-next 0rder-'s plot follows Ordinary High-School Student Takuto/Shiki on their journey away from boring exams and into the digital world, where they meet their Digimon partners. After defeating an attacking Machinedramon, the protagonist is whisked to Floatia, the last refuge against the Machinedramon rampages that have been going on throughout the Digital World. Tasked by Jijimon to find out why this is happening in exchange for help with finding a way back to the real world, Takuto/Shiki embark on a strange journey in a stranger world, make new friends with both Digimon and humans, and discover a sinister plot involving both worlds.
The game was released on March 17th 2016 in Japan, with a western release exclusively on PS4 in early 2017. The first trailer can be viewed here
. A new port for the Nintendo Switch and Steam was released on February 22, 2023. This version adds the Beginner difficulty setting which actually lowers enemy difficulty and a run button. It also includes all Downloadable Content already available.
This game has examples of the following tropes:
- 20 Bear Asses:
- Several characters in the Ohguino Wasteland demand 20 of a certain item before joining the city. Gets a Lampshade Hanging with the Tyrannomon in the Ohguino Wasteland Dori Tunnel, who asks you to fetch them 20 Best Meats. If you do this, he'll say he hadn't actually expected you to actually do it.
- Rina's first quest for you is to fetch her thirty Digistalks. Your reward? The exact same Digistalks.
- The daily Poyomon DigiMails may involve the player collecting a certain number of items to obtain NWP.
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable:
- In contrast to how it was pronounced in previous entries, Machinedramon gets the "-dramon" part overemphasized, going from the somewhat natural "Machine-DRAH-mon" to the somewhat more awkward "Machine-DRAY-mon". Because of this, every "-dramon" gets pronounced the same way. Additionally, the English dub emphasizes odd parts of its dialogue at times.
- Datamon is written as speaking this way, though when his voice is heard, he doesn't sound like this at all.
- Affably Evil:
- Belphemon Sleep Mode is actually pretty mellow after being beaten. The little guy just wanted to take a nap somewhere quiet, he can't help being The Corrupter just by being there.
- In fact, Beelzemon and Lilithmon as well, who politely ask the player to fight them, and agree to join the city once beaten.
- After being recruited, Diaboromon and Machinedramon are actually very friendly and childish, viewing your battles as "playing".
- The Ageless: Played straight for virtually every NPC digimon and completely averted for your partners. No matter how much time passes, NPC digimon will never die from age. This is in stark contrast to your partner digimon who routinely experience the lifecyle of aging out and then being reborn from digitama.
- All Deserts Have Cacti: Togemon, a cactus Digimon, is found in the Server Desert, where you can recruit it.
- Always Night: Bony Resort is forever in a state of nighttime, which makes sense as it's the preferred area of Digimon based on creatures of the night such as vampires, werewolves, etc., and generic dark-themed Digimon.
- Ambiguous Situation: The recruitable WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon both pretend to be Takuto/Shiki's partners from the beginning of the game before claiming they were joking. However, upon being defeated, they express pride towards once being Takuto/Shiki's partners and affirm their current bond, leaving it ambiguous whether they are truly Takuto/Shiki's original partners reincarnated separately from their current ones, or merely playing along with their joke.
- And the Adventure Continues: After getting rid of the BH virus, the player returns to the Digital World, and is told by Tsuzuki that a new threat has wormed in past the safety features. Meanwhile, many new Digimon show up to be recruited to the city.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Most of the bigger issues with raising Digimon in the original Digimon World were streamlined in Next Order:
- Unlike previous entries, it is actually possibly to see the requirements for Digivolutions in-game (though you need to unlock them first).
- Several Digimon give you items by talking to them each in-game day, so it's a little easier to handle Digimon raising and battling in the beginning until you unlock the Item Shop.
- Enemy Digimon have unique labels that will warn you of how strong they could be.
- In the same vein, if you're stronger than an enemy Digimon, they won't try to fight you unless you choose to engage them (though some remain aggressive no matter how strong you are).
- Several abilities, called Tamer Skills, can be obtained with points you gain from leveling up. And all of them help make training powerful Digimon much easier.
- After a certain point, you'll be able to have your Digimon's evolution paths locked, so you can choose to keep your Digimon from forcibly Digivolving into something you don't want them to evolve into, especially in later generations where your Digimon will more than likely meet multiple requirements for different evolutions.
- When a Signature Move or Digifuse is called, the user will be immune to all attacks until it is done executing the move, preventing wasted Order Power. Be careful as this also applies to the enemy side.
- If a battle is timed, the timer will freeze when a Signature Move is being executed, which prevents wasted time from battle animation. This also applies to battles against the GaoGamon family required for recruitment, which impose a very short time limit for it to be considered won, even though no timer is displayed.
- The in-universe clock only ticks when it is on-screen and the player is not in the middle of any action (like when a message box pops up and interrupts all movement). This means battles do not consume time. Averted for fishing, which consumes time regardless of success or failure.
- The in-universe clock is digital rather than analog, making it much easier to tell time as well as how fast time passes.
- A Colosseum challenge may restrict partner specialty by a certain type, but the player can still enter with just one partner fulfilling the condition.
- For an example specific to this game, exploring any Bonus Dungeon in the Dimensional District freezes the clock in exchange of making it a Timed Mission, so the player does not have to worry about wasted in-game time exploring these locations.
- The Nintendo Switch port adds a sprinting option as well as a Beginner Mode, which increases the damage enemies take.
- Anti-Grinding: The higher the partner's stats, the less stat points gained from training or, if the enemy is relatively weaker than the partner, battling. Fan guides tend to recommend Stat Grinding through battling once the partners are at least Rookie level to avoid this dilemma, since the in-universe clock does not tick during battles (thus battles potentially reward more points per hour compared to training).
- Apologetic Attacker: Some of the opponents in Jijimon's EX Quest, who are just following orders they feel they have to obey.
- Arbitrary Mission Restriction: Certain recruits/sidequests require having a partner/item/skill/previous condition that fulfils a certain condition. While some are justified, a few enter this territory for how, well, arbitrary the requirements are despite the player seemingly already having a matching condition. Take Darkdramon's recruitment requirement. The first requirement is having a partner with a punching attack, but the allowed species are Guide Dang It! in nature if one does not have a BanchoLeomon (his rival) of their own, as players first assumed it to be any Digimon of the Hand-to-Hand attribute and wonder why only certain species work.
