Mystery Dungeon Discussion and Rescues.

The Mystery Dungeon spin-off series is one that's been going for quite some time.

The first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games were Red/Blue Rescue Team, after them Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, which was followed up by the somewhat, for lack of a better word, "controversial" Gates To Infinity, and then the most recent Mystery Dungeon game, Super Mystery Dungeon!

So, what's this thread for, exactly? Well, it's for discussing Mystery Dungeon of course! Here you can talk about your experiences with the game, rage inducing moments, things that caught you off guard, finding your first Reviver Seed and thinking it's the most overpowered thing ever, let's just talk about what we did in Mystery Dungeon!

This thread has another purpose as well. Sometimes when you faint in a dungeon you can wait to be rescued, and get a second chance. You send out rescue mail, and you get a code that someone can enter to rescue you and give you a second chance at the dungeon by going through as many floors as you went through, and then finding you. But this thread would likely have more rescue requests than actual discussion if you could just post rescues here. So, you should message one of the below rescuers, and see if they can help. Rescues are region-locked, so make sure your rescuer is in the same region as you. If you can rescue other players, send me a message and tell me which games you can rescue in and what your region is.

Super:

(EU)
Vanillish Wafer

(US)

Gates:

(EU)

(US)

Explorers:

(EU)

(US)
SomewhatOddish
lucariomaster2
Silver_Lucario42

Rescue Team:

(EU)

(US)
lucariomaster2


Can't find a rescuer? The mystery dungeon subreddit has a good thread where you can find rescues right here.

Spoilers are not allowed. The Mystery Dungeon games tend to have very good stories, and if you blurt out a major event you could ruin it for someone. Just put it in a hide tag and label it a spoiler tag.

Now for a topic to start us off so there's some way to start the conversation, what were some of your favourite moments? Maybe you were super skilful and pulled off a pro tactic, maybe you did something silly that you found really funny, or maybe you tried stealing from Kecleon and got beaten up by a level 100 normal type. We've all been there, believe me. Maybe not all of us, I suppose some of you are smarter than me.
 
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If there's one thing I love about the Mystery Dungeon series that pretty much every other Pokemon game fails at is having appealing difficulty. If you are just starting or just want to beat the story, you find a fair game that only gets hard near the end. If you like roguelikes, the hellish post-game is for you (Although I personally dislike the fact difficulty does not really increase the further you go in a dungeon. All the nasty parts already appear at Floor 1, and if you can manage that, then it's just a stride to the end).

(Now that I'm saying that... I'm planning on purchasing Super Mystery Dungeon, alongside a New 3DS and Pokemon Moon, before this year ends. Is it true that it has a much bigger emphasis on its roguelike half?)
 
Blue Rescue Team was the first game I bought for my DS. :) I loved it, though it's been a long time since I've played. I got rid of the game long ago, which I regret. :/ I miss it.

I still have Sky though, which I think has a much stronger story (this seems to be the general consensus.) It's better than Time/Darkness because of the extra chapters, which help give more depth to certain characters. Speaking of the characters, I love them. Wigglytuff's Guild has a colorful cast, all of whom make you feel like family, and Treasure Town has a whole seems to have that "everyone knows each other and everyone is friends" kinda vibe to it. I also think the partner character is better developed in this game, and I like how you two remain close even after the credits. I have more to say about this game, but I won't put it all in this post lol. I replay this game a lot.

I'm not done with Magnagate, but tbh, I'm having a hard time playing this. Not in the sense that I think it's difficult, but in the sense that I'm just not that invested in it. I've had it for years now. I should probably get on that.

Haven't bought Super Mystery Dungeon yet.

Oh, and if anyone needs a rescuer for Explorers, I'm down. I live in the US.
 
