Similar to the other Mystery Dungeon titles, the roguelike gameplay revolves around randomly changing dungeons which need to be explored by the player and their partner Pokémon using turn-based moves. The story focuses on the player who has been turned into a Pokémon and has developed amnesia who later joins a rescue team with a partner Pokémon while finding out who they are. As of July 25, 2007, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team had sold 3.08 million copies worldwide. Two sequels, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, were released in Japan on September 13, 2007, and in North America on April 20, 2008. They featured Generation IV Pokémon, improved Wi-Fi features, and more touchscreen options.
The player starts out as a human who turned into a Pokémon, which can be one of sixteen Pokémon (Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Meowth, Psyduck, Machop, Cubone, Eevee, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip and Skitty) and is determined by a personality quiz taken at the beginning of the game.[1] The player chooses a partner Pokémon which is one of ten Pokémon (which excludes the last six stated above and the Pokémon of the same type).[1] The game is mission-based with many jobs, which can be found on the bulletin board, requested by mail, or initiated through story events, and include rescuing Pokémon, delivering items, and escorting clients.[1] If the player successfully completes a job, they receive a reward, and Rescue Points, which increase a team's rank.[1]
These jobs take part in dungeons, of which the layout is randomized.[1] The objective is to either finish a job, or go through all the floors to find the exit.[1] In the dungeon, there are wild Pokémon that battle with the player's team.[1] These battles are turn-based, and take place in the dungeon map.[1] Pokémon fight using the four moves they know, by using a standard "A button" attack,[1] or using projectiles and other items.[2] While going through the dungeon, the player gets hungry and has to eat food, either found in the dungeon or bought in advance.[1]
They are confronted by Alakazam, who says the Pokémon held a town meeting on what they must do to save the world: they must find and kill the player and anyone who sides with them. As they give the team one night to get away, the two leave Pokémon Square as fugitives and make their way to the northeasternmost part of the world in an effort to elude the teams that are now hunting them down. Along the way, they encounter the legendary birds Moltres and Articuno, who feel the effects of the disasters in their respective areas. They befriend an Absol who seeks to find the true cause of the natural disasters. The trio reaches the top of Mt. Freeze only to be cornered by Team ACT. They get ready to finish the player and partner off, but are stopped by Ninetales, who reveals that the player is not the human in the legend, that both parts of the legend are coincidental occurrences, and that the world is in greater danger caused by the awakening of Groudon. Team ACT proceeds to try and stop Groudon, while the team heads home to clear all remaining suspicion at Pokémon Square. After a few days, the player and the partner worry, as Team ACT has not come back from their mission to quell Groudon. Asking to rescue the missing Team ACT, Lombre refuses to let them go, saying there are plenty of tougher Pokémon than them. Shiftry convinces three of the strongest Pokémon, Blastoise, Octillery, and Golem, to form a special rescue team and rescue Team ACT. After a few days, the special team returns defeated.
After being discouraged by Gengar, the player and partner are able to get everyone's spirits back up, and volunteer to rescue Team ACT themselves. When the team reaches Magma Cavern, they find Charizard and Tyranitar defeated, with Alakazam fighting against Groudon alone before quickly being defeated. The team takes matters into their own hands and defeat Groudon. They return to town as heroes, but their celebration is short-lived as grave news arrives from Xatu. A huge meteor, revealed to be the true cause of the natural disasters, is heading for the world, threatening to destroy it. The only way to stop it is to ask for help from the sky guardian Rayquaza. It is less than cooperative, but after a battle, Rayquaza agrees to use its Hyper Beam to destroy the meteor. The team reawakens on the ground, surrounded by their supporters, where they find that the world is safe once again. However, the player must return to being a human and leave the Pokémon world behind. After the credits roll, the player returns to the rescue team base in Pokémon form and surprises everybody.
As time passes, many more secrets are revealed. A shard of the destroyed meteor opens a secret cave under Whiscash Pond, enabling evolution. It is later revealed that another shard hit Latias' wing, and the team rescues her at Pitfall Valley. It is eventually discovered that Gengar was the human from the legend; after uncomfortably getting the player's assistance, he manages to remove the part of the curse that affected his old partner Gardevoir.
