Yoshijammer
This review contains spoilers
Note: I'm going to do my best to not mention the changes Sky made to this game and simply review Time/Darkness as is.
Sequels to games can be hit or miss. They can blow the previous game out of the water, or be a complete letdown. They might not even be bad on their own, but simply the association with the game it's succeeding can give it a much more negative view. I've played many "2"s in games before, both good and bad, but I don't think I've ever seen a sequel improve upon its predeccesor in almost every way as strongly as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers. Perhaps it's nostalgia speaking, as this is the game I truly grew up with, moreso than Rescue Team despite it being my first, but playing this game right after an entire Red Rescue Team playthrough really highlighted to me just how amazing this game is, in so, so many ways.
Starting with gameplay, on the surface it appears pretty similar to the first game, but there's a variety of changes that were made, both quality-of-life and new additions, that make the whole experience feel much better. First of all, my nitpicks from Rescue Team were solved: You can feed team members straight from the bag rather than making them hold the item or throwing it at them, and you can now take four team members into a dungeon. Having to send back new recruits when your party is full rather than being allowed to switch someone out is a little annoying, but hey, at least you can still recruit Pokemon when your party is full, which I don't think was possible in Rescue Team. I'll admit some changes were made that I don't care for, though. Held Items are no longer seperated into their own menu, and as a result, you have to re-equip the item every time you enter a dungeon. Yes, I forgot to equip my held item half of the time. This game also removed the post-game feature of being able to switch the player character in the middle of a dungeon. I can understand why they did this, but it was a fun feature and led to some creative strategies. But what the game lacks in held item mechanics and one interesting post-game mechanic, it makes up for with a massive Treasure Bag size and a plethora of new items. New Seeds and Orbs have been added to the mix, and with the huge increase in items you can take with you, this makes building fun and unique strategies much more possible. The game also adds new types of missions and reward types such as Eggs, so that's fun too. There's also new dungeon layout generation patterns, but I'll admit, from what I could see, a lot of them just found new ways to screw you over by making you go down very long and windy dead-end trails. It's something new though, and in a game built around travelling randomly generated floors repeatedly, any new additions are welcome ones. Overall, the gameplay is just much smoother and more interesting. It feels like a definitive version of Rescue Team's gameplay, taking something that was already good and making it better.
Then there's difficulty. I've had mixed experiences with this game's difficulty, to the point that I can't even properly review it. I've seen many people say this game is the easiest in the series, and I don't remember having any sort of difficulties the last time I played this game, which was through Sky. This run, however, may have been the most trouble I've had with any PMD game in recent years, and while most of my pain comes from the post-game, I still had my fair share of issues in the main story as well. I'll start off by saying I was a Charmander and my partner was a Turtwig, and I think this is the first time I've had a team with no status effect moves except my Charmander's Smokescreen, which gives the Whiffer status in this series. Unfortunately Whiffer sucks, not because your opponent still has the possibility to hurt you (it never happened), but because it wears off so fast compared to other status conditions. In my Red Rescue Team playthrough, I used a Bulbasaur with Sleep Powder, which I found to be infinetely more reliable than Smokescreen. Not being confident in my player's moveset may have been the cause of some of my difficulty, but another reason was that I simply lacked Reviver Seeds most of the time, and when I say lack, I mean no Reviver Seeds at all. Please don't try and play the game like this, it's hell. Most of my losses occured in post-game dungeons I'll admit, but not the optional on-purpose difficult ones, but the mandatory post-story ones. I found myself to be underleveled most of the time, and unable to take more than two hits from opponents. I'm not saying this game is too difficult though: rather, I think difficulty is a matter of how you play. The game gives you a wide variety of items to save your ass at your disposal, and there's a good chance I didn't use nearly enough items due to constantly having a "gonna save this for later when I need it" mentality. Can't save it for later if I'm dead. If you take time to prepare and use your items wisely, the game can be much less difficult than I made it out to be. That being said though, bosses are a total pushover. They weren't the hardest thing in Rescue Team if you had the right items, but X-Eye Seeds and Violent Seeds almost completely removes any difficulty to the bosses, except for the very few battles where multiple enemies gang up on you. I never even got to see any bosses catch or dodge the Seeds I threw. Anyway, to basically sum this section up: difficulty is up to you, depending on how you play your cards. You can take your time to obtain the right items you'll need (mostly Reviver Seeds) for the challenge ahead, or stupidly rush into everything the game throws at you. It felt good to have a challenge though, and I appreciate this game for allowing that, even if it wasn't intentional.
