Unpopular opinions and rants about the Digimon franchize.

[Chimera-gui]

I blame Shiny Pokémon for popularizing recolored Mons.

Edit: Also, to quote Abridged!Godwin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6VqHCvdg9I&t=265s

That's a mischaracterization of why the technique of palette swapping exists.

Sprites/models are expensive, especially the more unique a design is, and disk/screen space was a serious concern because of console limitations. Therefore, it was considered cost efficient to reuse assets whenever possible to insure the player has enemies that are able them power-wise.

It's not like this isn't reflective of real life zoology either since being descended from a common ancestor, members of closely related biological groups (like a family or genus) often closely resemble each other in basic body plan, but have adapted to various environments and ecological niches through changes in color, size, diet, and behavior with the most notable examples being Darwin's Finches and the countless species of beetle across the world to the point there is a famous quote that goes "If there is a creator, he has an inordinate fondness for beetles."

Also, regional variants would be a more accurate Pokémon analogue to how palette swaps are traditionally used and that didn't become a thing until the 2010s.

 

[Yamato-san]

Also, Digimon World was out before Pokemon Gold/Silver to begin with.

As a side note, one thing that most people didn't notice that I love Cyber Sleuth for and makes Icemon feel a lot less like a recolor is that it has unique animations where on its victory screen as well as when walking in the overworld, it doesn't walk but actually slides around everywhere as though it was ice skating. Meteormon copies Gottsumon's victory and walk animations though which is pretty disappointing after seeing the fun quirkiness of Icemon but its signature move animation is super cool looking at least

Icemon was added to Hacker's Memory, so maybe that's why. Incidentally, Tuchidarumon, another recolor added to HM, also had a unique walking animation, so it seems like they were taking more of an effort with whatever recolors they did add (as opposed to just importing the whole boatload of variants that were in -next 0rder-). I forget if Guardromon (Gold) had unique animations in that game, though.

 

[Chimera-gui]

Incidentally, Tuchidarumon, another recolor added to HM, also had a unique walking animation.

I don't suppose you have a gif or video of its walk cycle, do you? I was only able find Icemon skating:

 

[Bancho]

this gif alone is making me smile so much. LOOK AT HIS HAPPY SMILE

 

[Unknown Neo]

That is really nice. It's cute. Vut yeah. Recolors are useful because this stuff is expensive. Remember Mortal Kombat? How many Ninjas did they have in the early games? It's cost effective and lets you add more characters. ...But a White Whamon would be perfect. We needed that.

 

[e105zeta]

oh, there's one I have for the unpopular opinions! Thanks for reminding me, AquaKai.

I actually love Gottsumon -> Icemon -> Meteormon and I had so much fun playing Hacker's memory and having my starter digimon evolve into itself over and over as I found it really funny and quirky.
I was actually very disappointed there isn't a mega that uses Gottsumon's design as its base (either a recolor or something like PlatinumNumemon).
People bring up Gottsumon's recolor evos as the worst examples of recoloring and normally I dislike recolors as well (I'm okay with clones but I want there to at least be some edit to the design outside the colors like SnowGoblimon or Lopmon) but because of that very specific personal experience, I wholeheartedly have been wanting a mega level Gottsumon for years.

As a side note, one thing that most people didn't notice that I love Cyber Sleuth for and makes Icemon feel a lot less like a recolor is that it has unique animations where on its victory screen as well as when walking in the overworld, it doesn't walk but actually slides around everywhere as though it was ice skating. Meteormon copies Gottsumon's victory and walk animations though which is pretty disappointing after seeing the fun quirkiness of Icemon but its signature move animation is super cool looking at least

Recolors were better in the original Digimon World, where the differences were a lot more stark. Gururumon with black stripes, Shamamon with Fuugamon’s palette, Insekimon that was black, Zassoumon that was grey instead of a slightly darker green. I have no idea why they were changed later and became almost indistinguishable from their main species.