- Artificial Stupidity: Digimon will often run into attacks they're completely out of range of when it's used.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Upgrading the town square, which places a neat seasonal decor at the center and allows the player to buy season-based items from Agumon. It only levels up once and the upgrade finishes instantly, but the materials required are rather demanding that they are better off spent on upgrading other facilities. And the Square downgrades once the season changes, and an upgrade done in one season will not carry over the next seasonal cycle, so this just serves as a way to dump materials after everything else has been fully upgraded.
- The bottommost skills on the list tend to be the most powerful of its respective specialty and cannot even be learned at the Lab to further their elusiveness. However, they cost a lot and have a long animation before they could even register the hit.
- Beef Gate: Go somewhere you're not supposed to before you've trained properly, and the wild Digimon nearby will make you regret it. Case in point, the RedVeggiemon by the Nigh Forest exit hit like trucks, even though they're supposedly only level 3.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Jijimon's EX quest has the player fighting Numemon, Sukamon and Geremon. How hard can they be? More than you'd expect from any of them, especially since they come with attack and defense boosts.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: While not nearly as bad as Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, Next Order still has the occasional hiccups that's consistently plagued the Digimon video games for years now:
- They averted Pronoun Trouble for the main character, but Digimon are still inconsistently written. For instance, some Digimon are referred to as "it" despite having an established gender in-game, and the female Ophanimon is referred to with male pronouns when recruited.
- Certain portions of the dialogue are written poorly, often leaving confusion as to who is actually being referred to. It's especially bad at the end of Chapter 3: Zwart D is subdued and the heroes are trying to figure out if he's regaining his sanity, however, the dialogue bizarrely dances around referring to Zwart D directly, and ends up implying that Luche, Himari, and/or Mirei were the ones who have become insane (most likely mixing up Himari and Luche's genuine confusion with Mameo and Mirei's dialogue regarding Zwart D's sanity).
- After recruiting Vikemon, he gains a new favor the player can take, which requires having three Black Digitrout in the inventory. Should the player try to pull a Developer's Foresight and initiate the sidequest by talking to him with said fish already in the inventory, he will acknowledge them, but then do nothing about them. Turns out this is another translation issue. Vikemon will only ask this favor if the player does not have any Black Digitrout to begin with (as this turns out to be a fishing challenge involving it), so the player has to remove/store the fish first, then talk to Vikemon to initiate his favor.
- The skill tree for improving digitama inheritance is called "Reverse Type", which makes no sense. It's supposed to be "Rebirth Type", but the translators interpreted the katakana incorrectly.
- The "machine" type is inconsistently referred to as either "Weapon" or "Apparatus" by different parts of the game.
- The description for the Ultimate Adventures colosseum match is "There is no such thing as more than perfect!" This is an orphaned joke; in Japanese, the Ultimate stage is called "Perfect", so it's poking fun at the silliness of there being a stage above "perfection". With the English stage names, the line makes no sense.
- The name for the casino building was somehow translated as "Arena", which causes a lot of confusion with the Colosseum.
- "Platinum" was translated as "Whitegold", which is a literal translation of the Japanese word for platinum.
- "No Attribute" was translated as "No Personality". Presumably, the translators were only given the raw text and misunderstood what the context was supposed to be.
- Growlmon's and Gargomon's descriptions are swapped in the English localization.
- Bonus Dungeon: The Digital Dimensions, which can only be unlocked after the game is finished, with more dungeons being unlocked after more Digimon are recruited.
- Born-Again Immortality: A staple of the digimon lifecycle is that they never "die" in the traditional sense. Digimon who are destroyed or die from old age are reborn from digitama. A key mechanic in the game is using the resources, upgraded city facilities, and tamer skills you have acquired to train your reborn partners to surpass their previous incarnations.
- Bowdlerize: The Seven Great Demon Lords are referred to as the Seven Deadly Digimon.
- Broken Bridge:
- A pile of sand blocking the way out of the Server Desert behind GrapLeomon. Help him with his quest, and he'll get rid of it for you, allowing access to the area beyond.
- The Cableway in Nigh Plains has a giant boulder blocking the other end of it. Unlike the Server Desert example, it just randomly disappears once you're required to go over there.
- The bridges at Faulty Ex Machina are down. The player has to travel to the control center via MOD Cape in order to raise them (and even then, it only raises some of them. Follow-up visits are required.)
- A hallway in Absolute Zero has collapsed. The rubble disappears when Cherubimon asks the player to deal with the Digimon inside.
- Built with LEGO: ToyAgumon, who exist as obtainable Digimon and enemies. One NPC ToyAgumon requires the player to recover a missing brick of theirs.
- Call-Back: To the very first Digimon World. The player awakens in that game to Jijimon telling them "Welcome to Digimon World." The first teaser welcomes the player "Back" to Digimon World.
- Most of the game is a big ol' love letter to the original Digimon World game. A good few tracks are reorchestrated versions of ones heard in the original game (Floatia's day/night theme being the best example) and a good few recruited Digimon do the same jobs they did in the first game's city. For a more extreme example, Mameo is heavily implied to have been the nameless protagonist of the original game, and guess who's back for the spot of Big Bad...
- Cap:
- In the player's inventory, up to 99 of an item type (while carrying slots are limited to 60 at max upgrade). However, the 99-limit is not imposed for items stored in Warehouse.
- HP and MP max out at 99999, while other battle stats max out at 9999.
- Carnivore Confusion: Digimon, regardless of species, do not eat each other. They do eat meat, but it's grown on a farm. Literally, it grows out of the ground like a plant. Even more confusingly, the farmers growing the meat are plant digimon.
- Cat Girl: Himari's not a literal one, being completely human, but her appearance seems to invoke the trope. Not only does she sport an odd hairstyle that makes her appear to have cat ears, as well as a Cute Little Fang, her partner Digimon is a Salamon named Rikka, who eventually becomes Gatomon, a cat Digimon. Additionally, Meicoomon and her evolved form are available in this game.
- The Cavalry: Himari and Kouta show up in the Infinite Cauldron to save the player from a swarm of Digimon summoned to attack them. Of course, the exertion of this means their partners are unable to help in the final battle. Doesn't stop them trying, but the Big Bad instantly figures out they can't fight.
- Character Name Limits: Name inputs are limited to 12 characters. Partners' seem to be limited to 8 characters if not using their respective In-Training form's names, as a message stating this limit pops up should the player tries to proceed with a longer nickname. Special characters like "-" are not allowed.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- The Gumdramon at the entrance to Logic Volcano turns out to have run away from MOD Cape, and can be recruited to the city.
