Revisiting some of my old childhood franchises this year has been a bit of a mixed bag. Many of the party games I tried out were jankfests, a lot of the mascot 3D platformers I’ve played this year have been some degree of disappointing, and I Spy Spooky Mansion on the Wii left me disabled for a day while my right arm radiated red from abuse. Having said that, no retrospective catch-ups have disappointed me as much as my runs of a lot of the Pokemon spin-off games, which really have not aged well; that’s why it was such a breath of fresh air going back to Explorers of Sky, in the form of the newly released fan romhack, Explorers of the Spirit.
Firstly, I should note that this is a spiritual successor of sorts to Explorers of Sky; a lot of the past storyline is referenced, and you’ll need to have played the final special episode as well to get a lot of the context for what’s going on. As such, if you’re even remotely interested in Explorers of Sky, I absolutely recommend playing and finishing that first (and delving through most of the post-game as well, as a lot of crucial events happen after beating the main storyline that set up the premise of Explorers of the Spirit) before even considering this. It could be argued that the story’s more or less a fanfic “What If” continuation, but honestly, I think the writing’s pretty competent. Sure, your main character can be a bit of a brat at times (though that is a nice contrast compared to the mostly silent protagonist of Explorers of Sky) and a lot of expectations going into the game hinge upon previous knowledge of the game in which it’s based off of, but the authors did a solid job hitting a lot of the same story beats and motifs that are touched upon throughout the series in what I would consider a fairly natural progression and continuation to the series as a whole, while still subverting your expectations here and there to keep you hooked and guessing on what’s yet to come and expanding upon the backstories of a few side characters and enriching the worldbuilding here and there. My only real complaints are that a couple of the characters are removed somewhat abruptly in the form of “deus ex machinas” that are a tad too convenient, and that the ending, though still thoughtful, didn’t hit quite as hard as previous installments. Then again, it’s pretty hard to top the ending of Explorers of Sky, so I’ll give the writers credit where it’s due and admit that they were able to grip my interest throughout its runtime even if the finale didn’t quite blow me away.
I’ve already talked about the core gameplay loop at length not too long ago, so I’ll try not to sound like a broken record and just discuss the main differences instead. The most notable change is that Explorers of Spirit is a much more difficult game. In general, enemies in dungeons tend to be much higher level (and as such, with higher stats) and with more threatening moves (so expect plenty of projectile, surroundings sweep, and room wide attacks) and in the form of stronger species (so plenty of evolved Pokemon and some more “competitively viable” species like Skarmory and Garchomp). It’ll really push your preparation and knowledge skills to match up to the challenge, and as such, I definitely found myself fainting in dungeons more often due to unfortunate critical hits or just being overwhelmed from attacks. As a result, the game also feels a bit grindier since I often felt like I needed to get more treasure and Poke for TMs that would help me expand my moveset (since recruited allies are often not relevant during the majority of the story dungeons) as well as Gummis and general EXP growth just to get the necessary stat boosts to keep up with enemies. To its credit, the game does lean into its higher difficulty and “grindiness” somewhat well; there’s no consequence for fainting in dungeons besides having to restart the dungeon from floor one, whereas fainting in the original game would cause you to lose all your Poke and half of your items. As a result, you can just keep trying over and over in dungeons and becoming more familiar with the territory while getting plenty of loot and stat growth. The lack of consequences from failing also means that you don’t need as many preemptive measures to avoid the fail state, so there’s not as much of a pressing need to have an Escape Orb in the inventory (provided you’re not doing jobs) or constantly rely on Reviver Seeds as an RNG fail-safe against losing your most valuable items. The game also provides you with plenty of Max Elixirs and Apples within the dungeons themselves, so you don’t have to worry as much about starving or running out of PP, and there’s also care taken into the items found on the floors to adequately prepare you for what’s ahead as tailored to each mystery dungeon. For example, one dungeon assaults you with floor after floor of hail, but there are plenty of orbs that can be found and used to change the weather to something more palatable, like sun or rain. Another dungeon is filled with water that’s impassable for most species and often blocks some valuable items, but the floors have plenty of Drought Orbs to help you remove the water if you wish to do so. Finally, a few of the dungeons have a floor wide Monster House as the final challenge (in lieu of randomized traps or randomized Monster Houses, which I did appreciate), but do make sure to drop some room wide orbs like the All Mach Orb or the Foe-Fear Orb if you need a stopgap to help you deal with the sudden danger. Thus, this is definitely a game that will make you sweat, but I would hesitate to call it an unfair game or even a “cheap” game; as long as you know what you’re doing and keep at it, you’ll find a way to break through and feel quite satisfied doing so.
