REVIEW
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness
By Michael Pugliese - June 11th, 2008
In general, I’m a fan of the early games in the Pokemon series, which offered simple ideas and deceptively deep gameplay beneath a cute and fuzzy exterior. In recent years however my interests have led me astray, leading me to miss titles like Pokemon Diamond/Pearl and the prequel to the topic at hand: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team. It looks like I may have missed more than could have expected in my absence from the Pokemon universe, as it is much different (and more populated) than I remember. I can say without hesitation that though Pokemon Mystery Dungeon offers a decent dungeon crawling experience, it lacks the charm, the simplicity, and most importantly the fun the Pokemon name has carried with it up to this point.
When booting up Mystery Dungeon for the first time, I noticed immediately that the Pokemon and the universe they live in look almost exactly as they did the last time I visited. Bright colours abound, with the world’s inhabitants instantly recognizable as Pokemon and not one of the many similar types of monsters that have come and gone over the years. Some may see this as a fault however, as a refusal to evolve the series’ look. This may be true, but there is something to be said about the familiarity offered by the decision to keep the look and style of its predecessors.
The exact same argument stands true for the sounds and music that fill the Pokemon world, keeping with the familiar tones brought forth by the various other titles carrying the Pokemon name. Again, there is nothing wrong with taking cues from the other games in the series, but there is a constant feeling that more could have been done to enhance the audio experience.
Players are thrown right into the game and almost immediately are exploring the game’s first dungeon. Controlling your Pokemon-self is fairly intuitive, unless you are using the touch based controls which seem unpolished and only added as an afterthought. Unlike the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games with appeared on both the GBA and DS, this is a DS exclusive entry, which is why it strikes me as strange that little to no thought was put into using the DS’ touch screen capabilities. Although I started off using the stylus to control the on screen action, I quickly found them to be inferior to the basic d-pad and buttons control scheme and quickly switched to use this style exclusively. I can’t quite pinpoint the exact reason why, but I had a much more enjoyable experience playing the game in this “classic” fashion.
As I mentioned, players are thrown right into the game, that is of course right after some personality based questions are answered to determined what type of Pokemon you will play as (I have the personality of the fiery Torchic for those who are interested). The general gameplay mechanics that will take you though Mystery Dungeon are all experienced in this opening area: Navigate through the multiple levels of randomly generated dungeons, try not to let you or your sidekick die. That’s essentially it. One problem I found was that though the game is subtitled “Explorers of Darkness,” exploring was one thing I learned to avoid at all cost. I began by exploring each floor of a dungeon completely before moving on to the next, but after constantly being defeated and instantly ejected from the dungeon without any of the money I had collected and only half my items in tow, I ended up dungeon running my way though each instance as quickly as humanly (Pokemonly?) possible. This alone seems to be a fundamental flaw in design, as for me the dungeons became obstacles standing in the way of the surprisingly enjoyable story.
Overall I have to admit my disappointment over this title. I was really looking forward to playing a Pokemon title again, as I have many a fond memory of the series. Unfortunately due to the basic visuals and repetitive unfriendly gameplay, I didn’t quite find what I was looking for here. Even with the enjoyable story to carry it, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness is simply not a game worthy of the Pokemon name.
