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What a pleasant surprise!
They actually managed to make a -good- and improved sequel to the OG Playstation 1 Digimon World game!
i'm really happy they put it on PC this year, so i can finally play it!
Do i recommend you this game?
*if you played the PS1 original digimon world game: -Yes, big Yes!
(I wrote a detailed "Review for those who know Digimon World (PS1) "section at the end, about what they changed and what they improved if you really want to know what i think precisely, scroll down there.)
*if you know nothing about Digimon World (PS1) or this game: -Maybe... read below.
If you're new to those games, you need to know that Digimon World are very non-standard games that borrow from several game genres but mix it in a unique way. it's not an exaggeration to say they are a unique style of gameplay and nothing else really ressembles it. i will try my best to explain it.
essentially:
Virtual Pet/ Monster raising game (think something like Tamagochi, Nintendogs, or monster rancher)
+
real time battle RPG (except you don't directly control your digimons in battle, you order them indirectly)
+
time management/exploration/farming game (think something like stardew valey/harvest moon)
+
high difficulty, and Rogue-like elements
=
Digimon World.

the core gameplay is like this:
You must take care and raise your digimons to grow up all they way from when they hatch as babies; and i don't mean by that to shove them in a PC box and forget about them, or leave them sit in your party forever, like in pokemon. No, you need to actually feed them, bring them to the toilet, put them to bed, scold them or praise them when they do bad or good things, etc.... how you raise them and everything you do will infulence their stats and also how or when they will digivolve, and all kinds of other gameplay features. that's where the tamagochi style V-pet aspect of the game comes in.
Once your digimons are strong enough to fight, you go into the (very) vast open-world, to explore for items, battle other digimons and get even stronger. the combat gameplay is NOT like a traditional Real-Time RPG.
Here, your 2 buddies will move on the battlefield and chose what moves to use (within the pool of moves you tought them) on their own. So what do you do in battle then? Just watch? No.
You can still give, at any time, use your order points to give an order to either one of your 2 digimons, you can tell them to defend when you see an attack coming their way, or to use a specific move immediately. You get this order power by pressing A at the right time during the battle (when you're attacking or defending).
If you use this order power well, you can combo your target with both of your digimons, and you get lots of bonus damage for hitting them with multiple moves at the same times and continuing to "juggle" them with combo hits before they get up.
So in other words, there is skill in the battle system, inspite of you not controlling your digimons directly: it's all about paying always close attention to your digimons to earn lots of order power with good A press timing, pay close attention to enemy moves to give the guard orders before you get hit, and know the behavior of your digimons and the timing of their attacks precisely so you can land combos by giving orders to use an attack move at the right time.
In addition to fighting, you will also find many friendly digimons in the world. If you help them with all kinds of sidequests, they will join your city (the hub area where you raise and train your digimons, where all the shops and buildings are, etc...).
Each new digimon that joins will bring a new gameplay feature to the city that will actually help you in -meaningful- ways: for exemple: one will open a fast travel service, one will open a new shop allowing you to buy items you couldn't before, one will improve the trainig gear at the gym so you gain more stats etc, etc... all kinds of useful things.
it's very satisfying to see just 1 house at game start slowly grow to an actual city with -hundreds- of digimons living there, doing their thing. this is where the growing/farming game like element comes in.
After a while, your digimons will die of old age. When that happens, they reincarnate as an egg, and you can raise them again. There are 200+ species of digimons available so you are almost certain to get a different pair of partners everytime (unless you specifically try to get the same). Since they will have different moves, types, and abilites, you need to re-think and adapt your build and your fighting style at each generation, leading to different gameplay. This is where the rogue-like element comes in.
Also, your digimons will always inherit a small part of the stats from their previous lives, so you will always have babies that are stronger and stronger each generation. You will also have, of course, recruited more and more helpful digimons to join the city at each generation.
So even if you digimons die, it's never like a full-reset, it's more like a "new game plus" each time. As between the inherited stats, the new city residents, and you getting better and better at the game, you will always be able to raise each generation of your digimons at least a little stronger than the last, and explore the world a little further each time to recruit more city residents.
this is what a Digimon World game is like, broadly speaking.



*****Review for those who know Digimon World (PS1):
Yes, they really got it right! Next Order really feels like a PROPER sequel to the OG game (unlike Re: Digitize which was terrible), this time, they really did it!
Of course, i don't agree with every single change that they made and that's fine, you will never have everything exactly the way you want. And they definitely got lazy in some areas (for exemple, fishing now devolved to a single button QTE press... sad. Or the finisher moves of every digimons are now just a cutscene instead of being an actual move that happens in real time on the battlefield like in the PS1 game, lame...).
But on the other hand, the added skill tree for your tamer is super well made, and battle system is -WAY- improved, more deep, more interactive, and better balanced, while still staying true to the original's idea that you cannot directly control your digimon in battle.
The world is -HUGE- even bigger than on PS1, and the areas actually are memorable and have charm visually and in terms of atmosphere, just like in the original game (and unlike in Re:Digitize).
The music is surprisingly top-notch and catchy, especially the ambient music for the different areas, and add a lot of personnality to them. It also made me really happy to hear countless sound effects, jingles and musics from the PS1 game actually come back. some in remixed forms, and the remix are good!
There are way more recrutable Digimons for the city,
There are obviously way more digimons now too. And now, you can actually slowly figure out the digivolution requirements over time by just raising and taking care of your digimons, thank you for this!!! This aspect was really obscure in the 1st game.
Although if you want to replicate the OG game experience of going in totally blind on digivolutions, you can, by just avoiding to look at the requirments screen.
The story is actually a direct sequel to the PS1 game too. it's... Passable, and does the job.
Not great, but, actually not as bad as i feared. You don't really play Digimon World for the story anyway. At least the characters were actually likeable, although very trope-ish. Honestly, the story was alright all things considered (a lot better than Re:Digitize at least).
Overall, it's a clearly a net positive.
i was really impressed and pleased by how the modernised the OG PS1 game in a good way, although there is still room for improvement, so i'd love to see them release another one someday...