Digimon: Digital Card Battle, originally released in Japan as Digimon World: Digital Card Arena (Japanese: デジモンワールド デジタルカードアリーナ, Hepburn: Dejimonwārudo Dejitaru Kādo Arīna) is the second Digimon Card Battle Game (the first game was never exported) penned by the same creators of the original Digimon World. It was developed by BEC and published by Bandai, and was first made available in Japan in December 2000, with English releases in North America and Europe arriving in June 2001 and July 2002, respectively.
Though similar to the Digital Monster Card Game / Hyper Colosseum TCG at the time (with the international version even including a promotional card for Digi-Battle Card Game), it is actually a different, much simpler card battler. In fact, it has become a Cult Classic among the Digimon fandom.
Tropes applying to this game:
- A.I. Roulette: Early opponents are either suffering of this or a very bad case of Artificial Stupidity. They can make some utterly baffling moves that no sane human player would, though this can actually work for their advantage, as it makes them completely impossible to predict. While later opponents have better strategies, a savvy player can at least try and guess what they are going to do.
- And I Must Scream: Defeating A triggers a program that locks him into an infinity loop program forever.
- Ascended Extra: Patamon was an ordinary card in the prequel that anyone could have multiple copies of in their deck. Here, it's a Partner card you can only have one copy of (if even that) and only a select few opponents have it in their decks.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Some of the most powerful cards in this game require a very high amount of DP to be played. Perhaps the best example may be Apocalymon, his card has the highest HP in the game, his first attack deals 990 damage (the highest natural amount) and it has the self-destruct ability, but it also requires 90 DP points to be used. A battle will most likely be already over by this point.
- It's also not immune to Toy-Agumon.
- Boring, but Practical: One of the most common decks for an in-game playthrough: 3 partner cards, 27 Option cards. The partners are the only Digimon in the game you can customize with Armors and Digi-parts. Since Armor Digimon can't digivolve to Champion or Ultimate normally, and Armor Digimon can stand on their own two feet pretty well, including only those and nothing but overpowered Option cards is a fairly solid strategy. Assuming your luck isn't awful to the point that all three partner cards end up on the bottom of the deck, resulting in your entire deck being milled. This also has the added bonus of stacking lots of experience bonuses, allowing for faster leveling.
- Boss Rush: There's at least one in every city of the game, you must defeat all your opponents in a row in order to get your passport to the next one. The longest of them all is Wiseman Tower, whose arena has SIX opponents for you to fight.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Wormmon does it with the masters of the arenas he takes control.
- Not Brainwashed: KingSukamon, however, is immune to that. After freeing his city, however, he will force you to fight all your way through his arena again if you want the passcode to the next city.
- Competitive Balance:
- Fire Digimon have high attack power, have Support Effects that increase attack power, and Special Effects often reflect attacks back to the opponent. Very aggressive.
- Ice Digimon are defensive in nature. High HP with low attack powers, Special Attacks often reduce enemy attacks to 0 while Support Effects often replenish HP.
- Nature Digimon are very quick; most stack high amounts of DP, C-level and U-level Digimon have less DP requirement to Digivolve to, and Special Attacks and Support both usually allow the user to attack first regardless of turns.
- Dark Digimon Decks have slow momentum and risky, but rewards patience. They don't provide much DP (if at all), Digivolving requires a lot of points, and Support Effects are often in form of double-edged effects, e.g., increasing the attack powers of both the player and the opponent. However, their Special Attack often gain tremendous bonuses against specific Types and when leveled, both C-level and U-level Dark Digimon far outclasses other Types both offensively and defensively.
- Rare Digimon are quirky to use. Their advanced forms aren't as strong as other types, Special Attacks vary wildly from Digimon to Digimon, and their Support usually have strange requirements/costs. However, when done right, Rare Digimon can radically tilt the balance of the game using Support Effects that either increase a Digimon's HP to match their opponent's, forcibly reduce their opponent's HP to match theirs, or reducing both Digimon's HP to very low levels. Combined with several R-level Digimon that possess Self-Destruct Special Attacks, a skilled Player can create a Self-Destruct Deck with no need for C or U-Level Digimon at all.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Big Bad's game strategy. He not only makes use of most of the cards listed in the
Game-Breaker section, but also hacks the game allowing him to always draw the same sequence of cards in such way he can play some of the most powerful Ultimate level Digimon in the game in a single turn and easily replace them if they are destroyed.- It can backfire, however, if the player has a Hacking card in his deck. He will also put you partner cards at the very end of your deck which is not necessarily a bad thing if your strategy doesn't rely on them as it will thin out your deck.