Time to finally move on from gameplay and talk about the story. I am being completely serious when I say this is genuinely one of the best stories in a Pokemon game. Not only is it a compelling tale of saving all of time, but it's surprisingly heavy, with a significant focus on the theme of self-sacrifice regarding Grovyle and the player's mission. Playing through the latter half of the game is always an emotional rollercoaster, especially the "sent to the future" arc, and the ending is nothing short of one of the most heart-wrenching endings I've seen in a game. That's not to say only the more serious side of the story is worth playing, though. I think the time you spend at the Guild is equally as important to the story as the time you spend in the future and/or with Grovyle. What I really love about this game is the time it takes to build up its story. The story is segmented into chapters, with 20 in total, and I love what the game does with them. I'm really sorry for repeatedly dragging Rescue Team into this, but something I mentioned in my review of it was how I liked the premise of the story, but wish the game did more with it. It had a good cast of characters, but I felt like it didn't use them to their full potential, not even the partner, and it sped through the events rather quickly. That's what I like about Explorers, the time it spends with its wonderful cast and the bond with your partner. Yet it doesn't feel like the main conflict of the game, that being the topic of time stopping, comes out of nowhere; it's also given time to develop with moments such as the occassional cutscenes of Grovyle stealing Time Gears or meeting Azelf at the end of the expedition, but it takes a while before the Guild starts getting involved with preventing the planet's paralysis. The game also uses mandatory days of taking missions from the board as well as Sentry Duty as a way of passing time in the story. I know some people don't care for this, which is completely understandable, but I think it's a good way of building up story events, even if it's a bit of an artificial method. Now, as much as I adore this game's story, it does have some issues I'd like to discuss. First, the complaint I usually hear about the story is that Dusknoir is a painfully obvious twist villain. I've played the game enough times that it's hard for me to judge if he's actually that obvious or not, but I'll admit the game does spend a bit too much time on certain moments such as his reaction to first hearing the player's name. Second, here's something I only noticed now on this playthrough of the game: Team Skull sucks. Well, not Team Skull themselves, I acually like them, but the way the game uses them sucks. It's funny to say that they're a downgrade from Team Meanies when they obviously have the cooler name, but for a game that does a good job of utilizing its characters, Team Skull is a very odd exception. You fight Zubat and Koffing as a tutorial boss, and afterwards they occassionally show up to terrorize you and bring about the infamous Perfect Apple incident, but... you never actually fight them again. Apple Woods would've been a perfect opportunity for a fight, but you never get a chance to actually face off against Skuntank. Their last appearance was in Brine Cave, which ends off on a touching moment with them, but they never appear again despite Skuntank's claim that they'll be back to their old tricks when they get out of there. Maybe this is a nitpick, since they clearly weren't intended to be as important to the story as Team Meanies was (or rather, just Gengar), but it's still a letdown for me. Finally, for as amazing as the overall story is, the game has an issue with flashbacks. I understand this game is intended to be playable by kids, but sometimes it'll go out of its way to replay cutscenes that happened a minimum of 5 minutes ago. It gets very repetitive, especially when there are shorter ways to call back to a previous event. Otherwise, it's a very mature story, and it rarely if ever feels like it's talking down to its audience or purposely oversimplifying things for children. It doesn't feel like it's held back by its target demographic, and that's something I really respect this game for.
I've probably spoken about the story enough, but I'd also like to take a moment to talk about the post-game, since that's something I mentioned in my Red Rescue Team review. I am once again comparing Rescue Team to Explorers, sorry, but basically my main issue with Rescue Team's post-game was how disconnected it felt from the player and partner and didn't really have much going for it. Explorers does not have that issue at all, and it's a massive improvement. It has several events, with the last one serving as a conclusion to the main story by revealing the mastermind behind everything. The post-game is great because it's a perfect mix of introducing new stories while still letting the player do their own thing, and then it wraps everything up with one final dramatic finish in the form of the space-distortion plot. This section of the post-story is just as heavy as the main story, calling back to the self-sacrifice theme but with a much darker undertone, and it's almost surprising to me that something not even apart of the main game delves into this. It makes for a great finish to an already amazing story.
Something I neglected to mention in my Red Rescue Team review was the art and music of the games, which is something I only briefly touched upon in my Blue Rescue Team review. I want to start by saying Rescue Team's graphics and OST are great, and I regret not discussing it. A good portion of the Pokemon graphics from Rescue Team were reused in this game, and for good reason. The new sprites created for the Gen 4 Pokemon look great too and fit in with the style. Where this game really shines, though, is its landscapes. Overworlds such as Treasure Town are lively and fun to explore, and the many dungeon tilesets are great. This game also makes use of the second screen to create some really beautiful cutscenes, both pleasing to look at and deep in conveying emotion. The OST, of course, is fantastic too. It's hard for me to describe it other than "music good" but something I think this game in particular does really well is use instruments to connect to the themes of dungeon environments. This is something I noticed while playing the optional dungeons, which don't have their own music but tend to stick to a theme, such as Shimmer Hill only playing music that uses the chime-like instrument. I also feel like this game has a wider variety of music genres in its OST, if that's the correct way to put it, suiting all sorts of different moods. And of course, the game has a fantastic use of motifs as well, using them to strike the right emotions into you. Even when the game reuses certain music for cutscenes, it never feels lazy, but more like a clever way of recontextualizing a song. Through the Sea of Time can convey two different meanings depending on where you hear it, the triumph of finally reaching the Hidden Land or the crushing shock of watching Grovyle return to the future with Dusknoir, and I love it for that.
I still feel like there's so much about the game I didn't discuss, and I don't think a simple Backloggd review can do it justice (although this did take quite a while to write, and I'm worried I spoke too much in some sections. Apologies for that). It's not perfect, but it's certainly a great game and a fantastic sequel. I assume you've played this already if you're reading this, since I marked this with a spoiler warning, but if not, what are you doing!! Instead of reading my thoughts on this game, you should really go play it for yourself. It's an amazing game that I'd dare to put up with main series games as one of the greatest Pokemon games made. I first played this game when I was pretty young, and it has stuck with me ever since. Even now, when I go to replay the game, I discover new details about the story and characters that I never noticed before. I know this game is already fairly popular, but truly, I hope this game will go down as a timeless classic that no one will forget.
do you get it. do you get the joke. timeless. it's not as funny when im reviewing darkness instead of time oh well
Sequels to games can be hit or miss. They can blow the previous game out of the water, or be a complete letdown. They might not even be bad on their own, but simply the association with the game it's succeeding can give it a much more negative view. I've played many "2"s in games before, both good and bad, but I don't think I've ever seen a sequel improve upon its predeccesor in almost every way as strongly as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers. Perhaps it's nostalgia speaking, as this is the game I truly grew up with, moreso than Rescue Team despite it being my first, but playing this game right after an entire Red Rescue Team playthrough really highlighted to me just how amazing this game is, in so, so many ways.
