Why isn't Digimon popular? What made it fall into obscurity so badly?

Why isn't Digimon popular? What made it fall into obscurity so badly?

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digimon.net/20th/
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youtube.com/watch?v=WbRYMjTCOdQ
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In the West, at least, Pokémon had a lot more marketing.

Pokémon was on the Game Boy.

Pokémon was designed from the ground-up as an IP that speaks directly to kids and has them engaging with one another.

Pokémon also knew exactly what it was and what it wanted to be.

Digimon started as a V-pet, which was already an uphill battle when Tamagotchi was the only V-pet most kids even knew about in the West.

When the anime showed up, everyone was already riding on the Pokémon train, which was an even bigger uphill battle.

The Digimon games were on console, and were single-player experiences.
It wasn't the talk of the playground like Pokémon was, wherein you could battle and trade with your friends.

Digimon games also had a big identity crisis, going from V-pet sim to roguelike to RPG, toss in a fighting game, a card game, and a co-op beat'em up for good measure.

For as much as I love Digimon, the franchise was poorly-managed and, on the games side, had no clear mission or identity.

That means a lack of presence, which means Digimon is "just a Pokémon rip-off." And its fate is more or less sealed.

marketing and tamogachi there should of been a pokemon like digimon game years ago

Holy shit a serious and legit answer

Digimon had too many weird and shitty designs and it's too confusing for children

Pretty much thisBut that doesn't mean you aren't allowed to enjoy Digimon.

Now that Digimon has seemed to have actually found it's groove, do you think the franchise has a chance to grow in popularity?

Shit meant

I think it's already growing.

Cyber Sleuth is probably the best Digimon game since... ever? Except Digital Card Battle.
And that got some pretty good traction in the West all things considered.

Now we're getting Next Order, and people are straight-up excited for it.
Adventure tri. exists, Applimon is happening, the franchise really seems to be coming into its own after so many years of struggling to find its place.

POST YOUR FAVORITE DIGIMON

...

I always loved Pokémon but digivices were a huge part of my life and youth too. The anime was good but it was fighting for presence just like yugioh, beyblades and medabots, it would never compete with humungeous mainstream global hit Pokémon but it was unique enough to be it's own thing and respected and I enjoyed it as an cool alternative to the more kid-friendly monster designs of pokemon as I grew older. I just didn't get to play many good games on it it up until cyber sleuth

I also fully support games like Next Order and TOCS2 and many other titles slowly craving out and cementing the AA plateau of games on PS4. It needs to exists and people need to support that. and lower their huge big blockbuster AAA game expectations and enjoy some other things the industry has to offer. Her'es hoping to N.O being a fantastic game

...

3*

Didn't play many Digimon games, but World 3 was fun. This was my boy.

Man Digimon has so many awesome forgotten designs

Lilithmon is a common favorite

digimon games to pokemon are basically sonic to mario

constantly changing style which results in some fun interesting games and some shit

also alot of mexicans like both for some reason

maybe theres more to this comparison than I thought

Lack of unified direction.
Poor marketing.
Most aspects of the franchise not being good for so long (there were very few good Digimon video games, and we didn't get most of them, the card game was ass, etc).
Basing things around the tamogatchi instead of a more fleshed out source like the anime.

I want to be best partners with Renamon!

>Tamagotchi was the only V-pet most kids even knew about in the West.

I'd say in most cases, but my class when I was younger was pretty big on Digimon battling for pretty much the entire year.

>Tfw will never hang out, bro it up, and play vidya with him

Cyber Sleuth is exactly like the four or five Digimon Story games preceding it, just with a graphical facelift, mediocre character designs from the DeSu designer, and a "detective" angle it doesn't really commit to. It's not really any better or worse than previous iterations.
And Digimon World 3, the genesis of the Story franchise, is arguably a better take on the same concepts because it doesn't blab at you for hours on end.

people like pokemon
people don't like digimon
this went on for 2 decades

Wow...
I really like veemon...

I was a big fan of Digimon as a kid and literally the only time I saw a Digimon V-pet was one of the first-series models that my friend's brother had.

Other than the D3 that I had, of course.

The anime was definitely the series' strongest point, at least the first and third seasons of it. They must have realized it way too late.

