The gameplay concept can be quite hard to grasp for someone who have never played Digimon World game not counting Digimon World DS and Digimon World Dawn and Dusk since they were actually Story games in Japanese . I think Digimon World gameplay is kinda one of a kind . Digimon ' s root is virtual pet which plays a lot like tamagotchi , and the gameplay of Digimon World follows this root . That being said , Next Order is more beginnerfriendly than the original World game Digimon World on PSX . Digimon ' s death is essentially needed because there is no devolutiondegeneration in the game like in Digimon Story games , so you will need it if you want to access other branches of the evolutionary tree . This means you don ' t want to have the Digimon live forever . Also , everytime Digimon die and turned back to DigitamaDigiegg , a percentage of the status you have trained will carry over , making the next generation of the Digimon more powerful and better in general . In a way , your Digimon does not really die per se . The Digimon have a lifespan which can be increased and decreased through some means in the game , so it ' s not as bad as it sounds like . Gameplay also have a sidequest for you such as building your own village and recruit NPC Digimon to live there , you can do fishing , etc . In general , World is more focused on the interacting with the world and spending time taking care of your partner Digimon 2 of them . Story games focus on going through the main story , collect ' em all Digimon , and grind your huge Digimon collections . Some people prefer World game , some prefer Story game , some like both it depends on your preference .