What Could Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 5 Be Like?

Thanks to Cart Boy for help with edits.

While the Pokémon franchise is no stranger to spin-off titles, none have stood the test of time as well as the Mystery Dungeon side series. With a lineup comprised of four titles across three console generations, PMD has become a favorite among Pokémon fans looking for a change of pace from the mainline games. However, the series has recently found itself in an awkward position now that the eighth Generation has been announced. Since Gen 3, every Pokémon Generation has been accompanied by a new PMD entry, except for Gen 7, the current Generation. With Gen 8 coming out this year, time has seemingly ran out for a Gen 7 Mystery Dungeon. Even though this long standing tradition has apparently been broken, the possibility of seeing a brand new PMD in the near future is far from unlikely. Now that we’ve covered all four PMD titles to date (Rescue Team, Explorers, Gates, and Super) and discussed each installment’s pros and cons, why don’t we speculate over a potential fifth entry?

Since all four PMD games have very different reasons for being beloved, making a sequel that pleases fans from every title is no easy task. Some people love Gates for its lighter, character-based story, while others love Explorers for its heavier plot elements and surprising depth in gameplay. Fortunately, there are a few aspects that most PMD fans can agree with, such as the hope that the next PMD entry is on the Switch rather than the 3DS. The hybrid system would be perfect for the series’ home console debut (not counting the Japan-exclusive WiiWare titles) given its portability, since being able to take your adventure with you has always been synonymous with the Pokémon franchise. Besides the new console and the benefits that come with it, PMD5 wouldn’t have to shake up the series’ formula too much. You’d still play as a Pokémon and lead your team through dungeons to complete missions and discover treasure, and I doubt most PMD fans would want it any other way.

As for a potential story a fifth installment could have, it would probably be best for it to follow the formula PMD games have had since the series’ inception. You’d most likely choose your player and partner or be given the former through a quiz before waking up in the Pokémon world as an amnesiac human who’s transformed into whatever Pokémon you got. As for how the rest of the story would unfold, I believe that PMD5 would need to avoid the two extremes found in the two latest installments. Having a story that only explores a few specific characters like in Gates doesn’t allow the world to feel large or meaningful, but having a story that skims over a large number of characters like in Super doesn’t allow you to form a bond with any of them. I believe that a good way to strike a balance between the two is to have the player and partner traveling around the Pokémon world with a group of new characters for the majority of the story, rather than just staying in one hub world for the majority of the game. This setup would allow players to see the world for themselves and really feel like they’re on an adventure while giving them a group of characters who’d be fleshed out over the course of the story. Why these characters are traveling together and how they’d connect to the inevitable world ending threat would be up to Spike Chunsoft to decide, but I think this general setup would be a nice change of pace for PMD nonetheless.

The thought of traveling all around the Pokémon world brings up an interesting question, though: should characters from previous PMD titles be encountered throughout the adventure and serve a purpose in the main story? Back in Super, we saw this firsthand when Explorers’ Jirachi made an appearance as a member of the Expedition Society. However, since he was restricted to a single Special Episode back in Explorers, he doesn’t mention the game or its events much at all in Super. Jirachi wasn’t the only case of a character from an older installment reappearing though, as nearly every important character from previous installments made cameo appearances in Super through its Connection Orb, which allowed you to take requests from them and thus get them to join your team. Even though plenty of plotholes emerged as a result of these cameos, it wasn’t a big deal since every returning character besides Jirachi and a few others had no impact on the main story. While I would personally love to see older characters have roles in PMD5, I’d want their appearances to have a purpose outside of just fanservice. Whether it was to show how much time has passed since a previous entry or to give us a challenging boss fight from a fan favorite, the reappearance of an old character should be for the purpose of expanding upon them or the plot and not just catering to nostalgia.

That brings us to PMD5’s gameplay, which is the most difficult part of the game to pitch improvements for since every installment in the series so far has introduced new mechanics only for said features to be absent in the next entry. Such one-off mechanics include Rescue Team’s Friend Areas, Gates’ town building, and Super’s Connection Orb. While not all of these features were received as well as others, they still gave each entry their own distinctions that prevented them from feeling too repetitive. However, since every entry has been so different from their counterparts, many fans of the series have only gravitated towards one or two installments. Because of this, I think that PMD5 should introduce both new mechanics to make it feel distinct from previous games in the series, as well as refined versions of old ones to appease fans and bring out the full potential of features that didn’t get a second chance.

As for what old features I’d like to see and how I would refine them, I wouldn’t reintroduce those that defined older installments (like Gates’ town building) or have already reached their full potential (like Super’s Connection Orb). For example, I think Explorers’ exclusive items, a fun, but underdeveloped mechanic with plenty of great ideas, would be amazing to see return. Back in Explorers, there were a set of exclusive items made for every single Pokémon that gave them useful benefits such as type immunities or boosted power. Getting the rarest item for every member of your team was both fun and fulfilling, but the way you received most exclusive items made them feel like an afterthought. If they were to return in PMD5 with more creative benefits and ways to obtain them, then exclusive items could become a series staple that always gives the player something interesting to do outside of the main story.

Now, if I were to pitch a new mechanic for PMD5 to introduce, I’d want to see a combo move mechanic of sorts that involved members of the player’s team each using a specific move to combo with each other and lead to certain benefits. For example, maybe the Poison-type move Smog could be repurposed to form a damaging cloud of poison over a few tiles, and if the Smog user’s teammate used the Fire-type move Ember on that cloud, a Fire/Poison-type explosion would occur and damage any nearby opponents. PMD’s unique to other Pokémon games in that you can have multiple teammates with you at all times, so letting the team use their moves to synergize with each other in a way reminiscent of the Pokémon anime would allow for all kinds of unique techniques not possible in the main series. Speaking of uniqueness, I think it’s time the dungeons themselves were changed up a bit. Back in Gates, story-based dungeons would occasionally house floors where players were allowed to roam freely and solve a short “puzzle” before continuing to the next floor. While this was a good way to break the monotony of the usual randomly generated floors, the mechanic was way too simple to leave an impact. I’d like to see this concept return, but with a massive overhaul as to make the feature actually mean something. More complex puzzles or even mini-boss fights would definitely make these floors a memorable part of players’ runs through dungeons.

In terms of what Pokémon would be available in PMD5, the obvious answer is every Pokémon in existence at the point of its release. As shown by the backlash that resulted from Gates’ inclusion of only a quarter of the Pokémon available at the time, variety is a very important part of the series’ gameplay. PMD5 should naturally one-up Super’s roster of 720 Pokémon because not only would two Generations have occurred since Super’s release (assuming PMD5 releases in Gen 8), but also because the transition from a handheld to a home console would mean that PMD5 would have no problem containing all those Pokémon. With that in mind, we turn to the potential options for your player/partner Pokémon. Naturally, every starter would be present, including Gen 7’s Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio, as well as Gen 8’s Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. In terms of Pokémon who aren’t starters, the two most obvious inclusions would be Pikachu and Riolu. Pikachu’s been available in every PMD game since its inception and Riolu’s a fan favorite who was the only non-starter to join Pikachu as an option in Super, so they’d be the most obvious choices to bring back. Other Pokémon I think should be available for the player and partner include Eevee given its appearance as an option in Explorers of Sky and recent surge in popularity, Axew due to it being a choice in Gates with a unique typing, Rockruff because of its prominence during Gen 7, and Alolan Vulpix to add further type diversity and represent Regional Variants.

