Digimon Up isn't the game anyone hoped for, and yet, no one is surprised

Back when the first teaser trailer for Digimon Up released, I dared to dream, and I wasn't alone. It said a lot of the right things by mentioning raising a partner Digimon and bolstering their stats with cards. We even saw them hatch from a Digi-Egg! To me, that seemed to suggest we were getting a V-pet, something many fans are clamouring for. Of course, you've read the title; that's not what we got. 

To be somewhat fair to Bandai Namco, nothing in the initial trailer told us this wasn't going to be an idle RPG. Nor do I think the genre is inherently bad. There are plenty of great examples out there. It's just that this simply isn't one of them, missing the mark in pretty much every regard, making it hard to think of anything nice to say. Oh, the sprites look nice, I guess?

Beyond that, everything else is either a complete miss or feels incredibly flat. The little smile on my face when I picked my boy Terriermon lasted mere seconds before the main screen shattered my fleeting happiness. Immediately, Zerimon (Terriermon's first stage) got to work blasting away enemies. There was no preamble or any attempt at a story. Even though Digimon Up is technically divided into stages, it doesn't really feel that way since it automatically moves from one to the next without truly saying anything. Sometimes you might glimpse the overworld if you can commit to watching the pot boil. I suppose that's something? Though certainly not a narrative.

Naturally, I'm not expecting stellar storytelling in an idle RPG, but I at least expected something. Are we trying to save the Digital World? Or is this just Terriermon's weekly park run? It could easily be either. In reality, the only narrative seems to be clicking buttons to get rewards, allowing for more button clicking to get more rewards. Everything seems to be focused on the Hologram Device (henceforth known as 'the jar') located in the bottom-middle of the screen that fires equipment at me that I'm probably just going to sell anyway. 

Choices? Who needs them?

That pretty much sums up the mechanics as well. Even by idle RPG standards, this is very, ahem, idle. Digimon Up doesn't seem to want me involved with the tough stuff at all. Usually, there's at least some decision-making at play, whether that’s builds or skills to influence the outcome of battles. Here, cards fulfil that role, but the game immediately makes you automate their activation. Now, I appreciate this is optional. However, think about why it suggests that: because it doesn't matter.

Brute force is all that’s required here. If the numbers are high enough, nothing can stand in your way. The specific cards, support Digimon, and Buddy Digimon all feel irrelevant. If the stats aren't high enough, grind until they are. When the jar offers new equipment, just check if the stats are higher. Don't worry about any extra effects. They're not that interesting or particularly important. It's a distinct lack of choice that other idle RPGs provide, even if they, too, automate everything. Now be a good fellow and collect all your rewards while Digimon Up does the heavy lifting. 

And that's before we get onto the attempts at monetisation. If the battles are a little slow, speeding them up requires watching an advert. I'm not sure how long the boost lasts because I refused to do it, but the option isn't just found here. It's for speeding up upgrades to the jar and for getting re-runs at dungeons. Then there are the four – yes, four – battle passes. That's about three too many. 

It's truly a shame. Digimon has a dedicated fanbase, and they deserve much better than this. A V-pet is perfect for mobile, and yet we get this soulless idle RPG that sometimes gets bored with itself (if you don't click the jar for a while, Terriermon faceplants the floor due to the lack of action). Now, do I like seeing Terriermon pirouetting while firing tiny green tornadoes? Yes, but that's because I like Terriermon. Digimon Up didn't need to convince me of that.