4Gamer:Alright, now that we've heard plenty about the original Digimon v-pets, I think it's time to get into further detail on the ver. 20th itself.When the Digivice ver. 15th was being made , apparently none of the original die-cast molds, original data, or even blueprints were left, so it had to be made from scratch. Is the die-cast mold being made from scratch this time, too?Saotome:Yes, there's no question that we are using a brand-new mold this time. The re-released Digivice, D-3, and D-Arc have all used new molds with added details, and the ver. 20th is no exception.[image caption: The Digimon ver. 20th (left), and the original (right). While the original required 2 LR44 batteries, the ver. 20th will require only 1 CR2032 battery.]4Gamer:However, when you put them next to each other like that, it's hard to tell the difference...Abe:You're right about that. We still hope to keep the faithfulness to the original design.Saotome:The back design naturally has had some changes due to the change in battery type, but we are trying to stick to the original as closely as possible.4Gamer:In the original Digimon v-pets, the food and protein graphics, as well as the training methods differed between versions. How will that be handled in the ver. 20th?Saotome:On that front, we will be sticking to how they were represented in the ver. 1. The ver. 20th was made to be a re-release of the ver. 1 to begin with, which is also reflected in the color choice, matching the Brown and Grey colors that the ver. 1 came out in during 1997. Using that as the base, we will be adding the Digimon that debuted in ver. 2-5.4Gamer:It was stated that a multitude of Digimon aside from those in ver. 1-5 will be included in the ver. 20th, but can we get an estimate of how many Digimon will be added?Saotome:14 Digimon were raiseable in the ver. 1 alone, while in the ver. 20th, 120 Digimon will be raiseable, including the Digimon from ver. 2-5.4Gamer:It appears that Ultimate level evolutions, who weren't present in the originals, will be added to the ver. 20th too.Saotome:Correct. This time, new Ultimate evolutions that weren't possible in the original versions will be made available.4Gamer:Are there any plans to release the evolution tree, including the newly added evolutions, on the official site in the future? Or would you prefer players to discover these evolutions on their own?Abe:We're still not decided on that matter... though we intend to have it up sometime in the future, probably.Saotome:If we do publicly release the information, it'd probably be bit by bit on the official Digimon Web website.Ootawara:The Digivices we've released up till now have contained hidden features that we've seen customers discover on their own, and proceed to create discussions on the internet about it, so we do expect that players might be able to figure out the evolution tree themselves as well.Saotome:Internet access was still uncommon among households when the original v-pets were first released, so I would guess that the players progressed while sharing information with their friends. Although we're in an era where we can easily find anything we're looking for over the net, I think playing without consulting the net for information could also be a fun way to experience the game.4Gamer:Back then, even the game guides didn't provide exact information on the conditions required for evolution.Saotome:They wrote them in a very ambiguous way (laughs).4Gamer:They would write things like 'raise them irregularly', or 'overfeed them many times'.Abe:It might be interesting to release walk-through information in that format (laughs).4Gamer:Looking back at it, because of their ambiguous wording, there was also fun to be had in figuring things out through trial-and-error.Abe:While we aren't sure at this point whether we will release 'walk-through information', we hope to recreate past memories in players by having them discover new things as they play; it would make us very happy if we could achieve that.4Gamer:It's been stated that there will be new, special Digieggs that can be raised after meeting certain requirements. Will the evolution paths of the Digimon hatching from those eggs be fixed?Saotome:Yes, they will. The special Digieggs will follow a set evolution path. For example, the special Agumon will evolve into Greymon, Metalgreymon, and Wargreymon, just like in the anime series.4Gamer:I see, so it's a feature put in to acknowledge the anime series?Saotome:That's right. After some trial-and-error, we managed to settle on a repertoire for the special Digieggs. As mentioned earlier in the interview, there is some difference in ages between the original Digimon v-pet generation and the Digimon anime generation. However, we thought that fans that bought the anime-originated LCD games such as the Digivice ver. 15th might also be interested in the original Digimon v-pets, so we decided to add this feature in to appeal to the fans of the anime series.4Gamer:Having a fixed evolution path does help to stay true to the anime series. It was also stated that the WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon resulting from the special Digieggs can 'fuse' to become Omegamon; is this new fusion feature similar to the Jogress evolution we got in Digimon Pendulum?Saotome:Image-wise, it is similar to Jogress, with 2 Ultimates fusing to become a different Ultimate. So, in the ver. 20th, this fusing of 2 Digimon, like WarGreymon and Metalgarurumon, resulting in a separate Digimon like Omegamon, will be termed as 'fusion'. Not only that, more than half of the Ultimate Digimon resulting from fusion will be completely new Digimon.4Gamer:Ehhh! Is that so? I wasn't expecting brand new Digimon at all.