Stop Calling Me a Child While I’m Playing this Children’s Game: A Review of Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon · 6:29am Oct 29th, 2015
TL;DR: I didn’t really love the latest installment of my favorite video game series, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. But it's for stupid reasons so play it anyway if you're a fan of the franchise.
I’m a terrible gamer. The only game on my phone is Ingress, which is arguably not a video game. I rarely make the commitment to boot to the Windows partition on my computer. And my Japanese import 3DS only gets played when a new Pokémon game comes out. I just can’t enjoy video games much anymore. I feel too guilty I wasn’t the one that helped make it that I need to go do something productive to not feel horrible about myself.
The only exception to the rule is the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. If you’re not familiar with the series, PMD is a game in which you play as an actual Pokémon in a Pokémon world surrounded by other Pokémon. The catch is that you as the player character have been transformed and transported to this all Pokémon world and you don’t remember your past except for a very strong feeling that you used to be human.
I wholeheartedly love these games. But I’m pretty biased, as I will instinctively declare any game in which I’m a Pikachu as a good game.
But my bias isn’t without merit. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer’s of Sky had one of the richest, most excellent plots I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It is absolutely fantastic with interesting characters and a surprisingly dark storyline.
So it was with extreme excitement that I dove into the Japanese edition of the newest installment of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. A part of me wants to gloat that I got a bilingual bonus and am even capable of playing and enjoying it. But then again, I’m pausing every five minutes to check a word in the dictionary.
I also have to give a caveat here that I may have misunderstood aspects of the plot. To give a more honest review I would need to replay the game in English and see what I might have missed. A good localization can go a long ways for the enjoyment of something.
For the sake of the review, I’m going to get into some mild spoilers, stuff that happens within the first couple of hours of gameplay. And then I’ll warn you before shifting into stronger spoilers before breaking out into complete spoiler tags after that.
[Mild Spoilers]
Like the previous entries, this PMD game starts off with a personality test which determines what Pokémon you will play as. I had already planned out to reset continually until I got the Pokémon I wanted to be (Pikachu, because Raichu is the best (He's my halloween costume every year). There was a good chance I would have to reset a lot as there are A TON of Pokémon you can be in this game. I didn’t have to worry though, as being truthful on the test got me a Pikachu on my first try! AND the game gave me the option to say no and pick my player character and partner myself.
The game starts off with a “prologue” of sorts with Deoxys and Rayquaza doing… something. I dunno, but it looks cool and I couldn’t wait to get to that point in the story.
And then I’m being chased by a bunch of Ōbemu Beheeyam? Wow, I never learned any G5 Pokémon's English name. And after that, I got to chill at this dude Nuzleaf's house.
Except then I have to go to school, because I'm a child. And the game and every character keeps repeating to me that I'm a child.
This is my main irrational gripe for this game. In previous entries, even though you always start off as the first evolution form, there's no emphasis on your age. But in this game, every character keeps emphasizing how young my partner and I are. And my partner can't fulfill his dream of joining the Explorer's guild until he grows up. And in all honesty, I agree with the adults, if the characters really are children then they shouldn't be out fighting dragons and chewing on pages of reviver seeds when they die faint repeatedly. It's not that fun to be a child (as a human or as a Pokémon).
*sigh* And it's a little degrading to have to go to magic Pokémon kindergarten.
They could make school awesome, and they try. There are plenty of really good characters at the school. Too many, in fact, because not all of them get a chance to shine. Dreadlocks water monkey Simipour in particular I was hoping was going to be the Wigglytuff of this game. But most of the time actually spent in school being taught by Watchog is skipped because even the game knows that's boring.
Another gripe I have is how brutally honest the player character is about being human.
"So [Player Character], you're a transfer student here, so where are you from?"
"Actually, I used to be a Human."
What the heck are you doing, main character!? You can't just tell absolutely everyone about your otherkin humankin ideologies on the second day of school! That kind of stuff should be shared carefully. And of course everyone in town afterwards comments about how the main character used to be human but most don't really believe him. (Word travels fast in "Quiet Village"—Yes that's really it's name). I guess I shouldn't complain about this plot point, as PMD:Sky did something similar. But in PSMD it feels different because the whole world seems to know and have an opinion about it.
Well anyway, where this game really shines is the gameplay. It's by far the best gameplay of any PMD. The graphics are gorgeous. The music is fantastic. And all 720 Pokémon are in this game so it never feels like I meet the same Pokémon twice. And people that like hard games should rejoice as this one is definitely the hardest PMD.
One of the first dungeons had me fight a level 50 Salamence.
I was level 8.
How it feels fighting a giant dragon as a level 8 Pikachu.
Seriously game, did you really just do that?
So I restarted after my game over and went back with every reviver seed I could scrounge. Once I did win, Salamence joined my party (and he was sometimes available).
I really don't like games being hard. So this "feature" of it being difficult made me really dislike the game. I am only in it for the story and having to actually go through and read what all the orbs and items do in a desperate effort to not have to restart the game only made it frustrating.
[Advanced Spoilers] - If you're going to play the game anyway, you should probably stop reading here
The game stays hard the entire time because you are horrifyingly underlevelled. I beat the game at level 25. And I'm pretty sure that's by design as there isn't much chance for grinding unless you do missions really slowly.
At least recruiting Pokémon is a lot of fun. EVERY mission leads to one or more Pokémon recruited to play as. You can even talk to certain Pokémon in town and they’ll join your team.
Unfortunately, Pokémon you recruit by talking don’t actually have anything to say. All they say is: “I’d like to talk” and then the screen fades to black and says that "[Pokémon] was very satisfied by the conversation and has joined your team." I feel like it could add a lot to the game if each recruited Pokémon they actually had some kind of small story to tell. It feels a little like a wasted opportunity.
