Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness

THE BAD:
Bad aspects were, luckily, at a minimal. Thought in all honesty contributive to the game, they were still an annoyance none the less.

The bad properties included:

- Overly long cut scenes, with a lot of talking between main characters
- Time consuming missions
- Stronger bosses

SUMMARY:
So, how does Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness fair in terms of in comparison to the last generation and as a game?

The inclusion of more Pokémon was, in all honesty, going to be an obvious inclusion with the new game. Having previously released Pokémon Diamond/Pearl, it was clear to see the new Mystery Dungeon would have a lot more to offer. Sadly since Diamond/Pearl did not offer any new types, neither did the new Mystery Dungeon. Having said this, however, the inclusion of so many new faces lead to a much richer game and a lot more enjoyment.

The storyline was extremely enjoyable. It was much more in depth and lengthy than that of the last generation. This greatly affected how much you want to play the game and for how long. It provides one with more value for their money and something to fill in the spare time no matter how long or short. The creators keep you guessing as to the pieces of the puzzle (being the truth of the storyline) right until the end, with constant twists and turns within.

Characters galore! So many Pokémon play a role in the bigger picture in the new Mystery Dungeon. That meant a whole lot more personality which in turn meant a whole lot more realism. It's so diverse that anyone will be able to personally relate to at least one character, bringing out emotion/s and therefore enhancing the gaming experience.

New items! Something a lot of people should be happy about are the new items, not to mention items specific to one or the other! It's certainly lucky that the treasure bag expands with the achievement of certain in-game events, you wouldn't be able to hold all the items you want to take!

Items played a crucial role in the last game, furthermore so in this one. The use of one item can determine the whole outcome of a mission or boss fight. It's all about strategy, which makes the player think more than they used to creating a more fun game for those who are intellectuals. This also goes for what item/s you may make your team hold.

A whole new set of dungeons! The new dungeons are a lot nicer to look at, with a greater eye for scenery and a great attempt to make every dungeon look as unique as possible. Included in this is the fact that each floor is completely randomized, so every adventure is different even if you keep going to the same dungeon!

Wigglytuff's Guild is another big feature in the new game. Simply put, Wigglytuff's Guild is a Headquarters for Rescue Teams in the employment of Wigglytuff. Along with his right-hand man Chatot, they will ask you to take on specific duties for the Guild along with special events which will pop up throughout the storyline. It is how you will play through the game after meeting your partner, who asks you to form a team with them.

Treasure Town has increased in size with the new generation, more shops means more features! Some of the shops feature new faces, such as Marowak running the Dojo, Electivire running the Link Shop and Duskull in charge of the bank. Three new shops have joined the town which are Chansey's Hut, Xatu's Locksmith and Croagunk's Trade Post.

Chansey's Hut brings a part of the main games into Mystery Dungeon, the concept of Pokémon Eggs. These can be obtained in a mission marked with "???". Simply obtain them as a reward and they will be sent to Chansey to nurture until hatching point. This normally takes a couple of in-game days but really depends on what Pokémon is inside. They hatch at level one, which means if you want to include them in your adventures you're going to have to put them through some training to catch up.

Xatu's Locksmith is a largely welcomed new addition. With the inclusion of Treasure Boxes, which may be obtained by defeat of wild Pokémon, you now have the ability to gain access to very rare items including Pokémon specifics! To gain access to what's inside, it will cost you a mere 150 Poké per Treasure Chest. Whenever you find a Treasure Chest it is more than worth it to pick it up and to bring it to Xatu.

Croagunk's Trade Post is just as the name suggests, trade an item for a different item. This can be great for obtaining rare items.

Beautiful graphics! That's right, evocative depictions of scenery spread out over both the screens in eye-catching cut scenes. From those who like the look of a dead wasteland to those who would rather gaze upon a beautiful lake featuring a beautiful water fountain, the new Mystery Dungeon has it all.

Of a small mention is the belly filled aspect which was also present in the last generation. I, personally, found myself using a lot less apples and so found it more enjoyable with having more space to carry other items. An empty belly can be further avoided by the use of items other than food such as the Pure Seed which will transport you to the staircase, being very handy for long and windy floors or when surrounded by the enemy.

