Digimon World: Dawn is an 2D role playing game played from a bird's-eye perspective. A strange virus is attacking the Digiworld reverting Digimon back to egg form and causing damage to the city and access zones of the Sunshine district. The Light Fang team from the Sunshine district believes the Night Crow team from the Dark Moon district to be responsible for the chaos. Digimon World: Dawn was released alongside Digimon World: Dusk Both games share the same plot and have parallel story-lines.

In the game the player assumes the role of a tamer from the Light Fang team. Over 350 Digimon can be raised, trained and evolved. At the start of the game the player has to select a gender. Rare Digimon can be created together with another player who owns Digimon World: Dawn’s counterpart Digimon World: Dusk.