Starting with gameplay, on the surface it appears pretty similar to the first game, but there's a variety of changes that were made, both quality-of-life and new additions, that make the whole experience feel much better. First of all, my nitpicks from Rescue Team were solved: You can feed team members straight from the bag rather than making them hold the item or throwing it at them, and you can now take four team members into a dungeon. Having to send back new recruits when your party is full rather than being allowed to switch someone out is a little annoying, but hey, at least you can still recruit Pokemon when your party is full, which I don't think was possible in Rescue Team. I'll admit some changes were made that I don't care for, though. Held Items are no longer seperated into their own menu, and as a result, you have to re-equip the item every time you enter a dungeon. Yes, I forgot to equip my held item half of the time. This game also removed the post-game feature of being able to switch the player character in the middle of a dungeon. I can understand why they did this, but it was a fun feature and led to some creative strategies. But what the game lacks in held item mechanics and one interesting post-game mechanic, it makes up for with a massive Treasure Bag size and a plethora of new items. New Seeds and Orbs have been added to the mix, and with the huge increase in items you can take with you, this makes building fun and unique strategies much more possible. The game also adds new types of missions and reward types such as Eggs, so that's fun too. There's also new dungeon layout generation patterns, but I'll admit, from what I could see, a lot of them just found new ways to screw you over by making you go down very long and windy dead-end trails. It's something new though, and in a game built around travelling randomly generated floors repeatedly, any new additions are welcome ones. Overall, the gameplay is just much smoother and more interesting. It feels like a definitive version of Rescue Team's gameplay, taking something that was already good and making it better.
Then there's difficulty. I've had mixed experiences with this game's difficulty, to the point that I can't even properly review it. I've seen many people say this game is the easiest in the series, and I don't remember having any sort of difficulties the last time I played this game, which was through Sky. This run, however, may have been the most trouble I've had with any PMD game in recent years, and while most of my pain comes from the post-game, I still had my fair share of issues in the main story as well. I'll start off by saying I was a Charmander and my partner was a Turtwig, and I think this is the first time I've had a team with no status effect moves except my Charmander's Smokescreen, which gives the Whiffer status in this series. Unfortunately Whiffer sucks, not because your opponent still has the possibility to hurt you (it never happened), but because it wears off so fast compared to other status conditions. In my Red Rescue Team playthrough, I used a Bulbasaur with Sleep Powder, which I found to be infinetely more reliable than Smokescreen. Not being confident in my player's moveset may have been the cause of some of my difficulty, but another reason was that I simply lacked Reviver Seeds most of the time, and when I say lack, I mean no Reviver Seeds at all. Please don't try and play the game like this, it's hell. Most of my losses occured in post-game dungeons I'll admit, but not the optional on-purpose difficult ones, but the mandatory post-story ones. I found myself to be underleveled most of the time, and unable to take more than two hits from opponents. I'm not saying this game is too difficult though: rather, I think difficulty is a matter of how you play. The game gives you a wide variety of items to save your ass at your disposal, and there's a good chance I didn't use nearly enough items due to constantly having a "gonna save this for later when I need it" mentality. Can't save it for later if I'm dead. If you take time to prepare and use your items wisely, the game can be much less difficult than I made it out to be. That being said though, bosses are a total pushover. They weren't the hardest thing in Rescue Team if you had the right items, but X-Eye Seeds and Violent Seeds almost completely removes any difficulty to the bosses, except for the very few battles where multiple enemies gang up on you. I never even got to see any bosses catch or dodge the Seeds I threw. Anyway, to basically sum this section up: difficulty is up to you, depending on how you play your cards. You can take your time to obtain the right items you'll need (mostly Reviver Seeds) for the challenge ahead, or stupidly rush into everything the game throws at you. It felt good to have a challenge though, and I appreciate this game for allowing that, even if it wasn't intentional.
Time to finally move on from gameplay and talk about the story. I am being completely serious when I say this is genuinely one of the best stories in a Pokemon game. Not only is it a compelling tale of saving all of time, but it's surprisingly heavy, with a significant focus on the theme of self-sacrifice regarding Grovyle and the player's mission. Playing through the latter half of the game is always an emotional rollercoaster, especially the "sent to the future" arc, and the ending is nothing short of one of the most heart-wrenching endings I've seen in a game. That's not to say only the more serious side of the story is worth playing, though. I think the time you spend at the Guild is equally as important to the story as the time you spend in the future and/or with Grovyle. What I really love about this game is the time it takes to build up its story. The story is segmented into chapters, with 20 in total, and I love what the game does with them. I'm really sorry for repeatedly dragging Rescue Team into this, but something I mentioned in my review of it was how I liked the premise of the story, but wish the game did more with it. It had a good cast of characters, but I felt like it didn't use them to their full potential, not even the partner, and it sped through the events rather quickly. That's what I like about Explorers, the time it spends with its wonderful cast and the bond with your partner. Yet it doesn't feel like the main conflict of the game, that being the topic of time stopping, comes out of nowhere; it's also given time to develop with moments such as the occassional cutscenes of Grovyle stealing Time Gears or meeting Azelf at the end of the expedition, but it takes a while before the Guild starts getting involved with preventing the planet's paralysis. The game also uses mandatory days of taking missions from the board as well as Sentry Duty as a way of passing time in the story. I know some people don't care for this, which is completely understandable, but I think it's a good way of building up story events, even if it's a bit of an artificial method. Now, as much as I adore this game's story, it does have some issues I'd like to discuss. First, the complaint I usually hear about the story is that Dusknoir is a painfully obvious twist villain. I've played the game enough times that it's hard for me to judge if he's actually that obvious or not, but I'll admit the game does spend a bit too much time on certain moments such as his reaction to first hearing the player's name. Second, here's something I only noticed now on this playthrough of the game: Team Skull sucks. Well, not Team Skull themselves, I acually like them, but the way the game uses them sucks. It's funny to say that they're a downgrade from Team Meanies when they obviously have the cooler name, but for a game that does a good job of utilizing its characters, Team Skull is a very odd exception. You fight Zubat and Koffing as a tutorial boss, and afterwards they occassionally show up to terrorize you and bring about the infamous Perfect Apple incident, but... you never actually fight them again. Apple Woods would've been a perfect opportunity for a fight, but you never get a chance to actually face off against Skuntank. Their last appearance was in Brine Cave, which ends off on a touching moment with them, but they never appear again despite Skuntank's claim that they'll be back to their old tricks when they get out of there. Maybe this is a nitpick, since they clearly weren't intended to be as important to the story as Team Meanies was (or rather, just Gengar), but it's still a letdown for me. Finally, for as amazing as the overall story is, the game has an issue with flashbacks. I understand this game is intended to be playable by kids, but sometimes it'll go out of its way to replay cutscenes that happened a minimum of 5 minutes ago. It gets very repetitive, especially when there are shorter ways to call back to a previous event. Otherwise, it's a very mature story, and it rarely if ever feels like it's talking down to its audience or purposely oversimplifying things for children. It doesn't feel like it's held back by its target demographic, and that's something I really respect this game for.