- An OmniShoutmon can be found hanging out near where the player faces Kyubimon's puzzle, but can't be fought or recruited until chapter 2.
- The Enforcer, mentioned by Taomon after the Illegal Seed flowers. They show up after you meet Mameo. They turn out to be Omegamon Zwart D, and they've become corrupted.
- Several times, a Digimon can be found and talked to who won't respond until later on.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
- In the later parts of the game, enemy Digimon will use their special moves in retaliation if the player uses theirs. That's not the cheating part, the cheating part is they can regain use of theirs much quicker than the player will, and can do so even if they just used it.
- King Mooks and certain bosses can use skills that the raiseable versions cannot equip. For example, a "King" ToyAgumon can use Delete Program, which cannot be used by a regular ToyAgumon.
- Continuity Nod: One of the basic training facilities in Digimon World was "[player name]'s Classroom", where the protagonist could teach his Digimon partner to increase their Brain stat. At the end of the main story, it's revealed that the protagonist grew up to become a teacher in the human world.
- Convection, Schmonvection: It is entirely possible to walk right up to the edge of lava flows in Logic Volcano, without anything ever happening. It's also possible to find Digistalks growing next to them as well.
- Cooking Mechanics: There's a tamer skill that allows to cook while camping, by combining the ingredients found during the adventure.
- Crossdressing Voices: Sort of. The Taomon that joins town and becomes a major NPC in regards to the plot is male in both the Japanese and English versions, but the English Taomon is voiced by Renamon's voice actress from Digimon Tamers as Shout-Out.
- Dark Is Not Evil: SkullGreymon, who despite his frightening appearance is actually pleasant and friendly.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Many of the recruitable Digimon have to be fought before they'll come to Floatia. Most of them are very impressed with you upon defeat and that's what convinces them to come, and once they're in the city they treat you like an old friend.
- Degraded Boss: Machinedramon was the final boss of the first Digimon World. Now there's an army of Machinedramons, some of whom are weak enough to be taken out with early-game digimon.
- Demoted to Extra: In Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode, the Seven Deadly Digimon were major antagonists, with Lucemon being the True Final Boss. Here, they're simply optional Superbosses with no plot relevance.
- Derelict Graveyard: MOD Cape is an area on the coast with a bunch of unmoving ships fallen into disrepair, which various Digimon squat in.
- Did Not Think This Through: A part of the Minervamon / Dianamon plot. The later sends the former a box which apparently just has water in it, annoying Minervamon. After they've calmed down, Dianamon explains it was meant to be an ice statue. Minervamon was residing in Logic Volcano, so...
- Difficulty by Region: Zigzagged in execution. The PS4 version has two difficulty modes at the start, Easy and Normal. However, the modes only seem to affect training results: in Normal, the effects of training are effectively cut in half, making it take longer to raise your Digimon to survivable levels (and extensive testing by the playerbase has shown that nothing else, including enemy strength and AI, changes between the modes). Additionally, it seems that "Easy" is actually the PS Vita version's Normal mode, which basically means that the international "Easy" is actually Normal, while "Normal" should be considered Hard.note
- Ditching the Dub Names:
- The English release notably uses "Omegamon" rather than "Omnimon" despite keeping the rest of the traditional Dub names like Gatomon and Gallantmon.
- The names for the black Agumon and Gabumon NPCs are their Japanese ones (Kuro-cchi and Kuro-rin) in the 2023 Updated Re Release, as they no longer address themselves as Blackosaurus and Blackie.
- Down the Drain: Drainage Path, the sewers located within Faulty Ex Machina. It's home to many notorious Digimon species whose signature move is throwing poop.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Luce gives the protagonist from Digimon World his nickname, Mameo, and his actual name is never revealed. It's already outright bizarre when Kouta starts calling him "Mr. Mameo," just for Himari to immediately catch onto Kouta wanting to address him as his teacher/professor. However, the real problem arises when the recently un-possessed Tsuzuki Shouma starts referring to him in the exact same way. Since Mameo is their actual homeroom teacher, it makes no sense for them to not, at least, use "Mr. [whatever his actual name/surname is]", even if out of habit. The whole conundrum could have been avoided if the characters referred to him generically as just "teacher" or "professor," which is what they do in the original Japanese.
- Dub Name Change: Zig-zagged in KaiserGreymon's case. Even though the original Japanese name is used everywhere else, dialogue during the recruitable KaiserGreymon's quest refers to him as EmperorGreymon. This leads to him introducing himself as EmperorGreymon, while the tag on the dialogue box identifies him as KaiserGreymon. This seems to be not the case in the 2023 Updated Re Release, as his name tag correctly says EmperorGreymon.
- Dung Fu: Filth-type attacks often include throwing various forms of poop. However, not only they're as strong as other attacks, they also have a high chance of inflicting various status ailments.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In a somewhat roundabout way. The final boss, Omegamon Alter-B, is the corrupted version of Omegamon Alter-S, as mentioned in its profile. However, Omegamon Alter-S and the two Digimon it's composed of, BlitzGreymon and CresGarurumon, weren't revealed until a year after the game came out.
- Early Game Hell: Starting out in the game is pretty daunting. You're explicitly told not to leave town until you can train your Digimon into Rookies, and even then you aren't going to go very far beyond the first map screen of Nigh Plains outside town without additional effort. You also lack many items to properly care for your Mons outside for too long, even with some of the townsfolk giving you free items each game day (luckily, Palmon, who increases the amount of Meat you get, and Tentomon, who runs the item shop, are in the first Nigh Plains area and can be convinced to join with... relative ease). Once you've started bringing more Digimon into town and are able to get your own Mons to become Champions (which may or may not be enough to get around Nigh Plains easily), the game will start to ease up bit by bit.
- Easily Forgiven: Rosemon, after it joins the city. No-one seems at all concerned at having someone who helped start a war just because they were given a palace hanging around the city. The same happens with Myotismon, who was The Man Behind the Man for Rosemon.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats Nature beats Air beats Ice beats Fire. The Dark/Holy and Hand-to-Hand/Weapon pairs are strong against each other. Filth is strong against Dark, Holy, and Weapon, but weak against the other five.
- Emoticon: The Machinedramon in the Dimensional District communicates exclusively in emoticons, which is amusing for such an intimidating Digimon that's been a threat throughout the story.
