07/03/2014

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon-Gates to Infinity: That's the way I like it



That’s it. This time, they nailed it right. Joy and glory! 

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Nintendo in 2012(ja) and 2013(na/eu/aus) for the 3ds, is the lastest entry of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, and gloriously surpasses its predecessors in virtually every field. Basically, it’s like Chunsoft heard my pleas about Blue Rescue Team before I even uttered them and improved everything accordingly. More likely, they got massive feedback from people who were irritated by the same flaws as I was, and finally decided to get their act together and try to make a great game instead of an average one. Maybe the merger with Spike also helped, bringing fresh blood, brain cells and insight into the fold. At any rate, they managed to do an amazing job with this entry: Gates to Infinity is a glorious quantum leap in the right direction and a little gem of a game. 

However, it’s worth noting that the reviews for that game were far from being glorious. Gates to Infinity actually got lower rankings than Blue Rescue Team on Gamerankings and Metacritic, which is quite unfathomable to me. I can only imagine that most reviewers are getting tired of the series after having tried and tested all the very similar DS episodes—heck, maybe I would also be bored to death if I had played them all. But my instinct told me to purchase that game anyway, and since I usually refuse to be swayed by reviews, either good or bad, I followed my guts and got a copy. And boy, don’t I regret doing that!

So, make room for the praise! Gates to Infinity is an amazing game, much better than its older brother Blue Rescue Team, and here’s why. 

The Good

Let’s start with one of the points that disappointed me the most in Blue Rescue Team, namely the level design. It would be a lie to say that Gates offers a complete overhaul in the matter, since the core of the level design remains identical to what it has been throughout the whole series: dungeons are still made of rooms of various sizes connected by narrow corridors. But this time, Spike Chunsoft stepped out of their lazy stupor and introduced a handful of welcomed improvements that make the dungeon design much more palatable, and even enjoyable to some extent. Not so much of an overhaul then, but rather a brilliant and inspired makeover.

First, the rooms are not always square anymore, and come in a pleasant variety of sizes and shapes. Second, the corridors are not always desperately straight; they actually have some curves and bends of sorts. Third, and most importantly, the dungeons actually do resemble what they are supposed to be: forests look like forests, caves look like caves, glaciers look like glaciers, and so on. Every dungeon is generously sprinkled with scenery elements such as flowers, rocks, ponds of shimmering water, fallen leaves, ice crystals, shadows from passing clouds and other natural beauties that liven up the design and make the dungeon crawling seem and feel like a splendid excursion in the wild. Granted, it’s still a bit of a repetitive design at its core, but it looks and feels ten times better than the lazy design of Blue Rescue Team. The dungeons also do look wildly different from one another in Gates, which gives a great incentive to progress and discover new ones. I found myself really curious to find out what the next dungeon would look like up until the very end of my playthrough; gone is the implacable boredom born from the nauseating experience of trudging endlessly through barely distinct dungeons. Also gone is the feeling of claustrophobia that Blue Rescue Team could stir in the player prone to it: this time around, thanks to a better camera angle, the dungeon crawling doesn’t feel oppressive even after a lot of time spent in dungeons.  

The Very Good

Let’s move on to the worst flaw of the original game: the graphics, folks. Those bland, dull, boring and uninspired graphics that were an absolute insult to the DS. Well this time, it’s fair to say that this department went through a complete and massive overhaul, and an outstanding one at that. The graphics in Gates are pure, sheer and delicious eye-candy that fully and gloriously exploits the 3ds capabilities. I mentioned in my last post that these graphics alone provided me an incentive to purchase the game and could single-handedly make me enjoy it even if everything else remained virtually untouched. I was actually blessed beyond my wildest dreams, for everything else was also vastly amended and bettered; but that doesn’t diminish the excellent merits of these gorgeous graphics. The colours are vivid, shiny and vibrant (much more so than in my crappy pictures, trust me) and the textures are detailed and lovingly smooth, all the while remaining highly stylized and avoiding the trap of boring extra-realism that so many games fall prey to these days. As I mentioned before, I am by no means the type of gamer who thinks that graphics are the most important point in a game and come first and foremost, but I still know how to enjoy great graphics when I encounter them, and the graphics in Gates definitely fall into that category. They are an absolute delight to the eyes, a soothing caress to the retina, a brilliant and lovely treat that demands to be enjoyed to the fullest. 