I've probably spoken about the story enough, but I'd also like to take a moment to talk about the post-game, since that's something I mentioned in my Red Rescue Team review. I am once again comparing Rescue Team to Explorers, sorry, but basically my main issue with Rescue Team's post-game was how disconnected it felt from the player and partner and didn't really have much going for it. Explorers does not have that issue at all, and it's a massive improvement. It has several events, with the last one serving as a conclusion to the main story by revealing the mastermind behind everything. The post-game is great because it's a perfect mix of introducing new stories while still letting the player do their own thing, and then it wraps everything up with one final dramatic finish in the form of the space-distortion plot. This section of the post-story is just as heavy as the main story, calling back to the self-sacrifice theme but with a much darker undertone, and it's almost surprising to me that something not even apart of the main game delves into this. It makes for a great finish to an already amazing story.
Something I neglected to mention in my Red Rescue Team review was the art and music of the games, which is something I only briefly touched upon in my Blue Rescue Team review. I want to start by saying Rescue Team's graphics and OST are great, and I regret not discussing it. A good portion of the Pokemon graphics from Rescue Team were reused in this game, and for good reason. The new sprites created for the Gen 4 Pokemon look great too and fit in with the style. Where this game really shines, though, is its landscapes. Overworlds such as Treasure Town are lively and fun to explore, and the many dungeon tilesets are great. This game also makes use of the second screen to create some really beautiful cutscenes, both pleasing to look at and deep in conveying emotion. The OST, of course, is fantastic too. It's hard for me to describe it other than "music good" but something I think this game in particular does really well is use instruments to connect to the themes of dungeon environments. This is something I noticed while playing the optional dungeons, which don't have their own music but tend to stick to a theme, such as Shimmer Hill only playing music that uses the chime-like instrument. I also feel like this game has a wider variety of music genres in its OST, if that's the correct way to put it, suiting all sorts of different moods. And of course, the game has a fantastic use of motifs as well, using them to strike the right emotions into you. Even when the game reuses certain music for cutscenes, it never feels lazy, but more like a clever way of recontextualizing a song. Through the Sea of Time can convey two different meanings depending on where you hear it, the triumph of finally reaching the Hidden Land or the crushing shock of watching Grovyle return to the future with Dusknoir, and I love it for that.
I still feel like there's so much about the game I didn't discuss, and I don't think a simple Backloggd review can do it justice (although this did take quite a while to write, and I'm worried I spoke too much in some sections. Apologies for that). It's not perfect, but it's certainly a great game and a fantastic sequel. I assume you've played this already if you're reading this, since I marked this with a spoiler warning, but if not, what are you doing!! Instead of reading my thoughts on this game, you should really go play it for yourself. It's an amazing game that I'd dare to put up with main series games as one of the greatest Pokemon games made. I first played this game when I was pretty young, and it has stuck with me ever since. Even now, when I go to replay the game, I discover new details about the story and characters that I never noticed before. I know this game is already fairly popular, but truly, I hope this game will go down as a timeless classic that no one will forget.
do you get it. do you get the joke. timeless. it's not as funny when im reviewing darkness instead of time oh well
2004
I chose the GameCube version over the DS version years ago because I thought it would be higher quality, but after finally playing this version after stumbling upon it in a game store, I now realize this version is overall just better somehow? The presentation is really slick, a good portion of the artwork in this game is unique or redrawn, even the transitions when selecting options in menus is well-done. Everything just has this added flair to it that gives it so much life, leaving the GameCube version in a bit of an awkward state in comparison. This game is an arcade original, but this version almost makes it feel like this game was made for the DS. The only giveaway that this game was originally made for arcades is that, well, it's short (which was normal for older Puyo games). There's some extra modes though to keep you busy, which the DS version also improves upon by allowing button combinations that let you select a character instead of playing as Amitie.
About the actual game itself, I'll be perfectly honest, this is one of my favorite Puyos. From what I've gathered, people prefer the Tsu ruleset to Fever, which is fair, but I like it because it allows me to succeed at the game while still being absolutely garbage at it. I'm also just a really big fan of this particular game's art style, and it was a delight seeing the extra art this version added. Definitely not as much content as newer games, but I still think it has some replayability to it. Also Popoi the best character ever conceived is playable in this game, so that automatically makes it the best game in the series (unless you qualify Quest? idk if the gacha game should count). We peaked at evil cat design with this game, it's only been downhill since then.