That's the funny thing, I never really saw any Digimon past the first version released in America. There were a few people I knew still interested in the series, but most of us moved on to the anime and the PS1 games in general.

>Made that shitty "ExVeemon" instead of using Veedramon because "noooo my autistic refusal for cross brandinggggg!!!"
>Paildramon becomes important.
>Have to get ExVeemon in all of the games now instead of Veedramon.

Shit sucks. ExVeemon is a terrible design.

Adventure was strong in spite of itself: it was basically a miniseries that just happened to be written and paced extremely well to the point that its lack of budget was excusable and pulled good enough numbers to get extended.

And then they made an arc on the spot that was mostly filler but used a lot of the rest of the early D-pet mons. And then they ended up in a weird place where they were simultaneously developing an actual story while towing to the demands to implement new toy functionality, so you get shit like the super fucking asspull that was Megas.

By 02 the series was a clusterfuck of being pulled every which way and nobody having any creative control despite the show itself pushing harder than ever to have an actual plot. And then with Tamers they decided to go meta so they could do their plot no matter what the demands from higher up were.

Wizardmon
I think thats what he was called.

I'm really exited to get a 20th Aniversary Digital Monster. Never had one before and retailing for 3000 yen so not URGH-tier like most of the people selling them. Wonder if there will be a 20th Pendulum or Pendulum Progress as well since a lot of cool mons are in those.

>20th Aniversary Digital Monster.

Soon.

digimon.net/20th/

I always loved the little touches that were entirely because of the show being a glorified commercial, though.

Like how the Digivices turned into the later, colored revisions when they powered up for Ultimate Evolution.

See those cute, memorable designs? YYeah, toss that out for generic anime shit past low levels.

>Anime-Style ones in the standard color go for $300.

>Tamers managed to be a great anime while also being an ad for a V-pet AND a card game
Genius

Hasnt Digimon had like, 7 different series (including one going now), a ton of games (one coming to the west next month), cards, collectibles etc.? Why is it seen as doing poorly? Because it isn't as big as Pokemon? Fucking nothing is as big as Pokemon, studios would give up if every kids anime had to do Poke levels to be a success

>WOW NEW KIDS, YOUR DEVICES CHANGED INTO COOL NEW CELLPHONE LIKE DESIGNS, I GUESS YOU'RE SUPER IMPORTANT

Even as a kid this made me laugh in how unbelievably fucking stupid and forced this was. Don't get me started on their PDAs which were suddenly abandoned once the Arukeni/Mummy/BlackWarGreymon arc started (because Bandai wasn't pushing it anymore).

The franchise was dead for about five years before a resurgence when Xros Wars was an actually good show.

After Tamers the series kind of went dormant in a market sense.

It was still there, but nothing it was producing was very good and it was basically only JUST surviving.

Fox Kids Our War Game > Japanese Our War Game

Deal with it, faggots.

I actually really liked the dubs up through Frontier

> want to reply
> nothing but kudamon lewds saved.

The jokes were better but the OST was mostly trash, Kari's narration sucked ass, and it cut out a bit of the run time while tying it to the supremely shitty 02 movie.

The entire franchise seems reliant on a good show to prop it up. It's a shame Toei and Bandai still don't appear to realize this.

>but the OST was mostly trash
I felt like a pleb for it, but I preferred the dub upbeat rock to the Jap somber orchestral stuff. Them calling out their attacks was great as well

>but the OST was mostly trash
The Japanese version literally had NO OST. Compare the Omnimon reveal from the Digimon The Movie version to the Our War game version.

The ska fit really well, but the show-original songs and some of the other picks were just bad.

What I'm basically saying is that everything aside from the Omnimon scene should have been more The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Less than Jake, and less Smash Mouth, LEN and Summercamp.

I love this big ol beetle.

Good taste as well.

>and it cut out a bit of the run time
The only noticeable thing they cut is Yamato/Matt and Takeru/TK looking for a computer to use around town, them actually cutting it made it seem like they were actually out in the middle of nowhere.

Looking back besides the Omnimon scene the only dub music I enjoyed was the Smash Mouth scene.

r.i.p

what's that mon in the middle

>He didn't like The Impression That I Get syncing up with the defunct missile falling in the lake.
>He liked the shit rock during the Omnimon scene.

