10 Hardest Digimon Games, Ranked (2024)

Unlike the Pokemon games, Digimon dabbled in a vast number of different genres during its early days. It wasn’t until later that it would make its first traditional turn-based RPG entry. Both the Digimon World and Digimon Story series of games have more entries than any other video game series under the Digimon name, with World having a larger focus on home consoles while Story primarily released on the Nintendo DS.

However, despite dabbling in so many different types of games, the hardest have always been those aimed at a target audience seeking a long journey and lots of mechanics present — as is common among JRPGs.

Updated August 29, 2024 by Chad Thesen: This article has been updated to include another entry of the Digimon World series of games in the form of Digimon World 4, the Nintendo DS game Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Red, and the mobile game Digimon ReArise. With so many Digimon games available, it is easy for some to fly under the radar and get missed. After a second dive, some of these titles have found a place between existing entries.

10 Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 2.95

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Rating:75/100 Critics Recommend:42%

Platform(s)

PS4 , PS Vita , PC , Nintendo Switch

Released

February 2, 2016

Developer(s)

Media Vision

The first Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth game is one of the many amazing turn-based RPGs out there, but it can be a little frustrating due to the difficulty spiking at various points throughout the game. Players will need to rely on exploiting opponent weaknesses, and even then they are required to spend large parts of the game grinding to overcome a powerful boss that will impede them from being able to progress to later parts of the game.

Another option to make things easier is for a player to get a guide on how to Digivolve more powerful Digimon than the ones they currently have access to. This can give the player a much stronger Digimon to work with for the next challenge.

9 Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 2.99

• Release: 14 December 2017
• Developer: Media.Vision
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Vita

Digimon Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory is the follow-up game to the first Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth game. This allowed the developers to address balancing issues from the first game — as well as include a new list of the best Digimon for players to get.

The difficulty curve for Hackers Memory has much a more consistent flow to it, but overall the challenge is slightly greater. While players will still have some hard fights ahead of them, they can dramatically boost their experience yield using platinumsukamon.

8 Digimon Survive

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.1

Digimon Survive

Visual Novel

RPG

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Rating:76/100 Critics Recommend:63%

Platform(s)

Xbox One , PC , PS4 , Switch

Released

July 28, 2022

Developer(s)

hyde

This may be the most unique title, gameplay-wise, among the other entries on this list. This is due to it utilizing a tactical grid map for combat. Those familiar with turn-based RPGs such as Pokemon and Dragon Quest may not be prepared for how certain abilities will not be effective during certain situations — leading them to make some common mistakes in the game.

Digimon Survive has a great spread of difficulty options so that players can enjoy everything about the game with an appropriate amount of challenge. For those who have never played a tactical RPG, playing the game on the default difficulty will be filled with discovery moments. Knowing how to position one's Digimon so that none are isolated and where each of their effective ranges are will come with trial and error playing.

7 Digimon World 3

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.26

• Release: June 6, 2002
• Developer: B.B. Studio
• Platforms: PlayStation

Digimon World 3 serves as a direct sequel to Digimon World 2, with a similar focus on being more of an RPG over raising a Digimon like a virtual pet. Once players hit the midway point, the game can feel like a continuous uphill battle if the player simply tries to make their way through the story — instead of finding an exploit to become overpowered.

The key to making things easier is to grind battles between each objective so that players accrue enough experience between objects to increase the frequency of their leveling. This is not apparent, and players will find themselves trying to overcome bosses that they are not yet ready to face.

6 Digimon ReArise

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.27

• Release: June 25, 2018
• Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Platforms: iOS, Android

Digimon ReArise was a mobile game that shares a similar fate to many mobile games that cannot carry a consistent fanbase as years go by. The game used an RPG battle system but also incorporated raising Digimon as a key element. Many of the players' reward items were earned during this part of the game where they would take care of, feed, and train their Digimon to become stronger.

The challenging elements were that these were so intrinsically tied together that players who were good at one, could be brought down by being bad at the other. There were also gacha mechanics that added range, and falling short of that range could make some victories a matter of chance.

5 Digimon World 2

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.28

• Release: July 27, 2000
• Developer: B.B. Studio
• Platforms: PlayStation

The Digimon World games change a lot throughout their releases. The second game in the Digimon World games changed up the gameplay in a big way. Where the first game had a large focus on giving orders to a single Digimon and watching it engage in combat in real-time, the second game allowed players to have a lot more control by giving them a traditional turn-based RPG system.

What’s more, is that players now can have a team of three Digimon, unlike the previous game's one Digimon partner. This allows players to have a much deeper level of control over what composition to use to accomplish their goals — just like with the Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth games.

4 Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Red/Blue

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.44

• Developer: BEC
• Release Date: March 3, 2011
• Platform: DS

Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Red/Blue for the Nintendo DS is the perfect Digimon game for fans of Pokemon and Dragon Quest — with the combat style more reminiscent of the latter. Players select all the combat options for their team and then watch them play out along with the enemies. This can cause a sense of euphoria when everything is going right, or a sense of dread when the player realizes things are about to go wrong, and they cannot stop it.

The difficulty of the game ramps up pretty fast — and unexpectedly at times. Going in without being aware of just how strong an opponent is can instantly feel like an uphill battle that the player might not be able to win. Luckily, the game lets players grind to get stronger, and the best way to overcome the game’s difficulty spikes is to adequately prepare for the next challenge ahead.

3 Digimon World: Next Order

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.46

Digimon World: Next Order

JRPG

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Rating:66/100 Critics Recommend:25%

Platform(s)

PC , PS Vita , PS4 , Switch

Released

January 27, 2017

Developer(s)

B.B. Studio

Digimon World: Next Order is heavily inspired by the original Digimon World. The player will not assume direct control but rather shout out what they want to happen as their two companion Digimon move around the battle area on their own. This can give a sense of unfairness when things go wrong.

Fights can go south very fast, and this can lead players to over-preparing — often out of fear of losing battles. It is recommended to not play the game on Normal, but rather select the Easy difficulty option to reduce how long they find themselves training their companion Digimon for the next upcoming fight. This will create a more balanced and enjoyable experience.

2 Digimon World 4

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.58

• Developer: BEC
• Release Date: January 6, 2005
• Platforms: Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox

The 4th entry in the Digimon Worlds series of games is a rather wild departure. This game is an Action RPG, with players directly controlling a Digimon's movements and attacks. What makes this a rather challenging affair is that movement and attacks are very stiff with little to no room for error when it comes to repositioning the player’s characters.

Getting caught between 2 enemies that are slightly different distances can result in flinching, which makes players unable to avoid a follow-up attack from another enemy — and getting stuck in a corner can spell Game Over due to no means of escape. The designs of the levels make getting in a bad position something that can happen rather frequently, so players will need to actively practice avoiding this from happening in combat. Narrow corridors mean corralling enemies to one side and then circling around to repeat this pattern.

1 Digimon World

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 4

Digimon World

Simulation

RPG

Systems

Platform(s)

PS1 , PC

Released

January 28, 1999

Developer(s)

Flying Tiger Development , BEC

The original Digimon World is a game where players will find themselves repeatedly being sent back to the starting location to train a single Digimon partner, almost like a roguelike game. Each time they return, they will be able to train them to raise different stats to get different Digivolution results. Having a Digimon that is strong in one way, means it is weak in others.

Without a dedicated Digivolution guide of which Digimon players should aim for, they will never know what Digimon they will need ready for the next challenge. The game is very subtle about type advantage, and they will have to navigate a lot of the game blindly to discover what results are even possible.