Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Switch) – Review

Thanks to Cart Boy for help with edits.

Last year, we took a deep, five-article-spanning dive into the Pokémon franchise’s largest and most beloved spin-off series, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, to find out what made it so special in the eyes of its dedicated fanbase. We covered Rescue Team, Explorers, Gates to Infinity, and Super in a four-part retrospective, capping off our dungeon crawl with some speculation on what a brand new entry could be like. About a year later, the series finally re-emerged after years of silence as one of two projects revealed in the January 9th, 2020, Pokémon Direct. Rather than the new installment many were anticipating, a remake of Rescue Team, the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, was on its way to the Switch, unifying the original’s Red and Blue versions under the name Rescue Team DX. Suffice it to say, I lost my mind with excitement upon this reveal in a way that only Super Smash Bros. has ever done for me, overjoyed to see PMD, as well as console Pokémon spin-offs in general, make a return after years of neglect. That being said, as a massive fan of the series, what do I think of Rescue Team DX now that it’s out? Does it do the original incarnation justice? Is it a good introduction to the series for newcomers, and a worthy reintroduction for veterans? Let’s find out as we conquer the newest Pokémon Mystery Dungeon!

Story

Before we make our way through the dungeon, we need to acquaint ourselves with the town and characters we’ll be meeting throughout our journey. Like nearly every PMD title before it, Rescue Team DX begins with a personality quiz that aims to find the perfect Pokémon for you to explore the world as, but in a much-appreciated addition, there is now an option to reject whatever creature the quiz recommends in exchange for any one of sixteen diverse species you can choose from, a perfect middle ground in regards to character selection that was first seen in Super. After choosing your partner from the remaining pool of starters, your grand adventure to help Pokémon in need, form a powerful rescue team, and solve the mystery behind the natural disasters plaguing the world begins. Waking up in a forest clearing with no memory other than your name and the fact that you were previously human, you meet your partner and are soon thrust into your first rescue mission with them. Naturally, the rescue is successful, inspiring the two of you to form a rescue team in the hopes of helping those suffering from the abundance of natural calamities and finding out how and why you were turned into a Pokémon. From there, the stakes continuously rise as you journey through complex dungeons, battle imposing boss Pokémon, and get to know the residents of this endearing world.

While Rescue Team’s side characters aren’t quite as deep as those found in later installments (especially Gates’), they do a great job at making you feel a sense of community in the town of Pokémon Square that’s rarely felt in other Pokémon titles. Characters I especially enjoyed include the iconic Kecleon Brothers, obnoxious Gengar, eccentric Xatu, respectable Team ACT (Alakazam, Charizard, and Tyranitar), and surprisingly well-developed Shiftry. Of course, this was all present in 2005 with the first two versions of Rescue Team, and while I am disappointed to say that DX does little to improve on what was already there, the lengths the game goes to in its attempts to make you care about these characters is admirable. Considering that Rescue Team was one of the first pieces of Pokémon media to depict a world inhabited solely by the titular critters, the level of charm and believability here is not lost on me even after the fifteen years since the original roguelike’s launch. Overall, while Rescue Team may be light on its main plot, I’d argue that the game more than makes up for it with its expressive, likable characters that keep you immersed in the game long after the credits have rolled.

Gameplay

With our clients met and mission statement read, it’s finally time to tackle the dungeon. Throughout PMD’s storied lineup of games, one very integral piece of them has always been a divisive one: gameplay. It’s here that you could say the series is truly roadblocked from being a mainstream part of the greater Pokémon franchise, as there are countless cases of would-be PMD fans having picked up one of the games out of interest in the unique setting only to be turned off by what should be a video game’s defining aspect. At their core, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games are dungeon crawlers, having your team navigate maze-like environments battling enemies, finding useful items, avoiding traps, and, of course, rescuing Pokémon. The dungeons you traverse have randomly generated layouts, designed to keep each run fresh and avoid repetition, but for some, this has the opposite effect. To them, dungeons blend together and start to feel the same way too fast, a valid criticism that understandably limits PMD to a more niche audience. However, much of the enjoyment I derive from this series are the classic Pokémon elements still present. You obtain new Pokémon by battling them, level them up through combat, teach them moves to suit their role, and give them items to either consume and boost growth or hold and receive buffs from, just like in the main series. Personally, I find the iconic Pokémon training in such a distinct gameplay style to be a breath of fresh air, a sentiment I’m sure echoes in other fans as well. But this is all just standard PMD gameplay, what makes Rescue Team DX stand out amongst its predecessors?

