69
Hardcore gamers (young or old) would be wise to ignore the kiddy image and give the game a shot.
58
There is none of the user-friendliness and open-ended approach that made "Super Smash Bros." clone "Digimon Rumble Arena" such a pleasant experience.
49
For a game whose main gameplay component is building up your characters, Digimon World 3 makes the process needlessly complicated and annoying.
8
A great addition to Digimon games. Although this time it copy a lot of pokemon formulas, i say this game does it better from any pokemon games. I dont want to believe it at first, but its crazy to see the professional critics are obviously paid by pokemon.
This game adapts the 1v1 battle but more fair with the speed and turn mechanic. Evolution is as usual branching as crazy as it could get. Aoa is basically team rocket written absolutely far better. To collecting badges that is more interesting than any pokemon games. Skill to swim and dig that is not like hm, not restricting your skills set.
Game has everything needed as a solid classic jrpg, from lvl up thaf gives point to train. To evolution that related to your lvl and your stats. Card mini game that got intergrated to the main game as well. To tamer fights that only initiate when you talk to tamer around the digital world so you pick your own pace. But sadly it means it also brings what classic jrpg frustating, the story progressions. Story progression is a bit annoying since the game usually wont give you clear instruction where to go, you need backtracking a lot. Which on positive side, helps with your level but annoying regardless. And training mechanic that totally depend on rng although you could trick it by reloading the game but it super annoying and somewhat punishing.
But overall evolution is satisfying, you could even hunt for getting another rookies, doing card tournament, auction, fishing, kicking the trees, hunting cardmon, defeating not main story bosses for legendary weapons. And it got two worlds to explore.
The bad side are training depends on rng, story progression could be time taxing, and the nightmarish maze of circuit board.
10
As always the digimon games get the low rating due to a monopoly of nintendo/pokemon fans...
when this game came, it was the first 3D capture monster style... looked better than any pokemon... bigger open world than any pokemon, better story from any pokemon, full 3D battles... in 2002 this was crazy to imagine...
its not the best JRPG on mechanics but definitly is years better than any pokemon....
The competitor was having a 2.5D on handheld.... if you wanted the city gyms medals... this game has too.... if you needed a bad team to pursue a legendary monster this has it too, not a team but actually a corporation...
you can navigate in water, digging underground.... switching between worlds... evolutions... fusions... 47 rating from critics is shameful from a fanbase that hasnt grown yet from pikachu and ash....
The latest digimon time stranger made justice finally and the world saw the difference between a pokemon and digimon game....
but still somehow the critics rated it higher than digimon ....
10
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
Digimon World 3
PlayStation
Released On:
Jun 5, 2002
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
47
User score
Generally Favorable
8.3
My Score
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All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
47
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
50% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
50% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
69
Hardcore gamers (young or old) would be wise to ignore the kiddy image and give the game a shot.
58
There is none of the user-friendliness and open-ended approach that made "Super Smash Bros." clone "Digimon Rumble Arena" such a pleasant experience.
User score
Generally Favorable
8.3
80% Positive
156 Ratings
156 Ratings
10% Mixed
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
9% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
May 30, 2026
10
As always the digimon games get the low rating due to a monopoly of nintendo/pokemon fans...
when this game came, it was the first 3D capture monster style... looked better than any pokemon... bigger open world than any pokemon, better story from any pokemon, full 3D battles... in 2002 this was crazy to imagine...
its not the best JRPG on mechanics but definitly is years better than any pokemon....
The competitor was having a 2.5D on handheld.... if you wanted the city gyms medals... this game has too.... if you needed a bad team to pursue a legendary monster this has it too, not a team but actually a corporation...
you can navigate in water, digging underground.... switching between worlds... evolutions... fusions... 47 rating from critics is shameful from a fanbase that hasnt grown yet from pikachu and ash....
The latest digimon time stranger made justice finally and the world saw the difference between a pokemon and digimon game....
but still somehow the critics rated it higher than digimon ....
50
Profoundly mediocre, the kind of game that only hardcore Digi-fans will like. [June 2002, p.102]
49
For a game whose main gameplay component is building up your characters, Digimon World 3 makes the process needlessly complicated and annoying.
40
Despite some impressive world-map graphics and extremely catchy anime-style music, Digimon World 3 disappoints in countless ways.