About the actual game itself, I'll be perfectly honest, this is one of my favorite Puyos. From what I've gathered, people prefer the Tsu ruleset to Fever, which is fair, but I like it because it allows me to succeed at the game while still being absolutely garbage at it. I'm also just a really big fan of this particular game's art style, and it was a delight seeing the extra art this version added. Definitely not as much content as newer games, but I still think it has some replayability to it. Also Popoi the best character ever conceived is playable in this game, so that automatically makes it the best game in the series (unless you qualify Quest? idk if the gacha game should count). We peaked at evil cat design with this game, it's only been downhill since then.
2011
I remember when I was 9 years old I played this on accident and got super scared because I thought it was gonna send my personal info to a bunch of strangers for some reason so I closed it immediately and never touched it again
Note: This is a review covering my opinions on the differences between the two versions, not the game itself. If you want that, check out my Red review instead.
This was the version I played as a kid, as well as my very first PMD game. I could never beat Rayquaza, so I abandoned the game for many years. A month ago I decided to replay the game but with Red Rescue Team instead, and today I returned to Sky Tower on my old Blue save file to finally finish what I started (first try, too!). That's why it feels extremely strange for me to say that, after having beaten both versions, I prefer Red to the one I grew up with. Red was the last Pokemon game to be released on the GBA, and compared to Blue, it feels like this game was made specifically for the GBA and just got pushed onto the DS as well since the GBA was at the end of its lifespan.
I'll start with what I like about this version: having a top screen is a blessing. You have the ability to put the map and/or your team stats on top, and I can definitely say it was helpful for me to see my other team members' HP without bringing up the menu when I wanted to check. The top screen isn't terribly useful or pretty in the overworld compared to Explorers, but it's not a big deal, especially if I'm correct about the game being designed for the GBA first. I also prefer the controls of this version to Red. Mostly, it's a lot easier to aim your Pokemon in the direction you want them to face since the grid button is controlled by X instead of Select, but it's not the GBA's fault it only has A and B. There's also an option to change the controls to the GBA's scheme, if you wanted that for some reason.
That mostly covers what I like about Blue, but that doesn't change my biggest issue with this version: it doesn't feel like it was optimized for the DS. The Wikipedia article for these games says that Blue takes advantage of the DS's increased graphical and sound capabilities. Honestly, in terms of graohics, I didn't notice any improvements. I only played for about 2 hours, so maybe I just didn't pick up on it, but all I noticed was the text box's awkward screen placement and what looked like blank tiles that were supposed to get cropped off by the GBA's screen ratio during cutscenes. As for the soundtrack... it's better in terms of actual sound quality, and I think some tracks take advantage of the DS's extra sound channels/higher processing to add more instruments to tracks as well. Blue also changes a lot of instruments and samples, usually to something higher quality, but what's odd is that these changes produce an artificial sound to the songs that almost make them sound... worse than the GBA? This is most likely a matter of preference, but something I really like about the Red versions of the music is how muddy they sound. This is partly a result of the fuzzy quality, but it makes the percussion and leading melody hit harder and feels more fitting with the environment these songs play in. If you'd like an example, try comparing the two versions of Mt. Steel. I think the calmer and more emotional music of the game sounds better in Blue, since the DS produces a much cleaner sound, but I feel like the GBA's sound works a lot better with the game's tenser tracks, as well as the more "funky" music of the game.
One last thing I'd like to say about Blue, and I saved this for last because it might just be an issue with my cartridge or 3DS, but the floors load slower for some reason? It's not just the wait time, but it takes longer for the text indicating what floor you're on after you enter stairs to show up as well. In return, at least the game doesn't lag when I try to walk with more than 5 Pokemon on a floor (Monster Houses are a pain in Red for more than one reason), but I found this to be odd.
While I prefer Red to Blue, I don't think Blue is a bad version of this game. Someone could play it without even knowing Red exists and it wouldn't affect their experience of the game, and honestly, I'd still recommend Blue over Red to new players just because of the top screen. I just feel like as a different version of the same game on a stronger system, it's disappointingly weaker. Honestly, I wonder: if Pokemon didn't normally have its games as two seperate versions, would this game have just been moved to the DS? Did it even start development on the GBA in the first place? It's not uncommon for a game to start on an older console and then get moved to its successor before the game releases, but it's a bit tricky to tell what happened with these games thanks to the series's practices. Oh well, that's just speculation. As for my final thoughts on these two versions: if you've only played Blue or haven't played this at all and don't mind the limitations of the GBA, perhaps consider giving Red a try next time you want to play this game (if you have access to playing Red, of course). To me, it feels like it was supposed to be the intended way to experience the game.
This was the version I played as a kid, as well as my very first PMD game. I could never beat Rayquaza, so I abandoned the game for many years. A month ago I decided to replay the game but with Red Rescue Team instead, and today I returned to Sky Tower on my old Blue save file to finally finish what I started (first try, too!). That's why it feels extremely strange for me to say that, after having beaten both versions, I prefer Red to the one I grew up with. Red was the last Pokemon game to be released on the GBA, and compared to Blue, it feels like this game was made specifically for the GBA and just got pushed onto the DS as well since the GBA was at the end of its lifespan.
I'll start with what I like about this version: having a top screen is a blessing. You have the ability to put the map and/or your team stats on top, and I can definitely say it was helpful for me to see my other team members' HP without bringing up the menu when I wanted to check. The top screen isn't terribly useful or pretty in the overworld compared to Explorers, but it's not a big deal, especially if I'm correct about the game being designed for the GBA first. I also prefer the controls of this version to Red. Mostly, it's a lot easier to aim your Pokemon in the direction you want them to face since the grid button is controlled by X instead of Select, but it's not the GBA's fault it only has A and B. There's also an option to change the controls to the GBA's scheme, if you wanted that for some reason.
That mostly covers what I like about Blue, but that doesn't change my biggest issue with this version: it doesn't feel like it was optimized for the DS. The Wikipedia article for these games says that Blue takes advantage of the DS's increased graphical and sound capabilities. Honestly, in terms of graohics, I didn't notice any improvements. I only played for about 2 hours, so maybe I just didn't pick up on it, but all I noticed was the text box's awkward screen placement and what looked like blank tiles that were supposed to get cropped off by the GBA's screen ratio during cutscenes. As for the soundtrack... it's better in terms of actual sound quality, and I think some tracks take advantage of the DS's extra sound channels/higher processing to add more instruments to tracks as well. Blue also changes a lot of instruments and samples, usually to something higher quality, but what's odd is that these changes produce an artificial sound to the songs that almost make them sound... worse than the GBA? This is most likely a matter of preference, but something I really like about the Red versions of the music is how muddy they sound. This is partly a result of the fuzzy quality, but it makes the percussion and leading melody hit harder and feels more fitting with the environment these songs play in. If you'd like an example, try comparing the two versions of Mt. Steel. I think the calmer and more emotional music of the game sounds better in Blue, since the DS produces a much cleaner sound, but I feel like the GBA's sound works a lot better with the game's tenser tracks, as well as the more "funky" music of the game.
One last thing I'd like to say about Blue, and I saved this for last because it might just be an issue with my cartridge or 3DS, but the floors load slower for some reason? It's not just the wait time, but it takes longer for the text indicating what floor you're on after you enter stairs to show up as well. In return, at least the game doesn't lag when I try to walk with more than 5 Pokemon on a floor (Monster Houses are a pain in Red for more than one reason), but I found this to be odd.
While I prefer Red to Blue, I don't think Blue is a bad version of this game. Someone could play it without even knowing Red exists and it wouldn't affect their experience of the game, and honestly, I'd still recommend Blue over Red to new players just because of the top screen. I just feel like as a different version of the same game on a stronger system, it's disappointingly weaker. Honestly, I wonder: if Pokemon didn't normally have its games as two seperate versions, would this game have just been moved to the DS? Did it even start development on the GBA in the first place? It's not uncommon for a game to start on an older console and then get moved to its successor before the game releases, but it's a bit tricky to tell what happened with these games thanks to the series's practices. Oh well, that's just speculation. As for my final thoughts on these two versions: if you've only played Blue or haven't played this at all and don't mind the limitations of the GBA, perhaps consider giving Red a try next time you want to play this game (if you have access to playing Red, of course). To me, it feels like it was supposed to be the intended way to experience the game.
This review contains spoilers
Note: In case this matters to my review when talking about difficulty, I was a Bulbasaur and my partner was a Pikachu.
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are very important to me and have always been a childhood favorite of mine. Explorers is the game I have the most love (and nostalgia) for, but Blue Rescue Team was actually my first in the series. I could never beat the final boss as a kid, so for the longest time the ending of this game was unknown to me despite the fact I also own both Red and DX, as I had never beaten those either. Recently I decided to do a marathon of this series both as a way to finish the games I never beat and to re-experience one of my favorite games again, and I decided to start with the version of this game I didn't grow up with. I'll compare the differences of the two versions later in a review of Blue, this will just be a review of both games in general. Now enough with the intro, here's the review:
First of all, replaying this game was a bit of whiplash after not having played this game or any other PMD game in several years. The mechanics of this game suffer a bit from "first game syndrome", and while most of it is minor stuff like only being able to take three of your own Pokemon into a dungeon or not being able to make your teammate eat a berry without them holding it first, it definitely threw me off and the berry thing cost me a few boss battles. These are mostly nitpicks for me though; the rest of the game is the standard PMD experience, and as usual, it's pretty good! For the most part the game is not too easy but not super difficult either, but I did feel like there was a pretty big difficulty spike during the wanted fugitives arc as I suddenly went from breezing through the game to constantly having to restart my GBA. Maybe it's because I was Bulbasaur and none of my moves were particularly effective against the legendary birds or their dungeons, or maybe it's because I completely lacked Reviver Seeds, but I was entirely dependant on my partner's Thunder Wave and the Bullet Seed TM I randomly picked up in a dungeon. Speaking of Bullet Seed, multi-strike moves are broken in this game; they deal about the same amount of damage as an average one-strike move per attack and they don't stop if they defeat an opponent. This worked well for me but it also gave quite a few dungeon Pokemon the ability to defeat me twice in one turn which I really didn't enjoy.
Like any PMD game, the story is good and is probably the major reason I recommend this series to anybody. It may not seem like anything special compared to later games in the series, but this was the one that started the whole trope of a human turning into a Pokemon, so at the time of release the story was probably quite a bit more noteworthy. It has a great general concept, protagonists, setting, and climax; the ending definitely made me tear up a little. My main issue with the story though is that it feels so short! I felt like I was flying through the story at a way faster speed than when I played the game as a kid, and as much as I enjoy the fugitives arc, I feel it would've been a lot more impactful if the story had given you more time to bond with your partner. I understand if the game was held back by the GBA's limits, since Explorers is much longer despite being on the same system as Blue, but I feel like the game potentially could've been artificially extended by making more optional missions mandatory for story progression. I know some people didn't like this about Explorers and found the amount of days between story events to be tedious, which is completely understandable, but I find it's a good way to encourage players to level up their team and collect items before harder challenges occur. There was a stretch of the game where I unlocked a new dungeon every in-game day, and I couldn't help but feel like I was supposed to take a break and grind for a few missions instead of continually rushing into the story (and that's probably why I struggled so much when my team became fugitives). The game does start slowing down a bit near the end, which was very much appreciated in preparation for Sky Tower, but I still ended the game feeling like its characters were underutilized and could've had more development or interactions.
