Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

One of the spin-off entries of the biggest entertainment franchise of all time, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is a dungeon crawler, RPG, roguelike title that moves away from the traditional Pokemon formula. Developed by Spike Chunsoft, and published by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, this is available exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS. Released in 2015, the game was met with mixed feelings from fans and critics, regardless of that it was a commercial success.

Gotta Experience Them All!

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is not your traditional Pokemon game. It doesn’t revolve around leveling up, capturing, and battling Pokemon, to become the very best trainer, instead it takes a dungeon crawler approach. The game is designed in a manner that no two dungeons or levels are the same, hence they can never be replayed exactly as they were since they are randomly generated.

Gameplay-wise this title is fairly straightforward and takes a turn-based approach to dungeon crawling. This means that every time you take any action it counts as a turn, and enemies, objects, and the world also abide by the same turn-based rules. Attacking revolves around your basic attacks and your special attacks which revolve around the well-known PP (Power Points) Pokemon system.

Become The Pokemon

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon starts through the premise that you have embodied a Pokemon and set out on an adventure. Here is the fan-favorite personality quiz to choose which Pokemon you become returns, as well as the hunger system for your energy. While this is certainly an evolution in comparison to its sequel, it lacks the Pokemon magic, it is not a bad game per se, just not spectacular.

The story is somewhat predictable, and even if the artwork, visuals, and level design are great for 3DS standards, they aren’t able to carry the game. However, dialogue is quirky, charming, and fun, which makes the story easier to digest. The sound design also warrants a massive compliment since it is one of the best parts of the game, and it truly brings the world alive. The game while short in length, sometimes feels insanely tedious and boring, simply because the story takes too long to engage players in a meaningful way.

Finally, players might feel frustrated by the way the game is set up. The game will also feel unbelievably hard and tedious since it has the worst aspects of RPG and Roguelikes tuned to the max, it is repetitive and has a poorly balanced difficulty curve. If you enjoy hard games and don’t mind the grind you might enjoy this, after all, it scratches the nostalgia itch with all the original starter Pokemons and all the 720 Pokemons released at the time.

CONCLUSION

This is the best Mystery Dungeon Pokemon game to date, and yet it is just average, borderline tedious depending on your preference. It fails to mix gracefully the genres it is inspired by, so it would benefit you to go straight to other titles such as Children of Morta, Wally and The Fantastic Predators, Torchlight, and experience a great dungeon-crawler.

PROS

• All Pokemon Are Here!
• Nostalgia Factor Is Great
• Dialogue Is Fun and Well-Written
• Superb Sound Design

CONS

• Very Slow Pace Story-Wise
• Repetitive Mechanics
• Grindy and Based on Item Spammage
• Short-lived Story