This time around, we're going to be covering a significant part of Digimon's history, Digimon World! It's a game that is based around the original lore given in bits and pieces in the original backstory of the original virtual pets, and features a protagonist that fell into the mysterious world. Released in Japan in 1999, Digimon World actually came out before the anime, and didn't include any of the Pendulum-era Digimon. It's interesting to see just how many areas of File Island in the anime actually match up to Digimon World. I played the SHIT out of the original Digimon World back in the day, although it's not until relatively recently that I finally beat the game and took down Mugendramon, that bastard!As I mentioned before, Mugendramon actually debuted in this game, but I had decided to go through all the Pendulum virtual pets one by one before approaching this titanic game and going through its large amount of newly-introduced Digimon.
And thanks to having relatively limited resources -- this is a PlayStation 1 game, after all -- the game featured a lot of reskinned and recoloured Digimon from the available sprites in order to fill up their areas. After all, it'd be absolutely boring if the huge ice-themed area only had Mojyamon and Yukidarumon wandering around, right? We also have a fair amount of original designs introduced in Digimon World, some of whom ended up graduating into far, far more material including the various anime series. Some others kind of just end up being easy fodder for subsequent game series to recolour sprites and call it another species. We'll cover the honestly pretty vast World now, yeah? We'll start off with the unique, brand-new designs that World introduced, before going through the repaints. I'll emphasize the ones who has a big role somewhere, while the rest... yeah, I'll try to not get too repetitive.
Note that for the recolours, I'm going to review them partly based on just how different they look and they are from the original designs, so a minimal-effort (or ugly) recolour of a design I really like will still end up with a pretty low score.
_____________________________________
Jijimon
So our first entry here is the Ultimate-level Digimon Jijimon, borrowing his name from jiji, the Japanese term for a grandpa. Jijimon here acts as the Professor Oak style NPC that greets your character in Digimon World, getting you to go through the tutorial of how to raise your Digimon and get it to evolve, as well as giving you the mission statement of recruiting several specific NPC Digimon to settle down and rebuild the Village of Beginnings. Jijimon here is a fun little tiny old caveman-like dude with big feet and a face that's 99% hair (he has a mouth under there) and I do like that this non-assuming dude is classified as one of the final evolutionary stages of a Digimon. Jijimon's profile notes that he has existed since the Digital World has created, and tends to act as a guide to any chosen human protagonist, but rarely really fights and exhibits true strength... which, apparently, involves sending people straight to the underworld with that staff in an attack that's called "Hang On, Death!"Jijimon and his wife Babamon (which we'll cover below) are also recurring characters in Tamers, although they aren't portrayed as the wise all-knowing mentor and are treated like a bickering odd old couple that ended up befriending our heroes, and later showing up with a gigantic army of Ultimate-level Digimon to help fight the D-Reaper threat. Jijimon also shows up in Xros Wars as a recurring character that plays the old, wise non-combatant mentor trope straight, being an unexpected recurring character in the Xros Heart army and leading to some genuinely fun fusions whenever he gets fused with one of the actual combatant Digimon. Jijimon's not the sort of Digimon that honestly fits my own personal taste, and definitely not the sort of Digimon I'd ever want as a partner, but definitely a fun little world-building piece that I'm glad exists.
5/10.Babamon
Babamon here isn't actually introduced in Digimon World, but rather first debuts in Digimon World: Digital Card Battle, a TCG-based video game that uses the same models and resources as Digimon World. But it's not right to review Jijimon without Babamon, and Digital Card Battle came out in the same year as Digimon World anyway. Babamon takes over Jijimon's role as the mentor in this video game, so I now have the mental image of this little geriatric old lady just playing card games as SERIOUS BUSINESS while other Digimon are doing life-and-death battles. Anyway, in all subsequent material, Babamon (babaa meaning grandma) is often depicted as Jijimon's wife, and I've always thought that Babamon has the more distinctive design between the two, with a fun old-lady hairdo that covers her eyes (she has them), but leaves her stitched-up mouth open, something that can easily be kindly or creepy -- a fact that the aforementioned Tamers episode actually really capitalizes on in making it initially ambiguous if Jijimon and Babamon are a pair of sinister serial killers or just a pair of kindly old people.Interestingly, Babamon's profile notes that she's rumoured to be an elderly Rosemon -- something that's subtly hinted at the necklace that Babamon wears, which is Rosemon's Tiferet necklace! That's neat. I also found it appropriate, slightly stereotypical but still quite hilarious that Babamon just holds a broom. And being an Ultimate-level Digimon, her "Empress Haze" attack apparently just erases enemies with a swing of her broom! Sadly we never quite saw Babamon do anything particularly awesome in any of the anime series, being a squabbling couple with Jijimon in Tamers, and the leader of the Shinobi Zone in Xros Wars as a non-combatant ruler. Overall, again, Babamon's design isn't the most creative of things, but I've always liked that there's just an Ultimate-level pair of Digimon that's just an old man and an old woman that behaves like a stereotypical catty old couple, and just has enough weirdness in their design to appropriately look like a friendly monster old lady. Like Jijimon, I am 100% neutral on this nice old lady.