One more thing that I’d like to see PMD5 do in terms of its roster is fully include Shiny Pokémon. These rare recolors of Pokémon have been a fan favorite mechanic since Gen 2, so seeing PMD largely ignore the feature when other spin-offs like Pokémon Rumble have fully embraced it has never made sense to me. While a few Shiny Pokémon have appeared in PMD installments before, such as Explorers’ Shiny Celebi and Gates’ optional Shiny Ho-oh boss fight, it’s never been possible to randomly encounter Shinies in dungeons and add them to your team. In fact, the only time you’ve ever been able to play as a Shiny Pokémon in a main PMD title was by recruiting Explorers’ Celebi through the Connection Orb in Super (as an aside, this Celebi also has an exclusive animation for whenever she enters a dungeon; it’s cool seeing the only playable Shiny so far get the special treatment she deserves). If PMD5 were to include Shiny variants of every Pokémon found in dungeons, the game would both encourage Shiny hunting and give players a pleasant surprise in the form of a Shiny every now and then. By the way, if PMD5 were to include Shiny Pokémon in dungeons, it would be best if they made it like Pokémon Rumble in that every Shiny you defeated would automatically request to join your team. This way, players wouldn’t miss out on recruiting Shiny Pokémon they encountered all because of bad luck.

Now that we’ve gone over the content I’d like to see the game have, we turn to how it should look. Since I believe PMD5 would be on the Switch, the game should naturally take advantage of the hardware and be the first PMD title in HD. While Super’s character models and environments looked great for the system it was on, PMD5 would need to be a straight upgrade nearly on par with Pokémon Sword and Shield graphically. The character models used in the main series would probably be used in PMD5 as well, since the models found in Super wouldn’t translate well into HD without a massive overhaul. In terms of environments, PMD5 wouldn’t need to be very different from previous installments since both Gates and Super nailed that already, so just making the new environments look clearer is all PMD5 needs to do. Another aspect I’d like to see the game improve, however, are the Pokémon’s animations. While they emote well enough during gameplay, I think their jagged movements during cutscenes need to be addressed to make them seem more natural.

Finally, we turn to PMD5’s potential soundtrack. While there isn’t much to say here, I can at least suggest that the game followed what Super did with its soundtrack. Super’s music always carried the exact same tone found in a story full of many unique atmospheres. From the cutscenes that were carefree to those that were filled with despair and hopelessness, Super always had a track to amplify the mood. Even though other installments did this as well, I thought that it was most apparent in Super due to the more drastic tonal shifts the plot always went for. Another thing I’d like to see PMD5 follow in Super’s example for is the inclusion of remasters of tracks from older entries in the series. While I believe Rescue Team and Explorers still have amazing soundtracks, the soundfonts used for them have undoubtedly aged, so seeing PMD5 finally bring some of these up to date would be amazing. While Super had a few great ones and even Gates dipped its toe in with a few unused remasters that have since surfaced online, we still haven’t scratched the surface of fan favorite tracks that deserve remasters. Some tracks that I’d love to see remastered include “Mt. Blaze”, “Sky Tower”, “Blizzard Island Rescue Team Medley”, “Defy the Legends”, “ Upper Steam Cave”, “Chasm Cave”, “Dark Wasteland”, “Treasure Town”, “Time Gear”, “Do Your Best, As Always!”, “For a New Life”, and of course, Dialga’s Fight the the Finish!”, a track that remains one of the most beloved themes in the entire Pokémon franchise. I know, I included a lot, but if Super Smash Bros. Ultimate won’t do these incredible tracks justice and remaster them, then PMD5 should do it instead.

There you have it, that’s what I’d like to see from a new PMD installment. While it’s not for everyone, PMD remains one of my favorite game series of all time thanks to its incredible stories, memorable music, and addictive gameplay. With my coverage of the series on Source Gaming, I aimed to explain why I love the series so much and maybe convince a few people to look into the games themselves. While the series’ future isn’t certain, the dedication its fans harbor towards it shows how much PMD has affected, and continues to affect, millions of people around the world. Because of that, I see PMD as much more than a simple spin-off, and I cannot wait to see what Spike Chunsoft does with it going forward.