Current Events > Attempting to play Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just found this game in my DS game pile. Back of the box says it's over a decade old.
I can remember a few things about the PMD games but I can't remember which game was which.

I wanted to look at my old file but someone saved over it at some point. So I guess I get to go in almost blind again. Might be fun.

The Explorers games are fantastic, enjoy~

Hard to go back to Time/Darkness after Sky's incredible QoL upgrades, but still some of the best games in the franchise

Uh oh. This is the Grovyle/Dusknoir game. I can't remember what exactly happens but it's something rough.

Can I play as the AI partner or am I stuck being blamed for an AI fire type getting stomped by a literal Groudon?

I was enjoying picking out 5 missions and doing them all while going through one dungeon.
But now there's these "Must have x type partner" requirement ones appearing. I don't like these. I hope they don't become too common.

Yeah, I ended up just skipping any missions with unfun requirements like that

Recruiting is strange. If I bring a party member along, they level so slow. It seems like filling slots 3 and 4 with new team members from the furthest dungeon you can access is better since they start off at a better level and probably have typing to resist whatever you're currently against.
But that makes me hesitant to use TMs since I'll probably be swapping slots 3 and 4 out.

They want me to go to Crystal Cave but this game has a way of convincing me I'm always underlevelled (That or I'm supposed to be using more things in town than the bank.) so I'm mainly levelling right now.

I glanced at someone's starter tier list and it said I have done myself no favors.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Recruiting is strange. If I bring a party member along, they level so slow. It seems like filling slots 3 and 4 with new team members from the furthest dungeon you can access is better since they start off at a better level and probably have typing to resist whatever you're currently against.

Yeah, this is the best thing to do.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

But that makes me hesitant to use TMs since I'll probably be swapping slots 3 and 4 out.

You can get by pretty easily without TMs; weak moves aren't nearly as much of an issue compared to mainline Pokemon because damage scales so much more with your stats.

I wonder why coming back in time results in washing up on a beach. You'd think it'd send you to the Celebi forest but in the past.

The way they talk about my guy and Grovyle, you'd think this is an alternate world where Pokemon and humans can understand each other. The Pokemon are smart enough to build structures, operate rescue teams and stores.
And there's those flashbacks to my character getting pulled away by the sea where they straight up seem to be talking to each other.
It's distracting. I should be thinking about Primal Dialgas and Time Gears and if I'll be able to replay the evil future levels or not.

I can't remember any of these locations' names without the list in front of me.

Waterfall Bluff
Mt Bristle
Mt Horn
Dark Hill
Amp Field?
Northern Desert?
Hidden Land

I remember Mt. Bristle if only because my first attempt at playing EoS was with a Riolu and Chikorita pair and they got bullied by all the Starly and Nidoran.

Grovyle gave me the big revelation. At the end of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, there'll be a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon ending, my guy vanishes. Might sound weird, but I really like when stories have this plot point.

And then Grovyle forced Dusknoir into the time portal.
This seems like a sacrifice and he did say that he can't come back, but can't he just sprint off and find Celebi again? And can't Dialga just warp Dusknoir back to the present again?

ViewtifulJoe posted...

This seems like a sacrifice and he did say that he can't come back, but can't he just sprint off and find Celebi again? And can't Dialga just warp Dusknoir back to the present again?

Sky has a side story about what happens after this, legitimately one of my favourite pokemon stories, but Time/Darkness doesn't have it sadly

Did Time and Darkness have the Bidoof and Sunflora diaries or was that just in Sky? Those made for some fun flavor text as you progressed through the story.

Kircheis posted...

Did Time and Darkness have the Bidoof and Sunflora diaries or was that just in Sky? Those made for some fun flavor text as you progressed through the story.

Pretty sure I did find something like that.
I wasn't checking as it went or really talking to the other guild members though.

I don't know if it's something I can go back and read through or if I've missed it though. Considering my partner just got folded in half in two moves by Primal Dialga, I'm probably near the end.

The game says "It's a monster house", fills the room with Salamences, Porygon-Zs and Bronzongs, I attack a Salamence, then they all spam agility and boost the entire enemy line up to 4x speed and then they all kill you?

Good gameplay. Up there with the Great Malboro ambushes.

Monster houses are the reason I always pack at least one paralyze orb, lol. If you don't have one then room clearing moves like surf, discharge or heat wave. Those aren't options either? Well you just gotta retreat to a hallway and tough it out I guess, or run away if you can. Just one of those roguelike elements that you gotta prepare for.

Walking away doesn't work. Porygon-Z or Metagross inevitably go for agility and boost the whole room. The Porygon-Zs have discharge which hits both characters and only has to stun one to guarantee you'll lose.

I feel like I have no idea how to play this game. I'm gonna find some background noise and grind I guess.