As expected from a remake, DX doesn’t do much to upend series conventions or change up the gameplay too much. Rather, it aims to polish what is already there and bring Rescue Team up to modern standards, two goals it accomplishes extremely well. From my experience with it, 2005’s Rescue Team often felt like a chore to play through. Teammates felt extremely limited in what they could do, you could only hold an astonishingly low twenty items at a time, you had to hand allies items if you wanted them to consume resources, among other things. Fortunately, the remake fixes all of these nagging issues, giving the pioneering entry some much needed updates and adding new features of its own like the Mystery Houses, buildings you can find in dungeons that provide helpful items and even Pokémon willing to join your team. In its attempts to adhere to the modern PMD formula, DX also takes inspiration from Super, adding a few of the items introduced in it like wands and Perfect Apples, as well as mechanics like pushing allies and the fan favorite Mega Evolution. That being said, DX ensures it maintains the less gimmicky nature of the original by omitting Super’s more experimental features like Emeras and the Connection Orb, a decision I appreciate considering how controversial the latter was. Instead, DX introduces a controversy of its own involving recruitment.

The original Rescue Team featured Friend Areas, environments you could purchase with in-game currency that were essential in recruiting new species. You simply couldn’t recruit a Pokémon if you didn’t already have the Friend Area assigned to their species. DX replaces Friend Areas with an extremely similar, but far more efficient alternative: Rescue Camps. Unlike the Friend Areas you could walk around and interact with teammates in, camps are essentially menus that you can select team members from to examine or customize them. Many fans weren’t thrilled by this addition, believing that the replacement of a tangible location you could go to for a menu is much less unique and memorable. In some ways, I understand this criticism, but I ultimately prefer Rescue Camps thanks to how much they streamline the process of viewing teammates while adding their own cute additions. Not only were they the perfect excuse to include the adored sprites seen in the GBA and DS entries, but the illustrations distinguishing each camp from each other, especially when paired with the remastered Friend Area music, can be fun and relaxing to look through. That, alongside the ease at which you can view your entire team, makes Rescue Camps one of my personal favorite changes seen in DX. Of course, what’s the point of so many camps without Pokémon to populate them?

DX’s Pokémon roster is an interesting one, to say the least. It has been a longstanding tradition across Pokémon remakes to include every monster in existence at the time of the remake’s release, which was only recently broken with 2018’s Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee. While DX doesn’t have nearly as pathetic a roster as Let’s Go’s Kanto-exclusive Pokédex, it does not do much to improve on what the original Rescue Team had. Just like the original, DX features every Pokémon from Generations 1-3, a sizable lineup on its own that only disappoints me considering these two games have fifteen years between them. On the bright side, this roster keeps evolutionary chains connected, no matter what Generation a given link debuted in. For example, since Murkrow is a Gen 2 Pokémon and thus present in DX, so too is its Gen 4 evolved form, Honchkrow. The same can be said for pre-evolutions like Happiny, Budew, and Chingling. As a small bonus, Gen 4’s Riolu and Lucario are present as well, fitting additions considering the latter’s status in the original Rescue Team. Overall, while more Pokémon would’ve been appreciated, DX does a fine job at ensuring certain creatures aren’t handicapped just because they had to wait a Generation or two to get an upgrade. After all, at this point, the inclusion of Eevee in a modern Pokémon game without all eight of the Eeveelutions just feels wrong. Looking at you, Let’s Go…

One more thing concerning the Pokémon that I’d like to make mention of is the inclusion of a feature I had anticipated ever since Explorers: Shiny Pokémon. In DX, most of the game’s dungeons feature a rare, especially strong enemy that can randomly spawn on any floor. Mt. Thunder’s is always Dragonite, Silent Chasm’s is always Metagross, Great Canyon’s is always Ambipom, and so on. While these powerful opponents usually cannot be recruited, you will occasionally run into Shiny versions of them, who are actually recruitable under the right conditions. This alone significantly adds to the replayability and excitement of exploring familiar dungeons. You never know when a Shiny could spawn, but since they’re much more common here than in the main series, whether or not you recruit one is often in your hands. On top of the Shiny Pokémon you can recruit through this method, you can also encounter the iconic Shiny Celebi in a Mystery House after you’ve gotten the Healing Forest Rescue Camp. While it was clearly included just because the assets were already there (courtesy of Super) and not to reference Explorers, it’s still a very nice piece of bonus content. Personally, I really enjoyed finally getting to recruit the original PMD Shiny alongside so many others.

