THE GOOD:There were many, many good things about this game. Such as the advanced story line, and even some exclusive items that could only be found in Darkness. With the next generation pokemon added in, and more dungeons to travel, this game is at the top of my most rated games. New items to use, and new pokemon to use makes this game one of the Mystery Dungeon out there!
THE BAD:
Although the good does outweigh the bad, there are a few bad things about this game. The stronger bosses, and long adventure without being able to buy items or save ALL the time really hurts my view on this game. Also, having to give most of the money you make doing jobs to the Guild really made me upset. The more challenging battles also was a take on me.
SUMMARY:
Chun Soft really out did themselves here. Compared to the original Mystery Dungeons, this one beat them by a mile with better graphics, sound, bosses, and even wonder mails!
Each boss was set into the story in a unique way, excluding the wonder mail bosses such a Groundon and Rayquaza. Most of the bosses you met in the story mode only needed to be fought twice to recruit, but some of them you needed to recruit like any other pokemon. Even though I am sad they don't give experience points, unlike the ones in the original Mystery Dunegon did, they still are much better in power and health.
Jobs were a bit different in this game than the ones in the originals. Here, they added Star missions that could go from 1 star to 9 stars. Each setting it's own difficulty to the dungeon it is in. It kinda amazed me that you could do a S ranked mission close to the beginning of the game, mainly because I was used to having S ranked missions be one of the hardest kinds of missions. Also, there were other types of job. Some are just plain rescue jobs, and the others could be exploring with a pokemon, going through a dungeon to obtain an item, or even escorting pokemon to other pokemon. All those jobs make this game tough, but fun at the same time.
Moves were a vital to winning the game. With new pokemon, comes new moves I always say. With moves like Vaccume Cut and Discharge you could hit every pokemon within range. But other moves such as Lava Plume and Thunderbolt, you could hit pokemon only if they were 1 tile away from you!
What really amazed me in this game were the items. New items were every where! Such as the Violent Seed and the Foe-Fear(Or Seal, I can't remember correctly) that were exclusive to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. Other items like the rare and valuable Golden Mask also made me giggle with joy at how easy I could recruit pokemon once gotten. Pokemon stat helping items like the Charizard Seal, also make me think about how to construct my team. Using different items to effect my stats, and even protect me from one of the pokemon weakness really made me jump out of my seat.
Some of the new IQ Skills also were quite confusing. Some made stats higher and some lowered, and some made you live longer in dungeons without food. Some had my partner protect me from danger, and some made me way more powerful.
The most annoying thing in this game was the annoyance of the constant need for food. It seemed like the belly ran down to 0 faster than it did in the game. I had always tried to keep about 5-7 apples with me at all times, but by the of the end of a 20-30 floor dungeon, they were all gone. But the survivalist skill really helped me out later.
Evolution really ticked me off this time. Not only could we not evolve after beating the first part of story mode, we couldn't even after finishing it all. we had to recruit Palkia to do that, and going through Spacial Rend isn't that easy you know. Nor is fighting Palkia the first, nor second time.
Recruiting pokemon this time was slightly easier in this game than in the original 2. You didn't need to buy friend areas, so you were able to get any pokemon at any time, if possible. And there were more items to help you recruit pokemon instead of the 1 item in the original game (Friend Bow) such as the Terra Symbol and the Golden Mask.
Building teams in this game isn't a big issue mainly because anything can taken down any other thing in the game. My Cyndiquil took down Palkia by itself. xD
This game had it's ups and downs, but over all it was a good game that deserved more publicity than it got. I give this gave a 4 out of 5 for my score, and I say if you really want to have fun with pokemon games, check this one today!
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