Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

[Vanilla]

So I've never actually played any games in this series whatsoever, but CEX was offering copies of Red & Blue Rescue Team for reasonable prices. I enjoyed Touhou: Genso Wanderer and was told that these games are essentially in the same vein as that. I love Pokémon. I love dungeon crawlers. It seems like a match made in heaven. 

Noticing that there wasn't a specific thread for these games aside from Super Mystery Dungeon's, I was wondering would it be alright to get a spoiler-free discussion going while I wait for the games to arrive? Heard they're meant to be pretty damn good.

[Julius]

9 minutes ago, Vanilla said:

So I've never actually played any games in this series whatsoever, but CEX was offering copies of Red & Blue Rescue Team for reasonable prices. I enjoyed Touhou: Genso Wanderer and was told that these games are essentially in the same vein as that. I love Pokémon. I love dungeon crawlers. It seems like a match made in heaven. 

Noticing that there wasn't a specific thread for these games aside from Super Mystery Dungeon's, I was wondering would it be alright to get a spoiler-free discussion going while I wait for the games to arrive? Heard they're meant to be pretty damn good.

Don't think I've seen you around here before, so a belated warm welcome to the forums! 

Onto the topic at hand: I've only played Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Time/Sky (a few times each), but to sum it all up: easily the best stories told in the Pokémon franchise. I was quite young when I first played them, and maybe because of that, they've probably had the most profound impact on my everyday life of all of the video games that I've experienced. 

Great music, excellent casts of charming characters, and wonderfully crafted stories make it a series well worth getting into. 

I think I know someone else that might happen to like these games...

I choose you, @Glen-i! 

[Glen-i]

13 hours ago, Julius said:

I think I know someone else that might happen to like these games...

I choose you, @Glen-i! 

My heart stopped for a moment when I checked the site and saw you mention me in this thread. You see, the pop-up notification on mobiles cuts off the end of the thread name. So all I saw was "Pokèmon Mystery..."

So yeah, thanks that pre-breakfast excitement.

13 hours ago, Vanilla said:

So I've never actually played any games in this series whatsoever, but CEX was offering copies of Red & Blue Rescue Team for reasonable prices. I enjoyed Touhou: Genso Wanderer and was told that these games are essentially in the same vein as that. I love Pokémon. I love dungeon crawlers. It seems like a match made in heaven. 

I never did say hello to you, did I? Sorry about that. Hi, welcome to N-Europe.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is quite frankly my favourite gaming series. I've played almost all of them (One of the 5 entries is a Japanese only WiiWare Title).

That bolded part there is pretty much a massive positive to try the game out. While PMD is made by a different company (Chunsoft), the basic gameplay is fundamentally the same. But with a Pokémon flair, of course.

@Julius is right when it comes to the stories of these games. They're unlike anything you've seen in Pokèmon games. The whole premise revolves around the basis of "Everyone's a Pokémon so everyone speaks English". Which allows the series to add a lot of character to the Pokémon they feature.

The best part about the stories though is the subject matter. I won't go into specifics, of course. But I believe @Julius once described it as "mature". Not in a sweary, violent sort of way, mind you, it is still Pokémon, after all. Power of Friendship is probably going to be the most important thing. But the series can have some unnerving undertones that can catch people off guard, given the series. It's why I love it, though.

Although, do keep in mind that PMD games are pretty notorious for having slow burning plots. The story arc doesn't tend to kick off until you're about a third of the way to the credits. But once it gets going, it doesn't stop until then.

As for the gameplay, you're already somewhat familiar with it, as I mentioned. While there are definitely harder dungeon crawlers out there, PMD tends to be pretty hard compared to other Pokémon games. Preparation is just as important as the dungeon exploration, and the randomised dungeons mean you need to keep on your toes, lest you run into some bad luck and get battered. But I know you're a fan of Etrian Odyssey, so you can definitely handle PMD.

Red and Blue Rescue Team are great games to dip your toe in. They're certainly not my favourite and being Gen 3 games, some mechanics might feel a bit outdated after playing Pokémon Sun/Moon, but the main plot is not too long and it's easier than later games. I assume you have a 3DS, so go with Blue Rescue Team. Red and Blue are essentially the same game except for a handful of differing Pokémon. But Blue Rescue Team uses the DS features for some Quality of Life improvements, slight visual upgrades, and better audio.