[image caption: While Zubamon, the new Digimon commemorating Digimon's 20th anniversary, has already been revealed, there are still more brand-new Digimon appearing in ver. 20th.]Saotome:The official illustrations aren't done yet, but the designers are working on them right now so they may be posted to the official site any time after they're done.* I think they're all pretty cool Digimon, myself.*This interview was done on February 22, 2017.4Gamer:That's something great to look forward to.It was also stated that the growth speed of the Digimon has been altered in the ver. 20th. Why is that so?Abe:That was one of the features where we were struggling over whether to change it or leave it as is... however, we did go through lengthy discussions to determine what would be the best growth speed for the Digimon, to account for the Digimon fans who have now become adults.4Gamer:It must've been a hard decision.Abe:We have a staggering 134 Digimon available in the ver. 20th, so we decided to speed up the growth of the Digimon so that Digimon fans, even those who are now busy working adults, will be able to meet the Digimon they have fond memories of.> In a first for Digimon LCD games, players are able to raise 2 Digimon at a time, and a single-player mode is included4Gamer:One of the exciting new features of the ver. 20th is the ability to raise 2 Digimon at one time, isn't it.Saotome:Yes. We are introducing this new system, as a first in the history of Digimon LCD games.4Gamer:Fans have been very curious about this new mechanic. It's hard to imagine how we will go about raising 2 Digimon on such a small screen. Could you share more about this feature?Saotome:There will be an option to display one Digimon at a time, or to display both at the same time while raising them. Since Digimon evolve differently based on how they are raised, they can be raised on separate screens when you want to clearly distinguish how you raise both of them, while you can also feed both of them at the same time by switching to displaying both Digimon on-screen.4Gamer:I see you can look at the status screens for both Digimon separately (fiddles with the v-pet). ...Oh, there seems to be a new stat that says 'Effort'.Saotome:Yes. Previously, the stats included were 'Age, Weight, Hunger, Strength, Energy, and Win Ratio', and this time we're including a new stat called 'Effort'. This stat rises as the Digimon undergoes training, and will factor into evolution requirements as well.4Gamer:In the past, the Digimon kind of get stronger as they train, with the exact amount being stored in internal data. I see it's become a visible stat now.Saotome:That's right. It's basically a stat that used to be invisible, now made visible on the status screen. Previously, you would have to keep count of how many times the Digimon underwent training, but considering the players who have to work while raising their Digimon, we decided that it would be more helpful to make the stat visible, and thus implemented it.[left image caption: The new 'Effort' stat.] [right image caption: It is possible to input your own name into the v-pet as well.]Abe:The evolution tree has expanded considerably from the original, so we also wanted to make raising as smooth as possible.4Gamer:It seems there are also two additional menu icons, compared to the original.Saotome:Those would be the 'Battle Mode' and 'Album Mode' icons, respectively. It was impossible to do battle without a second player in the original v-pet, so the addition of battle mode allows players to battle even without another player, with Single Battle and Tag Battle modes.[image caption: Battle Mode]4Gamer:I see. In the older series, it was impossible to evolve to Perfect or further without having done a certain number of battles, so it would've been tough on people who didn't know others that played with the v-pet as well. It's great that this single-player mode was added.Saotome:There will also be some enemy Digimon that do not appear outside of Battle Mode. Those will be Digimon that fans are probably familiar with, so I hope they will be able to enjoying playing this mode too.LCD Game 'Digital Monster Ver. 20th' gameplay video4Gamer:So, Album Mode is a mode that records all the Digimon that you have raised thus far. However, will the data be kept if the battery runs dry? For the old Digimon v-pets, the data would be reset if the battery ran dry, so this is a possible point of worry.Saotome:No worries about that. The device will have an in-built memory that will store your play data, so you can load your data from there and continue playing even after changing batteries.4Gamer:As a child, it was a challenge to make sure to change the batteries while keeping the Digimon I raised intact. Looks like there's no need to worry about that now (laughs).Saotome:Exactly (laughs), you should now be able to change the batteries without any worry.4Gamer:Also, it was stated that there will be an online D-1 Grand Prix held in the future, but how will entering work this time?Abe:We're still in the midst of developing that so we can't reveal too much right now, but it works by converting your raised Digimon into a password, which can be entered on the website to register your Digimon. Then, we plan to have those registered Digimon fight it out in the Digimon D-1 Grand Prix that will be held in the future.4Gamer:So the status of your Digimon can be seen in the form of a password?Abe:We may or may not end up changing the format, but what I can reveal now is that there are 3 levels of strength to each Digimon, and that will be how the password is generated for each Digimon. In the case of Agumon for example, there will be 'strong', 'normal', and 'weak' statuses that will translate into passwords.4Gamer:It looks like a lot of thinking has gone into making the password generation work?Abe:Yes, definitely. Because of the small screen, we can't even output a 2D barcode image on it.As with the Battle Mode mentioned previously, players might find it hard to enter the D-1 Grand Prix even if they wanted to if they didn't know anyone they could battle with, so we went for an internet-based tournament instead.