Having said all of this, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon does have a couple of downsides. Though not major, they do detract the game from a perfect status.

The cut scenes, despite being vital to the storyline and most of the time interesting to the eyes, can be overly long. This means spending long intervals simply mashing the A button. This can, in the long run, become rather a nuisance and especially when you don't have the time for it which can result turning off the game and having to go through that scene again the next time you play.

Again with the time consuming issue is some of the storyline missions. In conjunction with cut scenes, they can take a very long time and again become a bother.

Finally, there are the stronger bosses. This can be negative or positive depending on how you look at it. A stronger opponent will always be annoying, but the inclusion of the new items can more than make up for it with a decent strategy in place.

In conclusion, did the game live up to the standard set by the last generation? Was it even better? Is it really a great game? The answer to all of these is yes and I would certainly recommend this game to any Pokémon fan or could-be Pokémon fan as they will easily become hooked. Overall, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness is a fantastic game and worthy of a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

THE BAD:
Although the good does outweigh the bad, there are a few bad things about this game. The stronger bosses, and long adventure without being able to buy items or save ALL the time really hurts my view on this game. Also, having to give most of the money you make doing jobs to the Guild really made me upset. The more challenging battles also was a take on me.

SUMMARY:
Chun Soft really out did themselves here. Compared to the original Mystery Dungeons, this one beat them by a mile with better graphics, sound, bosses, and even wonder mails!

Each boss was set into the story in a unique way, excluding the wonder mail bosses such a Groundon and Rayquaza. Most of the bosses you met in the story mode only needed to be fought twice to recruit, but some of them you needed to recruit like any other pokemon. Even though I am sad they don't give experience points, unlike the ones in the original Mystery Dunegon did, they still are much better in power and health.

Jobs were a bit different in this game than the ones in the originals. Here, they added Star missions that could go from 1 star to 9 stars. Each setting it's own difficulty to the dungeon it is in. It kinda amazed me that you could do a S ranked mission close to the beginning of the game, mainly because I was used to having S ranked missions be one of the hardest kinds of missions. Also, there were other types of job. Some are just plain rescue jobs, and the others could be exploring with a pokemon, going through a dungeon to obtain an item, or even escorting pokemon to other pokemon. All those jobs make this game tough, but fun at the same time.

Moves were a vital to winning the game. With new pokemon, comes new moves I always say. With moves like Vaccume Cut and Discharge you could hit every pokemon within range. But other moves such as Lava Plume and Thunderbolt, you could hit pokemon only if they were 1 tile away from you!

What really amazed me in this game were the items. New items were every where! Such as the Violent Seed and the Foe-Fear(Or Seal, I can't remember correctly) that were exclusive to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. Other items like the rare and valuable Golden Mask also made me giggle with joy at how easy I could recruit pokemon once gotten. Pokemon stat helping items like the Charizard Seal, also make me think about how to construct my team. Using different items to effect my stats, and even protect me from one of the pokemon weakness really made me jump out of my seat.

Some of the new IQ Skills also were quite confusing. Some made stats higher and some lowered, and some made you live longer in dungeons without food. Some had my partner protect me from danger, and some made me way more powerful.

The most annoying thing in this game was the annoyance of the constant need for food. It seemed like the belly ran down to 0 faster than it did in the game. I had always tried to keep about 5-7 apples with me at all times, but by the of the end of a 20-30 floor dungeon, they were all gone. But the survivalist skill really helped me out later.

Evolution really ticked me off this time. Not only could we not evolve after beating the first part of story mode, we couldn't even after finishing it all. we had to recruit Palkia to do that, and going through Spacial Rend isn't that easy you know. Nor is fighting Palkia the first, nor second time.

Recruiting pokemon this time was slightly easier in this game than in the original 2. You didn't need to buy friend areas, so you were able to get any pokemon at any time, if possible. And there were more items to help you recruit pokemon instead of the 1 item in the original game (Friend Bow) such as the Terra Symbol and the Golden Mask.

