#Luminamon Nene Version | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chimera-gui · 3 years ago

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Strictly speaking it’s less that Digimon as a franchise doesn’t have mechanics that would be considered gimmicks but more its staunch refusal to abandon the gimmicks it had already created as Pokémon has.

As I and my fellow admin Muur explained to a user on WtW; the series without any new content gets a few releases then dies, gets a reboot after 20 years for a brief revival tho it lasts like 2 years than dies again.

It’s the reason Transformers has such a long history of gimmicks ranging from Pretenders to Cyber Planet Keys to Fossilizers.

Now some stuff can be regarded as being more shamelessly a gimmick than others but that is more an issue of execution than of concept. Digimon also has a habit of taking existing mechanics and exploring them, the two most noteworthy cases being Fusion and Hybrids.

Fusion as a mechanic predates the anime, being a means to achieving a higher Level hence the terms Jogress Evolution/DNA Digivolution though Fusions like Omegamon who were the same Level as their components did exist but this was reserved for Level VI.

And then Xros Wars happened.

If this series' relationship with the mechanic of Fusion could summed up in one song name, it would be Scarface AKA Push It To The Limit by Paul Engemann. Digixrose was the exploration of Fusion as a mechanic to the point that 'Fusion' as a name was used for Xros Wars media. To facilitate this exploration, Digimon of this era initially had neither Level nor Attribute which made them difficult to use post XW until the Encyclopedia was updated to give them these characteristics.

But that’s not where the story ends as Appmon's Applink/App Fusion system could be seen as a refined version of Digixrose most notably in how some cases result in one Appmon taking on the armor, weapons, or other physical characteristics of the second Appmon earning these cases the name Chou Gattai:

Despite this however, the fact Applink as a process could occur between any two Appmon meant these more advanced Applinks were not treated as distinct species the way Fusion and Digixrose resulted in distinct species. Instead App Fusion was the process used to achieve a higher Grade just as Jogress Evolution/DNA Digivolution was before it.

Hybrids likewise have a storied history in the franchise, starting in 02 with Arukenimon and Mummymon:

These two were created artificially by a miserably lonely scientist, Yukio Oikawa, who figures out how to splice data from the digimon world with his own DNA.

This in turn allowed the pair to shift back and forth between their humanoid and more monstrous forms though Arukenimon would ultimately get this as a species wide ability to reflect their Jorogumo nature.

Tamers would introduce the concept of Biomerge Digivolution, wherein the Tamer fuses with their partner (and before you ask, Xros Wars would reference this in its manga with Luminamon (Nene Version)).

The series to follow Tamers was going to use Biomerge Digivolution as its core mechanic though during production, this series would eventually mutate into Frontier and the Biomerge mechanic would give rise to the Spirit Evolution mechanic and Hybrid Level.

Data Squad would in turn see humans getting fused with Digimon data to become the Bio-Hybrids.

While not as prolific as Fusion and its derivatives, Hybrids still see appearances in the card game and various games alongside Armor Digivolution, another gimmick from 02 that still sees usage periodically with every anime series from Tamers onward having at least one Armor Level Digimon popping up.

In terms of modern gimmicks, Ghost Game has Hologram Ghosts which refers to the different states of manifestation Digimon have in this series though it’s admittedly more subtle than Digixrose or Spirit Evolution were.

You know, Pokemon games used to be so good, Digimon had to catch up and failed half the time...

Now, Digimon is releasing bangers like Cyber Sleuth, Next 0rder, and Survive, and Pokemon just keeps remaking Gen 5 But With a Gimmick over and over (or in the case of Gen 6, Repeat Gen 3 But With a Gimmick) and Game Freak is forced to make games every 3 years now...

#pokemon #digimon #digimon xros wars #digimon fusion #digimon frontier #digimon adventure 02 #digimon tamers #digimon data squad #digimon savers #digimon ghost game

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