- Eternal Engine: Faulty Ex Machina is the heavily industrial home of machine Digimon.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Kouta and Yukimura try using the BH Virus to their advantage. It results in Yukimura turning into a SkullGreymon.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Brain Hack virus. It hacks Digimon brains.
- Failed a Spot Check: A MetalGreymon and MetalTyrannomon in Faulty Ex Machina keep brawling because of injuries they believe the other gave them. It was actually because a MetalMamemon was trying to stop their brawling, and they never noticed him.
- Fake Difficulty: The difficulty modes (until the 2023 ports) don't really affect anything substantial other than the tedium of training, essentially just extending the amount of time and effort required to proceed through the game the higher you go. The Easy setting is the same as the default setting from the Vita version, while Normal and Hard (unlocked by beating the game) only lower the amount of parameter boosts you get from training, as well as also lowering your Digimon's lifespan so that they die quicker. Enemy Digimon strength and AI aren't affected by either aforementioned difficulties. The 2023 Updated Re Release-exclusive Beginner difficulty is the only one to lower enemy difficulty.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Ginseng with arms and bird-shaped pink radishes are just some of the many weird ingredients the player can gather and feed to their Digimon. And then there are the colorful fruits (some cube-shaped) and nuts, which somehow work as perfect substitutes for rice, eggs, cooking oil, salt, etc.
- Fantastic Racism: Phoenixmon believes humans are responsible for the corruption of the Digital World, and attacks the player for being one.
- Fetch Quest:
- In order to get some Digimon to go to Floatia, you have to get something for them first. For example, Greymon needs a lozenge fetched from Logic Volcano.
- Tsukaimon asks the player to find their shopping list. Then it turns out it exists in three parts. And once all three are gathered, Tsukaimon reveals it was all a ruse to make sure the player saw all of Bony Resort.
- Myotismon asks the player to fetch his umbrella, which was stolen by a Turuiemon.
- Final Boss Preview: The fight with Omegamon Zwart D in Bony Resort.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- The easiest way to tell if ExE Evolution is about to occur is whether the brief snippet of music that plays when you lose keeps going.
- When a Digivolution occurs, whichever partner is evolving will disappear right before the Digivolution cutscene plays.
- Floating Continent: Although Floatia is earthbound at first, it will live up to its name as the story progresses and Jijimon activates the mechanism that allows it to float high up in the sky as a defense measure against the Machinedramon.
- Forced Level-Grinding: It takes a LOT of grinding to keep up with enemies, or they'll rapidly outclass your digimon like nobody's business (this goes double for story enemies, which are significantly stronger than most random encounters). This on top of the need to grind your trainer level like there's no tomorrow so you can afford skills to further enable grinding. This even applies to Easy mode, in which your stat growth is doubled compared to normal mode. Expect to spend 60-90% of your time playing this game in the Training building.
- That being said, it is possible to grind against certain enemy Digimon that give good stat boosts and aren’t too hard to deal with. And since battles pause the in-game clock, this method will likely be more efficient in mid-to-late game.
- Foreshadowing:
- Right from the start, it's possible to see Digivolution lines that haven't been unlocked yet or are just flat-out impossible to gain at that point.
- If the player's Digimon is about to die, they'll start showing signs of illness and fatigue when idle.
- The Field Guide lists every partner it's possible to get. Aside from all the 'mons it's possible to acquire, there's an extra spot. It's the Keramon line, which is only acquired post-game.
- In one building in Bony Resort, an interact prompt can be found. Doing so has the player character remark that they can feel something, but it's not until the post game that they find out what. It's three of the Seven Deadly Digimon.
- Friendly Fireproof: Your Digimon's area-of-effect styled attacks can harm multiple enemy Digimon, but won't have any effect upon your other partner Digimon.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampires: Myotismon, a Digimon that is styled after a classic movie monster/Dracula vampire, is actually willing to join the city without a fight and opens up a card museum in the Entertainment District.
- From Bad to Worse:
- The end of chapter 1. The player character's Digimon defeat Machinedramon... then several more show up. Then Omegamon Zwart D shows up and kills them all... only to attack Luche. Only Mirei's intervention saves everyone.
- After building their virus detector, Jijimon and Taomon discover everyone in Floatia is already infected.
- The post-game quest. First, an unknown Digimon gets in. By the time they're found in the Infinite Cauldron, they digivolve to Champion. After being beaten, they digivolve off-screen to Ultimate, then to Mega when found again. And after that...
- Gangplank Galleon: MOD Cape is an area located on the coast and filled with ships that's home to some Digimon who style themselves pirates, with Vikemon as captain. This becomes downplayed once you recruit Vikemon and he leaves for the city, with some NPC Digimon lamenting that the pirates are no more. There's still a BlackGatomon who asks you to sell her pirate-themed junk found around the ships, though.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: If the partners' Digifriend is high enough and one of them gains a Status Effect, the unaffected may smack it back to its senses.
- Green Hill Zone: Upon leaving the home base of Floatia for the first time, you'll find yourself in Nigh Plains, a hilly, lush green area with the easiest Digimon to fight. All other areas look very bare and harsh.
- Guide Dang It!: The game never explains the enemy level mechanics properly. The levels do indicate enemy strength, but the Digimon's form stage (bar King Mook cases) also affects how strong it really is. Excepting Joke Characters, a level 3 Rookie is far weaker than a level 3 Champion, for example. In short, it uses a rank-based level system in a game that does not use Character Level to begin with.
- Heroic Second Wind: Gameplay-wise, if your Digimon fell in battle, there is a possibility that they can trigger ExE Evolution.
- The Hyena: Keramon, once it joins the city, will just cackle to itself. It becomes more chatty as it evolves.
- Ice Palace: Frost Cathedral in Absolute Zero is a building made of solid ice.
- Inconsistent Dub: In the English localization, is the machine-type specialty called Apparatus (on the menu, most other in-game references) or Weapon (in-battle)?
- Insane Troll Logic: Magnamon. The player character asks him politely for his autograph (which Veedramon is looking for), which obviously means they're after something, and need to be taught a lesson.
- Interface Screw:
- The Brutal Bonus Levels accessible from the Dimensional District disable map (but not the mini-map) and saving. Combined with a time limit (which ticks down even in battles), the player does not have much freedom in figuring out which path goes to which without a guide.
- Using DG Dimension V3, whether it was done by partner or enemy, will make the entire UI vanish throughout the attack, which means the player cannot intervene in any way until the attack ends.
