Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team

Sep 19, 2006

With the next chapters in the Pokémon RPG saga, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, set to debut on the DS, it looks like Nintendo has more or less wrapped up the series on GBA. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team is apparently a last hurrah for the franchise on the system, but be warned: This is quite a different game than what you're used to

Unlike the other Pokémon RPGs, there are no humans to be found in Mystery Dungeon (well, not really). You play as a human who wakes up one day to discover that he (or she) has been turned into one of the collectable Pocket Monsters and is now living in a world populated with the creatures, which you now have the ability to converse with. A brief quiz that you take upon starting the game determines which critter you become, and after choosing a partner from a short list, you begin your adventure.

As you start to unravel the mystery behind your transformation, you and your partner form a Pokémon rescue team that specializes in traveling deep into the many dungeons that dot the landscape. Your services are desired by other Pokémon that hire you to rescue trapped friends, deliver items, or other such jobs. Standing in your way are other Pokémon that have been driven to randomly attack passers-by after some inexplicable earthquakes. Eventually, rival rescue teams will reveal themselves as well, impeding your progress even more.

The new style of gameplay in Mystery Dungeon will initially confuse those who are used to the standard Pokémon titles. This game has more in common with slightly obscure "dungeon crawlers" like the PlayStation's Torneko: The Last Hope (which, like Mystery Dungeon, was developed by Chunsoft) and the PS2's The Nightmare of Druaga than the multicolored games in the Pokémon series. There is no journeying from town to town, no gym battles, and no snagging new friends with Pokéballs.

I Choose Myself!

Even the battles are different. They're still turn-based, but since you can freely move your team around the playing field while you fight, they feel more action-packed. When you're in the dungeons, you can see enemy Pokémon wandering around. For every step you take, they take one as well. Soon, the two of you will be close enough to fight. Once you meet, you begin swapping attacks with your foes. The A button performs your character's basic attack, but you can also open up the menu to select from your available special moves. You can also use any of the items in your inventory, which range from health items to weapons that you can throw for a long distance attack.

During these pseudo real-time bouts, you have to plan out the positions of your teammates. By maneuvering your buddies around your enemy, you can have multiple attacks hitting the same foe. Throughout the game, random enemies will be impressed with your fighting prowess and ask to join your team. Before they can, however, you'll need to purchase a few "Friend Areas," which are special locations scattered throughout the land where your newly recruited teammates can hang out when they're not accompanying you on a mission. You can only have four people in your party at one time, so having a lot of Friend Areas becomes important, fast. Unfortunately, you don't have much control over when Pokémon wish to join you, so building a good team is less about skill (as in the past Pokémon RPGs) and more about luck.

Speak To Me, Pikachu!

One aspect about Mystery Dungeon that may frustrate some players is what happens when one of your two main characters dies (well, faints) in a dungeon. Your team immediately warps out of the dungeon, and you lose any items and money that you may have been carrying. Permanently. Luckily, there is a bank and a storage facility where you can stash your valuables when you head out on a job, but it can still be frustrating to lose so much. In order to succeed in some of the more challenging dungeons, you'll often have to take several smaller, less difficult side jobs in order to level up your team before tackling the larger, plot-advancing ones.

Considering that you revisit the same locations multiple times throughout the game, it's nice to see that the dungeons are all randomly generated. This keeps things fresh since you never explore the same dungeon twice. The trade-off for this, however, is that the dungeons are never all that interesting -- they're mostly rectangular rooms linked by narrow corridors. There are also little quirks that can pop up due to the randomization effect. Frequently, you'll climb up or down a level only to see that the staircase to the next floor is right next to where you've appeared, giving you no reason to explore the rest of the floor. Also, you'll sometimes have to escort a weak, computer-controlled character through the dungeon. There were times when my team would reach a floor where the AI character was surrounded by enemies. As I turned around to assist, the enemies all attacked, defeating the poor dope in one turn. With the escort mission a failure, my team was whisked out of the dungeon (and yeah, I had lost all the items and money that I had earned there).

Despite the occasional inconvenience like that, the game is actually quite addictive. It's fun to take tons of smaller side jobs in order to build up your experience for tackling the big ones, which oftentimes involve an end battle with a legendary Pokémon. Even when you complete the main story mode, there are tons of extra dungeons and new story paths to follow. Of course, these paths often lead to even more powerful Pokémon to recruit.

Poké Alone

Given the strong emphasis on multiplayer that past Pokémon RPGs have had, it seems strange that the concept is almost ignored in Mystery Dungeon. You can't link up for battles or trade Pokémon. You also can't link up to other Pokémon games to import or export the critters. About the most you can do is swap items and some rescue missions. There is, however, one extremely cool multiplayer feature that can help you avoid the "lose everything when you lose" rule. When your party faints, you can opt for a "Friend Rescue" instead of restarting. This will send an SOS to your friend's game. Assuming that they have access to the dungeon where you were defeated, they can retrace your steps in their cartridge and save your team. Upon receiving confirmation that they've done so, you'll be able to continue from where you left off with full health. If your friend is extremely cool, they might also send over a new Pokémon to help you finish the stage.

Nintendo is quick to point out that there are very few differences between Red Rescue Team on GBA and Blue Rescue Team on DS (the company even spells it out on the back of the box). The DS version's touch screen controls are kind of lame, so the main thing that the GBA version lacks is the handy second screen. On the DS, the dungeon map that is superimposed over the action can be shifted up to the top screen. It's a nice feature, but given that the map is fairly unobtrusive, there's not much to fret about if you don't own a DS. When you play the multiplayer bits, you can also transmit your information wirelessly with the DS, but on the GBA, you must either use a link cable or passwords. Again, the DS version proves slightly more convenient there, but not terribly so.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team may not be a typical entry in the long-running series, but it's an interesting new direction for the franchise. Quite frankly, it's a nice change from a formula that has, admittedly, grown a bit stale over the years. It may confuse some and frustrate others, but its addictive nature should keep you hooked until you learn to appreciate the art of the dungeon crawl.