5/10.Igamon (a.k.a. Ninjamon)
Hey, don't you know ninjas are popular in Japan? So obviously we're going to get a ninja Digimon. And Igamon here is... um... an onion with arms and weird stubby legs, dressed in ninja garb? I honestly always found Igamon to be neatly bizarre, and not just a dude-in-a-ninja-suit. Igamon borrows his name from the Iga-ryu school of ninjutsu from Japan's legend, but ends up being renamed to Ninjamon in the dub. Igamon's official profile notes that he has different doctrines with the cowboy-like Revolmon, but the two are apparently comrades in arms in some group called the "Virus Busters"? In Digimon World, Igamon is both a recruitable NPC Digimon that you can recruit to your city as it grows, and is also a possible evolution for Palmon, although subsequent video games have made a lot of other Child-level Digimon evolve into Igamon as well -- though they tended to be plant or fungi Digimon like Mushmon, Lalamon and Floramon.Igamon was a villain-of-the-week in a 02 episode that took place in an Edo-themed part of the Digital World, and ended up battling Shurimon, the ninja-themed evolution of one of the protagonist. Igamon was also a recurring supporting character in the V-Tamers manga, and in Savers, a whole battalion of Igamon ended up running around on behalf of the good guys in the digital world, dismantling Gizumons in hit-and-run tactics. Xros Wars had a whole zone dedicated to homaging ninja tropes, and a whole army of Igamon worked for the bad guys this time around, serving a Musyamon commander. Anyway, Igamon is always been weird but kinda charming for me.
5/10.FlareLizamon (a.k.a. Flarerizamon/FlareLizardmon)
4/10.DarkLizamon (a.k.a. Darkrizamon)
DarkLizamon (alternatively translated as Darkrizamon and DarkLizardmon) is basically the same thing with FlareLizamon, but his flames are black. In Digimon World, they wander around the Overdell Cemetery, because... reasons? DarkLizamon is basically the Virus equivalent of FlareLizamon, although it apparently subverts normal fire monster conventions by having a cool head. DarkLizamon shows up in Tamers as a minor antagonist, appearing in the real world and asking for main character Takato to make her stronger... but after a battle in a parking lot, she gets captured by shady government agency Hypnos arrives, captures the poor thing and then uses her as part of the basis of their anti-digimon program Yuggoth. Poor DarkLizamon! Anyway, it's a repaint that I don't really particularly think was necessary, and a bit less interesting compared to FlareLizarmon. 3/10.Yanmamon
Not to be confused with the Pokemon called Yanma! Yanmamon here is an Adult-level dragonfly Digimon based on Japan's Oniyamna, otherwise known as the jumbo dragonfly (Anatogaster sieboldii). Yanmamons are very common sights in the tropical forest and Geko swamp areas in the game, and honestly quite irritating. These dudes are Adult-class, but definitely look way less interesting than all the other Adult-level insect monsters like Kabuterimon, Kuwagamon, Flymon and Snimon. It's just a dragonfly with chunky pointy legs, although it at least gets to keep the four-pronged monster mouth that Kabuterimon has. Poor Yanmamon never quite gets the respect that the other bug Digimon do, however, having a particularly truncated official profile that basically has him be "hey, it's a dragonfly, but a big monster". In video games, Yanmamon is even tended to be treated as the 'bad' evolution of insect-based Child Digimon that you end up with when you can't get the cool Kabuterimons and Kuwagamons! Poor Yanmamon. I found it neat, but definitely overshadowed by so many cooler insect monsters. It did finally get an anime appearance in Savers as the personal steed and ride of recurring villain Gotsumon. Didn't even get to actually fight or get a line! Poor Yanmamon. 4/10.Penmon (a.k.a. Penguinmon)
Penmon here is supposedly based on a penguin (hence its dub name, Penguinmon), although it does end up borrowing a lot of features from other bids as well. As you'll see in this page, there is going to be a lot of ice and polar-themed Digimon that make their debut in Digimon World. And unlike most of the newly-introduced Digimon here, Penmon is one that was immediately playable in World. One of the many NPCs you can recruit to build up the Village of Beginnings is a Penmon who will open a curling rink. No, really. Penmon doesn't really base itself off from any specific one penguin, although I do appreciate how it doesn't actually go for the obvious Emperor Penguin and instead picks one of the stouter variants. It's also got the same clawed fingers Biyomon has, and a particularly curved beak, making it relatively unique as far as penguin monsters go.I don't think Penmon has appeared anywhere in the anime or manga, although it certainly has shown up in a lot of video games -- the video games tended to try and have all the Child-level Digimon recur if they have space, to spread out the evolutionary lines a little bit. Penmon's neat that way in that it's associated with ice-themed, bird-themed and even aquatic-themed Digimon, and in fact apparently one of its most consistent evolutions, of all things is the dolphin Rukamon. A couple of years later would give us Daipenmon, an Ultimate-level penguin Digimon and one that's so badass that it's part of the Ten Warriors of Frontier's mythology, so it's nice to know that at least one Penmon made it big in life. Anyway, I've sort of always been indifferent towards Penmon, I'm sorry.
