By the time Digimon World 3 rolled around in 2002, a franchise that started as an egg-shaped virtual pet and spun off into a manga and an anime around the same time had picked up enough separate games and separate continuities that keeping any of it straight had apparently stopped being a priority. At least one reviewer we found says flat-out that the game gets its own canon wrong in places, which at this point feels less like a flaw and more like a house style.
You play a kid named Junior, no last name, no further explanation, who gets pulled into a server with three Digimon partners, though only one is allowed to actually fight at a time while the other two wait their turn. Enemies show up completely at random now too, so unlike earlier games in the series, you can’t just spot trouble on the map and calmly walk the other way. Take enough hits and your blast meter fills up, letting a Digimon go Blast Digivolve and get meaner for a while, or you can combine two Digimon with DNA Digivolve to create something new that fires off one big attack and then immediately splits back apart. There’s also a full card battle game built right into the RPG, all 314 cards of it, so between fetch quests you’ll have plenty of downtime to build a deck.
Joining us to help sort through all of it is Chels Eichholz, who co-hosts The Q Division, a James Bond rewatch podcast, and Across the Whoniverse, a Doctor Who marathon show that “kidnaps” a new companion every episode to explore a different corner of sixty-plus years of continuity. Between those two franchises, Chels has plenty of practice diving into a huge tangle of lore and coming out the other side having a genuinely great time, which makes them the perfect person to take on a game that’s basically nothing but tangled lore.
So dig up an old memory card, pick which one of your three Digimon gets to have a personality this round, and let’s find out whether Digimon World 3 earned its spot in Digimon history, or whether it should’ve DNA Digivolved into something else entirely.
Learn such things as:
- How did the local programming directors help shape our personalities, and are we really losing something by streaming making all things possible?
- How many versions of ‘volving can you have before you have to start paying Sweedish taxes?
- How often can you go from Point A to Point B to Point A to Point B to Point A to Point B before throwing things out the window?
- And so much more!
You can find Chels on Bluesky @chels725, check out her link tree for an always up to date set of links, and of course on her podcasts The Q Division and Across the Whoniverse.
If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.
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Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.
Play Comics is also part of Art Comedy Pop-Culture Network, which is a long-standing creative organization spawning from a love of Adult Swim. Be sure to check them out for all sorts of entertainment news, commentary, and just plain fun stuff.
You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.
If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.
A big thanks to Infinite Earths Guide and Gimmicks for the promos today.
Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who would probably be right at home if trapped in a computer doomsday situation.
