Digimon Up Review: An Abhorrent Pit of Boredom

Digimon Up has officially launched today, and you can download it right now on the App Store or Google Play. If you are looking for a reason to pick it up, I can save you the time: don’t bother. This is an idle game so aggressively hands-off that it borders on being completely pointless.

I went into this hoping for a engaging experience, but Digimon Up is a hollow shell. Most mobile titles at least allow you to tap the screen to attack; here, your only input is confirming that the game has finished missions for you or summoning equipment and buddy Digimon. Even the so-called interactive Digital World Search is a dull affair, tasking you with tapping squares on a tiny grid to break rocks before your stamina runs out in about a minute. After that, you are relegated to watching your Digimon sprite perform basic animations indefinitely.

The Illusion of Gameplay

When you inevitably hit a stage the game cannot clear on its own, it offers no real challenge. You are left tapping cards to trigger skills, but even this is largely automated. The game quickly pivots to pressuring you with pop-ups suggesting you spend money to progress, which leads us to the game's aggressive monetization.

If you want the full experience, you are looking at purchasing four different Battle Passes, totaling around £20.00. For that price, you are essentially paying for more vouchers to fuel the same automated loop. The PvP is similarly disappointing, featuring entirely automated battles that lack any tactical depth. It is frustrating to see a series with potential wasted on such a low-effort loop, especially when titles like Digimon ReArise proved that the franchise could thrive on mobile.

A Missed Opportunity

The marketing for this game was misleading, showing trailers that suggested tactical team battles and card-based combat. Instead, players are met with a repetitive, idle experience that feels like it is missing half its features at launch. It is painful to see the Digimon name attached to such a boring, predatory project. If you are looking for a mobile game, find something with actual substance; even staring at a wall would be a better use of your time.