Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
Made by? The Pokemon Company and Spike Chunsoft
Release date? November 20, 2015
Where to play? Through resellers or traversing the 7 seas

Rating: 9.5/10

Story - 5/5
The story for this game was really good! I remember when I first played it I wasn't that interested in it, but on a replay it left me interested the whole way through. Right off the bat, the game gives you a sense of uneasiness since the moment you arrive in the Pokémon world you're being hunted down by Beheeyem. This uneasiness lingers throughout the game as the looming threat of them returning is always there, as well as other dangers that get revealed along the way. I really liked the whole concept of the Expedition Society too and being able to join them. The whole Pokémon being mysteriously turned into stone reminded me of the Explorers games, but this game put its own unique twist on it which was cool. The villains also turned out to be quite cool, especially the twist villain which stabbed me in the heart so much. The main villain reminded me of the one from Gates to Infinity but, also, with its own unique twist. My favorite part of this game's story was getting to learn about the past and how me and my partner were involved with it. It's so mysterious and makes my writing side want to expand upon this idea so much further. Another of my favorite parts was the ending, how it pulled a familiar yet all new twist to the Mystery Dungeon series. I also really liked how this game connected each of the previous game's universes together by making references and having old characters return.

Characters - 5/5
The characters in this game were a real treat, I loved them all. Right off the bat, I fell in love with Nuzleaf's character. Going from the sweet, gentle, father-like figure to what he was corrupted into was so cool. Your partner in game is a real fun one too, I love their excitable, goofy personality. The whole backstory of them once being a Mew in a previous life was so cool as well.

I really loved all of the Expedition Society members as well, my favorites being Ampharos, Mawile, and Archen. They're so goofy together, but are serious about their work and eventually, saving the whole world. Ampharos was such a hilarious character, he's probably one of my top favorites in this whole game.

The other side characters were nice as well. Your fellow classmates and teachers back in Serene Village were nice and even got some cool development, like with Pancham and Shelmet. Carracosta was also such a great dad, I loved him so much. Even Lapras was pretty cool despite mostly being there just for transporation, I liked her a lot.

Mechanics - 5/5
This game introduced a bit of fresh air to the Mystery Dungeon series with the introduction to loopets and emeras. I think these made for a cool challenge in-game, especially since you couldn't keep what emeras you got from a dungeon. You could either get lucky and find some really useful ones or find ones that wouldn't benefit you as much. The Awakening emera was also a neat mechanic since it either boosted your strength and made you invincible from the front for a while or, if you could, allowed you to mega evolve.

Alliances were also a pretty new feature as well, allowing your whole team to surround the enemy and unleash their attacks simultaneously. I like how there is a con to this, though, as it drains your hunger faster.

I also really liked the Connection Orb, and how this changed the normal way of befriending and doing missions. In order to befriend Pokémon you must complete their mission now, which guarantees you'll befriend them (and possibly more) on completion. This makes for a ton of missions that feel as if they have more purpose now, as well as an easier method of gaining more team members.

Another thing I wanted to point out was Motivated Pokémon. Every so often 3 Pokémon will become motivated, meaning they'll gain EXP way faster if you take them on adventures. This gets even cooler when any Unowns get motivated, since you'll gain double experienced points even for Pokémon that aren't motivated, making for REALLY fast EXP gains.

The post game also provides new stuff to do, such as treasure hunting for rare collectibles that can only be obtained from its respective dungeon/boss. You can also unlock new dungeons by exploring current ones and unlocking doors they might have (which is only doable if you bring along the right Pokémon).

Graphics - 5/5
This game was absolutely beautiful. While reusing the graphical style of Gates to Infinity, it made good use of it. All the character models looked great, especially of the newer Pokémon they added in. The biggest highlight for me was each of the locations and dungeons. They were simply gorgeous. The level of detail they put into each place was stunning. My favorite places to go to were each of the different towns, they put a lot of design work into them.

Soundtrack - 4/5
Literally a masterpiece. The soundtrack is actually what convinced me to retry this game again after first not liking it. It's got such a unique sound to it, making it stand out against the other Mystery Dungeon OSTs. This OST had a heavy use of flutes, violins, bagpipes, and even castanets which was really cool. I really loved the instruments they decided to use for some of their tracks, they're stuff you don't commonly hear in video game music, such as the didjeridoo.

My only complaint would be that it reuses quite a lot of tracks from previous games, namely Gates to Infinity. Don't get me wrong, they're great tracks but its quite a lot they reuse and you'll hear them often in game.

Performance - 5/5
Honestly, I only ever ran into one time that the game crashed on me. Other than that, the game runs completely smoothly and I've never had any other issues. Everything loads fast as well.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is a really great addition to the Mystery Dungeon series. With over 720 Pokémon to befriend, this feels like the definitive Mystery Dungeon game, at least for the 3DS era. It has little flaws, a wonderful story and characters, and a vast wide world to explore (that even connects all the previous games together!). It also provides a lot of post-game content that will give many hours of stuff to do after you're done with the story. The soundtrack is also really phenomenal, even if it reuses a lot of tracks from previous games.