Digi Colosseum: From Bronze to Legend

Of all the things that happened in the Digimon Story series while it was on the Nintendo DS that made me happy when playing them, my favorite is the sense of connection between the works and above all else, the characters. No one was an "unknown" there, everyone knew about everyone and everyone commented on the great achievements and heroic acts of the other heroes.

Digimon Story Super Xros Wars, however, is more of a stand-alone story that doesn't connect with any of the previous games during its main story. However, after you defeat the main boss, you unlock the Digi Colosseum and finally, the game shows that aspect of the games that I mentioned. Taiki isn't just one hero in the Digital World, alone and without anyone like him. There's this entire important place totally dedicated to the heroes that appeared before Taiki, and now Taiki is going to see them, learn with them, and finally, recieve their blessing before he returns to his adventure in order to save the Digital World as the new hero.

Since I never saw anyone commenting on any of this before, I'm here sharing what happens in the Digi Colosseum event in the Digimon Story Super Xros Wars games.

The Colosseum

Right after you defeat Omega Armamon Burst Mode, you unlock the access to the Digi Colosseum. This is what is said when you first unlock it.

Spadamon: Hey Taiki, this is big news! The portal there is connected to the Digi Colosseum.

Taiki: Digi Colosseum ?

Spadamon: It's a battle stage in the Colosseum Zone. It's said that the portal only appears in a peaceful zone... It hasn't appeared in the LS-tou Zone since a long time, but thanks to Taiki it became a peaceful place!

Taiki: Oh ! That's amazing! What can we do ?

Spadamon: Fight the heroes who have saved the Digital World! It has a rank system where you can test your strength. As your rank goes up you gain titles and items! There are items that you can only get there! Let's go there, I can't just stand here!

After you enter that, there'll be a Lucemon waiting for Taiki in the Digi Colosseum and more on the backstory of the place is explained.

Lucemon: Welcome to the Digi Colosseum!

Taiki: Here is the Digi Colosseum ?

Lucemon: Yes, that's right! This is the Digi Colosseum! It's a venerable place with a lot of history! It's always in the center of the Digital World... far beyond time and space! This is the legendary Digi Colosseum!

Taiki: That is so amazing, I didn't know about it…

Lucemon: The Digi Colosseum will be destroyed at the same time as the Digital World... it's said that the Digi Colosseum... is, in a sense, the Digital World itself. And only chosen Digimon can enter here!

Taiki: Oh!? I understand... but as you can see, I'm not a Digimon.

Lucemon: You are someone who supports Digimon in their fight, aren't you? Team Leader, Tamer, Breeder, General, etc. There are many ways to call that. Of course, those people are great!

The last lines that I put here were the ones that made me first notice how special this place was going to be as Lucemon recognizes the various names that were used by the heroes of the Digital World, all different ways to say the same thing.

You can talk again with Lucemon, now he'll say what are the rumors about Taiki and why he expects to see Taiki going higher and higher in the tournament.

Lucemon: I've heard rumors about you for some time… A human that came to help a Weapon Digimon who lost their memory, all the way from other Zones, to help someone unknown. It seems that the Weapon Digimon has recovered brilliantly. You have the power to train Digimon and make them grow. Your team will definitely win the tournament.

You can talk with other Digimon in the Digi Colosseum, most of the time they are watchers for the tournament, each of them having different expectations for you in the tournament. Some of them know you as the new hero of the Digital World, while others aren't sure if you are good enough to the tournament. Among the Digimon there's an Alphamon that is a die-hard Sayo fan. There's a Justimon that hopes that Taiki does well as he expects Taiki to be an ally of justice. And there's a Lilymon that in fact already met with Taiki before, but didn't expect to find him there in the Digi Colosseum. As you win the battles they will ultimately start to cheer for you until you win the tournament.

