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IGN Review of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness
The Mystery Dungeon series is a franchise that's been going on since the days of the Super NES – just recently Sega released a remake of one of the original Mystery Dungeon games: Shiren the Wanderer. The latest version in the series is the second one Chunsoft has made for Nintendo, titled Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. The team created two versions of the same game, and more doesn't necessarily mean better. This sequel isn't much of a step up from the first game in the series, which wasn't all that great to begin with.
Mystery Dungeon features a distinct gaming style: it's all about randomly generated dungeons in a turn-based, real-time RPG hybrid design. The whole idea of Mystery Dungeon revolves around working your way through a series of multi-level dungeons, with each floor being generated on the fly when you get there. What this means is, potentially, you'll never see the same floor layout twice if you decide to enter the same dungeon multiple times, but since the dungeons are incredibly basic, tiled and angled layouts it's not that huge of a deal. And many times the dungeon generator will create a level that requires no exploration at all – you'll often find yourself placed in a room where you're standing right next to the exit.
For the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, players enter the world of Pokemon as a Pokemon itself. The story revolves around discovering who turned you into a Pokemon and why. Just like in the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, your persona is decided at the start after you answer a series of questions about your personality. Depending on how you answer the questions, you can end up as a Bulbasaur, Skitty, Piplup, or one of a dozen and a half Pokemon in the game. Once you've landed on a mysterious beach it doesn't take long for another Pokemon to show up and join your team – his appearance is to give your character someone to play off of, and to help out in battle. This Pokemon partner is just as important as your own: if you let him perish in the game, it's just as punishing as if you were the one that failed in the dungeon.
Just like the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, the core gameplay of the sequel revolves around performing jobs that show up on the message board. These jobs are usually rescues or delivery tasks that require players to enter the same dungeon over and over again. As you accomplish more tasks and knock them off the list, you'll drive the story forward and learn more about the mysteries of Time, Darkness, and why there's a team of jerk Pokemon trying to get in your way.
Even though Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a Pokemon spin-off and not the true, coveted Pokemon RPG experience, Chunsoft lifts a lot of classic Pokemon elements for its dungeon crawling gameplay. A lot of the useable items and moves are lifted from the classic Pokemon, as are a lot of the Pokemon strategies: if you're a Fire-based Pokemon, you'll be strong against plant-based Pokemon enemies. Likewise, bird Pokemon are strong against bug pokemon, and on and on. And just like the classic Pokemon, you can also acquire additional monsters during battle, but this element is extremely basic and requires no strategy. Enemies will simply stop and ask if they can join.
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series is obviously aimed at the younger crowd, so Chunsoft and Nintendo have clearly lightened up a bit on the Mystery Dungeon difficulty. Shiren the Wanderer was brutal and unforgiving – if you died anywhere in the game, you lost all your possessions, your character lost all of his experience and strength, and you had to start the game right back at level one. In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, if you lose in a dungeon you lose many of your possessions and all of your money, but you don't lose your progress in the game -- anything you've completed up to that point is saved. There are a few hardcore gamers out there that like Shiren the Wanderer's vicious challenge and difficulty, but personally, even though this game's lightened up for the kids, I think that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's way of doing it is a much more satisfying game design. At the very least you retain the feeling of accomplishment instead of Shiren the Wanderer's "punched in the gut" sensation every time you die in battle.
If you've set up your system for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection you can use Chunsoft's updated "request a rescue" system that the team first introduced in Shiren the Wanderer. If you fail in a dungeon, you can choose to send out an SOS to the Wi-Fi Connection for another player to rescue you. Once you link an email account for your game, you'll be able to get alerts from friends needing rescue or notices when an SOS mail has been received on your email device like a PC or cell phone. Very cool.
But even though I believe that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a better Mystery Dungeon doesn't mean I think Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a great game, because I don't. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon might have some charm in its story, but the gameplay -- while having some bouts of fun -- is still sluggishly paced, tedious, and repetitive. And even with the randomly constructed dungeons they all end up looking and feeling the same. There are two versions of this game, but it feels incredibly forced since there's almost no differences between them. It made sense in the first game in the series since Chunsoft made a GBA version and a DS version, but in the sequel there are two versions on the same system that play identically and only offer up a hidden character or two.
The game's menu system is incredibly clunky and feels like an unfixed relic from the Game Boy Advance version. It's pretty shameful to see just how similar this sequel recycles a lot from the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. In fact, this sequel foregoes the Game Boy Advance version and ends up as a Nintendo DS exclusive, but it doesn't look, sound, or feel like a current generation DS title. Thank god that touch screen control is completely optional because it's the absolute pits. It's clear that Chunsoft spent little to no time working on stylus control because it's almost pointless to bring out your stylus for anything but typing out names. And even then it's still sketchy. Just stick with the D-pad and buttons because that's the only way the interface has been balanced.