I've played red rescue team, explorers of time, and super. Red rescue team stands as definitely one of my favorite games, if not my favorite game. I could list things I love about it for days, but I'll just start with a few. First off, I like how every single Pokemon is viable. Every single one. Everything from chikorita and dunsparce to charizard, arguably the best Pokemon in the game (which is a title he deserves to have). In fact evolutions don't even matter, you can boost stats indefinitely with items. PP and effectiveness is also not as big of a deal anymore, making doing essentially whatever you want possible, along with being able to learn the same move more than once. The second big thing for me is the story. Pokemon red rescue team has the best story of any Pokemon game, hands down. I'm not going to delve into it, cause spoilers, but if you don't cry at the end you are a cold uncaring monster. One more thing that makes pmd rrt amazing is its difficulty. Not only is the postgame full of 99 floor dungeons filled with machamps that will counter you to death and dewgongs that will sheet cold you no matter your level, but there are also 99 floor dungeons that take your items, moves, and scale you back to level one, just to make sure you're on an even playing field. This is the only game I know of that has a challenge where being overleveled won't actually help you at all. There are of course things that are a bit annoying, like the surprising ohkoers that I mentioned above that send you back to the beginning on floor 96 and the ridiculous leveling scale and difficulty of evolution. Some people say that making saving inside a dungeon possible(you know what I mean) would fix this, but I think that would take too much away from the challenge. I'll probably post again in this thread multiple times, but for now I'll let other people talk rather than writing a thesis on pmd rrt. Speaking of which, all the above was solely about red rescue team. The more recent pmds have been lackluster in my opinion, but the original is legendary. I'd like to hear about if other people disagree.
 
Ah, Mystery Dungeon. Explorers of Sky remains my favourite spin-off game to this day, contested only by Shadows of Almia. It definitely straddles the line between difficult and evil, with Drifblim hitting you across the room 4 times in 1 turn, Bronzor continuously locking you down with Hypnosis and Imprison, and dungeons filled with Grudge Traps and Level 99 enemies.

The storyline is the deepest and most meaningful one I think Pokemon has ever seen. I won't spoil it, but the story alone is worth playing the game for. All of the game's characters are just so memorable as well.

I've logged countless hours on Sky; if anyone needs a rescue, Lucario and Pikachu of Team Fighter are on their way! I can also rescue people playing Blue if need be.
 
Some people say that making saving inside a dungeon possible(you know what I mean) would fix this, but I think that would take too much away from the challenge.
I'd say it's more about "Can I stop for a while, please?" than lowering difficulty. It's not nice to have to get past 99 floors all in a go that no longer pose a challenge to your fine-tuned Pokemon.

Sure, there was that saving option that would erase that quicksave once you got back, but I never found that useful.
 
I'd say it's more about "Can I stop for a while, please?" than lowering difficulty. It's not nice to have to get past 99 floors all in a go that no longer pose a challenge to your fine-tuned Pokemon.

Sure, there was that saving option that would erase that quicksave once you got back, but I never found that useful.
The quick save option allows for you to pause midway through a dungeon, having more than that would make it more like other games where you just save your progress in a dungeon/before a boss to guarantee that you win. If you have a perma-save, you could just save every few floors and insure that you always mak it through a dungeon, just like how people save right before gym leaders and the elite 4 to make sure they always win. I guess it really comes down to personal opinion, I can see how people would like a perma-save option, but I prefer the system implemented in pmd rrt.
 

Vinc2612

The V stands for VGC
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Pokémon Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team (the latter for me) are the best spin-offs we had so far (ok, I needed to remove my nostalgia goggles for this one, but these are objectively better than TCG or pinball)

Honestly, I love everything about those games. I loved the story (stories?), the fact that everything is available, the fact that I still don't have Chansey and won't have it, etc. Everything. I regulary start over, although my current run is pretty far in the "catch them all" so I'll probably keep this one for a long time.

Others have been disappointing. Time/Darkness and especially Sky aren't bad, but there are a couple of annoying points. I could list the two main things that have been done poorly compared to the first one (at least two without spoilers):
- You can't evolve your starter before the very very end. In the first one, you beat the main story, then can evolve, then can play all the sub-stories. In this one, you beat the main story, you beat the sub-stories, then you can evolve. But what's the point of becoming stronger when there are only four new dungeons to explore?
- The new IQ system. There is simply no starter in the perfect lead IQ group (can't recall which one though). That's a huge turn-off, because IQ is one of the main part in preparing the exploration, but the poll of starter doesn't allow you to prepare properly. Unless you completely drop your starter out.

The third was cool, but there is no kind of balance whatsoever. The Pokémon you recruit, while yourself at level 15, will be somewhere between level 5 and 60. That doesn't make any sense. And that killed it for me. Add to the fact that IQ got removed for the small crystals (can't recall the name), which are randomly found in the dungeons. So it just removed one of the best thing in the serie, aka preparing for a dungeon.
 
Ah finally a thread on my favourite Pokemon Spin-Off.

Like most people, I think PMD:Sky is the best PMD game. The deep story (for a Pokemon game) was thought out very well and I have almost no complaints with it. I feel the story is a little bit slow to start, but that's hardly a complaint. The game also made me feel sad and cry (over a Pokemon game ;;)

The game has many sad moments. From watching your partner cry over your death and watching them have a mental breakdown for the next few months to watching a baby Manaphy cry out in confusion after being taken away from everything and everyone it knows (not to mention it calling out your and your partners name. The game knows how to make me cry :[


I like PMD1 as well, while the pacing is worse and the story is weaker, it still had strong moments such as

When Gengar turned out to be Gardevoir's trainer and when you and your partner were fugitives.


Gates To Infinity is a disaster. The difficulty of the previous two games are gone. "Move Sharing" and "Move Levelling" (I think that was the name?) let characters quickly become OP with moves. The only story parts about this game I slightly enjoyed was

When Munna ends up betraying you, but Hydreigon is the life...thing (again I don't remember the name) even though they're a Dark/Dragon type.


Also was it me or did Gates To Infinity have virtually no Post-Game. Save yourself with wish power and then...do what? I don't know.

Either way the PMD franchise is one very close to my heart, and PMD:Sky is my favourite Pokemon game. To me the story is its strongest asset and blows all other Pokemon games I've played out of the water.

Apologies for messy post.
 
While we're on the subject of IQ, I remember playing Blue Rescue Team and IQ being one of my favourite parts of the game. Going through 18 floors, almost starving to death, using my last elixir and having one reviver seed. I could be in a horrible situation, but it could all go away and I could relax as soon as I see a Red Gummi. Forget dying, I got slightly smarter. Gummis also had a satisfying noise when you ate them which I quite liked.
 
If you got maximum IQ you could destroy all walls and walk over water. I never got to that IQ level, but I did enjoy the IQ bonuses Course Checker, Type Advantage Master, Weak-Type Picker and Nonsleeper.

When you're level 14 and you connect with a level 50 Salamence

2 days later

When you're level 17 and your team is a 56 Alakazam, a 55 Bisharp and a 55 Dragonite
 
I think IQ skills are designed more for your AI controlled allies rather than yourself since stuff like using a super effective attack on an enemy if possible can't apply to you because you control your character. Also a small touch about PMD is how sometimes moves will have effect on the terrain of a dungeon, such as Self-Destruct creating a small square in a path connecting two rooms.
 
I love how explosive moves destroy walls. In Super I might actually have an addiction to Hyper Beam because exploding walls with it is so unbelievably satisfying! Please take my Pyroar away, this much Hyper Beam isn't good for my health.
 
Actually thinking about Hyper Beam got me thinking about strong moves. And then I remembered three things that break the game.

Focus Punch is a deadly attack especially if your playing as Riolu (PMD2 experience here) but even on, say, Pikachu, this move is a monster. Use it just before an enemy reaches you for massive damage. In fact Pikachu is probably the perfect candidate for this due to how it learns Agility, giving it 3-4 moves in one turn, and Double Team so nothing ever hits you. PMD is a great move. For all of PMD's strengths I swear Agility never got a nerf.
 
Agility can't even compete with a certain move which is actually super broken. It lets you use Agility to get loads of moves in one turn while constantly boosting your attack.

Dragon Dance. It is so broken. You can boost your attack 3 stages in one turn AND maximise your movement speed. I feel cheap for using it, but I guess if I want to avoid it I should just not play as Charmander for once.
 
Agility can't even compete with a certain move which is actually super broken. It lets you use Agility to get loads of moves in one turn while constantly boosting your attack.

Dragon Dance. It is so broken. You can boost your attack 3 stages in one turn AND maximise your movement speed. I feel cheap for using it, but I guess if I want to avoid it I should just not play as Charmander for once.
I've never played as Charmander so I can't comment much. I just remember sweeping many late game bosses with AgiliTeam Pikachu. Final boss was a pain when it also used Double Team ;;
 
I've never played as Charmander so I can't comment much. I just remember sweeping many late game bosses with AgiliTeam Pikachu. Final boss was a pain when it also used Double Team ;;
My partner in Super is a Pikachu. I should try AgiliTeam, it'd be fun to totally cheese my next boss by quadrupling evasion before even getting in range. Agility also doubles the speed of any teammates in your room, so you can have a single Pikachu use Agility and then suddenly everyone can boost 4 times in one turn.
 

Its_A_Random

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For me, my list for PMD from favourite to least favourite is: Super > Explorers > Gates = Rescue.

