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.
February 9th, 2016. The Premium Bandai web shop updated tonight with a surprise product in stock; the D-3 Ver. 15th Digivice Paildramon Color. As with the original D-3 Ver. 15th--which will be sent out this June--the Paildramon Color Ver. 15th will be produced in only limited quantities, fixed at 3,000 units. Preorders will open on March 11th at 11:00 AM Japanese Standard Time, and the final product will be shipped out to buyers in July 2016. The price is identical to preceding D-3 Ver.15ths, 9,990 JPY. (About $90 at present exchange rates.)
The previous twin black and blue models of D-3 sold out just six days after preorders opened. As P-Bandai only sells directly to Japanese buyers, international fans will have to go through a middleman service to purchase the Digivice.
February 9th, 2016. The official Digimon World -next 0rder- title site updated with the results of the game's Twitter campaign, which now reads "c0mplete." The online virtual pet hosted on the site finally evolved to War Greymon today after more than 25,000 tweets were made by fans promoting the game, unlocking many associated rewards. In total these comprise six Chain Melons for Japanese copies of -next 0rder-, and forty Digistones for Linkz. As was promised in the preceding Metal Greymon update, fans are being rewarded with not just in-game items, but also with two smartphone wallpapers. The first wallpaper is themed after the original V Jump promotional images of the game from late July to early August, while the second wallpaper is based on the game's cover.
A special message from Jijimon on the homepage thanks fans for all their hard work, congratulating them on raising a strong Digimon together. Fans can download the wallpapers here.
Digimon World -next 0rder- will launch in Japan March 17th, 2016, on the PlayStation Vita for 6,980 yen (7,539 JPY after tax). It is the latest entry in the World series, succeeding directly from Re:Digitize Decode on the 3DS, Re:Digitize on the PSP, and World on the PSX.
February 9th, 2016. A first set of free Cyber Sleuth DLC was added to the PlayStation Network today, containing three additional purple quests for tamers to complete. The DLC uses Sayo of Digimon Story Moonlight as its icon, suggesting that the Dianamon quests that were reported absent from the Vita version and some PS4 copies of the game will be implemented in the following weeks as free DLC.
The first Mission Pack does notadd Dianamon to the Field Guide; #195 is still missing from the list after installation. Mission Pack 1 is available for both PlayStation Vita and PS4 users.
"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!
The Support Skill of the international-exclusive Cherubimon Vice is Evil Heart, which increases the amount of SP received from absorption effects by 30%. Evil Heart is a Skill essentially designed for the game's multiplayer mode, where SP restoration is rare and precious. Conventional methods are to use Lilithmon's Lust to gain back SP every time a Digimon receives a physical attack, or Marine Angemon's Ocean Love to recover 5% SP every turn. Vice instead amplifies the effects of the ever-popular Physical Drain and Spirit Drain, which restore 10% of the damage they deal as SP to the user. This causes Phys/Spirit Drain to exceed Ocean Love for Spirit efficiency, albeit with a higher memory cost attached to Vice and limited utility outside of those specific Skills.
Vice's Special Skill is Lightning Spear, which costs 40 SP, is of the Electric element, and deals piercing damage. Lightning Spear hits twice and has an increased chance to score a critical hit.
Cherubimon (Vice) Attributes: Virus-Dark Memory Use: 20 Level 1 Base Stats
HP 900 SP 125
ATK 55 INT 160
DEF 50 SPD 95
His stats are identical to those seen in Bandai's stream
early last December--the discrepancy between his base stats and the
in-game image above comes from a combination of farm training and his
Brainy Personality, which is boosting his Intelligence in the screenshot by 5%.
February 6th, 2016. At today's Wonder Fest at Makuhari Messe, an unpainted sculpt of Makino Ruki and her partner Renamon from Digimon Tamers was shown off as part of studio MegaHouse's next entry in their line of Digimon G.E.M. Series figures. The announcement comes a little over a month after Beelzebumon Blast Mode's figure was announced at Jump Festa 2016.
The Ruki/Renamon figure pair may point to Bandai testing the waters with licensing Tamers merchandise, in light of its upcoming fifteenth anniversary this April. Previously, a reprint of the D-Ark Digivice was mentioned on a Premium Bandai customer survey in a question asking what kinds of products fans would like to see in the future.
The Ruki figure was shown alongside a prototype of Digimon Adventure's Tachikawa Mimi and Lilimon. No release date or final price has been announced for either set of figures.
The G.E.M. Series
is a line of high quality figures aimed at young adult women, featuring
characters from popular anime and manga series. The G.E.M. Series has
most recently featured Ishida Yamato and Garurumon from Digimon Adventure,
which has been one of MegaHouse's most popular G.E.M. Series franchises
since it became a part of the line in January 2014.