©2008-04-22, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Mystery Dungeon features a distinct gaming style: it's all about randomly generated dungeons in a turn-based, real-time RPG hybrid design. The whole idea of Mystery Dungeon revolves around working your way through a series of multi-level dungeons, with each floor being generated on the fly when you get there. What this means is, potentially, you'll never see the same floor layout twice if you decide to enter the same dungeon multiple times, but since the dungeons are incredibly basic, tiled and angled layouts it's not that huge of a deal. And many times the dungeon generator will create a level that requires no exploration at all – you'll often find yourself placed in a room where you're standing right next to the exit.
For the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, players enter the world of Pokemon as a Pokemon itself. The story revolves around discovering who turned you into a Pokemon and why. Just like in the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, your persona is decided at the start after you answer a series of questions about your personality. Depending on how you answer the questions, you can end up as a Bulbasaur, Skitty, Piplup, or one of a dozen and a half Pokemon in the game. Once you've landed on a mysterious beach it doesn't take long for another Pokemon to show up and join your team – his appearance is to give your character someone to play off of, and to help out in battle. This Pokemon partner is just as important as your own: if you let him perish in the game, it's just as punishing as if you were the one that failed in the dungeon.
Just like the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, the core gameplay of the sequel revolves around performing jobs that show up on the message board. These jobs are usually rescues or delivery tasks that require players to enter the same dungeon over and over again. As you accomplish more tasks and knock them off the list, you'll drive the story forward and learn more about the mysteries of Time, Darkness, and why there's a team of jerk Pokemon trying to get in your way.
Even though Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a Pokemon spin-off and not the true, coveted Pokemon RPG experience, Chunsoft lifts a lot of classic Pokemon elements for its dungeon crawling gameplay. A lot of the useable items and moves are lifted from the classic Pokemon, as are a lot of the Pokemon strategies: if you're a Fire-based Pokemon, you'll be strong against plant-based Pokemon enemies. Likewise, bird Pokemon are strong against bug pokemon, and on and on. And just like the classic Pokemon, you can also acquire additional monsters during battle, but this element is extremely basic and requires no strategy. Enemies will simply stop and ask if they can join.
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series is obviously aimed at the younger crowd, so Chunsoft and Nintendo have clearly lightened up a bit on the Mystery Dungeon difficulty. Shiren the Wanderer was brutal and unforgiving – if you died anywhere in the game, you lost all your possessions, your character lost all of his experience and strength, and you had to start the game right back at level one. In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, if you lose in a dungeon you lose many of your possessions and all of your money, but you don't lose your progress in the game -- anything you've completed up to that point is saved. There are a few hardcore gamers out there that like Shiren the Wanderer's vicious challenge and difficulty, but personally, even though this game's lightened up for the kids, I think that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's way of doing it is a much more satisfying game design. At the very least you retain the feeling of accomplishment instead of Shiren the Wanderer's "punched in the gut" sensation every time you die in battle.
If you've set up your system for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection you can use Chunsoft's updated "request a rescue" system that the team first introduced in Shiren the Wanderer. If you fail in a dungeon, you can choose to send out an SOS to the Wi-Fi Connection for another player to rescue you. Once you link an email account for your game, you'll be able to get alerts from friends needing rescue or notices when an SOS mail has been received on your email device like a PC or cell phone. Very cool.
But even though I believe that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a better Mystery Dungeon doesn't mean I think Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a great game, because I don't. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon might have some charm in its story, but the gameplay -- while having some bouts of fun -- is still sluggishly paced, tedious, and repetitive. And even with the randomly constructed dungeons they all end up looking and feeling the same. There are two versions of this game, but it feels incredibly forced since there's almost no differences between them. It made sense in the first game in the series since Chunsoft made a GBA version and a DS version, but in the sequel there are two versions on the same system that play identically and only offer up a hidden character or two.
The game's menu system is incredibly clunky and feels like an unfixed relic from the Game Boy Advance version. It's pretty shameful to see just how similar this sequel recycles a lot from the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. In fact, this sequel foregoes the Game Boy Advance version and ends up as a Nintendo DS exclusive, but it doesn't look, sound, or feel like a current generation DS title. Thank god that touch screen control is completely optional because it's the absolute pits. It's clear that Chunsoft spent little to no time working on stylus control because it's almost pointless to bring out your stylus for anything but typing out names. And even then it's still sketchy. Just stick with the D-pad and buttons because that's the only way the interface has been balanced.
©2008-04-22, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved