19.2.2016

Despite having to wait three months longer after releasing in the US late November last year, PSMD finally hits European shores. Is it worth the wait?..The game follows on from its predecessor, Gates To Infinity (GtI for short), in being a roguelike & you waking up in a strange unknown world as a Pokemon. There are some pretty big improvements upon starting your new adventure;Choosing your main character & partner in GtI, you were very much resistricted to the Unova starters, along with Pikachu & Axew.+ However here you have free reigns to chose any of the starters from across all gens (1 to 6) in addition to Pikachu & Riolu.You start off by taking a short quiz (around five questions or so)& at the end, the game will decide what 'mon suits you based upon your given answers. Even if you don't get the 'mon you want, no worries, you can simply select no & manually go select the 'mon you want to be & same goes for your partner too. You can also determine the gender of your 'mon with an 'cool' (male) & 'cute' (female) option during said quiz (in addition, 'mon facing towards the left are female whereas those facing right are male).I must have spent almost half an hour deciding ahaha crazy. Having played the series since Blue on the gameboy, it was a pretty hard decision to make as my absolute favourites are the Kanto & Kalos starters. In the end, I went with Fennekin as my main (seriously adorable) & good ol' Pikachu as my partner. There are obviously team pairings that can make the game a breeze or so much harder for you (more on that later, see negatives), but my advice is just to pick the 'mon you like/love the best & have no problems using for your 25hr + adventure.+ The text speed is vastly improved over GtI. If you haven't experienced the text in that game, go look up the trailer for Zootropolis with 'Flash the Sloth' - you'll get the idea then. Much much quicker, making the experience so far much more enjoyable.+ Still retains the charm & laughs the series is renown for. Whilst I'm only a few chapters in, I can't comment much on the story compared to the ds outings & such, but the village cast of 'mon, the scripts & face portals, visuals in general are utterly charming, guaranteed to bring many chuckles and smiles to anyone. Touching, light hearted & utterly brilliant all rolled into one.+ In addition, PSMD has an utterly beautiful soundtrack too. Very charming, soothing & relaxing to listen to. The game does have a jukebox mode in the menu to so you can listen to all of the osts (& whilst the system is in sleep mode similar to Theatrhythm Curtain Call) though many / all of the songs won't be available til you complete the story.+ All 720 'mon are recruitable! So everyone will be able to recruit their favourite 'mon & experience the adventure with them too. Definite improvement over GtI limited list of 100 or so 'mon, especially being more Unova based there.Only downsides I can think of so far:- The game is very much reliant on wand items to get through certain dungeons & defeat certain bosses which can break the flow of the gameplay having to stop start to select & use when in battle.- In addition to the hunger metre which depletes when exploring in a dungeon, reducing your hp if you're not careful & paying attention. You can replenish using apples etc but it's just an slight annoyance for me, I know others will like that extra challenge of micro managing that though.I know GtI had some pretty big flaws (despite its fun paradise feature, charming script & soundtrack), even putting some fans off the series all together (even me), but I honestly say that this is a huge solid improvement over that & certainly well worth the wait.In short:+Accessible for all ages with a great selection to first choose your MC & partner from.+Hours upon hours of gameplay.+All 720 'mon! (gotta recruit 'em all!) Allowing you to find & play your adventure with your favourite 'mon & team.+Beautiful soundtrack, utterly charming visuals & script.- Too much focus on wand usage than actually levelling & fighting with effective moves+/- Hunger metre(I did not buy my copy off Amazon due to a sudden delay of stock, so I purchased a copy from Game eariler today instead. Just thought I'd share some impressions anyway. Hope the above helps :)

