Why Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky is One of the Best Pokemon Games
When most people think of a ‘spin-off game,’ they think about small party games, like Mario Cart, Mario Party, Metroid Prime Pinball, or Hyrule Warriors, but that just touches the surface of what a spin-off game is about. While those games are each great extensions of their respective franchises, some spin-offs go beyond what is expected of them, and become classics on their own.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is one of those. It strived to outdo its critically acclaimed predecessor, Red/Blue Rescue Team, and succeeded spectacularly, building upon what was already a great game by making a masterpiece.
Explorers of Sky takes its basic concept-the player explores mysterious dungeons-and uses the Pokemon world to turn that concept into a complete game. That, in itself, is what a spin-off is, using a pre-established world and applying it to a concept.
What makes Explorers of Sky a great game goes far beyond its concept, though. Ask any player of the game what their favorite part of the game is- music, story, graphics, or gameplay-and they’d be hard-pressed to put one aspect above any other, because each part of the game is stellar.
But how does Explorers of Sky hit each of the four pillars of game design(as referenced above) with peak ability? I’ll explain for each one.
Gameplay: First off is gameplay. Gameplay refers to how the game…plays. If a game isn’t fun to play, there’s no point in playing it, so it's often considered the most important pillar. Explorers of Sky is a game that perfectly adapts the gameplay of Pokemon into the Mystery Dungeon format. If you love the gameplay of Pokemon’s battle system, then you’ll love Explorers of Sky’s battle system.
The battle system is simple, but filled with skill expression along the way. On the surface, it's about resource management and dealing with difficult situations.
But before any of that, you first need to prepare for your ‘expeditions’ at the beginning of each day. Items, moves, and partners can be determined before an expedition, so you will first need to choose each diligently before the more difficult ones.
Once you prepare, you enter a dungeon. In dungeons, each floor is filled with items, enemies, and traps, but your simple goal on each floor is to reach the stairs, where you can move to the next floor. Your enemies depend on the dungeon, but each one is a pokemon, so you can use your knowledge of the main games in Explorers of Sky. Enemies also have a small chance to be recruited, joining your team permanently(you can only have 4 members per dungeon). Enemies often put you in tight spots, blocking your passage, so you need to fight with everything you have! Using one of your moves can usually take out an enemy in one or two turns. Still, you can’t use moves with reckless abandon, as they are limited by their Power Points, which are adapted from the main games into a far more relevant mechanic in the Mystery Dungeon games. Because of that, conserving your moves is a little risky, as it gives your enemies a chance to retaliate, but gives you more options for the future. With the right item, almost any situation can be overcome, but you won’t always have the right one, which is why you need to prepare some of your stored-up items before the journey. Once you finish an expedition, you return home, and gain explorer points, or if you fail, you lose all your money and half your items.
The core ‘gameplay loop’ of preparation then combat, and exploration is an especially rewarding process, even if it is simple on the surface. It gives players the ability to express their skill with both planning in advance and adapting on the fly. Because of that, the primary gameplay of the game is fulfilling and beloved by its fans.
Graphics: The graphics of Explorers of Sky are similar to the Pokemon games released around the same time as the game, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. It primarily features pixel-art, just like the main series games. However, while its graphics might not be high-tech by any means, it is a beautiful game. For important places in the story, it uses hand-drawn graphics to show off the scenery that merges with the story’s emotional beats perfectly.
Through beautiful visuals, it overcomes its technical limitations to bring the story and world to life, and that’s exactly what makes the graphics of the game stand the test of time.
Story: The story of Explorers of Sky is phenomenal. What this game did was beyond what anyone expected of it, but appreciated greatly. Any idea you have of what makes up a Pokemon game’s story is unlike this story.
Explorers of Sky makes you invested in each of many different characters, as well as the two main characters’ relationships with those many characters. The main character’s partner has his own personality, and grows over the course of the story, from a coward who’s too afraid to start doing what he’s passionate about, to someone who’s able to save the world from a future of darkness. When you and your partner join the guild, most of the members are apprehensive about you, but over the course of the story, you and your partner gain their trust and respect, eventually graduating from the guild in a heartwarming goodbye. Each of them is even given their own side-stories you can play through to learn more about each one individually.
And the story is certainly an adventure, taking you through space and time, learning about the secrets of the world you’re in a while going closer and closer to changing the decrepit fate that threatens the world behind the scenes. You’ll chase, be chased, fight, and explore over the course of the story, and it isn’t afraid to throw well-built twists that change your whole perception of what you know about the world, as well as avert the course of the story drastically.
Music: The music is amazing. From the most famous songs, like Temporal Tower and Dialga's Fight to the Finish!, to songs meant for dungeons you’ll visit for maybe an hour, like Steam Cave and Amp Plains, or emotional songs that will make old players cry the instant they hear it, like Don’t Ever Forget and Memories Returned, Explorers of Sky has one of the best soundtracks ever put into a game.
(temporal tower)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hSrrXJkHjQ&ab_channel=dialga328
For excelling at each of these pillars, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky is one of the best Pokemon Games ever released. Its music, story, graphics, and story mix beautifully to make a wonderful game I would recommend to anyone who loves pokemon. Give it a try, and make an expedition into time and darkness!