EDIT: Just noticed you've already ordered them. Red Rescue Team is a tad redundant when you've got Blue Rescue Team, but hey, at least you can stack Blue on top of Red and marvel at the gorgeous and clever artwork!

It sounds like you're the kind of player who would get a kick out of it and if you do enjoy it, well, there's three more entries that you can play on the 3DS.

But I will give you one piece of advice: Don't mess with the Kecleon, because the Kecleon don't play nice.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Glen-i

[Dcubed]

Hi and welcome to the forums Vanilla!

 

Yeah, B/R Rescue Team is the best place to start.  They're short n' sweet and not as complex as the later games in the series; and they're really the perfect introduction into the series, you'll get a good idea of why they're so beloved!

 

As far as roguelikes go? They're amongst the most approachable roguelikes out there, with no permadeath in place and a relatively lenient punishment for dying (you only lose some of your items, not all of them).  That's not to say that they're easy... because they're not! But they also aren't as unforgiving as the likes of Shiren the Wanderer.

 

The way they meld roguelike gameplay with the Pokemon mechanics is also brilliant! It works incredibly well!

 

And of course, the stories and music are utterly brilliant.  Get past the slow start and you'll be hooked!

Edited March 18, 2019 by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

8 hours ago, Dcubed said:

As far as roguelikes go? They're amongst the most approachable roguelikes out there, with no permadeath in place and a relatively lenient punishment for dying (you only lose some of your items, not all of them).  That's not to say that they're easy... because they're not! But they also aren't as unforgiving as the likes of Shiren the Wanderer.

While that's the case for most of them, Blue/Red Rescue Team does actually make you lose everything you're carrying.

[Vanilla]

Ah jeez. Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! I'd normally quote you all, but that'd probably make this post a formatting mess. ^^;

The reasoning behind getting both Blue and Red Rescue Team is mostly because seeing a boxed copy of a GBA game for £12 was just too tempting to pass up. I think I'll still be playing the DS version, but I am a collector at heart. If I like it enough and it comes to getting either Darkness, Time or Sky, I'd say I'll get the latter seeing as people say it's the holy grail third version for Gen 4 PMD. 

Apparently the fandom is pretty mixed on every game past Sky? Maybe you guys would know best about that, but I'll keep an open-mind for the time being. No sense denouncing extra content before I get a chance to see it. 

Not too worried about the slow-burning plot. Etrian Odyssey never really gets a story until the final main dungeon. lol. Plus reading VNs helps to build patience towards a sluggish narrative. Mature tones sounds good, though! Can't wait to see what's in store. 

I'm assuming Kecleon is the shop keeper? I ain't shook. In Genso Wanderer, most attempts at stealing are met with an omnipotent and extremely judgmental girl* smiting you on the spot.

 

*She's literally a Judge. That's her character trope. See, I made a funny.  

[Glen-i]

5 minutes ago, Vanilla said:

Apparently the fandom is pretty mixed on every game past Sky? Maybe you guys would know best about that, but I'll keep an open-mind for the time being. No sense denouncing extra content before I get a chance to see it. 

 

I'm assuming Kecleon is the shop keeper? I ain't shook. In Genso Wanderer, most attempts at stealing are met with an omnipotent and extremely judgmental girl* smiting you on the spot.

Ah yes, the third entry, Gates to Infinity. That game ran into a few problems in it's development.

It's certainly not bad, but it suffers from some problematic design choices, a severe lack of Pokèmon and after following the lofty heights of Explorers of Sky, it garnered a lot of criticism.

I still enjoyed it, but I would not recommend that unless you really enjoy the series and want to get more.

Super Mystery Dungeon on the other hand is my favourite PMD. (Although Sky has a better story) It fixes all the problems the previous game had and shakes up the method of recruiting Pokémon into a kind of side quest bonanza. The game is easily the hardest one though, so I would never recommend it to newcomers.

Anyway, yes, Kecleon is the shop keeper, I have no idea why they chose one of the weakest Pokémon from Gen 3 to play the role of God of Merchants, but I'm not complaining.