>the only dub music I enjoyed was the Smash Mouth scene.
>Not Infermon going ham on the USA to Less Than Jake

Meicrackmon

I haven't fully watched the dub since I was a kid. Only a couple scenes really stick out.

Okay fair enough.

Hope the finale has the whole team with their Mega's. I need more animated Hercules

Just wanted to say that I appreciate when people write posts like these.

>lets you raise two mons at once
>has a DigiDex for you to fill out, so the thing finally has a fucking endgame goal
>has online battles
>has all the Digimon from versions 1-5 (about 50 total Digis)
>Something happens when you 100% the Dex

You fags getting the new V-Pet?

What? When was this announced?

withthewill.net/threads/16824-20th-Anniversary-V-Pet-Details-and-Updates-Including-Price-and-Release-Date!

That reminds me.
>Attacks them in the middle of their digivolve animation.
So he's the smartest villain ever right?

Yes.

>Attacks mid-transformation.
>Doesn't fucking bother putzing around in Champion Form, skips right ahead to Ultimate.
>Launches Nukes.
>Is stopped by actual computer knowledge instead of brute force.

Yes.

I wish they used the Adventure design instead, it's so much better.

>Sometimes called Omnimon
>Sometimes called Omegamon

WHY DO THEY DO THIS?

The way the online works is so '90s I almost love it

But it's a little weird. And Digimon Unlimited already did real online (though I guess putting WiFi into these would hike the price up).

>villain is defeated by the power of friendship cleverly disguised as a real tactic
I love it

Depends on whether you prefer dub or sub name. Personally I think both names are fine.

Has anyone actually tried to git gud at the Digimon card game? Is it actually any good?

The whole point is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise

Hey, not my fault the first iteration wasn't the best one.

>Digimon lasted longer then Megaman
>Digimon lasted longer then Ape Escape
>Digimon lasted longer then Castlevania
>Digimon lasted longer then Metroid
>Digimon lasted longer then Metal Gear Solid
>Digimon lasted longer then klonoa
>Digimon lasted longer then Bomberman

literally how?

Because it started well after most of those?

They already did an upgraded re-release of those.

No it hasn't. Barely getting to the 20th Anniversary which was just the earliest toy release and a one-shot advertisement manga that had a bunch of made up and off-model Digimon.

Yeah, and they're like $200-300 dollars now.
And they don't have all that cool shit that
listed.

>Barely getting to the 20th Anniversary
>Barely

Literally all facets of Digimon are doing exceptionally well though atm

Does anyone know how to actually order shit from Japan?

I assume I need to use a third party? I've never bought weeb merch before

>Anime is dubious ratings since airs the same time that more popular superhero time block airs, only advantage is that Bandai makes the toys for that as well
>3DS Digimon game launched right after Yokai Watch and Pokemon and had barely made a scratch in sales of either of the other two
>Card game is still dead outside of promotional releases
The only things which could be called successful are Tri and anniversary merch because those are selling the consumers' own nostalgia as product.

OH FUCK (You)s ARE BACK

>The man with no taste

Both animes are doing above average for Digimon's standard.

Digimon finally found it's groove with Story and World games, both of which are actually good.

Appmon only failed as a videogame.

-Next 0rder- is worse than both Re:Digitize and Digimon World in most aspects.

Such as?

Loss of the alien feeling in favor of "X-theme area" and having escalating human presence, linearity to both evolution trees and progressing through the game, easier to cap out and less effort raising, homogenization of recruitment to city being almost entirely fight or collect X items, EXEvolution being a fucking busted mechanic that makes dying almost impossible.

Not him but holy fuck is it ugly.

youtube.com/watch?v=WbRYMjTCOdQ

PS4 version's lookin' alright to me

The vita version, maybe. The PS4 version looks fucking great

The vita version is an unfinished piece of shit.

You can't judge the game based on that

That disparity is just depressing.

The Vita is less powerful than the PS4

Oh, is that why the backgrounds look like they belong in a high end PS1 game or a sandbox PS2 game?

Like Christ, you have to make concessions somewhere, but that shit's ridiculous. The Vita is better than that.

Meh. The real version ended up looking great so fuck the Vita.

Or maybe Next Order was just bad.
Seriously, I'm surprised they even put this out like this when they had just released a decent looking game the previous year.

10/10 post.

Digimon fans are bros

Because all the budget went into the PS4 version.

>that agumon