Sunday 6 October 2013

Review No. 53 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity - 3DS (3+)

Strong Points:
Storyline is good, can be surprising
Variety of buildings
Great music
Nice graphics
Some new mechanics are good

Weak Point:
Not much to compel you to keep playing after completion
Paid DLC to complete Pokémon "friended"
Only 150 Pokémon
Old mechanics like hunger are missing in main dungeons
Easier than other three
No personality test to decide starter Pokémon
Only five starter Pokémon



In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
Japan: November 23, 2012
North America: March 24, 2013
Australia: May 18, 2013
Europe: May 17, 2013

Controls: allgame
X Button: display menu screen
L Button + A/B/X/Y Buttons: use a move
L Button + Tap the Touch Screen: use a team attack
L Button + R Button: use a throwing item
Circle Pad/D-Pad: move the Pokémon
Start Button: switch touch screen display
Y Button: face a nearby Pokémon
Hold Y Button: display grid
B Button: cancel, speed through dialogue/display the item menu
B Button while Moving: dash
A Button: confirm/advance dialogue/take action/regular attack/examine
Hold R Button: move diagonally

Mystery Dungeon is a great series and certainly one of the best Pokémon spin offs. In this one (the fourth one in the series) you, yet again, wake up finding that you are now a Pokémon. This time you have been called to the Pokémon world so that you can rescue Munna while you go along you can build up your Paradise which I will talk about later.

The one problem with the start is the lack of a personality test in which to decide your starter. I had always enjoyed the personality test as it made me play as Pokémon that I would never normally use and was sad to see it go. The starters are also disappointing as, opposed to the last games 16) there are only five Pokémon to choose from. These starters are Pikachu, Axew, Tepig, Snivy and Oshawott.

The other mechanic that is missing from the game is one that has made this series of games so much harder than the main series but also a lot more strategic: hunger. Other than a few special missions after the main game, this core mechanic is gone. This increases the space you have in your bag tenfold and means that you use other items such as orbs a lot more.

Missions are also annoying as you can't go on more than one at the same time, increasing the amount of time spent on individual missions and decreasing the amount of missions done.

But the main good points of the game are the new mechanics including the ability to build and upgrade your Paradise. You do this by gathering materials from completed missions and then giving them to Gurdurr who will build these facilities for you. Warning: you have to have beaten the first boss in order to do this. These facilities let you buy/farm berries seeds and stuff as well as play two mini games.

Also, the new 'Magnagate' gate system isn't that good with you only being allowed to make dungeons out of circular objects and it just not being much fun. Although the way they make the dungeons is very interesting.

One last thing, where are the Pokémon? With only 150 Pokémon available to befriend, this game seems emptier than the last ones. With that and the fact that you can't get the main legendries (Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyreum) to join you, you end up spending more time upgrading the Paradise than befriending Pokémon.

Overall the graphics are 3D and the music is brilliant (as always) and so are the new mechanics. If only the old ones were still there as well.

Rating: 73%

Goodbye for now, Harry

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