Written By TheChoujinVirus
Note: the following game may contain spoilers to the game’s story so if you don’t want to be spoiled, avoid this review.
Gacha games…you either love them, or you hate them. They expect you to pay a ton of things and a lot use some original IPs such as Geshin Impact, Raid: Shadow Legends, or AFK Arena. Others use established IPs Such as Fire Emblem, Pokemon, and such. One such is a game that pops up that I’ve discovered. That game is called Digimon ReArise, a Digimon themed Gacha game with its own charm to this type of gaming. The game was released on May 15th, 2018, in Japan, then launched in the west on October 7th, 2019. The game is celebrating its 1st anniversary) and made by Bandai-Namco. Does this game stand up pretty well, or is it another one of the many games in the sea of gacha games? Here’s my review of Digimon ReArise
Story+Gameplay
Digimon ReArise takes place in “Japan’s Far future,” where the internet has become paramount. You play as a random person who finds themselves with a Digimon in their smartphone. The Digimon, named Pursuimon, later aids you by digivolving into Hessimon when you are under attack by digital creatures called Spirals. After this information, your adventure throughout the game begins with you as a Tamer alongside Hessimon as you find new friends and solve the Spirals’ mystery and their connection to the digital world.
The gameplay of ReArise is pretty straightforward as your objective is to defeat the enemies in front of you with your Digimon. Usually, your Digimon has two attacks: A Main attack and a Sub Attack. Usually, the Digimon’s primary attack is tied to one of their signature moves (some have some unique abilities like boosting or status enhancement). Sub Attacks are offensive supports that either boost, debuff, heal your allies (and removing status conditions), or inflicting status conditions on enemies.
If you think Hessimon is doing this all by himself? No worries, you can create a party of up to five other Digimon to aid you in these quests. You can acquire Digimon through two means: Finding digieggs and hatching them; or obtaining them from the gacha mechanic. Usually, your first new Digimon will help you throughout the game. Still, sooner or later, you’ll be fighting stronger Digimon, and to do that, you’d need to make your Digimon stronger.
By upgrading your Digimon’s level, feeding your Digimon, and awakening your Digimon’s strength, you can make them stronger and “Digivolve” them to the next level. Most Digimon, depending on the acquisition, start out in the Rookie Stage (Egg hatched Digimon are in their In Training 1 then have to be grown to their next stage.) The stages (In order) In Training I, In Training II, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Most Digimon will go as far as Ultimate, and some do have a Mega form (and a smaller handful have access to their most potent form like Burst Mode or an alternate mode.)
Luckily, even if you hit a brick wall, the game implements ways of farming parts efficiently. Such examples are Dimensional Rifts (a place to gather ingredients such as Bits, workout chips, and food.), Clash Battles pit your team against powerful Digimon to gain Digicores for digivolution; and the Underworld, where you go into a gauntlet of how far you can go and earn rewards. Through my playthrough of the game, I’ve managed to acquire a few Digimon, some like VenomMyotismon and MegaKabuterimon, being my favorites. In contrast, others were good but not much of a favorite in my eyes. The final thing I like is the PvP system known as the Battle Park. Though you don’t fight a live player, you do fight other player’s teams. What makes it fun is that the PvP system has a story involving how you and Hessimon are progressing through the ranks of the Battle Park (also, the rewards there are pretty good
Digidestined: Great parts of the game
One such great thing I like about ReArise is the various things you can do in the game that ensures you don’t get bored with just the story mode. While you do the story and learn of the lore and the series (not knocking on it, but I do like some of them), you can do other side things to gather more resources. Which makes it feel like an RPG and not like some city thing of “click x to gain this resource.” Another thing I really like about the series is that you can have access to any Digimon! Not just the protagonist ones but antagonist ones too (VenomMyotismon, Beelzemon, Lucemon.) So you’re not limited to just the good guy Digimon. The other play modes are fun (though I haven’t unlocked the aspect of Underworld, so I can’t comment on that) Though the rest like Clash Raids, Dimensional rifts, and Battle Park do provide some variable fun that doesn’t feel tacked on for no reason whatsoever. The game also has exciting events and banners that let you get unique Digimon (such as one that is themed from the 2020 reboot of Digimon Adventures).
Digi-dud: What the game lacks
Though the game is fun and decent, the game does fall into the trappings of using gacha mechanics to get the Digimon you want. Which can be a pain in the butt to do and leads to plenty of trouble if you’re adamant about doing it (or a big spender.) It doesn’t help that some Digimon forms can only be acquired through this (a bit rare outside the shop.) Another problem with the game is that though I could play with at least several Digimon (good or bad), not all the Digimon are in there. Some Digimon like Submarimon isn’t in the game. I do like some of the missing Digimon in there, like Mummymon or some of the Legendary Warriors. Finally, I’m not fond of that only a handful of Digimon seems to have mega forms. A pity as some Digimon just goes as far as ultimate (if there’s a way of making those that only go up to ultimate unlock their mega form, I’d be happy.) This makes it pretty tough and rare.
Digi-tips
I forgot to mention that in the game, every Digimon has up to five personalities: Brave, Calm, Deft, Devoted, and Tenacious. Brave and Calm are more offensive based (brave=physical while calm=magical). Deft personalities focus on mixed styles with conditions designed to mess with the enemy, Devoted are more healers, and Tenacity is tankers intended to focus on defensive means. It’s essential (especially in raid battles) that you have forces to build up specific personalities to deal with specific enemies. Having healers can help keep your party alive while having some supporters provide protection/buffs/inflict status. Also, some Digimon has passive abilities that help out others of their type. Also, I mentioned items called Plugins. Those items are equipped for your Digimon. Some are very specific (such as some that are designed to boost specific Digimon.) Do not forget that you can also upgrade them as they can improve your Digimon.
Conclusion
Though Digimon ReArise behaves like any run of the mill gacha game out there, it’s one that at least is fun on its own and doesn’t fall for any trappings that some of the worse ones have. It’s also something good to play if you’re a fan of the Digimon franchise. It’s nice to build a Digimon dream team and have some fun. If you like this game, now is the best time as some significant events are going on, such as the Halloween event and some other events. You can even get some strong Digimon during these events ( I was able to snag a WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon during the 1st year anniversary celebration)
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