If there’s a lyric that can make you burst into tears in an instant, I believe “After Infinite Dreams” will definitely take a place. Digimon, this animation that accompanied the growth of a generation of post-80s and 90s, officially announced the introduction of the theatrical version of “Digimon Adventure: The Last Evolution Bond”, which also makes people can’t help but say – Ye Qinghui.
The former elementary school students in the theatrical version have entered college, and Taiyi, Ah He and others have taken different life paths, and the trailer shows that this is “Taiyi’s last story“. The final evolution is both reluctant and embarrassing – the impression of Digimon for so many years is only a beautiful hat and “infinity”.
Behind the bleak memory is actually the lack of IP quality. From the hot streets and alleys to no one cares, under this sharp turn, it is the “evil consequences” caused by Bandai’s step-by-step “wrong evolution” of Digimon.
We always like to compare Digimon and Pokémon, but the difference between the two may have been decided from the beginning.
A monster born from an LCD toy
Unlike Pokémon, which first launched video games, Digimon were born from liquid crystal toys. That’s what we know.”Tamagotchi”。 As the “originator” of the development game, players need to take care of their diet and daily life, feed when they are hungry, and take medicine when they are sick.To this day, it is also one of the tools of Bandai’s “wealth accumulation”.
Digimon’s first video game “Digimon Ver.S” also adheres to the characteristics of Tamagotchi, moving the breeding system of Tamagotchi to the Saturn console, and cultivating combat in its own way. The colorful Digimon also really made the eyes of the players of that year shine.
A year later, the first installment of the Digimon animated series, Digimon Adventure, also officially hit the screens. People began to know the stupid Yagumon, and the adventure of Taiyi and us began.
The arrogance of tasting the forbidden fruit for the first time
The success of the electronic pet machine allowed Bandai to see the broad prospects of handheld products, and they decided to take a piece of the handheld market – WS came into being. Because of this, Digimon were also pushed to the front line, wanting to compete with the Pokémon that were popular all over the country at that time.
At first, WS did cause a lot of craze. In the work “Digimon Tamer: Soul of Battle”, you can even see some shadows of today’s brawl – multiplayer melee to obtain resources, and the evolution in battle, optional animated protagonist trainers, etc., which are closer to the original animation setting, all of which made this work quite well received at the beginning of its launch.
In the subsequent operation, Bandai gradually shifted its marketing focus to its major IPs, and it turned out that Bandai’s move pushed WS to the edge while almost ruining the development of Digimon games. Too few game types, homogeneous game content and WS’s slightly backward capabilities made WS only deliver a dismal answer sheet of 300w sales. This has also led many players to feel that “there are no Digimon games to play“, even though Bandai has made 13 Digimon games for the entire WS platform.
At this time, Digimon animation was popular. Even if the third part of the series, “Digimon Tamer”, adopts a new world view and protagonist group, and even introduces the “weird” system of card swapping, its unique style and fashionable painting style make many people think that the little orange dinosaur even has a chance to bring down the yellow-skinned rat and become another legendary anime IP.
Lost after compromise
After repeated failed attempts, Bandai made a compromise. At this time, Nintendo is no longer the same, and the IP of Pokémon continues to improve and grow. At this time, Bandai launched the traditional turn-based “Digimon Story Daylight & Moonlight” based on the principle of “join if you can’t beat it”. This time, Digimon games have completely plunged into the abyss.
Digimon games have ushered in their darkest moments. Fans don’t pay, passers-by watch jokes. Digimon games living in the shadow of Pokémon began to imitate excessively, which also caused Digimon games to lose their original style. The 2+1 release model even began to be the same as Pokémon, and the low-level painting style + Pokémon-style game experience is difficult to arouse interest. And who would have thought that Pokémon would release a work called “Sun and Moon” a few years later?
At that time, the fifth part of Digimon animation, “Digimon Savior”, was “born”. You must know that in previous works, only Digimon can compete with Digimon. But the protagonist of the fifth part, Damen Da, has repeatedly “killed” Digimon, and it is just like this, and it is nicknamed “Gate Beast” by the stalk kings.
