Full transcript of “The BETTER Digimon Fighting Game | Digimon Rumble Arena 2 Review”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:01 well I've already uploaded a video this year the length of a movie and I'm already working on another massive project but maybe before I tackle the last Digimon RPG of the PS1 I can take things a little out of order again and Tackle something I can also use to blow off a little steam when I reviewed the first Digimon Rumble Arena I said it was fine I liked it but I did think it was overall kind of clunky and while it did have some fun and unique ideas it didn't feel like it stuck The Landing but I did say I'd be happy to take a look at this the sequels as I knew that there were a couple more attempts at Digimon fighting games after the first outing this next one was released in 2004 and this time it was multiplatform which isn't really something we've seen much of from the Digimon franchise up to this point but this is where we also saw a new take on the digi evolving mechanics some new Digimon to play as a completely new play
0:48 style and was ready for a whole new generation of friends just trying to have a good time with a party brawler now I know some people disagree with my take on the first game which is fine my mind hasn't really changed on that one but we'll get there but I was curious to see what I would think of the sequel since I saw a lot of comments about it saying that they thought it was a significant downgrade over what came before I wonder if this trend of us disagreeing is going to continue let's find out as we take a look at Digimon Rumble Arena 2 [Applause] [Music] hello but first now I know we've been gone a while but trust me I've been busy the real world's been making it hard to work on videos but it's coming together
1:35 again and one thing that's been helping me get the energy I need to get back on track is my partners over at gfuel I drank a lot of energy drinks back in college but these days I need something that'll give me the energy I need without all the sugar you usually get with those energizing Elixir and gfuel has the great mixture of vitamins and caffeine to keep me moving but keeping those crashes and Jitters away you can get gfuel in cans but I'm more of a powderman myself and it helps that they have so so many great flavors to choose from like the P colada flavor of Miami Nights the refreshing Citrus strawberry of the Cadenza flavor inspired by Persona 3 reload and even the taste of rot candy from the Miku sweet Melodies flavor inspired by everybody's favorite little digital creature probably a better call than making it leak flavored just add the powder with some water to your favorite Shaker mix it together and
2:20 you're good to go and if you want to try out any of these great flavors for yourself you can use my link in the description and use my code way is boss to get 20% off your online order you get great energy drinks and you help out the channel thank you once again to G fuel thank you for listening and now back to the video as I mentioned earlier this game was not tied to just one platform like the first it had versions for the PlayStation 2 Gamecube and the original Xbox and I got the last one for a couple of reasons first I have a lot of attachment to the PS2 but it was the weakest platform of its generation though I'm not sure that had much of an effect on this specific game but I already know for a fact being on the PS2 ain't going to help it also I just never found a PS2 copy second the GameCube version is stupidly expensive nowadays and finally the green on the box art just matches really nicely with the Xbox
3:07 case I just think it looks good the backwards compatibility on Xbox 360 helps too and while emulation from OG Xbox 2 360 could often be spotty here it seems to work just fine except for the fact that this is clearly just stretching out the picture to fit a widescreen aspect ratio I tried this on multiple 360 consoles I tried to adjust the settings but it wouldn't really let me and my brain worms were just in a frenzy after all of this if there's a setting on the 360 that lets you keep this from happening and just keep the game at 4x3 I couldn't find it but at least for the purpose of using this footage I can always just fix the stretching issue myself here just give me one second and uh there now we can enjoy the upscaled resolution without the width of everything being increased by like 30% at least there's some pretty good UI on display here I actually started appreciating the way A Game's interface is laid out when I was a kid
3:54 especially with games like DDR I'm not sure if you've noticed I don't know it's a decent menu the icon are Lively and the background warps in and out to transition between modes it also kind of reminds me of the internet tunnels from our war game the one thing I'll critique here though is the announcer knockout battle survive until the end to win his voice is fine but the effect is flat I do think that adding a bit of an echo to it would help add a sense of scale or eventfulness to the whole thing ready Rumble the modes we have on display here are what you would expect a training mode where you can get familiar with the controls a multiplayer mode where you can duke it out with friends and a single player mode where I got things started you get a decent amount of starting characters to choose from like the entire lineup of partner Digimon from Digimon Adventure but also gilmon flon so we're getting a little Digimon
4:40 Frontier representation in there and Von we're already seeing a couple of characters that were cut from the first Rumble Arena no wormmon no renamon no inmon and probably the worst lost no terriermon moai more like no menai we did get the partners that were missing the first time around though letting us play as tenton palmon biomon and gamon so you know you win some and you lose some and I can accept an outcome that lets you play as this little guy this single player arcade mode has a nonlinear structure you always start at the same stage against what I believe is a randomized opponent and as you win matches you can choose to move higher along this grid of possible battles for a tougher challenge or lower
