Digimon is a series, the first anime I would say I was into seriously, getting up every morning at 7am to turn on Cheez TV, to watch Tai and friends save the digital and real worlds. It was only natural that the video games; specifically the Sony PlayStation games, and later Bandai WonderSwan would draw me in as well.

Digimon World Next Order plays most like the first Digimon World game. You are a gi rl or boy who gets sucked into the Digital World. After a fight between WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, and a Machinedramon, you arrive at a village where you meet your Digimon partners. Jigimon, the village chief, sets you off on recruiting nearby Digimon to help rebuild the village and find a way home.

The gameplay is right out of the V-Pets. You have to train, raise, scold, feed and take to the toilet your new Digimon companion. You also don’t control your Digimon. You can encourage, use items and give suggestions. The Digimon fight on their own and they are not required to follow your directions straight away.

The digivolution lines are also not predetermined. How you raise and train your Digimon, and attend to its needs determines what form your Digimon takes. If you choose a Botaman, you may not get an Agumon later on and even if you do, that Agumon (or BlackAgumon in my case) may not evolve into Greymon.

Healing items, at least at the start are in short supply and I soon found myself with two injured Digimon with no way to heal them. They were happy, well fed and trained but still suffering from injuries. I need to recruit a Digimon that can craft those items but I haven’t yet found them.

Unlike the first PlayStation game though (not that it looked at bad at the time), the game is gorgeous and the Digimon are fully realised. The world is small so far but I can see the potential of the game, and am looking forward to playing more.

I am not sure if this is just nostalgia talking yet but I am glad to support the series which seems to be making a comeback.

Digimon World Next Order is available for the PlayStation 4 and Vita (Asia only).