> 2017 will be a year of celebration for Digimon. Goods are being developed, and a live event is being planned4Gamer:This re-release has so many new features that we can't even cover them all here. While you could have gone with recreating the original v-pet one-for-one, why did you decide to add in these new features?Abe:We had a whole list of ideas during the planning stage, and while recreating the original as is was one of those ideas, in the end, we felt that we wanted to really surprise the fans, since we're celebrating the important 20th anniversary, after all. We put in brand-new mechanics that we've never done before, such as the ability to raise 2 Digimon at once, in hopes of pleasing the fans too.4Gamer:Even with all the Digimon spanning versions 1-5, and with all these new features, it's amazing that the ver. 20th still manages to cost 3500 JPY (excluding tax), considering the original v-pets cost 1980 JPY (excluding tax) each.Abe:It feels like...'oh, if only we split them up and sold them separately' (laughs).4Gamer:There are currently no plans for a regular release of the ver. 20th, are there?Abe:Yes, there aren't; after all, this price point was also made possible because of the nature of selling it exclusively through the direct-sales site, which means we only have to produce the exact amount that was ordered. We use Premium Bandai for cases such as this, when it would be unrealistic to produce for regular sales, or when the prices are high. We have received feedback on prices being too high as well, but rest assured we are trying our best to deal with that.4Gamer:I think there might've been a lot of people out there who thought 'I didn't own that version, but I really wanted to play it!'.Ootawara:Whether it was because many customers felt that way or not, we received more than double the number of pre-orders we were expecting.While the first pre-order batch of the ver. 20th is slated to be sent out in June, June 26th 1997 was the release date of the original Digital Monster v-pets, so there is also that little surprise in having the ver. 20th arrive during the same time 20 years later.4Gamer:Oh, that does sound great!Abe:August 1st is a very well-known date for being the date when the Chosen Children embarked on their adventure in Digital World in Digimon Adventure, but in contrast, June 26th, which was when the LCD games were first released, isn't nearly as well-known. We hope that with the Digimon ver. 20th, we can also make this date more well-known among fans, so that it can be treated as an anniversary date as well.Ootawara:However, the first batch of pre-orders to be sent out in June is already sold out, so pre-orders from this point onward are slated to be sent out in July. You are guaranteed to receive one as long as you place an order by 11pm on March 27th, so we hope readers can consider it.[image caption: As of March 18th 2017, pre-orders for the second batch are still being accepted.]4Gamer:Seeing Premium Bandai kickstart Digimon's 20th anniversary with the ver. 20th, and hearing about plans to hold the D-1 Grand Prix in the future, we can hardly contain our future expectations for Digimon. Could you tell us more about what's in store?Abe:The ver. 20th is just the tip of the iceberg of what we have in store for 2017, which we hope to turn into a 'Digimon Festival'. There are plans to release merchandise featuring pixel art of the original Digimon in the future, as well as re-releases of old toys. Digimon fans can look forward to not only the Online D-1 Grand Prix, but also a planned live event where Digimon fans can gather using the 20th anniversary as an occasion to do so. And that's not all; we also have plans to bring the anime and related works into the festivities, and are currently holding discussions on the matter with Toei Animation.4Gamer:We'll be looking forward to seeing not only more merchandise, anime, and games, but also more of that momentum that Digimon has been picking up with in recent years.It seems that's all the time that we have, so please leave a closing message for all Digimon fans.Saotome:Thank you for continuing to support Digimon. Although 20 years have passed since the original 'Digital Monster' v-pet was released, we made the ver. 20th with the fans that played the original in mind. We have left what we felt shouldn't be changed as is, while at the same time adding in some exciting new features, so I am positive that fans will be able to enjoy this product. Do get it and enjoy it if you can!Abe:Those of us involved with the development of the ver. 20th also belong to the generation that experienced the original 'Digimon' first-hand, so we have put in our best efforts to create a product for the fans, which whom we share the same viewpoint. Being the 20th anniversary, this is an important year for Digimon, and we hope to continue the ball we've kept rolling from recent years to continue pushing out even more. Please look forward to what we have in store!4Gamer:Thank you for your time today.Lots of fantastic information on the V-Pets and some of the decisions made.Big thanks to garm for translating everything, and thanks to Shadow Shinji for bringing it to our attention.Took awhile to edit all of that, and make sure it'd show up correctly on the forum but it appears to have all worked.The order period for the 2nd batch of 20th Anniversary Digimon V-Pets closes on March 27th if you want one.