As I mentioned in my last post, I feel like I didn’t do this game justice the first time around. I kind of rushed through it in my eagerness to get to Super Mystery Dungeon, which I had just gotten for Christmas, and I didn’t bother to look into the post-credits stuff at all. So I’m starting up a new game.
Maybe this is silly, but I actually really like Torchic/Blazekin. I think Ace might become my permanent partner, meaning that if it’s possible, I’ll get a Torchic partner and name him Ace.
Anyway. Starting our new adventure on... I think it’s the Wind Continent? Yeah. Wind Continent. LET’S GO
I made it to the top in one go. Without using any Reviver Seeds, even. Dunno how I pulled that off!
Actually, it was getting to be a weird problem: I packed a bunch expecting trouble, and then I didn’t use them, but I kept finding more on the ground, and of course I have A Problem so I couldn’t just leave them on the ground... by the end of it I had like, 2 inventory pages of Tiny Reviver Seeds ;w;
Anyway. Destiny Tower is unlike any of the other dungeons in the game; every 5 floors, the terrain changes, as well as the types of Pokemon you find there. One section is full of Electric Pokemon, one is for Fire, etc. As far as I can tell it went through every type of Pokemon (including Ground, which was interesting and not entirely pleasant for me; I suspect I only got through there because Mew is OP and knows both Earth Power and Surf). One thing that I did that I think was a huge help was I brought one of the Never-Hungries looplets with me, the one that makes it so you just don’t get hungry (Satiated Looplet, I think???) so I didn’t have to pack or pick up any Apples. I have noticed that that is the biggest problem I have with getting through long dungeons; I’m plenty strong, I just start running out of PP and starve to death ;w; Luckily Elixirs are easy to find in Destiny Tower. Easily the easiest 99 floor dungeon I’ve done.
Having completed Destiny Tower, I have done everything there is to do in Super Mystery Dungeon. Connected to all the Pokemon, explored all the dungeons, found all the ancient treasures. I’m thinking next I might replay Blue Rescue Team, I think I didn’t do it justice last time; I moved on to Super immediately after the credits rolled because I had just gotten it for Christmas, I didn’t bother to look into any of the post-cred stuff. So I think that’s what I’ll do next.
“Uncanny Valley” is not a dungeon, but it’s been visited tonight
So uh. Discovered something slightly disturbing about this game. Not like, intentionally disturbing or put in there on purpose (Lavender Town, anyone?), more like a minor code oversight, but still kinda wigging me out.
Turns out, in Super Mystery Dungeon, if a Pokemon is a certain number of tiles away from the party leader, and therefore the camera, they count as “Off screen” and the game won’t bother to animate their walk cycle. Normally this is perfectly fine, you’d never see it.
But. There are certain Pokemon (Onix, Steelix, most if not all of the larger legendaries) that count as “massive,” meaning instead of taking 1 tile they take 3x3 tiles. In addition to posing a few pathfinding AI problems that range from humorous to annoying (A Kecleon in a dungeon shop was positioned right next to the entry to the room so Xerneas got stuck... again... *le sigh*) it also means that, with some of them, if things are juuust right, you can see the lack of walk animation in action. If they’re enough tiles away to count as “off screen” but are big enough to poke into the screen, they’ll just kinda... slide along motionlessly. It’s kind of eerie and I just. No. Do not like. Do not like.
So far I’ve only found a few Pokemon that do this; Yveltal’s head will poke up from the bottom of the screen when you’re moving up/north and have it positioned right, and the unmoving tips of Xerneas’ feet will be visible if you’re moving down/south. There are probably others, I just rarely take massive Pokemon into a dungeon unless they’re Motivated that day (see above: AI issues). I also don’t know if the same effect is found in Gates to Infinity, although it’s reasonable that it would, given that Super is made on the same engine (as far as I’m aware of). I may have to go back and test that. For Science.
