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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Time: Reviews

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Game Score: 7/10

Explorers of Time. A sequel to a game that not a lot of people seemed to think was a fantastic game. I agree that it was a new turn to the Pokemon genre, but I thought it was an interesting twist. But, is this game truly worth playing?

- Story -

The game revolves around you, a Pokemon who was originally a human, who got swept onto the shore for some reason, where you are found by a cowardly second Pokemon whom later becomes your partner. You are also introduced to Koffing and Zubat, the local villans of the game no doubt. Your partner wants to join the 'Wigglytuff Guild', but is too scared to join. With help from you, they find their courage to go in, and forms up a team consisting of just you and your partner. To begin with at least.

At about the same time, a seemingly random Grovyle is going around stealing stones called Time Gears. These gears apparently control time, and by taking them, the area in which the gear was located have suddenly frozen in time. A mysterious plot twist to be sure!

Who is this Grovyle? What is the significance of these Time Gears? Why were you turned into a Pokemon? Will your partner ever stop being a scaredy cat? You'll have to play the game to find out...

The story is there, and I'm pretty sure it will grip the young children very well. But for older gamers, while the story is there to advance the plot and to tell you what significance a particular dungeon has, it'll fly out of your other ear soon enough.

- Gameplay -

If you've played the original Mystery Dungeon game already, you'll pretty much already know the gameplay, since it pretty much hasn't changed. But for those who haven't, here's a small run-down...

Ignoring walking through the town and randomly coercing with other Pokemon, you'll eventually get into the meat of the game: Travelling through dungeons. The mechanics is simple enough. You take a step, whoever is with you will do the same, then all the other Pokemon on the same floor will do the same, rinse, repeat. While there are also attacks such as Scratch and Growl in the game too, you can opt to do a simple attack which I guess could be 'Struggle' without the recoil... Whatever it is, it requires no PP, and can be done just by pressing A. Your job is basically to get from floor to floor using stairs located in each floor, to eventually reach the floor you're supposed to get to. Then do the task at hand. For the story, it could be a boss fight, or simply to reach a specific floor. For optional missions (Which are explained in-game), you may have to escort a Pokemon there, Take an item there, rescue a lost Pokemon on the floor... And so on.

The gameplay was rather balanced in the original game, and since this version hasn't had much difference made to it, learning the basics isn't difficult.

- Sounds -

This is the game's biggest flaw I think. The music is good to listen to when it's the first time you hear it. But unless it turns into music that you class as 'Great to listen to', it'll eventually just become background noise and you'll hardly notice it. Same can really be said for sound effects. They're there, but they're not in-your-face. That's about all that can really be said about it. Music and sounds are there, but that's it.

- Replayability -

When you get tired of the story, or you just complete it outright, there are still some things you can do. Such as recruiting Pokemon, gaining levels, completing optional missions, or just random dungeon crawling! That can get tiresome too, so you may eventually take small breaks from it. But that itch in your brain will tell you to pick it up again every once in a while. Another thing to note is that the game box specifically says that there are only minor differences between Explorers of Time, and Explorers of Darkness. So unless you're an avid collector of the Pokemon games, owning one or the other is effectively owning both of them at the same time. Not that I'll stop you from buying both if you want to...

Like sound, Replayability is there, but you will get bored eventually, then you'll just play it every once in a while.

- Yay or Nay? -

If you've played the original Mystery Dungeon games, and you liked it, then this is a 'Yay'. If the opposite is true, then there isn't really a great deal of difference between them and this, so you'll more likely find this one tedious and dull too. As for those who haven't played either of them yet, I definitely recommend giving it a try. It may be different to Diamond and Pearl in almost every which way, but it is still a decent game.

As for scoring. Do not forget that 'Average' is 5. That is taken into account when giving my scoring!

Story - 7
Gameplay - 8
Sounds - 5
Replayability - 7
Total - 7

The decision to play the game is yours... Not anyone elses. Remember that! I just reviewed the game...

That said, G'day people! Sees you next time!