Super Mystery Dungeon I went into with mild expectations and it just blew me away having not played a PMD game since Explorers (I did give Gates a spin after playing Super). The game gives a proper challenge even through it's broken in new ways and constantly reminds you that you aren't going to walk over this game, especially with all the anti-grinding measures (and plot railroading but that's another story). The connection orb system is much better than recruiting as while it renders evolution outside of player/partner pointless and results in finite missions since you can only get one of each, it gets rid of the RNG crap that comes with recruiting and allows you to 100% the game much easier. Leaked Experience I don't mind especially with anti-grinding because it means trying to get evolutions in Gates (for example) that are unrecruitable is much less annoying and much less grindy like it is in the earlier games. Emeras and Looplets is a much better system than IQ because while it introduces the luck of getting the right Emera during a delve to complete the objectives, it at least gives you temporary power ups that help you with missions. IQ I will go on about next paragraph. I do have some issues with the game though. The cooldown system is probably my biggest beef as while it balances getting OP Pokémon early in the game, it gives you no incentive to even bother raising anyone outside of you and your partner with Vitamins et al because they can become unavailable when you need them, wasting time or forcing you to use an inferior replacement. My other beefs mainly lie with the story, but I weigh gameplay over story and when it comes to gameplay, Super is easily the king.

Explorers is overrated IMHO. When I look back on it, the only real thing it really has going for it is its expansive postgame which can take hours on end to complete and some great challenges. Mechanic-wise however, it is inferior. Recruiting is inferior to connections. Bosses don't pose that much of a challenge because you can just go LOL Hunger/Allure Seed GG most of the time while in Super they can just recover and stop you from roflstomping them like bosses should. And the ability to level grind just makes it easier. And IQ is inferior to Looplets/Emeras. The only advantage to IQ is that the abilities gained are permanent outside of Lv1 Dungeons. That's it. On the other hand, you can only raise them finding gummis which aren't necessarily that common. And you need a bajillion gummis to raise IQ even one star, making it a very tedious process. While it does raise stats when used in the right places, it just takes forever and not everyone gets the same abilities which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but to recruit Kecleon, you absolutely need the Fast Friend skill which only takes several hours to get and only certain Pokémon to get. Like ugh.

Gates was overall a meh game. Slow text is irritating, no postgame, level grinding easy via companion mode, recruiting, mission limits, paid DLC, etc. Team Skills was at least an improvement over IQ in that you don't have to spend hours to get benefits for one Pokémon, but getting Team Skills completely comes down to Treasure Chest RNG which is annoying. The town building mechanic wasn't too bad. The game overall had good premises but it just came short. Mysteriosity in the postgame was annoying because the game could screw you over any time, true fake difficulty. Bosses weren't too bad even with Orbs allowed and Prevention on nearly every multi-opponent boss stopped the game from being too much of a cakewalk though it can still be a bit on the easy side. No hunger was a mixed bag. While it freed up space for other items and stops you from autolosing say a 99 floor Lv5 dungeon because you ran out of apples, it allowed you to grind until wind every floor and allows you to mindlessly fill up the bag with other items. Still, I enjoyed it in the end. It also has my favourite soundtrack of the series so it's a plus.

Rescue Team is just early instalment weirdness in a nutshell and there were a lot of things I did not like. Friend Areas are just stupid in general. Recruiting is recruiting, not to mention you couldn't recruit most FE Pokémon in particular and could mostly only recruit base levels and some were locked away in Level 1 dungeons (Chansey in particular). Trying to get all 386 Pokémon is much worse because of the recruiting situation, and some Pokémon have some of the most stupidest Exp. Curves ever which can make grinding a big hassle (Hi, I'm Azumarill. I'm Level 18 and I need 30,000 Exp to get to Level 19 and already have a few hundred thousand Exp points just to get to this level. Hi I'm Kingdra, I have much less Exp. than Seadra for a lot of levels and have lower Level 1 stats than Seadra) and I am glad Explorers made the curves much more normal in later instalments. IQ is again stupid but everyone could get the same abilities and again, everything takes forever. At least it has an expansive postgame and the story is short (even though the dungeons aren't, relative to later instalments). It's about equal to Gates for me.

I'll probably talk about plots in a later post but yeah. Some scattered thoughts that may or may not be super coherent.
 