Having played all the PMD games, I thought I’d rate them all based on how I think they stack up to each other, for no reason other than I wanted to! (I actually started doing this in a chat with a friend but I think he was getting bored...) Anyway, I’m ranking them based on a few criteria: Writing/Story content (without going into too many spoilers), Post-credits content, Bonus content (if any exists), and Mechanics, pointing out particular gripes I have along the way. Keep in mind that this is my opinion; I’m allowed to post it, and you’re allowed to think it’s stupid. Without further ado...
RED RESCUE TEAM/BLUE RESCUE TEAM
Writing/Story Content: Compared to later generations of PMD games, the story feels a bit rushed and oddly paced. That said, it’s not entirely fair to compare it to the games that came after; this was the first go, the experimental first game, and they didn’t know if it would be a success or a flop, so they probably didn’t have as many writers and programmers on board. Nevertheless, it’s charming, and definitely worth a replay one of these days. This was the first game to bring me to tears with feels, something all the subsequent PMD games would inherit.
Post-Credits Content: To be entirely fair, I’ve never gotten through all the post-cred stuff in this generation. Shame on me! I do remember that the one thing that made me kind of sad, is that your partner stops following you around through town :C Post-cred you get much more freedom, but very little guidance on what you’re supposed to do, which led a young Pogo into a bit of a dead-end before her game of RRT mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again...
Bonus Content: To the best of my knowledge, Red/Blue Rescue Team have no bonus content.
Mechanics: As stated earlier, this was the first generation of games, and it set all the major mechanics in place. That being said, there were definitely things that could’ve worked better:
- Recruitment/Friend Areas. I was always running out of room to recruit Pokemon, and it was improbably hard to recruit certain Pokemon (Mew being the big offender here.)
- Inventory Issues: You only get 2 “pages” of 8 items (for a total of 16 items) that you can hold in your bag... which is for some reason a Toolbox in this generation? I guess you could count one extra inventory slot for each team member, as this generation had each Pokemon have a separate 1 item inventory... Anyway, it was hardly enough sometimes. Another thing that could’ve been better: if you selected a consumable and chose “eat” or “ingest,” it would automatically be used by you/the player; the only way that I found to feed an Oran Berry to my partner was to literally throw it at him and hope he didn’t catch it instead. The graphics and sounds were a bit rudimentary compared to later games, but again, it gets a pass on this because it’s the first generation of games. Rescue mechanics left something to be desired; dual-slot communication between Red and Blue only worked half the time if memory serves, and it was a complicated and confusing process of sending/receiving mail.
Overall Rating: ★★☆ The white star is a consolation star, because it’s the first generation of games and it’s not really fair to compare it to later games in that sense.
EXPLORERS OF TIME/DARKNESS
Story: The Explorers series has, by far, one of my favorite stories of the entire series. There’s Adventure! Betrayal! Escape! Laughter! Tears! It’s a wonderful sucker-punch to the feels, and remains one of my Top 10 games of all time. If you’re looking to get into PMD, I highly recommend these games, or even better, Explorers of Sky (which has so much extra crap it gets it’s own review).The pacing and dialogue are much improved, and the characters are much more memorable; even the ever obnoxious Chatot became lovable after enough time.
Post-Credits Content: The Explorers series has so much post-credit story that it’s basically an entire other storyline, every bit as good as the first. You’ve saved the world once, think you can do it again?
Bonus Content: No bonus content for these games, alas! Sky more than makes up for that though...
Mechanics: The major differences that I noticed was an over-all smoothing of the inventory system. Now you can choose who eats what, and as your team’s rank increases, your bag gets bigger. Minor inventory tweaks include the team’s held items now being counted in the main inventory, and a change to Kangaskahn storage; instead of being able to deposit up to 99 of one item, which were all collapsed into one stack, the storage system here acts more like a very, very large bag, with each item taking up 1 slot. Again, like the bag, it gets bigger as your team rank increases, but it is finite. About the only gripe here is I’m a notorious hoarder and kept running out of room.