4/10.Muchomon
Muchomon here is the more memorable one for me -- it's a "repaint" of the playable Penmon, and the palette-swapped Digimon exist as generic enemies that populate the world to make your own Digimon and the NPC Digimons a bit more special, but since I never played through World with a Penmon and Penmon is one of those NPCs I always forget to recruit, it's Muchomon that is a lot more memorable to me. I've also always loved his name (is that racist? I'm not sure) and just how colourful this red-and-blue fat waddling bird is. In Digimon World, they also speak random Spanish phrases before they challenge you to battle, and I remembered there being a lot of these things in the jungle areas of the game. Muchomon's whole deal is that it's a happy bird that dances to samba.
5/10.Goblimon (a.k.a. Goburimon)
Hey, it's Goblimon! Apparently the makes of Digimon World really want to make the game feel like an RPG, so they introduced a goblin-style Digimon for the early-game areas. It's also ended up as the default Child-stage level for Ogremon, which honestly is a pretty neat fit by my books. Also, for whatever reason, the translation team for World completely missed that Goblimon's name is meant to be, y'know, goblin, and literally translates the name as Goburimon... and it actually stayed as Goburimon for quite some time in video games. I've always found Goblimon to be somewhat charming, with that weird dog-like muzzle, that cheeky-ass grin, and those fancy RPG-style clothing. Always loved how his club, instead of traditional spikes, has a bunch of screws in them. Like how goblins tended to be portrayed in fantasy works, Goblimons swarm together to compenstae for their weakness and are cowardly when actually confronted with someone that can harm them. Also, if Digimon World is anything they go by, they throw bombs at people.Goblimon made his first anime appearance in Tamers as one of the Digimon that managed to breach the barrier between the human and Digimon world and I've always remembered Tamers' Goblimon as particularly savage and feral. Look here. Man, what a change reducing that jawline and making his eyes pupil-less makes, huh? Goblimon ends up evolving into a Fugamon (a red oni-themed Ogremon palette swap we'll talk about below) but ends up getting straight-up murdered by one of the protagonists, Ruki, and her Renamon. Goblimon also shows up as antagonists, being hired thugs for a Snimon in Frontier, forcing a village of Kokuwamon to become basically slaves. Goblimon would also make minor appearances in Savers and Xros Wars. An honestly large amount of appearances for Ogremon's little cousins!