In the reward counter you can find a Darkdramon that will be the one to give you rewards as you win the various stages of the tournament. He calls Taiki by name, something that stranges him. Darkdramon introduces the Digi Colosseum again calling it the core of the Digital World, and as this is the place for the young chosen ones who help to shape the future of the Digital World, as long as one of them is strong enough to get to the Digi Colosseum, then Darkdramon needs to know everything about them. Their names, looks, pérsonality, partners, hobbies, skills, peculiarities, how they sleep, things that they like or dislike, etc. It's safe to say that Darkdramon knows everything about them.. Of course, Taiki thinks that is scary.

Still in the same place you'll find a Minomon that is the one behind the DWM Tournament Entry Counter. DWM means “Digital World Master” and is a standard for measuring the fighting power of Digimon. Their ranks are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Legend. Different from the previous games that call them "Tamer Ranks", this time they are called "Master Ranks". Each stage of the Tournament has Taiki needing to defeat one of the "Battle Masters" of the ranks in order to become a new Master.

Bronze Master

After being accepted in the DWM Tournament you need to go to one of the portals where you'll finally enter the Battle Stage and find the Referee that appeared in previous Digimon Story games.

The Referee will always first introduce Taiki as the General of the Xros Heart and is the Challenger here. After that he introduces the Battle Master, in this case he introduces it as "A shadowy creature that you should be familiar with from Digimon Story! A mad scientist in a white lab coat! He's the one who brings children to the Digital World one after another! He's the Bronze Battle Master who leads Team Chrono! Mr. Kogure!"

As explained here, Kogure is the scientist that appears in the first Story game and is the one who brought that game's protagonist to the Digital World. He would later appear in the sequel games, Sunburst and Moonlight, but in a much younger body.

Kogure says that he has been fighting in the Digi Colosseum since the days it was created and he remembers all of the battles, so of course he expects Taiki to give him a good battle. In the end Taiki wins and is now considered a Bronze Master. Before returning to his place, Kogure says to Taiki to never forget the "one thing that really matters… It's not about what rank you get, it's about how you get there... It's about what you do with it once you have it.". Taiki says he'll do his best and Kogure says that it seemed that there was no reason to be worried that Taiki was going to do something bad.

Silver Master

The battle for the Silver Rank now has one of the heroes from the previous game, it's "a young and strong man ! The hero of Sunshine City that shines brightly! Battle Master Koh, and the team “Sunburst”!".

With Koh he doesn't consider himself as a master, and always takes himself to be a challenger. He just wants to make Taiki do his best and show a "burning soul" like himself. This of course makes sense with what Lucemon says later after you defeat Koh saying that "Most people who do their best can become Silver Masters. That is, it’s the level you can reach just by doing your very best."

Gold Master

Here the Referee already mentions you should already know who the Gold Master is "If you saw the Silver Master, you should already know who she is! The Cool Beauty of Dark Moon CITY! Battle Master Sayo and the team Moonlight!"

Sayo goes in the opposite direction as Koh, while he is a pure burning soul that is doing the best that he can, Sayo is more controlled, although he looks calm on the outside, it's not wrong to say that her soul is burning without anyone being able to notice.

Sayo does recognize Taiki from rumors, it seems that the Digi Xros isn't something that the past heroes aren't aware of, as she says "So you're General Taiki, I've heard rumors of a new generation that uses a technique called Digi Xross.".

Taiki also knows who Sayo is "I've also heard about you Battle Master Sayo, the most popular master in the Digi Colosseum." The Referee does state that the way that these two teams fight are opposite to each other, as such you can expect that their fight was a bit of a challenge for them.

However, as Sayo is defeated by Taiki, she says "You're a Gold Master now, General Taiki, you're among a handful of people in the Digital World, but now you've got a lot of responsibilities with that, don’t you ? Be prepared for that" and then the Referee says "The digital world is finally going through a generational change ?! Team Xros Heart has defeated the two big teams, Sunburst and Moonlight, one after the other! How far will General Taiki's determination take him? I can't wait for the next battle! See you next time!!"

I really liked that they mentioned this as a change in the generations of the heroes of the Digital World. In the past Sayo, and Koh were the ones who saved the world, but now Taiki is the new hero and is being recognized by the past heroes for his deeds.