Grinding helps, but sometimes you just gotta pack more orbs. Paralyze, sleep and totter orbs especially go a long way. Who are your starters? You mentioned your partner being a fire type I think?

That particular stretch is brutal, capped off with a really rough boss.

Time and Darkness can have some pretty brutal points, which Sky alleviated by having the Spinda Cafe make you a god of hyperdeath asap

Restart on Sky

Done.

I won because I grinded long enough, started off with the seed that boosts your attack/sp.atk to max, spammed projectiles and was lucky enough for none of them to miss. Missing happens a lot in this game, it's frustrating.
There's no way I was playing right, it went like this. Run 10 Temporal Spire floors(Not allowed to recruit for some reason), eat/throw the best seed I found at Dialga, start throwing projectiles, one of us gets two-shotted (Or he Ancientpowers, gets the full boost and uses his new turn to get the kill), repeat until I inexplicably win.

I'm disappointed I didn't really react to the ending. Maybe it only works if it's your first time playing. I knew my guy was going to respawn somehow and I had a few hours of Temporal Spire runs a lot fresher in my mind than whatever the story was trying to get me to feel before.
Might also be because Cyndaquil doesn't have a very expressive face, diminishes his ability to convey sadness.
I wonder if Grovyle got to come back too.

I got that mission where Wigglytuff and the others repeatedly destroy you. I remember this one all right. I know this game has a whole bunch of other story stuff. Might go for it if I can find a nice AoE move.
But since the game up to Dialga's done, now I can finally watch a speedrun and probably learn about basic/obvious gameplay features.
Edit: Oh there's this Wonder Mail thing too. This is like cheat codes right? I just put them in and missions spawn and characters are suddenly recruited?

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Done.

I won because I grinded long enough, started off with the seed that boosts your attack/sp.atk to max, spammed projectiles and was lucky enough for none of them to miss. Missing happens a lot in this game, it's frustrating.
There's no way I was playing right, it went like this. Run 10 Temporal Spire floors(Not allowed to recruit for some reason), eat/throw the best seed I found at Dialga, start throwing projectiles, one of us gets two-shotted (Or he Ancientpowers, gets the full boost and uses his new turn to get the kill), repeat until I inexplicably win.

I'm disappointed I didn't really react to the ending. Maybe it only works if it's your first time playing. I knew my guy was going to respawn somehow and I had a few hours of Temporal Spire runs a lot fresher in my mind than whatever the story was trying to get me to feel before.
Might also be because Cyndaquil doesn't have a very expressive face, diminishes his ability to convey sadness.
I wonder if Grovyle got to come back too.

I got that mission where Wigglytuff and the others repeatedly destroy you. I remember this one all right. I know this game has a whole bunch of other story stuff. Might go for it if I can find a nice AoE move.
But since the game up to Dialga's done, now I can finally watch a speedrun and probably learn about basic/obvious gameplay features.

Just saying. you're literally only half done.

The "post game" is literally just straight up half the story

DarkBuster22904 posted...

Just saying. you're literally only half done.

The "post game" is literally just straight up half the story

Wasn't it like another story entirely? Something with Darkrai?
I don't wanna do any of that 100-floor-dungeon-0.1%-recruit-chance stuff but I'll give it a go.

Since you have Cyndaquil as a starter you should have it relearn Smokescreen if it doesn't still have that. It's actually a top tier move in the DS PMD games. Instead of lowering accuracy like in the main games and PSMD it inflicts the Whiffer status, which forces the target to miss for several turns. Definitely could've used that in the Dialga fight!

And a general tip for all PMD games is that multi hitting moves are straight up busted. Cyndaquil learns Rollout, so definitely let it learn that if you haven't already.

I actually did have Rollout on him. It kept missing and letting me down so after a while I told him to stop using it. I put Smokescreen back on just now. I'd really prefer if I could play as the partner as well.

Wigglytuff just put me to sleep then paralyzed me so hmm. This game really wants me to know that just because it's a handheld, doesn't mean my controller can't be unplugged.

They don't let you use orbs in the fight either. Does that "A mysterious force prevents you" which I assumed was something that'd only happen against boss legendary Pokemon.

Yeah unfortunately you can't use orbs in boss fights. You can use orbs against bosses in PSMD, but bosses also recover from status ailments faster in that game so status orbs don't help much there either unfortunately.

I think I've seen enough.

When it's fun, it's pretty good. Some nice music too.
When it's not fun though, it's constant missed attacks, OP status effects, being horribly outnumbered, having to re-run 14 floors of enemies that give bad experience, l u c k, rewatching shortened cutscenes, "You cannot use the orb because um... uh...", no recruits allowed and an AI partner sabotaging you.
Swell. Radical. Outta sight.