The other main novelty to the gameplay is the Digimon catching system; rather than capture an entire Digimon, the player defeats an enemy Digimon and picks up the egg that is left behind (if it does, anyway). Afterwards, the player must take care of the egg and may try to boost its potential (in order to obtain a more powerful Digimon). If it exceeds the limit, the egg breaks and the player has to restart the process. Otherwise, it is back to the usual level grind.
The English version was in "Pre-Beta" (Alpha) status. They plan to launch "Open Beta Test" September 28th for two weeks before closing the server(s) again for more maintenance. The game has been fully active for one year as of August 9th, 2012.
Digitalic has apparently sold the game to Move (or move in all lower case as it appears on their logo). The only way players found out about this was when the intro screen on logging in changed. There is currently little to no information known about this new company.
The successor for this game, Digimon Super Rumble, is planned to be released on November 2021.
Digimon Masters features the following tropes:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: You get clothes as rewards for completing certain quests and having your Digimon reach high enough levels. While they give out small EXP boosts, they are affected by a time limit and cannot be worn after "expiring".... unless you're willing to pay some real-life cash to be able to use them indefinitely.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: The easiest and most reliable way to get new Mons is buying Digieggs from the cash shop. These eggs are guaranteed to hatch, while the eggs you can get by beating enemy Digimon... require a little bit more of time and patience.
- Broad Strokes: To say this game is a weird beast is putting it lightly. The core of it is Digimon Data Squad, but it takes various characters and aspects from the other anime series before Data Squad, and even an entire plotline from Digimon Adventure 02 - the Digimon Kaiser/Emperor (aka, Ken Ichijoji) makes up the Big Bad Duumvirate with Kurata. Among other characters as NPCs include Sora's mother, Yolei's parents and her partner, Hawkmon (who alright talks about her), the Monster Makers from Digimon Tamers, the Trailmon terminal from Digimon Frontier replaces the Digital Dive, the Digital World is an amalgamation of the various Digital Worlds from various series... Yeah, the only thing missing is the actual tamers/Digidestined from said series (we know for certain that Sora, Yolei and Ken exist, but only Ken has actually made an appearance, and so far only as an antagonist).
- Calling Your Attacks: By default, though the player can avert it by simply changing what the Digimon says while using special attacks.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: If an enemy Digimon's level is higher than your Digimon's, its name will be in red. If the two are evenly matched, it is in white. If the enemy's level is lower, its name will be in blue. The deeper the color, the stronger/weaker it is compared to your Mon.
- Crossover: Tai, TK, Mimi, and Matt (along with Kari and Sora in the Korean version) from Digimon Adventure are available as Tamer Avatars, albeit rather rare.
- Dragon Rider: Since some of the Digimon that can be ridden are dragons (or at least dragonlike Mons), you can become one.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: This is averted after finishing one of the quests by teacher Mori; he mentions that he'll "have to treat you to a beer later on". Somewhat understandable if your avatar character is Yoshi, who is an adult. Slightly less so if it is either Marcus or Thomas, who are in their teens. Very much less so if it is Keenan, who is a preteen.
- Fusion Dance: Their Thanksgiving 2012 update included the much anticipated Omnimon Jogress evolution.
- Also in the game are Alphamon Ouryuken (a fusion of Alphamon and Ouryumon), Examon (fusion of Slayerdramon and Breakdramon), Shakkoumon (a fusion of Angemon and Anklyomon), Silphymon (a fusion of Gatomon and Aquilamon), and Fanglongmon (a fusion of the four Holy Beasts: Azulongmon, Baihumon, Ebonwumon, and Zhuqiaomon).
- Golden Super Mode: As of June 24th (April 30th in the Korean version), Magnamon and the Digi-Egg of Miracles are available in the game.
- Guide Dang It!: Some missions become this because of insufficient instructions given by NPCs. Also, the uses of items can be very hard to deduce from the short, borderline-Engrish descriptions given to them.
- One particularly jarring example is that, at one point, you are given a mission to talk with Chuchidarumon, who is supposedly in the same area, if you are familiar with the franchise and an older fan, you might know that Chuchidarumon actually is MudFrigimon, a newer player have absolutely no way to know this, and will get stuck unless a more experienced player decides to help. Or they just use the NPC finder.
- Lethal Joke Character: Taneomon. Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega are all Tanemon (a Baby II Digimon). What makes Tanemon a Lethal Joke Character is its Type, an Unknown — which is strong against all three Types, making it a itty bitty powerhouse.
- Luck-Based Mission: Hatching mercenary eggs, big time, getting it to 3 out of 5(lowest required to hatch) is easy enough, but getting to 4/5 requires some patience, a 5/5 is normally much, much easier to get from cash digieggs, otherwise, have fun.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Drimogemon, normally a Champion Digimon, is a rookie in this game. DemiMeramon is upgraded to rookie, though it is usually a Fresh stage (the earliest possible form).
- Even stranger considering that Starmon, Deputymon, and Kiwimon, all Champion-level Digimon, are treated as such while still being the base forms of their evolution lines in this game.
- Random Drop: All Digimon will drop cracked Digieggs as well as scannable eggs dependent on the Digimon's type. If your Digimon's level is too high compared to the enemy's, though, the drop rate is drastically reduced.
- Rare Random Drop: Only certain Digimon drop mercenary eggs and even those few do so very rarely. If you manage to find one, though, you can either try your luck in hatching it yourself or selling it to other players for a rather nice amount of money.
- Evolutors, the items used to unlock higher evolutionary forms, are this as well. They can only be dropped by high-level card monsters, and even then it's only a chance.
- Sacrificial Lion: As per the series running gag, expect to kill a lot of Leomon if you want to progress in the game.
- The Smurfette Principle: Only three of the ten available avatar characters is female, though this is mostly caused by the trope in question also applying to the series the game is based on.
- Sophisticated as Hell: When the MudFrigimon in Ruined Historic wants you to get rid of some Kyubimon, he says: "I wish you to kick their asses." This is most likely unintentional, however, and just a result of the subpar translation.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option: Some early quests have you helping Akihiro Kurata, one of the main villains in the anime, with his research on how to destroy the Digital World. He doesn't hide it well either, and they're main quests that have to be completed to move the story along.
- Super Mode: Burst Mode returns in this game, with a multitude of evolutions that were considered Mega to be re-classified as Burst Modes or Side Megas for gameplay purposes. Examples include Craniamon, BanchoLeomon, ChaosPiedmon, Ophanimon, and Imperialdramon Paladin Mode.
- The Armor Digi-Egg evolutions are available as well, and like in Digimon Adventure 02 they can be activated within Dark Tower zones, making training or farming items at the Wasteland area much easier.
- 20 Bear Asses: Most quests are either this or just killing a certain number of Digimon.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Not only does Akihiro Kurata routinely make you kill Digimon for research purposes, one quest has you setting up a bomb to get rid of some Leomon.
- Your Size May Vary: This is actually a feature. The greater the potential, the greater the size.
- ...which leads to some Serious Business among players regarding Digimon size.