Another system they changed a bit was the recruitment system. Actually recruiting Pokemon works the same, you beat them and hope you get lucky, but you’re no longer restricted by Friend Areas. Further, you can send new recruits back to the guild, and they’ll stay in your team even if you fail the dungeon. The rescue system is much improved, taking full advantage of the DS system’s wireless functions; you can even send items and team members to other people.
Lots of new mechanics were introduced in this generation:
- Treasure Boxes: What’s inside? You won’t know until you open it, but there’s a good chance it’s going to be....
- Exclusive Items: A.k.a. those blue-worded ones you get from treasure boxes, named such things as “Pika-Hair” or “Char-Fang.” These are items that give a passive stat boost for their specific evolution line; they could be traded at the Swap Cauldron for upgraded versions, which is a fun little thing to play with if you’re a crazy completionist like I am.
- Different types of missions: True to their names, Red and Blue Rescue Team are all about rescue missions; unfortunately they don’t have any other mission types, and it could get really boring, really quickly. The Explorers series adds lots of different types of missions, including taking down criminals and delivering/recovering items. You’re no longer just a rescue team, you’re an exploration team!
- Eggs: Sometimes you receive an egg as a reward for a mission. Chancy will take care of it until it hatches, after which you can chose to have the newly hatched Pokemon join your team (although I find it kind of morbid that people are giving away unborn young as rewards...)
- Sentry Duty: A fun little minigame, which can net you some nice rewards if you’re good at it. Some people find it annoying, since you have to play it for a few plot sequences, but I enjoy it! It gives me Reviver Seeds
- More options for player/partner characters: Much wider selection of Pokemon you can play as, and choose for your partner.
Overall Rating: ★★★★
EXPLORERS OF SKY
Story: The core story of Explorers of Sky is identical to that of Time/Darkness, with some additional chapters that aren’t in the other two games, namely Sky Mountain and the Shaymin Village. Again, if you’re looking to get into the series, Explorers of Sky is the one I would recommend the most!
Post-Credits Content: As with the main story, Sky is more-or-less identical to it’s predecessors.
Bonus Content: Aside from additional chapters in the main storyline, Sky has additional “Bonus Episodes,” smaller, separate plot lines that explore the background of the other characters in the game. Most of them revolve around the other guild members, where you play as them and see events that occurred before, but are related to, your arrival at the guild. One episode, however, deals with with a certain grass-type Pokemon, far in the future, and offered some solace to my aching feels. All told, the Bonus Episodes add a significant chunk of extra plot for you to enjoy!
Mechanics: Further small refinements to the inventory system; you can give items to a team member out of a dungeon now. Exclusive Items have had the rarity/swap system slightly reworked, so if you exchange an exclusive item via wireless from Time or Darkness to Sky, it might have more rarity stars. Now you can save your game at the small watering hole at the crossroads instead of having to trek all the way back to your bed, which is very nice. Sometimes you can find bottles washed up on the beach, with a rescue request tucked inside, which can help beef up your job list. The graphics are much better looking, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites from any game.
The number-one big change, however, is the Spinda Juice Bar:
- Juice/Reworked Gummi System: Instead of taking them into a dungeon and stuffing your face, you can take them to Spinda, who will turn them into a delicious beverage. This grants the same IQ boost as a gummi normally would, along with the occasional additional stat boost. If Spinda makes a particularly amazing drink, you could get more than one boost. You can make juice out of most any food item, although only gummies have effects. Word of Warning: Do not make juice from grimy food. It will only end in tears!
- Random Juice Prizes: Sometimes you’ll find a piece of paper tapped to the bottom of your glass. These often reveal a new dungeon, which often have treasure boxes on the furthest floors. Other times a Pokemon from across the room will ask to join your team, or give you an egg.
- Extra Missions: Sometimes you’ll find a Pokemon waiting near the entrance of the Juice Bar, who will give you a mission request personally.
- Your extra team members will wait inside the Juice Bar instead of out by the watering hole. You can buy them drinks too.
