CGC Trading Cards-certified Digimon Card's Video Game Counterpart

In December, CGC Trading Cards™ announced the expansion of its expert authentication, grading and encapsulation services to include 11 new games. One is the wildly popular Digimon trading card game (2020 – present). While many collectors are aware of Digimon’s rich history in trading cards and anime, some may not know about Digimon’s video game counterpart, specifically its first video game — Digimon World.

Released on the PlayStation 1 in 1999, Digimon’s first venture into video games, Digimon World, has left a lasting impression, mostly for its complexity. The gameplay involves training and defeating digital monsters called Digimon, scattered across an open-world island, in order to restore their memories and return them to File City.

To achieve this, players select a partner Digimon to raise, train and use for combat. Evolving Digimon — or “digivolving” — is a long and important process of the game that requires significant time and attention.

Based on their specific stats, discipline, mood, weight or even neglect, Digimon can digivolve into many different evolutions, and not just on one linear evolution path. If the conditions are not perfect, sometimes Digimon digivolve into slugs called Nunemon, rather than those from the TV series, like the Dinosaur Digimon, Greymon, or Angel Digimon, Angelmon. This means that players must determine the right combination of moves through a series of trial and error, without help from the game, to digivolve Digimon into their strongest or coolest-looking forms.

Raising and training Digimon in Digimon World can best be described as grinding. Digimon stats are primarily formed in training gyms rather than in battles, and it requires a lot of repetition to make sure that a Digimon digivolves into the right form. A player can choose many different stats to train, including HP, MP, Offense, Defense, Speed or Brain. Each stat has its benefit on the battlefield, and thus players have the freedom to determine how their Digimon develop.

Through a long process of repeated actions for certain traits, there is gratification to specifically tailoring your Digimon to your liking as it progresses through the different stages of evolution, such as Fresh, in-Training, Rookie, Champion and Ultimate. After a Digimon reaches a certain age, it will die and be reincarnated as an egg with higher stats to repeat this cycle. Not to mention, Digimon must be fed, rested and taken to the restroom (countless times).

Once players get into a rhythm and understand how best to raise and train their Digimon, Digimon World becomes an enjoyable experience for any Digimon fan. Though criticized for its complexity, Digimon World was ahead of its time in terms of what it offered the monster training RPG category and paved the way for many future games. One just needs a few online resources, some free time, a love of Digimon and an even greater love of grinding to explore and enjoy what this game has to offer. For your Digimon cards, CGC Trading Cards cannot wait to grade them!