"Better than PMD1 with only a few flaws"

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. To most hardcore gamers, this game is nothing more than a children's game that was meant to make money instead of being a true dungeon crawler. I, myself, used to completely agree with this assumption, and the moment I heard that Nintendo was going to make another game in the series, I was less than enthusiastic. But, due to the boredom one can experience during the long days of Summer, I decided to pick up this game and give this series another try. I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Story: 9/10

The story goes that you are the main character, and that you have somehow become a Pokemon with only the memories of being a human. You choose which Pokemon you will be by taking a personality test at the beginning of the game, which unfortunately is rather short and only gives you a portion of the main test. Your partner, whichever Pokemon you chose for your partner to be, finds you unconscious and alone on a beach. After waking up, you discover that you've been turned into a Pokemon and have no knowledge of your life prior to waking up, save knowing that you were once a human. Naturally, your partner won't understand what is wrong with you, but after having his/her only possession stolen, he/she begs you to make a "rescue team" with him/her and to get back his/her only possession back. No matter what you choose to do, you end up joining his/her "team" and going after the thieves. I'm not going to bother explaining any more of the story, but rest assured, the story isn't about doing trivial side-quest after another and saving the world from a mysterious force, much like PMD1. Every aspect of this game's story has been greatly improved from the previous game's story and PMD2 ends up having much more depth in the characters and plot line. You're often given a greater reason for exploring a dungeon than "exploring for curiosity's sake", which seemed to be the only motivation for doing all the dungeons in PMD1. For instance, by the third dungeon, you must save an Azurill from an Drowzee who claims to a nice, helpful Pokemon, but has ulterior motives. Another quality that makes the story above average it it's length. The story is roughly three times as long as PMD1's. I also thoroughly enjoyed that the was depth to the characters. I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but every character his/her own distinct personality and most aren't limited to one quality or feature. Most of the characters have different sides of their personalities. This is greatly emphasized by the time you go into the future. Everything that the gamer thinks is right in the story is completely flipped, and, well, I don't want to ruin anything for the reader. There is obvious amount of effort that was put into this story, and it's overall pleasing, save the lack of anything left once you are fully done with the game's story.

Graphics: 7/10

There's not much to say here. While good, the graphics for PMD2 could have been presented a tad better and made some changes in comparison to PMD1. But, between some of the beautiful cut scenes and the attention to detail presented in the Pokemon animations, there's not all that much to complain about. Overall, it was average quality in my opinion.

Sound: 8/10

There is a lot of good music themes in this game and an equal amount of music themes that annoyed me. Some dungeons like Blizzard Island, have a very good theme with enjoyable beats and rhythms, while dungeons like Drenched Bluff will just make you want to turn the sound on your DS down. As for animation sounds, there's nothing special to report.

Gameplay: 8/10

If you've never played a dungeon crawler before, than I'll give a quick summary of what a dungeon crawling game usually is. In dungeon crawlers, you explore dungeons that have no definite floor plan and you defeat enemies inside the dungeon to level. There are almost always items to be found on every floor, and each item has its own distinct use. For example, one item might put an enemy to sleep while another might revive you if run out of hit points (HP). To ascend or descend dungeons, you must find the staircase for the floor, which is always in a different section of the floor as opposed to previous attempts at the same floor of the same dungeon. Once you get to the top or bottom of the dungeon, more often than not, you will have to fight a boss and defeat said boss to progress the game. PMD2 uses this formula and adds Pokemon to said formula. You use moves such as scratch, peck, vine whip, etc. as means of attack, and you can also use a regular "tackle" that does a small amount if damage, but can always be used without consequence. After a certain point in the game, you can also recruit Pokemon to join your rescue team. Obviously, Pokemon such as Geodude and Machop will be easier to recruit than other Pokemon such as Mew and Groudon. Speaking of Pokemon joining your rescue team, if a Pokemon does join your team, you can choose to use it in dungeons by using Chimecho (He's the Pokemon friends organizer) to either have the Pokemon join your current team, which is limited to four Pokemon at a time, or send him/her away to rest. Also, you can only control one Pokemon in your team at all times, and he/she is the party leader. When there are other Pokemon in your party, you will have to set their actions. For example, if you want to make your fellow Pokemon attack more often than they explore, than you will have to set their tactics to "Go after other Pokemon". The only real gameplay problem is the lack of evolving. You cannot evolve until you get through about two-thirds of the game, and even then, you cannot evolve your Pokemon or your partner until you completely beat the game's story and recruit Dialga and Palkia. I can understand the need of a restriction on evolution, but it takes too long for you to be able to evolve your little Piplup. Lastly, you can choose to take missions from other Pokemon such as "I'm stuck in a dungeon, please get me", "I want to go into a dungeon, but I need someone to protect me", "Please stop a Pokemon from causing trouble", and so on. The missions are much more varied than PMD1 and give more interesting rewards, sometimes you can even get an egg from a mission. There's a lot of replay ability here, but the only problem is the lack of dungeons once you get through all of the game's story. But, this is a rather minor flaw, considering that there are at least eight dungeons you can get through the games wonder-mail, and that all the dungeons never stay the same.

Pokemon fan or not, if you enjoy a good dungeon crawler and you don't mind some of the "childish" qualities about Pokemon, I recommend giving this title a look. By no means is it perfect, but it will give you a satisfying experience if can immerse yourself into the game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/08

Game Release: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (US, 04/20/08)