- Recycle Shop: If you have spare items hanging around in your storage that you’re never gonna use, you can trade them in for other items or prize tickets at the Recycle Shop. Prize tickets can be used in a raffle, and come in three tiers: Normal, Silver, and Gold. The higher the tier the more items you have to recycle to get the ticket, but the better the prizes are. There’s a rather special surprise if you get a Big Win... If enough items are recycled, eventually it will unlock new dungeons.
- You can evolve! Hooray!
Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Seriously one of my favorite games ever, cannot recommend enough.
GATES TO INFINITY
Story: The story for Gates to Infinity is solid and enjoyable, with many a good plot twist. One I saw coming, the others, I did not! It has just as much feels-punching goodness as the other games, however...
Post-Credits Content: ... the story is rather short, particularly when compared to the Explorers series. There’s a brief bit of post-credit story, but it’s short and rather predictable. After it ends, you’re given free rein, but there’s no further achievements to go for; no rare treasure, not much for completionists to aspire to. I’m afraid it got boring rather quickly. There are only a few super-challenging dungeons, and the “hardest” dungeon was not worth it at all, loot-wise which I’m still a little bit salty about.
Bonus Content: DLC exists for Gates to Infinity, but what I bought didn’t add much. It also takes space on your SD card, which is bad news if your card is small.
Mechanics
Here’s the good:
- Fancy new 3D graphics! Ooh!
- Storage is back to being unlimited
- AR Dungeons: You can point the 3DS camera at a circular-looking thing and find a randomly generated dungeon there.
- V Wave: Every day a different type of Pokemon will get stat and XP boosts in dungeons; i.e. when the V Wave is Fire, Fire Pokemon will get more XP. You can play a minigame to change the V Wave, but it costs Poke.
- Shared Team XP: Everyone on your team roster, even the ones who aren’t in the dungeon, will get XP from each exploration.
- Evolution: Evolution is now much easier, not requiring any specific area, but now your enemies can evolve too!
- Move Levels: As you use a move, it will get better and better. Every time it levels, it gets more Power, Accuracy, or PP, or any combination of those things. Much like how XP is shared across all team members, move levels are shared as well; if you’re a Pikachu who knows Electro Ball IV, your Emolga team member will also know Electro Ball IV.
- Glorious Gold: Occasionally you find a gold bar on your explorations. These are useless on their own, but you can trade them to Cofagrigus for money and rare items! GLORIOUS! SPARKLIES!
- Paradise: You basically build half the town. Outside of the Kecleon Shop and a few other core stores, you can buy and clear land to build new facilities. Some of these are shops that specialize in one thing and will buy that at a higher price (For instance, you can open an Oodles of Orbs or a Berries and Seeds), some are Dojos where you can improve your moves (see Move Levels above), one shop is a recycle shop (now named the Swap Shop), and some are minigames.
- You can now save from the menu anywhere in town.
- You can pick which Pokemon you want to be from the get-go, no more resetting and taking the stupid quiz 24 times to get the one you want!
- New recruitment method: You can give gifts, either found in dungeons or purchased from Cinccino in town, to a specific Pokemon to befriend them. Super useful with legendaries!
- Dungeon Distortions: After the main game, dungeons will receive a level of Mysteriousness. The higher the level, the more likely something weird will happen. Sometimes you’ll find a floor that only has one kind of item or enemy, or is made entirely of corridors. Sometimes you’ll wind up in a completely different area for a bit, such as the Gilded Hall...
- IQ skills are now party-wide, and can be found in treasure boxes, getting rid of the Gummi system.
- Multiplayer Dungeons: I never experimented with this? I don’t know anyone else who owns the game.
- Rampardos opens boxes by literally smashing them to pieces with his head. This isn’t actually a new feature but I think it’s funny.
Here’s the bad:
- Almost all Pokemon from anything but Gen 5 are conspicuously absent.
- Kangaskahn and the Bank are gone, now both storage and banking are handled by a Deposit Box.
- Purple Kecleon is also gone :C
- No Exclusive Items
And the ugly:
- There are only 5 options for the Pokemon you play as and your partner. The 3 Gen 5 starters, Pikachu, and Axew.
