We picked our Digi-Egg, hatched it, fed it meat, and then watched it fight without us. That was our first two hours with DIGIMON UP. This DIGIMON UP review covers that window, because it is where most players decide to stay or delete. You will learn what the raising loop asks of you, and how Digivolution gates your progress. You will also see why the battles play themselves, and how early the monetization starts nudging. No nostalgia goggles, no hype.
Firstly, what is DIGIMON UP?
DIGIMON UP is Bandai Namco’s idle monster-raising RPG, and it launched globally on 15 July 2026 for Android and iOS. It is free to download, with in-app purchases and optional ads.
That genre label matters more than anything else in this DIGIMON UP review. This is not Digimon World, and it is not a pure virtual pet either. You raise one partner Digimon at a time, and the game runs most of the fighting for you. A lot of the frustration around launch came from people expecting the other two things.
The Play Store listing sits at 3.4 stars across more than 66,000 reviews, with over a million downloads. Those two numbers together tell you the shape of the thing. Plenty of people showed up, and plenty of them wanted something else.
Picking Your Partner Digi-Egg Is Mostly a Vibe Check
The first screen in DIGIMON UP hands you a wall of Digi-Eggs, and it feels like a huge decision. It isn’t, really.
There is no meaningful power gap between the starter Digimon, so pick the one you actually like looking at. You will be staring at that sprite for a long time. Our Guilmon pick was pure Tamers nostalgia, and nothing in the first two hours punished us for it.
Here are some of the lines you can commit to:
| Starter | Champion | Ultimate | Mega |
| Agumon | Greymon | MetalGreymon | WarGreymon |
| Gabumon | Garurumon | WereGarurumon | MetalGarurumon |
| Guilmon | Growlmon | WarGrowlmon | Gallantmon |
| Veemon | ExVeemon | Paildramon | Imperialdramon |
| Patamon | Angemon | MagnaAngemon | Seraphimon |
| Salamon | Gatomon | Angewomon | Magnadramon |
The real decision arrives a little later, and the game does not flag it loudly enough. When your partner hits Rookie, you choose a Battle Type: Attack, Defense, or SP. That pick shapes your active skill and your passive skills, and Champion then adds a sub-branch choice.
One more thing worth knowing before you commit. You cannot unlock a second partner until your first hits Level 99 and Mega form. Each extra partner after that costs 500 DigiEmeralds. So that “just a vibe check” egg is your companion for a very long while.
The DIGIMON UP Raising Loop: Meat, Training, and a Ticket Machine
This is where DIGIMON UP is at its most Digimon, and honestly, it is the part we enjoyed.
You run a small meat field, grow Digi meat on a timer, and harvest it to feed your partner. Feeding is not decoration. Every meal pushes your Eat Level, and those milestones hand out permanent stat bonuses. Individual meals can also roll temporary combat buffs.
Training is the other half. You tap through short minigames on a treadmill, a sandbag, and a dash course. The results boost stats and unlock nodes on a hex-shaped skill board.
Then there is the Hologram Device, which is really the engine of the whole game. You spend Hologram Tickets, and it churns out equipment, plugins, Tamer XP, and partner XP. Selling unwanted gear feeds the currency that upgrades it.
Honestly, those three systems sound like a lot, and for the first hour they feel like a lot. By hour two, we could see the shape underneath, and it is a checklist. Harvest, feed, train, burn tickets, claim, repeat. The game is generous with notification badges, and it never really lets the screen go quiet.
Digivolution Milestones in DIGIMON UP
Digivolution is your main power spike, and it is gated purely by level.
| Stage | Requirement |
| In-Training I | Hatch your Digi-Egg |
| In-Training II | Level 5 |
| Rookie | Level 10, plus Battle Type choice |
| Champion | Level 25, plus sub-branch choice |
| Ultimate | Level 65 |
| Mega | Level 90 |
| Second partner unlocked | Level 99 and Mega, then 500 DigiEmeralds |
Two hours got us comfortably past the early hops, and each one felt great. Your sprite changes, your numbers jump, and the next stage suddenly looks reachable. That loop is a genuinely good hook.
Battles in DIGIMON UP Play Themselves
We want to be blunt here, because this is the deciding factor for most people.
Your partner attacks on its own. Your support Digimon, up to five of them, also attack on their own. Your Skill Cards fire automatically too, although you can tap them manually if you want the illusion of input.
So combat is not a skill test. It is a power check. If your combat power clears the stage, you win. If it doesn’t, you head back to the menus and fix that. Battle Stages carry the main progression, and dungeons plus Tamer Battles sit alongside them for ranking and extra rewards.
For two hours, this was weirdly relaxing. We left it running, came back, and found more gear and more levels waiting. If you already like idle games, that sentence reads as a feature.
If you came here to call out attacks at the right moment, it reads as a warning. Nothing in the early game rewards your reflexes or your reads, and the game never pretends otherwise.
The Sprites Are Doing Enormous Work
DIGIMON UP looks lovely, and we don’t think that is up for debate.
The pixel art is detailed and expressive, and the idle animations have real personality. The roster runs deep enough to keep long-time fans scrolling. Your partner reacts when you feed it, and that small touch does more emotional work than any of the menus.
The nostalgia hooks are laid on thick too. Skill Cards lean on the old Digital Monster card game, and you can customise Digivices pulled from the anime. There is also a surprisingly large avatar wardrobe for your Tamer, with hairstyles, outfits, and accessories.
Battle backdrops are the weak point. The same few environments cycle through hundreds of automated fights, and that novelty fades fast.
Monetization: The Ads Are Optional, the Offers Are Not
Nothing blocked us in two hours, and we want to be fair about that. DIGIMON UP is playable without spending.
You get daily rewards, quest rewards, and summon tickets at a decent clip. There is also enough free premium currency to keep pulling on banners early. Ads are opt-in rather than forced, and you watch them to double or speed up rewards. A one-time purchase removes them entirely.
The pressure is structural instead. Multiple battle passes run at once, and several gacha banners compete for the same currency. Offer pop-ups stack around every milestone. Extra partners cost DigiEmeralds, so even collecting your favourites has a price tag attached.
None of it is predatory in the first two hours. It is just loud, and it never stops reminding you that patience and money are interchangeable here.
Who DIGIMON UP Is Actually For?
Play it if:
- You like idle games, and you want a five to ten minute daily check-in with real progression.
- You want to raise a specific Digimon from egg to Mega, and the journey itself is the reward.
- You care about sprite art, Digivices, and card game references more than combat depth.
Skip if:
- You want to control your Digimon in battle, because you never will.
- You want a story campaign through the Digital World, since the narrative here is very thin.
- You dislike menu-heavy games where progress means managing systems rather than playing them.
DIGIMON UP Review Verdict: A Lovely Shell Around a Simple Loop
After two hours, our read is that DIGIMON UP is a competent idle RPG wearing an outstanding Digimon costume. The raising systems are charming, the Digivolution spikes land, and the sprite work carries the rest.
The problem is what sits underneath. Strip away the meat field and the sprites, and you have a power-number treadmill where battles resolve themselves. Whether that bothers you depends entirely on which game you thought you were downloading.
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