5:26 on the grid for something easier letting you decide how hard you want the matches to be to a degree and the matches themselves are a lot of fun actually talk about a step up the animations are smooth the action feels so much faster the moves at our disposal are far more varied and what's more the Dig evolving mechanics are way more fun to use in this game let's take it from the top you have two basic attacks to use normal attacks and special attacks normal attacks will usually be basic melees something simple to lay down a bit of damage and given their simple and quick nature they can be be strung together in combos very easily special attacks are moves that are more specifically catered to the Digimon you're currently controlling so auman will use a fire charged pepper breath or palmon will use her poison ivy Claws and you'll notice
6:12 pretty quick that a lot of specials also resolve around ranged attacks letting you deal damage from a distance and keep your opponent from getting too close you can also use the special attack as a finisher to a combo laying down a little extra damage and having an additional effect that I'll touch on later and there was more effort put into adding directional based inputs to create attacks so if you're playing as Gan you can use your special attack and use a laser that can DZ your enemy but holding down while pressing the same button will result in a flurry of claw attacks and there are directional combos like this for special and normal attacks and they can take a lot of different forms leading to many different effects that can be used to break an enemy away from you if they're getting too close or can even launch them upwards jumping feels good the movement is fluid I actually did find that if you get yourself above an enemy you can launch yourself down at them and it deals a lot of damage it
6:58 would run the risk of being broken but thankfully a lot of characters have upward swinging attacks that can counter this but it is still really useful if you're going up against someone who's not prepared for it so it seems like the overall gameplay is really improved from last time letting to a quicker and more fluid feel but there's one definitive element of the Digimon franchise that was introduced in the first title that I think this game really capitalizes on let's get scratching dig evolving is one of the most Unique Mechanics a digimon fighting game could offer and the idea was fine in the original letting you power up and enjoy using a more powerful form for a limited
7:43 time but for Rumble Arena 2 the prospect of this feature was well evolved each player has a digim meter along with their health much like before but you don't fill it up just by dealing and taking damage normal attacks won't actually do much to help you here but special attacks will cause these little blue orbs to explode from your opponent by picking these up you can fill up your digim meter and getting hit doesn't deplete your meter either so the orbs aren't like siphoning the energy force from your enemies but they can actually pick these up to fill up their own meter too if you don't grab them quick enough once your meter is full you can hit the R button and dig evolve and now the entire game doesn't just stop in place and wait for one player to finish doing their thing the game keeps going on around them so other players can fight gather spheres or chase after items during the transformation they just can't harm the evolving character what's
8:29 more each character has multiple forms to evolve into starting at rookie but as they continue to fill up their digim meter they can dig evolve to Champion then to their ultimate form well depending on the Digimon that is some Digimon have mega forms that are too popular to exclude so in their cases their ultimate form is skipped auman will dig evolve into Greymon after filling the meter once and into war Greymon after filling it twice yeah that means a few forms are excluded like no we gumon or Metal Greymon but would you really rather play as as War growlmon than as gallantmon yeah I didn't think so the way this mechanic works now gives you a constant goal to work towards making you move all over the stage as you attack the opponent from every angle while also trying to collect orbs land attacks that will spawn them and when you've achieved your new form you're
9:14 rewarded for your skill with a new set of powerful moves to work with as each Digimon even at higher stages all have special move sets that will often build off of their previous form but Mega level Digimon especially feel satisfying to control as they can really laid out some pain dig evolving is not an instant win button though the game isn't so unbalanced that a higher level digibond will immediately stomp anything under it each player at a lower level form still has the ability to bite back and if they can deplete your health bar you'll lose a stock and if you lose all of those you've lost the game when you lose a life assuming you still have more to revive with you'll respawn and be brought back down to the form preceding the one you were defeated in and you'll need to build your digim meter back up to evolve again but just like in the first Rumble Arena if you fill up your digim meter while already at your highest possible form you can then use the meter to perform an ultimate attack