- They removed Job Stacking, which is the term I use for doing multiple missions in one dungeon run. Why they did this, I have no idea, but it drives me up the freaking wall. Biggest gripe right there.
- Completely overhauled the rescue system, now it relies on Street Pass. You have to hope someone else has the game, and has a Reviver Seed in their Passerby Post. This worked well for me on campus but sucks if you don’t live in an area with many other Pokemon fans.
Overall Rating: ★★★ Overall, I feel like this game was rushed; it had a lot of potential, but some critical mistakes were made. The only thing saving it from being worse than Red and Blue Rescue Team is the plot.
SUPER MYSTERY DUNGEON
Story: The storyline of Super is very reminiscent of the Explorers series, for reasons that are spoilery so I won’t get into them, you’ll just have to play it and see for yourself! And prepare to have your feels hit hard by the twist at the end! Definitely one of my favorite games of the series.
Post-Credits Content: Super is also somewhat lacking in the post-credits storyline, but what there is is longer and put together much better than what Gates had to offer. Also, a certain legendary joins your team... After the storyline is over, there are plenty of achievements to strive for, such as map completion, and a list of rare treasures to collect.
Bonus Content: As far as I know there’s no DLC for Super Mystery Dungeon.
Mechanics:
Things that are new/changed:
- Party size: Decreased from 4 to 3. Not a super huge deal. Client Pokemon who accompany you are now additional and won’t take a party slot.
- Completely overhauled mission/recruitment systems: The Connection Orb replaces the old mission system, and while it’s very similar, once a mission is completed, the client becomes Connected, meaning they are now in your team roster. You can get all 720 Pokemon this way. No more delving into a 99 floor dungeon to try and find that one legendary! As connections spread, more missions will be unlocked. Sadly this means missions are finite, as far as I can tell...
- Kangaskahn now runs the Connection Cafe. Talk to her to receive any rewards you get from missions.
- Job Stacking is back THANK ARCEUS!
- Motivation: This replaces the V Wave system. Every day or so 3 random Pokemon on your team roster will become Motivated. Motivated Pokemon get triple XP for the day. If an Unown is Motivated, and you bring it along, it doubles everyone’s XP, motivated or not; this means Motivated Pokemon will get six times the normal XP, which, let’s be honest, is the only time you’d ever bring an Unown in the party.
- Many, many more options for the player/partner characters: All starters from gen 1 to 6, along with Pikachu and Riolu. The quiz is back, but if you don’t like the result, you can just pick which one you want.
- Lucha Tokens: After the credits roll you can take a Lucha Token to Hawlucha to change a Pokemon’s ability, assuming their species can know more than one.
- Looplets and Emeras: These replace both the scarves and IQ system; Looplets are bracelets with notches for gems called Emeras. Emeras come in many varieties, and when placed in a Looplet, they give the holder certain effects. Some of these are immunity to traps or bad status conditions, some are like the IQ skills from older generations (finding the stairs, knowing where shops are, etc.) and some are passive stat buffs. One Emera, Awakening, is how Mega Evolution is used; placing an Awakening Emera into a looplet will either Mega-Evolve the holder, or give the holder the Awakened status, which greatly boosts attack power and makes you immune to attacks from the front. Sadly Awakening only lasts a short time and will burst afterwards.
- Progress Device: Replaces the Quick Save function. It’s an item that can be placed on the ground in a dungeon, allowing you to save your game there. Unlike Quick Save, this save data won’t be cleared after reloading, so you can reload there multiple times.
- World Map: In a radical new step, you can now travel to 5 different continents, each with their own towns and dungeons! After comparing many, many different maps from all the games, I can safely say that these continents (aside from the Water and Sand continents) are, in fact, the worlds from the previous games; the Air Continent is where Red/Blue Rescue Team take place, the Grass Continent is where the Explorers Series took place, and the Mist Continent is where Gates to Infinity took place. (no idea where the Sand Continent is from though, possibly those PMD games that were only in Japan?) In addition to that there are CAMEOS. CHARACTER CAMEOS, EVERYWHERE! Made my inner fan super happy!
