Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team

Blue Rescue Team Red Rescue Team
Now you're a Pokémon!
Genre(s): Roguelike Platform(s): Game Boy Advance (Red) Nintendo DS (Blue) Nintendo Switch (DX) Release Date: Original JP: November 17, 2005 NA: September 18, 2006 AU: September 28, 2006 EU: November 10, 2006 KO: August 30, 2007 (Blue) Rescue Team DX WW: March 6, 2020 Engine: Unity (DX) Developer(s): Chunsoft (original) Spike Chunsoft (DX) Publisher(s): Nintendo The Pokémon Company Country: Japan Series: Pokémon Predecessor: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (By DX's release date) Successor: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers (By Red/Blue's release date)

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team are roguelike games released in Japan on November 17, 2005, and released in North America on September 18, 2006. The game is a spin-off of the Pokémon franchise.

Fourteen years later, the game has been remade for the Nintendo Switch as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. This is the first remake of a spin-off Pokémon game.

Why It Rocks

Overall

1. Neat concept in which the player is a Pokémon, therefore the Pokémon in the game actually speak to each other with understandable dialogues.
   • Lore-wise this is explained as the Pokémon are still speaking in their usual native language but since the player is also a Pokémon, they can understand it.
2. Great soundtrack.
3. Amazing story.
4. Memorable characters.
5. Lots of dungeons to explore.
6. They have a job feature that serves as a side-quest feature where you can choose to rescue Pokémon, escort clients, deliver items, and more! In fact, some rewards can unlock some new friend areas, new dungeons, and statues that can be displayed on your base.
7. Every Pokémon from generations 1-3 are present in this game.
8. Most items are very useful in dungeons. For example, an Oran Berry can be used to heal the Pokémon up to 100 HP.

Red And Blue Rescue Team

1. Solid visuals for the hardware they're on.
2. The DS version is faster than the GBA version. This is due to better hardware the DS has.

Rescue Team DX

1. The graphics look awesome for Nintendo Switch standards, mixed with watercolor looking graphics and cel-shading.
2. Previous features from the previous game, Super Mystery Dungeon. Were added to the remake, such as
   • You can switch leaders between the three characters in your party while in a dungeon, meaning that you can choose to control any one of the three party members at once. In which if your partner or main character is defeated, it will switch automatically to the next Pokémon that is on your team.
   • Mega Evolution
   • Wands
   • You can choose your own starter, it you don't like the choice that the game gives you during the personality quiz.
3. You can temporary have Pokémon in your team in a dungeon, if you have their friend area they will be on your team but if you don't have their friend area they will give you some extra money in which can help out to get the extra friend areas.
4. Unlike the original, if you rank up in the remake it will increase your toolbox size, the job limit, and the camp capacity. Which is useful.
5. The game now has a auto save feature, in which helps out.
6. Amazing remastered soundtrack, in which is beautiful to hear. And also it adds a new music track that wasn't in the original game for one of the dungeons called "Oddity Cave"
7. You can finally recruit shiny Pokémon, although there is only around 27 of them.
8. After beating the game's story, you can still have your partner around. Unlike the original game.
9. A few more Pokémon were added, such as Lucario, Riolu, and some of the generation 4 Pokémon.
10. Your starter Pokémon finally can wear scarves. (However evolving them, will take the scarf away. As it uses it for the evolution.)
11. If you played the demo, you can move your save from it to the final game to keep going.
12. The game also adds a auto mode, in which the game will use a A.I to control your Pokémon to make the game a bit more easier. The auto mode doesn't cover for attacking Pokémon though. However the auto mode still has some flaws in which will be covered.
13. Since the game was made in the Unity Engine, this game can be very easy to mod.

Bad Qualities

Overall

1. The game can sometimes become hard, when it comes to boss battles, they can sometimes knock you out in 1 hit.
2. Fainting in a dungeon will result in half of your items being lost, and even half of your money.
3. You can only evolve once you finish the main story.
4. The level up system requires grinding, the level up system helps out in the game since it can make your Pokémon your people stronger or have more health.
5. Both versions including DX have an unskippable intro sequence. This can be really annoying when you are trying to get the Pokémon you want to play as, although in DX this won't be a problem anymore due to the feature mentioned in WIR.
6. You cannot recruit Pokémon unless you buy Friend Areas which are expensive to purchase.