5/10.Shamamon (a.k.a. Sharmamon/Shamanmon)
So as you progress a bit in the game, you encounter Gear Savannah, where these dudes show up. Shamamon (Shamanmon in the dub, but also sometimes the bizarre Sharmamon) is honestly one of the genuinely most un-exciting palette swap. They just basically swapped out Goblimon's brown clothes for blue, gave him a tan and some hair changes. Really? That's honestly quite minimal effort -- not quite as bad as some of the worst offenders down below, but pretty bad, honestly. Shamamon might visually look like a Goblimon with a bad tan, but he does have some neat lore bits in the profile and the anime series. Shamamon's profile notes that he's, well, a shaman that talks to God (or what these digital creatures think is god, a computer program called Yggdrasil) like is common in these fantasy tropes. Unlike most fantasy-setting shamans, though, Shamamon doesn't summon the spirits of the dead or commune with the elementals of the world. He just bonks you with his club, but it's called "Shaman Hammer", so you know it's extra shaman-y. Shamamon has actually had a role as a minor antagonist-of-the-week in Frontier, where he's the guardian of one of the many tokens of power that the Chosen Children are searching for, namely the beast spirit of fire. Ultimately the most boring of the Goblimon variants. 3/10.SnowGoblimon (a.k.a. SnowGoburimon)
As you'll see from the huge selection of ice monsters in this list, Digimon World had a pretty long ice area... but the only polar-themed Digimon available to them at that time were basically just Yukidarumon, Garurumon and Mojyamon. So they decided to give Goblimon a snow-themed variant to hang out in the icy areas! SnowGoblimon here actually gets a set of new clothing, ditching the open-chest vest and RPG loincloth for a... what do you call that, even? A sleeveless winter coat? SnowGoblimon's also got himself a fancy little dome-shaped hat with a little spike on top. Oh, and that's in addition to his skin being all blue. SnowGoblimon, of course, evolves into Ogremon's own ice-themed variant, Hyogamon, who we'll cover below in the "palette swaps" section. SnowGoblimon's never appeared outside of video games, but I do think that it's profile noting that it lobs rocks covered in snow and acts like it's a special technique is charming. 4/10.Brachimon (a.k.a. Brachiomon)
There is a whole dinosaur-themed area in Digimon World, inhabited by dudes like Tyrannomon and Monochromon. They decided to introduce a bunch of brand-new dinosaurs into Digimon, though, so they ended up having this dude Brachimon show up, representing one of the more iconic dinosaurs out there the brachiosaurus. Interestingly, unlike many of the Digimon on this list, Brachimon exists just to be a flavour NPC that you can talk to... but unlike the other NPC's, Brachimon can't be recruited into your fledgling town, nor do they give quests. Subsequent games would tell us that Brachimon is a Perfect-level, and has since been shuffled as an alternate evolution for Tyrannomon and, bizarrely, Yanmamon? A herd of Brachimon had a neat little role in Xros Wars -- and I really love that about Xros Wars. Say what you want about the quality of the show (which IMO is actually pretty good) but they do some neat world-building and made great use of a lot of the ignored older Digimon.
Brachimon's design is a fair bit more interesting than I remember it to be, which is basically "a Brachiosaurus in Greymon colours". It's got that nice little knife on its head that replaces the real-life dinosaur's head crest, and it's got a fun little stitched-up mouth. Not the most creative design when we get down to it, but it's okay as sort of a creature that just happens to live in the digital world. In 2003 Brachimon would, against all odds, get a genuinely fun Ultimate-level evolution, though -- not bad considering how many other standalone Digimon get ignored and never had any evolutions or pre-evolutions given to them.
4/10.Before we go into full repaint territory, let's talk about two of the repaints from World that got pretty decent appearances in the various anime series.
IceDevimon
Frontier also made use of IceDevimon as a villain-of-the-week, where he was a straight-up mass murderer imprisoned prior to the events of the show, and unleashed upon the Chosen Children, and while the Japanese version of the episode was honestly quite unmemorable, characterizing him as a generic sociopath... the English dub apparently had IceDevimon's voice actor have a Christopher Walken impression, which is... okay? Xros Wars had IceDevimon as a general of the giant bad guy army, the Bagra Army, and was a recurring villain. In a break from the creepy stalker and the mass murderer, Xros Wars' IceDevimon is a bumbling moron that ends up getting straight-up replaced by a big penguin. Anwyay, IceDevimon's a great design -- I still prefer regular Devimon, but the purple on icy-blue/white colours is pretty neat. Throw in some genuinely great anime episodes and it's easy to see why this one ends up rating pretty high in my books.
7/10.Gigadramon
8/10.Clicky clicky.
Right, from this point on we're in full "palette swap/slight retool" territory! Again, these aren't a commentary on the designs themselves because, say, Saberdramon is inherently cool because Birdramon is cool, but the design there is so boring and minimal-effort that I'll be rating it badly. For the most part, I don't think any of these are going to get high marks unless they really innovate on the design -- repaints has always been something that's a blessing and a curse on Digimon. When done well they sort of show off a sub-species of the main breed that has adapted to a certain environment, but sometimes they're just obvious extra slots to pad out a game's roster. Most of these will have a pretty default rating of 3-4.
