The next Digimon game is “Digimon World: Next Order”, coming out exclusively for the PlayStation Vita in Japan next year. A Western release is yet to be announced. The game was first revealed in V Jump magazine.
Protagonist and Digimon Information:
Takuto – (Default. Name changeable.) – A senior at high school who is at the end of his club activities and the main character. He has been a lover of Digimon from a young age, as a 5th grader he became the runner-up of a Japanese Digimon game competition.
Gabumon – A shy young Digimon that grows out his fur and digivolves into Garurumon.
Agumon – A low-level Digimon. His special attack is known as “Baby Flame”, fire that he shoots out of his mouth to roast his foes.
Digimon World: Next Order will feature characters designed by “Taiki” (Also known as “Pixiv”), who has been the main illustrator of a lot of characters and card art from the “Lord of Vermilion” franchise, an extremely popular digital “Trading Card Game” series in Japan for arcades by Square Enix.
“Lord of Arcana” & “Lord of Apocalypse” for PSP & PSVita are Action-based spin-offs in the Lord of Vermilion franchise. They are available in the West so you may have seen them on store shelves. A MOBA entitled “Lord of Vermilion Arena” was also released in Japan earlier this year.
According to Taiki, he is a big Digimon fan.
He says, “When I was in elementary school, I bought my first Digimon handheld and it was the first time I fell in love with Digimon. As I was with my very own Digimon, I felt half of the pressure of my very own life.”
Gameplay details on Digimon World: Next Order are scarce, but fans will probably be able to glean some information from the gameplay screenshots. You can also check out the official Japanese Digimon World: Next Order website.
It’s definitely worth noting that Namco Bandai is publishing “Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth” in English for Western markets in 2016 for both PSVita AND PS4.
If that game proves to be moderately successful (I imagine it will be a digital-only release), then it is very likely that Namco Bandai will also publish “Digimon World: Next Order” in the West too.
So if you want to see Digimon World: Next Order, be sure to pre-order a copy of “Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth” to show Namco that you are interested!
Digimon definitely seems to be one of the franchises that has devolved (har har!) into “B-Game” status. There has yet to be a big Digimon game in the modern age.
This is kind of surprising, as Digimon is a franchise that has a lot of fan-love and is well-remembered by Millennials who grew up with the franchise (alongside Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh) when they were kids.
I think there is potential for a Digimon game, done right, to be a massive success. But so far no developer has shown that kind of interest in the property.
Do you want Digimon World: Next Order to be released in the West?
Here’s the Digimon World: Next Order image gallery. Click on any of these image thumbnails to see the full-size photos: