Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a video game series spin-off from the main Pokémon series developed by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Chunsoft). The games feature the fictional creatures called Pokémon who have the ability to speak human language navigating through a randomly generated dungeon using turn-based moves, indicative of Mystery Dungeon games. As of March 2020, there have been eleven games across five platforms, as well as several manga adaptations and animated specials.

These games are based in dungeons (“mystery dungeons”) where a floor map is randomly generated. In the dungeons, players fight other Pokémon while obtaining items and finding stairs to the next floor, exiting the dungeon after a fixed number of floors. Across all installments, the series has sold over 17.15 million copies.

Gameplay

Although there are different features in each of the titles, the major aspects of gameplay in each title are the same. The player assumes the role of a Pokémon that was transformed from a human, found by the player's Pokémon partner in the start of the game. Before the game starts, the player will need to go through a personality test; this will decide which Pokémon the player is in the game with the exception of the WiiWare games and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, where the player may choose their starter. In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, one can choose a Pokemon to be after the personality test. Gameplay is based on a classic roguelike game, with the player navigating the randomly generated dungeon with their Pokémon team. Movement and actions are turn-based; the player can use basic attacks, Pokémon moves, and items. The game starts with one partner Pokémon, but the player can recruit other Pokémon that they meet in the dungeon into their team soon after the first mission.

History

The first pair of games in the series, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, were released on the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS in Japan on November 17, 2005, in North America on September 18, 2006, and elsewhere during the rest of 2006 and 2007. The games feature all 386 Pokémon from Generations I, II, and III. An anime adaptation loosely based on the game, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate!, first aired in Japan on March 23, 2007 and in the United States on September 8, 2006. A manga series based on the games, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team, was also released. In South Korea, only Blue Rescue Team was released, but the free PC demo Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gold Rescue Team was also available.

The second pair, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, were released on the Nintendo DS in Japan on September 13, 2007, in North America on April 20, 2008, and elsewhere during the rest of 2008. They introduced almost all of the Generation IV Pokémon into the series, excluding Shaymin and Arceus, which were not officially revealed at the time. Another anime adaptation, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness, first aired in Japan on September 9, 2007. It aired almost a year later in the United States on September 1, 2008. The manga Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blazing Exploration Team and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness were also based on the games.

Their third version, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, was released in Japan on April 18, 2009, in North America on October 12, 2009, and in Australia and Europe in November 2009. This game has several additions to the storyline of Time and Darkness, including the addition of the Pokémon Shaymin. The most recent anime adaptation, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Beyond Time & Darkness, aired in Japan on April 12, 2009, airing in the US a few months later, on October 9, 2009.

On August 4, 2009, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Keep Going! Blazing Adventure Squad!, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Let's Go! Stormy Adventure Squad!, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Go For It! Light Adventure Squad! were released for the Wii only in Japan as WiiWare games. Each game is slightly different from each other, with less story and background than other Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. The three are the only Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games not to be released internationally and to be released exclusively on digital media, and are the first to be released on a home console.

The first solitary title, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, was released in Japan on November 23, 2012, in North America on March 24, 2013, and in Europe and Australia in May 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS. The game features Generation V Pokémon in addition to Pokémon from previous generations. Two animated shorts based on the games were also produced.

Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, the most recent entry in the series, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on September 17, 2015, in North America on November 20, 2015, and in Europe and Australia in February 2016. Being released during Generation VI, the game features all 720 Pokémon revealed at the time. Unlike previous Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, the game features cameo appearances by many characters who appeared in earlier entries.

On January 9, 2020, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, a remake of Red and Blue Rescue Team, was announced. It was released for Nintendo Switch worldwide on March 6, 2020. It is a mostly faithful remake with the addition of gameplay changes and enhancements and cross-generational evolutions.

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    • Cromalin [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      i listened to an episode of the podcast "the great gundam project" which is a leftist podcast covering the many anime (and also gundam zz) of the gundam franchise. it's a good podcast, they mention at one point that doing it inspired them to read more lenin so they could better articulate their opinions on the show. it costs a dollar a month on their patreon to listen to, but it's worth it if you like or think you may be interested in gundam, especially as a series that has its roots in leftist thought

      i'm listening to the 4 hour episode they did covering the film "mobile suit gundam: char's counterattack". their read of it is that char (he of the counterattack) is a hero for trying to destroy the entrenched borderline fascist state of the earth federation and bring equality to downtrodden colonies. more importantly they also believe the movie agrees with them, and thinking about it from this perspective a lot of things make sense for me and i appreciate the film more.*

      a minor character in the movie is hathaway noa, who is the son of a major federation official and who kind of sucks, but mostly just in the way that a lot of 14 year olds kind of suck. he has a later film called "hathaway's flash" focusing on him, and the hosts assume that he will be acting as a gundam pilot for the federation, when in fact my understanding is that he has become an anti-federation terrorist and so they will probably be completely on his side when the time comes that they watch it

      *

      other things i'm reconsidering: how much of char's whole deal is based on wanting to get back at amuro, quess's whole deal, the bit where cameron helps bright, char's relationship with the nanai and quess, the aesthetic choices made and more. it's a good podcast and if you like gundam you should check it out!

        • Cromalin [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          sure, but a lot of the specific reasoning behind that is because the federation is so fashy and unwilling to allow any change, which was made pretty clear by zeta and zz. the axis shock was mainly to at the very least force a major restructuring of the federation government and ideally to collapse it entirely, which i think we can all agree is cool and good.

            • Cromalin [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              it definitely wasn't for hymen, he was an earthnoid supremacist who was gassing colonies and doing colony drops on other colonies. and i'm pretty sure zeon (led by the zabis) was mostly about winning the war to dominate the earth sphere and doing war crimes for it. char had a pretty unique motivation at that point in gundam

              idk about anything changing things later on, i've only watched through 0080 in release order, and ibo and wfm for more recent entries

                • Cromalin [she/her]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  i watched zeta a few months ago and i don't remember that, but that doesn't mean you're wrong. he might have been trying to turn earthnoids into newtypes? but i'm pretty sure he was super pro-earth, and it was scirocco who was kind of vaguely pro-newtype ascendancy, but in a self serving 'i'm going to have a harem and control everything' type way

    • PutinsLeftNipple [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've been around here lurking for years and yet this is how I feel about 70% of posts I see