for making the PSP their Sony handheld of choice; I would not want to release a major new game of this type on the PS Vita either. But look for more thoughts on that particular subject in this week’s Thumb Wars. Digimon Adventure is currently set for release in Japan in sometime in 2013. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of all Namco Bandai games and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
As much as chances are not high I think I would still love for this to come over to North America. It may be unappreciated here compared to other series but the devoted fans of the original series and RPG fans would give sales for it.
Yeah, chances aren’t high, but I have my hopes and fingers crossed.
Yeah, there’ve been a lot of Digimon games that haven’t been released outside Japan, and since most of them (or the most interesting ones anyway) are RPG’s importing them would be useless, unless you can read Japanese..
this one apparently has voice acting from all the original actors, except Takeru (T.K.) and Palmon.
Plenty of the recent Digimon games for the DS weren’t released stateside. The last one we got was Championship, which I hear was very mediocre, and we never got Lost Evolution. The Xros Wars dub may be out next year, but by then it would just be too late to bother with localizing the pair of games related to that series, and like you said, we most likely won’t get Re:Digitize.
Now, if they release a 3DS Digimon World, then we might have a better chance of getting it.
It’s a shame this might never make it stateside, because I grew up with Digimon and pokemon, and while on pokemon’s defense, I loved the games for that more than Digmon’s, Digimon had far and away the superior anime tie-in. Well, at least as far as the first two seasons of Digimon Adventure were concerned, the rest of the anime is debatable.
But yeah, I loved at least the last two Digimon World games on the PS1, both of which were RPGs unrelated to the plot of the shows, and I love the original Digimon series run, AND I still want some more stuff on my PSP.
Ah well… If we can’t get this, maybe we could butter up Sony to make a PSN release of the classic Digmon Worlds and Monster Ranchers? A guy can dream.
Nostalgia or not, this game doesn’t really look that impressive, from what little the trailer actually shows us. So people in the US don’t get it. Whatever. We’re probably not missing out on much.