So back to the plot. It was pretty clear that my partner really wanted to join the explorer's guild in a nearby town. And I knew that had to happen eventually. But I didn't think it would take so long.
Everytime I save, there's eight slots for eight bosses that slowly fill up as I get further through the game. I had four of those slots filled before I finally left "starter town" and got to join the explorer's guild. That's half the game spent going to school and being told not to do things because "I'm a child."
This is terrible pacing. The prologue had this epic thing happening with Deoxys and Rayquaza. And every so often I got to see glimpses of cool stuff happening elsewhere, but it takes way too long to get anywhere near that action. Even once we get to join the Explorer's Guild, stuff doesn't really go down until the avalanche finish.
And the Explorer's Guild brings an entire new set of characters to get to know. And we really only get to know Ampharos and Jirachi. Add in all the characters we had in the school and that gives us way too many underdeveloped characters.
[End Game Spoilers]
To be honest, I was not really enjoying the game that much until it reached "the avalanche." What occurs lasts way too long to be considered a climax, as it’s more like an avalanche of plot threads all bumping into each other and crashing down until the finish.
BUT IT’S AWESOME!
I thought about revealing key plot points, but people will probably read this whole thing even though I told them not to. So I'll just gush about two minor things:
I love having an entire giant crew with me in dungeons. That was amazing when I thought they were going to force me into a party of four and suddenly I'm traveling with ten Pokémon all following me. Why can't more dungeons be like this?
Espurr is the BEST character in the game.
All in all, it was a great game, and a worthy entry in the series. But the amazing climax doesn't outweigh how slow the beginning and middle was. The story should be good throughout the game, and not just once we reach the endgame.
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon beats out every other entry in the series in all ways (graphics, gameplay, music, everything) except for the story. PMD:Sky still holds that title. At least for me.
Guilty as charged.
Have they said anything about when this game will get an English release? I might give it a shot then.
3504499
Yep! It comes out November 21. (I was trying so hard to finish this game before it came out in English.)
Have you played any of the previous entries before?
Of this series I've only played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness. (I had Darkness). But dayum. It is a beautiful game. Not the graphics, which are merely great; the writing and story in that game exceeded my expectations on every level, and still does, when I go back to it and find something new. It just all feels so real, which is a weird thing to say when your best friend is a sentient firebreathing chicken (because Torchic is totally my partner and I haven't actually ever finished my first save).
I mean the premise alone is a winner, appealing to all my escapist fantasies and then kicking it up a notch with the introduction of a Guild that genuinely feels like both workplace and home, with a bunch of different people who you sort-of-get-along with. And that's not even getting into the game's actual plot, which is so good that I think it's the first time ever where I've rushed through a game just to get to more of the story. As a roguelike, as clever as it is, I don't think PMD:EoT/D is as good as it could be; I never get the sense of escalating possibility that I do with other roguelikes.
But I don't care. The story. The ending. I nearly cried. My little Nintendo DS nearly made me cry.
And that game actually set me up for a massive disappointment. See, I had never actually played a Pokemon game before Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. But it was PMD that made me figure, if a game merely based on Pokemon by a third-party developer is this good, surely an actual Pokemon game must be amazing! So I got Pokemon White, and... well, like I say, I was sorely disappointed. I don't know if it's because of poor translation or what, but Pokemon Black/White's storytelling is so lazy that it's almost insulting. Every character talks in bizarre non-sequiturs, and nobody has anything interesting to say anyway. You could literally randomly generate the dialogue and the locations and lose nothing. (And if anyone makes an open-source Pokemon clone, they should totally do that.) Where is the passionate, heartfelt, intelligent dialogue of PMD? Nowhere to be found!
And what's more, Pokemon Black/White (and, I understand, every Pokemon game prior to it) is just downright user-unfriendly. The game tells you almost nothing that's of any use. For the longest time, I had no idea why sometimes my Pokemon moved first and sometimes the opponent's did. The game doesn't tell you why. It did spend the entire first town beating it into my head that Water beats Fire, Fire beats Grass, and Grass beats Water, which is something I probably could have figured out myself anyway. And it's bizarre, because once I learned about Pokemon's intricate mechanics, I was really impressed, but clearly the game didn't feel the need to try to impress me.
But anyway. Yes, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. It's amazing. ^_^
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Looks like I might have to look into 3DS emulators soon then.
I've played Red and Sky already. I know I beat the main storyline in Red, but I don't remember if I did all of the post-game content or not because it's been so long. In Sky, I know that I stopped not long after beating the main quest.
3505914
YES! PMD: Sky was a copy/paste of Time/Darkness with some added side stories added. That is still my favorite PMD game. It was just as amazing as you say. I still can't think of Grovyle without thinking about that Grovyle.
It's such a beautiful story!
I'm actually surprised that PMD: Darkness was your first Pokémon game. (That reminds me of friend who got into ponies because he liked Equestria Girls). Yeah... you were in for disappointment on the story front for the main games.
I would recommend PMSD if you happen to have a 3DS.
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I never did much stuff after the post credits. Though this game apparently has a bunch of easter eggs as you unlock more Pokémon. It's a legitimate way to
catchbecome friends with them all. I may keep playing around on it every so often.3506831
Really? I thought you would have done more of it, especially in Sky. From what I could tell, it certainly seemed like there was a good amount of story after the credits in that one. Not that I would know, since I didn't do it. All I remember for sure was that you had to do more quest before you could evolve your character or your partner.
3506851
Oh yeah, I did that. I'm just saying for most of the PMD games once I can evolve the game is pretty much over and that's where I stop playing.