 

[Illu]

I forgot this was a thing, I've got one. I don't like Target. Or Break up. They're my two least favourite opening and evolution themes.

 

[Yamato-san]

oh, there's one I have for the unpopular opinions! Thanks for reminding me, AquaKai.

I actually love Gottsumon -> Icemon -> Meteormon and I had so much fun playing Hacker's memory and having my starter digimon evolve into itself over and over as I found it really funny and quirky.
I was actually very disappointed there isn't a mega that uses Gottsumon's design as its base (either a recolor or something like PlatinumNumemon).
People bring up Gottsumon's recolor evos as the worst examples of recoloring and normally I dislike recolors as well (I'm okay with clones but I want there to at least be some edit to the design outside the colors like SnowGoblimon or Lopmon) but because of that very specific personal experience, I wholeheartedly have been wanting a mega level Gottsumon for years.

As a side note, one thing that most people didn't notice that I love Cyber Sleuth for and makes Icemon feel a lot less like a recolor is that it has unique animations where on its victory screen as well as when walking in the overworld, it doesn't walk but actually slides around everywhere as though it was ice skating. Meteormon copies Gottsumon's victory and walk animations though which is pretty disappointing after seeing the fun quirkiness of Icemon but its signature move animation is super cool looking at least

Recolors were better in the original Digimon World, where the differences were a lot more stark. Gururumon with black stripes, Shamamon with Fuugamon’s palette, Insekimon that was black, Zassoumon that was grey instead of a slightly darker green. I have no idea why they were changed later and became almost indistinguishable from their main species.

I feel like we had this argument before, but if anything, Insekimon's black doesn't make it too distinguishable from the gray Gotsumon. But now, they make it white with light shades of green, which now makes it harder to distinguish from Icemon (which is pretty much the same except with light shades of blue), so it's like a lose-lose either way.

 

[AquaKai]

oh, there's one I have for the unpopular opinions! Thanks for reminding me, AquaKai.

I actually love Gottsumon -> Icemon -> Meteormon and I had so much fun playing Hacker's memory and having my starter digimon evolve into itself over and over as I found it really funny and quirky.
I was actually very disappointed there isn't a mega that uses Gottsumon's design as its base (either a recolor or something like PlatinumNumemon).
People bring up Gottsumon's recolor evos as the worst examples of recoloring and normally I dislike recolors as well (I'm okay with clones but I want there to at least be some edit to the design outside the colors like SnowGoblimon or Lopmon) but because of that very specific personal experience, I wholeheartedly have been wanting a mega level Gottsumon for years.

As a side note, one thing that most people didn't notice that I love Cyber Sleuth for and makes Icemon feel a lot less like a recolor is that it has unique animations where on its victory screen as well as when walking in the overworld, it doesn't walk but actually slides around everywhere as though it was ice skating. Meteormon copies Gottsumon's victory and walk animations though which is pretty disappointing after seeing the fun quirkiness of Icemon but its signature move animation is super cool looking at least

I can see why, I mean, Gotsumon's design is very appealing and so captivating. Still I can't afford preferences for my little rocky boy for the sake of consistency.
I agree with design tweaking, it's why I can accept Digimon like RedVegimon or WaruMonzaemon, because they feel like something different, albeit related.

It's not like this isn't reflective of real life zoology

Besides the fact that it's really rare two different species differ only in color (and actually I can't think of any example that hasn't at least some morphological differences), this is also one of the reason I don't like plain recolor: if you consider them different enough to have separate profile entries, at least change something more, like the attribute, to justify their existence. Because Digimon never had the need of using different palettes to up the number of enemies (if I'm not mistaken, World used them just to differentiate enemies from recruitable Digimon), hence why I consider it lazy.

Insekimon that was black

But now, they make it white with light shades of green

Let's make a petition to make Insekimon black and white!

 

[Mr_Web]

This is my new unpopular opinion.