- Interface Spoiler: Despite NPC warnings that Frost Cathedral's layout is complicated, considering it is this world's Ice Sanctuary which is known for its complex warp-based navigation (and its origin game's lack of map did not help either), opening the Map via the menu shows every path pointing to which room. Each arrow placement corresponds to the warp placement, so no need to guess how to get to particular rooms.
- Intercontinuity Crossover:
- Rina Shinomiya and her partner Veevee show up again in this game, making this their third appearance since their debut.
- Mirei Mikagura is back as well and once again, she plays a crucial role in the game's plot.
- The Meicoomon in this game is heavily implied to be the same one from Digimon Adventure tri., especially considering that other Digimon become berserk when they're near her.
- In-Universe Game Clock: As is standard for the series, though it's digital rather than analog as it was in Digimon World. One second of real time is one minute of game time. This game also adds a feature new to the series: a calendar system that records the day of the week and the season, both of which have their own effects.
- Item-Drop Mechanic: Enemy Digimon outside Colosseum challenges may drop items upon defeat. The bosses in the Brutal Bonus Levels will always drop either stat chips or powerful Digivolution Cores.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: An unintentional version by the Woodmon holding ShineGreymon captive, who tells the player Rosemon's plan by accident.
- Jerkass: Justimon, who bullies Digimon around the Faulty Ex Machina area, requiring the player to deal with them. Then it turns out to be a Hyogamon disguised as Justimon. The real Justimon is annoyed at their character being besmirched.
- King Mook: On certain dates, the player can find giant versions of regular mobs on the field, the location of which depends on the encounter. They are, of course, much stronger than anything else in the same field. They also tend to be very strong regardless of what stage of evolution they are: a King-level Botamon (an In-Training Digimon, which is basically a Digimon newborn) can still give trained Ultimates and Megas a run for their money.
- Lampshade Hanging: After the final battle, Himari will point out, twice no less, that the player character's the one who's been doing all the work.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Meicoomon has amnesia. Helping to solve it is part of its quest.
- Laughing Mad: Infermon cackles (silently) before digivolving into Diaboromon.
- Leitmotif: This game retroactively makes the Japanese opening theme to Digimon World one for the whole series. Also, several themes from the original game make a return here (Floatia's music is File City's music, the "event boss" music is the same as the one from the original game, etc).
- Lethal Lava Land: Logic Volcano, a level consisting of you walking over many suspended rock bridges over a pit of lava. Of course there are a lot of fire Digimon around.
- Limit Break: Digimons' special moves are still this, but the specifics have changed from the previous games. They're now used from the order menu and cost 150 Order Power (more than twice that of even the most expensive regular attack). Enemy Digimon simply use theirs after enough time has passed (or as a Counter-Attack against your own special move).
- Luck-Based Mission: Battles that ban orders. When it is not simply No Item Use for You, certain Colosseum challenges have this as a rule. This leaves the player's partners in the mercy of Random Number God.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: No matter what the situation, the player character is the one who has to handle pretty much everything, even when there are others with Digimon partners present, like at the end of chapter 1 when Mameo is found. He runs away from the Machinedramon and Himari chases after him, taking Rikka with her, leaving the player to fight it on their own. It gets a Lampshade Hanging at the end of chapter 2, when someone's needed to sever the cable keeping Floatia on the ground, so naturally they need to send the strongest tamer around... the player's character can then realise everyone's talking about them.
- The Man Behind the Man:
- Tsuzuki, the apparent Big Bad, is revealed at the end to have been posessed by the ghost of Analogman.
- After ending the Meat-Veggie War by defeating Rosemon, she reveals that she started the war at the behest of Myotismon, who wanted to level the Ohguino Wastelands so he could use it to expand the Bony Resort.
- Marathon Boss:
- The Recurring Boss duo Blackie and Blackosaurus force you to fight them three times back-to-back in their first two encounters. Hope you brought a lot of healing items!
- In the postgame, Imperialdramon will also force you to fight them three times back-to-back, digivolving into a stronger form each time. Unlike with Blackie and Blackosaurus, its type and moveset changes each time, so you can't cheese it with a single loadout that beats it in Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors.
- Mascot Mook: Many of the digimon who you can recruit to join the city are partner digimon featured across the various incarnations of the anime series. The partner digimon from Digimon Adventure are not only all recruitable, but so are their various digivolutions as depicted in the anime.
- Meaningful Name:
- Floatia at first seems like a Non-Indicative Name, but at the end of Chapter 2, in order to avoid any Machinedramon outbreaks, the city's inhabitants rig the city up so it can fly.
- Server Desert. It's filled with computer servers.
- Bony Resort, which gets its name from the fences being made from bones.
- Meat Versus Veggies: Taken to the extreme with the Digimon found in the Ohguino Wastelands who have managed to turn the debate into a full-on war. Interestingly, in the digital world, meat literally grows from the ground, so the whole war was started over something as petty as personal taste.
- Mons: Well, it is a Digimon game, so of course the titular Digital Monsters are the main appeal. And like other games and media in the franchise, the Digimon fulfill mulitple roles, and aren't just members of your battle party.
- Monster Mash: The digimon that can be recruited from the Bony Resort area seem to playing on this theme. Examples include Myotismon as the vampire, WereGarurumon as the werewolf, and Boltmon as Frankenstein's Monster. SkullGreymon could potentially count as the Skeleton.
- Mr. Exposition:
- Mameo fills the player in on some of the details as best he can.
- Mirei Mikagura tries filling the player in after saving them from Omegamon Zwart D, but she doesn't get far before being cut off. Shortly afterward, she manages to keep in contact.
- Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: RustTyrannomon gets stuck on a rampage mode. The player's mons are required to restore it to normal via a good old-fashioned ass-kicking.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Unlike in previous games, Imperialdramon's Fighter and Paladin Modes are this instead of Fighter progressing into Paladin. (Paladin Mode is still harder to obtain, however, with only one valid DNA Digivolution combination.) They are thematic inverses: Fighter Mode gets Dark and Hand-to-Hand skills, while Paladin Mode gets Holy and Weapon skills.
- Mythology Gag:
- A few Digimon in the English dub have the same voices they did in their debut anime. Taomon has Renamon's VA from Digimon Tamers (the Japanese version used a male voice, for comparison), while Shoutmon retains the voice he had in Digimon Fusion, for example.
