"Explorers of Sky was the last good one", "The story is too childish", and "The good gameplay from previous PMDs is gone" are all points I used to agree with... as someone who joined the hivemind and never played the game for themselves all those years back.

But now I know better: You have to look into not just this game, but all games beyond surface level to review them properly. Contrary to popular belief, there's a lot to discuss here, including the plot twists PMD fans tend to enjoy, but I'll have to keep it easy to understand by only mentioning the most important points the masses came here to learn about. Fair warning, some spoilers for Explorers of Sky too.

If you can tolerate the god-awfully slow text speed, the story is right up there with Explorers of Sky, if not better, while the gameplay still works for what it is. Why? Well, imagine what it'd be like if you and your Partner led Wigglytuff's Guild, but with a better sense of morals and closer emotional connections between your "main teammates" (Think guild members if going off Explorers comparisons), all with their own personalities and character arcs. The very 1st major story arc of Gates to Infinity demonstrates this greatly with Gurdurr, who isn't even part of the aforementioned main teammates, but goes through similar motions, being a criminal who tries to deceive you and your Partner into endless labor, before deciding to work with you for real after reminding him of his days of honest work as a carpenter, once broken apart from injuries followed by a malicious client who wanted to badmouth his line of work before destroying his labor of love. Despite this change of heart, Gurdurr here is still a flawed individual, with tendencies of suspicion and violence still remaining, because no one changes their morals entirely on the flip of a dime; it takes time. I could just go "LOL HOPE VS DESPAIR IT'S DISCOUNT DANGANRONPA!", but in truth, the main theme here ends up being the impact of relations between Pokemon, as well as how individuals perceive themselves based off how they make said relations. Positivity and negativity are also themes in the story on their own, but you can view plenty of videos regarding that topic; I’m here to highlight what I find even more important than that. Gurdurr's relations go towards his 2 Timburr co-workers, who admit to being compliant in his criminal activities, but only because their attachment to Gurdurr made them want to find ways to both gain his favor and change his heart back to the way it used to be; relations cause people to do great or horrible deeds depending on the context.

Something this emotional just happened IN THE 1ST ARC, and it was here when I started questioning what the bandwagon told me; was I even playing the same game they were? Yes, the gameplay wasn't as polished as earlier titles, but it had refreshing new ideas to help alleviate that along the way, such as gridless floors (Which work like the overworld maps located outside of dungeons) integrated into small parts of the dungeons, quality of life changes for balance (Bye-bye full-screen Powder Snow!), and now the new Paradise unlocked to start the "your own guild" aspect I mentioned earlier. Besides housing your recruits, Paradise doubles down on the resource-management aspect the series is either loved or hated for, giving you more choices such as investments in crops, dojos to help with the newly introduced move level-up mechanic, extra shops, and bonus dungeons, all to feel like the leader in charge here; this seems like a logical followup to Explorers thematically speaking, which in theory at least, should give fans a lot to look forward to. There's also many miscellaneous changes that fans are split on, such as the typeless attack dealing a fixed 5 damage, Weather effects not allowing natural healing or the removal of the Hunger meter, but I personally view these as different rather than good or bad, given how these smaller aspects had little to no bearing on the difficulty of most dungeons to begin with, unless relevant abilities are involved.

What about your Partner then? Well, like most things in Gates to Infinity, doing a repeat of Explorers would be exceptionally dull and shallow, so instead, your Partner feels more like the Rescue Team Partner in terms of optimism, but with more depth than you may think with that label I just threw: They might be charismatic and outgoing now, but their circumstances, as revealed in the 3rd Arc, were anything but that, never meeting their parents and never being able to make friends until they met you by mere coincidence. Your partner’s exterior may look like a perfect goody two paws who can do no wrong, but deep down, is a troubled friend who's just as flawed as the others. Why does someone like them tell you all this? Because after seeing Leavanny and Herdier help their children, they figured that you, being a human, must've had family members or friends of some kind in your own world; family has now weaved itself into the aforementioned relations aspect.

