Bandai Namco Entertainment Thanks Fans for Supporting Cyber Sleuth

February 9th, 2016. Bandai Namco Entertainment of America uploaded a video to their official YouTube channel, thanking fans for participating in the Operation Decode petition and purchasing 2015's Digimon All-Star Rumble, attributing the localization of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth earlier this month to their efforts. Four representatives testified their gratitude to fans, explaining that Operation Decode gave them "sixty-five thousand reasons" to localize Cyber Sleuth. The statement lines up with similar acknowledgements from producer Habu Kazumasa, who has been the number one fan of Digimon fans in the months leading up to Sleuth's international launch.

Fan reaction to the video has varied--one of the top comments on its page calls for Bandai to instead thank fans by localizing -next 0rder-. The narrative that Bandai is telling is clear, with its representatives all wearing fanmade Digimon shirts from Redbubble rather than any of the officially licensed ones. This is one victory that Bandai is ready to hand over to the world's Digimon tamers.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth launched in North America on February 2nd, 2016, and in Europe on the 5th of that same month. The game is available physically on the PlayStation 4, and digitally on both the PS4 and PlayStation Vita. Those that download the game during the month of February will receive all of its preorder DLC.

The Original Name of Garurumon Was "Garumon," Says Former Director

"LLLAADDIES AND GENTLEMAN, I'M SORRY FOR KEEP YOU WAITING, VOLCANO CHANNEL IS BAAACK, YEEAAHHH!"

February 9th, 2016. Former Digital Monster series project director Oota "Volcano" Kensuke uploaded the latest entry in his Volcano Channel video series after a two month hiatus. In this latest episode, Oota discussed the "Digimon All Stars" figures, a line of 1998 transparent figures. Each All Star figure set included 14 figures plus Digitama, and the series was succeeded by the "The Digimon" figure line of colored Super Deformed toys.

For this week's quiz Oota used five one-handed dumbbell rolls as a timer, asking fans this question; "In development, Garurumon was known by another name. What was that name?"

A.) Wolfmon
B.) Foxmon
C.) Garumon.

The answer is C.) Garumon. (Wolfmon is the name of the H-Spirit of Light in Digimon Frontier, while Foxmon has never been used.) It wasn't until later on that the second -ru sound was added. Oota also noted that in the Digimon anime series, Garurumon was pronounced with an ascending tone (emphasis on "ru,") while he had always pronounced it descending. (Emphasis on "mon.") He ended the episode by asking viewers what kind of nostalgic Digimon history they would like to see him talk about in the future.

Oota Kensuke is the original project director for the 1997 Digimon virtual pets, who has continued to work with Digimon to the present day. Serving as a lead developer for all Digimon toys up to 2007, Oota came back to prominence in 2014 due to his involvement in the development and release of the Digivice Ver. 15th.

His personality "Volcano Oota" was originally created to promote the D-1 Grand Prix tournaments, and has remained a memorable component of his public persona for almost twenty years. In 2000 this character was made into an official Digimon, Volcamon, and in 2002 given the Ultimate form Pile Volcamon, corresponding to his "Pile Volcano Oota" upgrade. In 2015 Oota launched Volcano Channel, his YouTube channel where he discusses the development and history of the Digimon franchise.

He later resigned from Bandai in late in that year to work at an unspecified company, stating publicly that he made the decision to challenge himself. While there were some concerns over what this meant for Volcano Channel, Oota assured fans that the series will continue, and he has remained an active part of the Digimon fandom on Twitter. His previous video focused on the design process of Omegamon, the Digimon created for the March 2000 film Our War Game!

Early Omegamon Designs Shown on Volcano Channel

December 2nd, 2015. Former Digimon series project director Ota "Volcano" Kensuke updated his YouTube channel today with a new episode focusing on the first Digimon Adventure tri. film, Reunion. Ota discusses his involvement with Omegamon, featured prominently in tri., and how he and artist Watanabe Kenji first drafted the Omegamon design for the 2000 film Our War Game. The creation process involved WiZ's Kitagawa, illustrator Watanabe Kenji, and Bandai's Volcano Ota. Ota also briefly unveiled several personally-treasured illustrations featuring early versions of Omegamon, prior to the final design.

The sketches show a centaur-like form for Omegamon, with War Greymon fused over Metal Garurumon's body, and a winged version of Omegamon that wore War Greymon's Brave Shield as a pauldron. In the final design, the team responsible for Omegamon searched for a balance between the component Digimon. Attaching War Greymon and Metal Garurumon's faces to Omegamon's hands was done to help achieve that balance.

Ota Kensuke is the original project director for the 1997 Digimon virtual pets, who has continued to work with Digimon to the present day. Serving as a lead developer for all Digimon toys up to 2007, Ota came back to prominence in 2014 due to his involvement in the development and release of the Digivice Ver. 15th.

His personality "Volcano Ota" was originally created to promote the D-1 Grand Prix tournaments, and has remained a memorable component of his public persona for almost twenty years. In 2000 his character was made into an official Digimon, Volcamon, and in 2002 given the Ultimate form Pile Volcamon, corresponding to his "Pile Volcano Ota" upgrade. In 2015 Ota launched Volcano Channel, his YouTube channel where he discusses the development and history of the Digimon franchise. His previous video focused on the Digital Monster series of virtual pets, and their design process.

Second PV Reveals the Meaning of Digimon World -next 0rder-

September 24th, 2015. Bandai Namco Entertainment has uploaded the second Digimon World -next 0rder- promotional video to their official YouTube channel. The trailer is identical to that previously shown at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, which V Jump had made available through their own channel. In it, the game's battle system, field exploration, and evolution are shown off, with a glimpsing view of the new Digimon World's controls.

Text from the trailer also reveals the meaning of the game's title; it refers to the ❝Ørder❞ Battle system, which will "synchronize the players' and [their] partners' feelings." (プレイヤーとパートナーのキモチガシンクロする❝Øｒｄｅｒ❞バトル pureiyaa to paatonaa no kimochi ga shinkurosuru oodaa battoru). -next 0rder- is literally the player's next orders to their Digimon.

Those orders are issued using a combination of the shoulder and face buttons. The controls partially mimic those used in the original Digimon World; the triangle button is used for Items, square for Tactics (作戦 Sakusen), O to Cheer (声援 Seien "Encourage; Support"), and the shoulder buttons for LView and RView (R注視 Chuushi lit. "Observe"). These last options seem to change the view in battle to orient around the perspective of one Digimon. Certain screens have the triangle and square positions swapped but with their functions retained, suggesting that the player will also be able to rearrange the battle HUD to their liking.

-next 0rder- will launch in Japan on the PlayStation Vita in 2016. No western release date has been given as of yet.