An addiction, nonetheless

My husband purchased this game last month, since he is, by all appearances, a Pokemaniac. As with all Pokemon game releases, this particular version came out with two versions; Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red. The Blue version is for the Nintendo DS, and Red is for the Gameboy Advance.

Note that for the DS version, you can change the settings so that it would play as though you were using a Gameboy Advance. You can also link up to the Gameboy Advance cartridge for assistance in dungeon rescues.

I was promptly suckered into playing this title, and let me tell you, while there are some glaring flaws, it is cute enough and addicting enough that you will come back for more.

Gameplay

For the DS version, there are touch menus that you can use to access various options, however, I found that it was easier to put the stylus away and just use the button commands. Otherwise, it gets to be complicated, and quite frankly, I think the touchscreen aspect is not quite as accurate.

The story is cute, but nothing to write home about. If you play straight through and do not take any side quests (accepting other Rescues, for instance), you can complete the main storyline in about 20 hours of gameplay, maybe less.

The story involves you, as a human-turned-Pokemon, meeting up with your friend (whom you choose at the beginning of the game... that is, which type of Pokemon he will be, from a condensed list). At the beginning of the title, you are asked a series of random questions. Depending upon how you answer will determine which type of Pokemon that you are. If you are buying this game with the hopes as playing as your favorite Pokemon, you might have to reset several times in order to get the right set of questions. This, I think, kind of stinks, as it took me a half hour to get Charmander.

Once you have been created, you are plopped into the world of Pokemon creatures, and are awakened from your dream by your soon-to-be-friend. Immediately after this, another Pokemon will approach you, and indicate that a chasm has opened in the forest, one of many natural disasters occurring lately, and her child is at the bottom. Being the brave Pokemon that you are, your friend and you will travel into the forest to rescue your first Pokemon.

Upon completion of this task, your friend and you decide to form a Rescue Team, and the rest of the game is spent accepting missions (which are either delivered to your mailbox or posted on the town bulletin board), and completing the tasks required. Some missions have you saving a lost Pokemon in a dungeon; others may have you escorting one to meet another. Sometimes you have to bring a specific item to a waiting Pokemon.

The story will present itself here and there, however, those specialized rescue missions do not have to be taken right away. It will serve to explain why you became a Pokemon, and what is causing the Natural Disasters. In my case, I solved other missions before taking the "mandatory" story arc missions, sometimes to just level up before pushing into the next (harder) dungeon.

The dungeons in this game are randomly generated, and made up of floors. The further you get into the game, the more floors each dungeon has. Since it is random, everytime you enter, the floorplan will change.

Herein lies the problems: once you enter a dungeon, you cannot get out unless you are defeated, or use a special item. If you are defeated, you lose all held items and money. Choosing to exit prematurely acts the same and being defeated. Alternatively, you cannot return to a previous floor once you have advanced. While the game will conveniently tell you that you have "reached a destination floor", if you are not paying attention, you may advance to the next, and not complete a quest objective. This means that you have to re-do the entire dungeon again, however, you will not be penalized.

Since this game introduces the concept of "Hunger" (your lead Pokemon will get more hungry for each step that he takes), and dungeons get progressively larger while your maximum inventory capacity stays the same, you will find yourself out of food (although some will appear randomly within the dungeons) and slowly starting to weaken. You then have to decide between healing berries, revive seeds, max elixirs (which restore your PP, or attack points, so to speak), or food. This got so frustrating for me in one dungeon that I nearly threw the DS.

Finally, when you are completing escort missions, your "escort" is always level 1. You could be running a dungeon with level 20 Pokemon, and you will always have that level 1 escort. To make it better, this Pokemon will also attack other creatures (sometimes), and if you move across a tile funny, could be randomly teleported to another area of the same floor! If your escort dies, it is like you died... and guess what, you are back at the town with no items and no money. Better hope you saved before you started or have extras in the bank.

Controls

The game handles like a standard Pokemon game. There are menus to access your items and moves. "A" attacks, "B" accesses your menu options and also acts as a "Run" command when held while walking. "Y" helps to auto-target by aligning your Pokemon to automatically face a fight. Other command options exist, and are explained within the game.

Most function well, however, some things, like moving diagonally within a fight to save your teammate, don't work. Also, I had some times where the "B" button wasn't recognized. I thought this was my DS at first, but when I transferred the cartridge to my husband's, I had the same problem. You will have to press it repeatedly to access a menu, sometimes.

Your Pokemon will control nicely, most of the time. It will execute the moves that you want, and if you are equipped with a special item to protect against a certain attack, it will block that attack. Getting your teammates to attack (you can have up to 3 with you, and add one more in a dungeon) is like pulling teeth. They have to be right next to the attacking Pokemon, and once they are fighting, they will not move. This can pose a problem, namely, if you are in hallway, you cannot get past to help.

Graphics and Sound

Standard Gameboy quality graphics. Sprites, colorful, and no difference between the two games. Two-dimensional. Basically, every Pokemon game created for the Gameboy Advance, except you are controlling the Pokemon this time.

Sound is also generic. It is nice, but you will probably turn it down sometimes to listen to other music. It is dynamic, at least, and will change once you go to different areas. It sounds better than most Gameboy games, to my opinion, but not as good as a full-blown console title.

Overall

This is a cute title for everyone. Syrupy-oh-my-god-I'm-in-my-mid-20s-why-am-I-playing-this? The story will not take you long to complete, however, once beaten a bunch of extras open up, allowing you access to new dungeons and even MORE missions! Yay!

For the devoted Pokemon fans out there, this game is different, and certainly gives a fun new spin on Pokemon titles. You still get to collect Pokemon (now you recruit them randomly), but now they talk and have personalities. I enjoyed being able to play as a Pokemon, for once. Also, while the thought of running back and forth to dungeons seems boring, there is enough variety to keep it interesting. And challenge.

(As a comparison, for any of you that have played the Dark Cloud series on the PS2, or Monster Rancher 4, the dungeon generation is very similar).

Overall, I recommend this title wholehartedly for any Pokemon fan, or for someone that just wants a cute game. It is fun to play and has enough of a challenge that you will find yourself picking the DS back up for more.