I've mentioned this in videos before but to me, there's this special aura to pre-David Production JoJo content, be it official or fan made, either because it represents a time before the cultural zeitgeist that the series would later become or because you wouldn't see some of the more experimental adaptations nowadays when everything has to be homogenized to fit in with the main adaptation. The 1998 Capcom fighter Heritage for the Future stands as a shining example of this mystic aura, through both the game itself and through fan content related to it and in particular, the legendary Road Roller Combo video and the memes surrounding it, which was many people's first exposure to the series, including myself. I'm not an expert on fighting games and the horror stories I've heard surrounding the game's community deter me from learning it on a deeper level so I'm not going to say anything about the standard fighting game gameplay beyond attacks feeling good and Pet Shop being funny. But between stuff like the overall aesthetic as exemplified by the loading screens' cool high quality manga panels, the roster's various deep cuts for characters, and the single player story mode's creative ways of representing arcs that wouldn't necessarily translate to traditional fighting game gameplay, Heritage for the Future has an undeniable charm.

an inferior remaster of an already inferior game. why anyone would play this instead of just emulating platinum is beyond me, much better experience and art style. i wholeheartedly believe that this is the worst mainline pokemon game and it isn't even close.

i also wonder why they even made these games in the first place if they were going to do them like this? past pokemon remakes at the very least refreshed the characters with new designs that are mostly better other than a few hgss and frlg characters (the latter was rectified with let's go of all things) and actual new content to enjoy, and in the case of hgss and oras they adapted the content from the third version into the story pretty well but still in a mostly new way. brilliant diamond and shining pearl are just remakes of the sinnoh games with less content and less quality without adding anything of note from platinum or to set them apart from their originals.

an emulated port of pokemon platinum would've been infinitely preferable to whatever the fuck this is supposed to be

"Time can heal most things, even if some hurts seem insurmountable at first."

spoilerish review !!! heavy spoilers ahead !!! do NOT continue if you haven't played this game which you shouldve because it's the most perfect thing in the world !!!

when i was younger i had a DS with an R4 damn full of games that ranged from incredible to absolutely fucking junk like the mister bean game ? barbie ? giulia passione qualcosa idk whats called in english ? im sorry but anyway that was like my golden era of videogames i would spend all day long playing shit like mario and luigi or pokemon or dragon quest orrrrrrrrrr i forgot what other games i liked but anyway yeah those

so i played explorers of sky at like 10 years old and it ricocheted in my heart as one of the most emotional experiences ive ever had in my entire life i was a crying mess at the end of it and the characters were all so well written that they felt real and breathing and stuck with me for a lot of time that even now i still thought of explorers of sky as one of my all time favorite but i needed to replay it to be sure it was actually as i remembered and not like nostalgia doing all the work

well i will be damned if i didnt say that the ending made me cry again after 10 years and possibly even more now that it did back then because of life experiences and a general broader understanding of the world of the people living in it and of the importance of life and shit like that like i told my friends that i was playing this game again and as the great crybaby i am i was sure to end up absolutely scarred again its not even funny anymore

i cannot begin to tell you how ironic it is that a game about pokemon talking and doing their things tells a story thats so incredibly humane and full of emotions like this is a fucking PEGI 3+ game and realistically im 21 years old and this game was too much for me too what the fuck did they put out for kids in

i kid you not this is the first time i remember as a boy actually having this kind of emotional turmoil due to some kind of media like probably some other media also did that but the memories about this game are so incredibly ingrained into my mind that not even amnesia will ever be able to change that i remember so vividly everything about this game the beautiful art style the emotional music most of the story beats character interactions and trivia and thats something that i can also say for other games of the DS like this was the time i made SO MANY memories with videogames i kid you not and thats probably why i love them so much even now

so that being said apart from my mentally unstable self whats pokemon mystery dungeon

as much as i love the series i have checked neither the previous games nor the next ones that came after like im pretty interested in red blue squad or whatever the fuck but i always end up playing this one anyway im sorry i just love this game this fucking much i cant do this shit anymore

anyhow lets just leave out of the way the most obvious flaw and thats probably the gameplay now please dont @ me for the love of jesus i dont hate the gameplay but i do think it couldve benefited from some tweaks now what tweaks you ask me ??? the fuck if i know im not a game developer what do you want from me but talking BASICS if you ever played an mystery dungeon game in your life yknow what theyre like (you probably played this one lets be real) so the main gameplay element is in a delicious JRPG action obviously turn based but the main this is that it acts like a SRPG think fire emblem without the bullshit and without the strategy (i mean mostly non strategic but some parts will make you scratch your head) and add the dungeon crawling aspect all of this with pokemon flare if you didnt understand any of this dont worry neither did i

