Meet Heliotrope!

So here it is! My very first Digivice. It is specifically a Digital Monster X, Version XA, Purple and Red (English), but that's a mouthful, so let's call them Heliotrope.

Heliotrope is something I got on a whim while trying to motivate myself through my recent move, but I haven't had the oportunity to actually go ahead and run them yet! They're a neat little thing, and I'm sure that they'll be a welcome addition to my life.

Now, I have taken care of VPets before, but, always tamagotchis and never a digimon. And you might, honeslty, be a bit confused! Most people don't realize that Digimon started off as a Virtual Pet, instead of a game or show that they largely connect as a rival to Pokemon. Tamas have largely outpaced the Digimon in their relvance as a Vpet, but there is still a lot of merit to these little guys! They come with a lot more features and complexities, despite largely being the same size.

One such way that they are different is that Digimon have a battling system, and older ones, and subsequent rereleases of older ones (such as Heliotrope), can "dock" onto other digimon and battle against them. Depending on their wins and losses, your digimon might evolve differently. Of course, I only own one and I don't know anyone in my near vicinity that also owns a Digimon, so we'll be battling against the computer for this, at least unless I decide I want a second one.

Otherwise, it's pretty close to a tamagotchi! Three buttons, one for selecting, one for confirming, and one for canceling, also known as A, B, and C. You also have to feed, clean, and otherwise care for your digimon. There's even care mistakes!

But that's enough of background knowledge, let's go onto actually starting this thing!

First things first, since this is my first run, I have to pull the pull tab of the Digivice, "waking up" the digimon inside. Then I have to input the time, which will dictate when the digimon wakes up and goes to sleep. Since I'm trying to fix my sleep schedule, I'll be setting it to the current time, which is around 5pm.

I initially mixed up the buttons, and will continue to do so while I get used to the device, the top button is A, the middle button is B, while the bottom button is C. This seems easy to remember, but in practice, it's surprisingly easy to mix up. This isn't helped by the fact that pressing C when you're not in a menu will automatically open up the info page, and there's seemingly no quick way to back out of it.

User Error aside, the buttons are easy to push, and the sound is less ear scratching than the Tamas I'm used to. Quickly I realized that the "Strength" meter was just their replacement for the "Happiness" Meter for Digimons vs Tamas.

The first Digimon we got was Puttimon, and, after figuring out the training minigame, I got their strength up to 2 easily. Like all baby vpets, Puttimon's needs depleted quickly, but it seems that they evolved just as fast, into Tokomon:X. These appear to be the base Digimon that you get for the first two stages, so we'll likely be seeing a lot of them!

We also roll the XAI for the day, which is basically a die that determines what encounters we may come across for the day. Today it was a four.

Another thing I noticed is that there is no disipline option for Digimon, which is honestly a plus for me, I hate yelling at my pets! The screen also shuts off by itself after about a minute of inactivity, thus saving battery. You can easily wake it back up by pressing any button.

Digimon Name: Tokomon:X

Evolution Stage: 2

Care Mistakes: 0

Level: 1

Apologies for any poor camera work!

The front of Heliotrope!

...and the back!

As well as an image of Tokomon:X! Aren't they a cutie?

I am mainly referencing the manual made by Humulos, which is a lovely indepth resource for most Digivices! The particular manual I am referencing can be found here! Give them a looksie!

Date: 3/17/2024

Written By: Spencer

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