VPets, Tamagotchi, Digimon, Oh My!

[vurrsys]

VPet thread!! Yay!!

I had a big v-pet hyperfixation that's mostly died down, but I still wanted to make this thread for discussion, because there's so much to love about them!

What is a vpet? VPet stands for "virtual pet", and usually refers to LCD devices where you take care of a, well, virtual pet! There's a focus on raising, taking care of, and keeping your pet alive. The most popular examples of these are Tamagotchi and Digimon, but there's many more niche ones. I'm mostly a Tamagotchi fan, but I also like the Pokewalker and Pocket Pikachu.

As a conversation starter: what vpets do/did you own? Whats the most interesting vpet to you?

I own 4 vpets right now: A Tamagotchi Connection V4, a Tamagotchi 4U, a Tamagotchi Uni, and a Pokewalker. Admittedly, I struggled to take care of any of my vpets (save for the Pokewalker) since the system didn't really care about them like I did xP.


One of the most interesting vpets to me is the Japan-exclusive Mothra Tamagotchi, due to the 20+ year mystery of how to unlock one of the secret characters.



This is the Mothra growth chart: All you need to know is the characters on the righthand side are all secret characters. Moru & Mora (anglicized as Moll and Lora), in 26 years, had not been raised by a single person. Iirc, not even a single person had a picture until a year or two ago where a glitch caused the character to be unlocked. Not far after, the Tamagotchi's ROM was dumped and people started to look under the hood to see what on Earth would unlock the character.

An Internet user named Rhubarb Pie was the one to crack the case: To unlock Moll and Lora, you have to make 0 mistakes and have the previous stage's weight maintained between 70-79 tons for 80 Waking Hours. This is, if you don't know, a fairly long time for a single evolution, especially one after the final stage. You then have to make mistakes until the Tamagotchi dies, and only then will it evolve until Moll & Lora.

That's not all that was found by searching the ROM, however: There is an even more secret character, not mentioned or discovered at all until then. If you do the process to unlock Moll & Lora five times in a row, on the fifth attempt it will instead evolve into the community-named Lucky_Haka-Kun, which looks like the gravestone seen in the Mothra Tamagotchi's death screen. This entire process takes more than 17 days of perfect care.

It's so interesting, cause it opens up the possibility of other secrets like this in older Tamagotchi!! I hope you enjoyed learning a little about it :P

[Enbyeon]

I owned a few of these as a pet, I believe only the first one was an actual tamagotchi and all the other ones were bootleg or off-brand. The most fascinating one was the Mickey Mouse virtual pet, because I could never get him to enlist into college and he could also very clearly die if you didn't treat him well.

Attached images of each (not my photos):

[NovaSquirrel]

My first virtual pet was a Tamagotchi Connection V1, then I got a V2 and V3 and I kind of fell off from it for awhile. Somewhere in there I also got the Game Boy Tamagotchi game, a "Digi Pet", played with Neopets, and got the Miuchiz virtual pet, which has a cool gimmick of being able to plug it into a computer and play as your pet in an online game. I got back into it for a bit as an adult after my partner discovered that Tamagotchi helps a lot with her anxiety (giving her something she can continually check on that's a lot healthier than scrolling through Tumblr) and now I have wayyy too many haha.

I'm currently running the Connection V2, V4 and V4.5 and I love how the V4 and V4.5 have so much to do and explore. I have previously gone through an entire Osutchi/Mesutchi run which took way too long.

I took a photo of a bunch of mine, though it's missing some obscure stuff and most of my Digimon. There's my V2, V4, V4.5 in here, but also Pix and several Japanese ones. I've mostly been leaving the Connection V3 rereleases in the boxes but I've been collecting them somewhat. My favorite shell is strawberry yogurt.

[pumpkinlumpin]

Had both a tamagochi and some Neopet sort of imitation when I was a kid, though it's been long enough that I wouldn't be able to pinpoint exactly which variations they might've been. But I've actually gotten into these again recently with the release of the Monster Hunter 20th Edition x Digimon Color. As a sucker for both franchises, well.

Hidden text.

Of course I had to get one.

It's been a neat toy to check in on, and a bit eye-opening on how close the original Digimon World for PS1 (and some later entries) stuck to the vpet formula. Like other Digital Monster vpets, your main factors are: training, care/mistakes, battling and your critter's win ratio. The majority of the guys you raise here are monsters from the Monster Hunter series, though there are two special fusion critters you can obtain by raising all of a specific species and meeting battle/win conditions. In comparison to some other Digital Monster items this ultimately seems more simple mechanics-wise, but that makes it a not terrible entry point.

Naturally, tinkering with this has made me curious about other Digimon vpets out there, but uh. Wowie. Several are expensive. You're better off hoping for a re-release than wanting to obtain some of these guys secondhand.


EDIT: wait holy cow this is just now hitting me

One of the most interesting vpets to me is the Japan-exclusive Mothra Tamagotchi, due to the 20+ year mystery of how to unlock one of the secret characters. (...)

Eighty hours!? This is an over twenty-five year old device, so potentially before more modern ones started adding a suspend function? That's an absolutely wild amount of dedication to think about either way. That's so cool!!

[Toxmo]

I wanted to reply to this thread so bad yesterday but i've been so busy with a new job and a bunch of other stuff
My collection!

Hidden text.

it's a bit under constructions right now, I cleared out the right corner to get some more risers and need to install a shelf on the wall next to it to place a few more things.

The Mothra tamagotchi is one of my favourites, it's so charming, I'm a sucker for the older simpler ones. Connection V2 is also a favourite of mine since it has such a huge roster.

But I've actually gotten into these again recently with the release of the Monster Hunter 20th Edition x Digimon Color. As a sucker for both franchises, well.

I got this one too! I think it's pretty fun but compared to other digimon pets they grow insanely fast and take any opportunity to drop dead immediately after fully grown. The evolutions are also very linear by comparison. I like mine a lot but it's definitely a bit of a slightly different experience than other digimon vpets.
digimon are indeed expensive these days. All the recent releases are preorder only on Bandai premium store so the aftermarket price goes crazy. The standard price is already too high to start with imo.

[gardevoir]

But I've actually gotten into these again recently with the release of the Monster Hunter 20th Edition x Digimon Color. As a sucker for both franchises, well.

Of course I had to get one.

Wooooah, that's so cute!

[mircatz]

hi all!! i was just thinking of making a vpets thread!!!

i have dipped my toes into tamagotchis when i was younger but only because of my latest digimon hyperfixation have i really dived into vpets! i ordered myself a DMX and also the monster hunter collab DMC and constantly refreshing my tracking page xD

i couldn't wait any longer so i got myself a vital hero as well!! it's been SUPER fun so far, sad they are ending support just as i was getting into them. my first baby turned into a monochromon sadly (banished to item farming ) so hopefully this time around i'll get to skullgreymon (one of my faves) >:3