now this is a pretty interesting concept but over time it grows a bit boring . not really tiring because i mean once the real story sets in everything is gonna be like 10 times better so it goes for the gameplay itself too and i mean the gameplay could be better but its good for the type of game it is so im not gonna complain sometimes dungeons can be a fucking bitch or theres gonna be a stupid fucking boss fight with 10 pokemon coming at you for a gangbang/bukkake scenario so whatever anyway the general flow is pretty consistent and once you understand some little tricks here and there youre gonna breeze through most of the dungeons without any real problem whatsoever unless youre stupid like me and thats a real possibility honestly

i downloaded a patch that basically lets you use all your abilities with a combination of L + button so thats actually pretty handy instead of being something that can only be used with 1 move and makes the gameflow actually pretty fast so i really recommend it to you guys its just a little QOL to make the game generally more digestible

so yeah i mean the gameplay loop is set you get quests and go into the dungeons you fight some enemies get some items here and there get killed or get to the top (or bottom) of the dungeon recruit some more pokemon for your personal genocide and talk with a lot of pokemon and do stuff in the hometown again this is not like the ONLY single gripe i have with the gameplay but its genuinely not that bad honestly its kind of simple and gets repetitive but its not anything too offensive or shit so im gonna support this games gameplay till i die and also as i was saying sometimes it really does get into SRPG territory because some dungeons and enemies and traps will really crush your brains out

that being said second base is the art direction . people i cannot comprehend how incredibly sweet the entire pixel art of this game is theres not a single screenshot i could make of this game that wouldnt be a great additions to the paintings on the wall of my living room every single aspect of the game is crafted to hell and back the sprites of the pokemon in game and the portraits have so much love put into them and especially you can see it in the portraits of the main cast of the game that have a lot of different expressions here and there that really drive home the experience if you ask me then you have the design of borgo tesoro which is literally one of the comfiest towns in videogames ever i love all the different shops i love pokemon groups just hanging out in the plaza going to the beach and going to the guild to do stuff every single place in the hub has this vibrant dreamy vibe and i would honestly just die in this place im not joking then again the dungeons also do offer some of the most interesting designs for dungeons ever i was honestly pretty scared that dungeons were all gonna look samey to me with little to no variation but as i remembered correctly every single dungeons looks acts and FEELS entirely different and theres no way in hell youre not gonna remember at least a bunch of these iconic places istg

and then you have the beautiful BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS on the title screen you will have some of the most incredible concept art ive seen about pokemon and my personal fav one with little shinx(https://www.rpgfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Explorers-of-Sky-Artwork-003.jpg) or like this artwork for the final special episode(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElsaMQJWMAAKWp_.jpg) or this one also being one of my favorites of the bunch(https://cdn.staticneo.com/ca/pokemon_mystery_dungeon_explorers_of_the_sky_conceptart_PA0x2.jpg) and this are ONLY THE ARTWORKS but ingame you will have some incredible dualscreen art like this one(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fb/79/b9/fb79b9a00090455241dd7c4727e2901d.jpg) and that one(https://pm1.aminoapps.com/6507/ddbf25c1c740ccd0f78e336bbce6fe0746ea2855_hq.jpg) honestly every single one of these is a fucking masterpiece dont get me started and i dont want to post every single one of them so just play the fucking game the hell

and all this stuff would be absolutely fucking nothing if it werent for some of the most jawdropping scores in the entirety of the DS catalogue and honestly ? in the entirety of the videogame media up to date i wont even lie to you the fuck this has everything it has some silly tunes for fun moments with your friends for tranquil moments spent in the town and in the guild some moody tunes for many many MANY different dungeons and for approaching threats and shit like that and you also get some emotional scores for when the game decides to absolutely destroy your fucking heart you dont understand

music is an integral part of the experience in pmd and its insane to me that they made this bomb ass music tracks in a hardware so weak such as the one of the Nintendo DS literally it has 2 speakers that have the power of an mp3 I think or something so yeah it's absolutely insane to me that they managed to not only make passable music but even music that I listen to fondly and tracks that are ear candy to say the least and probably some of the most emotional cuts in any game ever stuff that will make you bawl in 3 second with absolutely incredible instrumentation and composition I don't even know what to tell you pokemon music is always kind of a banger but this time they really made the game with these songs

