Digimon Links was released in Australia for Google Play on October 4th, and boy, did I not expect much from it as I downloaded the app.
However, I was happy to be proven wrong, and, honestly, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the game. I was hooked instantly and even recorded a podcast with my thoughts for Lost in Translationmon on October 5th after a day of playing the game because I just wanted to talk to somebody, ANYBODY about it.
It’s been a week since I first pressed on that friendly green ‘Install’ button and 6 days since I excitedly chirped away about it on a podcast. Has the honeymoon period ended?
So I thought I’d write up a Digimon Links Review.
I won’t go over too much which I already went over in my first impressions podcast – like audio and graphics – since those are things that don’t change after a first impression. If you hadn’t had a change to listen to it and don’t intend to; the graphics and animation are pretty impressive for a mobile game and everything runs very smoothly and doesn’t lag and the music has been taken from existing Digimon games (Digimon World Re:Digitize) and isn’t repetitive.
After a few days of continuous enjoyment, I bought the ‘Beginner Support Pack’ in the store for $26.99AUD which got me 100 DigiStones and a ‘Choose a Mega’ voucher because I’m rubbish.
I used these 100 DigiStones to open 10 special release eggs and I used the voucher to get a Machinedramon. I didn’t open anything too spectacular in the eggs but I’m happy with my Machinedramon and so far I had enjoyed Links more than games I’ve spent the full release price of $80AUD on (looking at you, 1 2 Switch). I mentioned this in my podcast special last week; if I enjoy something I’ll throw money at it and I also wanted a Machinedramon because he’s the best.
So far I’ve opened Link eggs as well as DigiStone eggs and I haven’t opened anything too amazing.
The daily dungeons where you can get different type digivolution fuel are a really good idea to try and get people coming back every day, I was waiting patiently for Monday to come so I could get some Null energy.
I’ve noticed if you copy your usercode in your profile, some untranslated Japanese comes up briefly down the bottom. My limited Japanese says it says something about copying the code, which makes sense.
A feature which I only found out about after recording the podcast is co-op mode where you can help other player’s with their missions. This is a good way to use timezones and complete daily dungeon with other people. For example, I was on Friday and was able to help with somebody’s Thursday dungeon. It also means that you can replay special events that have limited plays to get the Mega Digimon that you want. You get a lot of Digistones doing this for the first few times as well and man, does it make me feel like a monster when I come in with my Machinedramon and one hit sweep the opponents.
There are also cute little emoticons you can use while in these co-op dungeons which feature cute Digimon art and a simple saying such as ‘Save AP!’, ‘Good job!’, and ‘OMG!’ which can be useful for communicating with your team.
Another feature which I only discovered a few days in is the ‘chat’ feature. Which you can use to create groups of a maximum of 30 people and you can chat to them. I created a group for the Patreon supporters of the podcast. It’s a pretty neat feature.
However, something I’ve only noticed after recording the podcast is that some of the menu options aren’t exactly intuitive; The Digimon List is hidden away and, honestly, it should be on the UI. Maybe I have trouble with this because the tutorial, while rather quick, packed a lot of information which was easily forgotten.
As for story, it sort of has one. It has as much of a story as a lot of free-to-play games do, maybe more. I wouldn’t say it’s enthralling and I couldn’t tell you what the story was besides ‘bad things are happening and Hina is the human version of Isabelle from Animal Crossing and I love her’ but honestly, I don’t expect much of a story from a F2P phone application.
I find that the normal quests (the ‘campaign’, I guess) is very short and everything can be finished within the first first days and there’s really no story beyond the basic tutorial where something is going wrong. So, beyond the first few days, the main things that kept me coming back were the daily missions and daily dungeons, though I can imagine after getting all the fuel and Digimon that I want, I will begin to play less and less.
There are also quests, once you finish the ‘beginner’ range of quests, it moves onto ‘awakening’ however, it was annoying when I got to here as one of the tasks was ‘Complete an advent dungeon on easy’ which, is very easy, so easy in fact that I had already cleared this prior to getting the quest so, for now, it’s impossible, meaning I have to wait for the next range of advent quests as it doesn’t count even if I complete it as a co-op quest. Which is annoying, but whatever, I can’t complain too much about this game seeing as it’s very and mostly enjoyable.
I can see the vast array of features and daily reasons to login forcing me to come back for a couple of weeks more at the very least and I expect to enjoy Digimon Links for quite a bit too. I mean, I’m easily pulled in by daily rewards, quests, events, and rewards for having streaks and it’s the main reason why I still play Pokemon Go and Digimon Heroes. I wonder if there’s going to be a Halloween event? If there are holiday events, I can see myself being sucked in much more to this game, especially at a time of year where events in online games seem very popular.
Cost: Free! (with extras)
Music: 8/10
Sound effects: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Story : 3/10 (fine for a F2P mobile game)
Mechanics and Gameplay: 8/10
Setting: 6/10
Translation: 7/10
Difficulty level: Easy