PMD PMD - The game franchise that is dear to many

Light spoilers.

Spoiler: Spoiler

I may be a tad bit biased when I praise PMD Explorers because of it being my favorite game of all time, but I have reason to say that. I've played through the game multiple times, and my opinion still holds strongly that this is my favorite game of all time. I say this even through all of the fantastic games I've played since then that have garnered nearly universal praise, and even as someone who doesn't really get affected too well by nostalgia. Because I like long posts, I'm going to make a long post about this.

PMD2 is a game that, to me, is most defined by its story. All of the important characters are written very well, especially those involved in the main plot point. I won't go into reasons about why to those who have yet to play it, but I'm going to say that the dynamic between Grovyle and Dusknoir is fantastic and the plot pulls you to some really fantastic settings to tell its story.

Another thing that helps is the music. It's unlike anything else I've ever heard. I don't think I've ever heard music that more perfectly describes its atmosphere, which is something else I want to briefly mention. PMD2 has a fantastic atmosphere that it sets up flawlessly. Back to the music though, this was the first game I ever played where I had to go back and listen to the soundtrack on YouTube, and while there have been other games like that for me, none of them have lasted as long as my attachment to the music from this game.

The graphics are great. The pixel art itself looks really good, and it probably helps that I'm a big fan of pixel art. One minor thing I can complain about is that from what I remember of PMD1, very little about the graphics between the two games have changed, but that's more of a testament to how good PMD1's graphics than anything else. This is like Gen 4 to Gen 5 for me, I'm fine with them being the same because it works.

The weakest part for me, even if still pretty good, is the gameplay. It gets a bit repetitive, but at least managing items through dungeons is pretty enjoyable, and being able to handle critical siuations is a nice little skill to learn throughout the game. After I beat the game, it became more of a relaxing "turn your brain off" sort of thing. There still is one major issue though.

Even the most difficult bosses of this game are surprisingly easy because the item balancing in this game is absolutely horrible. Throwing an X-Eye seed at just about any boss means you likely will win no matter what, and you can throw them at the most important Pokémon of a group if the boss involves multiple enemies. There's also this one item that's exclusive to Pelipper that effectively lets you ignore the Hunger stat with a few other benefits. It's a rare item but this should not be allowed in a game like this.

One other gripe I have with this game is that it has a pretty weird plothole in it. I can't knock this game for some of them, but I can mention this - where did the human protagonist come from? I will mention that I may be misremembering something, but if I recall correctly, they only ever mention that the player is from the future rather than mentioning alternate timelines. Humans are never otherwise shown or mentioned to be in the future, so it seems very out of place.

That's not a gripe I'm even confident exists because I don't remember if the game explains it or not, but it doesn't change the fact that the game's flaws are miniscule when compared to its massive strengths. This game will always be very close to me for its story and characters, and I'll likely never forget its music too. It's a shame that PMD Gates took away so many of the good aspects of this game because I think it guarantees that there will never be another game like this.

 

It makes me decidedly happy to see that others have such a deep love for this franchise! I think most people would agree that the best part is usually story/music/characters but the roughest is gameplay (often repetitive or with weird difficulty spikes).

But anyway, I digress. Overall, what drew me in were the touching, emotional stories. I don't think any other Pokémon game series has made me feel so strongly but mystery dungeon. The music sets the tone so well, and everything comes together beautifully in what is a surprisingly touching and emotional tale centered around friendship. And boy am I sucker for anything about friendship lol. There was always just something about the way the stories were told that really got me. Nearly made me cry sometimes.

(I also really like the little emote boxes they used?? Those ones next to the speech boxes. like they were adorable)

 

I've been playing PMD since the first installment on the GBA in 2005. While the premise is a glorified reskin of Spike Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon series, Pokémon gets away with being more popular due to the gameplay changes and vast world, diverse characters, engaging stories, and variety of dungeons. Many of these games are also an actual challenge even for veteran players due to a lot of the late or post game dungeons requiring extensive planning and improvising to survive, especially for those 99 floor dungeons. That being said, I don't find the series perfect.

Explorers certainly is the best installment, and I do enjoy Super and Rescue Team DX quite a bit as well. But the OG rescue teams have aged a bit from their rather sharp difficulty spikes and other quirks, and the less said about Gates to Infinity and its watered down features and gameplay, the better.