Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Story Discussion

[scififan21]

[spoil][]Might I say I hate the soloing I have to do in the Epilogue!? I want my partner back already. As only a level 25 Fenniken it sucks soooooo much. None of the rest of the story gave me so much trouble. Also I loved the story, and your partner's development was great. The Expedition Society all had pretty distinct characters as well.[/spoil]

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Way to spoil that episode, dude.

 

[Dragoniss]

Well I finished the main story and the epilogue, now all I have left is the connection orb an all the extra dungeons. I gotta say the ending was a surprising twist and i'm glad I wasn't spoiled to it. And after the epilogue I got really attached to my team. However, despite liking the story I will admit the pacing was really awkward. The first part of the game really took its time to let us get to know everyone, then chapter 16 rolls around and while it did really start getting good it was nothing but plotplotplotplot the rest of the way through and everything felt like it rushed by without giving us time to let it really sink in and with no real room to rest. And we don't really get much from any of the other characters the game tried to get us connected with [outside of one]. It was still good, I just wish we would have had the option to do other stuff at that point and not progress the pot, but then again what are you going to do when your character's in that kind of a situation.

Now I don't know if I want to go through the extra dungeons or if I want to replay through the story with a different team. I'm leaning towards the latter. Uhg why do pokemon games always only have one save file...

 

[Fulisha Light]

Spoiler: Ending spoilers

So maybe I missed it, but I don't understand what my partner means that as Mew, he failed in the past. If he failed, wouldn't that have meant that Dark Matter won? I think I'm reading this wrong, but I don't understand what he was talking about exactly. Someone shed me some light.

The ending was surprising, but it didn't have as much as an impact as Sky has given me probably because some people on fourchan like to not use spoiler tags and/or post in big letters a thread on the twists during the time serebii was playing it. But the story was pretty great; an improvement from GtI.

In fact, since GtI was akin to Persona 3, PSMD was basically Persona 4. Seriously. They had quite a lot alike in story and enemies/final bosses.

PSMD is pretty much the sequel to GtI; I think I would've loved it better if those two stories alone were connected due to the similarity of their themes rather than pointless cameos of the other two games not making much of an impact.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Comparing these games with Persona 3 and 4 is a huge overstatement.

 

[Fulisha Light]

Comparing these games with Persona 3 and 4 is a huge overstatement.

I meant story-wise, they're similar in a way. They kinda bring it to mind.

 

[Dragoniss]

Spoiler: Ending spoilers

So maybe I missed it, but I don't understand what my partner means that as Mew, he failed in the past. If he failed, wouldn't that have meant that Dark Matter won? I think I'm reading this wrong, but I don't understand what he was talking about exactly. Someone shed me some light.

The ending was surprising, but it didn't have as much as an impact as Sky has given me probably because some people on fourchan like to not use spoiler tags and/or post in big letters a thread on the twists during the time serebii was playing it. But the story was pretty great; an improvement from GtI.

In fact, since GtI was akin to Persona 3, PSMD was basically Persona 4. Seriously. They had quite a lot alike in story and enemies/final bosses.

PSMD is pretty much the sequel to GtI; I think I would've loved it better if those two stories alone were connected due to the similarity of their themes rather than pointless cameos of the other two games not making much of an impact.

Spoiler: more endgame spoilers

From the way I read it Mew failed in the beginning because they didn't accept Dark Matter. They wanted to get rid of it but failed to realize you can never get rid of or defeat negativity, it was just going to come back even stronger, and it did. So this time Mew realized that they had to accept Dark Matter as a part of them and make it feel welcome. Which is why Dark Matter said thank you when it was finally destroyed. You can't fight or get rid of negativity, you just have to accept that it's a part of who you are. That's why it worked this time

If anything it's more like Kingdom Hearts...or at least the first one before it got convoluted. Light verses dark, everyone has darkness in their hearts and darkness will never go away yada yada yada.

 

[Rakurai]

I think I honestly would've preferred that SPMD take place in its own universe as opposed to them loosely connecting all four games by placing them in the same world.