Presentation

We’ve come pretty far, but with the adventure’s end in sight, why don’t we take a break and admire the scenery? Following Gates to Infinity’s release in 2012 and PMD’s jump to 3D, fans grew unimpressed by how the more recent entries have looked, citing Rescue Team and Explorers’ sprite-based style as much more expressive and charming. While I’m somewhere in the middle, I’m very happy to say that DX finds a near-perfect balance between the first two entries’ colorful and distinct design and the latter two’s higher quality 3D models and environments. DX makes use of beautiful cel-shading and invokes the feeling of a hand-drawn storybook in its attempt to emulate the original Rescue Team’s beloved menu art, perfect for a lighthearted adventure set in a Pokémon-exclusive world. In my opinion, this new direction not only serves as a worthy successor to Rescue Team’s timeless art style, but outright replaces it as the definitive way of viewing Pokémon Square, its townsfolk, and the titular dungeons.

Of course, DX’s graphical touch ups go further than just a new art style. To complement the redone world, brand new cutscenes have been included to add some cinematic flair to certain story events. These, as well as the dramatic introductions Legendary Pokémon now perform upon challenging you, add a much-needed sense of scale to the more fantastical things you do throughout your journey. In the original Rescue Team, such encounters didn’t feel all that special in regards to presentation. Fortunately, now rendered at an appropriately intimidating size and sporting new animations that depict their titanic powers, Legendary Pokémon and their battles now feel as monumental as those found in the main series. That being said, while DX’s graphical prowess truly shines when you’re combating these mythic adversaries, otherwise, the game looks somewhat primitive in terms of its character models. The exact same models seen in Gates and Super are clearly reused here, and while they look better than ever with the fantastic new art style, at the end of the day, models made with 3DS games in mind simply aren’t as eye-catching as what we could’ve gotten, especially in regards to the limited range of animations characters can do as a result.

Finally, we turn to one of the most unanimously praised facets of any Pokémon Mystery Dungeon installment: the soundtrack. Throughout the series, no matter the general perception of a given entry, its soundtrack is always celebrated for introducing new music tracks that effectively evoke feelings of adventure, joy, sorrow, and so much more. Where most parts of PMD generally go unnoticed to those who haven’t played any of its games, its soundtracks transcend such boundaries and are often regarded as solid equals or even superiors to the offerings of core Pokémon titles. ”Dialga’s Fight to the Finish”, Explorers’ final boss theme, has even become one of the entire franchise’s most iconic themes and is my personal favorite piece of video game music. While I cannot begin to praise each installment’s soundtrack enough, how does Rescue Team DX’s music compare? Naturally, every music track from the original Rescue Team has been recreated, and it’s all as amazing as expected. From my perspective, the music was fantastic fifteen years ago, but it was limited to much more simplistic hardware and thus unable to realize its full potential. With DX, this restriction has finally been lifted, allowing Rescue Team’s soundtrack to soar to the newfound heights it always deserved to reach. Some of my personal favorite new remasters include “Pokémon Square,” “Friend Area ~ Swamp,” “Mt. Thunder,” “Great Canyon,” “Run Away, Fugitives,” “Mt. Blaze,” and “Sky Tower.” As yet another much-appreciated bonus, a new track has been added to the game as well, an outstanding medley featuring tracks from Gates to Infinity. While DX doesn’t innovate all that much in terms of music, the strides it takes to elevate already incredible compositions makes its soundtrack more than worthy of standing with the franchise’s best.

Verdict

Now that we’ve finally reached the end of the dungeon, how was it? Pokémon Mystery Dungeon isn’t a series anyone can just pick up and appreciate, and Rescue Team DX doesn’t do much to change that. The gameplay is hit-or-miss, the price tag is admittedly steep for a remake of a decade-old handheld title, and not everyone will find the characters and world to be anything special. However, for those who can get behind this game’s oddities and enjoy it for the distinct and charming take on the Pokémon world that it is, I think they will find a lot to love. Ever since Pokémon GO’s release in 2016, we have seen the celebrated franchise stray from its primary formula less and less frequently, and while it’ll always be a blast to catch and battle with the lovable beasts, sometimes, an unexpected deviation can be exactly what we need to find a whole new reason to love Pokémon. For me, PMD is exactly that kind of deviation. Although it holds a special level of value to me that can’t be measured by a review score, on a more objective level, Rescue Team DX’s flaws and barricades that prevent others from enjoying it like I do can’t be denied. At the end of the day, it is a great game that I believe will impress newcomers who choose to stick with it and a fantastic remake of PMD‘s prolific first chapter. If you liked the original Rescue Team, then this is definitely the remake for you, and if you’re wondering if Pokémon Mystery Dungeon might strike the same chord in you that it did in thousands of fans already, now is the perfect time to put on your scarf and explore this mysterious and enticing version of the Pokémon world.