Icemon
4/10.Insekimon (a.k.a. Meteormon)
Insekimon, remarkably, has appeared in multiple anime shows, always as an evolution of Gotsumon. In Frontier, the resident plucky-civilian Gotsumon ended up evolving into Insekimon to try and fight the Royal Knights, whereas in Xros Wars Insekimon was the true and final form of the Gotsumon there, who acts as a major antagonist -- and when everyone keeps mocking Gotsumon for being a silly Child-level, he warp-evolves into Insekimon and starts raining down literal death in the form of meteor showers. The design might be a little lazy, perhaps... but I dunno, I kinda find it somewhat charming.
3/10.MasterTyrannomon
2/10.Soulmon
Soulmon here is just Bakemon, but with a witch's hat covering his eye! I thought that's hilarious! Unlike a lot of the palette swap Digimon, Soulmon even has unique lore, too, because it was originally a Bakemon that absorbed data from "mages of fantasy stories", so I guess Soulmon stumbled into a Diablo game or something. Because of his hat, he can now do magic and summon the souls of the dead, yay! Soulmon's made cameo appearances in Frontier and Hunters, but his biggest appearance was in Savers. Soulmon arrived on the real world in response to main character Daimon's little sister's "curse" upon her big brother for pranking her all the time. Soulmon ended up responding to this by attempting to prank Daimon... fatally. This was part of Savers' earlier episodes having the Digimon that manifest in the real world being brought about by the strong vices of mankind, although this ended up being dropped. Regardless, though, Soulmon was pretty neat there and honestly kind of creepy... for a Bakemon with a hat that covers his head. Honestly, just having a face that appears to be 100% mouth is pretty cool, if you're asking me.
Hee hee. This one is cute. Soulmon in Digimon World patrol the grounds outside of Vamdemon's mansion as generic enemies, but there are a couple of Soulmon that you can talk to. These Soulmon tell you that apparently the Bakemon NPC you befriended and recruited to your town is a goddamn moron for only being able to say "bakebakebake". Jeez, racist much? Anyway, I do like this dude.
7/10.Pidmon (a.k.a. Piddomon)
Pidmon here, named after the cupid (which in popular culture has transitioned from a Roman god to a chubby angel) is one of the later enemies encountered in the game when the game gets harder and scarier. I do love the detail that since Pidmon here is apparently the lowest-ranking of all the angels, it has only one pair of wings -- and, wow, it's a pretty bland design when you slice off four of Angemon's six wings, huh? Pidmon's swapped out blue cloth for pink, and instead of a cudgel he's got a weird rod with little prongs. I've always found this dude to be pretty underwhelming. He's shown up in a couple of shows as cameos, though, in Frontier as a race show announcer, and in Xros Wars' Sky Zone, acting as the generic troopers and civilians of the angel-themed zone. Pretty much forgettable, honestly, though they get a point for the effort of at least making Pidmon look different. 3/10.Psychemon
Mine eyes, they hurt! Bright pink and puke green aren't two colours that work well together. Is that why this dude is called psyche? After its psychedelic colouration? Apparently Psychemon can dance around and use his eye-searing colours to confuse the enemy, too. Psychemon, like many of the repaints here, are unobtainable enemy Digimon that patrols Trash Mountain, rather bizarrely considering Gabumon not having much to do with trash. Psychemon has gotten a longer Bandai profile than most of the repaints on this page, which characterizes Psychemon as being bright, showy and a bit obnoxious while the fur pelt is on. This is apparently the same multiple-personality deal going on with Gabumon!Most interestingly, though, one of the more recent Digimon anime, Xros Wars: Hunters, surprisingly used Psychemon as a pretty major character, being the partner Digimon of
4/10.ShimaUnimon
ShimaUnimon here is one of the more drastic edits, I feel. It's obviously a zebra-themed variation of Unimon, meant to populate Digimon World's Gear Savannah, but instead of just slapping stripes on Unimon and calling it a day, they actually went an extra step and removed the wings to make ShimaUnimon fairly more distinct than Unimon. It's neat -- they could've just placed a zebra mesh over him and called it a day, but the removal of the wings has the effect of making Unimon look a lot more distinct. . He's actually gotten a brief anime appearance in Hunters as the partner of minor and honestly quite unmemorable side-character Ken. I don't remember a single thing Ken does, but it's neat that they went back to give this dude some extra love, which, like Psychemon, is pretty unexpected. 4/10.Panjyamon (a.k.a. Panjamon/IceLeomon)