Platinum Master

The Bronze rank was decided by a scientist that helped the hero of the first game, the Silver and Gold ranks were given by the heroes of the second game, but now for the Platinum rank, it's time for the "villains".

As the Referee says "And the returning Battle Master is, uh… In a sense, he’s a legendary person! A Super Digital Being built in Yggdrasil! Captain Uno! And he’s leading… A team that was once known as the strongest of the Digital World, the “Bandits”!".

The Bandits were originally seen as villains in the previous game, Lost Evolution, but in the end they helped the heroes to defeat the game's true villain, Kernel. Lost Evolution was also the game that finally solidified the setting and worldview of the Story games, after the first two introduced it, and both the Bandits and Kernel were important for it.

However, Uno doesn't seem to be happy with needing to fight at the Digi Colosseum again, something that you can understand after all the confusion that a Tournament there caused in the previous game. However he does fight against Taiki and is defeated.

After that each Professor Dos and Princess Tres from the same group appeared. It seems that they needed to be working somewhere else, and this fight was basically an excuse so they don't need to work. However Tres isn't happy with that, as they were supposed to deal with the problem of Kernel, which has escaped the Archive, and now they need to do something about it. She tried to erase Kernel, but it seems that he simply reboots and returns everytime she does that.

After being defeated again, they decide to use their true powers and merge into Ex-Eraser Ω, something that makes the Referee very happy because he was only able to see this monster one time before in the Digi Colosseum, so seeing them becoming that again was something he wante

However this wasn't enough to make Taiki give up, as he still believed that the bond between the Xros Heart and their own fusion could defeat the Bandits' fusion. And this does remind them of their previous encounters with other heroes, for them it was as if "The Digital World is full of people like him".

After the battle with Taiki defeating the Ex-Eraser, they finally accept defeat and now Taiki is a Platinum Master. Taiki thanks them for the chance to fight against the veterans of the Digi Colosseum, but this is still only one rank lower than the maximum one.

Legend Master

This one was in fact a surprise, even for the Referee. Legend Rank battles aren't something that common on the Digi Colosseum, and the members of this class are a mystery even for him. Something that makes sense for what is considered to be a legendary being... and that legendary being that Taiki will fight against is... Koromon. A legend that has reappeared in the Digital World.

"Koromon?" This is something that even Taiki wonders about. The Referee asks what their team is, and the name is "Immortal Brave". It's an "All-Star" team made from the refined data of rivals, heroes, dreams and legends that have appeared and disappeared from the Digital World, all the way from the past up to the present.

But still... Koromon ? However, Taiki does recall something. There's a Koromon that really can be considered a legendary being. He heard legends about a Koromon that can be said to be the one that made Digimon to be known by humans in the first place. One that appeared once as a small fluffy black Digimon and grew up until it became a gigant. Yes, that Koromon could be one that is said to be a legend.

But... Is that Koromon, the Koromon of the legends ? The Referee is happy seeing that Taiki does know about the legends of the Digital World, it seems that they didn't die and heroes of today do know about the heroes of the past. Yet that legendary Koromon was just one of the various shining stars at the Immortal Brave team, and the ultimate battle for the DWM Tournament starts.

Finally after 5 rounds, against legendary beings from the past to DigiXrosses of the present, Taiki won against Koromon. Right now Taiki defeated all the past heroes. But this isn't something that is bad for Koromon. The Digital World needs this change in generations. The reason why Taiki can be a hero in the present and save the world is because Koromon and all the other heroes saved it before, it's because they are legends, that they allowed Taiki the chance of being one as well.

But of course, right now Taiki doesn't see himself as a legend, but he does promise for all the legends there, that he'll continue to fight and protect the Digital World, following their path. He'll be the hero of the world, just like the others once were.

Although Digimon Story Super Xros Wars starts more as its own thing, that you can play without knowing a lot about Digimon, this final mission, the fight at the Digi Colosseum, is for me, a beautiful way to end the series paying respect to everything that happened before. I can't believe that this was in this game and no one knew, or at least talked, about it. I hope that this helped more people to know about this event and that you liked it as much as I did.