- Several Digimon who join Floatia and appeared in the original Digimon World take occupations that mirror their counterparts: Birddramon operates a fast-travel service, Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon work at the gym, Palmon operates the meat fields.
- After joining Floatia, Shoutmon will state that he's technically not a Rookie, which references Digimon Fusion's lack of levels in its adaptation of the franchise.note
- The ExE sequence has the combined Digimon emerging from a giant glowing egg, much like Omnimon in Our War Game. Not incidentally, Omnimon is the first ExE fusion encountered in the game.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon has a Devimon in it, just like Digimon World.
- Absolute Zero has an ice palace with an angel Digimon inside, and is populated with wild Gururumon and BlueMeramon, as in World. Speaking to Mameo after clearing the post game sometimes makes him comment that the ice palace is Ice Sanctuary from the first game, just existing in a new Digital World under a new name.
- A few Colosseum challenges are themed around past games:
- "We Are Cyber Sleuths" has Palmon, Terriermon, and Hagurumon as opponents. They are the starter Digimon in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. A higher rank challenge also themed around this game features the main supporting Digimon Omegamonnote , Alphamonnote (Spoilers!), Diaboromonnote , and Mastemonnote .
- "Original Digital Monsters" has MetalGreymon (Blue), Tyrannomon, Seadramon, Devimon, and Meramon, all of which are Digimon that debuted in the Ver. 1 virtual pet.
- "Redigitization" has Gaomon, Biyomon, Angewomon, LadyDevimon, and BlackWarGreymon as opponents, all main Digimon from Digimon World Re:Digitize.
- "True Ogre Troops" has the player fight Ogremon, Agumon, Gabumon, and WaruSeadramon, which are the Digimon the player has to fight in order to recruit Ogremon in Digimon World.
- "From Another World" pits the player against Botamon, Punimon, Tokomon, Angemon, and Jijimon, the full residents of Jijimon's House in the original Digimon World. It also restricts partner stage up to Perfect/Ultimate, the highest stage that can be reached in that game.
- No Indoor Voice: All the champion level and higher NPC insect Digimon speak like this.
- The Psychemon brothers in Ohguino Wastelands combine this with You No Take Candle in the English localization, resulting in all-caps dialogue with purposefully incorrect grammar.
- No Item Use for You: Certain battles ban item use. Colosseum challenges with this restriction note this on the Rule info.
- Nobody Poops: Mostly averted, but otherwise it's just like in the original game. Your Digimon will want to use the bathroom at regular intervals, so you better be ready to deal with that! The trope is played straight for Mega level Digimon, who never need to use the bathroom.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Generic enemy Digimon are not deleted upon defeat; after the battle ends they get back up and get the heck out of dodge.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: The Numemon, Sukamon and PlatinumNumemon who live in File City get called up by their fellows to take part in the uprising. They each decline.
- Not What It Looks Like: Repeatedly with Mameo, everyone assumes he's up to something based on snap judgements (like not showing up back at Floatia with Datamon before the player, or being next to a Gotsumon before it turns into a Machinedramon).
- Omnicidal Maniac: Analogman's plan is to destroy the Digimon multiverse and every Digital World in existence just to see what happens next.
- Only Smart People May Pass: The intent of Kyubimon's puzzle as when you go to see Taomon they make two copies of themselves and tell the player to figure out which one is the original. Each Kyubimon will ask a different question, with only the real one having a specific answer you need to look for. If you fail the riddle, unlike when the Meteormon test you on Tower Road where they let you try again the next day, you need to fight all three Kyubimon at once as punishment for your failure. That being said
if you manage to beat all three of them you are allowed to go ahead and see Taomon anyway. - Opt Out: Mirei absolutely refuses to assist with the Toilet War, because she finds it gross.
- Palette Swap: The infamous ones from Digimon media appear here, and there are even more of them. It is not just something like Underground Monkey (like how SnowAgumon is just an Agumon that lives in cold areas) either. How about red and gold recolors of Veedramon, for example? And yes, the player can raise these themselves. Though the recolors are unrecruitable still except for Kuzuhamon, a few give out subquests.
- Pause Scumming: Digimon will chase you on the overworld and when they touch you it forces you into a battle. The Digimon is pushed slightly further away from you when you pause, so if you want a digimon off your trail you can pause repeatedly.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The pirates at MOD Cape.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Several Digimon that happen to assist you often assume you're an enemy of some sort before you get a chance to explain yourself. For instance, an Angemon was trying to help a poor Hackmon, who thought the Angemon was trying to poison it, so it ran off. When the player talks to Hackmon, it assumes Angemon sent them to finish it off and attacks. Only afterwards does it realise the truth.
- The Veemon and Togemon in Server Desert have a falling out because of this, as do Zudomon and Gumdramon.
- Power Up Letdown:
- With DNA Digivolution or certain very rare Digivolution cores, it is possible to permanently evolve your partners into the uber-Megas normally restricted to ExE Evolution... However, doing this renders you unable to use ExE Evolution since there's nothing stronger for your partners to fuse into. Given how good ExE Evolution is, the stat boosts from the extra Digivolution are rarely worth giving it up.
- ...But on the flipside, ExE forms can't bypass the stat Caps, so if your partners already have stats that are close to the Cap all you'll accomplish is losing one of your Digimon for the battle, potentially making it a letdown as well.
- As typical for a Raising Sim World entry, use of Digivolution Cores to digivolve early or into any Digimon the player wants in the next stage (provided the player has the respective Core) will not extend the affected partner's lifespan.
- There are Champion versions of OmegaShoutmon and Arresterdramon. While digivolving into them results in unusually high stats for such level especially during early-game, they cannot digivolve further (bar Digivolution Cores, but see the above point) and have a shorter lifespan compared to their Mega versions. Of course, the Champion ones are inelligible for DNA Digivolution either.
- Pre-existing Encounters: All the enemy Digimon, from minor enemies to boss fights, are visible on the overworld.
- Pronoun Trouble: While this game has a more consistent localization compared to Cyber Sleuth, it still has trouble keeping gender pronouns consistent. For the most part, male pronouns will be used almost all the time, even for the majority of Digimon, who are also inconsistently called "it" at the same time, even when referring to a single, specific character.Details
- Pulling Themselves Together: When defeated, ClearAgumon fall to pieces, then reassemble themselves before high-tailing it out of there.
