Digimon is a franchise that has undergone some pretty interesting transformations over the years. Despite its humble beginnings as a competitor to the Tamagotchi virtual pets in the middle of their craze in the 90s, it has become a popular multimedia franchise that, despite its name, is fairly different in tone and style to Pokemon. Featuring more mature storylines and some truly awesome designs for the creatures and their Digivolutions, this series has historically translated well into the video game format. But How Do You Play the Digimon Games in Order? Read on to find out!
How to Play the Digimon Games in Order
It’s important to note that there are several separate continuities in which these games take place, but there is a prescribed order in which you should play most of them. The order goes as follows:
Digimon World Games in Order
In the Digimon World games, you are introduced to mechanics where you find and grow Digimon from their egg form, slowly developing from a console-based virtual pet game and city-builder to a JRPG with swords and guns at times. They turn from pets you develop, into monsters you train and send into combat. These games would go back and forth to their basics, particularly after World 4’s bizarre turn.
- Digimon World
- Digimon World 2
- Digimon World 3
- Digimon World 4
- Digimon World Re:Digitize
- Digimon World: Next Order
The last entry, Next Order, acts more as a sequel to the first title but is more or less a reimagining. Additionally, Digimon Digital Card Battle falls within the World set of installments, but is a spinoff based on the card game and can be played out of order easily.
Digimon Story Series
Digimon Story is the Digimon franchise’s bid to bring the games in the direction of a JRPG series, originally as an attempt to tie in with anime series like Digimon Data Squad and Digimon Fusion. Most releases are disconnected from one another, although their incremental improvements to the series formula received middling to a positive reception at times. However, the ability to develop and evolve your Digimon into some of the insane Mega-level evolutions you can encounter, along with an engaging story in each one, is often worth the price of admission. It took a while for them to shake the marketing title of Digimon World, as well, but these can be safely enjoyed in the Story continuity. The order goes as follows:
- Digimon World DS
- Digimon World Dawn and Digimon World Dusk
- Digimon Story: Lost Evolution
- Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Red and Blue Versions
- Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
- Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory
Spinoff and One-Shot Games
Digimon also has several spinoff games including the following, which can be played in any order the player pleases:
- Digimon Racing
- Digimon World Data Squad (also not part of the Digimon World subseries)
- Digimon World Championship
- Digimon Adventure
- Digimon Battle Spirit
- Digimon Battle Spirit 2
- Digimon Digital Card Battle
- Digimon Rumble Arena
- Digimon Rumble Arena 2
- Digimon All-Star Rumble
- Digimon Survive
You’ll notice recently released Digimon Survive is on this list. If it gains further entries, naturally this playing order might change slightly. Still, in general, you can play either the Digimon World or Story subseries interchangeably in their given orders, with the rest however you choose. The games are a fun alternative to the perhaps too often light-hearted nature of Pokemon games and have some real hidden gems within their library of releases. Some, like Battle Spirit, are platformer fighters akin to Smash released on the Wonderswan Color and later Game Boy Advance.
Some titles, like Anode or Cathode Tamer, were only available to Wonderswan, and will likely be very difficult to obtain, so they’re omitted from the list entirely. If you’re into the online scene, you’ll also be delighted to learn of Digimon Battle Online and Digimon Masters, 2 games still in service, the latter of which will receive a remaster made in the Unity engine in 2023.
This concludes our coverage of How to Play the Digimon Games in Order! Be sure to check out our other guides such as Digimon Survive!
Digimon was first introduced as a line of virtual pet toys by WiZ and Bandai on June 26, 1997. It has since spawned a multimedia franchise including anime, films, manga, and trading card games.