- Wonder Mail is back. In addition, you can now attempt to rescue yourself, using a team built from your roster.
Things that are removed:
- No more building of dojos and shops. Sadly this means no recycle shop, but most core shops are readily available.
- No AR dungeons and no multiplayer dungeons (did anyone even use those...?)
Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Right up there with Explorers of Sky. Another game I would reccomend if you’re looking to get into the series.
Recently learned that there’s no IV/EV system in PMD. This means there’s no limit on how many vitamins you can chug; you can’t actually max out EVs because there are none.
Time to chug Calcium and Carbos like they’re going out of fashion!
(Side note: I keep finding Protein but my moveset is entirely special? ATTACK IS A DUMP STAT, WHAT DO I DO WITH THESE)
Sorry this blog’s been kind of dead. Life happens and I don’t play PMD year round. Anyway, I started up a new save file on PSMD. This time Ace is a Torchic; I actually originally go the name “Ace” from a dream I had where I was partners with a Blaziken so having him as a Fennekin kind of bugged me on some level? Like I picked Fennekin because SOOPER CUTE but yeah.
Anyway. Completed the story again, back to posting dumb dungeon shenanigans.
Inktober day 22! It’s still the 22nd where I live for 15 more minutes so IT COUNTS IN MY BOOK! I missed a day there so you get two today.
Dusknoir. OH MAN I HATE THIS GUY. Ok, maybe not all Dusknoir, but ONE IN PARTICULAR I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH.
A bone named Grovyle.
*sobs*
And the second picture, at the suggestion of a friend, Rockruff!
Maybe it’s because I stayed up all night playing and my emotions get away with me when I’m tired, but knowing a sad goodbye is coming MAKES ME CRY MORE ;w;
Back from being a fugitive! I remember that part of the game being much, much harder when I was a kid... but then again, that was like nine years ago...
That said, I can’t for the life of me remember what comes next. I guess we’ll find out.
BIG OL’ RAMBLE CONTAINING SPOILERS FOR EVERY POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON GAME UNDER THE CUT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
One of the constant plot elements in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, right from the beginning of the series in Red and Blue Rescue Team, is a stretch of dungeons where you have to run for your life. I’ve come to expect it by now; for me, it just wouldn’t be PMD without running frantically trying to avoid whoever’s after you. I’m almost a Running Away Pro by now.
I wasn’t always good at it, though. I remember the first time Gengar turned the town on me in Red Rescue Team, and I had to leg it over Mt. Blaze. I was really young and new to Pokemon, and didn’t understand type matchups at all; Moltres was my mortal enemy. The words “En guarde!” were etched into my brain countless times before he mopped the floor with me. Once I finally did beat Moltres-- by the skin of my teeth-- I thought it was over. Surely nothing could be harder than that?
Yeah, I was wrong. Very wrong. Articuno and Powder Snow taught me that countless times over. I don’t remember how many times I lost to that bird. But I beat it somehow, because I got to the end of the game. This time around, with my new-to-me copy of Blue Rescue Team, with some 9 years of Pokemon knowledge under my belt, I knew what was coming and spammed the parahax and Thundershock.
The most memorable bout of running for my life wasn’t actually my first. It came some years later, when I was playing through Explorers of Time for the first time. I probably remember it so well because of the bizarre events that lead up to it. I was staying the night at my aunt’s house, and couldn’t sleep. So I was playing my game, feeling proud for having caught Grovyle, when all of a sudden Dusknoir yanked me through the time portal. What the heck? Next thing I know I’m in a dark, monochrome world, tied to a pillar, about to be executed by Sableye. It just seemed too dark, too sinister, too unreal to be in a Pokemon game.
