#game-review # Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team  [Console:: Gameboy Advance] [Status:: Beaten] [Approximate Start Date:: 2006-12-25] [Finish Date:: 2007-04-25] [Clear Time:: ] [Total Play Time:: 75h] [nReplays:: 2] *(Previous playthroughs combined with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team)* ## [Rating:: 89] *Provide some justification for the rating if you want. (Do last)* # Playthrough Notes First game I ever owned, if you can believe it. It was the one I got with my Gameboy Advance way back in the far-off year of 2006. I almost always playthrough with a team of Pikachu + other partner, though Pikachu and Mudkip is my favorite. Recently I started a playthrough with Totodile and Cyndaquil, but didn't finish it. First ever go at this was Pikachu + Treecko - nominated for 2007 Children's game of the year: https://www.interactive.org/awards/award_category_details.asp?idAward=2007&idGameAwardType=10 ## Replays with Notes - [[Red Rescue Team - Summer 2024 Replay]] - Started a playthrough on 2024-08-09 on NSO got Mudkip! Chose Torchic as the partner. Team No Armz. # My Thoughts - [[Friend Areas Have High Hangout-itude]] ## General Thoughts - the opening just all moves so quickly for the sake of moving us right along and I APPRECIATE IT. - the way they teach you how to save the game feels really repetitive and funny to me. I wake up, walk off my bed, walk back on my bed, and then fall asleep and then immediately wake up again, like. That's pretty darn complicated even if that's exactly what I did last night while having g a nightmare. - "Accept Job" and "Take Job" feel really redundant and clunky. I get that it's for when you want to go to a dungeon and not do the mission, but I can't think of a reason why you would ever not want that. Okay no, an escort mission. Fair enough. Even still, this process takes a lot of extra inputs. I'm glad they corrected it for later games. - I love friend rescues with passwords as a concept. Bring that code to school and your friend can rescue you and then give you a code. But in practice, unless I have something so critical it would be bad to lose it, I wouldn't want to wait for a friend to rescue me, I'd just take the L. - and thank you mail! You give an item to say "thank you for rescuing me!", what a charming mechanic - it's just a shame that this is all that is what's handled inside the Pelipper Post Office. It's such a cool place that I feel goes wasted a little bit. If the bulletin board were inside here it would've been really cool, but in casual playthroughs I basically never come in here. - team meanies steals all your mail... except your accepted jobs. - Shoutouts to Pelipper calling us "amigo". ## Gameplay The gameplay is addicting in the sense that when you're going through the main phases of the story, each dungeon crawl feels relatively interesting and fun. Admittedly the start of this game is very slow, especially between the stretch of immediately after Mt. Steel and the quest to Mt. Thunder. But after that Mt. Thunder mission, the game really accelerates, for the better, in my opinion. The gameplay on the Fugitives arc (more on that later) is where the game really steps into its own and offers a real challenge to novice players, especially those who might have struggled with fighting Pokemon in the dungeon or managing various resources. I first played through the game with Pikachu and Treecko, and the stretch of Mt. Blaze to Mt. Freeze was absolutely incredibly difficult. On subsequent playthroughs with other starter pairs and knowledge of how to play the game, this stretch is easier. - Gravelerocks are unabashedly REALLY good in this game. a Fixed 20 damage from an item that stacks up to 99 is incredibly useful when your moves are otherwise weak / not useful in the matchup. Even deep into the Fugitives arc, I found yself definitely still using Gravelerocks when I had nothing better to use. - [[My Favorite Games are Ones that Wait for Me to Act]] ## Dungeon-specific - [[Playing through Magma Cavern with Pikachu is akin to Testicular Torsion]] - [[Sky Tower is THAT Final Dungeon for my Childhood]] ### Mt. Freeze doesn't have Ice Types, just Blue and White Pokemon - Maybe that's just because there's not enough ice types at this point in the series? Or at least just weak ones? I don't know, it's just weird. Makes for one hell of a tricky process, especially when you have to fight Slaking and Zangoose - It's like, there a lot of NPC dialogue saying things about types in the relevant dungeons, and then they're kind of just wrong. this happens in Magma Cavern too, where they say that there's a ton of Fire types, and then there's TWO. ### Stormy Sea Is a BIG difficulty spike Welcome to the post-game! Stormy Sea is the first new dungeon in the post-game and is 40 Floors deep. This is not unlike Sky Tower + Sky Tower Summit which has a total of 34 floors, but in contrast Stormy Sea has no break section. You have to marathon 40 floors with the last 15 having some seriously strong Water Type mons. There's also only Orbs and Gummies in the dungeon, no Max Elixirs, which means you have to carry a LOT of Max Elixirs or take tactical Reviver Seed uses to get through the dungeon. ## Story The story, while basic compared to later games like [[Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky |Explorers of Sky]], is still very interesting for a Pokemon game. You, a human, wake up in the world of Pokemon and have no idea how you got here. You're trying to figure that mystery out when you're also presented with the mystery of the increase in natural disasters lately. I think that using "natural disasters" is probably a very easy way to establish the plot of the game, as these disasters being as a result of a curse existing in the world of Pokemon seems to make a fair amount of sense if you don't think about it much. you don't know the mechanics of this curse, for all you know the fabric of the world is coming apart as a result of this transformation. But all the same, natural disasters are occurring and this plot point is explored through the main game culminating with the story climax atop Sky Tower. however, even after the main game, in the post game you get to see that the Meteor crashing to Earth was because of Deoxys and the curse was actually because of Gengar and Ninetales. I'm glad that the game allows for a wholistic conclusion to the story if the player is capable of actually getting through the post-game challenges to COMPLETELY finish the game's story arc about the natural disasters. ### Fugitives The fugitives arc is something completely unexpected for a Pokemon game, and it was one of the best choices the designers could've made. this game is meant to be *different* compared to the traditional mainline Pokemon games. I admit that the idea of the townsfolk just *believing* Gengar is a little hard to believe or take seriously, but the effects are oddly realistic and hit hard, especially as a child. Having your friends attempt to aid you in the early morning before you begin to flee is something incredibly heartwarming despite the heartbreaking situation. It's the fugitives arc for me. Nothing in games will usually capture that feeling or similar ones for me. There are only a few exceptions and they're all tied to different moments in my life. The Fugitives arc was something that distinctly impacted me as a kid in the same way that [[The Zeboim Flashback in Xenogears is a Profound Moment in Gaming for me because it is relatable]] at age 22 in a pandemic. - [[Rescue Team's Fugitives Arc is an Important Experience For a Child]] # Favorite Moments / Memories - The Big Box under the tree on Christmas - Staying up late to try to get Mew in Buried Relic only to fall asleep. - Playing with my elementary school friends pretending to be in this game. - Attempting to clear Frosty Forest while sitting in the parking lot of Mack's funeral - Mt. Blaze in the garage earlier that week - Powder Snow reminded me of a primal childhood trauma. - The music - I mean shit man, the music in this game. - I love how when you enter a new dungeon in the story mode for the first time there's a dedicated little entry way. - The Magma Cavern one in particular is especially imposing and cool. # What were you doing when not playing this? - First got it Christmas in 4th Grade, so probably Christmas 2006? Played that all morning as a result. - Thomas's pet fish died that very same morning. - ![[momnote-xmasgift06.png]] # Relevant Links - Made a cute video essay about this game: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/riafhvHAxiQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>