Panjyamon is one of the 'secret' evolutions programmed into the game that isn't actually available to get without cheating, and he's a huge reference to the Japanese anime Kimba the White Lion, being named after Kimba's father Panjya. He's basically the exact same design with Leomon, but white. And apparently has ice attacks, because it apparently gained its Perfect form by training very, very hard in the polar areas of the digital world. For a long while, Panjyamon ended up being Leomon's default Perfect-stage evolution, although it's not until Digimon Frontier that Panjyamon finally made an appearance as a straight-up villain-of-the-week. The V-Tamer manga also had its Leomon evolve into a Panjyamon... not that you can really tell, since the manga was in black-and-white anyway. Overall, it's an... okay design as far as a Leomon recolour goes, and honestly considering the rather piss-poor Leomon variations we'll get down the line, Panjyamon's a neat "if it ain't broke" option for a Leomon evolution. 4/10.BlueMeramon
2/10.Fugamon
Fugamon here is a more traditional oni-based variant of Ogremon, swapping out Ogremon's leather for a bunch of traditional tiger-skin loincloths as well as being given the red skin characteristic of the Japanese oni. Fugamon here has shown up a couple of times in the anime, first in Tamers as a villain-of-the-week that evolves from a Goburimon and ends up being brutally killed and absorbed, leading to an ethical debate between Ruki and Takato about just how ethical it is to kill and assimilate your opponents. Heavy topic for these kids! In a more light-hearted episode in Hunters, a Fugamon and an Ogremon ran a ramen shop and sort of kidnaps a human chef in order to guarantee the success of their ramen shop. Such noble aspirations for a pair of otherwise savage-looking monster, if their kidnapping is misguided but sadly instead of trying to work things out, Hunters' extremely unlikable protagonist Tagiru just sort of beats up and captures Fugamon and Ogremon and enslaves them, Pokemon-style. Hunters sucks. Fugamon's all right. Digimon World actually features a second variant of Ogremon, Hyogamon, below. That's a lot of Ogremons! 3/10.Hyogamon (a.k.a. Hyougamon)
There is a lot of snow boys here, huh? I mean, Digimon World did have a somewhat unreasonably long ice level section. Hyogamon here is just an ice-themed Ogremon, although I guess it's keeping with the theme of ogres and onis in general that they can survive anywhere. Anyway, Hyogamon has always felt extra-creative to me for adding two ice shards jutting out of his shoulders and giving him a big-ass icicle to hold instead of the standard femur bone. Also, he gets a pre-evolution in SnowGoblimon above, which makes Fugamon's "default" pre-evolution Shamamon. Neat that all the three Goblimon variants correspond to the three Ogremon variants! Hyogamon is all right. I'm genuinely surprised he hasn't cameo'd elsewhere, honestly.
3/10.Saberdramon
Saberdramon's one of the more popular repaints from Digimon World, although it's easily understandable why it is so popular. Birdramon's a pretty damn badass design, and Saberdramon's the same thing, but black. And while black repaints will be something I frown on in the future, Saberdramon appears early enough to be a novelty, and balances out the black with the bone colouration on his beak and talons. In Digimon World, Saberdramon acts as a boss fight in the dinosaur region (I guess she's standing in for a pteranodon), and is never actually a common enemy populating the world, making her feel kind of unique. In other subsequent games, Saberdramon tend to be portrayed as an alternate evolution for Biyomon, either evolving into Garudamon anyway, or branching into other flying-themed Perfect-levels like Karatenmon and Megadramon. Overall, I don't mind this one. Lookit this cool TCG art of her, too! 5/10.Vermilimon
Vermilimon (sometimes spelled as Vermillimon, just like the real world vermilion can also be spelled as vermillion) is a Perfect-level Digimon, and a Perfect-level evolution for Monochromon, apparently, basically serving as an enemy in the dinosaur zones of Digimon World. So good old Monochromon can just evolve into a version of himself that looks like a 7/11 slurpee drink juts got spilled all over it. Vermilimon looks pretty ugly, if we're being honest, with the shade of pink/red they use for him looking particularly unattractive. It's supposed to be a more lava-themed version of Monochromon, I suppose? Vermilimon's appeared in a fair bit more video games than I thought it would, although it never actually appeared in any anime or manga. It's one of those minimal-effort recolours, and while this one is at least a different level, there's no real effort put into this guy. 1/10.WaruSeadramon
WaruSeadramon (waru meaning evil, of course) is a recoloured version of MegaSeadramon... and it's basically changing his helmet into black and turning the shade of MegaSeadramon's red into a darker shade of maroon. In World, WaruSeadramon is a one-off boss fight. I don't even have enough to say about the ones from here on out to even put the pictures on the side of the text!