10:01 which can deal a ton of damage and be a huge asset in a scrap you can even use a special bonus attack when you're in your highest form too further adding to the pool of moves at your disposal an incentive to take advantage of dig evolving what's more you have more defensive options to choose from this time too you can actually use the digim meter for more than just digivolving if you're able to break away from the fighting for a bit you can actually use a button combo to deplete your digim meter and fill up a bit of your health bar you can guard to avoid getting juggled by too many attacks and of course what's a good party brawler without the ability to grab your opponent and send them flying I did notice one issue with the grab mechanic though see you have a bit of an aerial recovery most of the time after being thrown but like only if you bounce off the ground at least once is this like table tennis rules if someone grabs you and throws you over a ledge and you don't hit anything on your way down you
10:48 are not getting back up it's a good strategy to use in the sense that it's a broken mechanic that you can exploit so I'm sure melee fans would really like this one there's a pretty good amount of stuff going on here moves to memorize strategy to use and mixing it all up with the unique way stages are put together makes for a surprisingly in-depth experience I will say though not all stage hazards are created equal you'll have stages like the rubber tree falls where you can bounce on the trees and have to make it to more solid terrain or the canery which has one of the funniest hazards where you can get stuck in a machine that will seal you into a cannon you have to bounce around for a while before turning back to normal but then you also have danger Gulch now don't get me wrong I like The Vibes of the stage a lot that said you not only have to contend with these exploding barrels and windows that will send you rocketing through the air like Bandai throwing out every opportunity to make new Digimon content but you also
11:34 have these mine carts that will come bolting down these tracks and are weirdly easy to get hit by and will instantly kill you yeah call me crazy but I do not think this stage would be legal in tournaments there's also items that can be grabbed and used throughout these matches too but a lot of them are more like events than objects to wield as the fight rages on you can snag one of these that will have a variety of different effects like filling up your Digi or health meters or raising them to their Max buffing your attack or adding a burning effect to your character or just making you temporarily Invincible outright you can also grab Digi change digivices that have different kinds of effects that everyone on the stage will get hit by at once sometimes the effect will be dig evolving everyone D digivolving them or dig evolve you depending on how well you're doing in the match lightning can be summoned from the sky everyone who didn't grab the device will fall asleep health bars can
12:20 be shuffled the character you're controlling can be temporarily swapped or we do this I I guess sure the coolest one though is when the digi summons phantomm who will start floating around the stage and instantly killing anyone he touches it adds such a great layer of intensity to the fight but he can still be avoided if you're skilled enough at fighting and avoiding him at the same time overall the items are fine and I don't think that they spawn too frequently but some of the items with the more obnoxious effects feel like they last just a little bit longer than they need to and again I'm really not sure what inspired the choice behind this one here this game is definitely not perfectly balanced so you know you ain't going to be seeing this at Evo anytime soon but it does feel like there was plenty of thought put into how much content they could pack into a game like this you know within reason that said
13:06 there is still some unlockable content to uncover as you finish up matches in the campaign you can choose which direction you want to move on to and from there you can progress yourself to the end but along the way you might be met with a few surprises at random starting a match on this grid could trigger a special event like a surprise character you need to face a new game mode or even an unlockable stage for characters you can unlock black auman black black gaban and black Gilman But first you have to beat them in battle by just kind of accidentally running into them throughout the single player they play a lot like their standard counterparts but they do have unique voice acting and a couple of special attacks not shared by their more popular versions there's only one extra stage to unlock this way that being the ice palace and it's actually a pretty fun one the ice physics are balanced with actual Solid Ground and the way you can mess with the environment here is a lot
13:52 of fun but then there's all the extra game modes you can unlock that they just randomly activate as you make your way through the stages basic mode is the stock matches knock out all your opponent's lives to win simple and there's a timed mode too where you stock up Kos against your rival and whoever has the most when the timer runs out wins King of the Hill tasks you with earning points by staying in the allotted Zone first one to 20 points wins this mode is especially fun on the Autos scrolling level where the mix of the changing landscape and moving Hill adds to a really chaotic and always moving match there's keep away where you have to earn 20 points by holding on to an egg and keeping it away from everyone else collection where you have to collect 50 points worth of eggs as they scatter across the stage poison where you have to pass around that cheese touch that's constantly draining the holder's health little versus big where