tracks like the main theme or the wigglytuffs guild theme or the treasure town theme get stuck in your head forever i remembered these tracks vividly while replaying it and got hit by basically every single emotion ever clouded with a fucking lot of nostalgia I tell you

plus theres an ost for EVERY . SINGLE . DUNGEON . not only every dungeon is different but with the added unique ost it gives such a definite vibe for each and every dungeon and that adds to the memorable factor like every single dungeon felt familiar BECAUSE of this theres not a single miss sand dungeons are chaotic ice dungeons are mysterious forest dungeons are tranquil everything has something to make the experience as particular as possible

spanning something like 200 songs they also excel as some super emotional cuts that strike at your heartstrings like nothing else in the world through the sea of time is probably my favorite one of the bunch it has such a great composition absolutely emotional and majestic and really the starting point of the final segment of the game that will result in you getting emotionally scarred forever and then youre smacked in your fucking face with an arrangement of the song for when you have to say goodbye to grovyle this shit is wild who THE FUCK thought this game was alright to put into the world im forever traumatised I genuinely cannot and yet again the final boss theme which is grandiose straight to the point and absolutely breathtaking this is one of the most incredible boss fights in videogames and you cannot tell me otherwise because I will not listen to you anyway I dont fucking care

this is the one this is the moment i was fearing would kill me again and it definitely did . this track is one of the most wonderful pieces of art ive ever listened to and the fact that it's so fucking good it's so good I cannot even understand how such a great piece of music can come from not only pokemon but also from a kids game this is so powerful and so incredibly heart breaking that you can ONLY cry in this moment and if you don't you dont have a heart im sorry it's true

and then yknow what when you think its all done you get smacked with ANOTHER KILLER TRACK and THE ANOTHER ONE WHILE YOUR PARTNER IS ON THE FLOOR CRYING BECAUSE HE BOTTLED UP HIS EMOTIONS FOR MONTHS AND FINALLY LET IT ALL GO AT THIS MOMENT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THIS GAME IS NOT REAL I CANNOT BELIEVE IIIIIIT

anyway apart from messing with my heart and soul this games soundtrack is full of bangers please play this game I cannot stress this enough im gonna go crazy

with all that said i think i need to get into the real juice of this game and thats clearly the fucking story and characters now i need to tell you that this is the most perfect story in any game ever and definitely the highlight of the pokemon series i don want to tell you this but its the truth

the starting test chose that im riolu which is one of my fav pokemon so im definitely not gonna complain about that and then i chose shinx because he IS my favorite pokemon ever and his evoline is incredible and im really emotionally attached to him yada yada shit like that and by the way that first test to choose what pokemon you are is basically the MBTI test but better im sorry but somebody had to say that lmao and i took that responsibility on me

so the player due to some events turned from human to pokemon and wound up to the shore of titular hometown borgo tesoro and was rescued by his companion that was actually trying to get into the guild but didnt have the balls to do that because hes a fucking wimp BUT also one of the most special characters of my life so its a good compromise

shit happens you help some people out and finally get into the guild where your life as explorers will begin for some day to day life of getting quests going to dungeons rescuing people/getting items and so on for idk how many hours honestly but yeah YOURE IN !!! Uno! Lavorare non fa male! Due! A chi scappa niente pappa! Tre! Ogni sorriso va condiviso! and thats gonna be your life from now on

so first things first i love everyone at the guild and basically every single pokemon in this game basically instead of pokemon being carbon copy of general archetypes since youre basically living IN the world of pokemon AS a pokemon every single character has a different personality that usually really encapsulates the general vibe of the physical aspect of the pokemon wigglytuff is always daydreaming and shows love for everybody chatot is a finicky leader but cares for their childs bidoof is a wimp sunflora is a weirdo the guy who screams screams and diglett still looks like a penis theres something for everybody but yeah basically they made the characters live and breathe so seamlessly youre gonna care for every single one of them until the end of the game and i assure you youre gonna spend a lot of time with them

now this first part of pmd is probably the most boring one but i say that because theres little lore that is given to you between mostly doing a lot of quests here and there to get a sense of dungeons and gameplay and get to slowly know the world and the pokemon that inhabit it so thats fine it does have a lot of game stuff for the amount of intel theyre gonna give you but when it gets good it gets good

the underlying plot that slowly unravels is that of a mysterious thief that goes around wrecking havoc by stealing gears of time and disrupting the timeflow (thats also why pokemon dont evolve in the game) and the nature of the players amnesia pokemon transformation and ability to sometimes see past or future events thanks to physical cues connected to that event

