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honrupi — PMD Ideas/Discussion?
Published: 2017-11-28 06:05:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 3399; Favourites: 13; Downloads: 0
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Hello, I'm up super late from working on a group project and hey you know what, the last journal about PMD was pretty fun to go through so here's another thing! Also I am dead inside lol
Is there something in particular you liked/disliked about the PMD games? What would you change about them? If you had to write a PMD story what would it be like?
You don't have to answer all of those but just some food for thought! I'll try and reply to as many comments as I can aaa
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Comments: 63
The PMD games are some of my favorite in the Pokemon franchise. Of course, I'll admit that they aren't perfect.
Liked: The story wins me over (nearly) every time. I cried during my first playthroughs of Red Rescue and Explorers of Sky. Most of the characters are likable and have considerable depth to them, making them fun to watch and interact with.
Disliked: The partners. They're cute and occasionally funny, but seem to be mostly comic relief. Not to mention kind of dumb. They literally trust a stranger who claims to be a human after mere minutes in their presence. The protagonist could have been an ax murderer in disguise for all they knew. They also have been given jerk-tendencies throughout the series (faking stomach aches to get out of work in Red/Blue, nonstop complaining in Time/Darkness/Sky, and I shouldn't have to explain Super). For someone we are supposed to get attached to, the partners sure are hard to understand sometimes.
Liked: Visuals. I love the brief cut scenes, the layouts of dungeons, and the cute little sprites. They are nice games to look at, simple as they are. The bright colors always gave me these happy vibes.
Disliked: Impossible missions. I ran into a frequent problem of trying to apprehend/rescue water types that would get lost in water tiles where I couldn't reach them (happens in all games). They would wander off and there was literally nothing I could do. Or worse, they would drop an important item I needed in the water where I can't get it. The only way you could combat this would be to carry drought orbs with you at all times, which wastes bag space.
Liked: Thought-provoking plot twists. I'm looking at you, Sky. This game literally involves character sacrifice for the greater good, forgiving the enemy, time travel, special episodes that add important backstory (Bidoof may or may not have aided in the hero becoming a pokemon), and putting the characters in hopeless situations that make them question everything! This is what stories should do! They should make you think about what's going on!
Disliked: Lack of choices. Even when the dialogue box lets you "choose" an option, the outcome is pretty much always the same with no consequences later. I think it would be nice if you had the option to say more and even change how pokemon interact with you based on how you talk to them.
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//slams fist down, takes out my 10 page thesis on recent pmd complaints (also for those who haven't played Super yet, maybe don't read. bc I'm going to be dipping into HUGE spoilers for that game. Like, spoilers that will legit ruin the ending.) I'm gonna be making a lot of comparisons to PMD2, but every game after it basically copies its formula, soo... yeah. this is also very long and I'm so sorry, but i'm Very Passionate about PMD
First thing's first, Super Mystery Dungeon's pacing was atrocious. There was basically no room to grind for more items or exp, since almost every mission you went on was mandatory, and the time in-between missions was usually just one in-game day. Not to mention, the protagonist was practically useless in the grand scheme of things; I don't mind if the game is mostly about the partner's journey- that's cool, I can dig it, especially the whole them actually being mew thing- but when the main character, your point of view character, barely adds anything to the narrative aside from being the one who's human-turned-pokemon? Ugh, it's just a total waste. These games thrive on character development, and they've developed past protagonists just fine! But Super's just got the short end of the stick.
And that's not getting into the entirety of the plot in general and just how... slow it feels. Like I know the meat of PMD2 doesn't happen until chapter 10ish too, but heck at least the missions before it didn't feel like pointless filler, you know?
Recruitment in games after PMD2 is garbage too, but I'm sure plenty of other people agree with that, so no point in beating that dead horse.
And, imo, the human-turned-pokemon thing is... arguably getting a bit stale, too. Or at least the reason for the human turning into a pokemon has gotten stale. I want a human that was turned into a pokemon by mistake, or maybe a legendary pokemon being turned into a normal pokemon for Plot Reasons(maybe a situation similar to Darkrai, minus the whole plunging the world into darkness thing?), or heck, maybe just some rando pokemon that gets amnesia by mistake and thinks they're a human, and they get caught up in some grand adventure, and by the end of it the learn the truth after some major development?
The whole "being betrayed by someone you thought you trusted" thing stopped working after PMD2. Or maybe I'm just numb to twist villains since they were hecking e v e r y w h e r e for a good few years, be it in games or movies or whatever.
The twist with the partner in Super was great, but ruined because they really didn't go in depth with what happened before the game you know? We get the barest of glimpses of what Past!Mew was like, and what their mindset was, and then... nothing. Post-game you just have a totally different Mew since reincarnation was a thing.
SPEAKING OF WHICH. POST GAME. EVER SINCE GATES IT'S SUCKED AND IT NEEDS TO NOT SUCK.
