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Digimon Story: Time Stranger is Looking like a Formidable Pokémon Competitor


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Firefly251



Joined: 14 Jul 2018
Posts: 455
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 8:02 am Reply with quote
inb4 Nintendo tries copyright monsters battling for a human
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malvarez1



Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 10:16 am Reply with quote
I’ve been in the mood for a good Digimon game, and this looks like it’ll definitely deliver in spades.
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Dr. Wily



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 868
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 5:34 pm Reply with quote
Firefly251 wrote:
inb4 Nintendo tries copyright monsters battling for a human

If they could have, they would have decades ago. Besides, we're not looking at some potential PalWorld scenario where designs might have been stolen.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 20003
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 10:20 pm Reply with quote
"I chose these three because I recognized them from watching the anime when I was younger." - I relate to this so hard.
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Chakmon



Joined: 27 May 2025
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 11:25 pm Reply with quote
The writers of Digimon Adventure literally said they specifically copied Pokemon and wanted to target the kids who felt they were too old for Pokemon and could graduate onto Digimon once they flet it was too kiddy for them. No shame in that. Not sure why Pokemon fans are getting angry here because people are (rightfully) calling out Nintendo being lawsuit happy and having a genuine concern they might start going after Digimon if Digimon ever gets a smash hit game on their hands that sells more than Pokemon which hurts Nintendo's ego.

I'm convinced the only reason they didn't also go after Dragon Quest Treasures for letting you glide with a monster is because even Nintendo wouldn't survive the catastrophic PR fallout of going after Dragon Quest.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5973
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:29 am Reply with quote
Chakmon wrote:
The writers of Digimon Adventure literally said they specifically copied Pokemon and wanted to target the kids who felt they were too old for Pokemon and could graduate onto Digimon once they flet it was too kiddy for them..

What's your source for that? Digimon is clearly based on Tamagotchi. Y'all are just fear mongering and making stuff up and stop bringing up Pokemon every time Digimon is brought up.
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Hal14



Joined: 01 Apr 2018
Posts: 779
Location: Heart of africa
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:23 am Reply with quote
I wish this was possible. It's so very one sided, or maybe one directional. Usually only pokemon comes up for comparison as opposed to any other Mon games. Palworlds been mentioned here, but that's again in connection to pokemon not in comparison to Digimon
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ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 754
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 2:18 am Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
What's your source for that? Digimon is clearly based on Tamagotchi. Y'all are just fear mongering and making stuff up and stop bringing up Pokemon every time Digimon is brought up.

Hiromi Seki herself said that in an interview. You're right about the VPets and franchise as a whole being based off of Tamagotchi (and was originally meant to use characters from Bandai's earlier Pocket Zaurus toyline). But Digimon Adventure was explicitly written with the intent to be to Pokemon what Kamen Rider was to Ultraman (except made by different companie this time), aimed at older kids who still liked the concept but wanted slightly more mature writing.


Last edited by ninjamitsuki on Sun Aug 24, 2025 4:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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Acid Storm



Joined: 08 Jul 2025
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 4:49 am Reply with quote
That's why I always like DIgimon more than Pokemon especially as i grew older. It felt like it grew with it's audience while Pokemon didn't and actually seemed to regress in places by toning down the anime and games for a more global audience like when they replaced all the Japanese culture and writing with fictional Pokemon language. Early seasons of Pokemon just have a really distinct feel that is completely lacking in the later ones.

I loved Cybersleuth precisely because it felt more adult and some of the odd cases were genuinely frightining like the human trafficking one. I'm looking forward to this game and hope it can deliver the same style of gameplay, characters, and story Cybersleuth did.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5973
PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 2:33 am Reply with quote
ninjamitsuki wrote:
Hiromi Seki herself said that in an interview. You're right about the VPets and franchise as a whole being based off of Tamagotchi (and was originally meant to use characters from Bandai's earlier Pocket Zaurus toyline). But Digimon Adventure was explicitly written with the intent to be to Pokemon what Kamen Rider was to Super Sentai (except made by different companie this time), aimed at older kids who still liked the concept but wanted slightly more mature writing.