40
The third time is definitely not the charm. [July 2002, p.128]
Oct 2, 2025
10
This is the epitome of Digimon. How this could possibly rank so low via critics suggests that they didn't even play this superb monster taming turn based adventure. Beautiful pixel graphics with a equally gorgeous OST to match. A highlight not only in the Digimon catalogue, but among the genres greats.
Apr 12, 2020
7
Played on PlayStation. Gameplay: GOOD. Story: GOOD. Graphic: GOOD. Music/Sound: GOOD. Dialogue: GOOD.
Jun 4, 2014
7
Dear Anyone who doesn't like this game I respect your opinion but the way to get it out there is not to rant like a three year old playing COD to do it. When reviewing keep in mind that it is a review not a rant and same goes for you positive reviewers find a negative standpoint. Now as for my review Digimon world 3 honestly is pretty darn fun for me at least however this is probably just nostalgia blindness so I recognize that this game is not for everyone. If you are okay with backtracking then try it if you hate backtracking then run run as fast as you can. The digievolution system is correct however it gives you correct digievolution due to rookie lvls not champion or ultimate levels which can get a bit annoying however I love digimon and that will never change so I will give it a 7 of 10.
Jan 10, 2016
4
Better than Digimon World 2 but that's not saying much. Story: Nothing amazing or special here, you can play most tamer based digimon games and get the same story, it's nothing groundbreaking or interesting but that's to be expected of a Digimon game, the stories always involve terrorists or some organisation working with the digital world, although that fact it has a story is definitely something. DW1 hardly had one, all the digimon had left the city for 'reasons' and you don't really get anymore story until the ending of the game. DW2 well...just what was that? So hey, at least they bothered writing a story for 3, whilst it may not be great if it's your first time playing through a plot like DW3 then you may enjoy it. Graphics: graphics should never be a deal breaker in any gamer but it amazes me that the graphics have been down graded, both 1 and 2 featured a graphic style similar to that of FF7, yet in 3 we're met with 2d sprites, this just gives off such a poor impression, why are we getting weak graphics when the previous 2 entries actually had some really nice ones? whats worse is the battles themselves are in 3D with graphics similar to that of Digimon World 1. Again, it's not a deal breaker but if you've played either of the previous 2, this will strike you as odd. Gameplay: Ah Bandai, you were never happy with what you made were you? although this may diverge a bit, DW1 is a fan favourite, a unique game with a perfect digital setting with plenty to do. 2 was a complete disaster, a boring and slow dungeon crawler with some really bad dubbing (for example, some digimon will say their move in English, others will speak in Japanese) and nothing going for it at all, so whats to expect from number 3? A POKEMON RIP OFF! HOORAY! I'm sure I'll get a bit of flak for this but it's always been a problem, which is better? Digimon or Pokemon? DW1 set itself as an entirely different game to Pokemon, a more grown up game with different mechanics, you were entirely responsible for your Digimon, raising it and caring for it, feeding it etc, not like Pokemon's standard battle and level up. DW3 on the other hand is such a shameless knock off, you have to defeat 8 gym leaders and battles take place with you selecting moves and swapping out your digimon, we get a terrorist organisation and hey, it's like playing Pokemon Red with some different names and locations. Music: Nothing memorable, it suits the game well but you won't be humming any of the songs or buying the soundtrack but really, this is nothing new for the Digimon series, the anime featured about 6 songs (3 of which were remixes of the opening theme) and the games have always had fitting but forgetable music, they don't break this trend in number 3. Final thoughts: Don't get this, honestly if you're looking for a good Digimon game then get Digimon World 1 or the PSP remake (recently translated to English) because frankly, most of the games don't do the series justice. DW3 is a game that threw everything it had built up, didn't bother continuing differentiating itself from Pokemon anymore and just copied what gamefreak had already done in hopes that fans would be persuaded. All in all it's a poor Pokemon copy with nothing going for it.
SummaryIn the near future, when computer technology has advanced...Junior, a 12 year old boy, and his friends Teddy and Ivy are playing the hottest game around, "Digimon Online." In this game, the players enter the Digital World and travel on an exciting adventure with Digimon. But one fateful day when the friends are in the middle of... Read More
Rated Efor Everyone