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I would love to see the protagonist and the partner have a bit more of a rough start than being able to become friends immediately because it would add a lot more to the story. I would love to see the two characters fight with each other, get on one another's nerves, maybe even mess with each other's moves at the beginning of the game. I would also love to see the protagonist to be more torn between the human and Pokemon world, maybe show friends and memories from both sides, or give the main an important task to do in the human world. While I still love these games to pieces, I feel like this could lead to a lot more story options and bring something new to the table for any new PMD games. : )
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I'm kinda tired of the whole "used to be human" thing, on the game stories.
I also don't like the idea of only one super best friend forever and ever,I feel like the way the producers write the relationship beetwen the main character and his partner forced, and I think you shouldn't be forced to keep this one partner everywhere for most of the game, it should give more freedom to make your own team like the main games.
Another thing is how each game feels like a reboot of the previous one, they make sure to show how being the human who turned into a pokemon is unique and legendary, yet the next games don't seem to mention the previous ones, and the characters make it sound it never happened before, I would like more if it they gave a little relevant backstory to each protagonist like the classic games where you are just a kid that live on Pallet or the child of a gym trainer.
And the whole ending "I'm going back to my world forever bye my friends byeeeee...NOT! I'M STILL HERE" got kinda silly after the first time.
But that's just my opinion though, there's really nothing wrong in liking this formula.
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I would like you to make a past to the "human", with your life, experiences, to feel more the loss and the need to return to what it was (In addition you can make the plot more juicy), and also, to be a game where the pokemons know that it is a human, it would be better to find a human, and see how they treat the pokemons.
For the rest, more drama in the plot, and that's it.
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personally my favorite thing about the Pokemon games is that you get to be the Pokemon, go on adventures and help everyone along the way. it would be the ideal way for me to live if it was possible. if there was 1 thing i could change it would be your partner dissapering at the end. instead i'd want something more like tieing up lose ends or maybe having another villin show up like in explorers of sky since we all know whoever dissapers is coming back and evreyone want a good end game for pokemon so i think getting rid of that trope and replacing it with something more unpredictable that makes you want to keep playing after the victory celebration would be great. and if i had to write a story i would try to make it like explores of sky where you have lots of characters, each with there own motivations, different guilds show up and try to have more big expeditions that really catch your imagination and have villains with more believable motivations, try to make the story more grey and 3 dimensional so adults and kids can get thoroughly invested, and finally a darker tone at certain pints that help emphasis serious scenes and add to the tension but not to the point that it's not kid friendly or any deaths. just enough to allow for a bit more mature subject matter when it makes sense. of course i could never actually create something like that. i'm, a terrible writer and a even worse artist but it is fun to think about. also i hope you can get some good sleep soon.
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I really wish the actual dungeon gameplay was more interesting. I've played other random dungeon games with much better gameplay.
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I don't know if I can necessarily pinpoint the exact reason I like the PMD series. But to me, it kinda all boils down to the fact that I like most of the (I suppose the word is) "spinoffs" of the main series. I like the Gameboy Color TCG, Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon Conquest...so naturally I like PMD as well!
But what PMD has that the others don't have is definitely the story. TCG is a fun way to play the TCG if you don't have anyone irl you can play with (or, like me, didn't have cards when it was popular at school). Pinball is pinball with some fun changes that's good to pass the time. Conquest gives you a chance to take over the world region, which is a lot of fun. But PMD has a story, and a good one at that.
I'm saying this as someone who's played PMD Red, PMD Darkness, and PMD Gates to Infinity. (I tried playing PSMD but the right trigger on my 3DS is broken so I couldn't get past a certain point.) I know the former two the best, I've played Gates to Infinity only once but would like to play it again sometime. I like how the story for Red is fairly simple but also really engaging, like, I want to know about the Ninetales legend and about Gengar and what my role in all of it is, and even now that I know all this stuff, it's still engaging to play through. It's like reading a book you love: you find something new each time. The same sort of thing with Darkness, but with a more complicated plot, and with time travel making things interesting.
A lot of what I love about PMD in general is the characterisation and how we see characters grow and change throughout the story. Give me a good character arc and I'm all over it. That's part of why I like seeing comics/stories of the games, because even if they follow the same plotlines, the different characters and how the author/artist portrays them is so interesting to me~
Plus there's just something exciting about a whole civilised group of pokemon that most humans don't seem to know about. I do kinda wish they talked more about that (if they do, it's probably in post-game, haha) because it's a little confusing to me how that works, but it's still neat to see how sapient pokemon can be compared to the main games.
(Since some people have mentioned the setup and gameplay, I'll briefly say that I enjoy it for what it is: a dungeon-crawler. And that's fun for me.)
Things I'd want to change...probably what I mentioned before about the world not being completely fleshed out in terms of the pokemon-human divide. I'd like to see why they're divided like that, and whether humans know about these civilisations.
Also it'd be cool if the characters actually had names instead of just their species. Kinda takes away from the story, in my opinion.
And there's one big thing...which I think a lot of people would disagree with. I understand the notion of having a happy ending, but especially in Darkness...why does the protagonist come back? I understand that it's Dialga bending the rules and such, but honestly...the protagonist was supposed to disappear, and was (as well as can be possible in that situation) PREPARED to disappear. It...honestly kinda detracts from the emotional farewell, the feelings the partner (and everyone else, but especially the partner) has seeing their best friend disappear in front of their eyes.