The Excellent

Here come the last and most massive point, and that is the gameplay. It was actually the most decent and capable department of Blue Rescue Team and the one that needed the least to be improved; and yet Spike Chunsoft, instead of simply resting on their laurels and churning out the same old tried-and-tested formula, actually managed the tour de force of improving the gameplay in virtually every possible way. 

First, the menu system is much better. It was already quite fine in the original, but they beautifully refined it in Gates: it’s intuitive, clear, and an absolute joy to use. There has also been a serious increase in terms of the variety of items available, which come now in dozens of variations; yet this abundance doesn’t feel overwhelming, for each item has a precise, clear and one-dimensional purpose. None of them feel useless, as they can each have an interesting purpose depending on the circumstances, and some of them are just vital if you want to travel safely through the dungeons. The whole aspect of elemental combinations and matches, which had somehow remained a mystery to me in Blue Rescue Team, is much clearer and easy to figure out this time around. I quickly noticed that some moves had to be avoided around some Pokemons, which introduced an interesting amount of strategizing in the fighting process. It’s no tactical RPG by any mean and remains basic, granted, but it’s still pleasant.

The recruitment, which was so hard in Blue Rescue Team, has become a total breeze in Gates. I was not especially keen on recruiting, since I was basically happy with the partners given by the game; and yet, I ended up with a team of 30-or-so Pokemons without even trying. It’s worth noting, though, that the recruiting process is easy only in the early stages of the game: as you reach harder dungeons, the resident Pokemon will be less inclined to join you and you’ll have to resort to tailor-made gifts, available in a certain store, to woo and recruit them. Another very neat aspect linked to recruitment is the fact that you don’t need to level up each Pokemon individually anymore: the experience you earn by winning battles benefits every single Pokemon in your team, even the ones that are safely waiting for you at home. This is a brand-new feature that can also be found in Pokemon X and Y, the latest entries of the Pokemon series, and it’s basically the supreme gift to the player who hates grinding. Some criticized this new development, arguing that it took away a part of the challenge inherent to Pokemon games by making the leveling up process way too easy. I disagree with that, frankly. I love grinding as much as the next RPG aficionado, but the idea of having to level up each one of your hundreds of Pokemons individually feels more like a refined punishment than an enjoyable process to me. Having to do so is not especially challenging to start with, if you look at it closely: it’s more time-consuming than anything else, and can only be tolerated out of an unconditional love for the franchise—or because you’re a kid and thus enjoy repetitive things, have loads of free time on your hands, and want to brag about your over-powered ‘Mons. But I’m no kid anymore, and my time is precious; and thus I love this feature that allows me to save many hours and spend more time enjoying more meaningful things, like crawling through dungeons in order to progress the story. 

Talking about the story, it’s a pretty good one, shall I say. It still starts the same way as in every single game of the series, with you waking up one day in a Pokemon’s body and trying to figure out why this happened. But this time, you can actually choose which Pokemon you will play as. Hooray! Granted, there is not a huge choice in the matter; but you can choose, and that’s lovely. So being still unsavvy in all things Pokemon, I of course chose Pikachu. What else?  I unceremoniously nicknamed him “Pika” and dove into the story, which turned out to be much better than I expected. The characters each have their own distinct personalities and are well fleshed-out, and I got attached to them without realizing it. The storyline has a fair number of twists and turns and is much deeper that what one would expect from a Pokemon game. It may look like kiddy stuff at first, pulled straight from a cartoon series; but as you progress through the game, deeper concepts with a distinct Buddhist flavour suddenly take shape, along with a more serious and mature tone. This is really an interesting development and one that should satisfy even adults—at least, it did satisfy me. A lot has been said about the overabundance of text, and I really expected the worst, especially since I hate babbling galore in games; but to my surprise, it was perfectly tolerable. Sure, there is much more talking and cutscenes than in Blue Rescue Team, but it’s still pretty tame compared to some JRPGs (I’m glaring at you, Tales of the Abyss).  

