''Digimon Masters'' (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

: 디지몬 마스터즈) also known as ''Digimon Masters Online'' is a

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

, massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with

microtransactions Microtransaction (mtx) refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions ...

. The game is based on the ''

Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films, and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures who inhabit a ...

'' media franchise, specifically the universe and characters of the fifth

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series; ''

Digimon Data Squad ''Digimon Data Squad'', known in Japan as , is the fifth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series aired in Japan on Fuji TV from April 2006 to March 2007. A standalone film based on the se ...

'' (though many aspects of '' Digimon Adventure'', ''

Digimon Adventure 02 , originally released as ''Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 2'' in English-speaking territories, is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. It is the sequel to ''Digimon Adventure (1999 TV series), Digimon Adventure'', ...

'', ''

Digimon Tamers is a Japanese anime television series and the third television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series takes place in a new setting separate from the preceding series, '' Digimon Adventure'' and ''Digimon ...

'', ''

Digimon Frontier is the fourth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. Unlike the previous series, the main characters can merge with ancient spirits known as the "Legendary Warriors" to become Digimon themselves. T ...

'', and ''

Digimon Fusion ''Digimon Fusion'', known in Japan as , is the sixth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series aired on TV Asahi from July 2010 to March 2012. Its storyline follows the adventures of Mikey K ...

'' are incorporated). The game was first released in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

on October 30, 2009. An English version was scheduled to be released in December 2010 by

WeMade Entertainment Wemade Co., Ltd (), formerly Wemade Entertainment Co., Ltd, is a South Korean video game developer, based in Seongnam. They are the creators of the Legend of Mir series of MMORPGs, the two most successful being '' The Legend of Mir 2'', and its ...

(the company responsible for the English Version of '' Digimon Battle''), but it was delayed to 2011. It was announced in July 2011 that Joymax, a subsidiary of

would publish the English version of the game. On August 30, 2011, Joymax held a pre-CBT for players, which ended on September 6, 2011. After the conclusion of the pre-CBT, Joymax announced on September 22, 2011 that the OBT will be held on September 27. The OBT for Digimon Masters concluded on October 11, 2011, with the game going into commercial service globally on October 20, 2011, except for some countries, including

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. In June 2022, a remaster of the game was announced, with the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

changing to Unity and a target release date of the second half of 2023.

Background

Digital World

In the Digimon franchise, the Digital World is a

virtual space A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

built from Earth's

communication networks A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messag ...

, inhabited by creatures called Digimon.

are life-like organisms with independent intelligence that grow similarly to organisms on Earth. They can become stronger and more resilient by undertaking an

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

. The Digital World is a parallel universe to the Real World where humans live. It exists inside a host computer called King Drasil, which Artificial Intelligence controls. Digimon can be transported into the real world as the Digital World grows more powerful.

Growth and evolution

In the series, all Digimon are born from Digi-Eggs and evolve and grow through Digivolution. A Digimon grows by hunting other Digimon and absorbing data from them. The Digimon prepare to devolve into the next evolution type when they reach a certain level. Some Digimon establish friendly relations with humans as their Partners and can digivolve through "mortal power." The human is called a ''Tamer'' and the Digimon a ''Partner Digimon''.

Gameplay

Players control an

avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

of one of the four main Tamers of

: Marcus Damon, Thomas H. Norstein, Yoshino Fujieda, and Keenan Crier. The

is not meant to represent the actual Tamer, and thus players can choose their own name and modify the appearance of the Avatar. After selecting a Tamer, players are then able to select a Partner Digimon. The Partner Digimon will be used in battle to accomplish NPC-given missions. The player may also hatch new Mercenary Digimon from DigiEggs dropped by enemy Digimon. Over the course of the game, Partner and Mercenary Digimon will Digivolve into stronger forms (some of which may require special items or quests to unlock) and learn new skills.

Mercenary System

This system allows the player to get

, which is not Partner Digimon. The player must hatch the Mercenary Digi-egg using an incubator and the right type of DATA (chips) items. Mercenary Digi-eggs and data items can be acquired through gameplay (after defeating enemy Digimon) or purchased in the cash shop. After injecting DATA three times successfully, the player can hatch the Mercenary Digimon, each ''time'' representing one ''stage'' of development. The player may inject additional DATA until the fourth or fifth stage. The higher the stage, the bigger the Digimon. However, the Mercenary Digi-egg may break after one or several attempts past the third stage. The alternate way to hatch a Mercenary Digi-egg is to buy it from the cash shop. The Mercenary Digi-egg bought from the cash shop has a 100% success rate for at least 3 bars.

Battle System

Battling is done in real-time. The player's Digimon has a health bar measuring health and a ''Digi-soul'' meter. The Digi-soul meter measures the

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

of Digimon to use special attacks, and when empty, the Digimon can only use standard attacks. While in combat, Tamers can use items that restore health and Digi-soul but must wait several seconds before being able to do so again. Unlike Digimon, Battle combat takes place in real-time, with nearby players watching and even joining in on battles.

Digivolution

In the series, all Digimon possess a "digivolution tree", which consists of a hierarchy of possible evolutions. As they level up, users can complete quests in order to trigger digivolution. Upon reaching the digivolution limit or completing certain quests, the digivolution tree becomes automatically available. Users can advance the development of their Digimon by utilizing a Tamer's DNA Charge. The game features 10 of the 11 available crests and Digi-Eggs (Armor type). Each crest corresponds to a particular Digi-Egg, and the crests are utilized to open the digivolution tree. After combining certain elements, an entity of its digivolution tree is available. Each Digi-Egg has a distinct quantity of DNA, and digivolving consumes a certain amount of DNA. Consequently, digivolving to a higher level necessitates a greater amount of DNA.

Probability Item System

The newest addition to the game added rare coins bought from the cash shop or just plain cash for crowns, along with the new probability box item system. These boxes have very rare pieces required to unlock more powerful digivolutions such as X-evolution (i.e., OmegamonX). Although released in events inside these boxes, the events around these boxes have been controversial because they require the person to spend lots of real-life money to win the rarest item from the event, which is usually the most desirable item. This same probability system was first used as an in-game event system which did not require a player to spend any real currency, just in-game items or currency, but has recently gone to the cash shop and seems to be here to stay.

References

External links

* {{Digimon 2009 video games Masters Joymax games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Video games developed in South Korea Windows games Windows-only games