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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity (March 24th 2013)

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The only real issue is that there's not as much to do as in Sky once you beat the game. Though in my case, what there is to do has held my interest far longer.

The gameplay in Gates is more polished then in Explorers, which might make the latter a little annoying to play if you choose to play the former first. The things I like most about Gates in that regard are having access to shortcuts for all four of your moves (You only have one in Explorers, meaning you need to open the menu whenever you want to use a move that isn't set to a shortcut), and your walking speed in dungeons is much faster then in Explorers, where it felt needlessly slow to me.
 
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Dragon Trainer X

良い感じ!
It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The only real issue is that there's not as much to do as in Sky once you beat the game. Though in my case, what there is to do has held my interest far longer.

The gameplay in Gates is more polished then in Explorers, which might make the latter a little annoying to play if you choose to play the former first. The things I like most about Gates in that regard are having access to shortcuts for all four of your moves (You only have one in Explorers, meaning you need to open the menu whenever you want to use a move that isn't set to a shortcut), and your walking speed in dungeons is much faster then in Explorers, where it felt needlessly slow to me.

Then, of course, the jumpover from 8-bit design to three dimensional came as a success, proving to be a quite charming set of graphics wherever you went. The cut-scenes, improved, the gameplay became more user-friendly to an extent (as you said), and, other than the lack of new stuff, was a well-deserved sequel to the past games. Sad that it got a 6 out of 10 by Game Informer, but I still enjoyed it to as far as I got.
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
Pretty much none of the "professional" reviewers give games in the PMD series good scores, which is unfortunate, since far too many people trust them. At least they've got the demo so people can judge it for themselves, though it would've been better if the demo had covered the first chapter entirely, since the plot starts to get interesting right after where the demo ends.

In any case, the quality of the graphics and soundtrack is another reason why I enjoyed the game much more the previous entries.
 

Lord Gamma

Dusty Old Trainer
@> Rakurai

I happen to be attracted to the move to 3D from 32-bit. It reminds me of how excited I was to play Pokemon Stadium and see all of my favorite pokemon in 3D. I'm still annoyed that it took this long to make the same transition in the main line of games.

At any rate, I will continue to play the 3DS MD and if I find that I really liked it, I'll move onto Sky. Thanks Rakurai.
 

~Silver Aura~

Back...ish
You won't be disappointed trust me!

I just beat the game yesterday I was Snivy (Jade) and my partner was Oshawott. (Ludwig) My thoughts? Excellent!!!

Wow! When I found out that Munna was actually the villain I was like: "Did I just get Dusknoir'd?"

A little disappointed about the lack of genders, but at least I had an excuse to make a team with a brotherly relationship. :)
 

Regality

Digital King
I have not, and am most likely not going to, buy Gates to Infinity because I feel they have been quite lazy with it.. I mean, yes, it is a total rehash with new 3D graphics but I mean come on..

Gates to Infinity starters - 5
Explorer of sky starters - 19

Not to mention those 5 are all from Unova, which I have just played through twice with Black and Black 2.
From what I read as well, there is not as many pokemon in the dungeons either.

But I must ask, is the storyline as brilliant and deep as the other games?

The sadness of saying goodbye to your partner at the end of the game was just amazing, I rate the mystery dungeon games so highly because of how deep and thoughtful the storylines are, not to mention solid gameplay that I find no faults with.
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
Playing Gates To Infinity made me realize how little the number of Pokemon in the previous games actually mattered to me.

In any case, if you're looking for an interesting story, it still delivers in that regard. Some people would say Explorers was better, but I liked it the most out of all the games, especially since they decided to break out of some of the trends that were present in the plots of the previous games. Plus the ending is the best out of any of the games in the series IMO.
 
As for my general thoughts on Gates, I thought it was a large improvement over Explorers. Bear in mind, I thought Explorers wasn't that good and Rescue Team was just poor in quality. A lot of people rave on about the story in Explorers but I really found it hard to get into. The biggest flaw was this (storywise): putting so much focus on the partner, who is quite frankly a dull and uninteresting character, with no other characters who consistently do anything with you. The partner simply cannot carry a good story, and if I don't care about the characters, I won't care much for the story.

Other major flaws was the first third being almost entirely filler, and 'me' not really having anything to do with it - I was really just being pulled around by the boring partner going through a series of isolated events, very few moments having any relevance to what happens later on. In addition, the game gave me and by proxy me in the game no reason to be interested in his exploration goals, and given that it's a game about adventuring, wanting to be an adventurer is kind of a given. Even fan favorites, Grovyle and Dusknoir, didn't do that much for me.

I was left really saying 'if Explorers done this, this and that' with the story I'd have probably loved it, and Gates to Infinity gave me many of those points: A robust set of characters who get involved with what you're doing with their own hopes and fears, a vastly better written partner who isn't using me as a crutch for his ambitions (or at least giving me a reason to be interested in his paradise dreams given the current state of the pokemon world, and it did seem for more give and take from him rather than just take), less obvious villains, more moral grey points, the first few hours actually being interesting and setting the fictional world effectively, and making the ending have far more sticking power by

having you not come back immediately after the credits finish - really allowed to set in what happened to you instead of doublebacking too quickly

I can see why Explorer's plot was loved at the time being the only decent story pokemon has ever made at the time, but one of the best game stories ever made? Seriously? And with Gates being out for about 2 months now, I'm actually really surprised the story of Explorers aged that well with people on the whole regardless whether people have played Gates or not.