Sure, it's a kid's game. But...augh. Such a good farewell ruined, when the one who disappeared comes back.
That's actually something I'll be doing if I ever get around to actually drawing (writing?) my PMD Time/Darkness story.
Briefly put, the protagonist actually doesn't show up until shortly before the expedition to Fogbound Lake and joins an already-formed team of two who, alongside their normal duties and trying to figure out why 'mons are a lot more anxious/antsy/violent than usual, are trying to get back the protagonist's memories and trying to figure out why he came to their world. Otherwise, it mostly follows the main plot of the game, with some character changes.
There will also be a number of side-comics (or side-chapters, depending) following Grovyle's journey up until he meets up with the main storyline. I'm quite excited about those~
Anyway, this went on quite enough, hope it's not too much >v>"
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The main part that annoyed me about the games...was the actual gameplay. I loved the stories, the world setting, the distinctive characters with their interesting personalities and motivations. But, to advance to the next story step, you have to delve through several floors of dungeons, sometimes taking hours and sometimes taking multiple attempts if random chance did not favor you.
The gameplay was necessary to show you and your partner fighting together against countless foes to drive home how much you two have been through together. But if you've seen one dungeon, you've seen them all - even the most visually appealing or intriguing dungeon designs amounted to a grid that you had to travel through to get to a set of stairs that would take you to the next level. And, while the rogue-like dungeon crawl is one of the best-designed ones of this style I've ever played, it still feels less like the core of the game and more like an obstacle to overcome so you can see the next stage of the story. Boss battles usually become a back-and-forth beat-em-up until you knock down the boss.
I'm not really sure what would make the gameplay more interesting - maybe try a different format, like a more traditional RPG dungeon crawl perhaps? There could be more meaningful puzzles put into place that you would have to solve, better incorporating the knowledge you and your partner have, as well as your physical capabilities. Maybe there are multiple paths to take, depending on type - a water-type could travel through a pipe leading to another part of the dungeon, while the fire-type would have to follow after their partner drained the water. There's plenty more that could be expanded on this general line of thinking, but I'll stop there for now, as this is more of a ramble than a really organized sort of idea.
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What I like a lot about the PMD series is the plot and characters. Also the music.
There are, in every game, a few problems. Like the plot holes in Explorers. Or how annoying it feels to level up in Super.
If I wrote a PMD story, I don't think it would be able to compete with all the other ones here on the internet.
Okay done.
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I would kinda like to write/do a comic about PMD.
Although, I'd probably make up my own pokemon world instead of using a pre-existing one- because A, the fact that some of the pokemon are only called by their pokemon names drives me crazy, and B, I may or may not be obsessed with world-building.
And while I would still give the main character amnesia and some weird mysterious past, they probably wouldn't be a human-turned-pokemon... because while the concept of human-turned-pokemon is kinda interesting, isn't it a little weird how it always has to be a human who has to save a world that doesn't even have humans? There's kinda a weird underlying message there if you think about it to much.
This is assuming I only do one PMD comic. If I actually had the determination and plot-creating ability, I would most likely end up doing several PMD comics. And some other non-PMD comics.
But that's all I have to say for now... I've never actually played a PMD game, so there's really not anything else for me to add...
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I've liked mostly everything about the mystery dungeon games, the plot was good with a super huge plot twist almost every game, and the friendship cliches. But the one thing that always stumbles me in mystery dungeon games, is when the partners are all goody-two-shoes and can barely fend for themselves (and i've always hated the room attacks, but that has nothing to do with a comic) anyways. I would change the lack of cutscenes, the game has a good art style and good scenery, but the cutscenes were just normal movement and speaking while when things happen they couldn't animate, they just black out the screen. IF i had to make a comic like this, the start would be more like "o crap where am i, o no i'm a pokemon" *freakout* aaand you get the gist, i would do more like actual important plot points in place of the missions and have a lot more fight scenes and adventuring and stuff. So like instead of doing random missions on the casual mission board it would be like "Go get this item to defeat this person" and so on. The middle needs to be used to build up to the end (and i know that sounds dumb) but just sitting around and doing missions seems kinda lackluster in my opinion. I would also make a plot point where the first human meets up with all the other humans who saved the world before, and they kinda have to teach the new human to SAAAAVVEEE THEEE WOOOORRLDD! That"s just my opinions, and i would love if this had helped you! Please don't give up on this like so many other people have. <3
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I loved the creativity behind the first games, but they've been slacking lately, like with the main games. I'd basically write a simple story where the characters are Pokemon, since they don't need to be insomniac humans for the games to work - don't get me wrong, it was heckin amazing the first time around, it's just starting to lose it's edge. I'd focus on character interaction and development, again like the first ones, where even though there was an ultimate goal, the story changed frequently as things between characters changed. I thought it was pretty cool to be an outcast and have to go on the run, and to have the bad guys rile the people against us. I would definitely try something like that.