I would be excited if Xros Wars/Frontier got remade/rebooted.
Yes they're some of the worst seasons of digimon but both of these seasons have so much potential inside them. They're held both back by bad writing, weak story, and weak characters.

Would they ever happen? No. Would I be excited if they were? Yes.

 

[Yamato-san]

This is my new unpopular opinion.

I would be excited if Xros Wars/Frontier got remade/rebooted.
Yes they're some of the worst seasons of digimon but both of these seasons have so much potential inside them. They're held both back by bad writing, weak story, and weak characters.

Would they ever happen? No. Would I be excited if they were? Yes.

What if they just animated the manga?

 

[DigiKing Tamer]

This is my new unpopular opinion.

I would be excited if Xros Wars/Frontier got remade/rebooted.
Yes they're some of the worst seasons of digimon but both of these seasons have so much potential inside them. They're held both back by bad writing, weak story, and weak characters.

Would they ever happen? No. Would I be excited if they were? Yes.

What if they just animated the manga?

The last time they did any type of adaptation was X-Evolution. Nearly two decades ago.

 

[Bancho]

I don't care for having a whole device be dedicated as a digivice unless I have to.
I'd much rather something like the VR goggles from Cyber Sleuth be my digivice or something like the VB which is a non-intrusive wrist watch if I need a device that isn't just my cellphone.
The VB/Digivice V, Digivice IC/Burst, and the original Digital Monster device are the only ones I think look good

 

[Muur]

This is my new unpopular opinion.

I would be excited if Xros Wars/Frontier got remade/rebooted.
Yes they're some of the worst seasons of digimon but both of these seasons have so much potential inside them. They're held both back by bad writing, weak story, and weak characters.

Would they ever happen? No. Would I be excited if they were? Yes.

What if they just animated the manga?

Could they even do that when all that stuff that happens to Nene exists it'd have to be censored hard

 

[DigiKing Tamer]

This is my new unpopular opinion.

I would be excited if Xros Wars/Frontier got remade/rebooted.
Yes they're some of the worst seasons of digimon but both of these seasons have so much potential inside them. They're held both back by bad writing, weak story, and weak characters.

Would they ever happen? No. Would I be excited if they were? Yes.

What if they just animated the manga?

Could they even do that when all that stuff that happens to Nene exists it'd have to be censored hard

Or at least adapt out the Digimon responsible for the aforementioned Nene stuff. A clothed damsel in distress is still better than one without clothes after all.

 

[Mr_Web]

This is my new unpopular opinion.

I would be excited if Xros Wars/Frontier got remade/rebooted.
Yes they're some of the worst seasons of digimon but both of these seasons have so much potential inside them. They're held both back by bad writing, weak story, and weak characters.

Would they ever happen? No. Would I be excited if they were? Yes.

What if they just animated the manga?

Could they even do that when all that stuff that happens to Nene exists it'd have to be censored hard

Or at least adapt out the Digimon responsible for the aforementioned Nene stuff. A clothed damsel in distress is still better than one without clothes after all.

Wait......what happened in the Xros Wars Manga? What happened?! Cause I hope it's not what i think it is

 

[Vande]

Wait......what happened in the Xros Wars Manga? What happened?! Cause I hope it's not what i think it is

Nene became ShadeNene (Shademon x Nene fused)

 

[Mr_Web]

Wait......what happened in the Xros Wars Manga? What happened?! Cause I hope it's not what i think it is

Nene became ShadeNene (Shademon x Nene fused)

Oh.......huh.........Didn't know that was a thing.

 

[Yamato-san]

I just realized..... Nene is only covered by darkness. That makes her quite literally nude, doesn't it? Just that she's obscured by some of those pesky broadcast anime light rays (or in this case, something that absorbs light).

 

[TMS]

I’m not sure anything happened in the Xros Wars manga that would need to be censored for Japanese TV. Western TV on the other hand…