The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I read that let’s play on Red Rescue Team, and then I got all lame and bought Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, because I was really in the mood for it and you can play as a Vulpix in that one. All that is kind of lame, but I did it anyway, and you couldn’t stop me, so ha. I’m going to play it anyway, bitches. And Smiles Go For Miles.

Anyway, I was going over the new features and amazing benefits I have received by buying the “Pokemon Yellow” of the second group of Pokemon Mystery Dungeons. These features include faux items that are out to trick you into using bad items on yourself (Wait, this isn’t a Reviver Seed! This is a Reviser Seed! Oh game, you almost caught me there!), special campaigns outside of the main campaign that you can access from the main menu, and Spinda Cafe, a place to sink items in a way that gets you rare items or stat boosts. Plus, you get to watch the adorable little mixing animation of the Spinda when he makes you a drink that I wish I had an animated gif of. (I don’t suggest watching that whole video, though. I dunno, that guy’s voice creeps me out.)

All these features make the game more hardcore.

Now, the mainline Pokemon games are for kids, and they are simple in that way. With perseverance, you can beat anyone in the main storyline with just about any shitty party you’d like. Sure, there is a second level of strategy that I have never not used that is involved with building a well-rounded party, picking the most effective moves, and constantly preying on type weaknesses. This, however, is only one chart worth of complicated, and kids can easily pick that up, too. Or at least notice the game spits out “Super Effective!” whenever they attack a bird with their beloved Pikachu. Of course, there’s a third level of strategy that only insane people engage in that involves hidden stats and other such bullshit, but we will ignore that, as everyone should. Anyway, the point is that most of the more complex systems in Pokemon can be used or not used, depending on your level of competency and how much time you want to put in the game. It’s a sliding scale, but at the bottom of this scale is an RPG that anyone can play and be successful at.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon just simply does not work like this, as much as the developers would like to.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is the babiest of all roguelikes I’ve played, this is true. There are no unknown items, and you can outlevel your foes if you’d like. You can always bring items into dungeons, except late game challenge ones, and you constantly have a collection of power moves to take out foes, instead of having to rely on a questionable basic attack. All these are features, not flaws: they’re trying to appeal to the same crowd who plays Pokemon. The same sort of crowd that is all over that sliding scale.
However, I doubt they’re getting anyone but the more hardcore, higher up people in that group. Even toned-down Mystery Dungeon rules are still a very large ruleset. Moving, searching, dealing with hunger effectively, and controlling your party are not simple button presses. Many common actions require you to hold combination of buttons down, but only if you set the moves up beforehand. If you didn’t do that, they’re buried under several levels of menus. The moves and creatures are fairly obviously familiar, but moves do different things. Important status effects like “slow” and “haste” just don’t actually exist in Mainline Pokemon, and leveling up the new stat of IQ through Gummis is, while not that hard, still a completely new concept. Basically, someone who likes Pokemon cannot just jump into these games and be successful. It will take a bunch of failure, and some practice. Granted, the game has a decent tutorial, but still: I could see how it would frustrate a very casual player.
Add to that fact that the features added in this expansionish game. You’ve got inscrutable systems of getting new items and boosts from the Spinda cafe to spade out. You’ve got the Faux items, which are attempting to replicate the “need to be tested and identified” items from normal roguelikes without actually adding that feature. It’s all additional added complexity and challenge. This game is simply less accessible than Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness. While most “third” entries in the mainline Pokemon games often do add more hardcore options (a Battle Tower, or some extreme challenge after the credits roll) these are, once again, optional. Nothing of the new stuff added in this game is that way. You’re getting faux items, no matter what. Gathering your party is moved to this Spinda Cafe, and you get a tour through the course of the story, so you can’t think it isn’t there to be used.

I guess what all this is working towards is that this game is really aimed towards me, but it’s still fairly childish in presentation and story. Which, of course, ALSO aims it towards me. But I’m weird, and it’s hitting a really weird niche of people who like cute, but hardcore, but not TOO hardcore or else it would be frustrating, games. Is there really a market out there? Does the game sell exclusively to furries and pokemorphs? Or is it something that everyone who grew up with Pokemon has graduated to, because they wanted a change in the formula of the original, seeing as they’ve just reproduced it like 5 times?
I really don’t know. You tell me.