Building teams in this game isn't a big issue mainly because anything can taken down any other thing in the game. My Cyndiquil took down Palkia by itself. xD

This game had it's ups and downs, but over all it was a good game that deserved more publicity than it got. I give this gave a 4 out of 5 for my score, and I say if you really want to have fun with pokemon games, check this one today!

THE BAD:
Some of the dungeons were a bit hard for me, but hey, that's just me.

SUMMARY:
At first, when you start your game, you must take a quiz. This quiz determines the Pokemon you will turn into and who your Partner will be. You will be met by your partner on the beach, knocked out with no memory except for your name and the fact the you were once a human. Your Partner, who has always wanted to join the guild and make an exploration team, asks you to make one. You say yes, and so it begins. Your partner shows you his personal treasure, a Ruin Piece, which is eventually used in the game. But, as soon as it is set down, thieves take it. You go off into Beach Cave to find them and get it back, with a mission designed to teach you the game's basics.

After getting it back, you decided that now it is time to go sign up at the guild. The guild has a simple system to ensure no bad Pokemon get in, you step on a hole covered in a weaved fashion, and your footprint is checked. Your partner is fine, but, as the first of many mysteries, your footprint has trouble being identified.

From this, you go on many missions and learn many things, as well as a thief who is stealing the time gears to cause the planet's paralysis, which will cause everything to stop and become dark and desolate. What you don't know is that you are a key to this, and not everything is what it seems.

The general game play was great, except I would have liked to see the touch screen and stylus used more. They X and Y buttons were used efficiently, as well as the top screen.

For a game like this, the graphics were beyond belief. I found it amazing how they made so many facial expressions, and made the perfect icons for them all. The icons are all amazing, as they can do many things, from moving to jumping.

One of the great things that they have is the sizing system. This helps to ensure that no team has too many Pokemon or is too strong. More often than not, the bigger the Pokemon, the stronger it is, correct? Well, this is how they base it. Your team can either have up to 4 Pokemon or a size of 6 total stars. Most Pokemon are 2 through 3, but there are some giants like Dialga and Palkia that are 4. This system is used to ensure that your team isn't to strong-or too big.

The sounds I found were quite enjoyable. Not only the music that played, but the sounds that the characters made. When something happened, there were sounds that fit into that. More about the field music though. It changed from dungeon to dungeon, and place to place. I quite enjoyed listening to it, and kept my DS's volume up so I could hear it, which is something I don't usually do.

The Belly was probably one of the biggest annoyances, but it helps to make the game fair, so it's good. Each time you take a step, your HP is recovered. But, you can only take so many steps before your belly gets emptier. It also empties if you're resting (A+B) or attacking. If your belly runs out, you will lose one Health Point each turn. How do you stop this? Whenever you get the message "Your belly's starting to get hungry..." you need to eat a Gummi or Apple. The Gummis will increase IQ, something I will talk about next.

IQ lets you have special tactics that allow a Pokemon to do special things. Some IQ tactics are special for Pokemon. Things like Survivalist allow you to eat Grimy Food (talked about later), or Stairway Finder, which allows you to find the stairs. Overall, these things were extremely useful.

Now; for something you'll love to hate; Traps. The Traps will make certain things happen (bad, of course) such as making food grimy or stickying up items. Grimy Food may be eaten like normal food, but with bad status-affecting side affects. A Sticky trap makes an item stick and unusable, so be careful. Many other traps hurt you, like the Explosion and Self-Destruct Traps. Now, how do you protect yourself from these? Orbs and other items will find them, and certain IQ Tactics will evade them.

Orbs are a big part in this game, as they can do anything from drying up all liquids on a floor, to letting you escape a dungeon. They were very helpful to me, and the game would have been a lot harder without them.

The throwable items are very helpful and important. Simply enough, certain items are able to be thrown at enemies for damage. The Stick and Geo Pebble do the most damage, so you should use those.

The last thing to exlpain is Treasure Town. You reside here, and this is where many things are located. The Electivire Link Shop and Keckleon Item Store are just two. You can buy many things, and store money and items in certain places. You will be visiting here a lot, and it is key to the game.

This game has had much going for it, being the sequel of the ever so epic Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue and Red Rescue Team. ChunSoft and Nintendo have done a fabulous job with this game, and they have satisfied everything I wanted.