A long, long time ago, when I was a young lad, I stumbled upon a little game called “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team” for the Game Boy Advance. Being a 16 year old gaming nerd who loved pretty much anything Pokémon, I decided to rent it and play it, loving every second of it.
Now, ten years later I got the chance to review the new “Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon” so I leapt at the chance of reliving that fun and wonder I experienced and remember so fondly. I was interested in seeing how far the series had evolved since the good ol’ GBA days.
The big question: Did it deliver?
Yes. Yes it did.
Story
The “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon” series is a weird anomaly within the Pokémon Franchise. While most games revolve about you being a human collecting or working together with Pokémon, this drops you right into a world where you are a human that gets turned into a Pokémon. “Super Mystery Dungeon” is no different.
After being startled by the two back facing cameras turning on and showing me my Facebook Page with a glowing orb in front of it that called to me, I got sucked into the Pokémon world through a wormhole where the Orb asked me questions to determine what Pokémon I’d be and who’d be my Partner through the game.
A cruel twist of fate caused me to end up with Turtwig, whom I kind of dislike since I’m more of a speed Pokémon kind of guy and Turtwig is the slow moving Battle Tank. With “Red Rescue Team” memories flooding back to me (I was a Bulbasaur in that one) I got ready to reset the game and try again when I got the prompt if I wanted this Pokémon or choose another. As someone who went through a multitude of resets after completing the game with Bulbasaur, this was a welcome change. Seeing the Pokémon I always have in my team in the main games, no matter what, I chose him. I’m talking about Riolu of course (and a moan of annoyance sweeps through the crowd).
The same happened with my Partner, who turned out to be Squirtle. I like Squirtle, but if I’m given the choice, I’d like someone else to join me on this adventure: Fennekin. Quite funny that if I were to take game’s suggestions I’d have a team of tortoises and with my choices, I have a fox/wolf team.
With that out of the way, we jump into the set up: Deoxys flies through space, hurtling towards Earth. As he stares at the blue orb, he senses something is wrong, when suddenly Rayquaza shoots past him at full speed, confirming his suspicion: If Raysquaza is flying this far into space, something seriously bad must be on the horizon.
We then cut to us waking up, being attacked by Beheeyem (whom I didn’t recognize, probably because I didn’t like Generation V all that much and really didn’t play the games a lot) and bumping into a Nuzleaf, who helps you out by teaching you the basics through two small Mystery Dungeons as you try to escape the Beheeyem who are after you.
After this, he takes you with him to Serene Town where he invites you to stay with him until you figure out what happened to you and why you were turned into a Pokémon.
Saving the Pokémon World, one dungeon at a time!
From there, you are introduced to your Partner, who turns out to be the town troublemaker, getting into all kinds of problems because he/she likes adventuring so much. Then Nuzleaf drops a bomb that took me aback a bit: You have to go to school since you’re a Pokémon child. As someone with a severe disliking for school… That came as a shock. However, the school is nicely integrated to teach you the advanced things, such as the Alliance Moves (which are friggin awesome), and the Looplet and Emera items (which are amazingly useful and can turn the tide of the battle in an instant by giving you the chance to attack twice, to instantly drop an attacking Pokémon’s health to 1, to increase your power, etc…).
It also fleshed out the characters some more, like your Partner, the bullying duo of Pancham and Shelmet, the protective Deerling, the “wimp with potential” Goomy and the smarts Espurr.
I’ve got to hand it to “Super Mystery Dungeon”, it managed to make the rather creepy looking Espurr into an incredibly likable character that’s intelligent but friendly and kind.
After a run-in with an Ampharos who reminds me of Might Guy from Naruto, you and your Partner become Junior Explorers in the Exploration Society (your Partner’s dream) and you can finally start exploring dungeons and helping Pokémon that aren’t story related.
That’s about as much as I’ll tell about the story because even though it starts off slow, there’s a rather dark edge to it that you have to experience for yourself.
