Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, a spin-off series of one of the most iconic Nintendo franchises of all time, where a human was sent to another world where the population consists of only Pokemon, gets transformed into one, and gets to help another Pokemon explore dungeons to rescue Pokemon, find treasure, and defeat enemies. Around the summer of 2019 to January 2020, EdwardHamHam(https://www.weasyl.com/~edwardhamham) told me about this series on Discord, and even encouraged me to give it a shot. I really enjoyed the series with its creative concept, action RPG elements that makes it a Zelda like game, and enjoyable characters. After getting interested in the series, I decided to gather up ideas for a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game particularly for the Nintendo Switch with Edward. And although there is going to be one coming on March called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX for that same console, that’s going to be a remake of the first two games in the series: Blue Rescue Team for Nintendo DS, and Red Rescue Team for Game Boy Advance. So without further ado, here’s a list of fifteen things we love to see in the next Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game:
1. We want more Pokemon to be playable like in the older games, and be able to choose it freely regardless of gender and species. The rosters in each of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games constantly changed from time to time, and although we thought they weren’t bad, there were a few flaws here and there. In the first three PMD games, there were a variety of Pokemon to choose from, but the problem was that you had to go through a quiz for it to pick a Pokemon for you. Unless you have a guide, used a save state on an emulator or Wii U Virtual Console, or constantly restarted until you got the Pokemon you wanted; you would have to guess which quiz answers will get you what Pokemon. And to make matters worse, Blue and Red Rescue Team along with Explorers of Sky have some Pokemon only playable as males while others only female, along with Explorers of Sky having Meowth and Munchlax only being partners and not playable. Although Super Mystery Dungeon for the 3DS fixed this by letting you pick a Pokemon freely even with the quiz, you can only be the starter Pokemon from generations 1-6, Pikachu, or Riolu; and before that, there was Gates to Infinity which only had five playable Pokemon: Pikachu, Axew, and the gen 5 starters. So we decided that every Pokemon that was playable in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series including the ones from three Japanese WiiWare games will be playable, and have some more Pokemon as well, along with normal, Alolan, and Galarian versions. We also decided to have you and your partner be the same type like for example: Mareep with Pikachu. However if you and your partner were the same species, it might be confusing, unless….
2. We want various colors for skin and fur like Pichu90’s dress-up games. I told EdwardHamHam that there is no right or wrong way when creating a character for a universe whether it’s your own persona or a character that you created. If you have seen Edward’s Mudkip form(https://www.deviantart.com/edwardthedog2/art/Edward-The-Mudkip-795617229) or even Katamariluv on DeviantArt’s Vulpix form(https://www.deviantart.com/katamariluv/art/My-Poke-Sona-747483497), you’ll notice their fur and skin colors are completely different than their original counterparts, and as stated before Pichu90(https://www.weasyl.com/~pichu90) has dressup games that let you not only have Pokemon and other characters wear different clothes, but you can change the colors of the characters’ body parts:https://www.deviantart.com/pichu90/gallery/37409/dressups We decided that a Smeargle will be able to change your fur and skin color by using the paint on its tail, kinda like how the Putt-Putt games lets you change Putt-Putt’s body color at anytime.
3. We want to be able to wear clothes and different colored scarves in the game, as well as having different hairstyles for some Pokemon. This is very similar to the last one, but with clothes and hairstyles. As stated before, there’s no right or wrong way to create a character in a universe, it’s all up to the artist. If you’re a long time viewer of mine, you’ll more likely notice my Pikachu form wearing a green vest, blue pants, and of course my iconic green cap:https://www.deviantart.com/legoboy186/art/Pokemon-OC-Ben-743154649. Even Katamariluv’s Vulpix form wears pink glasses which does count as some type of accessory(See #2). We thought it would be cute if Pokemon were wearing some clothes, and have the towns selling different kinds of clothing depending on where you’re at, much like how Super Mario Odyssey has different items to sell with its regional coins depending on which kingdom you’re in.
4. We want to be able to have two beginning partners instead of one. Since all of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games not only have the quiz on which Pokemon you’re going to play as, it also lets you freely choose a partner that will tag along with you in the game. Even though a new game is released with new content, they kept the consistency of having a partner with you at all times. But we thought about having two partners instead of one, this way players can come with their personal Ash, Misty, and Brock trio; much like how Edward and I along with Katamariluv are a trio. Even then there was a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon anime special where the player’s a Squirtle, and his partners are a Charmander and Chikorita: https://youtu.be/rAOmQ-foqeg. It’s never mentioned if Charmander or Chikorita were the role of the partner and if one or the other was a wandering Pokemon they recruited.
