Let's Go Exploring: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky!

Welcome to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky! Acting as the "third version" (see Crystal, Emerald, Platinum) to Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, themselves sequels to Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, this game - and its series - are the closest things to cult classics in the Pokemon series. I don't like saying things most people already know, so if you've never heard of this game, Bulbapedia's got you covered.

Welcome!

Huh...? Where am I? What's going on?

This is the portal that leads to the world inhabited only by Pokemon.

Beyond this gateway, many new adventures and fresh experiences await your arrival!

P...Pokemon?

Before you depart for adventure, you must answer some questions.

Be truthful when you answer them!

O...okay...

Now, are you ready?

I suppose...

Then... let the questions begin!

You've just stuffed yourself with a good meal when a great dessert arrives. What do you do?

Well, I never turn down food when I can get it...

You've won big on a raffle ticket! You say...

I don't think I'd be able to believe it if something like that happened...

How are your mornings?

Adequate, I suppose. What kind of a question is that?

Do you want to be taller someday?

Hell no. Bump my head into doorframes? Not be able to hide in a crowd? I'm fine as I am.

You're in class when you realize that you really have to go to the restroom! What do you do?

Sneak out, of course. Asking is too embarrasing, and I hate holding it in.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?

Waste of time. No.

Do you prefer to play outside rather than inside?

I don't really play, but I like the outdoors.

Have you ever blurted something out without thinking about the consequences first?

All the time.

Are you male or female?

I'm a boy...

And now your aura will be analyzed.

Huh?

Your aura is the energy that you radiate!



O... okay... (Do I even have fingertips at this point? I don't even feel like I have a body...)

Your aura's color is...



Okay, I guess...

You seem to be... the rash type, just a little bit hasty at times! You may run out of your house and forget to lock the door once in a while. And you may leave things like umbrellas behind when you leave places. Maybe you even dash outside in your slippers every now and then! Perhaps you even wear your shirts inside out all the time!

...what?

Oh, is that even rasher than you really are? So sorry! But know that your friends think your funny flubs are adorable!

Um... Thanks?

So, a rash and hasty type like you... Oh, wait! One more thing!

God, what?!

You also sometimes reveal your friends secrets by accident, don't you! Sorry. It had to be said!

...

So, without further ado... a rash and hasty type like you...



...What.

OK! That's it! You're all ready to go!

You're off to the world of Pokemon!

Oh, but one more thing...

Be strong! Stay smart! And be victorious!

W...Wait! Where are you going?!



The sky lights up with thunder occassionally throughout this sequence, but I couldn't get a shot of it.

???: Urrgh...

Where...
...Where am I?



Who's this, you may ask? This is our partner! She's an Eevee, and her name is Cheyann. The mechanics of this will be explained later, but let's just let this scene play out for now...



Cheyann paces a bit...
Cheyann: No. I refuse to be paralyzed by this any longer!



I didn't get a shot of it, but Cheyann gets shocked quite a bit by this.

???: Whose footprint? Whose footprint?
...
???: The footprint is Eevee's! The footprint is Eevee's!



Cheyann: That shocked me!



Cheyann: ...I can't... I can't bring myself to go in.



Cheyann: Sigh... I just can't do it. I'm such a coward... This is so discouraging...



Suddenly, two new arrivals come from stage left (also i am bad at screencaps)



Koffing: Did you get a load of that?!
Zubat: You bet I did, Koffing.
Koffing: That little wimp that was pacing around... had something good, right?
Zubat: That wimp had something, that's for sure. It looked like some kind of treasure.
Koffing: Do we go after it?
Zubat: We do.



On one hand, these guys are pretty shallow (at least for now). On the other, I love those last 2 lines. It's a wash.



Okay, this was amazing when this came out. I mean, it's beautiful even without the technical prowess on display. The GBA simply couldn't do visuals like this, especially not with this "looking out into the distance" effect (due to the GBA's fucktardedly wide resolution). It should be noted also that bubbles drift past constantly during this entire cutscene. BUT BACK TO THE PLOT

Fucking beautiful.



!



Aaaand, I caught Cheyann in the dumbest-looking frame of her walkcycle.

Lilfut: Uhhh... Nice to meet you too.



Lilfut: I'm... Wait, how am I talking to you? You're an Eevee!
Cheyann: So...?
Lilfut: Humans can't talk to Pokemon!