22.2.2016

I've played every Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game and aside from Gates to Infinity, I think they're all great games. I play them mainly for their story and characters but in my opinion, Gates to Infinity failed because its gameplay was too slow, too easy and too simple when compared to the legendary Explorers of Sky. The graphics were amazing and the story was good, don't get me wrong, but it was hard to get through because of said gameplay shortcomings.Luckily, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon does not suffer the same curse!On a technical standpoint:- The text speed is increased from Gates to be the same level as Explorers of Sky, making text no longer a drag to get through.- This game is brutally hard,even if you're a high level in a lower level dungeon, if you don't bring the needed items or get surrounded, you can easily faint and fail. Make sure to bring at least two reviver seeds, just in case!- Recruiting Pokemon is easier now; complete a quest involving a Pokemon, and you can take them with you on your adventures. The same goes for legendary Pokemon.- The game world is massive and constantly changes depending on where you are in the story. The characters frequently have new things to say and I often run around Serene Village just trying to find every new conversation!- Various new and old gameplay mechanics, like the hunger meter, alliance system and wand weapons, give new strategy to your moves in-dungeon. During extremely long dungeons, these become even more crucial as you try to ration food and find alternate ways to dispatch enemies. Did I mention that this game is hard? Because it is!On a narrative standpoint:- I LOVE this world! Unlike previous games, you explicitly start as a child Pokemon and you are treated as such, having to go to school and under the care of a foster parent. I love this so much, because it starts you off as a little guy, making your victories over the big-bad grown ups all the more satisfying when you do the right thing.- The characters are so charming! My favourites so far are little Budew and her Roselia mother, my partner, Chikorita, and her foster father, Carracosta and Deerling - one of the other kids at school. These are cute, adorable characters that I want to see through this journey and I want their lot in life to improve. There is a definite sense of a Pokemon society in this game, unlike previous titles, and I love that! Plus, there are a few characters that return from Explorers of Sky!- The main story is AMAZING! The game is downright cinematic at many parts of the adventure using the beautiful 3D models in beautifully designed cutscenes. They are just so good! I'm about 20 hours in and I still want to know what happens next!- Tears will flow! I've already cried four times and I'm not at the ending! If you still have a heart beating, it will twist with sorrow and then reinvigorate it with happiness, ready for the next exploration mission!In summary:Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is truly deserving of the affix of 'Super'! Everything is vastly improved from Gates to Infinity, enough to make this title rival Explorers of Sky! Gameplay is better and is a challenge, the world and story are fantastic and will keep your eyes wide for the next plot event to happen and the characters are the most heart-warming they've ever been! If you liked previous Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series or are buying for a child, then this game is a fantastic purchase! However, if you're a newcomer to the series and you are a soppy old sod like me, know that this is a long game and you should expect to devote time to it as it is like a really big novel.- I'll update this review when I complete the game to let you know how good the ending is and the quality/quantity of the game's postgame content -Until then, hywl fawr!

18.3.2016

This game is great. For those people who loved the Mystery Dungeon series, and were disappointed with the last instalment - get this game. It's charming and cute, it's fun, it's what Mystery Dungeon games are meant to be.One feature that people will be pleased to see return is the ability to stack jobs, meaning it is possible to clear multiple objectives on a single visit to a dungeon - a feature that was sorely missed in Gates of Infinity. Another returning feature is the 'Belly' system, where players must manage their character's hunger with Apples. The third feature which returns in Super that was lacking in Gates of Infinity is the quiz at the beginning to determine which Pokémon the player is portrayed as.

27.2.2016

Eight hours in, I find my initial quarrels with the title subdued by great storytelling, visuals and ambience - This game is a delight to play.Having played all other entries in the series, and if I'd made one before I began writing this (plan ahead damnit!), Super Mystery Dungeon would sit comfortably as one of the better entries. I was initially upset that they scrapped the tried and tested recruitment method, choosing to swap it for a fixed, predefined system that sees everyone 'recruit' the same Pokemon at the same time, for the most part. A large chunk of the mystery from Mystery Dungeon has been taken away... It's not to say the new system is all that bad, it just isn't the same,

20.2.2016

*Bought digitally on eshop*Writing this as a BIG pokémon fan. Once I get that out of the way, there are many things to love about this last game of the dungeon series.Learning the dungeon crawling controls can be a little complicated at the beginning if you are playing a game like this for the first time , but once you know how to reach every shortcut, you’ll be a master explorer, I ASSURE YOU.The graphics from the game are a nice step up from the ones in Gates to Infinity. Vibrant and colorful and with perfectly rendered characters.The main campaign can be pretty tedious, but the fact is that once you’re past the first 10-15 hours,