- Raising Sim: The game goes back to the original Digimon World's gameplay style, which was based of the V-Pet games that the series began with. Unlike the Digimon Story games, such as Cyber Sleuth, which were mostly standard turn-based JRPGs, Next Order requires you to train your Digimon in a gym in order to fulfill evolution conditions and survive treks out into the wild. Additionally, other V-Pet features such as death and rebirth, and, of course, pooping, all make a return here.
- Rare Candy: Some ingredients and all the stat chips add points to the partners' stats if consumed.
- Recurring Boss: Blackie and Blackosaurus are a team of optional bosses who you can fight three times over the course of the story, and who digivolve to new forms each time.
- Regenerating Health: The "Health Runner" Tamer Skill allows the partners' HP to regenerate while running on the map.
- Regenerating Mana: In-battle, MP slowly regenerates when not full. The player can also induce this outside battles by activating the Tamer Skill "Invigorating Runner", which regenerates MP while running on the map.
- Remilitarized Zone: The zone belonging to the Meat faction of the Ohguino Wastelands. It's filled with weapons and barricades facing the enemy and the music is a cheerful military march, and most of the Digimon fighting are buff as you'd expect of Digimon going to war. (The Veggie faction is simultaneously more elegant and more sinister.)
- The Reveal: At the very end of the game, it turns out Luche isn't a human. She used to be a Digimon. Tsuzuki's Digimon.
- Ribcage Ridge: The Corpseway in the Bony Resort is the path connecting the Bony Drive and the Graveyard, running right under what seems to be the skeleton of an unidentified gigantic Digimon.
- Rich Bitch: PlatinumSukamon comes off as this when you encounter them in Bony Resort, specifically deriding you for how little money you have. This is also a bit of Red Herring since the amount of Bits you have has nothing to do with recruiting PlatinumSukamon.
- Rule of Three: Blackosaurus and Blackie, who are initially met as a BlackAgumon and BlackGabumon respectively, are the epitome of this trope. Your first encounter with them has you fight with them three times straight, with no breaks in between. The next time you meet, they've digivolved into Champions, and after losing twice, digivolve again into Ultimates before facing you one more time. The final time subverts the expectation, as they only fight you once as Megas, and then fake you (and themselves for that matter) out with a DNA Digivolution to Omegamon Zwart before immediately reverting and, after thanking you for all the fights, deciding that "second place" isn't that bad and leaving. Overall, however, you still end up facing them three times in three different areas before they leave at the end.
- Save-Game Limits: Three save slots are available.
- Saying Too Much: Turuiemon, on being confronted at Logic Volcano, claims they didn't steal Myotismon's umbrella. They've never even heard of Myotismon... except the player hadn't mentioned him. Whoops.
- Schmuck Bait: A Mastemon found in the Armaggedemon quest offers to give the player extra time to hunt them, at the cost of all their partner's HP and MP, with no chance of declining once they're spoken to. It later moves to the Digital Dimensions where it appears randomly and does the exact same thing when spoken to.
- Few of the recruits serving a similar role can feel like this too, since the player accepts it whether they want it or not. Examon steals 10,000 bits in exchange for extra time, and Crusadermon extends partners' life but takes 1 minute off the timer. At least the player can learn the effects the first time and will only interact with them during repeat encounters if needed.
- Sealed Badass in a Can: ShineGreymon was captured by the Veggie Warriors. He was being used as a living battery for a super weapon that would've won the war for the Veggies.
- Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fight:
- The Paildramon at MOD Cape sets as a condition for fighting him that the player's partners have one-fifth their usual health and MP. It's pretty much designed to ensure the only way to win is ExE Evolution.
- An EX Scenario fight against Samudramon post-Reincarnation is stated to be a Hopeless Boss Fight as even Tsuzuki and Noir are unable to defeat him, and when the player gets to the battle themselves, both partners start off at 0 MP (and do not regenerate). As asked by Tsuzuki, the player simply has to do nothing in the battle (for 30 seconds, and hope the partners stay alive the whole time). When the second part of the battle starts, they can fight Samudramon as normal.
- Shifting Sand Land: Server Desert is the sandy area in the game. When you enter it from the Nigh Plains there's a sandstorm going on, in the next zone you'll find an oasis, and to cross over to the Ohguino Wastelands you have to navigate a series of sand traps.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the Colosseum battles is titled Studio Gobli.
- Several Colosseum battles reference various parts of the Digimon franchise, including using Japanese-only terms that would only be recognizable to longtime fans. Such as labeling a fight that pits you against Guilmon, Terriermon, Renamon, Lopmon, and Leomon with "Biggest Dreamer", which is the theme from Digimon Tamers, where all these Digimon played roles. Or having the description of a fight involving a bunch of Ultimate Digimon contain several instances of the word "perfect", which is the Japanese term for Ultimate level Digimon.
- The theme music that plays over the Meat eater's portion of the Ohguino Wastelands sounds an awful lot like the main theme of The Great Escape.
- Silly Reason for War:
- The Digimon in the Ohguino Wastelands are fighting over meat versus vegetables. To drive the contrast further, the Veggie Troops are comprised of plant Digimon, while the Meaty Troops are composed of various carnivores. Both sides are being played by Myotismon, to level the area and allow him to develop on it.
- The Filth Digimon in Jijimon's EX Quest declare war on toilets. The player character is baffled by just how riled up the little guys are over not being allowed to poop where they want.
- Sleep-Mode Size: Averted with Belphemon: Sleep Mode, who's actually pretty big for a sleeping demon teddy-bear.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Absolute Zero is a snow-covered landscape leading to a cathedral made of ice. Many ice-elemental Digimon show up here. Unlike in other video games, you never slide on the ice.
- Stone Wall: The ClearAgumon that can be found at Bony Resort are pathetically weak, but can buff their defense to ludicrous levels with Holy Breath.
- Strength Equals Worthiness: Many of the Royal Knights fought in the postgame use this justification as an excuse to fight you, as does Lucemon. Also used by Phoenixmon, who considers your victory over them proof that humans aren't all bad.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Not all overworld enemies are like this, but some will remain aggressive even if they are Rookies facing up against your two Megas with maxed out stats.
- Super Mode: If both your partner Digimon gain enough Order Power to use their individual Limit Breaks and fulfill several other conditionsDetails, they can instead perform ExE evolution, which is a Fusion Dance that changes them into a new, extremely powerful Digimon.