Lilfut: Yes, that's what I just said, you stupid-



Lilfut: What?!
Our hero takes this opportunity to glance at himself for a moment.



And before anyone posts stupid memes: Y.

Lilfut: No, of course not! I was a human, I-



Lilfut: Yes, of course I'm telling the truth!



Lilfut: L... Lilfut.



Lilfut: Yes. Yes, Lilfut.



Lilfut: It's fine.



Lilfut: Huh?



Suddenly, the hooligans from before come up from behind!

Yeah, they're pretty much assholes.



I just want to take this opportunity to say that Eevee's "sad" portrait is adorable.



Lilfut: H...hey, don't cry...!

Lilfut: Of course.



Lilfut: Yes, I will!



Lilfut: Lead the way!



And with that, the first part is finished. This is mostly a test of my ability to write and format an LP entry, the first real update is tomorrow. Or later, who knows.

So... mudkips, huh?

I heard you-- BRICK

might wanna fix that title never mind, you did

You'll note I stopped the "wizard turned you into a mudkip" thing before it started.

also i'll fully admit that on my physical game i started when i was like 13 i have a mudkip partner named Liek Liek

Hmm, a Pokemon game that breaks from the series formula and involves a polymorphed main character? Sounds significantly more interesting than any given main-series Pokemon game made since the GBA era! I think I may well follow this one.

Oh, and a small tip on your screenshots? You might want to clump them together on the same line instead of giving each one a separate line. For those of us with ludicrous resolutions (like, say, 1920x1200), your LP looks ridiculously thin and tall.

I'll try that and see how it looks.

EDIT: Yeah, that looks much better. By the way, you haven't seen "breaks from the series formula" yet, believe me. i cried at several points the first time i played

Yeah, I am going to like this LP a lot, I think.

I'm interested in this.

To be honest, I was shocked no one else had done this yet. The PMD subseries is awesome.

Haven't tried this one, but I played Red Rescue Team way back when. The game is...honestly one of the best feel-good games I've ever played. The gameplay itself is nothing really special (the thing's practically a watered-down amalgamation between the mechanics of roguelike and Pokemon, although it's breezy and enjoyable enough), but the narrative and all those mug shots are charming as hell.

I kept wishing that they would reboot/abort the current Pokemon anime and make a new show based on this series' universe.

They did a little hour long episode at least.

hahaha you clearly haven't played this one's second half

I think Raven's talking about Red Rescue team there.

It had its moments too. Remember the exile sequence?

Sure. Which is why the final triumph feels even sweeter =)

I expect this game to have similar great mixture of emotional moments.

I've never played one of these... will Eevee and Mudkip be your only Pokemon or can you get others?

Because I demand Nidoran goodness if at all possible.

Of course you can get others. It's Pokemon! The mechanics are a bit weird, though, but we'll get to those when they come up.

Bit of advice: rather than screenshotting all the character dialogue, you may be better off just getting the key phrases or really funny stuff, or alternately transcribing dialogue. A bunch of screenshots of dialogue boxes isn't too exciting to see.

I played this game once, but I think I had a really bad initial party, and basically every boss I ran into I got flattened. May your luck be better!

You're stuck with just them for a few major story events, and they're constant members of your party pretty much all game, but you can expand the party up to 4 members. (That said, some Pokémon are much easier to recruit than others.)

Did you control the game's choice of Mudkip for you, or did you just let it happen? From a gameplay mechanics point of view, it's typically best to let the water-type go second in your party, because most water-type attacks are ranged. (I went with a grass-type leader, for the emergency healing and mostly melee attacks, and picked Piplup as my partner because Empoleon is mostly immune to weather damage.) I can appreciate why you might just want to go for cuteness, though. (Sky is a little easier than its predecessors; they made some of the hardest battles simpler. The game doesn't get really difficult until the postgame, anyway.)

Oh, and this game is awesome.

Btw: I know quite a lot about the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. Anyone opposed to frequent walls of text about it?

I have no problem with walls of text, I'll probably be making them myself when we get to actual gameplay. I let the choice of Mudkip happen (as I learned when I realized No$GBA sucked and switched to DeSmuMe, losing my state in the process, steering the character generation in this one is a massive pain in the ass anyway).

Minor suggestion: crop your screenshots of the irrelevant bits; it'll help things flow better, and also allows you to scale up your text-bearing screenshots (which I can't read real well on my laptop, despite it being 1366x768).