In terms of game-play, it's pretty cool and there's nothing wrong with, but I have been thinking lately about the same style of game but there's no grid-lock system and it's a real-time combat. That could really be something, since almost no Pokemon game ever does that. Not real-time like Rumble, but an actual real-time RPG a la Kingdom Hearts and/or Xenoblade.
Also, thinking back, I was really upset to find out that my partner, whom I had just experienced this huge, magnificent journey and heart-wrenching farewell, had just become a pointless nobody that talks like every other Pikachu after the main game. And then he had the audacity to tell me that I should stop hogging the spotlight and let others be the leader. Gave me trust issues.
As for an actual fan-made plot, I'm working on a story where some Pokemon team up to find a mafia boss on the run. Still pretty raw rn but it's getting there.
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Vicitni is my favorite legendary Pokemon.
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I've never played any of the pmd games :'D
i really want to though, do you have a favorite i should start with or are they in order or anything??
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i've only personally played the first two games (and watched let's plays of the 3DS ones), so my knowledge is limited, but yeah. the stories. they've captivated me since i first got blue rescue team in 2005, and i honestly might like the pmd series more than the main games.
if there's one thing i would say i dislike it would be how expressionless the hero in pmd 2 is. like, you have all these vibrant, complex and charming characters, the partner is awesome, the villains are awesome, but the hero? a literal blank slate. i know it's because "players are supposed to project their own personnalities onto them", but spmd had a nice balance between keeping the hero blank while still giving them believable reactions towards the in-game events. that kinda got me out of the story in pmd 2 at times, but that's honestly all i can think of. that, and the fact that you can only have one save file at a time, but that's a problem in the main series games as well.
i f*ckin love pmd man
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Well I don't care for the gameplay. I mean it was fine for the first game, but after that it got a little repetitive. I mainly play them for the story. So if I could change anything about them it would be the gameplay side.
If I wrote a professional PMD story, I would have the human who becomes Pokemon character go through things the game haven't done. Like fight his mind controlled friends or partner, to create some interesting conflicts and dialogue as they would be speaking their negative thoughts as they fight the protagonist, about how some of them might be jealous of him for having so many friends or being stronger than them, etc. or even having an important character die, which the games to my memory, never do.
I always had the idea of having two human characters as protagonists. The human characters wouldn't know each other, but since they're both humans they have something that is keeping them together. You could do a plot twist that the other human character isn't really human, just someone who wanted to distract the main protagonist while the real villain does this big plan or something.
I also had an idea of the human and PMD worlds coming too close to one another and crashing into each other if no one does anything. The Pokemon plan on destroying the human world before it gets too close, they're unable to figure out a way to move it or their world out the way, so they decide to destroy it instead. This one has issues though and it's hard to work around.
That's the ideas of the top of my head at the moment.
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I remember this "Two worlds colliding" idea of yours bro. That was ages ago.
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I like how deep the PMD games are. Definitely a nice twist from the generic "Obtain badges and stuff while saving the world so you can pwn someone at the top of a hill or something like it" thingy of the main games. More personal and the characters are just as loveable.
The plots of the DS games were amazing but the 3DS ones...Gates was a bit meh, didn't really like the whole plot of that one really (or the fact you CANNOT pick a gender for your character and are always referred to as he -_-) SMD though had the same feel as the DS games but the secondary characters in it are just...there. Sure they play important roles...but yet aren't seen very much until near-end of the main story. In T/D/S the Guild was always present and interactive in the plot even in post game.
As for dislike, my main issues are primarily focused towards the 3DS games.
First off, while a nice change, the big bosses of them were not Pokemon but sentient entities; sadly these entities were very lackluster and predictable, holding the whole cliche "Take control of everything" mentality. In GTA you fight some giant ice cube thing that makes Pokemon more mean and agressive. In SMD you fight against a giant entity that is created from negative emotions (which is actually kinda cool since it is highly emphasized in all Pokemon games and even in the anime that Pokemon are very emotion-based creatures.)
I also didn't like the fact that there wasn't much post-game plot in the 3DS games (unless it took 10 game days as a single character to get there).
In Red/Blue Rescue the post game is all about the eminent total extinction of the world via meteor caused by events in the main game. In T/D/S you meet the one who was the catalyst behind the Planets Paralysis in the first place
If I could add anything to the PMD games it'd be multiple play files so you don't have to delete your old progress. :3
Most of the things in my PMD plots tend to get a bit dark since I like to delve deep into concepts and character history but if I were to think of a plot for an actual game and the child audience its focused towards...perhaps the hero unknowingly is main catalyst needed for an event to occur (I'm not talking about memory loss making them forget, I'm talking that they seriously have no idea.) Perhaps they were even brought to the world of PMD by the villain? The post story is about trying to stop the triggered event and then taking down the one behind everything. Idk it just sounds cool.
Other things that would be cool would be that your partner was the insomniac human instead of you, or the main and post stories had multiple endings based off your decisions in game (which I don't think has ever actually been done in a Pokemon game before.) Perhaps choosing not to go somewhere leads to tragedy of a character, maybe agreeing with an antagonist leads to their victory against you at a certain part in the game. Now obviously the ending would be you as the victor because PMD is a kid's game but who or what did you effect in the process?