It was the first time in my life I ever asked myself, in all seriousness, if I had fallen asleep and was dreaming. I was already in a strange house, in the dead of night, unable to sleep, and my brain refused to wrap itself around what just happened. Disbelief at its finest. I couldn’t sleep after that; I had to get back to Treasure Town before my mind would stop racing. I was on edge the entire time, even more than when I fled Pokemon Square as a fugitive in Red Rescue Team; when I finally did get back to the past, I went to sleep half expecting to wake up and find it had just been some sort of convoluted dream my brain had cooked up.
Needless to say, it was not.
When I started up Gates to Infinity for the first time, I had come to expect some sort of betrayal and run for my life. I just wasn’t sure when it would go down, or how. I called Munna out pretty early on in the game, but what I wasn’t expecting was having my partner captured and having to flee on my own. Daybreak Ridge proved to be quite a stressful (but weirdly exhilarating) run. I think I was running on some strange adrenaline high. I thought I was seriously toast when those two Excadrill showed up; I could maybe handle one, but two? With a Salamence? This turned into another moment of disbelief when who shows up but Hydreigon, who promptly pushed me off the cliff.
I mean, he caught me and saved me afterwards, but it was still alarming.
I already touched a bit on my betrayal in Super Mystery Dungeon. Again, I had come to expect it, but didn’t have a clue about who it would come from-- until about four seconds before Nuzleaf went all evil on me. After which I was turned to stone and sent to the Voidlands-- which were oddly pink, for a place with such a foreboding name. Seriously, that’s the first thing that came to mind when I arrived there.
My run through the Voidlands reminded me very strongly of being in the Paralyzed Future, and had some of the same sense of urgency. I took some comfort in finding Dedenne and the others, and traveling in a group, but that got ended fairly quickly when Entei and the others “captured” us. In hindsight, I know what they were planning, but at time time I was pretty miffed at them. What a way for legendary Pokemon to act!
One thing that I remember vividly from the Voidlands was the ancient writing on the wall. Messages left by unknown Pokemon, who knows how many years ago. I’ve always been interested in ancient things, and I still can’t help but wonder, who were they? How did they get to the Voidlands? Did they have to learn all the things they wrote the hard way? Did they ever escape? What became of them if they did? Ace and I wound up in a different area than Dedenne and the rest; there’s no way the Pokemon who wrote the ancient messages would know where we would appear. So did the ancient Pokemon leave messages all over the Voidlands, hoping to reach as many Pokemon as they could? Did some stay behind, making that their mission?
Maybe I’m getting carried away, but I still can’t help but wonder.
I didn’t have a lot of time to wonder about it, though, because Dark Matter showed up and ruined things. That was worse than being chased by the Sableye in Explorers; at least they were Pokemon. You can fight Pokemon. But being pursued by an enemy you can’t fight, being the only two of a large group to escape, and then returning to a world nearly devoid of non-petrified Pokemon, not knowing if we’d get any assistance, made it one of the most harrowing running-for-my-life sprees I’ve ever done.
Going to visit Xatu in Super Mystery Dungeon… And I remembered doing this before. A long time ago. In a different game.
We were on a camping trip, and had stopped at a laundromat to wash things. I don’t remember where we were camping, but I do remember the laundromat. It was basically empty. I parked myself in a corner with my copy of Red Rescue team and proceeded to fail to reach Xatu a lot. I don’t remember why, but that dungeon was really giving me trouble…
Now that I’ve gotten my hands on Blue Rescue Team, I’ve realized that they reused/revamped the music from the Great Canyon (where you meet Xatu in Red/Blue Rescue Team) for the Sand Dune of Spirits in Super Mystery Dungeon (where you meet him in Super Mystery Dungeon).
This makes me oddly happy. Throwbacks to older games that I loved always do.
How many other songs did they reuse? I know the song for the Electric Wasteland in Super Mystery Dungeon is the theme for Amp Plains in Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, just redone and (I think) improved. I wonder how many others there are... now I have to find out...
(And yes, I am still having flashbacks to that laundromat. They had a Pac Man arcade cabinet. And I remember where we were camping now! Arches National Park. I remember thinking how the Great Canyon looks a lot like Arches.)
