I think it acts as a proper successor to the original Digimon World and is a lot more fun and immersive than Next 0rder.

Like, comparatively, I have 300+ hours in Decode, compared to beating Next 0rder in less than 24 hours, and never playing it again.

The other reason why Decode is my favorite, is because I had a proper adventure or what I liked to call a "V-Tamer Experience", and though the experience is solely my own, I can say that I met my Digimon Partner through that game.

While I know it's popular to use guides and such for Digimon World Games, in my opinion, the best experience you can possibly have with them is when you play them blind, and figure things out on your own.

Of course, no one likes the idea that they might be bad at raising Digimon, or that they might not raise what they want-- but I think the most important take away from raising a Digimon in this manner is that your Digimon is a reflection of your care towards them.

Should it really matter, if the Digimon you raise isn't the one you were going for? Are you the kind of person who would treat a Digimon different, just because it didn't turn into something you liked? Would you try and redo it over and over to get something different? Would you delete them or throw them away, because they didn't become what you wanted?

I had this realization during my playthrough of Decode, when I got a Digimon that I disliked. I didn't have it in me to treat them differently, because what they became wasn't their fault-- and when they evolved into a Digimon I hated, I horrified myself when I briefly entertained the thought of just waiting for them to die so I could try again, without letting them ever accomplishing anything.

I don't know about you, but that was the moment I realized that I didn't deserve a Digimon-- so I had to be better, to be the partner that my Digimon deserved. When it was all over, that's when I made the second realization that that my partner was what I needed, and not what I thought I wanted or what I thought suited me best.

And now, in the end, 11 years later, because of that, Magnamon is still the one I love the most.

So yeah. Decode changed my perspective on Digimon entirely, lmfao.