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Like: even if the early part of the story has nothing to do with the main plot, it's still good(mostly)
Dislike: Team Red/Blue are the only one with something like an "personalized" Team. The others are like"hey, important quest, you don't have time to recruit other pokemon or to put already recruited one in your team"
I am writhing a script for a pmd-comic I want to draw someday and since I working on it, I'm always a bit scared someone already used something like that. Not sure if I wanna tell you(not because you could steal it, cause maybe you would like to read it someday and it would be some sort of spoiler)
And I hope my english is understandable^^
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The thing I've always loved about PMD games was how much effort they put into telling a good story. Most of the main characters are lovable and have actual personalities, and even secondary ones can get some sort of development (this is especially true in EoS, with Team Tasty). Then there's the mystery and all the obstacles that the protagonists have to overcome to earn their happy ending. And finally, the bond Hero and Partner share. All of this makes me actually care about them and about what's going to happen.
There's only a few things I disliked about these games. For example, Super had some pacing issues, and it spent the first half of the story introducing the Serene Village kids, only to make them irrelevant for the rest of the game (except for Espurr). In Rescue Team, even after all you go through together, in the post game the Partner becomes as soulless as the most generic NPC. And I felt like Hero and Partner's friendship developed a little too fast in the Explorers games, with not much, or any build up. //I've never played Gates, but if its infamy is of any indication, it probs has a lot of problems.//
I wouldn't change anything about them, though. Despite their flaws, they're still amazing.
I've actually been writing a PMD story since 2015, but to this day I've never finished it bc I procrastinate too much. =v=
It's about Erin, a young human girl who was turned into a fennekin with the mission of preventing a war from happening. She wakes up in the depths of a lake and almost drowns, but is saved by Tabor, a malicious treecko that only cares about himself. He sees Erin as an easy way to avoid having to bother with battling in mystery dungeons, and suggests her to join him. Amnesiac and with nowhere to go, she accepts. They form Team Unravel, working to be the richest, most famous Rogue team in the world, all while an ancient enemy silently raises their army.
The main story point is redemption, something I've always loved to see in PMD and I wish the games would go more in-depth with. Wigglytuff once said that truly bad pokemon don't exist anywhere, but is that really true? Is goodness inherent to everyone? Is it possible to soften the hardest hearts with kindness alone, or do some people never change?
Wish I had the motivation to finish it, tho ;v;
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I had another interesting subject that came up when in an argument. It came up when he asked if we wanted to explore the pokemon lives or exploring the world itself that they lived it.
I enjoy thinking about how pokemon can live in this world and how they handle problems that they can't handle. AKA, how pokemon would live altogether generally. Probably why every once in a while I still watch the anime.
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I guess I like how deep the PMD franchise is. Plus, the series isn't entirely kid friendly which is what I also like about PMD. Plus, it's fun actually being a Pokemon instead of training a Pokemon. And the games have a lot of emotional moments and characters we can relate to, as well as having a lot of inspirational quotes such as Wigglytuff in PMD2 saying that everyone is wanted in this world and that everyone will be sad if they see one of those people gone.
I guess what I want for the games is to not be really kid friendly. Like PSMD for example. While it did have dark moments, its flaws imo were how you and your partner were kids and that in the previous games, your ages were ambiguous at best. Plus, PSMD had a bad recruiting system and was difficult throughout, and the leveling rate was slow.
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I really love the pmd games, but just... give us an actual post game instead of completionist stuff.
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I liked how PSMD switched up the ending, but not how they handled the post-game, leveling, and pacing.
If I were to write a PMD story, it would take place in the Future and the struggles of living there. Not a pivotal part to play, (that's already been canonically handled) but a hero-type nonetheless.
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I wrote a prologue to a really weird PMD story. Basically, these two kids had grown up in some desert slums when one slipped out into the night having learned something about his amulet. He went into the far away dunes, and returned several weeks later with what others thought was amnesia or insanity. What actually happened was that the poor guy had died just as he found what he was looking for, a temple, and the spirit that had been locked up in the temple entered the dead body. Interestingly, this spirit feels guilt for having taken the kid's life (and previous lives), so it feels that it must do whatever in its power to help the world, including the other boy in the slums. Then they do the random hero stuff that is necessary of all bad plots, with the antagonist joining them along their adventure and all that, before they reach the palace where the desert tyrant resides. Naturally, as opposed to just murdering the two partners trying to be heroes, the tyrant "betrays" them before revealing his actual identity. Then he tries to kill the boy who still has his soul, and the spirit attempts to sacrifice itself to save its friend, only it absorbs the shot and is rendered immobile. It can still speak though, and it tells the boy what really happened in the desert and how it had been possessing the dead boy's body. The other boy takes it in, having already suspected something of his partner, and promptly defeats the tyrant in a really overused, "invincible protagonist" fashion. The prologue would probably have the spirit, with its broken body, relinquishing its grip on the world, entering an eternal state of slumber and the surviving boy founding a desert guild.
Yeah, it's really rough and cheesy. Eh. Just thought I'd vent a little.