- Superboss: The Royal Knights (minus Gallantmon and UlforceVeedramon) and the Seven Great Demon Lords are available to fight and recruit in the post-game. And they can be very tough, not least because you'll often be required to fight two or more at a time and they love spamming their special attacks. Upon recruitment, they populate the Digital Dimensions, where some of them can be fought again, while others give you goodies.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: One subquest deals with a Digimon that pollutes the Ruins Lake. A "MegaSeadramon" (actually WaruSeadramon) dwelling there keeps denying that ever happening after the player received a DigiMail from Botamon and then Koromon about the complaint, even trying to convince the player to just call him "MegaSeadramon (Lake)" (yes, including the "(Lake)" part), never mind his darker color scheme and black head and the fact he is the only one that is always idle on that area.
- Take Your Time: The plot is much higher-stakes than in previous games, with characters frequently talking as if they must race against the clock to prevent The End of the World as We Know It. You can still, however, spend as much time as you like ignoring the main plot to no ill effects.
- A Taste of Power: The beginning of the game has the player fight a Machinedramon with a WarGreymon and a MetalGarurumon, who then fuse into Omnimon. Suffice to say, after that it's a while before you get anywhere near that level of power again.
- Temporary Online Content: All Downloadable Content has been delisted from the Japanese and Chinese PSN for the PlayStation Vita version.
- Theme Music Power-Up: When you trigger ExE, the game's opening theme, "Accentier", starts playing.
- Those Two Guys: A BlackAgumon and a BlackGabumon make semi-recurring appearances throughout the game, often giving you details about a major area you visit right before blindsiding you (the first time) with a battle.
- Time-Limit Boss: Later on in the game, starting with Faulty Ex Machina, some Digimon will only join the city if you beat them in sixty seconds. The Brutal Bonus Level bosses are this too as the Dimension dungeons are all Timed Missions.
- Toilet Humor:
- It's a sequel to Digimon World, so this is a given. Be prepared to not just deal with taking your Digimon to the bathroom regularly, but to also deal with fecal-matter throwing Digimon as well.
- KingSukamon also deals with this. If he throws you out of his chambers, before the screen loads up, a farting sound can be heard.
- Almost all of the jokes in the Sukamon Royalty side quest revolve around this. Not only is the entire quest focused on clearing various types of Numemon and Sukamon from the toilets around the world so that digimon can start using the bathroom again, but the dialogue is also littered with this humor. Highlights include hunting down the key item "Fossilized Poop" and bowel movements as metaphors for joyful experiences.
- Trapped in Another World: Takuto/Shiki, Himari and Kouta are thrown into the Digital World suddenly and unexpectedly and it's made clear that they can't leave until the Machinedramon problem is solved. Himari is particularly desperate to get back home as soon as possible (causing tension with her Digimon), due to being responsible for her younger sisters.
- Unstoppable Rage: In a postgame quest, Rosemon finds her castle overrun with squatters and various Digimon either drunk or high as kites, and gets so furious she goes straight to Burst Mode. The player is required to fight her to calm her down. Once this is done the first time, the player can repeat this event every in-game Sunday.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Infinite Cauldron, which is only unlocked in Chapter 4, and is where Tsuzuki aims to finish his plan. It's swarming with very powerful Digimon, and several recruitable ones.
- Video Game Caring Potential: It's a Raising Sim, so taking good care of your Digimon will often result in powerful partners that'll have your back until the day they die. Additionally, some of the more popular Digimon (such as the main ones from the various anime shows) require good care in order to be accessible.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Of course, you could always just do whatever you want. Ignore your Digimons' needs such as bathroom breaks and eating. Scold them when they expect praise for training and fighting hard. Refuse to let them take rests during training and work them until they're sick. In fact, some players even abuse their Digimon on purpose, oftentimes because they wanted a specific Digimon evolution and they didn't get it.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Almost all mistreatment (which are called "Curses" and "Training Failures" by the game, but termed as "care mistakes" by the fans) will have the Digimon visibly lash out at you, and beyond that, it also lowers their life expectancy (but not as much as it did in the original game), so if you overworked your Digimon just to get an Ultimate or Mega faster, congratulations! It'll last for maybe a little over a day before keeling over from exhaustion. This trope is semi-averted for evolutions that do require Training Failures in order to evolve, and further averted when you have enough Tamer Skills that keep your Digimon alive long enough to both achieve those evolutions and remain in them for longer periods of time.
- Violation of Common Sense: Certain evolutions require a certain number of care mistakes and/or low discipline (achieved by giving unwarranted praise or scoldings) to obtain. It's most egregious (though thematically appropriate) with the Seven Great Demon Lords, who have very demanding requirements that include making at least 5 care mistakes and have the discipline score be equal to or lesser than 9 (out of 100). This can be difficult to achieve without leading your Digimon to a premature death.
- The Virus: Pun aside, the BH Virus is the cause of Digimon turning into violent Machinedramon.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The first major story boss, the Machinedramon in Dead End Town, is essentially a check to make sure you understand how to use the Defend Command well. It frequently uses Gigawatt Laser, which is an endgame-level technique that can easily one-shot your partners with 5-digit damage. Unless you can react consistently and quickly, it will vaporize your partners in no time.
- Warp Whistle: Comes in two varieties depending on if you're coming or going. Heading to previously visited destinations can be accomplished by using the Sender service, where Birdramon will fly you to areas in exchange for Bits. In contrast, using the Autopilot item returns you to the city from anywhere in the world.
- Wham Line:
- Downplayed with Yukimura. His first line of "Before you ask someone's name, isn't it polite to give your own name, first?" in itself is mundane. The real shock comes from that coming from a Guilmon with a much deeper and mature voice. This would be a surprise to those used to the much more childish Guilmon from Digimon Tamers.
- Tsuzuki, on seeing Mameo, exclaims "You! That brat!", cluing in that he is possessed by Analogman.
- Wolf Pack Boss:
- In the postgame, the Seven Deadly Digimon show up as Superbosses. Most of them fight you individually... but Barbamon, Creepymon, and Leviamon will fight you all together. Better hope you have some Area of Effect attacks handy!
- Many of the Colosseum matches pit you against enemy teams that number 3, 4, or even 5, badly outnumbering your partners. A-rank matches will frequently make such teams a mix of Ultimates and Megas, making them extremely tough even if your own partners are Megas.
- X Treme Kool Letterz: The O in Order in the title is replaced with the number 0.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time moves much faster in the Digital World, to the point where only a few hours have passed in the real world over the course of the game's main scenario.
- Zip Mode: The Dash Mode variant where the player can hold down a button to make the protagonist run instead of jog is added to the Updated Re Release ports.