And yes, this story acknowledges you as a human more closely than previous entries did, by also having your memories intact, able to more easily project yourself onto your player character at this very moment. Because of circumstances like these, as well as interesting scenarios you're later faced with, you turn out to be just as interesting of a character as the Partner. Even without much of a character arc behind you and the Partner, the backstory, upbringings, and actions taken as a result of what you 2 are as individuals; good people who happen to be in a pessimistic society that refuses to get along well, help create a fascinating story that manages to stand out from both Rescue Team and Explorers. Despite all this, Gates to Infinity is also the most humorous PMD, not afraid to crack in-universe jokes based off how characters behave in the current situation, but even these are mostly well-written to the point of simply adding more to the experience as well as giving your main teammates more lines between key moments. Speaking of the main teammates, they're also pessimists at first, although more subtle, and will go through endearing character arcs tied to the theme of relations on the same level of emotion as Gurdurr's, turning out just as strong of characters as you and your Partner, able to make decisions on their own that impact the story greatly.

Gameplay-wise, all main teammates are mixed attackers as indicated by their equal Attack and Special Attack stats while being different in Defense, Special Defense, Type Matchup, Movepool variety, Abilities, etc., making them versatile enough to encourage multiple playthroughs especially if you have TMs ready, because they're also available in more main story dungeons than the recruits of any other PMD to date! Combined with all recruits not in dungeons gaining EXP as well, the main teammates and their different playstyles all help make up for the meager 5 choices of Pokemon for you and your Partner at the beginning. On top of that, certain story dungeons such as the Forest of Shadows with its list of Wild Pokemon having 1 with a type advantage for each starter, are balanced around this limitation, same for the often disliked "1 job per day" aspect, although I do think the latter should've been removed as soon as the Post-Game began. Still, with gameplay aspects like these complimenting what people liked about previous entries damn well, "the good gameplay from previous PMDs is gone", an idea I once thought as true, simply isn't the case here. Sure, it's not as fully featured as previous entries, but the core still lives on, able to satisfy those willing to give it a fair try from time to time. Heck, it's more accessible than ever, thanks to its easier difficulty and a "Companion Mode" that allows you to grind levels and items if the main story has you stuck. If a remake were to improve the gameplay such as zooming out the field of view like Super Mystery Dungeon's to make battling more comfortable, or expanding the Pokemon roster to all from Gen 1-5 and beyond, it'd easily become the best Pokemon Mystery Dungeon by all accounts in my book.

As you make it through said gameplay, thanks to you and your friends in Paradise, you'll help those in Post Town and defeat the antagonists, who destroy "the story is too childish" by simple association of being part of an extreme death cult. With no relations to call their own besides each other, their character motive is surprisingly strong among Pokemon antagonists. Although this death cult consists of nihilistic Pokemon united together for a common cause, they want to start the entire world over using one of nature's hidden entities (This entry released almost a whole year before X & Y by the way), knowing this means their own deaths too, because that's what they perceive to be the greater good, not for self-gain or anything bigger than life.

WAIT A MINUTE... doesn't that sound familiar? It should, because although the goal itself is messed up, the methodology to reach it is what happened in Explorers of Sky between you and Grovyle; a suicide mission done for a greater goal than one's own life. Not just that, but the lack of positive relations sounds quite similar to what your Partner went through; although both sides have charismatic leaders who brought everyone together, the differing courses of action in response to similar scenarios is what makes your Partner a better individual than these cult members. So not only has this entry managed to be different enough to prevent series stagnation, but it also uses familiar series tropes in new, interesting ways some might not expect. Well-crafted story aspects like these are what's essentially reflected in the non-spoiler Iwata Asks interview for this entry: A respectable desire to try different things while also making the simple PMD story premise of saving the world together just as engaging as before.

PMD fans also tend to value the end parts of the story more than anything, but as much as I love the end parts of this story even more than other entries, let me tell you a little secret: The journey tends to be more meaningful than the destination sometimes. Not everyone will agree with such a mentality, but the story sure as heck feels that way, slowly building up to the oh-so engaging lategame story beats that fans have come to expect. You'll be able to appreciate both the journey and destination that much more if you pay enough attention to what happens across the journey. That's all I'll say, because although I've spoiled quite a bit of the story, what I've said so far should give you a good idea of what I like about the story of Gates to Infinity for the parts I haven't gone into detail about.

Now back to the very 1st thought the bandwagon gave me: "Explorers of Sky was the last good one". While I can confidently answer no to that, I can't guarantee the same for your answer. But instead of dismissing the game entirely, maybe these observations will make you consider giving it another look, whether by watching a Let's Play, or playing it for yourself by any means possible. You might still regret it for all I know, but at least you'll have more to think about, right? Even if this ends up being your 1st PMD, you’ll get through just fine with the in-game dictionary each PMD provides. If you've read this whole review in a single sitting, you just mentally prepared yourself for the whole slow text speed issue by reading exactly 2,000 words total! Funny how that works, huh?