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Is there something in particular you disliked about the PMD games?
I dont like the guild members of Explorers of Time, also fuck whoever tought the monster houses were a good idea.
In PSMD, I dont like how long the plot takes to get going, this is a problem in all PMD games but SPMD is the worst offender in my opinion.
And finally, on the games I've played the "postgame" content has always been very lackluster.
About changing things, I would not change much, just add a little bit more of post game content, and make the plot move a bit faster.
Also, give more impact to the fact that your character is supposed to be a human, like the only game that gives any kind of real imporance to the fact that the player used to be human is the first one.
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I love how it's kind of... maybe fluid is the word?
Like, the color series, it's ALWAYS got to contain the evil team and the Pokemon league. But PMD doesn't restrict itself like that! So for that reason I think it's a lot more free with interesting plot~
I'd love so see a more dystopian world in the beginning. Maybe the hero and partner have to create a team against their will for whatever reason, but I see why it won't do that in the canon games. I'd also like to see a villain who's doing something far more morally grey-- not like destroying the world. They honestly, genuinely, 100% think that this will make EVERYONE happy. They don't know why people struggle and don't want to kill their enemies. So their goal may be less than desirable for everyone, but their means for accomplishing it are actually 100% legit, because they don't cheat in fights and willingly leave you alive instead of it saying you ran away.
And maybe at some point in the game the antagonist asks you why you're still fighting them. They've treated you with nothing but respect, and have fought with more honor than some of your allies. So why?
...Maybe that's a bit too hard to pull off though.
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Only thing I didn’t like was the endings... I always cri ;-;
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I'd really like to have more focus on the main character being turned into a Pokémon and him/her having to deal with this new situation. In the games that's relevant for maybe the first few days but then it's like nothing ever happened. I really like that most of the Pokémon in the game have personality even though it's sometimes just one thing (like Swirlix only cares about food). If I made a own PMD story I'd include more open world areas outside the towns. PSMD was already a big improvement as it gave us 6 Towns/Cities to visit, but I'd like to explore this world, not just the dungeons and the towns.
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I love the story of PMD, or should I say that there is something more that , "Hi, I'm 10, I'm gonna take down organized crime in the nation because I'm better at making animals fight..." Plus there's more self-sacrifice in the story. Your character persists even though they know that this might mean the end of them regardless of the outcome. (Perhaps that it definitely means their end in EoS) It is not a self-serving quest to become the national champion...
Heh, the only nuisance I had was the hunger mechanic. Couple that with the limited supply sack, it made the deeper dungeon crawls more "interesting". The weird part of me saw the mechanic like they were inflatable, and for some strange reason they left a valve open, so they were leaking down, and if they went flat, they couldn't move...
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I'd make it possible to visit Grovyle in the future, kind of like a "side quest," maybe a little bit of extra story there. The game is fine, but having more stuff in the Future would be so cool.
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Where exactly is the Future anyway? The special episode was extremely vague about what happened beyond implying that arceus saved them and that they were not going to be erased as a side effect of changing history.
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Probably the same world, just in a separate area of the timeline or a branch off the original timeline.
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Personally, I'd love it if the partner's responses were tied to the nature they're supposed to have.
like if you needed to get the 'relaxed person' to get the pokemon in the personality quiz, then if that pokemon were your partner, they would be really chill about things whereas a hasty mon would speak with more urgency. Maybe even forgo the quiz and let the player decide what type of personality the partner should have.
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Let's see...
Maybe the idea of the protag being not a human? I mean, sure, it makaes a lot of sense choosing a human to be "The Hero that saves everyone", but maybe for once make the protag just a 'mon living in the world beforehand?
Also, maybe a personality test for the partner. So that we could choose what 'mon the partner would be and what personality the partner would be like.
And maybe the last one, just visual customization for the protag and the partner. I just want them to wears proper coloured scarves lol
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yeah aND we can have a shiny riolu wearing a blue tie and headband and also with mind reader and circle throw or something I forgot lol and also force palm because like you have to throw out your hand with fORc e and also pinpoint hearing and really good aura skills which can sense emotions and yE s
am i being a good friend
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(perspective from a player who only played Explorers of Darkness/Time/Sky)
What if the Pokemon that gets sent to the past wasn't a human but rather just a normal Pokemon whose main quest is to go back to their original timeline?
What if the Pokemon wasn't sent back in time but instead sent into a different dimension?
What if there are five Pokemon in a party instead of four?
What if there are Pokemon job classes that represents for Fighting / Exploring the Area / Strategist / etc?
What if there are other characters in the story that are from a Different Guild and from a Different Town?
What if the characters' clothing style change in time as a sign they got stronger or something that each character likes; change in appearance per chapter or so?
I hope everything I mentioned sounds interesting
(edit)
Lastly, what if there are 18 different main characters that represent an Element and the story heats up to all of them fighting together and each other. There will be "good guys", "the bad guys that want to rule the world", "mischievous characters", "blood related feud", and "that one character that betrays the BAD GUYS so that they could be the MAIN bad guy"
xD
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I actually wrote a story going off the idea of the second one lol.