The only other major downfall of Explorers of the Spirit is a bit more akin to a limitation than a weakness, if that makes sense. Since Explorers of the Spirit is a story-focused romhack, there’s not much of a “post-game” element. You won’t be able to evolve your starter/partner in this romhack, or access a lot of the unlockable post-game dungeons such as World Abyss to recruit Giratina for example, since recruitment as mentioned earlier is downplayed due to many story missions not allowing outside party members. While you can continue playing the game after beating the final boss, all it does is place you right back before the final boss, allowing you to go back to Treasure Town to complete all the standard dungeons and jobs that you already could before Explorers of Sky’s post-game. There are some optional very late-game dungeons with some treacherous enemy Pokemon and souped up bosses that could serve as post-game material, since you’ll either need some tremendous stat boosts or some cheesy strats in the form of tons of Reviver Seeds, Vile/Violent Seeds, and Hunger Seeds, but ultimately I found that they required even more grinding than I expected, so I did not follow through with completing those dungeons and don’t plan on going back as of now. As an aside, this also does mean that the natural progression of improving your party via level-up, TMs, and stat drinks/Gummis feels far more condensed within the shorter runtime, so there’s a good chance that you won’t even get a lot of the skills and moves you’re actively looking for unless you’re really good at saving/finding money (albeit a bit easier when you don’t have to be spending tons of money on Reviver Seeds) and actively item grinding in dungeons for Gummis and TMs. It’s a bit of a shame that all the tools you need don’t necessarily feel easily accessible given how the pacing can feel a bit more rushed, though I will admit that depending on your starter character and partner as well as the ability to grind without consequence, these IQ skills and extra moves for coverage can be classified as less of a necessity and more of a luxury in many cases.
Regardless, I found Explorers of the Spirit to be a fruitful diversion and certainly a welcome break from the scores of middling Pokemon spinoffs that I have dabbled with this year. Ultimately, if you’re looking for the fully realized and classic Pokemon Mystery Dungeon experience, I’d still recommend delving into Explorers of Sky and experiencing the classic for yourself. If you’re a veteran of the series looking for something familiar to stretch your limbs and that itch, Explorers of the Spirit will definitely test your mettle while bringing you back to those good old times of saving an unfamiliar yet welcoming world from the depths of calamity alongside your best friends.
Firstly, I should note that this is a spiritual successor of sorts to Explorers of Sky; a lot of the past storyline is referenced, and you’ll need to have played the final special episode as well to get a lot of the context for what’s going on. As such, if you’re even remotely interested in Explorers of Sky, I absolutely recommend playing and finishing that first (and delving through most of the post-game as well, as a lot of crucial events happen after beating the main storyline that set up the premise of Explorers of the Spirit) before even considering this. It could be argued that the story’s more or less a fanfic “What If” continuation, but honestly, I think the writing’s pretty competent. Sure, your main character can be a bit of a brat at times (though that is a nice contrast compared to the mostly silent protagonist of Explorers of Sky) and a lot of expectations going into the game hinge upon previous knowledge of the game in which it’s based off of, but the authors did a solid job hitting a lot of the same story beats and motifs that are touched upon throughout the series in what I would consider a fairly natural progression and continuation to the series as a whole, while still subverting your expectations here and there to keep you hooked and guessing on what’s yet to come and expanding upon the backstories of a few side characters and enriching the worldbuilding here and there. My only real complaints are that a couple of the characters are removed somewhat abruptly in the form of “deus ex machinas” that are a tad too convenient, and that the ending, though still thoughtful, didn’t hit quite as hard as previous installments. Then again, it’s pretty hard to top the ending of Explorers of Sky, so I’ll give the writers credit where it’s due and admit that they were able to grip my interest throughout its runtime even if the finale didn’t quite blow me away.