1/10.Tekkamon
1/10.Tsuchidarumon (a.k.a. MudFrigimon/Chuchidarumon)
Tsuchidarumon here is a variant of Yukidarumon that's made completely of earth -- a pun on yuki/snow and tsuchi/earth which doesn't translate all that well to English, and the English team just sort of shrugged and called this a mud snowman. Tsuchidarumon's kinda just there, I suppose? It's a repaint, but at least he's somewhat different thanks to the whole element thing. A whole village of the dudes actually show up as minor characters in Tamers, which I've always found charming. Not much to say beyond that. 3/10.PlatinumSukamon (a.k.a. PlatinaSukamon)
PlatinumSukamon here is still an Adult-level, like Sukamon, but it shines like platinum! Not because it's a platinum poop, though, but apparently PlatinumSukamon has absorbed the data of some minor metals, which makes it shiny... but it's still a Sukamon at heart. It just throws slightly-shinier poop. In World, though, it's actually a reasonably hard enemy for you to face off against if you're not prepared, and for some reason shows up a lot in Factory Town, the robot-themed area. I don't actually have much to say about this one, it's just... it's just kind of a joke entry. 2/10.Geremon
A Numemon with a yellow paint scheme instead of yellow. I guess it may be based on the banana slug? It's found in the same machine town areas as PlatinumSukamon, I think. It's pretty underwhelming, honestly, although I do find it interesting that Geremon's one of the few repaints here to not just get an adjective slapped on to the original name.
3/10.ClearAgumon
ClearAgumon here is a minor NPC that is basically exactly the same as ToyAgumon, but his toy bricks are transparent! It's actually a bit of a fun little reference to how some actual lego bricks tend to be transparent. Other than that, though... it's a bit of a lazy variant, yeah? I kinda wished they had swapped out the colours, at least. Oh well. This one is fun enough to get a point.
2/10.Gururumon
Without holding the pictures of Garurumon and Gururumon side-by-side, I wouldn't be able to tell you if this was a separate species and not just a different art style. Throughout my entire playthrough of Digimon World, I didn't even realize that these were meant to be different and just thought that someone messed up while typing his name. The minimal-effort profile that Bandai gave Gururumon honestly can't seem to think up of anything unique to talk about Gururumon either. Zero marks.
0/10.Dokunemon
4/10.NiseDrimogemon
Quick, what's the difference between NiseDrimogemon and regular Drimogemon, other than being put through a particularly bad photoshop filter? Yep, it's the curly mustache. NiseDrimogemon's whole point is that it's a false (nise = imitation) version of Drimogemon.... even though it's basically identical in all aspects.The Bandai profile sort of pokes fun at this, noting that it's given the "imitation" title because its mustache looks suspicious, and if NiseDrimogemon was discovered earlier, the regular Drimogemon would be the one with the title "nise". I don't think I'll deduct too many points for the sheer absurdity of giving a curly cartoon villain mustache just to differentiate the "evil" counterpart, but still, m'eh. 4/10.ModokiBetamon
This is just basically Betamon an Instagram filter that makes his skin lighter and his mohawk pink! "Modoki" means mimic, apparently? ModokiBetamon is one of the earliest and weakest enemies you'll face, and it's basically a Betamon that can use water and electricity. As happy I am that they bothered to make a Betamon variant, this one has so little effort put in.
0/10.Tukaimon (a.k.a. Tsukaimon)
Evil Patamon here is another straight-up repaint, although Tsukaimon at least gets a fair amount of lore from the Bandai profile, which characterizes him as explicitly being very, very different from Patamon despite just looking like the same dude in purple. (A lot of the dudes below like MoriShellmon, Akatorimon and NiseDrimogemon are just "X Digimon, but kinda the same"). Tukaimon inhabits the spookier parts of the Digimon World, and is explicitly noted as a familiar for higher-ranking demon Digimon like Devimon. Maybe it hangs out with PicoDevimon? This dude also apparently really, really likes picking fights, and has been featured in many video games that wanted to not lump all of the evil demons onto PicoDevimon's evolution line. It's a simple repaint and I would otherwise give it a lower mark, but that Bandai profile is quite neat. 4/10.Akatorimon
Akatorimon here is just Kokatorimon who's swapped out his accents for some red and oranges, which makes his entire name a pun on Aka Tori (lit. Red Bird) while only changing a single consonant in Kokatorimon's name. Many Akatorimons wander around the Gear Savannah, I think? Still kind of lazy, and the resulting unification of all of Akatorimon's colour highlights end up making the design so much more bland than Kokatorimon.
