Digimon Masters

Digimon Masters is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game by Digitalic for the PC. It was originally going to be released in English by WeMade in December 2010 but was delayed until early 2011. It was then announced in July 2011 that JoyMax would be hosting the game. Closed Beta Test for the English version was set to start in August 9th, 2011, but it was postponed due to an unconfirmed error afterwards. It is now scheduled for a Pre-CBT from August 30th through September 1st, which has been extended to September 6th.

Game Basics
The game is based on the anime series Digimon Data Squad, with supporting NPCs drawn from other anime series as well. The player begins by choosing between Marcus Damon, Keenan Crier, Yoshino Fujieda, and Thomas H. Norstein as the appearance of the character and then choosing one of four partner Digimon. The player then completes quests and levels both the character and the Digimon, as well as collecting new Digimon. New Digimon are acquired through a "mercenary system" involving either the hatching of partner eggs or the usage of a serial code found on select Korean Digimon cards.

Characters
There are currently four selectable Tamers and four starter Digimon:

Tamers

 * Marcus Damon
 * Thomas H. Norstein
 * Yoshino Fujieda
 * Keenan Crier

Starter Digimon

 * Agumon (2006 anime)
 * Gaomon
 * Lalamon
 * Falcomon (2006 anime)

Mercenary Digimon
thumb|300px|right|A sample of game play.
 * Agumon
 * Betamon
 * Bearmon
 * Biyomon
 * Candlemon
 * DemiDevimon
 * DemiMeramon
 * Deputymon
 * Dobermon
 * Dogmon
 * Dracomon
 * Drimogemon
 * Elecmon
 * FanBeemon
 * Gabumon
 * Gomamon
 * Gotsumon
 * Guilmon
 * Hagurumon
 * Impmon
 * Keramon
 * Kiwimon
 * Kotemon
 * Kunemon
 * Monodramon
 * Palmon
 * Patamon
 * PawnChessmon (Black)
 * PawnChessmon (White)
 * Renamon
 * Salamon
 * Starmon
 * Tentomon
 * Terriermon
 * Veemon
 * Wormmon
 * Lopmon

Extras

 * Gizumon AT
 * Tanemon

Hatching Mercenary Digimon
Hatching is the process by which a player obtains mercenary digimon. It involves retrieving the normal eggs that are dropped by defeated opponents, cashing them in at an NPC to get data chips, and using these data chips to hatch mercenary digimons from special partner eggs.

There are currently nine types of data chips:
 * Beast
 * Dark
 * Reptile
 * Fire
 * Insect
 * Plant
 * Rock
 * Water
 * Bug

These chips are then used to hatch a rarely dropped partner egg. It has a similar color and pattern to the normal eggs but is significantly larger and surrounded by a blue aura. They drop from a mega, ultimate, champion, or rookie level of the before mentioned hatch able digimon.

The data chips and partner egg are then brought to an incubator NPC where you attempt to feed the data chips into your partner egg. Each attempt costs a varying amount of chips and three successful attempts results in the hatching. You can attempt to procced further with up to five successful attempts for a digimon with higher base stats and bigger size. It is possible for the egg to break after feeding it chips, in-which case you will have to acquire another partner egg to try again.

Side Digivolutions
The GUI evolution tree suggests that some digimon have side evolutions that have not yet been implemented, aside from the Ophanimon side evolution of Angewomon attained from a special event item.

Beyond Mega Digivolutions
Some digimon are able to evolve to a form past the Mega stage with the help of items. All the starters can obtain this in their Burst Mode forms, Beelzemon can obtain his Blast Mode with wings and his signature gun from the Toy Gun event item and so can ophanimon from the shatered glass event. and Imperialdramon has his FM (Fighter Mode) that is unlocked with 4 evolution items. Also Agumon and Gabumon can evolve to VictoryGreymon and ZeedGarurumon by buying there special bm items online from players or from the cash shop.

Battle
Battling is done in real-time. At all times the currently selected partner digimon follows the player. The player initiates combat by clicking on the selected enemy or walking near a boss enemy. The player's digimon then approaches the enemy and immediately performs their standard attack. The player's digimon has a health bar measuring health and a digisoul meter. The digisoul meter measures how much energy the digimon has to use special attacks. When empty, the digimon can only use standard attacks. While in combat tamers are able to use items that restore health and digisoul but must wait several seconds before being able to again. After the enemy digimon is defeated the player and digimon receive varying amounts of experience points depending upon the level of them and the enemy.

There is a tool bar running along the bottom of the player's screen with two columns. The first has a small thumbnail of the digimon and click-able icons for the digimon's special attacks. As the player levels up they have access to more attacks. The second column has a small thumbnail of the player and click-able icons for telling the digimon to: attack, run away, stop attacking but not run away, and pick up dropped items.

Combat takes place in real time with nearby players able to watch and even join in on battles; however, the only person who will receive experience and any dropped items is the player who attacked first. Players can also join temporary "parties" where players share all experience points gained in battle.

Community
Registration is currently restricted to Korean citizens, but the English version is beginning a closed beta test. There will be a Pre-CBT starting August 30 and ending September 1 but was extended to September 6.

References and External Links

 * Digimon Masters Official English Website
 * Digitalic Website
 * Digimon Masters Official Korean Website
 * International Fansite
 * Digimon Masters Official Facebook page