I’ve already talked about the core gameplay loop at length not too long ago, so I’ll try not to sound like a broken record and just discuss the main differences instead. The most notable change is that Explorers of Spirit is a much more difficult game. In general, enemies in dungeons tend to be much higher level (and as such, with higher stats) and with more threatening moves (so expect plenty of projectile, surroundings sweep, and room wide attacks) and in the form of stronger species (so plenty of evolved Pokemon and some more “competitively viable” species like Skarmory and Garchomp). It’ll really push your preparation and knowledge skills to match up to the challenge, and as such, I definitely found myself fainting in dungeons more often due to unfortunate critical hits or just being overwhelmed from attacks. As a result, the game also feels a bit grindier since I often felt like I needed to get more treasure and Poke for TMs that would help me expand my moveset (since recruited allies are often not relevant during the majority of the story dungeons) as well as Gummis and general EXP growth just to get the necessary stat boosts to keep up with enemies. To its credit, the game does lean into its higher difficulty and “grindiness” somewhat well; there’s no consequence for fainting in dungeons besides having to restart the dungeon from floor one, whereas fainting in the original game would cause you to lose all your Poke and half of your items. As a result, you can just keep trying over and over in dungeons and becoming more familiar with the territory while getting plenty of loot and stat growth. The lack of consequences from failing also means that you don’t need as many preemptive measures to avoid the fail state, so there’s not as much of a pressing need to have an Escape Orb in the inventory (provided you’re not doing jobs) or constantly rely on Reviver Seeds as an RNG fail-safe against losing your most valuable items. The game also provides you with plenty of Max Elixirs and Apples within the dungeons themselves, so you don’t have to worry as much about starving or running out of PP, and there’s also care taken into the items found on the floors to adequately prepare you for what’s ahead as tailored to each mystery dungeon. For example, one dungeon assaults you with floor after floor of hail, but there are plenty of orbs that can be found and used to change the weather to something more palatable, like sun or rain. Another dungeon is filled with water that’s impassable for most species and often blocks some valuable items, but the floors have plenty of Drought Orbs to help you remove the water if you wish to do so. Finally, a few of the dungeons have a floor wide Monster House as the final challenge (in lieu of randomized traps or randomized Monster Houses, which I did appreciate), but do make sure to drop some room wide orbs like the All Mach Orb or the Foe-Fear Orb if you need a stopgap to help you deal with the sudden danger. Thus, this is definitely a game that will make you sweat, but I would hesitate to call it an unfair game or even a “cheap” game; as long as you know what you’re doing and keep at it, you’ll find a way to break through and feel quite satisfied doing so.
The only other major downfall of Explorers of the Spirit is a bit more akin to a limitation than a weakness, if that makes sense. Since Explorers of the Spirit is a story-focused romhack, there’s not much of a “post-game” element. You won’t be able to evolve your starter/partner in this romhack, or access a lot of the unlockable post-game dungeons such as World Abyss to recruit Giratina for example, since recruitment as mentioned earlier is downplayed due to many story missions not allowing outside party members. While you can continue playing the game after beating the final boss, all it does is place you right back before the final boss, allowing you to go back to Treasure Town to complete all the standard dungeons and jobs that you already could before Explorers of Sky’s post-game. There are some optional very late-game dungeons with some treacherous enemy Pokemon and souped up bosses that could serve as post-game material, since you’ll either need some tremendous stat boosts or some cheesy strats in the form of tons of Reviver Seeds, Vile/Violent Seeds, and Hunger Seeds, but ultimately I found that they required even more grinding than I expected, so I did not follow through with completing those dungeons and don’t plan on going back as of now. As an aside, this also does mean that the natural progression of improving your party via level-up, TMs, and stat drinks/Gummis feels far more condensed within the shorter runtime, so there’s a good chance that you won’t even get a lot of the skills and moves you’re actively looking for unless you’re really good at saving/finding money (albeit a bit easier when you don’t have to be spending tons of money on Reviver Seeds) and actively item grinding in dungeons for Gummis and TMs. It’s a bit of a shame that all the tools you need don’t necessarily feel easily accessible given how the pacing can feel a bit more rushed, though I will admit that depending on your starter character and partner as well as the ability to grind without consequence, these IQ skills and extra moves for coverage can be classified as less of a necessity and more of a luxury in many cases.
Regardless, I found Explorers of the Spirit to be a fruitful diversion and certainly a welcome break from the scores of middling Pokemon spinoffs that I have dabbled with this year. Ultimately, if you’re looking for the fully realized and classic Pokemon Mystery Dungeon experience, I’d still recommend delving into Explorers of Sky and experiencing the classic for yourself. If you’re a veteran of the series looking for something familiar to stretch your limbs and that itch, Explorers of the Spirit will definitely test your mettle while bringing you back to those good old times of saving an unfamiliar yet welcoming world from the depths of calamity alongside your best friends.