Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, but at least now I am back with this - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - the Review. Seeing as I only have Blue Mystery Dungeon (for the DS), this review is not about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue team (GBA).
When this game out (I shall shorten it's name to "PMD"), it was instantly sold. PMD is unlike any other Pokémon game, ever before. With the exception of the Pokémon Pinball Games (though I'm not 100% sure on this), PMD was the first ever Pokémon game not to feature humans. It is the start of the new generation of Pokémon on the Nintendo DS, as well as Pokémon Ranger, and Pokémon Trozei/Link.
At the start of the game, you are asked a lot of questions, asking what you would do in certain situations. This allows the game to calculate your personality, and assign you a Pokémon form, (gender plays a role in this). I ended up being Charmander - the hardy type. Then, you get to pick a partner, of a different type. I chose a Chikorita.
As the game gets gonig, you notice that you are not in human world anymore. Instead, you are in a land inhabited entirely be Pokémon. You live in Pokémon Square, where you meet lots of people, who generally help you, in different ways. There is a shop, an item storage system, a general shop, a friend area shop (explained later), and finally a place where you can link moves, which I say is pretty self-explanatory.
This world has many groups called Rescue Teams. These Rescue Teams save Pokémon in trouble. Soon, you gain access to a wide variety of zones, or dungeons. The terrain includes forests, mountains, valleys, volcanoes, caves, and much more. Once you complete the main storyline, you gain access to even more dungeons.
The storyline is quite complex, for a Pokémon game, although sometimes it does get a bit repetitive. Nevertheless, it is still one of my favourite Pokémon game storylines. Also, I personally think the game has a brilliant soundtrack, second only to Golden Sun 1 (GBA).
You get to fight many legendary Pokémon, all of them, in fact, except for the fourth generation ones. You do see fourth generation Pokémon, and hear them be mentioned, such as Lucario, Bonsly, Weavile, and Munchlax. Instead of capturing Pokémon, your team befriends them, and the Pokémon will ask to join your team. Some Pokémon are easy to recruit, whereas others (like Mew, for instance), are harder to recruit, or have certain requirements for you to recruit them. Some though, you get for free, such as Smeargle, Latias, and Latios.
To recruit Pokémon though, you usually need a friend area. A friend is basically a place where you can visit your recruited Pokémon, talk to them, give them items, let them go on missions with you, or even make them the leader of the team! Friend Areas can be bought in Pokémon square, but you sometimes get them for free, with legendaries, like Rayquaza for instance.
There are some similarities to the main Pokémon RPG's. Hm's, and TM's still exist, but TM's can now be re-used, if you have a Pokémon with the attack refresh. Virtually, this game is completely different. Evolution has been revamped, now making you have to go into a cave and sometimes attack items to your Pokémon to make them evolve. Frustratingly though, you can only do this after completing the main storyline.
Overall, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a great game, so I would probably rate it 7 or 8 out of 10. The things letting it down are probably it's slight repetitiveness, and other minor details. If you haven't bought it yet, then go buy it!
***News*** There is going to be a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Sequel coming out soon in Japan. It will feature all of the Pearl and Diamond Pokémon, and will hopefully have improved the original. Seeing as it hasn't even come out in Japan yet, it will be quite a while before it comes out in America, and Europe...
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