What's a "Moral Compass Cricket Thingy"?

[Maniakkid25]

That game existed; it's called Digimon World 1. Granted, when the Digimon died, you also got sent back to the area, and Digimon would eventually die from age, but that's the core loop of the game: explore the world, fight a boss, recruit villagers, figure out the mystery of the world. Alternatively, if you want to relive Digimon Adventure, there's a PSP game that's literally just that. Sure, it was Japan-only, but Fan Translations do exist.

Oh, so in that case were you thinking of something different to what I thought in regards to Digimon using the core gameplay loop of Pokémon?

No, I was talking about the gameplay loop you wanted out if Digimon. The loop you identify in pokemon is the correct core gameplay loop, and basically what happens in the Digimon Story series (Digimon World DS, Dawn/Dusk, and Cyber Sleuth. There are others, but I don't think they made it out of Japan). It took them a decade of video games before they finally found a decent formula. It's just the formula you mentioned (open-world adventure) I could immediately identify in a Digimon World game, hence bringing it up.