The cool difference with Kecleon is people who have way too much time on their hands can actually recruit one. And it's just as strong as when you fight one! Of course, by that point, you've probably done everything in the game...

[Dcubed]

25 minutes ago, Vanilla said:

Ah jeez. Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! I'd normally quote you all, but that'd probably make this post a formatting mess. ^^;

The reasoning behind getting both Blue and Red Rescue Team is mostly because seeing a boxed copy of a GBA game for £12 was just too tempting to pass up. I think I'll still be playing the DS version, but I am a collector at heart. If I like it enough and it comes to getting either Darkness, Time or Sky, I'd say I'll get the latter seeing as people say it's the holy grail third version for Gen 4 PMD. 

Apparently the fandom is pretty mixed on every game past Sky? Maybe you guys would know best about that, but I'll keep an open-mind for the time being. No sense denouncing extra content before I get a chance to see it. 

Not too worried about the slow-burning plot. Etrian Odyssey never really gets a story until the final main dungeon. lol. Plus reading VNs helps to build patience towards a sluggish narrative. Mature tones sounds good, though! Can't wait to see what's in store. 

I'm assuming Kecleon is the shop keeper? I ain't shook. In Genso Wanderer, most attempts at stealing are met with an omnipotent and extremely judgmental girl* smiting you on the spot.

 

*She's literally a Judge. That's her character trope. See, I made a funny.  

Most agree that Gates To Infinity is the weakest entry in the series (outside of the Japan only Wii Ware titles), and I agree too.  It's still well worth playing, but most certainly has its share of issues that really hold it back.

 

Super Pokemon Mystery Dungeon on the other hand is absolute glorious gold! And probably the best entry in the whole series to boot! (It really fixed every problem that GTI had, and absolutely gives Explorers of Sky a run for its Pokedollars! It's also the hardest entry in the series by far and assumes that you've played the past three mainline entries beforehand (in more ways than one ).  So while it IS awesome, I'd definitely say that its not the place to start for a newcomer!)

 

There's no real point in getting Time or Darkness (unless you really want a complete collection) as Explorers of Sky includes literally everything from Time and Darkness anyway; making them redundant.  It's also the reason why only Explorers of Sky was released on the Wii U Virtual Console service, while Time and Darkness were ignored (R&B Rescue Team is available on the Wii U VC too BTW!)

 

33 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

While that's the case for most of them, Blue/Red Rescue Team does actually make you lose everything you're carrying.

I honestly forgot about that! It's been way too long since I last played it!

Edited March 18, 2019 by Dcubed

[Vanilla]

27 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

The cool difference with Kecleon is people who have way too much time on their hands can actually recruit one. And it's just as strong as when you fight one! Of course, by that point, you've probably done everything in the game...

Is this a vague at yourself?  Feels like the Kecleon profile aesthetic of yours tells some sort of story. 

I'll definitely keep an eye out for SMD! The reviews I've seen tended to be mediocre, but we all know that mainstream gaming media dislike anything they can't shovel down their throats in a few hours.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Vanilla

[Jonnas]

Welcome to the forum! Always great to see a new face.

I tried out Mystery Dungeon Blue (that's the one on the GBA, right?), but the gameplay was, unfortunately, not to my liking. The setting and plot seem fantastic, but I've only been able to appreciate them from the outside. But if you already have experience with these types of dungeon crawlers, you're probably going to like them, so enjoy your playthrough!

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Anyway, yes, Kecleon is the shop keeper, I have no idea why they chose one of the weakest Pokémon from Gen 3 to play the role of God of Merchants, but I'm not complaining.

Wait, Kecleon is the Anna of the PMD series? That's amazing.

[Glen-i]

12 hours ago, Vanilla said:

Feels like the Kecleon profile aesthetic of yours tells some sort of story.

Well, you're sorta right. But I assure you, it's pure coincidence. That particular Kecleon next to my name has absolutely nothing to do with PMD.

[Vanilla]

Well, I'm alive! Kinda.

 

So it turns out that Mystery Dungeon is somewhat addicting. And by somewhat, I mean beating Blue Rescue Team, Explorers of Sky and working my way through Super Mystery Dungeon since I last logged into this place. ^^;

 

Blue was pretty good, EoS was awesome and so far I really appreciate the gameplay changes that Super has made.