1/10.MoriShellmon
I actually like MoriShellmon a fair bit, one of the few here to actually seem like they adapted to their environment properly as an actual, separate species. Regular Shellmon looks more like a gastropod found in the ocean, whereas MoriShellmon has adapted to life in the jungle. Do love how much more slug-like this dude looks, with how dirty and green and mossy this thing is. Don't actually mind this one as much, although admittedly that might just be because I really like Shellmon. 4/10.Alraumon (a.k.a. Aruraumon)
6/10.SandYanmamon
Now if I don't really have that much to say about Yanmamon, in the Great Canyon area in Digimon World there are these gray-coloured palette swaps called SandYanmamon. There's... there's really not much to say about this dude, really, so much that I actually forgot to include him when I first made this article. I would have placed him on top because I did the other palette-swaps of the unique models in Digimon World like Shamamon and Muchomon on top... but eh. 2/10.JungleMojyamon
4/10.YukiAgumon (a.k.a. SnowAgumon)
YukiAgumon here is a snow-themed repaint of Agumon, and is a generic enemy in the Freezeland areas. He's... he's basically like regular Agumon, but snowy. And breathes ice. It's honestly pretty underwhelming, although YukiAgumon tends to appear in a fair amount of video games thanks to being an Agumon variant. I do like that YukiAgumon's existence does end up giving us a default ice-themed Child-stage for guys like Mojyamon and Yukidarumon. That's neat, but the novelty on an Agumon variant will definitely wear out on me soon enough. 3/10.Zassoumon (a.k.a. Weedmon)
OH THIS JACKASS! Zassoumon here is a repaint of Vegiemon that's apparently "adopted the identity of a weed", and will never ever bloom or ripen like regular Vegiemon. No RedVegiemon flail arms for you, jackass! It's also ugly as hell in World. The Bandai official art opts for a far more pleasing green-and-yellow tint that manages to show how this thing's supposed to be unremarkable, but a lot nicer than the original gray that he was in Digimon World where clumps of this dude just swarm in mesas and plains. But most memorably, this motherfucker is one of the possible customers in a shop-keeping minigame, and chances are, if you play that game, Zassoumon's going to fuck you up a lot. Fuck you, Zassoumon.
0/10. -2 points for being an assBlikmon (a.k.a. Tinmon)
These last couple of Digimon have kind of been forgotten by Bandai, due to them only appearing in Digimon World and nowhere else. Do they even still count as official Digimon anymore? They never even got official artwork or profiles! Probably because it's harder to make original artwork as opposed to just changing some colours on a pre-existing piece. But still! Blikmon here (Tinmon in English versions) is more of a prop than anything, though, initially seeming as generic robots in the background of Toy Town that, as an Easter Egg, you can actually talk to if your current partner is a Monzaemon (who is an Easter Egg himself to obtain). Digimon World 2 is the only other game to feature Blikmon, and he's a Perfect-level evolution of Clockmon or Tankmon. As far as designs go, Blikmon isn't unpleasant, but it's also just kind of a boring blocky robot. Worth noting that this would actually be a very appropriate Perfect-level evolution for ToyAgumon, though, being a toy-themed clockwork robot. Oh well. 3/10.Golemon II (a.k.a. Rockmon)
Another one that never received official Bandai artwork or profile, or appeared anywhere outside of World, this is a Digimon that got the name Golemon independent of the other, far more prominent Golemon. The English translation calls this guy Rockmon, and while it's not rocky at all... we'll call him that to avoid confusion. And it's... it's just a bunch of intentionally un-rendered digital web or whatever the proper term for this is. It's an interesting concept, and Rockmon here is only found in the final areas of the game when you're confronting the reality-warping Analogman within the already digital Tron-world appearance of Infinity Mountain anyway. It's an interesting enemy, I suppose, but I can also see why it's never revisited elsewhere. 5/10.HOLY SHIT that's a long-ass page. Honestly I could've split this into two, but I thought that I might just as well as finish the whole thing in one sitting because a lot of these are honestly pretty underwhelming stuff. Next week (or maybe the week after if I'm a bit too burnt out) we'll cover Apocalymon, the Diaboromon line and a bunch of other ersatz miscellaneous Digimon introduced prior to 02 in 2000 which I just didn't find a place to slot in anywhere in the previous segments.
No comments:
Post a Comment