Dude those ideas are all so goooooood.
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Hmm.
Gates to Infinity is my favorite, primarily because I play the PMD games for stories and characters more than gameplay. I liked that Gates!Partner had other relationships and aspirations outside of just getting stronger and hanging onto your coattails, and all the side-characters had such great chemistry with each other.
If you're reeaalllyyy interested I... actually wrote an essay on the subject of what I want from the PMD games, but in short my least favorite thing is the lack of setting depth. There's a lot of potential to tap into the various ways that Pokemon society could form into something interesting and have a part in the story.
I mean, I'm not going to ask for something so overly complex as deep webs of political intrigue brought about by such a society based entirely around creatures of different species or the like. That would be completely absurd to ask from a kids' game like this.
What I would want though is for something like, a town that formed around a Mystery Dungeon so as to reap the benefits of the explorer traffic, or to harvest some special resource that only grows in that dungeon. Or maybe have some "dungeons" that aren't really dungeons, and are just regular places where some others need help? More overworld stuff. And you know what, let's have some better visual representations of the dungeons as well rather than just boxes with hazards in them.
On that note, dungeons in my opinion are a bit of a blight on the series, writing-wise, as they tend to be more of an excuse for gameplay rather than a reason. Like, usually what is important to the story is at the end of the dungeon or after it. Why not have something important happen during the run more often?
...I'll stop myself there before I go too far off the handle again :T
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I disagree with you on two points. The dungeons seem to be there to provide an element of danger into the world, a reminder that the dungeon world is not a peaceful. There are dangerous things happening, people can get lost in the dungeons, criminals flee there to avoid the law and ultimately in every PMD game, there is some something that would change/end life as they know it is going to happen. I find they are a great way to highlight that whatever calamity you are going to face is bad enough to upset the balance of the world(I seem to recall the partner character saying something to the effect of the mystery dungeons increasing in number for an unknown reason and xatu saying they are happening because the world's balance is upset).
In addition, short of Red and Blue's partner, all other partners have had their own goals. You usually end up helping them accomplish their dreams (becoming an explorer for PMD2 and mapping the entire world for Super). In fact, the partners are usually consistent and react in a very excited manner when chasing their dreams. Those partners had other relationships and aspirations outside of just getting stronger and hanging onto your coattails (especially true in Super where you could tell your partner had a whole life of being a gigantic misfit in her town or her alarm when she realised that her pops may be in danger). (Admittedly, I never considered this until I saw a PSMD comic short here on dA in which the player tells ampharos that making the map was never his dream but was the partner's.)
Although, I must admit, it would be nice to have a such deep world building like what you're talking about. A common question I find myself asking is 'who is in charge of this place?' and 'are all these organizations (the exploration guilds, the rescue team federation etc.) under some sort of umbrella group or do they just operate within their own boundaries?
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That's a fair thing to say, I suppose, but that certainly could be portrayed better. Mystery Dungeons by in large seem to be rather detached from the rest of the world aside from the elements of danger within them. What I am meaning to say is that I want them to play a deeper role in the setting than simply that.
I'll have to stand my ground on the partners. I can't speak for the Red and Blue partners as I never played their games, however the Explorers' partner was largely on a 'get stronger' path flavored as becoming an Explorer to me. Although for that partner specifically my complaint is the opposite-- I don't think they interacted quite enough with the hero. Certainly the hero was a silent protagonist and that's understandable, but I often felt like the Partner could simply have been talking to themselves at time for the same effect. That, and to me they had much better chemistry with Grovyle once he showed up than with the Hero. It for me honestly made me feel like I was a third wheel at times, useful only for the Dimensional Scream.
The Super partner certainly said that they had the mapping the world dream, but I really didn't see very much of it. It wasn't brought up very much beyond a few mentions, as far as I remember from playing two years ago. Although of course they had family, which I appreciated, I didn't quite feel the levels of interaction with the others that the Gates partner had. Emolga, Dunsparce, the 'Vees, etc had a lot more character to me than the school children in Super, which gave their screentime with others a lot more meaning to me. Then there's the Super partner being a bit of a social outcast that kind of plays into my point, they don't really have much outside of the Hero. Which is justified in-story, granted, but still opens to the same problems I had.
Well, Gates mentioned a 'HAPPI', though we never saw them again. If I had to guess, most all of the guilds are completely independent. They don't seem to mention each other despite coexisting. But yeah, worldbuilding beyond what just the HeroxPartner can see would definitely be nice. Gates actually did have an example with that, what with Dwebble leaving and becoming Crustle when he returned, or the sub-plot with Cinccino and Rampardos. I don't remember anything like that sort of background progression happening in Super or Explorers. It's understandable why-- they're not the focus-- but having more stuff going on in the periphery of your vision can make the world feel a lot more alive, and is what I'm asking for.
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For the explorers partner, one of his goal for being an explorer (as he tells you at the start of the game) was to find a use for that rock of theirs. I suppose you could say that after the main story, when he found out what exacty the rock was supposed to do, he had already fulfilled a big part of his dream. The rest of his speech when you get dragged into his rescue team and during the story(like when he complained that their first job was just finding someone's lost object rather than exploration) spoke volumes to me about his desire to be an explorer.