Ok, I'm prattling on about the story too much, but in the end, within the pokemon franchise, it's the biggest unique selling point, and for me, by far the most interesting to discuss.
 

Blazios

Well-Known Member
You know what I miss when I'm playing this? Efficiency Expert.

I've lost count of the amount of times a Pokémon spam a single attack on a Pokémon that 4x resists it when the Pokémon knows a super effective attack, or the amount of times I've had one of them attack a frozen Pokémon (which now take no damage for some reason). Seriously, Blizzard is useless on AI partners, because it'll freeze something once, then waste half its HP attacking the Pokémon that's now immune to damage from halfway across the room.

Also, I hope the next game zooms out the camera a bit. It took me hours to get remotely used to only being able to see 3 squares away.
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
I don't really understand why they didn't have that skill when they built the other "common sense" IQ skills like Trap Avoider into the AI

Hopefully it was just an oversight.
 

hawkmbl

Curious
I have not, and am most likely not going to, buy Gates to Infinity because I feel they have been quite lazy with it.. I mean, yes, it is a total rehash with new 3D graphics but I mean come on..

Gates to Infinity starters - 5
Explorer of sky starters - 19

Not to mention those 5 are all from Unova, which I have just played through twice with Black and Black 2.
From what I read as well, there is not as many pokemon in the dungeons either.

But I must ask, is the storyline as brilliant and deep as the other games?

The sadness of saying goodbye to your partner at the end of the game was just amazing, I rate the mystery dungeon games so highly because of how deep and thoughtful the storylines are, not to mention solid gameplay that I find no faults with.

The story is far better and the lack of pokemon actually makes it better, as it puts more emphasis on each individual pokemon, rather than a ton of random ones.
 

Ze DreamGirl

Future Vaporeon
I am trying to fill the "pokédex" and I wonder how to evolve pokemon who evolve through happiness...I have one and I don't know how to make it evolve...
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
Just bring them to dungeons until their status page says they can evolve.
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
I'd have to agree that this game's story really drew me into it in a way that the previous games didn't. I also think it's the multitude of new features that have managed to keep my interest in the game far longer then the previous titles.

Can't say I really agree with their thoughts about simplifying the rescue process, though.

On an unrelated note, it only recently occurred to me that you can force enemy Pokemon to evolve by throwing Joy Seeds at them. You can turn those level 20ish Deino that show up around mid-game into level 64 Hydreigon by chucking two Joy Seeds at them, for instance, which can be useful for recruitment purposes.
 

hawkmbl

Curious
The iwata asks described all the reasons I liked this PMD more than any VIDEO GAME i've played... I'm even planning to send spike chunsoft a letter to thank them on the game.

One of the most irritating reviews I've spotted for this game just came up, though... From vooks (An australian review site), they said THIS about the soundtrack that irritated me so much.

" The soundtrack does its job but is on the whole quite uninteresting."

...I can't describe how I feel about that statement
 

~Silver Aura~

Back...ish
The iwata asks described all the reasons I liked this PMD more than any VIDEO GAME i've played... I'm even planning to send spike chunsoft a letter to thank them on the game.

One of the most irritating reviews I've spotted for this game just came up, though... From vooks (An australian review site), they said THIS about the soundtrack that irritated me so much.

" The soundtrack does its job but is on the whole quite uninteresting."

...I can't describe how I feel about that statement


Seriously?! Oh man they need to get their heads on straight! I still get goosebumps when Theme of Hope plays.
 

too-weak

Member
Goosebumps at Theme of Hope? Sometimes.
But I always get goosebumps at the part of [spoil] the final boss [/spoil] where Theme of Hope kicks in.
The latter even happens if I am just thinking of the song while at work even!
 

Chakra1412

Active Member
In my opinion I don't see how anyone could not like the music in this game...or any PMD game, but the latest one in particular....but then again everyone has their own preference in music genres I guess....they just got the wrong person to review it.

I remember hearing the previewed music for this game when they revealed 4 tracks on the main Japan site and the animated trailer special. Seeing the animated special first and hearing the "theme of hope" song I was just amazed by it even then just thinking that I couldn't wait to see where in game this plays and how it plays in its role. When I started listening to the previews on the main site, not knowing the "Theme of Hope" song was the one I heard from that trailer I thought it was amazing, but when the key part of the song played....best main melody to the series ever (so far). The goosebumps hit so hard it was kinda hard to stop shaking for awhile. Instantly got the theme on iTunes and it was set to loop for the next few hours haha.

It's one reason I really pay attention to every song in the game. In most songs in the game that play to the main story it has a piece of Theme of Hope in it and I love it for those reasons. The songs themselves are amazing, but to make them even better by adding parts of the Hope theme to theme make them even more enjoyable. To make a happy feeling song so dramatic or intense is truly a work of art from a genius and I hope they continue to do this over the years.
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
This game's soundtrack as a whole had a certain feel of grandeur to it that the previous games lacked, and is easily among my favorite video game soundtracks overall.

But yeah. Every song that the Theme of Hope is present in is particularly awesome, such as the ending themes, the second final boss theme, and the final dungeon theme. The last of the three is especially noteworthy to me because of how they also incorporated the Despair theme into it, which is symbolic of how those two elements are frequently clashing with one another throughout the story.
 
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