Mostly because raises all sorts of questions like where the heck the humans from the previous games went, and why Pokemon like Hydreigon and Grovyle who were actively involved in the resolutions of past crisis aren't doing anything this time.

 

[Aura24]

To be honest...

Spoiler: Spoiler

I was really surprised that your partner was Mew, and that they were the one who had to leave the Pokemon World, breaking the usual PMD ending with the player always being the one to return back to the human world then coming back.

 

[jireh the provider]

To be honest...

Spoiler: Spoiler

I was really surprised that your partner was Mew, and that they were the one who had to leave the Pokemon World, breaking the usual PMD ending with the player always being the one to return back to the human world then coming back.

Long story short...

Spoiler: An opinion

This game really holds a strong Happily Adopted Trope where you, the player, embraces your new pokemon life and throw away your once ordinary and lonely human life. I had dreams of these stories when I was a kid. If you dislike humanity, just turn to a pokemon. Its that kind of debate if one enjoys being a pokemon or being a human trainer again asked within the pokemon community

 

[Creyk]

I think I honestly would've preferred that SPMD take place in its own universe as opposed to them loosely connecting all four games by placing them in the same world.

Mostly because raises all sorts of questions like where the heck the humans from the previous games went, and why Pokemon like Hydreigon and Grovyle who were actively involved in the resolutions of past crisis aren't doing anything this time.

The game clearly shows that they are just calmly sitting around in the village, relaxing and that's all they are interested in doing.

 

[Erron Black]

Not sure if anyone else noticed, but on Sawsbuck's connection orb mission you're supposed to rescue Amaura, and they misspelled it horribly and it says "Oh, poor Aramau! Please come with me for a rescue!"

Kinda funny.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Not sure if anyone else noticed, but on Sawsbuck's connection orb mission you're supposed to rescue Amaura, and they misspelled it horribly and it says "Oh, poor Aramau! Please come with me for a rescue!"

Kinda funny.

That's actually intentional once you do rescue Amaura.

 

[Erron Black]

That's actually intentional once you do rescue Amaura.

Ooh, is Aramau like a nickname or something?

Either way when you first glance at it, makes you think they screwed up on spelling.

So what are your opinions on how megas work?
I hate it. It would've been much simpler to introduce a different kind of item similar to a mega stone that you can have a pokemon hold. Having it as an RNG based emera thing is awful IMO.

Also the story was well developed IMO. Kind of reminded me of GTI in the way they used a certain plot twist. However, It seemed to go very slow then rush into a conclusion.

[spoil]
Also the Jirachi fight totally shouldn't count as a boss fight. You can get one hit by him and it'll end the fight as if you won it. Kinda dumb. They could've done a Nuzleaf + the 3 Beheeyem as a boss fight instead then had Yveltal as a boss by himself.
[/spoil]

 

[scififan21]

Sorry about the spoiler thing in last post, I forgot to do spoiler tag. Thanks to who edited it for me. Also debating weather I want to do the story again, or do all the connection orb stuff first. It was super fun.

 

[jireh the provider]

This time, I want an answer for those that finished the game. How fast and slow would be the pace of Super Mystery Dungeon? Do you prefer a slow pace plot, a fast pace plot, or somewhere in between? Of the 4 PMD Sagas, which speed tempo fits each of the Game's plot? While I really love the various paces of the PMD series, here are the paces from what I can understand:

Spoiler: My thoughts

Rescue Saga: Mostly Slow paced, then goes straight to the climax of Grand Canyon's Revelation up 'til the end.
Explorers Saga: Slow during the early guild chapters, speeds upon the exploration of Foggy Forest and Steam Cave, Slows down a bit during Dusknoir's arrival, and speeds up upon Grovyle Stealing the time gears until the end of the story. A long break in the form of the "Manaphy Arc", and speeds up until Darkrai's grand revelation.
Gates to Infinity: Slow's down in the beginning, a bit of speed up during the meeting with the eeveelution sibling romance Espeon and Umbreon, speeds own for a few days, the speed rush continues upon the discover of Glacier romance, then a small break, then a straight continuation of speed up plot drives from the start of discovering the hero/ine's origins up until the battle wit the true non-pokemon boss of Gates.