BUT FIRST LETS DO A HUNDRED QUESTS ??????

some time later and then SPOILER TERRITORY

the lake expedition probably is the first turning point in the narrative since you get a general sense of where the game is going and how its gonna develop its storyline but rest assured theres a lot of plottwists here and there

gears are usually guarded in weird places that are protected by azelf uxie and mesprit yknow the 3 twinks from pokemon platinum and so yeah theyre gonna get stolen lmaooooo anyway as soon as you encounter dusknoir this is really the point where the entire game gets good af hes a traveler from the future who is trying to save the day and prevent the bad guy thief grovyle to stop the time forever he talks about the future being destroyed yada yada yknow the drill some more explorations later and they capture grovyle they get his ass and everybody is fine peace is finally restored dusknoir is gonna get into the portal for the future get grovyle to justice and restore the timeflow UNTIL dusknoir gets your ass captures you and pushes you into the future portal so youre in the future dusknoir is actually the bad guy you were captures and youre gonna get executed because youre in a gay relationship but gays always win so you run away and boom you become besties with grovyle

grovyle tells you that he was actually doing the thievery to SAVE the future instead of what dusknoir was claiming and youre back to square one but instead now you need to go back to the present in the meantime youre gonna go through dungeons and get to know grovyle and his motives better i gotta say grovyle is absolutely such an interesting character apart from an incredible hunk if you ask me SORRY OMGGGG SORRY WHO SAID THAT ok so anyway theres that the future is absolutely fucking broken apart also due to dialga going fucking crazy and time collapsing on itself so you go syke and get back to the present

here you cry go back to the guild cry again and get reunited with your friends and this is where the final arc of the game begins you go to some missions to find out where the tower of time is while grovyle gets the last gears of the bunch when everything settles you go to one of the last dungeons of the game that brings you to a place to go to the tower of time then you fly with lapras and go to the tower of time and its the moment to SOME MORE DUNGEONS JESUS and youre in front of the tower now here the partner is sent to use its stone to unlock the path to enter the building and in the meantime grovyle tells you that being a pokemon from the future youre gonna vanish with him since this is not your place to be . yknow whats COMING GUYS LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO

so tower of time dungeon you go to the summit fight dialga get the gears back and the day is saved everybody is happy whatever while you get back you begin to vanish due to you not being from this world and you get a super emotional and heartwarming scene for the finale were the 2 main characters say goodbye

BOY I WAS A FUCKING MESS YOU DONT GET IT I WAS A MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESS WHO THE FUCK WROTE THIS GAME IM GONNA GO CRAZY this is the most heartbreaking ending ever basically every single thing they say makes me go buck wild and its absurd to me how this is a game for kids anyway youre vanished shinx gets back and lives his life in the guild again

then one day he goes back to the shore where you first meet and begins to have feels and memories fill his head and has a deadass crying fit in the middle of the shore while bidoof is helping him WHEN THE MEMORIES WERE ROLLING I WAS AN ABSOLUTE MESS AGAIN I HATE THIS FUCKING GAME WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME SO EMOTIONAL FOR FUCKING POKEMON UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

so you go omg only 2 crying fits thats weird then dialga says thank you player for what you did so im gonna send you back to the present and then youre gonna hug with your partner 3RD CRYYYYY GUYS THIRD CRYING FIT OF THE DAY LETS GOOOOOOOO

so umh this game absolutely ruined me as much or probably even more than it did when i was 10 years old and i cannot stress you enough to play this game because this storyline is absolutely crazy something out of a cartoon and yet something that crushed my heart and yeeted it in a bin im a grown man and still bawled my eyes out i genuinely cannot

i do think the storyline is one of the most beautiful aspect of the game but it needs some time to actually get good but when you start OOOOOOOOF youre in for a hell of an emotional trainwreck i kid you not its absolutely fucking insane and even though i knew what was gonna happen i still ended up crying like a fucking bitch

so yeah this game is absolutely incredible everybody should play it it should be illegal to not play it at least one time in the entirety of your life thank you everybody

to this day i still think this is one of the greatest games ive ever played and even though it is not a perfect game in itself it IS a perfect game for me vibes unmatched gorgeous art and sensational OST emotional storyline and interesting characters to boot this sits right up there as one of the most powerful releases in the series and one that really stays with you for the entirety of your life every time people say pmd i either begin to overflow with informations about my personal experience or cry in front of everybody at the family reunion and if youre lucky maybe even both at the same time thank you nintendo and thank you great empire of japan

