Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 22 July 2008 12:51
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Take mostly cute make believe animals deep into randomly created dungeons to rescue or imprison other mostly cute make believe animals. Chunsoft produce a light RPG for the DS with a long heritage and a handful of new tricks.
Chunsoft have been, dare I say it churning out mystery dungeon games for a fair time now. But in all honesty this is my first foray into the world of the randomly generated dungeon RPG (unless you add countless hours spent rampaging through Nethack labyrinths ).
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:Explorers of Darkness
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Developer
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Chunsoft
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Publisher
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Nintendo |
Rating
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G
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| DS |
So what we have here is a Nintendo DS Pokemon themed role playing game (RPG). Finding yourself washed up upon the shoreline of a strange land, having just answered some Freud like questions in a dream like state, you are transformed into an appropriate Pocket Monster. A Pokémon.
From here, a companion Pokémon will join you and eventually you and your buddy join the explorer’s guild. Forming an Explorer Team (of two initially) you set out to complete jobs for the guild.
Apart from the story continuing jobs, the vast majority of tasks in PMD:ED consist of rescue, retrieve or capture an outlaw Pokémon style. After equipping yourself in town, it is time to hit the randomly generated rather generic dungeons. Given the game is entitled Explorers of Darkness, it is pleasingly surprising for each dungeon and surrounds to be brightly presented.
The guts of PMD:ED gameplay is strolling through each dungeon clearing them of baddies, collecting booty such as seeds, and gummies which, when ingested provide the duel benefits of boosting Pokémon stats and filling the bellies of the hungry little critters.