Hiromi literally says the exact opposite

Quote:
The (Digimon) broadcast started in March of last year, two years after “Pokémon” started theirs, and they were at the peak of their popularity. I didn’t want to be called a rehash. Children have sharp, critical eyes. For that, the age range for “Digimon” was set to be two to three years older than “Pokémon”. If the opposition is for those from kindergarten to the fifth grade of elementary school, this is for higher grades and junior high school students. My aim is that after they “graduate” from “Pokémon” they’ll move to “Digimon”.
 Instead of pitching a project that is similar to a popular program, we just pull in the kids who watched it — this is actually a trick I’ve used once before. When “Sailor Moon” was very popular, I produced an anime called “Marmalade Boy,” which was a bit more mature to suit the growing up of the girls who watched it, and it became a hit.

Quote:
Digimon and Pokemon were fierce rivals in the 90s. I see zero reason to try to rewrite history and pretend this wasn't the case and there weren't constant comparisons between the two.

This is like saying Macross ripped off Gundam because they were both popular mecha shows airing around the same time.
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FishLion
Crazy Fangirl



Joined: 24 Jan 2024
Posts: 861
PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 7:29 am Reply with quote
I always thought the Digimon, Pokemon comparison/rivalry my friends made up (edit: I said made up but I know there was competitive marketing so maybe it was more due that than I realized) was kind of funny. They are both about monsters you collect and the companies are both very aware of each other, but ultimately they always felt like different things. Pokemon started about traveling across nature and finding creatures along the way that are fantastic versions of naturally occurring living beings, Digimon is an isekai where the kids are brought to a world completely separate from their own and has beings that are far beyond just being animals.

There have always been legendary pokemon that didn't fit into the regular animal category and felt more like nature gods, but Digimon has angels, real but kaiju-sized creatures with guns attached, and all sorts of other wild stuff. It feels like they had a similar starting point and took it in completely different directions, not that Pokemon and Digimon were ever really comparable concepts outside of monster collecting.

The fact recent Digimon games have been about otherworldly beings coming into our world (including the fact they were seemingly unknown by the protagonists before being discovered in game, but I may be remembering wrong) make it seem a lot closer to Persona in concept nowadays then Pokemon, the only real similarity that's closer to Pokemon is both have monsters. To be fair the monsters are an extremely important part of the identity and appeal so I'm sure there's a crowd that like monsters as the main attraction and they do definitely compete in that way, but as someone who is primarily a game and anime fan and not super into the wider merchandising they have never really seemed comparable outside of the cool monster collecting.

Most people I know like both, some like one, and some don't care, but nobody is struggling to decide between the two. I'm sure they technically compete for attracting new fans, but in nerd spaces that has never been my experience.


Last edited by FishLion on Fri Jul 11, 2025 4:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5973
PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 3:38 pm Reply with quote
Monster collecting games is an entire genre and people need to play more than just the two they grew up with as kids 30 years ago.
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TheRealMaria



Joined: 09 Jul 2025
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 4:12 pm Reply with quote
All the ones I played as a kid don't exist anymore. Jade Cocoon, Monster Rancher, Azure Dreams, Medabots.

Pokemon and Digimon will always be around though
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GNPixie



Joined: 25 Jul 2018
Posts: 361
PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:15 pm Reply with quote
Medabots still exists.
Last main game was in 2015 although its since had remastered collections of the first 5 main games plus a bunch of spinoffs as recent as 2020 and ongoing mobile game since 2022.

Same goes for Monster Rancher; most recent game was a collab game in 2022 following 2021's remaster of 1 and 2.
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TheRealMaria



Joined: 09 Jul 2025
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 7:00 am Reply with quote
I don't consider a 5 year old JP only phone game and a cross-over game that doesn't feature any Monster Rancher monsters to be anything more than a few twitches on a deceased corpse. Remasters and ROM collections are even less relevant. Those franchises are dead and let's not pretend otherwise. Sad
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