Now this brings me to the postgame, which... I have some issues with, to be honest. I'll say this first in case it affects the review, but I did not encounter or recruit every legendary, I only recruited Kyogre, completed the Rainbow Wing quest, rescued Latias, and broke Gardevoir's curse. I also attempted recruiting Mew but I completely forgot to buy Final Island and I didn't bring an Escape Orb so uh, that was about two real life days I wasted trying to clear a 99 floor dungeon. Anyways. The postgame doesn't really have much of a story, it's mostly various difficult dungeons you can play and occasional cutscenes that come with them, but my biggest complaint is how the game treats your partner after giving you the ability to switch leaders. They're instantly treated like a regular Pokemon, even their dungeon dialogue changes, and they show up in cutscenes and events significantly less. I'm not saying the game should've made you and your partner mandatory playable characters for the entirety of the game, I think it's cool you can switch up your team however you want, but I just wish your partner was acknowledged more in the postgame when they're present. That being said though, the one thing I really enjoyed from the postgame is the conclusion it gives to Gengar and Gardevoir. It also made me realize how poorly Team Skull was handled in Explorers since they just completely vanish from the game after Brine Cave. Team Meanies wasn't my favorite when I started the game but they really grew on me by the time I reached the postgame.
Overall, I think this is a pretty solid PMD game! Maybe it's not the first game I'd recommend to someone wanting to try the series, but it's one I'd recommend to someone who has already played the series before. It does take a while to get used to the old mechanics and some of its quirks, but if it throws you off too much, the remake is always an option. The game may not have aged the best, but it's definitely still worth a play and is a great Pokemon game. Finally beating the final boss for the first time after playing the game so many years ago was a really gratifying moment for me, and I enjoyed my playthrough of this game very much. Now, lets see if I'm good enough to beat the game with my original Blue save file...
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are very important to me and have always been a childhood favorite of mine. Explorers is the game I have the most love (and nostalgia) for, but Blue Rescue Team was actually my first in the series. I could never beat the final boss as a kid, so for the longest time the ending of this game was unknown to me despite the fact I also own both Red and DX, as I had never beaten those either. Recently I decided to do a marathon of this series both as a way to finish the games I never beat and to re-experience one of my favorite games again, and I decided to start with the version of this game I didn't grow up with. I'll compare the differences of the two versions later in a review of Blue, this will just be a review of both games in general. Now enough with the intro, here's the review:
First of all, replaying this game was a bit of whiplash after not having played this game or any other PMD game in several years. The mechanics of this game suffer a bit from "first game syndrome", and while most of it is minor stuff like only being able to take three of your own Pokemon into a dungeon or not being able to make your teammate eat a berry without them holding it first, it definitely threw me off and the berry thing cost me a few boss battles. These are mostly nitpicks for me though; the rest of the game is the standard PMD experience, and as usual, it's pretty good! For the most part the game is not too easy but not super difficult either, but I did feel like there was a pretty big difficulty spike during the wanted fugitives arc as I suddenly went from breezing through the game to constantly having to restart my GBA. Maybe it's because I was Bulbasaur and none of my moves were particularly effective against the legendary birds or their dungeons, or maybe it's because I completely lacked Reviver Seeds, but I was entirely dependant on my partner's Thunder Wave and the Bullet Seed TM I randomly picked up in a dungeon. Speaking of Bullet Seed, multi-strike moves are broken in this game; they deal about the same amount of damage as an average one-strike move per attack and they don't stop if they defeat an opponent. This worked well for me but it also gave quite a few dungeon Pokemon the ability to defeat me twice in one turn which I really didn't enjoy.
Like any PMD game, the story is good and is probably the major reason I recommend this series to anybody. It may not seem like anything special compared to later games in the series, but this was the one that started the whole trope of a human turning into a Pokemon, so at the time of release the story was probably quite a bit more noteworthy. It has a great general concept, protagonists, setting, and climax; the ending definitely made me tear up a little. My main issue with the story though is that it feels so short! I felt like I was flying through the story at a way faster speed than when I played the game as a kid, and as much as I enjoy the fugitives arc, I feel it would've been a lot more impactful if the story had given you more time to bond with your partner. I understand if the game was held back by the GBA's limits, since Explorers is much longer despite being on the same system as Blue, but I feel like the game potentially could've been artificially extended by making more optional missions mandatory for story progression. I know some people didn't like this about Explorers and found the amount of days between story events to be tedious, which is completely understandable, but I find it's a good way to encourage players to level up their team and collect items before harder challenges occur. There was a stretch of the game where I unlocked a new dungeon every in-game day, and I couldn't help but feel like I was supposed to take a break and grind for a few missions instead of continually rushing into the story (and that's probably why I struggled so much when my team became fugitives). The game does start slowing down a bit near the end, which was very much appreciated in preparation for Sky Tower, but I still ended the game feeling like its characters were underutilized and could've had more development or interactions.
