I haven't played any of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games since Sky, but I'd sure like to.
The difference between Darkness/Time and Sky is astounding. So many issues were fixed and the general play went a lot smoother.
If I didn't suck at the game so badly, it might even be fun :)
In Sky, I got vulpix btw and my partner is/was shinx :3
Vulpix kinda sucks tho bc there's so few IQ skills that work as a leader in combat, and the moveset is really weak against most enemies. The HP is also low AND Vulpix is weak to a good 80% of the enemy types encountered, which means lots of deaths.
Also I'm just bad at the game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I only managed to beat the main story by overlevelling myself and my partner, farming red & yellow gummies in Apple Woods, and filling all slots in my bag with reviver seeds. The post game was easy, up until the second Big Bad, which… well, I left Cresselia on the edge of Sharpedo Bluff for a long time until I was able to overlevel my characters again, which was HARD because by then they were already in the late 60s…