- He also has a tendency to spam his Finishing Move attack due to the likelihood of being an instant kill. As a result, any cards that can counter Circle as their X-effect can quickly steamroll through his Digimon without much problem.
- Death by Irony: The final boss is a computer programmer, as well as a cheating bastard and the most effective strategy against him is the Hacking card obtained from WereGarurumon. Its effect is to switch the HP of the two combatants if the user's level is lower. The final boss cheats himself an Ultimate in his opening hand. This leaves you with more than enough HP to withstand several of his attacks, while he can't take a simple kick in the nuts without being KO'd.
- Demoted to Extra: While still as Purposefully Overpowered as they always were, the 7s Cards have gone from being vital Plot Coupons in the prequel to optional cards with absolutely no bearing for the story.
- Difficult, but Awesome: R-level Dark Digimon are, at best, mediocre in attack or defense, and most C or U-Level Digimon require hefty DP to Digivolve into. That being said, if they DO Digivolve, U-Level Dark Digimon are the some of the strongest Digimon cards in the game. The same goes with Rare-Type Digimon with their wildly varying Support and Effect Attacks. Safe to say both Decks are not for beginners.
- Disc-One Nuke: You can acquire the Hacking card right after clearing the Wiseman Tower by talking to WereGarurumon after the challenge. It allows the user to switch the HP of both Digimon in play as long as the opponent has a higher leveled Digimon in its side of the board. It is highly effective against the Big Bad due to his "strategy" making him able to spam Ultimate level Digimon against you. See The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard above.
- Repeating the simple, easy arena in the first town nets you a pack of Option cards. Some of these can have some very powerful effects.
- As for Digimon, there's Toy-Agumon, whose support effect instantly drops both side's HP into 200. It is practically a One-Hit Kill card, and since it's a Rookie, it's ridiculously easy to get.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Digital Card Battle released four months before 02 aired, featuring the main cast of the series, their Digimon, and even the anime's title theme (in the Japanese version) well before anime watchers would get to see them.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As a result of this though, a number of Digimon get Armor Digivolutions that never show up in the anime proper, such as Patamon being able to turn into Baronmon.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: There are two Myotismon in the game: one uses the modern design, while the other uses the older, more cartoony design Myotismon originally had in Digimon World. The former is based on the Myotismon from Digimon Adventure, while the latter is a Call-Back to the one from the Japan-only prequel to Digital Card Battle.
- Epic Fail: Somehow, Betamon manages to fail using Download Digivolve with his final deck when by all means it should work.
- Foreshadowing: At the Battle Arena, the only letters that are a different color from the rest of the text are the As.
- A potentially accidental example at Wisemon's Tower comes when battling Kabuterimon. His deck is designed to counter Armor Digimon and is appropriately called "Anti-A Deck".
- Fusion Dance: You are able to fuse cards together to create a new one or mash them into one of your partners for exp points. Certain specific combinations grant you some rare and powerful cards. Otherwise, what you'll get will be determined by the exp value of both cards fused.
- Guide Dang It!: More than a few examples, which is particularly punishing given how little advanced warning the game is willing to provide.
- In order to collect all Digi-Parts, the player cannot select a trio of Veemon, Gatomon, and Wormmon partner cards without missing out on Digi-Part 037 (Eat-up HP, X Attack Power -200).
- After defeating the Igloo City Battle Arena, rematching it again with Garurumon in charge will provide percentage points that will otherwise permanently disappear once the post-game is progressed far enough. Worse yet, this occurs again later once MetalGarurumon takes over the arena.
- After defeating the Sky City Battle Arena, talking to Gatomon will yield Special Fusion Data for the Fusion Shop. While this is fortunately unable to be missed, there is no indication that she will give you a reward for speaking to her.
- Similarly, WereGarurumon gives you a rare Hacking Card if spoken to after clearing Wisemon Tower's Battle Arena. However, this event immediately disappears upon reaching Infinity Tower.
