A truly timeless (ha) game jam-packed with content and a shockingly deep story. I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece like some others would, but that doesn’t mean it’s not great, with likable characters and some excellent presentation. The themes of the game hit hard and really are beautiful, and the game itself is fun to play even long after the story has ended. It’s very, very good, and every Pokémon fan should give it a go if they can. Even better, they should probably play the complete version (Explorers of Sky) that I unfortunately haven’t played yet. I’ll get to it eventually.
I'm sure any fan of this game will tell you that its story is top-notch. It's something that has stuck with me long after playing it, and I have replayed it a couple of times in the intervening decades. The gameplay is also quite satisfying and I would love to see more "mystery dungeon" types of games in other franchises.
This review contains spoilers
I hope this game gets a remake with all the QoL the original games' remake included. I finished the main story through Primal Dialga, but that's really only half the game. Postgame is absolutely brutal, especially for someone like me who doesn't really play this type of game at all outside of PMD. I only ever barely made it past the fight against the Guildmaster & Friends, and have never been interested in putting in the time to get through the rest of the postgame plot. If we ever get a PMD Explorers DX, maybe I'll give it another shot.