As for the dungeon crawling, it’s just pure, unaltered pleasure. This time, Spike Chunsoft made sure to also cater to the crew that came here primarily for the dungeon crawling, and boy did they do that splendidly! Gates is full to the brim with juicy, delicious treats that should satisfy the gourmet palate of every dungeon crawler lover—provided that they are open-minded and don’t sniff at the relative easiness of the game to start with. First, and to get this out of the way, exploring the dungeons is of course pleasurable thanks to the great graphics and various designs, but it’s fortunately not the only reason. The soundtrack also plays a huge part in making this dungeon crawling a pure pleasure: it’s simply drop-dead gorgeous. In fact, it’s one of the most beautiful soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a game, period. The themes are complex and intricate, borrowing from numerous musical influences and mixing them expertly, and creating a wide range of moods and atmospheres, from happy and relaxed to intense and dramatic. On top of that, there are plenty of them. What else could you ask for, seriously?

Now that we’ve established that the dungeon crawling in Gates is a feast for the senses, let’s expose the practical aspects of it. The most obvious change from the DS games is the removal of the hunger factor: no longer do you need to feed your Pokemon regularly with apples and jellies to prevent them from fainting. While some blamed this removal for making the game way too easy, it can also be seen under a positive light: you can now explore the dungeons to the fullest, without having to worry about running out of energy or food. Given that the whole hunger feature was uncomfortably close to fake difficulty to start with, I’m not quite sure this is such a great loss. The dungeons still present others interesting challenges, like the classic monster houses, the unlockable rooms containing rare items and over-powered enemies or the sudden weather changes that will gradually damage your health and prevent you from recovering it. 

Gates offer a great variety of dungeons in the storyline alone, but there is much more than that to the game. For the insatiable dungeon crawler addict is a tailor-made feature called “Magnagates”. To put it simply, taking a picture of any circular object, like a glass, will generate an exclusive random dungeon that will have to be cleared with a random Pokemon. Of course, these dungeons are full of items and money, and recruitment is possible while exploring them. Once you clear one, every item you collected is handed over to your main party and freshly recruited partners are added to your roster of ‘Mons. This, added to the thrill of discovering new dungeons with specific styles and features, makes these Magnagates an absolute thrill and a delight of a feature for dungeon crawling lovers. The number of possible dungeons seems to be virtually limitless, or at least pretty massive, with the very title of the game hinting at this enormous array of potentialities. 

Along with this delicious Magnagate feature comes another interesting one called “Companion Mode”. It allows you to take control of another Pokemon for your roster and lead them through sidequests in order to collect various items. This takes place in parallel with the main quest, your progression in the storyline remaining untouched, and works just like the Magnagates, with any collected items given to your party and newly recruited Pokemon added to your roster. This is a very pleasant diversion from the main quest and a great opportunity to create completely different teams and control any Pokemon of your choice. Even better than that, it can actually save you when you’re in a bind: let’s say you are stuck in a dungeon and run out of a crucial item (this can happen, especially in the latter part of the game). You can be brave and go on without it, if such is your desire; but you can also switch to Companion Mode and have a Pokemon from your roster collect the much-needed item for you, either by purchasing it or tackling a few sidequests. Lackeys are so very handy, indeed! (Even though it’s still you playing in the end. Oh, well.)

So what we have here is basically a much more balanced game, in which dungeon crawling aficionados can get their fill as well as Pokemon adepts. This balance is exactly what was missing from Blue Rescue Team, which was as weak as it could be on the dungeon crawling side, and to find it restored here is a pure joy. No more dead-boring dungeon crawling in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon! The balance is restored, and the universe is finally getting the great dungeon crawler it rightly deserved! We need more, much more of these, o yes indeed. 

Well, well. This post turned out to be much longer than I expected. Guess I can’t help it: it seems that every time I really love a game, I feel compelled to elaborate on it and praise it endlessly. But that’s enough for now, I think. Let’s call it quit! These were my very warm feelings about Gates to Infinity. My only hope now is that any potential installment to come will follow this brilliant new formula. As for now, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

No comments:

Post a Comment