5. We like the partners’ personalities and dialogue varied as well. This one was a little bit debatable since we understood why the partner’s dialogue stayed the same because it was part of the games’ story. Plus, it would take a long time entering in different dialogue for the partner not only because there are different species, but different genders as well. But for me using the same dialogue for different species and genders felt kinda like someone took a character model, and used their professional hacking skills to replace the model with another character from a different game. Once again, we’re not sure if we want this to happen, but it would be nice if there were at least two or more different sets of dialogue though.
6. We want to be able to recruit members in a variety of ways, and give them an optional name. Recruiting members is basically like capturing Pokemon in the main series, but there aren’t any Pokeballs in the Mystery Dungeon series since that would be weird. In the first Mystery Dungeon games, to add members to your team, you need to buy friend areas, and defeat an enemy that more likely will become a member in your team. If one offers to be part of your team and admires your strength, this will give you a chance to add a new member to your team, as well as give it a nickname. In Super Mystery Dungeon however, your recruit members by clearing a favor for them like rescuing them in dungeons, finding their special item, battling them, and finding their secret areas in dungeons. You can also talk to them in towns and dungeons, as well as give them apples to revive them. The only downside is that you can’t give any Pokemon a nickname, only you and your partner get personal names. Plus, even though the first Mystery Dungeon games have you do missions on rescuing Pokemon, they only give you the reward they have for rescuing them, finding a certain item for them, or giving them a certain item, and can’t be recruited. So we decided to have both of these elements together so that players can come up with many different names for their members. We also decided that every Pokemon in all eight generations will be in the game since Pokemon Sword and Shield only has a limited number of Pokemon for the other seven generations, which was a huge disappointment for both of us.
7. We want dungeons to have more obstacles. Even though the dungeons are fun to explore, there aren’t too many obstacles in them. Sure there is water that water Pokemon can swim and lava fire Pokemon can walk on, but that’s about it. It would be cool if dungeons had shrubs you could cut, trees you could shake to get berries or some items like in Animal Crossing, walls you could climb up on, hills you can slide down on, and even some deep water that certain Pokemon can swim in. The possibilities can be endless with what obstacles the dungeons can have!
8. We want Dynamax to be part of the game both in and out of dungeons. When Pokemon X and Y announced mega evolutions, they included them in Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, since Pokemon Sword and Shield introduced Dynamax which makes your Pokemon giants, we thought it would be cool if Dynamax was part of this series. I will be honest, when I heard about Dynamax in the Sword and Shield games it looked pretty cool! But as time went by, I only found out that it was only used in battles only in certain gyms. That disappointed me since I love the concept, and it looks neat. I told Edward that I couldn’t tell him how many different scenarios where having Pokemon giant can be useful! When players want to Dynamax, we decided that my Dynaberry I created would be the answer to how it will work:https://www.deviantart.com/legoboy186/art/Encountering-the-Dynaberry-805290231. It will be very similar to the Mega Mushroom in New Super Mario Bros, and it will be temporary. Some of the different scenarios we can think of being Dynamaxed besides using Max Moves are being able to see more of the dungeon floor you’re in, swim in the deep water, easily climb walls with no sweat, and many more!
9. We want the option of choosing a pre evolution for playable Pokemon, like choosing to start with Pichu instead of Pikachu if a player desired. When I did research on what Pokemon were playable in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, I read that both Pichu and Pikachu appeared in one of the three Japanese WiiWare Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Go For It! Light Adventure Squad! This game’s roster consisted of mostly electric types along with yellow Pokemon much like how the other two consisted of fire and red or orange Pokemon and water and blue Pokemon. Considering how number one on this list says that we wanted every previous Pokemon that has been playable in every Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, and those Pokemon consist of stage one Pokemon since the whole idea is so that you can decide whether you want to evolve or not, this will include Pikachu and Pichu for consistency’s sake, and in case there are players who prefer Pichu over Pikachu.
