Thoughts on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Ahh the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Spin-off series.
In case you are not Really into Gaming terms. A Spin-off is basically an Excuse for the Developers to make a Game in a series that's not like the Main Series in many different ways(Usually different in Gameplay).
An Example of a Spin-off is games like Mario Kart.
There are Rare Examples of a Spin-off Being More Popular then the series it is Supposed to be a Spin-off of. Like the Case of the Persona series.
But today I want to say my Thoughts on one Spin-off Series, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series.
This spin-off series were developed by Chunsoft, who Merged with Spike to Form Spike Chunsoft. If that Name Sounds familiar, they are the company that made the Danganronpa Visual Novel Series.
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sub-Series Currently has 4 Games(Technically 7 is you count different Versions of the same game). And I have Played all of them(Not Counting the different Versions)
So, What Did I think of these games?
Personally, I really Like them, These Games has what the Main Series Lacked at the Time, An Engaging Story with Relatable Characters. The Story in these games is more of what you would Expect from a JRPG, usually a Duo of Heroes setting out to save the world.
Each Mystery Dungeon game Usually has the Same Story Formula, But they add new elements to make it interesting.
In Each Game, you have our Protagonist, Who used to be Human but by Mysterious Reasons, was Turned into a Pokemon and Sent into a World Filled with nothing but Pokemon.
Then we also have the Partner, a Friend that the Player Meets, who has their own Noble goal. In the First game, the Partner wants to be a Part of a Rescue team, in the Second game, the Partner wants to be an Explorer, in the Third, the Partner wants to make a Perfect Paradise, In the Fourth game, The Partner wants to Solve Problems in the World.
While there are many Cliches here, some are not that noticeable. and I Really like for fourth Game for trying to break these Cliches, Especially the Ending.
Most Endings in these games End with a Tear Jerker. Which I REFUSE to Spoil.
So my Opinions on these games.
Rescue Team: Alright, not the best game as some say
Explorers: Pretty Good, not the best one in the series to me, but still pretty good
Gates to Infinity: Definitely the Worst in the Series, it's Not a "Bad" game. But it's not Amazing
Super Mystery Dungeon: The best one in my Opinion.
Overall, I REALLY like this Sub-Series, While I dont like it as much as the main series, It is definitely a Game Series I Replay often.
Thats about it.
Ouch! Not having played many of the others I can't really refute that. It is fun to play, though.
You left out some of the technical details which were what actually drew me to this series. For instance, the entire Mystery Dungeon series is Rogue-like in their use of randomized dungeons, multiple floors, with difficulty of the floor being scaled up the further you go. (Some feature perma-death or death related penalties, but this one doesn't, or they were really minor, I forget). I stumbled over the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon stuff because I had been playing Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer and really needed a new Rogue-like to play because here I was using my New 3DS to play an ancient DS game. They are also largely single player. You can "summon help", but you're pretty much on your own. There's also a sort of limited multiplayer mode for some of them, but I never had a chance to try it out.
I skipped Super Mystery Dungeon because it dropped the customization that I liked in Gates to Infinity, ironically, I dropped it for features having nothing to do with the Rogue-like genre that brought me to Gates to Infinity to begin with. Once I beat Gates to Infinity, the only thing keeping me playing was that I hadn't unlocked all of the areas for customization. So I would do more dungeon runs, get more pieces, and unlock more areas for development. But then I managed to get them all, and there didn't seem to be anything left to do.
Out of curiosity, why do you capitalize words seemingly at random? It makes the article harder for me to read, but that's probably just because I'm slow. You don't need to change it or anything, I'm just curious why it is you do it.
Ok yea, capitalizing random words is just a personal issue that i'm trying to work out.
I know it's a little jarring. I am doing a better job at doing that less
I didn't really cover the technical side because I personally don't like Writing the technical sides of most games, if it's a game im writing a guide for like my Weekly TF2 stuff, then yea I'll go into the technical side. but for a game I'll Probably only talk about once. I wont go into the Technical stuff, this isn't a review.
Yea, Gates to Infinity was the worst one to me, In terms of story and available Pokemon. When Compared to the other PMD games the story was rather weak and filled with cliches.
The available roster of Pokemon in this one is the smallest in the series, even the starters you can be are the 3 Generation 5 Starters + Axew and Pikachu.
And the only Legendaries you can recruit are Virizion and Keldeo? Yea you can fight the other Legendaries, but you cannot Recruit them. Oh well.
Yea the Customization was Great, and I wish they bring it back.
How is the replay-ability of Super Mystery Dungeon? In Shiren the Wanderer, they kept opening up newer harder specialized dungeons, or I assume they kept opening them up, I never made it all the way through the cooking dungeon nor did I solve the puzzle dungeon all the way... I suppose those are poor examples if you never played the old DS title, but in Gates to Infinity I don't recall much from the story after the first run through, so other than customizing your own personal paradise, I don't recall there being anything else to keep bringing me back.
Once the Main story is complete, there is a Post Story, then after the Post story, more Difficult Dungeons Open up, Including Boss Fights with Almost every Legendary, and Once you beat a Legendary You can PLAY as them (Granted Because of how Super Mystery Works Each Pokemon that is not you or your partner has a Cooldown Timer after using them)
The Last Dungeon in the Entire Post-Game Requires you to have to have Every Pokemon Playable, Except for 1, You Also need to be at Max Rank too. The Final Dungeon is 99 Floors, and you are Forced to Change Teams every 5 Floors or so. And you cant Save Between Floors Unless you got the inventory Space for the Save Device Item.
Your reward for beating this Difficult 99 Floor Dungeon is you become Allies with Arceus, The God of the Pokemon World. And Arceus will also be Playable too.
There is a ton of Post-game Content in Super, so the Replay-ability is Pretty Decent, Which is something I appreciate.