14:38 you can only dig evolve by beating the already evolved player on the field crazy Chase where you have to chase down kulum man and grab him 20 times and I hate this one because he's always floating around and the more players that are involved the more it just kind of feels like actually grabbing him is just random the most interesting mode in my opinion though is the digi race here you have to be the first one to digivolve to your maximum form three times I think this Mode best takes advantage of the mechanics on display in a fun and interesting way that also capitalizes on digivolution one of the defining traits of the series and mixes it together in a really compelling competition that not only asks you to attack your opponents well but also to do so with special attacks that you can use to fill up your digim meter while also defending yourself so you don't get sent back to a previous form or have to waste your meter on healing if you ask
15:24 me this might be the most well-realized mode of the game and it makes a great use of everything on offer let's get [Music] scratching these modes are really fun to mess around with my only gripe is that unlocking them can take a really long time because as far as I know they can only be added by having them very randomly dropped on you in the middle of the single player and you have to win whatever match suddenly has these new rules on your first try and you can make entire runs through this single player mode without anything new even showing up it's one of those choices that feels deliberate as a means to Pat out how much time it takes to unlock all the extra content to make the game feel like
16:10 a bigger package and it's a shame because the content present here is good and in many ways a big improvement over its predecessor but you really have to grind that single player mode to get them and grinding to unlock new stuff is not a new thing to fighting games not even for the best of them but this would be a lot more forgivable if you could unlock them by playing the multiplayer and not just by yourself but once again this isn't the only game in the genre to handle it this way and at least unlocking the last few characters through single player makes sense to me the easiest route doesn't lead to a specific boss you just kind of get a final fight and a pat on the back but the routes building up from there will land you a different boss battle depending on the difficulty of the path you've chosen neon duskmon malomyotismon diaboromon and my favorite face dabbing mascot character omnimon no matter which
16:56 one of these guys you're fighting the battle takes place on the same final stage which you can unlock by beating a route with a boss the chaos Wasteland which I kid you not is just a terrifying landscape stuck within the storm that is the d-reaper from Digimon ders I love this as a concept it sucks as a stage though Final Destination this is not there's so many hazards constantly going haywire the pillars of the stage are falling off into the void below and the problem with how easy it is to throw people into a free fall they can't recover from is at its absolute worst here the background is cool though and yeah you get to unlock all these Boss characters to use in the other modes and they're a ton of fun with really cool special effects like d digivolving your opponents or teleporting around and you can't make me not love playing as omnimon I've adored him since I was a kid one thing I did notice though is
17:42 that when you finish up a run of the single player the Digimon you played as is put on display and you get a triumphant little shot of them but why are some of them so shiny I thought it was an emulation thing on 360 like maybe a Shader wasn't loading right leading to the effect but nope I loaded this up on an original Xbox and got the the same thing so I really don't know what went wrong here the game does have good presentation overall I love the character models and how well they translate the designs I remember watching on TV to 3D I think the stages are fun and the overall display they offer is really pleasing to the eye and when you spike a character and send them plummeting into the ground below you I did not add that sound effect it is just in the game the one thing this game doesn't do better than the first would be the music the OST fits in just fine here but nothing comes close to the
18:28 best tracks from that first game it really did have some bangers speaking of the first Rumble Arena I got a few comments on that video saying I didn't really give the game due credit because I was reviewing it almost entirely from the angle of a single player experience which is not really fair when talking about a game so heavily based on multiplayer and you know what you're right that's fair point and I hear you which is why for this video I kidnapped my roommates and forced them to play both Rumble Arena games with me please this just skewered her you're doing a really good job fighting the wall there buddy I know thank you rock
19:13 I go ahead am basic so I'm picking auman partially because he's orange but I just wanted it to be on the record that I'm I'm very sad because I'm not playing gaban and he's a good boy too dig oh man it's your boy War greymond here I will let you dig evolve real quick I'm trying I'm button mashing right now there we go it really does just stop the entire fight dead in his TR oh my God no no no no no no no wait wait wait wait wait wait wait oh I confused myself like no [Music]
19:59 get over here I said disy ball I said disy [Laughter] ball bunny I look so stupid and cute oh jees give me jeans give me jeans oh right we're not do okay give me nukes give me nukes Jesus Christ oh my God I hate this stage no this is fantastic this is not tournament [Music] legal the way I got slapped I like
20:44 I the way it stops just trying to this ah what are you going to do with this intimidating this intimidating guy waddling at you you're going to dig ball all right come here no no get away from me no no wrong way everything is so slow on dig ball ball I said ditchy I said get away from me please oh right right oh God hang on I can't get you I just I just I love this stage this is
