coornio rates this game: 5/5Digimon World 2003 is the European version of Digimon World 3. It allows you to play past the final boss, albeit condensing most of the game's content in just two sectors and underground and ocean levels.
PLOT SPOILERS BELOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The game follows the story of Junior, a kid who aspires to be the best tamer there is. Not long after his entry into the digital world along with his friends Kail and Teddy, Junior is trapped inside the digital world along with everyone else connected in the rest of the servers allegedly due to issues with the Matrix Drive caused by a hacker known as Lucky Mouse.
During his visit to the west sector's Byakko City, Junior is captured by A.o.A. lackeys and thrown underground. After he escapes, he makes contact with the resistance and eventually Lucky Mouse who denies having ill intent. A.o.A. troops burst in, demanding Lucky Mouse return what he took from them, which happens to be vemmon's Digi-egg, before being turned into an Oinkmon. Junior learns of the Game Master and the MAGAMI president being the very embodiment of the A.o.A. organization and their plans to launch the mobile fortress Juggernaut and have Vemmon fuse with it in order to rule the world.
Junior sets out to stop their plans, and follows A.o.A.'s transport Digimon, Bulbmon, through the holes it has left all over the digital plane in hopes of reaching Amaterasu server, where the enemy came from. Having made his way into a new server, it is apparent that its residents had not been spared from the fate Lucky Mouse suffered. After acquiring the means of reaching the elusive north sector, Junior heads back to Asuka server to earn the last leader's badge and use the emergency Matrix override to materialize back into the real world. Due to instabilities, Junior is only able to stay there for 3 minutes and decides to materialize in the undersea base Magasta to try and stop Juggernaut's launch, albeit unsuccessfully.
Consulting with his friends and tricking the enemy into spilling information during which time Juggernaut fuses with A.o.A.'s special Digimon, Vemmon, into Destromon, he learns that he needs to defeat the rest of the A.o.A. city chiefs in Amaterasu server and obtain their color passes in order to be granted access in Amaterasu city and put a stop to the MAGAMI president's plans and consequently, Destromon. After a lengthy battle, the president surrenders peacefully and points to the console that can terminate Destromon and ending its reign of destruction before a whole city suffers from its main cannon's blast. Since the A.o.A.'s plans had been stopped, it was decided that it was time to restore the damage done to the digital world and its people and start the Matrix drive again so everyone can go home.
Seeking the help of Airdramon, Junior successfully powers a machine with the ability to reverse the transformations, and returns to Asuka server to check on his friends and the status of the portals, only to find them turned back into Oinkmon, along with everyone else. Apparently, there are more vemmon unaccounted for, but before he can do anything about it, Junior is faced with another foe who calls himself Lord Megadeath. He invites Junior to the military satellite Gunslinger and teleports away. Junior soon follows, determined to end all of this. Fighting his way through, he soon reaches the satellite's control room and challenges Lord Megadeath. After winning, Lord Megadeath explains how he created the A.o.A. in order to acquire Vemmon and digivolve him into Snatchmon, using his power to control everything. Snatchmon however disagreed with being controlled so he absorbed him, and dared Junior to stop him from merging with Earth to become Gaiamon. Snatchmon then phases out and begins merging with Gunslinger, where he faces off as Galacticmon against Junior in space for the sake of the world.
Personally i think this is the best digimon game to have come out on a console or handheld. I have burned well over 600 hours of gameplay on the PS1 on it alone when i was younger, to the point where i had to put ice underneath the PS1 to keep it running cool and actually loading the levels fast enough to know where i was going. I will be frank and say that most of this game's magic is based around visiting new areas, facing off against stronger digimon who will cream yours in 3 hits if you don't train enough before and having a rush when battling a story or area boss, which ends in either being too weak and dying too fast, or two strong and barely feeling a thing, or a balance of which is always nice because it prolongs the fight and the music is awesome. It just feels like boss fights have more character because they have much higher health than normal encounters and they actually use skills, you won't see anywhere else.
Yes, there will be times when you feel like the game gets boring, and all the stupid low level digimon bothering you as you traverse an area to go somewhere aren't helping, but that's nothing an emulator can't handle by speeding things up. It all feels a little pointless when your super-uber-power-leveled digimon can't find a worthy challenge though at endgame, and defeating Galacticmon all you get are end credits?! NOT QUITE! The European version of Digimon World 3 has post end-game content, new bosses, improved enemies and much greater challengers who will put a gaping hole in your digimon's chest if you forget to heal and they manage to score a critical hit when you least expect it. Recently there was a guide posted in GameFAQs about this extra chapter, i suggest you pay a visit if you want to learn more. I hope i didn't waste your time completely if you bothered to read through all of this, and i hope i piqued your interest to give this under-appreciated game the love it deserves as the most memorable, and personally enjoyable, digimon game to have been released for the PS1.
Even more fun! rates this game: 5/5Digimon World 2003 is Digimon World 3 except the fun doesn't end at Galaticmon! Think of this game like a dlc of digimon world 3! With this installment there is a lot more battles more challenges and most importantly more fun! So get in there and show them who the best tamer in the world is!