10. We want Pelipper Island to return with a shorter password for sending mail to other players. One of the things we love about Super Mystery Dungeon is how if you fainted, you can head over to Pelipper Island to rescue yourself or let someone else do it for you. Whenever I wanted Edward to help rescue me, I sent rescue mail to him, but there was one problem for us and other people who played the game as well. Even though I have a copy of the game for my 3DS, he has a ROM of it for his 3DS emulator Citra, this can happen to anyone depending on who you’re sending the mail to whether both players are playing the game on an emulator, if one player has a copy of the game and the other has it on an emulator(Like us), or both players have copies of the game. Both of which have the game played the same, but Pelipper Island mail don’t work the same for the two ways of playing the game. Here’s how it works: if you and the person you’re going to send mail to have a physical or digital copy of the game for your 3DS systems, congratulations! The two of you can easily scan a QR Code with the 3DS’s camera to receive the letter you sent to each other. If one of you has a copy of the game and the other is using an emulator, or if you are both using emulators, you can still send and receive mail by entering in a 80 digit password. This can be a problem for me personally not only because of how long the password is, but it uses letters, numbers, and symbols in it. Just like #5 on the list, we at least understand why the passwords are so long because they represent the data for the specific mission for the person receiving the mail, but when you look at Super Mario Maker 2, the Course ID has been reduced to nine digits instead of sixteen, which was at least an improvement over the first game. So this could improve by compressing the data into 20 or 40 digits, but we’re not exactly sure if this will be possible or not.
11. We want to be able to cook berries and other food to make their status last longer or be more effective. In every Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, you’ll come across berries, seeds, elixirs, and more that will affect you or your partners’ status that are similar to the potions, healers, and other items in the main series. After reading Edward’s story about his Everstone drink, and wondering what can be similar to it, I decided to think about what happens if you cook those berries and seeds if their status can be stronger or last longer. For this to happen though, you’ll need to get wood, a piece of metal for a pan or pot, and a fire type Pokemon for starting a fire. This could be similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild where you can choose multiple items, put them in a pan, and their effects will differ depending on what you put into the pan here. Who knows, maybe you’ll create an antidote for confusion! Just hope you don’t end up with a disastrous meal...
12. We want to be able to change the interior and exterior of your house like in Animal Crossing and Go Vacation. I will be honest, even though I like minimal houses in video games, the ones in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games look very plain. All they are are just a couple buckets and a pile of hay for beds. Considering how there are no humans in the series, and there seems to be buildings, fountains, and other things that are man made, you would think there would be furniture in the houses, but nope. So we decided to have some way to change the way your house looks on the outside, as well as wallpapers, flooring, and add various kinds of furniture like beds, chairs, refrigerators, toilets, and more. There can be many possibilities with designing your house much like in the games mentioned before!
13. We want to have actual voice actors be part of the game. As much as we love the dialogue in the games, it could be a lot of fun hearing voice actors reading the lines much like how the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon animes had various voice actors being the Pokemon. However, it would be a bit hard to find a lot of voice actors to do a lot of Pokemon in one game. So it would be at least be nice if any major characters had voice acting just so to hear how entertaining what kind of voices the characters have.
14. We want the player to have dialogue in the game like Gates to Infinity. We will be totally honest here, as much as we don’t mind silent protagonists in videogames, we like protagonists that have dialogue as well. The majority of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games have the player silent and the only type of dialogue that we’ve seen was in parathensies which was a sign of thinking to us, and sometimes the player does some kind of gesture to look like they’re talking, and then the character they were talking to repeat exactly what they said. As of 2020, Gates to Infinity was the only game that the player has dialogue. So we decided that the player should have full dialogue just like every major character, so that no one has to do the talking for him/her or anyone has to repeat what they said.
15. We want to have an autosave both in towns and dungeons. Just like the main series Pokemon games and any RPG, saving is a very big part of the games. And although all of the games have a save function, and asks you to save after finishing a dungeon or a part of the game’s main story, they all vary in the rest of the games depending on which one you’re playing. As far as we know, if you had to save in Blue or Red Rescue Team, you have to go to your hay bed to save in the town, or select Quicksave while in a dungeon to save and quit much like Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3. In Super Mystery Dungeon however, if you want to save in a town, you can go to the X button menu, and select Save to save your current game. But if you want to save while in a dungeon, you first get a Progress Device, and place it on any part of the current dungeon you’re in, and the game will save from there. This was a problem for me personally since they’re pretty expensive(555 coins to be exact), and if you needed one really badly, you would be forced to sell a lot of items you could have needed for a future dungeon. Not to mention, they’re super rare to find in dungeons, and I managed to find one in a dungeon. A Progress Device+ is more expensive, and this one will prevent you from losing your items and money when fainting. So we think that the next game should have an autosave function, which will happen whenever you enter a building or part of a town, a new floor in a dungeon, adding a new member to your team, etc. We also think that there should be an additional save button on the game’s menu as well in case the player wants to save and quit playing.
And there you have it, our list of features we like to see in the next Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game. If you have any other suggestions please let me know, until then, see you later and hope you will be the very best like no one ever was!