Happy PSN Community Spotlight day! It’s that time when we take the PlayStation.Blog and let gamers tell their unique PlayStation story/experience/thoughts as submitted to this special section in the new and improved PlayStation Community Forums. Those that find their way to the PlayStation.Blog will find a $50 PlayStation Store voucher in their inbox.
Earlier last week, I asked you guys to tell a story about your favorite game that no one knows about. A game that meant the world to you, but maybe didn’t register with the gaming community on a massive scale. PlayStation gamer Electromagnus wrote in on his experiences with Digimon World 3, but you may be surprised to see his path to finally beating the game.
My Digimon Fantasy World
10 years ago, a 5 year old boy was going with his father to buy a PS one and a large pile of games. Naturally that boy was me, and was I excited?
Who wouldn’t be! I was bouncing up and down like a frog on a trampoline. Of course I chose games based on how colorful the artwork was since I could barely read, I chose many classics which gave me hours upon hours of fun. I bought games like Crash Bash, Spyro The Dragon, Pepsi Man and many more. But the game that really changed my perspective on gaming was Digimon World 3. The game just amazed me when I got it, the sounds the graphics even the box-art was beautiful. I used to watch the TV show and loved how a group of kids got trapped in the digital world. I wished that one day something exciting like that would happen, but the next best thing was actually controlling the character. After an hour my fantasy of the digital world came to an abrupt halt when my character died, I stared at the screen while a countdown began ……10…..9……8….. I pressed continue and the screen turned black, then suddenly the intro music started to play and I was gazing upon some alien words which had no meaning to me back then….. -Please Insert Memory Card into Slot 1- Back then I never bought a memory card, so I always played games from the start every time. I wasn’t too keen on starting over from the beginning, so I swapped the disk for CTR Racing.
For 5 more years I played with my PS one, and whilst I got better and better at reading and writing I got further and further in Digimon World 3, but I still could never beat it without a memory card. So one day I finally went with my Dad to the store and bought the small piece of plastic that would help me beat the game I could never beat. Back then our family didn’t own a computer, so I never knew about FAQs or guides or cheats, everything I did in-game was all me and nobody else was allowed to help.
So one night I was busy playing Digimon World 3 when my mom told me to get ready for bed, so I went to the nearest save station and saved my game, but whilst it was saving a blackout occurred in our area and my TV screen suddenly turned black. That night I couldn’t sleep. I was constantly warned in-game to not touch the power whilst the game was saving, so I knew that something bad had happened. The next day I got up early, and luckily the power was back on, so I booted up the game and my heart stopped beating for a millisecond……there was no file to load. Four months of gaming all gone in the blink of an eye. At that time I gave up gaming completely and just read books and watched movies to pass my time. But it never felt the same, what was missing in the books was the game play and what was missing in the movies was the lengthy stories, but I refused to play my PS one again.
That changed when we bought our first computer. I was amazed when I searched for PlayStation games, that there were hundreds of beautiful games that I had yet to try and complete, so I gave in and played my PS one again. But I made a vow that before I play any other game I would play and finish Digimon World 3.
A year later I was sitting on the couch watching the credits roll on the screen……..I finished the game. Nothing in the world could compare to beating the game that changed my life in many ways. It took me 8 long years of trial and error to finally feel like I accomplished a giant life goal. The next week I went and bought myself a PS3, hoping I might find a game with a touching story and stunning graphics, similar to DW2003. It didn’t take long to find one since the PS3’s library of games was overwhelmingly huge. It was Final Fantasy XIII (my first Final Fantasy game) and I loved every second of it. Since then I played game upon game enjoying every one of them.
I’m now 15 years old and have an extensive collection of games, both retail and digital, but the game that not even a triple A title can beat will have a place in my heart forever. The only thing I regret now is that I never bought a PS2. I missed great games like FFX and Kingdom Hearts, but thanks to the HD collections I can relive all of the consoles majestic games in stunning HD.
Thank you PlayStation for taking me to worlds of beauty and grandeur, where anything is possible and dreams become a reality.
Long.Live.PlayStation.
Thanks for writing in Electromagnus! Fun to read how an older title — that maybe not many of us would list as an all time PS one great — could be such an important title on your end.
You may have seen the tweet from @PlayStation earlier, but for next week, we’re looking for stories and experiences from Metal Gear Solid 4. With the release of the patch that added Trophy support, many of us are going back to the game. Click here to check out more info on this call to action.
And on a final note, I’m happy to be turning over this post to our newest addition to the PSN Community Team: Kristine Steimer. She’ll be running with these posts from here on, so please welcome her next week.
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