Digimon Life
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| Box Art | |
|---|---|
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| Name | Digimon Life |
| System | Smart Phone |
| Release Date |  August 19, 2010
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| Language | Japanese |
Digimon Life (デジモン生活, Dejimon Seikatsu) is a video game.
It was a Japanese location-based mobile game service published by Bandai Namco Games. It was launched on August 19, 2010, for mobile phones operated by NTT Docomo, SoftBank Mobile, and KDDI.[1]
The service used the player's location alongside factors such as the current time, weather, and season to determine which Digimon appeared. More than 400 Digimon were available when the service launched, including Digimon restricted to particular parts of Japan.[1]
Digimon Life was free to play, with optional items priced between ¥105 and ¥525, including tax.[2] The service was discontinued at the end of March 2012. By the time of its termination, it contained profiles for 596 Digimon.
Gameplay[edit]
The primary objective of Digimon Life is to find and capture Digimon by using the location services of the player's mobile phone. The game compares the player's current location with the time, weather, and season, causing different Digimon to appear under different environmental conditions. As a result, returning to the same location at another time or under different weather conditions can produce different encounters.
Digimon are divided according to their geographic availability. Some can appear throughout Japan, while others are limited to particular regions or more specific local areas. This makes travelling and searching in different locations an important part of completing the player's collection.
When a Digimon is encountered, the player attempts to capture it through a Flash-based minigame. More powerful Digimon are more difficult to capture, although optional support items can be used to reduce the difficulty or improve the player's chances of success.
Farm[edit]
Captured Digimon are stored on the player's Farm. From there, players can view their collection, consult information about each species, and access illustrations associated with the captured Digimon.
Capturing additional Digimon raises the player's rank. Increasing in rank unlocks further features and causes additional Digimon to become available.
Digimon Expedition Team[edit]
After reaching the required rank, players can form a Digimon Expedition Team by selecting Digimon from their Farm. The team can be sent to distant locations that the player would not normally be able to visit, giving it the opportunity to return with Digimon exclusive to those areas.
Optional items could be used to assist an expedition or increase the likelihood of discovering and successfully obtaining particular Digimon.
Base Battles[edit]
A feature known as Base Battles (拠点バトル, Kyoten Batoru) was added on December 16, 2010.[3] This expanded the service beyond its original location-based collection gameplay by allowing players to use the Digimon they had obtained in battles connected to designated bases.
Digimon Encyclopedia[edit]
In addition to its game features, Digimon Life contained an extensive Digimon encyclopedia. Many entries reproduced profiles from the Digimon Reference Book, although the service also contained Digimon and illustrations that were not available on the Reference Book website at the time.
New profiles were generally added weekly, most commonly on Thursdays. Updates were presented as Digimon "eyewitness reports" (目撃情報, Mokugeki Jōhō), each of which included a short description announcing the newly sighted Digimon.
The number of available profiles continued to grow throughout the service's operation, eventually reaching 596 before its termination.
Cross-media integration[edit]
Digimon Life was linked to the Digimon Xros Wars multimedia project. Digimon newly introduced in the television series were progressively added to the service in connection with their appearances in the anime.[1]
Selected Digimon merchandise released by Bandai also included special two-dimensional barcodes known as AR Codes. Players could photograph an AR Code using their mobile phone to summon a rare Digimon within the game.[4]
Release[edit]
Digimon Life was made available through the three major Japanese mobile-phone operators of the period:
- NTT Docomo — i-mode
- SoftBank Mobile — Yahoo! Keitai
- KDDI — EZweb
The service did not require a monthly subscription and could be played for free, although players could purchase optional items individually. These items were used primarily to assist with capturing Digimon and conducting expeditions.[2]
The service remained active until the end of March 2012.
Image Gallery[edit]
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| Promotional material | Promotional material |
References[edit]
External Links[edit]
- Digimon Life on the archived Bandai Namco Games website
- Archived official website
- Launch announcement on 4Gamer.net
- Launch announcement on GAME Watch
