Gameboy Advance - Poke'mon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team

Format
Gameboy Advance
Publisher
Nintendo
Developer
Chunsoft
Country of origin
Japan
Release date
September 18, 2006
Genre
Virtual pet

Poke'mon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team

By Aki
1st Jul 07

Today’s subject: Pokémon. I was never actually planning to write a review for Pokémon, games or anime, mostly because it’s so widespread that most people already know what it’s about and what the games are like. And there are so many of the games out there that dozens of reviews have probably already been written, all of them saying pretty much the same thing. But this one is different, so I figured, what the heck.

Until recently, the franchise was along the lines of “if you’ve played one Pokémon game, you’ve played them all.” Every game had the same format, same gameplay, same storyline. The only things that changed between the original Blue/Red games and the recent Diamond/Pearl games were the graphics and the region maps. Sure, they added a few extras here and there (Pokémon Battle Tower, Pokémon Contests) and came up with new pokémon, but every game was essentially a snazzier-looking clone of the last. Start out by choosing your starter Pokémon, travel the world earning badges, and ultimately beat the game by defeating the Pokémon League. You can then spend as many months as you want trying to catch, trade, or evolve all the Pokémon in existence simply to fill out your collection.

So after nearly a dozen versions, Pokémon finally managed to come out with something new: Mystery Dungeon. It’s quite unlike its predecessors, but is pretty well done and manages to be fun and interesting—in a Pokémon sort of way.

You get to start by taking a personality quiz. Based on your answers, the game selects a Pokémon for you from a list of ten and the story begins. You wake up to find that you have been turned into a Pokémon, and the only thing you can remember before that point is that you used to be a human. You quickly discover that this new world you have been dumped into is inhabited only by Pokémon (no humans anywhere,) and that it is suffering from all manner of natural disasters. Floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions—the entire world is going haywire and plenty of Pokémon are in need of help. You and a friend decide to form a rescue team and help wherever possible.

Throughout the story you see dream sequences that reveal your past life as a human little by little. Dreams, however, can be misinterpreted, and that’s exactly what happens when someone invades yours one night. Having discovered your secret, they proceed to spread terrible rumors about it all over town. At this point, the story breaks off from the pattern that it had settled into; instead of continuing to save other Pokémon, you and your friend are banished. The game then forces you through a series of rigorous battles before allowing you to return to the goals at hand. Once you get back on track, however, it’s a straight shot to the finish line. The game ends (seemingly on a depressing note) and then resets your character in order to allow further play.

Gameplay is very, very different from the other Pokémon games, but not hard to get used to. In order to complete missions and rescue other Pokémon, you enter ‘dungeons’ (more like areas or regions) where you explore the always-changing rooms, collect items, and, of course, battle with other Pokémon. Player levels, stats, and moves increase with battle experience, but you can also buy TMs, food, and other items that will add to your abilities. You can also link your moves in order to attack more than once per turn, something that was impossible in previous games.

In this game you don’t catch Pokémon—you make friends with them. Whether or not they want to become your friends, however, is entirely up to them. As long as you have access to their home region (you can buy these at stores or earn them through special missions) you have the ability to make friends with the Pokémon who live in said region. Making friends appears to be a completely random event though—I always made sure to meet up with every Shedinja I saw, and never got a single one to join my team.

You can control your own character completely, but control over your Pokémon friends is a little more limited. For example, you yourself can choose what square to move to, what direction to face, and what attack to use, but cannot do the same for your companions. You can decide what moves and tactics they have and set them up in any combination, but when it comes to them actually attacking enemy Pokémon, it’s up to the computer. More often then not they’ll help you out, but other times they’ll sit and do nothing. It’s not really a problem though; there are so many helpful items and your skill level grows quickly enough that you can go through most missions with minimum help, and eventually, alone.

Once you’ve completed the story line and your character is restored, you can continue playing with twice as many options available as before. Tons of new areas are opened up, some special regions are unlocked, you gain the ability to befriend legendary Pokémon, you can play as any Pokémon you have previously befriended, and evolution can be induced at any time.

So in closing: I enjoyed the game, and was pleasantly surprised with the new setup and plot line. It’s simple and fun, like all Pokémon games, but different enough that I couldn’t predict what it was going to be like. Give it a try, if you like; you might find it worthwhile.

-- Aki 1st Jul 07

Gameboy Advance Poke'mon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team Images