This is one of the most addictive titles of the franchise for the Playstation One and also the only one to leave the "open world" line of the Digimon Virtual World by placing the player in front of a linear storyline. With 30 cards from Support to Digi-Evolutions, the fight takes place in real time, with no loadings and lag: Flluent animations!

Yes Tamers: The game boasts its 60 frames per second during the battle scenes being one of the few PS1 games to have this feature natively (no, do not say Gran Turismo 1, it is not full 60fps, only the night tracks are...) Let's take a little walk through some points of the game in this digital Review ok? Let's go!

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AGGRESSIVE & INTELLIGENT COMBAT:

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A self-respecting card game must have a reasonable minimum number of cards to collect and there are enough of them here: 301 cards divided between Digimon cards and Support Cards. Each Digimon card has one property. There are 5 types of Digimon in the game through the classes "Rookie" (The Newbie...), "Champion" & "Ultimate" (The Supremes!). Let's explain the types which are as follows:

There are also the "Floppy Disks" to give a specific "Digimon" a boost or special trait, such as giving another number of attacks, Digi-Evolve the "Matrix Evolution" (going from Rookie level straight to Ultimate! ), Recover Life, Trick the opponent and so on. These functions are the same, We can say, as "Traps" & "Magics" of, again quoting, Yu-Gi-Oh.

Knowing that each card has its own property You can mix Your deck and make a team that puts any opponent off the table in a snap! However, consider that certain bonuses and effects from some cards are for a certain type of Digimon only and there are cards that only digi-evolve completely if their requirements are met.

Type like: To set, as an attacker, the Champion evolution of a blue card... The previous monster, for this, has to be Rookie. Another thing: A Rookie never becomes Ultimate Direct! There is a penalty if you try to do this, because You're skipping one step that is the Champion form. The Digimon evolved "wrong", from R to U, will be a mess!

There are obviously cards that make this skipped evolution, from R to U, something possible, but overall it's the rule: R > C > U, not skippable. It must also be said that the game it's NOT AUTOMATIC! So... It's not just put the card on the table and expect the effect to happen, just like Yu-Gi-Oh! For example (always it). The game takes the "fight" thing seriously and YOU HAVE TO ATTACK, literally, when playing the card on.

To do this, there are 3 options by pressing one of the following buttons on the Joystick: With "X" You perform an Attack usually weak, but with a Special Skill of the Digimon (which varies: it can be double or triple damage output vs some specific type, prevent the opponent from giving maximum damage, counter attacking the opponent and so on ...). With ▲ You perform a normal Monster attack, with medium and variable power, and with "O" You make the most powerful attack of the beast.

Finally it is worth to say that the game have a card fusion system, unlocked as You advance in the story. It also have a trade system to change cards with another friend of Yours being unlocked as you progress too. More features in: Possibility to leave Your favorite deck saved, Decks and Titles / Nicknames Rankings unlocked to use as You countless times win / play with a certain type of deck and a MUST PLAY VERSUS MODE (angelic sound here) making the joy of any good fan of a dueling card game: It's time to duel with a friend!

At the time of this game the Versus Mode + Trade Card were one of the most fun things in this game! To play by "bet a card" was something for those who had huge disposition! Damn... Good times of the "Memory Card Buster Deck", that's for sure!

Buuut do not worry: With a good emulator on PC You can revive this Vibe using a Kailera Server or if you have a PS3 You can ask your friend to take his save on a Pen-Drive there You will see who's the best! It's also SENSATIONAL and totally recommended to play on Your Smartphone against a friend on the street, at work (heheheeh!) or at his / her house! Anyway, wherever you go, there's a plenty of battle to do with Your deck!

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INVOLVING SOUND & FORGOTTEN VOICES:

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One of the things that this game have and You'll not like, surely, is the fact that the characters do not have their voiceovers! Of course dubbing a game is expensive and such, but with so much material available on Digimon, Bandai kind of would not even need to "redo" the Digimon dubs!

The main characters would be something more specific, but would less expensive too. Anyway, in this Bandai work We do not have dialogues with voices in the conversations and We do not even have the Voices of the Digimons, nothing of Agumon and "Pepper Breath!" or Mugendramon and its "Chaos Cannon!" and all these lines were in Digimon World 1 and 2 with the Digimons exclaiming their attacks! Yeah, yeah, I know, all generic and repeated voices, as in Mortal Kombat until the 8, but c'mon man: It was pretty fun and very interesting, besides... It's the digital world, so CTRL+C and CTRL+V it's suitable on this case!

At least the music from the menus, cities and battles are very good despite having simple arrangements. One interesting thing is that the songs "stucks easy in your head" and it is pretty possible that they do not leave Your brain alone for a long time after the first half hour (The first stage Battle Café music, for example, it's like those Songs "Anime Lifestyle" You know? Like: First episode, everything in a good way, the guy walking and talking about his life and such until suddenly...)