4.3.2016

Fantastic Game, fast same day delivery. Packaging could be a bit better, maybe some bubble wrap inside the cardboard to prevent the risk of damage.Overall Amazing game, I absolutely love it, very fun but sometimes feels geared towards really young kids who are like 5 years old now since it is constantly giving you tutorial tip and advice, 90% anyone who has ever played Pokémon before would and should know, and also how before attacking it displays how the type match ups work so you know which is super effective and not effective, the old system was better since it took more effort and was more interesting since you had to remember your type match ups. Even choosing your partner,

30.1.2017

and it's sort of cool. I dunno what I expected, when I bought this game. I only did it based on the reviews I read prior to it.But what I know is that, I like the idea of playing Charmander. And I so enjoy it. It's a pretty cool set-up of the game, you make a move, your opponent makes a move, and so on. Pretty nice, I also like the graphics. the idea of having to eat and rest, to be able to fight is nice too. These little things get lost in the big PKMN games because there you have you PKMN center and so on.The story-line is also fairly decent, and I enjoy starting the game all over again once completed. It's a lovely game and I can recommend it to everyone who ever wondered how it would be to be a PKMN.Downside: I think they made the PKMN a little too "human" if that makes sense.

2.6.2016

Pokemon have reversed the unfortunate stigma of the previous Mystery Dungeon instalment and have delivered a game filled with heart and entertainment.The game feels more similar to Explorers of Time / Darkness in its story arch but feels new and offers a record number of Pokemon to chase down, with the new system of recruitment being far superior to the previous games.The story formula does show symptoms of repetition in places, but this is minimal and the game is a must have for any Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fan.

6.8.2016

This game very much picked up the ball that Gates to Infinity dropped in my opinion. Its story was more like the original 2 (which I loved) and the gameplay was much better, having had the previous game to practice how they were going to manage the 3D-ness of it. While part of me will always prefer the 2D generation of Mystery Dungeon, especially Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, this definitely gave me something to enjoy and makes a welcome addition to the series of games.

24.2.2016

An awesome entry after the let down that was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity (In my opinion at least)!With a whopping 720 Pokemon to recruit for your exploration team, 5 different continents to explore dungeons in and a bunch of laughs this game is really fun!The main story took me about 15 hours to complete and started to provide a serious challenge at the end and the amount of post game dungeons take that challenge even further!Fully recommend!

7.5.2020

Runs fine and everything was in a like new condition.Can only fault on the fact the previous save file was still on there, which did give a few tiny spoilers; but can't complain as it's a second hand game, you forget after about 30 minutes anyway!Was very easy to delete the save file.Music Magpie are as good as always !Definitely would recommend using both their Amazon store and their website.

1.6.2016

Great game, very pleased with the storyline. Was a little disappointed with Gates to Infinity, but this latest installment of the 'Mystery Dungeon' series has proven to be a very enjoyable game. Still a great game for those who like to explore the dungeons to find every last item, whilst it is also accommodating for those who prefer a game with a faster pace. Very pleased overall.

27.1.2020

This Pokemon 3ds game is very good its extremely entertaining and the graphics are amazing even on the 2ds the storyline is good enough to keep you drawn in and keep picking it up for more its the best Pokemon mystery dungeon game I’ve played yet by far i highly recommend it for all age groups its definitely worth buying and playing for your self top marks all round

19.3.2016

This is my first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game. The story line is very amazing. Quite surprised when I play up-to Chapter 20, but the accidents happen in pervious Chapter are all linked and make sense as well.I am very satisfied with this game until now and highly recommend this game.

6.4.2016

Great to be finally playing a Mystery Dungeon again. This remake is very fun to play and the underlying plot is very intriguing. However the first few hours of gameplay literally sent me to sleep on a few occasions. Once you get past the first few hours it opens up very well. 4/5

Pokémon: Super Mystery Dungeon (3DS) - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail