For almost 25 years of its existence, the game series Pokémon managed to grow all kinds of spin-offs and collaboration projects. Most of them were rather mediocre and did not gain much popularity, however, a branch of the Dungeon Crawlers Mystery dungeon sunk into the souls of fans almost from the very first release. The heyday of the sub-series fell on the era Nintendo DSbut over the years, players have become less and less likely to hear about the release of full-fledged new parts.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a remake of the very first game in the series that saw the light back in 2005. It is noteworthy that the original project was delivered immediately in two versions: Blue rescue team exclusive to DS and Red rescue team exclusive to Game boy advance.
The plot focuses on the alter ego of the player himself, who suddenly turned into a Pokémon for himself and was among his own kind. The protagonist must find a way to get out of the realm of dreams, teaming up with the local inhabitants and other fellow travelers.
The system selects an avatar for future travels automatically based on a small psychological test that you have to pass before the start of a new game. Among the possible playable characters, you can find the most iconic monsters from the first three generations of the flagship series games. But, unlike the original version, Rescue Team DX also allows you to manually select your final digital image, rather than restarting the test dozens of times in search of, for example, Pikachu.
The gameplay in Rescue Team DX is a canonical dungeon-crawler straight from the 2000s. The player will explore dozens of types of procedurally generated floor dungeons, each level of which is teeming with enemies, traps and valuable items.
Monsters defeated in battle can be recruited to their team with a small chance, thereby increasing combat performance. Participating in battles, the entire active party of adventurers gains experience and grows in levels, which allows you to study strong attacks and explore increasingly dangerous dungeons.
When confronted with an enemy, the game goes into turn-based mode, where the participants in the battle alternately exchange blows. By analogy with the main line of the series, each Pokemon has its own type and a set of four attacks. Types of monsters and attacks are woven into a complex table of effectiveness and resistance, in which, for example, fire attacks do less damage to water monsters, but more to grass.
While the original project suggested the player to choose the attack that should be brought down on the opponent, the Rescue Team DX independently uses the most effective technique at the touch of a button, which is why the overall complexity of the gameplay has noticeably subsided. The mechanics of the battles in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon were primitive even for their time, but the Rescue Team DX brought general despondency to a new level.