21:32 this is the game of interruptions no I love it I'm so here for it oh God I forget what your like ultimate attack perish what come on please you have to come is that it I don't know is it the kick yeah oh yay you smoked me but do you have guns no no gun I have guns no Run Away Little P no please why do I take 8 years to get up no oh my God dig imagine if the Dig evolving took
22:18 off the timer all right guys what did we think of Digimon Rumble Arena why does he have pump pum pan on his shoulders why what did we think of Digimon it was fun was it Wayne can you take my handcuffs off now no okay so I think uh Digimon Rumble Arena on the PlayStation one was a very interesting experience um three out of 10 danger Gulch Lava Lake Pier 47 what about Pier 45 you mean 46 Ice Palace chaos Wasteland what's funnier than you chose the final boss Arena good let me let me get you let me get you no no don't dig off
23:06 yeah no no I can't recover if I don't hit the ground first this one's good I like this one this this one's a good time this one you feel like you're actually moving game speed fast I'm scared wait what I'm scared no oh no oh no oh no Nathan what have you done oh God wait I can't jump why can't I jump wait let me out what happened let me out all stop it oh dang I negative
23:53 points I have two negative points I have negative2 points I have negative one points oh I swap my controls one more time swap my controls one more time you are banned from this character hey quit adding to the problem no where's the hill what hill are we kinging oh here it is hello the immediate evaporation when you get koed where am I oh oh I just died oh no I just jumped off the edge please I like
24:39 how you dig you off in this one though it doesn't stop the entire game from playing yeah everything can actually just like other people can do stuff dang no oh we're going back the other way now guys chaotic I love this no oh you're just a big bully I thought he just he's just a bully yes yes yes lead no Amanda's taking the lead no she cannot win we didn't we weren't paying attention no no no no no no no y boxing
25:25 Cactus you're a bully with that kid please get out there we go he's just picking me up and throwing hey get away from me hello what get me out of here get me out of here oh my God you can see why it's called the caner yeah yeah that's so good no o well all right gang what did we think of Digimon Rumble Arena that one was fun that was aot fun all right so uh we playing number three it's a quest for another time see you next mission I said dig ball I said
26:11 dig we all collectively had way more fun with the second game faster paced more varied content better movement and so many moves and modes and forms to play with I think the first game did a fine job I do like that game and I think it holds a great sense of charm that you really only get from that generation of systems but just for the fun Factor alone this is the one that I'll be picking up to have a blast with my friends you know assuming I ever get the free time to goof off around with them in a game like this to begin with for any Die Hard fans out there I can gladly recommend Digimon Rumble Arena 2 yeah it's not the greatest party brawler out there but I would consider this one a success and I'm really glad I got to play this one there were more Digimon fighting games made after this but this was already a detour most of those are
26:58 handhelds I've got my own plans for that sort of thing we will get to them and besides I know what you're really waiting for don't worry we're going to get there still going to be a little while I got a few other small videos that are going to happen in the meantime but I'm working on the big one now until then remember that my top tier patrons get to see these videos two days early you can find me on Twitter twitch Discord whichever you prefer links in the description and of course as always spread the word tell your friends and until we see each other again thank you so much for watching see you next mission hello there everyone thank you so much for your patience I know that it has been very dry on the channel this year and I'm working on fixing that problem my stamina for being able to
27:44 work on videos has taken a huge hit Just In this passage of time so while Digimon World 3 is a currently in the works right now and I am going to get that video out this year you know that one is going to take some time so I'm going to be working on some smaller stuff in the meantime so that you all still have some content actually coming out onto the channel while I work on the big thing that I know everybody is waiting for I want to be able to do both and I really need to be able to get my brain and my body back into the creation space when it comes to all of this of course I would not be able to do all of this if it wasn't for the tremendous support that I get from all of you the people that watch the people that share the people that like And subscribe and comment and all of that good stuff I
28:30 don't think you realize just how much that really does help and that support goes a really long way and of course I do have to especially thank my patreon supporters and give a very special shout out to my current top tier patrons this month they are Brendan hes Earl vco I've sent my evil clone to find some helium Jazzy Jefferson Jeremiah Harrison Kum leick mackenz Mitch Pim Patricia Maru sarif 13 s in seven snap kick and cus the skeptic thank you all so so so much I cannot overstate just how much it means to me that you've stuck with me just through what a Troublesome year this has been you all make this possible and you make it worth it with all of
29:15 that said got plenty of work to do see you next mission [Music]
