Part 11: Post-game, part 1
So, with the final boss beaten, the post-game awaits. And by the look of it, even considering I'm missing 0.6% story completion (which I get back in this update) we have a LOT to do.
One of the criticisms I have for this game is that the post-game has little to add beyond making you beat the same opponents over and over again, repeating the same arenas over and over, etc. But, as I may have said in the past, the card pool is limited, so they can only be combined into so many variations of 30 cards.
Anyhow, first check into the Beginner City Café. Hey look, it's Tai!...in his Adventure 02 outfit? The end credits have him in original outfit. Ah well, he lets us know some strange Digimon are out there, and we should let him know if they're up to no good.
But forget about that for now, because we're gonna do SIDEQUESTS. Quite a few open up in the post-game, and the first is Wizardmon's. What he lets you do is type in a password to get a bonus Ultimate card. There are ten cards you can get this way, and the passwords were actually hidden in the manual, so finding them isn't hard. Here's all the cards you can get from Wizardmon in one convenient image:
...these are all subpar if you're wondering. While I can't say I've played much multiplayer matches, I can certainly say I know a thing or two about what makes a card good. Most of these are missing part of that.
Come to think of it, I just noticed Jijimon has an anti-Black support effect. Jijimon was actually a Green card in the previous Digital Card Battle, so I wonder if his support effect was the same in that game? I haven't seen all the cards in the original.
And Gatomon has a gift for us that I could have gotten after beating her Arena, shame my walkthrough didn't remind me to get this!
Yeah, this was the missing 0.6%. All this item does is warn you if a combination of cards leads to a Special Fusion, which basically means, "This combination of cards always has the same result anyways and happens to have a fancy animation to go with it." You remember how Stingmon and ExVeemon combined to form Paildramon? It's basically that.
Speaking of Card Fusion, one night while I was googling the Japanese internet for info on this game, I stumbled upon a page that details how to make any card you want with fusion. So I compiled it into a FAQ for English-speakers to make use of, in case you're playing along or something.
Now for sidequest #2, and this has to be the worst one. The main characters from Adventure 02 (except Ken for some reason) are now ready to play cards with you. Or maybe you can play them earlier than this? The dialogue implies such, but I don't think that's the case.
They've all got decks like we've seen dozens of times by now. Look, when you can do 600 damage to Rookies that never get that high, you tend to want some better Rookies in enemy hands.
Well, the Option Cards are big, I suppose. This one mills 7 cards in exchange for 500 more damage.
Now, this is Davis we're talking about, sure, but even he should know not to press O here.
Nice, Davis.
So what could possibly be so bad about the Adventure 02 people, you ask?
To complete the sidequest, you need to beat all five of them SIX TIMES. Oh wait, that's everyone but Davis, you get to play him NINE times!
Why so many matches? Every 3rd round, if you didn't pick that character's own partner card, the jerk will force you to use one of their decks, which means no EXP for your partners, because these decks contain THEIR partners with THEIR armors - which is how you get the partners and armors you never obtained yourself into your card library.
I would enjoy this if the decks we're forced to use were more interesting than the starter decks at the beginning of the game and changed the way I need to play, because the kids don't change THEIR decks at all during the whole thing, oh no!
When you beat someone the necessary number of times, you get a Digi-part. You'll also get colored prize packs.
These prize packs can...sometimes turn out REALLY good.
Right, so, you've seen Flamedramon already. What about Veemon's second armor?
I'd probably prefer Flamedramon, but this is okay. Stats are slightly worse than Digmon, but Raidramon has an actual X effect.
And remember, Veemon had three armors. You'll be getting this deck if you got Veemon from Ken earlier.
Hey check it out, a convenient side-by-side comparison. You can see Magnamon has 50 more HP and 50 more O power, at the cost of not having a counter. The difference in points is easily made up by Digi-parts, so Magnamon's really just a trophy for 100% since that's how you get him.
Note the card I have highlighted by the way.
Okay, so this is actually a pretty good Digi-part.
Next up is Yolei, who has a hilarious deck. They actually based her deck around her catchphrase in Japan - "BINGO!!" (Well, that's one of her catchphrases, the other is "Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let's go!")
Here's Halsemon, who I think is uninteresting compared to the other Green armors.
Yolei takes risks. She has cards that work based on selected attacks, which is probably the most exciting way to play, in my view.