Zener saved the world from the meteor and since she's lived everyday like normal. She is living happily in her base outside the Square doing her job as part of a rescue team until an unexpected visitor arrives. Despite everyone's awe, she can't feel the same nor can she explain why she feels so put off by him. The world is a much bigger place where not everyone understands it isn't just black and white. So what if she never really fit in with the rest of the Pokémon she chose to surround herself with? They cared for her right? She now is faced against her friends, old and new foes, and the ideal of what a True Pokémon really is. At what cost will the greatest rescuer of all time go to ensure the creation of a new pure world.
Warning! This story will contain spoilers of Pokémon rescue team dx, if you don't like spoilers please don't read! Or if you don't care or already played the game go right ahead and read! I hope you enjoy!
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Suffice it to say, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has more in common with a litany of dungeon hacks than it does with any of Nintendo's traditional Pokémon role-playing games. Whereas a typical Pokémon game has a large overworld with multiple environments populated with hundreds of villagers and Pokémon, this game has only a single small overworld village populated by a few chatty Pokémon and a handful of useful shops. Everything of note, whether it's recruiting additional Pokémon or fighting legendary Pokémon, happens in any of the game's 16 or so dungeons. The game explains away its deviations from the usual Pokémon blueprint through its story. You assume the role of a human who has been transformed into a Pokémon and whisked off to a disaster-plagued continent populated by wild Pokémon. After arriving in a tiny forest, you are greeted by another Pokémon and you both decide to form a rescue team. The purpose of a rescue team is to help other Pokémon that have somehow become trapped in dungeons. This serves as all the excuse the game needs to constantly send you into dungeons, as Pokémon are constantly delivering mission requests to your mailbox. The overall story, which can take anywhere from 15 to 20 hours to complete, also pulls you into dungeons to quell legendary Pokémon to get to the bottom of why the world is currently falling apart.
Key Pokémon aspects have been incorporated into the game to varying degrees. Since there are no trainers around, you can't add new Pokémon to your team by capturing them. Instead, the wild Pokémon you defeat in battle will sometimes offer to join your rescue team. In a traditional Pokémon game, the Pokémon in your party evolve once they have reached a certain level. Here, evolution isn't even an option until you finish the main story. And once it does become an option, it's simply a choice you can make by visiting a specific cave. The major share of evolved Pokémon can be recruited during the normal course of the game. The process of teaching Pokémon new attacks, on the other hand, works almost exactly as it does in standard Pokémon games. Pokémon learn new attacks when they reach certain levels, or you can use rare TM items to teach them attacks whenever you like. This game also lets you link multiple attacks together during a single turn. Rounding out the list of key Pokémon aspects that made it into the game are elemental affinities, which also function much the way Pokémon veterans are familiar with. Water Pokémon are strong against fire Pokémon, ghost Pokémon are strong against psychic Pokémon, and so forth. In some dungeons, weather conditions can also hinder or help your Pokémon.
While the inclusion of characters and aspects from the Pokémon franchise serves to give Pokémon Mystery Dungeon a familiar and friendly atmosphere, it doesn't do much to address the weaknesses in ChunSoft's original dungeon hack. Chiefly, the design is overly simplistic and gets old really fast. Each dungeon typically has anywhere from 10 to 30 floors, which all recycle the same bland background tiles and contain the same three or four wild Pokémon. Although you can perform four different attacks, in practice you'll stick to the same reliable move and watch the same battles play out over and over again. There's a tinge of strategy involving the orientation of your Pokémon in relation to the enemy during battle, but what this boils down to is that it's best to have an ally next to you so you can double-team enemies. Wild Pokémon aren't aggressive as it is, and they don't do much to exploit obvious weaknesses. Making matters worse, the CPU has control over the backup Pokémon on the team, which takes yet another layer of control out of your hands. In some cases, particularly boss battles, you can let the CPU do all the work. Dungeon hacks are repetitive by nature, but this one takes sameness too far. Incredibly, aspects that would have made the game more interesting, such as traps, the ability to dig, and the ability to choose leaders, are in the game, but they don't become available until you've already completed the main story. Other flaws, such as randomly generated layouts that place an exit right next to your entry point, or the glitchy CPU artificial intelligence that sometimes sends your allies prancing off in the opposite direction, don't help.
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