Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team

"Mysterious Dungeon is an adventure not to be missed"

Well, here we are with another Pokemon spinoff game. Only this time the spinoff borrows many of the elements from the main games and integrates them somewhat sucessfully. After playing the game through for about a week in order to get a complete and honest opinon, the game is almost as good as the main series, could be better, but it's a pretty solid first effort.

Story

-Now when you think of a Pokemon game, the story is the LAST thing you're thinking about. It's almost unbelieveable to think that a Pokemon game could have a well thought out story, but statistically, it had to happen sometime. I won't spoil it, but the story is dark at points, hilarious, sad, and overall uplifting. Many of the myths and legends of the Pokemon universe are actually touched upon and it's kinda nice that the story is somewhat cannon to the main series. Not the best story of all time in an RPG, but it's pretty nice to actually see a story in a Pokemon game get some extra effort added to it. The "certian event" after the credits ended could have been handled better, but oh well.

Gameplay

-This is a dungeon crawler. Basically the name of this type of game is to explore randomly generated dungeons, collecting items, fighting, leveling up, gaining new powers, and trying to complete your goals without dying. If you're into that kinda stuff(and if you're a Pokemon fan you probably are already) this game is for you.

This game has many gameplay additions to the genre such as including many staples of the main 3rd gen Pokemon games such as moves, TMS/HMs, abilites, catching pokemon(or recriuting them in this case), hold items, battle abilites, and more. The battles take place in a semi real time enviroment which is actually refreshing for the series as it's more RPG-ish in a traditional sense. Using a moves like Bubble beam, ShockWave and Earthquake can hit Pokemon far away but you could get caught in the crossfire as well. Moves like Dig, Dive, and others are more realistically executed as there are certian enviroments in which some moves can and can't work. The terrian also plays a part in how you explore and battle as some areas in dungeons cannot the reached unless you play as the right Pokemon. And in later dungeons, traps come into the scene and those effects range from triggering explosions, status damage, warping to other places/floors randomly, and more.

There are also items you can equip and use as weapons such as the Blast Seed which is more like a bomb and Orbs that alter the battle conditions or perform taks like escaping from dungeons sending foes across the room, inflicting damage and other such madness. As can be execpted, you can throw items across the battle fields to aid a teammate who you couldn't get to in time but that goes both ways as you could end up aiding an enemy by accident.

There is also the addition to the system such as linking moves, in which some moves can be used all together in the same turn, adding a bit more depth to the battle system. Common Pokemon tactics like Endure/Reversal, BPassing, Sub/TwavePunching, sweeper sets, and others are given a new twist.

However, the control scheme is a bit tricky to navigate at first and using items on teams though the menus could have been better executed but it's not so frustrating that it'll cause you to throw the game down.

The game is moderately difficult and forces you to adapt to the playing style so if you don't grasp the basic game concepts after the 3rd dungeon, you're in trouble.

Graphics

-The graphics could have been done better but it's not too bad. The graphics outside of dungeons are pretty nice but the dugeon tilesets could have used alot more variety to them honestly. The pokemon themsevles and move animations are adaquate enough.

Music and Sound Effects

-The sound effects are ok, nothing to annoying. The music score however is varied and pretty good. None of the music in the game is borrowed from other Pokemon games and is oringinal. Didn't expect that.

Replayabilty

-The story mode is about 20-30 hours long but as with Pokemon games of the main series, the REAL fun is to be had after the main quest is done. The ingame missions are endless and ever changing, there are 386 Pokemon to be caught and yes, you can control every last one of them, there are special dungeons after the game, each with a uqiue challege like reverting back to level 1, 99 floors, no item or teammates, etc, there is the challenge of getting your teams to level 100 as in the main games, and rescuing other people from across the globe via the password functions.

It's repetitive yes, but it's fun, and what Pokemon is known for.

My Wishes for the much deserved sequel:

-WIFI game options to fight other teams, trade Pokemon, and an introduction to Co-op missions and death style matches for rank

-More varied and beautiful dungeon graphics and layouts

-Minigames

-Longer story mode

Overall, one of the better games out for the DS, at least until Diamond and Pearl come out in the US next year. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting a continuation to this spinoff.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/06