Dunno what's with the Elecmon, though it does make me think twice about using Submarimon.
This is another card that does not work as advertised. It's not a glitch, though, it's just worded strangely. It's supposed to make you attack first if your opponent is not Green, but reading that probably makes you think it'll make them attack first!
Hey, that Digi-part came in handy after all!
BINGO!!
Er, what exactly is a "Halse"? Let me look this up.
"...derived from the mythological Horus." Oh, okay. So the translators thought it was meant to be an L sound when it wasn't.
As in "Shuriken" naturally.
Cody's up next, and we have Armadillomon, so he won't be giving us his decks.
There was nothing interesting about him at all aside from the possibility of Crash strategies.
So, 21 uninteresting matches so far. I get the feeling you're supposed to complete this one a little at a time instead of all at once. Don't make my mistake!
T.K., we already beat the tower! Does word not travel fast?
Here's Pegasusmon if you're curious. T.K.'s deck is just like Angemon's, but with an Armor.
And stall cards. Oh look, I drew Hacking!
Guess what that means!
Sweet! I always wanted to try a Toon World deck.
...yeah I wish. I'm gonna play Duelist of the Roses after this.
At any rate, here's a helpful tip when playing with someone else's deck.
Don't topdeck.
This part was fun, at least. Battle of the color swaps!
Was the idea of adding an "N" to the end of that deck name really too good for the translators to think of?
Baronmon is Patamon's other Armor, and it's got the firepower to rival Flamedramon. Baronmon doesn't have a counter, though, so you'll have to add one.
Hey, remember all those Kingdom Hearts jokes I made about Sora and Kari?
Ta-da. Great, now I might actually entertain the idea of playing Digimon World 4.
Kari. You can SEE MY HAND YOU KNOW. Guess we all know what comes next, huh?
How does Kari not know who Rosemon is? She has her card in her deck!
This screenshot is from a different fight but I want to point out that I'm not sure if Kari's
I'm not sure if her DIGIVICE is the best, or the worst, it's the only one to not be outclassed by Monzaemon but look at the condition for it to work!
Here we witness the rarely-seen triple rank-and-stat increase.
Anyhow, we have Gatomon, so we won't see any borrowed decks from here on out.
So what, pray tell, was the reward for those 33 matches I just skimmed over because they weren't that interesting as a whole?
The first of the overpowered Sevens cards! Now we can really let these AIs have it.
In fact, why not test it on a brand-new area (the only one in the post-game, go figure) that opens up after talking to Tai?
It's totally not an abandoned File Island.
Inside is Myotismon, who challenges us to compete in his Arena, but he imposes a special rule.
We'll come back later.
The only remaining sidequest at this point is Nanimon. You remember him from Digimon World, right? Where you could find him in areas you've already been and get his inventory-expanding keychains? Now you get to find him in towns, and when he appears, you get one chance to play him.
He appears in these locations:
Junk City: 1st and 8th battle
Dark City : 4th and 9th battle
Steep Road: 2nd and 7th battle
Infinity Tower: 5th and 10th battle
Desert Island: 3th and 6th battle
You're right, it DOES make no fucking sense!
His deck? As much of a threat as any Yellow deck that has no actual plan for what to do with those support effects.
So every time you beat him, he moves onto the next town, and gives a pack of Option cards. That'd be helpful if the next Arena didn't have a special rule forbidding them!
Why are there so many support effect parts? This one is okay, but so many of them are just unuseable.
Check it out, I got the EXP bonus for literally the worst situation: All three partners in your hand at one time.
And in this fight he started with a Champion and evolved to Ultimate. You can see that the halved stats still hurt badly.
One of the parts I got through level-ups was this. Now it might look amazing, but it really just amounts to 1 or 2 extra points, so it's not that great. Plus, my partners all have their levels synced.
Ten wins and chasing Nanimon across the entire Digital World later...
We're in business now, eh?
Beating Nanimon ten times earns you the best Sevens card there is. This card is the only way I can think of to do 9,990 damage in one shot. Which I suppose I should demo sometime, it's quite amusing.
So, that's it for sidequests. Next time, we head to Desert Island while I think of some way to make the post-game a little more interesting.
Probably by doing a serious analysis of the metagame while trying out fun gimmick decks suggested by viewers.