Red And Blue Rescue Team

1. You can't choose your Pokémon avatar, instead, you're forced to do the quiz at the beginning of the game that determines what species you are based on the result. This means if you want a specific Pokémon you have to keep resetting the quiz until you get the result you want. Even if you know what choices of the questions the quiz better gives you a better chance of the Pokémon you want, the questions will always be random.
2. If you or your partner gets knocked out while in a story dungeon, you have to go back to the beginning of the dungeon (or checkpoint area, if it has it). The remake fixed this.
3. After beating the story mode, the game forces you to be on your own, this is due to hardware limitations and only 1 Pokémon is allowed in the evolution cave at a time. If you want to evolve other Pokémon in your team, you have to go to their friend area and then set them as the team leader, go to a dungeon and quit it, you will be the other Pokémon you set as the team leader, go to the cave and evolve, and then go back to your main starter Pokémon and set them back to team leader. In which will take a long process to do, thankfully Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers and the remake fixed this.
4. Earlier Japanese copies of Blue Rescue Team had a game-breaking bug where it erased save data of any GBA game, if the game detects other games other than Red Rescue Team in the Gameboy Advance slot.

Rescue Team DX

1. The animations and models were recycled from Super Mystery Dungeon and Gates To Infinity, but with enhanced textures. Although some of the new models were also done from scratch.
   • In fact, this game has lots of Super Mystery Dungeon leftovers that can be found in the game.
2. The friend areas are disappointing, as now they are downgraded to camps in which are just menus. Rather than explorable areas like in the original game, this was likely due to time constraints, since the developers are likely going to have to remake all of the friend areas into 3D models from scratch. But hey, at least you can see the old school sprite style for the Pokémon from the older GBA/DS Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
3. Some cutscenes have been watered down due to time constraints, for example in the original Lombre picked up the newspaper to read it but in the remake he instead looks at it on the ground, due to lacking a pick up animation.
   • In a another cutscene, where Gengar accuses the player of being the human in the Ninetales Legend, the cutscene in DX doesn't have the part where Lombre almost attacks the player from the original game.
4. The fainting system from Super Mystery Dungeon returns in this game, as now you lose all of your items and money if you faint in a dungeon. In which results in you having to grind all over again. This will force you to wait and get rescued by a another player, even one of the game's pre-release special videos even mention the feature.
   • Additionally, this makes the game even harder than before.
5. At launch, it was overpriced. Being at $60, despite being a remake. When many remakes of original games are sold for way cheaper.
6. The auto mode, while a alright feature. Has some flaws.
   • The A.I will tend to skip the stairs, and collect items around the dungeon instead.
   • The A.I will not use the run action in dungeons, except in training dungeons.
   • The auto mode will disable itself, when a enemy Pokémon is nearby.

Reception

The game sold very well, The GBA Version sold over 2.20 Million copies, and the DS version sold over 3.03 Million copies, even more then the GBA version

The game was reviewed mixed by some critics. IGN rated the game 6.5/10, And gaming magazine Famitsu rates the game 35 out of 40.

The remake also sold pretty well, selling over 1.26 Million copies. While lower than the original, this could mean a remake of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers could be made and released in the future. Due to it's good reception, and how well it sold.

Like the original, it was reviewed mixed by some critics. Gaming magazine Famitsu gave Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX a score of 35 out of 40. IGN rated the game an "Okay" 6.0/10. It holds a rating of 68% on Metacritic, based on 74 critic reviews.

Trivia

• The game had a PC demo that was only released in South Korea, named Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gold Rescue Team released on August 11, 2007. It required a online server to play the demo. However the servers for the demo were shut down, and there is no way to play this version.
• The developers of SkyTemple are currently making a mod tool for Rescue Team DX called DreamNexus.

Videos

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