You do not have to be a game music fan to enjoy the songs of this one, because the repertoire is very varied and we could risk and even say it is "strong" to this kind of game. When You reach the battle against the Bosses You'll hear what We are trying to explain: The "Deadly Battle Feeling" is increased 100% in those parts with the "tension feel" the music brings. The songs "Before The Battle" and "Versus Card Master" surely destroy nerves. If You're someone who's highly competitive and likes Card Games that simulates this feeling of "ultimate competition" since the introduction duel... Congratulations! Here's your alternating Nirvana!

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UP & DOWN 32 BITS: 60 FP/S WITHOUT LOAD!

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Graphically the game is well served for its time: The card arenas have a 2D aspect, cool as well as the cards. No, not everything are flowers: In the dialogues the characters are not represented by a whole 3D model or by images of these interacting with You etc, nothing like that! There's only one box, on the right side, with a picture of the CPU character that talks to You and to the left side there's a photo of your Avatar. Dude... Really: In this part, as the lack of digimon dubs thing, this abstinence is very strange!

Why? well... We have the 3D model of your Avatar that appears at the beginning of the game, You can even move it with the Dual Shock right stick, but it only appears there! The Digimon also has 3D models, all of them, but they do not appear interacting with your Avatar from the beginning, never! Just two photos talking and this is it... It's impossible to tell if they did not make a 3D interaction just by laziness or because they thought it would not be cool.

Considering that they did so much things "right" in this card game maybe, by that time, they could not have done it properly or the way it should be done... But what about the drawings? For at least one character / Digimon full body drawing talking to you, like "Forbidden Memories" did (again and always comparing!), it would be very good already!

Speaking of drawings and animations: The game intro it's the only aspect that has CGI, anyway it is not to be despised: It was very well maded and, for the time, with a feeling that any Digimon fan would love to see and hear considering that the music of this CGI is the same one from the anime's first season!

The message "Only the Strongest Will Reign" is passed with force and leaves with all the letters the indication that the Player is who'll decide who's the most powerful card player tamer of the Digiworld. It is important to say that the opening of the Japanese version of the game and the opening of the American version are totally different and incredibly... The opening of the American version is infinitely BETTER THAN THE JAPANESE! Thousands of times better, not even to argue! See below: The Video on the left is the Japanese version of Opening and the video on the right is the US version. There is no comparison EVEN!

Okay, but my good people, the high point of the game, when talking about graphics, are the battle animations! Although there's a option to turn them off, to accelerate the pace of the competition, sincerely the initiative are not recommended: The animations are so charming flowing in SIXTY FRAMES PER SECOND, as we said at the beginning, and are so fast that it do not mess up with the gameplay on the contrary... They make it cooler and unique to watch!

It would be immeasurably interesting to see a Digimon World on PS1 at the time, with that level of care in battles. The special effects are great and the sound of the blows being dealt and the way that they hit the opponent matches every technique the Digimon has.

In this respect, DCB succeeded in something that its genre rival, Yu-Gi-Oh!, even with his popular Blockbuster title "Forbidden Memories", NEVER managed to do in that aspect: Pass to the virtual card games player the magical feeling of "Power & Immersion" and they menaged to do it in a "ultra past gen" console.. THIS is awesome! And no, please: Do not quote Monster Rancher card game as a reference, because the refinement of DCB transpasses such an argument, Pay Your Respects to the digi-card battle already!

Even in the current Playstation 4 era... DCB continues flawlessly with the title of THE ONLY Card Battle game, for home consoles, since December 2000, to take ALL monsters to a 3D arena with both: Great level of entertainment and great level of respect to the consumers (yes, We want to see the all monsters battling each other in a fast way and the time We believe be more convenient to Us!).

By the way: Have You already seen the Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of Duelist fights on PS4? For Seraphimon's sake... In addition to do not have ALL monsters with their 3D models in the game, the animations of those who had it are kinda... Worse! And worse than the ones In the games "GX" series for PSP for register. It's a PS4 System! The animations do not accompany or use the power of this gen, surely not.

Even being a card game, something that do not really have the need of have such trait, We have to say: To bring all digi-monsters from the cards to an full 3D battle arena, with this kind of quality and fun (something to praise in 1999/2000), it's a real cool way to show how digimon do fight good in whatever scene that the duel between them are created.

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SATISFACTORY DIGITAL CONCLUSION:

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Although the lack of Digimon attack lines and the lack of interactivity between them and their Avatar, in a more opened way, this game is excellent in proposing to do what it was created to do: To be a digital and dynamic card battle arena! The way all fights goes are fun and, not to say divine, tending to easly swallow any fan of card games for many and many hours of gameplay.

And yes, even if You're not a fan of the genre, only possessing a little curiosity, give one chance to this beautiful title of the golden era of PS1 games: With the advent of Smartphones, which practically are a pocket PC, it is possible Play this title anywhere and absurdly enjoy it. Considering how addictive it can be, if You really get carried away by the digital universe, You'll share the game with a friend an soon You too will be fighting each other with force! After all... Everything derived from Digimon World saga tends to be very good, try it!