Happy 10th Anniversary, Digimon Next!

A few hours ago Japan's clock rolled over to December 17th, 2015, marking the ten-year anniversary of Digimon Next's first publication. Written by Hamazaki Tatsuya (One Piece, .hack//G.U., STEINS;GATE) and illustrated by Okano Takeshi (Hell Teacher Nūbē), the manga was serialized in V Jump magazine until December 21st, 2007, and later compiled into four tankōbon volumes from 2006 to 2008.

Written as a classical Digimon alternative to the then-controversial Savers, Next emulated the style and aesthetics of previous Digimon seasons, as well as of its predecessor V-Tamer 01. Unlike the late-middle-school-to-early-high-school characters of Savers, most of the cast in Next are elementary-age; the manga followed fifth grader Tatsuno Tsurugi on a quest to save the Digital World from the Demon Lord Barbamon, emphasizing the same strategic elements as V-Tamer but featuring the newer Digimon used in Savers. Next promoted the latest virtual pets, beginning with the then-new Digimon Mini, moving up to the Digivice iC, and finally to the Digimon Twin.

While it focused on the Savers-era Digimon, Next diverted from the anime at several points, avoiding the use of Burst Modes in the storyline and instead using alternative evolutions derived from the Twin. The manga went on to outlive Savers by nine months, ending its serial run just prior to the second death of the Digimon brand in 2008. Although Next was never officially brought over to the west, the manga was fantranslated very close to its original release schedule by several groups, jumping from the late Digimon Himitsu, to WtW Scanlations, DATS, and eventually Digital Starlight. It was one of the Digimon fandom's first manga translation projects, alongside V-Tamer. These translations are still easily available on the web through a variety of hosts.

New -next 0rder- Screenshots Tease Messaging, Twin Partner System

November 6th, 2015. The Digimon World -next 0rder- title site has updated with a new batch of screenshots, this time focusing on the game's dual partner care system. Each partner Digimon is assigned to one of two slots in the field, and while they live on synchronized sleep schedules, they behave asynchronously making their own comments and moving independently of one another. The Digimon partner system has structural similarities to the 2007 Digimon Twin virtual pet, which like -next 0rder- split the tamer's partners into L and R Digimon.

The screenshots also tease a messaging system, with notifications similar to Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth's DigiLine. The DigiLine system allowed the player to text in-game characters with preprogrammed responses, but given -next 0rder-'s much smaller cast, this feature may have a slightly tweaked purpose.

The previous batch of screenshots showed the game's variety of environments, and diverse partner Digimon. Digimon World -next 0rder- will launch on the PlayStation Vita and PSTV in 2016.

Wormmon is interested in something "Over there!" but bumps into Lopmon while trying to get at it.

Both Digimon say "I'm sleepy..." simultaneously...

...and both of them share a bedtime.

-next 0rder- Allows Tamers to Use Two Digimon at Once, Featured in Vita Commercial

September 15th, 2015. Today in PlayStation Japan's latest promotional video for the Vita "PS Vita-ish Daily School Life," several seconds of Digimon World -next 0rder-'s overworld gameplay was featured as part of a campaign to drum up interest in the handheld's 2016 lineup. Although the clip was short, it revealed several key details, most prominently that at least two Digimon can be with the player simultaneously. This breaks a rule that all of the previous raising games, Digimon World, Pocket Digimon World, Re:Digitize, and Decode, each upheld for the past sixteen years. In order to replicate the virtual pet experience, these games only allowed the player to have one active Digimon at any time. The idea to have two at once may have been derived from the Digimon Twin, which was the last virtual pet launched prior to the franchise shifting in favor of RPG-oriented gameplay.

Other details gleaned from the commercial include a weather and season system, and a twenty-four hour clock. The display at the top left of the screenshot above reads "Spring/Week Chart/(Sunday)" and the sun icon seemingly indicates clear skies. Given that in the few seconds that elapse the clock jumps from 07:39 to 07:41, it's clear that time has also been sped up in -next 0rder- as it had been in past World games. The commercial is embedded below.

(-next 0rder- shown from 0:35 to 0:37)
The gameplay implications of having multiple Digimon at once are significant, as it makes possible Jogressing two Digimon to create a new one (i.e. Agumon x Gabumon into Omegamon), and opens up the option of team-based battles, or of tagging in one Digimon when another becomes weakened. Up to now various publications have only shown one Digimon on screen at a time.