Digital Monsters - Taichis Story

Well it's nice to finally see some good Digimon fangames. After a while I've finally beaten the game, with being busy and some other stuff keeping me from finishing the game. So let's get started shall we? I'm going to try and keep my opinion unbiased but keep in mind I really do love Digimon a lot. Also beware, this review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Gameplay: 4/5
In Taichi's story you obviously play as Tai(chi) and Agumon(Though he starts as Koromon). For the most part you play as Agumon, as you are going to fight Digimon. Agumon is controlled easily with the arrow keys or a controller if you can somehow configure yours to this game, I couldn't, so maybe it doesn't have that option.

Then you press Z to use your attack, Agumon's is his fireball/fire breath known as Pepper Breath, Pepper Flame, Spit Fire Blast or Baby Flame depending on which version of Digimon you grew up with. It's also sometimes used as your 'action' button you use to pick up, examine or talk. Though you could use Enter for that as well. X is used as both your cancel button at times and most obviously your Pause Menu Button which brings up the game's menu of sorts. It lets you choose from DIGIANYLZER, MAP, INVENTORY and EXIT. Digianyzler is exactly what it sounds like. For those who don't know what that is, think of it as the Digimon's world of a Pokedex. It gives you a little info on the Digimon. It doesn't really serve much of a purpose until maybe one instance later on. The Map is just that, a map. It shows what area your in, but just the general area, it doesn't show an actual map as to where you are and what way to take if your lost. And you are only one one island really so you don't go anywhere else so don't get your hopes up. But that doesn't make it bad or anything. The Inventory is where you use your items and check how much HP Agumon has, as you are battling as Agumon walking around using your Pepper Breath on enemies, and enemies roaming on the map can attack you too. This is not an RPG battle it's all on the map. Each Digimon only take a couple of hits, minus the bosses that obviously will take more. Also I've noticed that the INV really only serves the purpose of either healing Agumon with healing items or exiting the game. You can also see a nice picture of Tai that says he has either 0 or 1 HP, which is strange since I noticed that would change sometimes. Obviously Tai isn't the one fighting and has no real stats or Health to speak of anyways. However After ITEMS in the INV there are two blank spots only named "-" and if you click them it goes into a sort of blank equip or item screen. Obviously nothing happens in there, but I guess since this is RPG Maker, MrPrinz couldn't get rid of those. The only way to exit the game, unless you just right click it and choose close, is to do so in the INV screen. EXIT in the pause mode just exits you out of the Pause mode.

Now at certain parts, bosses, Agumon will digivolve into Greymon. And for the final boss he evolves into MetalGreymon(After digivolving into Greymon). So it's actually pretty basic and fun. Though you actually don't have to kill any of the none Digimon bosses. The only reason to is if you don't want them to take your HP/Attack you or if their in your way(and you don't want them to attack you obviously). So for the most part if your really good at dodging you can just ignore them. Now for the Bosses you want to make sure you have good HP or items. Some bosses were easier then others. I had a pain in the butt beating whatever boss I had to do as Wormmon(I can't quite remember as when I had last saved was way after that and I left the game for a while).

However if you know what exactly to do for the bosses, like a specific place to stand without getting hit much it's not hard, the only thing your doing is just spamming your attack over and over again. Like for the final boss. I just stood in one place not moving(after defeating those two goons who appeared the first part of the battle). And I beat him easily the first time. But then story-wise he did something to Greymon and he evolved again obviously. This time there was no goons to attack me so I stood back into this place right up near him to the right again. And just kept attacking and no HP was lost except for that little bit I lost just getting into that spot, when he hit me before I got there. So the final boss was kind of weak, not really complaining at all though. I don't mind easy bosses, though I'm sure other people wouldn't like that.

Plot: 4/5
Now this part is probably completely biased. See I do love the plot, it's a good plot for Digimon really. At first I was confused at parts as to why Ken was there and he looked like his normal non-digital emperor self, yet he had those trademark Emperor/Kaiser Sun Glasses. But after beating the game and thinking over it I actually get it more. I'll get into that in a little bit though. Down to the premise from beginning to end though.

