General Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

[K-NiGhT]

I agree that the story was fantastic. The problem I had with it was the lack of playable pokemon and the watering down of the gameplay.

[InsigTurtle]

Just something I didn't notice until now:
Sky Tower Summit and Chasm Cave have very similar dungeon generation (those lines of rooms with straight corridors and that little network of rooms)
Both have Pokémon around the same level.
Going up against Rayquaza soon, but just decided to post this because I thought it was pretty neat.

[Bespinben]

I agree that the story was fantastic. The problem I had with it was the lack of playable pokemon and the watering down of the gameplay.

Ah! Interesting. We pretty much agree about everything already then. Music and story -- supreme; gameplay -- meh (though Paradise building was pretty fun!). I guess the difference is how much value we attribute to each of these criterion. Perhaps the gameplay defects didn't bother me so much because I didn't expect them to be good in the first place. The dungeon crawling genre has never really appealed to me, PMD being the exception. I would probably never pick up Etrian Mystery Dungeon, for example.

Super Mystery Dungeon though seems to provide a vast OVERWORLD experience, something that I always felt was needed in any Mystery Dungeon genre game. That's definitely a big plus on the Gameplay ranking.

[TheDreamingHawk]

I agree that the story was fantastic. The problem I had with it was the lack of playable pokemon and the watering down of the gameplay.

 I don't think things like the removal of level 1 escorts in a huge dungeon is watering down. Does anyone even remember how awful those were in the older games? My only problems with the changes were the fact that you could only do one job at a time and how overpowered your team can be if you give them a ton of upgrades. It's your opinion, of course but the other games didn't have the best balance either... Those were insanely hard post game while GTI Is insanely easy. Hopefully PSMD will be in the middle

Speaking of the OST/Story... I've always felt that PMD GTI had an instance of a music similarity.

Spoiler

Song for when Hydreigon saves the partner. Very epic theme, but I felt that it reminded me of something.

I was listening to Fire Emblem music later on... And I found that one particular song was very similar to the theme from GTI, to the point that the first few notes are essentially the exact same.

This made me wonder if GTI did some sampling for it's OST, or if it's a really freaky coincidence. Still an interesting thought nonetheless. Wonder if there's anything like this for the other games?

[close]

[Bespinben]

Speaking of the OST/Story... I've always felt that PMD GTI had an instance of a music similarity.

Spoiler

Song for when Hydreigon saves the partner. Very epic theme, but I felt that it reminded me of something.

I was listening to Fire Emblem music later on... And I found that one particular song was very similar to the theme from GTI, to the point that the first few notes are essentially the exact same.

This made me wonder if GTI did some sampling for it's OST, or if it's a really freaky coincidence. Still an interesting thought nonetheless. Wonder if there's anything like this for the other games?

[close]

Oh that's a really good catch! The 4-measure intros of both definitely use the exact same rhythmic and melodic figure: the 3+3+3+3+2+2 syncopation pattern, along with the stepwise diatonic melodic ascension. The harmony is slightly different though: GtI's "Holehills" is based on a pedal tone with the melody chords planning upwards in parallel motion, whereas the Fire Emblem piece has a moving bass with distinct chords for each of the 4 measures.

Sure glad we all have the same odd hobby for noticing stuff like this.

[Altissimo]

sup

Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is my favorite Pokémon game and one of my favorite all-time games and I can never talk about my favorite games without stressing how much I love this series and especially its damn music. When I was in like middle/high school, before I found out that this site existed, I'd create my own "arrangements" (really just the melody lines because I was a trumpet player and the only thing I could do were melody lines) of video game music, and it was always either Kirby or Mystery Dungeon stuff. I don't think I've ever played a game where the music fits the atmosphere as well as it does in the Mystery Dungeon games. (For contrast, I consider the music of my favorite video game of all time, Super Mario 64, really unremarkable except for the credits theme.)

Still haven't played Gates to Infinity though.

[SlowPokemon]

Whoa now you're gonna have to explain why the Super Mario 64 music is unmemorable. I think that game's got incredible atmosphere-setting scores throughout.

[Altissimo]

I think it's the fact that they're reused, more than anything else. Like, yeah, the slide/Tick-Tock Clock/Rainbow Ride theme is a lot of fun but it just doesn't seem right to have it reused for every one of those courses. (Especially Rainbow Ride, which I picture as having something a bit softer in character.) I guess songs just don't catch my ear as much when they're used multiple times? Or maybe Mystery Dungeon and its every-dungeon-has-a-different-track music just spoiled me, heh.

[SlowPokemon]

That's fair, and there are definitely more interesting compositions in the latter. Super Mario 64 's soundtrack is by no means bad or even anything less than good though.

[Latios212]

I can't understand a single word... why am I getting 5+ notifications of Pokemon uploading 5 PMD videos???

[InsigTurtle]

Oh, they just re-released the PMD anime specials on the Japanese Youtube channel and two commercials. That makes sense, I guess, adding to the hype.

About one of the commercials - that one with the guys in the costumes actually slightly freaks me out. It... doesn't look right.
Also, I really like the orchestral remix of that motif in A Wish for Peace and Through the Sea of Time at the end of the video you linked.

Which makes me wonder. Seeing as the old continents are supposed to be in the new game, will the music there be the original, or remixes? Which one would you prefer?

[Latios212]

The costumes... LOL

[TheDreamingHawk]

We meet again. The reunion has come early. This special was the first step in what would introduce me to a game that would change my life. It was horribly cheesy, yes. It had awful music, yes. (Though it seems in this version it has beautiful rearrangements of RRT/BRT's OST!),  but when I saw it on September 9th I just could tell it would be exciting. I was about to go to bed at the age of eight, at around 8 PM or so when I noticed the rerun of this special was on. I quickly shoved a VCR into the TV and recorded it, along with everything else that night up until 11 PM. I still have the tape to this day.

On September 20th, 2006 I bought RRT at my Gamestop. The rest was history!

(Am I the only one that noticed the strange logo on the bottom right? I can't read it, it's not in Hiragana but I wonder what it is.)

[InsigTurtle]

Do you mean the annotation that links to the Youtube channel or the one on the video itself?

[Bespinben]

My long and arduous search for the original Japanese version of the "Team Go-Getters" anime special has now finally received closure... man was this great! I could actually take the proceedings seriously, unlike the horribly cheesy English dub. Charmander doesn't sound like a derp, and the whole scene with Team Meanies trapping Pichu inside the dungeon was pretty dark (no wonder they cut it out of the English!).

And of course, I'm just glad the BGM is actually audible. I really don't know why they turn the volume so low on the beautiful orchestrations in the Pokemon English dubs in general.

This isn't weaboo talk by any means. I just know good production quality when I see it. There's a difference between being a character and being in character, and the original satisfies the latter thankfully.