Agreed with Its_A_Random for the most part (except PMD:Exploreres is overrated). One thing about PMD1 recruitment is that you have to go to their friend area before going to a dungeon to get them on your team...EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I can't count the times I either forgot to bring allies or simply didn't bother. Also about the Gummis in PMD2, I had quite a high IQ by the end of the main game without grinding for Gummis or anything. I don't think their availability is an issue. GTI bosses were far easier than Explorers ones. The issue of Seeds being OP in Explorers is basically doubled because of orbs. I don't understand why they let you use orbs in boss fights. I don't mind them in regular dungeons because they can save your life is you wander into a monster house / get into a very dangerous position.
 
Going back to IQ for a bit, I find the IQ skills pretty useful, for both you and the partner. But my absolute favorite thing about IQs was the introduction of Spinda's Juice Bar. Every time I got a gummi, I'd go here and fix up a drink. I also like how the juice bar helped Explorers. Hell, it's the reason you got to do the Shaymin mission. The juice bar has a nice atmosphere, and is especially satisfying when Spinda goes crazy about how awesome your drink turned out or whatever.

And since we're talking about player/partner characters, do any of you have a favorite pokemon combination for your team? For example, in Sky, I find myself playing as an Eevee with a Riolu partner a lot. It was the team I had for my first runthrough, so whenever I become an Eevee (which happens a lot), I just pick Riolu as partner because nostalgia. I think the playthrough I'm doing now is the first time in a while I didn't become an Eevee.
 
Going back to IQ for a bit, I find the IQ skills pretty useful, for both you and the partner. But my absolute favorite thing about IQs was the introduction of Spinda's Juice Bar. Every time I got a gummi, I'd go here and fix up a drink. I also like how the juice bar helped Explorers. Hell, it's the reason you got to do the Shaymin mission. The juice bar has a nice atmosphere, and is especially satisfying when Spinda goes crazy about how awesome your drink turned out or whatever.
I loved Spinda's bar even if it didn't serve as much of a purpose as I used to think. Spinda going mad when your drink is amazing and Ludicolo + Bellossom coming out to dance when you get the best prize of a lottery ticket. Small and neat touches.

do any of you have a favorite pokemon combination for your team?
As mentioned AgiliTeam Pikachu + Mudkip turned out to be great. Mudkip could deail with the pesky Ground types that annoyed me before I get the Focus Punch TM. Eevee is a great starter with Adaptability (although quite hard to use in the original due to only having Run Away...which was disabled) and due to Eevee's normal type I found it worked well with a lot of partners.[/quote]
 
Agreed with Its_A_Random for the most part (except PMD:Exploreres is overrated). One thing about PMD1 recruitment is that you have to go to their friend area before going to a dungeon to get them on your team...EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I can't count the times I either forgot to bring allies or simply didn't bother. Also about the Gummis in PMD2, I had quite a high IQ by the end of the main game without grinding for Gummis or anything. I don't think their availability is an issue. GTI bosses were far easier than Explorers ones. The issue of Seeds being OP in Explorers is basically doubled because of orbs. I don't understand why they let you use orbs in boss fights. I don't mind them in regular dungeons because they can save your life is you wander into a monster house / get into a very dangerous position.
I actually really like going to the friend areas, I think make it seem a bit more realistic. Plus most of them look super cool, so I would just visit them for fun sometimes. From what people have said, I think I might give pmd Sky a try, but rescue will always be number one in my heart.
 
I actually really like going to the friend areas, I think make it seem a bit more realistic. Plus most of them look super cool, so I would just visit them for fun sometimes. From what people have said, I think I might give pmd Sky a try, but rescue will always be number one in my heart.
Yeah but a party member should stay in your party until you tell them to go back to the Friend Area. It's annoying if you want to do a standard rescue mission and every time you have to go to the friend area. At least in my opinion.
 
I bought super mystery dungeon right when it came out and I played through the main storyline and everything, unlocked a couple of continents, but I can force myself to pick it back up. I think it's the fact that you get handed fully evolved high level Pokemon pretty early in the game. I mean they did try to balance it by only allowing your starter and partner in the main story dungeon and by limiting the amount of consecutive times you could use those high level mons, but it still felt kinda ridiculous when you have tyranitar, charizard, and Alakazam on your team when you're like level 16. In rescue, it was the opposite; instead of being handed op Pokemon on a silver platter, it was essentially impossible to get more than one or two without grinding for literally days. I think they need to find a happy medium between the early games and the new ones if they want pmd to continue to be successful.
 

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