Your Taichi. Who is somehow back into the Digital World. Now this is my personal guess but this is sometime after the first season and obviously way before the second where they are older. So sometime after the last episode Tai ended up in the DigiWorld again apparently. Now it's been a while since I played from the beginning but I don't think it was explained how or why Tai was brought back. I mean obviously he has to help save the Digiworld, but I'm sure there's more of a reason for that, maybe that hasn't been said yet?

So when you first wake up you meet up with your buddy Koromon, before he digivolves. And the game just follows around your adventures. Coming across a DigiVillage that seemed to have inhabitants the day before but after you wake they are all gone with a mysterious note. Actually now that I have brought that up, I wish that was expanded on a little more. If I recall you never really see any of the villager Digimon again and you can't really go back there, and you never see Kazemon who let you stay at her place for free again. She was just a throwaway character for the plot I suppose.

Now throughout the game you'll see glimpses of the Digimon Emperor/Kaiser. Which made me think he was the big bad, but it was actually a Digimon called Peerbitmon, who was made of pieces of other Digimon. Which means he was probably created by Ken/DigiEmperor. I may be wrong about that. But you do see Ken's final little cameo at the end where he does the ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN lines of his where he talks about making the Dark Rings. It also came off as the Digimon, if he was created by Ken, went rouge and ran away from Ken or something. Once again all speculation. Overall it's a pretty good story, a nice side story in between Season 1 and 2. I will admit the poop jokes seemed childish at times but then I remembered the first season had a couple of them too so it didn't bother me as much.

Now the biggest problem though is that English is obviously not MrPrinz first or original language. He knows enough where he has translated his own game, or at least I think he translated himself...Is what I would have said if I didn't just google his game right as I'm typing this. Apparently someone named Lisa Young translated it. Well the English is very VERY Engrishy. Trust me on this. This might turn some people off, but it's not like it's unplayable or you can't understand anything. It obviously didn't make me turn from the game, I loved it. But it might turn others off.

Characters: -
I won't really score this one, there's various characters throughout but the only ones you really get time to know is obviously Tai and Agumon. You do get to know Wormmon just a little bit, the bosses provide a little bit too but for the most part they are all throw away characters, just some lines and that's it.

Music/Sound: 4/5
The music was pretty good. Obviously for the most part I don't think any of it is original, just stuff from other games or the like, but it's still good music and it's not like I hate it. Some pieces are nice. And I like the sound clips that were put in, like in the beginning when Koromon calls out to Tai. All the voice clips are in Japanese however so yeah...Fans of Digimon might like that, unless their die hard dub fans. The music was okay for the most part but when I got to the final boss it did ended up getting epic when he digivolved. I did like the piano rendition to Biggest Dreamer for the credits. But that's because I really love that song like the nerd I am.

There is one thing, the sound effects seem to be louder then the music, so sometimes I had to turn down or turn off the sound on my computer. So that was a thing against it, but for the most part it didn't bother me.

Graphics: 5/5
Now there's some parts in the mapping that look a little off or odd but then you have to remember...The Digiworld is an odd place. It's not that strange to see a computer or vending machine in the middle of nowhere. That actually happens in Digimon. The mapping was great though, I loved it. Good mapping is always awesome. And I liked the little sprite graphics of all the characters too. So kudos to whoever created it. Two thumbs up.


Overall: 4/5
It's an awesome game, I think those who know of or LOVE Digimon will like it more and actually understand what's going on. It's not unplayable if you don't know but you will most likely be confused as to what's going on and who these characters are as it doesn't explain it all if you are a newcomer. So it's mainly by a fan for the fans in my eyes. And there's nothing wrong with that. However after I beat the game I got this 'code' and I'm not sure what it's for. I can't recall if there's a place to put it in the game. Also while googling the game I noticed the SEQUEL which isn't in English, where you play as Matt. I hope to see that game in English someday soon and hopefully that means all the Digidestined will get their own game? I'd honestly like to play as Izzy, Jou, Sora, Mimi or Kari. Or all of them really. That would be pretty neat. Also on a little note I think the game does have some replayablity, as a Digimon fan I'd play it over again if I have some time. Other then that there's really no replayablity unless you really liked it or your a big fan.