As for the subplots, in explorers(sky) there was that little things happening in the background where you could
talk to some teams around the town and the beach and hear what they’ve been up to(not to mention the special episodes). While in super, there are loads of callbacks to all the previous games(I’m not sure if you can call them easter eggs but based on the connection map and their dialogue, some of the characters are stars of the previous games. emolga etc.)
As for the whole outcast bit for the super partner, I actually found it quite reasonable. As the only partner who starts out with a ‘community’, the outcast label gave a good reason for them to leave with you(thereby leaving behind what they have known for all their lives) and being more willing to accept whatever their one friend says at face value.(that part honestly irked me about the previous games. Random pokemon tells you they are actually a human and first thing partner does is go: “I believe you!”) Super’s partner did not believe you initially, rather they only accepted it after you two made up(rather ironic since Super's protagonists are the only ones specifically identified as children. What happened to 'stranger danger' PMD2 and GTI partners?)
I loved the special episodes in PMD sky because you could see the world from the perspectives of the various guildmembers. I remember being rather sad that GTI and Super did not allow us to play through the stories of the crew members.
Regarding the player/partner interaction in explorers though, I must agree with you that the player doesn't say much and in a story where the player and the partner are alone for most of the major cut-scenes, it often seems like the partner is the only one talking while the player stands there like a mute. Personally though, I found that the player's almost perpetual silence actually makes the parts where he does speak (like in the goodbye at the end) carry that much more weight. However, I must admit that I prefer Super's and GTI's more inclusive take on their crewmembers (the other pokemon are actually doing something that furthers the goal) and making them take part when planning the teams next step.
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I'm by no means saying that Explorers partner is a bad character, my main complaint about them was primarily the lack of interaction with Explorers Hero. So yeah, that progression was fine.
Were there background interactions? I don't remember seeing them, perhaps I missed them, but it was still the guild members I wanted that from primarily since they were much closer to you. The special episodes I certainly also appreciated, but I would've still liked seeing those things in-game.
There were story justifications for a few things in Super, but I still found their lesser interactions with other characters kind of unpalatable. Super Partner's character got a lot of focus, but to me the kiddish nature of their character--whatever the reasons were for it being that way-- just didn't strike me as interesting enough to get as much screentime as they got. As for being comfortable with leaving I'd chalk that up to coincidence, that was never explicitly mentioned to be a reason why they were OK with leaving as far as I remember. Explorers and Gates Partners are both older-- or at least not explicitly mentioned as children-- and had different circumstances as more of a 'Hey while you're here, could you help me with something?' kind of vibe. Which makes it understandable as to why the much younger Super partner would be more apprehensive. That I never had a problem with.
I'm glad we do agree on those last parts. This one would be, I suspect, a much easier fix. All you gotta do is give a few more dialogue "options" with variations on saying the same thing. "Fallout 4"-ize the dialogue maybe, have a lot of fake branching paths that lead to the same place (with a few actual paths in there). Poor practice for railroading a more open game like Fallout, but for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon it would actually open it up some more, I think.
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The more diverse dialogue options sounds really nice. Since a PMD game relies so heavily on story telling, it would be vastly improved if they improve their dialogue paths. I would love a PMD game where your partner has a character of his own and where his lines match those.
As for background interactions in PMD2, the first one that springs to mind is dugtrio's obsession with the ocean and that one time some big name rescue team(whose name I'd ironically forgetten,Team Raiders I think) had to pull him out of the waves when he got too close(I'd always found that hilarious). Another one would be chimecho's crush on croagunk(They never explicity state it but it's quite obvious through the lines).
Also, with regard to the Super Partner's willingness to leave the village, I'd admit that the outcast bit's contribution is purely my interpretation. However, the fact remains that during the part where you decide to leave the village, he does say he is ready to go on his own to lively town but he wants you to follow him. So regardless, whether it be the strength of his desire to fulfill his dream, or my believed impact of being outcasted, he was still the one that made the decision to go. I believe that in itself shows that he is his own pokemon rather than just a sidekick that sticks with you.
P.S. I agree that the explorers partner isn't a bad character. In fact, I actually love they way the wrote him in such a way that his cowardice persist for a while after joining the guild rather than having an instant 180 change into a brave warrior. Although to be honest, PMD's writing is great like that. Gates partner changed from being a complete idealist(who never suspected scraggy's theft) to someone who, while still maintaining his dreams of paradise, is street smart enough to record his conversation with the bad guys in a frism to let the player know what's up. Super's partner changed from an annoying ball of energy constantly dragging you into trouble(I can't be the only one who was wondering what his problem was at the start of the game where he's such a troublemaker) to someone who can focus, who can overcome his fears(of ghosts for example), and apply himself to a problem.
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Honestly, nothing, I like all of the all the games, except the fact you can't have an eevee as one of your main story characters in Super Mystery Dungeon, that disapointed me a bit. Just that for me to be a 10/10.
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I loved PMD but the best ones were honestly EoS and Super
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