The Story is well thought out though, and there were certain parts that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I don’t know why but Pokémon has that effect on me.
Teaching the player new game mechanics is well implemented through the School that the player attends, making it feel as a true part of the story, as opposed to just being a pop-up that tells you what to do when you can activate it.
Gameplay
For someone who only played the original “Mystery Dungeon” it was like slipping on an old but comfortable glove. After a few minutes I was zipping through the dungeon as if I’ve played all of the games leading up to this one. Every button has its uses, even multiple ones, though there is 1 button I would have assigned differently.
In the dungeon, the A button is used to do a punching attack that you can use to skip a turn or to deal minimal damage to an enemy in front of you. However, if there’s a prompt that pops up telling you about a mechanic or if a character talks to you, A is also used to scroll through the text. If you’re like me and basically mashes the A button after reading, this can put you in rather tight spots if you press A once too many and you do the weak punch move, giving your enemies an extra turn, so to speak.
Other than that, the gameplay is as fluid as it gets! Attacking and moving feels great, the Alliance moves are amazing to do and powerful as all Hell if you put the right moves in (a team of 3 Level 15 Pokémon, two of which were fire types, managed to tag team a level 50 Salamance. You don’t see stuff like that in the main games, I’ll tell you that much).
One small gripe: Enemy Pokémon are able to attack around corners but my moves seem always fail for some reason when I try it, though it’s quite possible I’m being an idiot and I choose moves that can’t do that.
Another fun thing is that you can change everything to your liking. The menu can be a scroll through menu on a circular plane or just a plain menu where you can instantly select what you need without having to scroll through everything. Something else I really liked was the ability to actually rename your characters, whenever you want (it’s one of the options on the start screen).
A change I appreciate the most though, is the ability to save IN a dungeon and it not being a throwaway temporary file like the original games had, again, ingeniously implemented through an item that you can take with you.
On the topic of items, there’s a LOT. Maybe even a little too many. Your pack starts out as one with a 24 Item limit and let me tell you that fills up faster than a Snorlax’ shopping cart in a supermarket. Orbs, Wands, Berries, Apples, Elexirs, Seeds, Emeras and Looplets are littered across the dungeons as if Santa’s bag exploded above it. Even though it gets upgraded to a 32 Item limit, it’s still rather small.
Music and Sound
Like with all Pokémon games, the music is spot on, ranging from up-beat and adventurous, to rather eerie at times. Never “Lavender Town” levels of creepy though, which is a shame. Then again, it could be because I haven’t gotten to the dungeons that utilize that kind of music yet. The songs that I have listened to, though, perfectly fit the situation and the dungeon that you’re in, spurring you on and giving you that extra little boost when you need it in a tight situation. A new feature is the “Jukebox” to listen to songs from the game AND previous entries, so if you’re feeling the nostalgia pulling your sleeve, you can turn it on to enjoy those songs from a long gone time. It even has a replay one, replay all and shuffle function, which is a nice touch!
The sounds of the moves are pretty good as well, so it’s safe to say that they perfected their art over at the Pokémon Company.
Closing Thoughts
“Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon” really earns the ‘Super ‘ in the title. It’s fun to play, the story starts off slow but uses that to flesh out the characters, which I really don’t mind and the sound design is great. It’s a worthy entry to the series and the Pokémon brand as a whole! Even with my review for it being done, I’ll still play it to the end, which is really telling of its pull it has on me.
There are a few minor annoyances, like the A button thing and the small size of the backpack, but they don’t really detract from the fun.
I give this game an 8/10, but don’t misunderstand: that’s a very high score for me to give (I’ll never rate a game 10/10 because I wholeheartedly believe there is no such thing as a perfect game).
Anyways, I’m going to have to wrap up this review since Fennekin just informed me that a Charmander is trapped in a Dungeon and it needs us to save it! Team Star Foxes, AWAY!!