Since I have no 3DS yet or 2DS to play this game, and college schedules in the way, I had no time to play this. I'm just watching Devin's (Marriland's) playthrough of the game. So far, my impression that the pace PSMD has is bordering between the pace of the Rescue Saga and the grand fast storytelling of Gates of Infinity. It feels really nice in terms of story.

 

[Rakurai]

This game's plot pacing is really weird.

The start is the slowest out of any game in the series (Due to almost half of the game taking place in Serene Village and being almost completely unrelated to the main events), but once it reaches the climax, things fly by even faster then in Gates. I didn't feel like I even had enough time to let each development really settle in before they threw another plot twist at me, and they keep doing it all the way up until the ending. I honestly feel like it kind of hurt my enjoyment of the story in the long run.

Overall, I liked the stories of Gates and Explorers better then SPMD for varying reasons.

The former has a smaller, but more focused cast of characters you grow to appreciate over the course of the entire story, and most of them get multiple moments to shine, whereas there's so many characters in SPMD that few of them undergo much development or get much time in the spotlight. The pacing was also better, though the decision to split the latter half of the game into three lengthy expeditions instead of multiple small adventures ended up cutting down on the amount of plot they were able to provide, and made for a shorter story overall (In terms of actual dungeon count, SPMD is only three dungeons longer then Gates, but the story itself is noticeably longer due to how much happens between each).

The latter I liked mostly because it hit a real sweetspot as far as length and pacing went.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

PSMD had a really weirdly-paced story. Very slow first half, and then very fast second half.

 

[Erron Black]

The former has a smaller, but more focused cast of characters you grow to appreciate over the course of the entire story, and most of them get multiple moments to shine, whereas there's so many characters in SPMD that few of them undergo much development or get much time in the spotlight. The pacing was also better, though the decision to split the latter half of the game into three lengthy expeditions instead of multiple small adventures ended up cutting down on the amount of plot they were able to provide, and made for a shorter story overall (In terms of actual dungeon count, SPMD is only three dungeons longer then Gates, but the story itself is noticeably longer due to how much happens between each).

I agree. The only Pokemon I notice that change somewhat exponentially are Espurr, Ampharos, Partner Pokemon, and Nuzleaf. Everyone else just seem like static characters. Nothing dynamic about them. Barely knew anything about Krookodile, the other Expedition society member, School friends, and other important Pokemon. The four Pokemon I listed would probably be the most memorable Pokemon due to the part they play in the story.

(Hoping this doesn't spoil anything, I mean it shouldn't, but who knows)

 

[jireh the provider]

This game's plot pacing is really weird.

The start is the slowest out of any game in the series (Due to almost half of the game taking place in Serene Village and being almost completely unrelated to the main events), but once it reaches the climax, things fly by even faster then in Gates. I didn't feel like I even had enough time to let each development really settle in before they threw another plot twist at me, and they keep doing it all the way up until the ending. I honestly feel like it kind of hurt my enjoyment of the story in the long run.

Overall, I liked the stories of Gates and Explorers better then SPMD for varying reasons.

The former has a smaller, but more focused cast of characters you grow to appreciate over the course of the entire story, and most of them get multiple moments to shine, whereas there's so many characters in SPMD that few of them undergo much development or get much time in the spotlight. The pacing was also better, though the decision to split the latter half of the game into three lengthy expeditions instead of multiple small adventures ended up cutting down on the amount of plot they were able to provide, and made for a shorter story overall (In terms of actual dungeon count, SPMD is only three dungeons longer then Gates, but the story itself is noticeably longer due to how much happens between each).

The latter I liked mostly because it hit a real sweetspot as far as length and pacing went.

Hmmm...

I can see now as to why this game is half baked and redeemed for some in terms of plot. The theme is there, but most of the characters are barely memorable. So was my description of the pacing of explorers similar to your interpretation of the sweet-spot in terms of length and pace? Perhaps this is the strongest element as to what makes Pokemon Explorers as the most memorable of the 4 Mystery Dungeon games.

Looks like Super Mystery Dungeon really shines more on the gameplay challenge instead of the plot. Quite the turnaround huh?