- Heel–Face Turn: Ken, just like in the anime.
- Lethal Joke Character : Most of the Rares feels ridiculously underpowered, Hit-or-Miss support effects and looks lame. On the other hand, their Support effects are some of the most dangerous effects in the game if you know how to "abuse" them.
- Lost in Translation: Babamon's deck being called "New Power deck" and the description saying it contains lots of "new cards" refer to the fact that it mostly contains cards that weren't in the prequel. Since the prequel wasn't released outside Japan, the deck name and description don't make a lot of sense in the English version.
- Market-Based Title: Digimon World: Digital Card Arena in Japan, Digimon: Digital Card Battle everywhere else. Notably (and somewhat confusingly), the Japan-only prequel was called Digimon World: Digital Card Battle.
- Musical Nod: In the Japanese version only, many characters associated with the anime get appropriate leitmotifs in battles with them. The Digimon Emperor (and Wormmon) uses his theme music from the anime
, the Adventure 02 cast use an arrange of Target ~Akai Shougeki~, and the Adventure 01 cast use an arrange of Butter-Fly. - New Game Plus: Not only do you get to keep your old decks, but the locations previously visited give you a new storyline where you battle the Digidestined in a crossover with Digimon Adventure 02.
- One-Letter Name: The Big Bad is called "A" by all characters who are aware of his existence. His full name, Analogman, does show up a few times, though.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: Almost all cards that existed in the prequel were brought over completely unaltered, down to the attacks and their animations. VS splash screen images were also recycled for most Digimon that are fightable opponents in both games.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are two different Devimon and Myotismon in the game you must defeat.
- There are also two MetalGreymon cards (one for the Virus version, one for the Vaccine version) and two Gatomon cards (one Champion level, the other Rookie, the latter of which is a Partner card.)
- Permanently Missable Content: It is unavoidable since you can only choose 3 out of the 6 Digimon partners available during the gameplay, so regardless of your choice you will never be able to get 3 of them. You, however, can get their data by defeating certain chosen children a certain number of times, but it is just for 100% Completion, you will never be able to really use them in your main deck.
- The most annoying example would be Wormmon, who only has one chance to be chosen unlike the other five.
- Puzzle Boss: Analogman. No matter what, he will always draw the same sequence of cards, which are always obscenely overpowered. The trick to beating him is realizing his battle strategy: he always uses the most efficient attack for a one-hit kill, making him vulnerable to counterattacks.note
- Rank Inflation: Inverted. Several Digimon, who were formerly Mega level, appear as Ultimate level in this game. The reason for this is that the Ultimate level was already the hard-to-reach powerful level, and adding a level with an identical role above that would have a negative effect on game play.
- Recurring Boss: Wormmon and his evolutions in the beginning of the game.
- To a lesser extent, Agumon and Garurumon qualify as well, first appearing in the early cities before returning at Wiseman Tower and later areas in the post-game to challenge you in their alternate forms.
- Shout-Out: To Digimon World. The background of many Digimon cards are the locations at Digimon World (many of them, though not all, are exactly the location where you meet the Digimon, such as ModokiBetamon at Native Forest and the card has a picture of Native Forest, etc.). Also, many option cards are the items from the said game, such as Fire Spot and Ice Crystal.
- This is because of Rosemon, who set up the entire card game system to prevent "A" from taking over from the "other digital world"- which seems to refer to the Digital World (and the other Rosemon) of the often-forgotten Japan-only prequel title "Digimon World: Digital Card Battle"- set in the same file island as featured in Digimon World.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The player character pulls this on the Digimon Emperor in the middle of his speech about why he's so much greater than normal people and Digimon. Coupled with his loss, it leads into his Villainous Breakdown not too long afterwards.
- Stealth Sequel: To Digimon World internationally.
In Japan, the previous game is instead Digimon World: Digital Card Battle. - Victoria's Secret Compartment: Take a look at where Rosemon is storing her cards next time you battle against her.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Veemon at Flame City due to his Digimon with extremely high attack power and Garurumon in Igloo City due to his ability to control your attacks and force you to trigger his countermeasures.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After a certain point in the post-game, Babamon completely disappears from the game, never to return.