But Digimon’s downfall did not stop there. The quality of the animation plummeted, and the subsequent sixth part continued to decline in reputation. Fans are criticizing, and Digimon are slowly fading out of our sight.
A perfect counterattack to break through the freezing point
The transformation of Digimon games began with “Digimon Story: Cyber Detective”. After three years of silence, Digimon games stand in front of players with a new attitude. At this time, Digimon have begun to step out of the shadow of Pokémon. Breaking away from the low-quality painting style, he is no longer obsessed with turn-based and dual versions. Instead, there is a more “mature” story – the protagonist who has a strong interest in Digimon in cyberspace, loses part of his consciousness due to a network bug, and in the process of regaining his consciousness, strange phenomena frequently occur in real life…
With the east wind of NS, Digimon has also returned to the Ren platform again. Even the cold rice transplant has made a large number of fans and players shout “that’s the taste“. The bizarre digital world and the abundant number of Digimon have brought Digimon games back to players’ field of vision.
At this time, Digimon animation turned the pen and launched “Digimon App Monster”. Perhaps the animation party’s original intention is good, combined with the most popular mobile Internet at present, through the combination of APP and Digimon to explore people’s lifestyles. However, the animation’s style and character design, combined with the evolutionary sound effects of “Yokai Watch”, are difficult to remind people of this Digimon series animation.
A thought-provoking future
The launch of “Digimon Survival” is a big surprise. Judging from the news released so far, this new Digimon game incorporates a large number of elements. 2D, 3D, SLG, RPG, AVG, adventure, breeding…Such an unknown new game Digimon, combined with its unique doomsday art style, has whetted the appetite of players.
These changes, as its name suggests, are desperate survival. Digimon games have been free from the influence of Pokémon, and in today’s traffic is king, looking for their own “last” evolution, and striving to let players regain the joy of the moment when they become the “chosen child”.
Maybe the whistle of that summer in the animation stopped there forever, leaving the final evolution and regrets. Perhaps Taiyi’s story is about to come to an end. But the evolution of Digimon games should never end there.
Just like its old rival, Pokémon can become the world’s largest money-making IP with a sweep of $90 billion, which is inseparable from Every move of The Pokémon Company. Completely different from Digimon, Pokémon always pursue the same. The unchanging protagonist, the unchanging model, and the unchanging means of operation, Pokémon change themselves in small ways while remaining unchanged.
It is precisely because of this that Bandai, which is “desperate”, has made a completely opposite operating strategy for Digimon – drastic reforms. Just like “Digimon Survival” and “Digimon Adventure: The Last Evolution: Bond”, “Desperate” and “Last” both show Bandai’s cry in difficult situations. They want to break through, they want to evolve, but they are also seeking to remain the same in the midst of change, they want to find its former style – the children on the street are releasing battle tornadoes, and people say that Butterfly must be infinite. This is why there have been more and more adaptations based on the original Digimon anime in the past two years.
Just as Digimon has an eternal theme of growth and evolution, the Digimon game series is constantly growing. Even if Digimon is not as powerful as Pokémon, it also carries a lot of our childhood memories, and with the help of various theatrical versions, model toys and video games, Digimon are also looking for their unique “evolution”.
Many people question Bandai, such a large-scale use of the original work is tantamount to “cutting leeks” that consumes fans’ feelings. But isn’t feeling just for consumption? How many people pay for Digimon’s feelings? On the other hand, there are many people who feel that they are not marketed by feelings. Feelings are just our memories, and memories are only used to recall. The difference between the two is nothing more than a gap in marketing methods.
In the past twenty years, we and Taiyi have changed a lot, but the only thing that has not changed is the courage to face this world. Perhaps, Taichi and the others lost their qualifications as chosen children, but the evolution of Digimon “last” will never end. Courage, friendship, love, innocence, honesty, wisdom, hope, light, memory Back that summer, the 8 children and their Digimon took us into a magical world, and we will eventually become the chosen children in our own digital world.
“Taiyi, you have grown up.”