Now this brings me to the postgame, which... I have some issues with, to be honest. I'll say this first in case it affects the review, but I did not encounter or recruit every legendary, I only recruited Kyogre, completed the Rainbow Wing quest, rescued Latias, and broke Gardevoir's curse. I also attempted recruiting Mew but I completely forgot to buy Final Island and I didn't bring an Escape Orb so uh, that was about two real life days I wasted trying to clear a 99 floor dungeon. Anyways. The postgame doesn't really have much of a story, it's mostly various difficult dungeons you can play and occasional cutscenes that come with them, but my biggest complaint is how the game treats your partner after giving you the ability to switch leaders. They're instantly treated like a regular Pokemon, even their dungeon dialogue changes, and they show up in cutscenes and events significantly less. I'm not saying the game should've made you and your partner mandatory playable characters for the entirety of the game, I think it's cool you can switch up your team however you want, but I just wish your partner was acknowledged more in the postgame when they're present. That being said though, the one thing I really enjoyed from the postgame is the conclusion it gives to Gengar and Gardevoir. It also made me realize how poorly Team Skull was handled in Explorers since they just completely vanish from the game after Brine Cave. Team Meanies wasn't my favorite when I started the game but they really grew on me by the time I reached the postgame.
Overall, I think this is a pretty solid PMD game! Maybe it's not the first game I'd recommend to someone wanting to try the series, but it's one I'd recommend to someone who has already played the series before. It does take a while to get used to the old mechanics and some of its quirks, but if it throws you off too much, the remake is always an option. The game may not have aged the best, but it's definitely still worth a play and is a great Pokemon game. Finally beating the final boss for the first time after playing the game so many years ago was a really gratifying moment for me, and I enjoyed my playthrough of this game very much. Now, lets see if I'm good enough to beat the game with my original Blue save file...
2017
After playing this game for 5 months straight and finally completing every achievement, I think I can say this is without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played. It weaves an amazing experience from start to finish. I love the game's tragic story, compelling characters, and beautiful environment design. Although it's one of the only metroidvanias I've ever played, I found it to be an excellent entry in the genre, and even on my frustratingly difficult path to 112%, the gameplay was too addicting to put down. Hollow Knight has definitely become one of my absolute favorite games, and I look forward to the day I can play Silksong as well.
2001
I think this game could significantly benefit from having a checkpoint system, as clearing levels beginning to end in one run can be extremely tedious and difficult. I can't get too upset at the game for this though; it gives you the resources to help complete a level, as the practice mode includes checkpoints and even watchable demos of each level. I feel like this game would be much more enjoyable (and longer) if I was a kid in 2001 who just got this game with my new GBA as opposed to someone abusing the rewind feature on the Switch to beat the game as fast as possible. It has a lot of charm, and I really like the unique concept of the gameplay.
This review contains spoilers
I already had high opinions of the original game, but with this remake, I genuinely believe this is the best Kirby game. In regards to the original game, the gameplay is fun, the levels are well-designed and interesting, and the story holds up to the Kirby series standard of cute and simple on the surface but surprisingly dark and complex when you get deeper into it. Most collectibles and puzzles aren't difficult, but I wouldn't say a player could easily get all the stage collectibles on their first run either. It also has enough side content to keep you busy and provide the challenge that the main mode was missing.
Now as for the remake, I certainly was not expecting the level of improvement this game would deliver. The graphic uphaul looks fantastic in my opinion, from the colorful background to even the smallest of details like Kirby's face proportions. I know some people are bothered by the borders around characters but I think it's a nice contrast honestly, it prevents characters from blending in with the background but doesn't stand out terribly either. This remake also adds plenty of additional content. Two new abilities were added and they're fun to play and fit in with the original game (although I've heard they're overpowered if you utilize them properly). Merry Magoland replaces the two Subgames of the original (RIP Scope Shot) and adds 8 returning Subgames and 2 new ones, in addition to 120 challenges and 86 cosmetic masks to be worn anywhere. The subgames are a ton of fun and the challenges are addicting, genuinely one of the hardest parts of the game. Magolor Epilogue is a new mode where you get to play as Magolor, and it is honestly an amazing expansion of both the game and the story. The gameplay has many unique elements which make it more than just a playable Magolor mode such as the combo and upgrading systems, and the depth it adds to both the overall story and Magolor's character feels like a true continuation of the original game, rather than just a new story added that retcons details. This remake also adds a few minor gameplay changes such as not losing your ability every time you're hit (in the Arena at least, I haven't replayed the main mode in the original for a while) and Magolor Soul's fight in the True Arena using completely new attack patterns. Overall, this remake went above and beyond for what I expected from an already amazing game, and I highly recommend this to anyone, whether you're new to the series or have already played the original.
Now as for the remake, I certainly was not expecting the level of improvement this game would deliver. The graphic uphaul looks fantastic in my opinion, from the colorful background to even the smallest of details like Kirby's face proportions. I know some people are bothered by the borders around characters but I think it's a nice contrast honestly, it prevents characters from blending in with the background but doesn't stand out terribly either. This remake also adds plenty of additional content. Two new abilities were added and they're fun to play and fit in with the original game (although I've heard they're overpowered if you utilize them properly). Merry Magoland replaces the two Subgames of the original (RIP Scope Shot) and adds 8 returning Subgames and 2 new ones, in addition to 120 challenges and 86 cosmetic masks to be worn anywhere. The subgames are a ton of fun and the challenges are addicting, genuinely one of the hardest parts of the game. Magolor Epilogue is a new mode where you get to play as Magolor, and it is honestly an amazing expansion of both the game and the story. The gameplay has many unique elements which make it more than just a playable Magolor mode such as the combo and upgrading systems, and the depth it adds to both the overall story and Magolor's character feels like a true continuation of the original game, rather than just a new story added that retcons details. This remake also adds a few minor gameplay changes such as not losing your ability every time you're hit (in the Arena at least, I haven't replayed the main mode in the original for a while) and Magolor Soul's fight in the True Arena using completely new attack patterns. Overall, this remake went above and beyond for what I expected from an already amazing game, and I highly recommend this to anyone, whether you're new to the series or have already played the original.