POST GAME WOWOWOWOWOWOW

when i first played this game i probably dipped at the credits because i was NOT prepared for the amount of post game content this game has to offer theres so much stuff its honestly humbling you could play this game forever for the amount of side content and events there are its just such an amazing experience altogether i cannot stress this enough

shaymin village quest is so soothing theres a lot of somber motifs and chill dungeons here and there and i just love him hes such a fucking cutie

the manaphy storyline is so simple yet so fucking effective that I was left bawling AGAIN this game is fucking unreal yall I can't do this shit anymore please also it confirmed that the protagonist and his partner are married and in love I didnt make it canon nintendo did

the regi cave is a nice addition and the whole progression is pretty interesting sure it gets repetitive after a while but its still intriguing and the fact that you see team charm again is a blast girls supporting girls

the cresselia darkrai quest is probably the culmination of what explorers of sky was doing in its post game content and its such a fucking joy to experience the storyline is tight as shit the new characters are intriguing and the twists are jawdropping dungeons are great even if a little on the harder side of things and it just has the cherry on top of making you cry one last time I fucking hate this game I cannot do this shi anymore

so since the post game is actually kind of beefy you should play it teehee

SIDE STORIES WOWOWOWOWOWOW

i never played the extra stories and i dont remember shit about the post game so my thoughts and considerations go after this beep BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

BIDOOFs episode is pretty interesting and i really enjoy the character already so this was a nice surprise and then you have jirachi which is one of the pokemon with the best designs ever so yknow its gonna be good also here theres some crying to do but its pretty surface level and really ties this story well with the main story of pmd and i was NOT expecting the gameplay elements i thought it was gonna be different but anyway this is great lets see what the others are

also what the fuck is up with the star cave having SUCH a cool fucking dungeon theme the HELL this is incredible turutututuutiturutututu

WIGGLYTUFFs episode is another one for a good crying fit like i finished it and i was going to k1ll myself honestly this ones tells the story of how wigglytuff became wigglytuff with some focus on his early life and relationship with a mysterious explorer i swear to fucking god i was NOT expecting that finale not now and not even in a 100 years that absolutely ruined my day and left me dehydrated again i genuinely cannot believe this game anymore anyway wigglytuff is goofy as fuck of course this is good

SUNFLORAs one is pretty cute doesnt really reach the highs of the other stories but friendship stories are always a hit for me in any way shape or form so of course i would love this even though traversing the dungeons with ONLY sunflora was actually a chore but whatever it did pay off in the end i like gay people sunflora is a male idc if they use she/her pronouns in the game

LOPUNNY and co side story is probably my least favorite of the bunch not because its bad but because it feels kind of out there compared to the other ones since those were about members of the guild and this one is another new team entirely but yknow not so bad all in all the 3 main gals are fun as hell and lopunny is genuinely so charming now i get why shes so popular on rule34

GROVYLE and his bf make a new appearance in this side story that explains more of what happens after the time travel to the future and its honestly pretty gripping and heartwarming i wasnt a huge fan of the endless dungeons this part throws at you but the payoff is absolutely timeless and ending made me bawl dear lord

all in all this game has lifelong and valuable messages incredible themes and lessons things that will stick with your FOREVER this is such a great piece of art and to the people that say videogames cannot be art please play this and think again because theres no other piece of media that thought me so much that had such a huge impact on my life till now and im so glad every single day for the fact that i could play and finish this game in a moment of my life that really needed lessons like these yknow games CAN be just games its not like I'm gonna pretend that something like fortnite is a piece of art lets not confuse art with garbage but sometimes shit like this can change lives can change the way your head works the way you go through your day to day life and make you FEEL things and that what art is all about this game has so many lessons about life about friendship about work about how we live life and how we should live our life and there's nothing more precious than this I might not be the biggest pokemon fan and I might not even be the best person to tell you this but this game is a masterpiece a true universal unprecedented masterpiece and I will never forget it till the day that I die theres really nothing else I could say about it apart from thank you nintendo for making one of the most important works of art of my life and thank you for being dumb as fuck so I could pirate this at 10 year old BYEREEEEEE

"But things we take for granted... They're really the most essential things. And they're precious."