People seem to hate so much on Gates to Infinity -- and trust me I can see the obvious hurdles -- but it's a good 20-hour-ish game.
The story is great and definitely is on par with everything that Explorers put down. Side characters have semi fleshed-out personalities and backstories. There is an option to make sleep/totter/whatever seed farms which adds to the overall goal of your partner. It's very cute.
It's the extremely slow text speed, limited character roster and unwavering dungeon designs that make this game hard to get through. The first couple of dungeons and the final dungeons have the same layout and are all hallway spaghetti.
It's not as replayable as EoT/D/S but I had fun playing it nonetheless!
Definitely watch a playthrough if you are not as invested in the Mystery Dungeon saga but want to experience the story.
The story is great and definitely is on par with everything that Explorers put down. Side characters have semi fleshed-out personalities and backstories. There is an option to make sleep/totter/whatever seed farms which adds to the overall goal of your partner. It's very cute.
It's the extremely slow text speed, limited character roster and unwavering dungeon designs that make this game hard to get through. The first couple of dungeons and the final dungeons have the same layout and are all hallway spaghetti.
It's not as replayable as EoT/D/S but I had fun playing it nonetheless!
Definitely watch a playthrough if you are not as invested in the Mystery Dungeon saga but want to experience the story.
I remember these characters tend to burst into tears quite a lot. Still, it's a fine instalment and my first introduction to my favourite Pokémon sub-series.
Overhated to hell and back. Seriously do not understand some of what people have said about it. Is GTI the best PMD? No. Is it bad? No. Seems to just be another result of the gen 5 hate craze’s legacy. If this is the “worst” one, I think that shows how much quality this lil side series produced.
I don't have the willpower to finish sadly D':
i could say more but i'd just get rambley xD
i could say more but i'd just get rambley xD
obra maestra infravalorada, tiene una excelente historia y personajes, excelente soundtrack, y el final es el mas triste que he visto en un juego
i miss hydreigon
EXTREMELY overhated game. Every complaint about this game boils down to either "it's not explorers" or "gen 5 bad" and I will die on that hill (although I do agree in wishing that the roster of playable Pokémon was just a little bit bigger).
Quagsire is the realest character in all of fiction.
Literally put me to sleep in the middle of playing...would have a lower score if it wasn't for the heartfelt ending
my first experience with pokemon
meedi. story is ok but it's a test of patience getting through the slow ass gameplay and slow ass dialogue boxes
The worst of the PMD series, it's mid and not nearly as good as the rest of the series
made me cry, but I had such a good time, one of my favorites in the mystery dungeon games
If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be "exhausting".
hydreigon best character
Hoo boy. Last year I played the beloved cult classic Explorer's of Sky and came out of it thinking it was good, but not really the peak Pokémon experience everyone says it is. So before I went in to this game, all I knew about it was that there's only 144 recruitable Pokémon, and 5 starters to choose from. If I thought the shining diamond in the series was more like a decent gold, what will I think about the participation trophy game?
When I started playing it, I actually loved it. As you go through the opening hours and unlock more stuff there's just so many features that I feel really compliment the series well. The V-Waves give a fantastic motivation for changing up teammates regularly, something I never did in Sky because I never cared who I brought into a dungeon other than me and my partner. Having exp given between everyone even those not in the dungeon also helps Pokémon not fall behind until you need them. Though the fact they don't GET the exp until you bring them into a dungeon is very annoying as it often leads to a lot of slow move learning dialogue at once.
They didn't really change dungeons much other than the general 3D visual transition. But a small handful now feature outside areas every other floor, which have very tiny, very simple puzzles, which is kinda cool? It's a baby step in the right direction for making dungeons feel less repetitive and blending together, but it needed to be expanded way more. So dungeons aren't really worse than before, but they're not really better either.
Building up paradise was one of the biggest things I loved while playing the game. The joys of unlocking a new facility and making decisions of which to prioritise. It does somewhat go against the new story direction which forces you into huge stretches of taking you away from the hub area to large dungeon marathons. I'm pretty sure in the entire second half of the game you only return to the games town area once. But they thought of that too and added "companion mode". This lets you take a break from the story and take control of any Pokémon in your team except you and your partner. While doing this you can do as many missions as you want in a row, and build up your paradise, with zero story breaking your stride. It comes with the weird limitation of not being allowed in the town area though, so you do lose out on some features, like the ability to open treasure boxes and spend gold bars. It's a very arbitrary restriction and unfortunately does mean you can never truly get the full game while taking a break from story beats until you've already cleared the story. To contrast, the last game basically had a ton of times that were "the game will only continue if you go to this dungeon", allowing you to ignore that and go to any other dungeon as many times as you wanted. In this game the story is always pushed forward automatically after you clear a mission or two.
I do like how the game compensated what appeared to be a huge downgrade in missions. You're now limited to only taking one at a time. Seems awful right? No more stacking up 8 missions for one dungeon and getting tons of rewards at once. Well, it kind of is annoying, but the rewards from missions actually matter now, since they're materials for expanding your paradise. In the past game even though I could do 8 missions at once, I never cared what the missions gave me, it was always just something I could basically buy or farm elsewhere. In this game I actually chose my missions carefully based on what material I needed at that specific time. It'd still have been nice to be able to do even just 2-4 at a time, but I'd still rather have the mission choices actually matter over being able to pick 8 random ones for the sake of a bigger payout of less important items.
The story is pretty much on par with Explorer's too. Very similar plot twists and an emotional ending even. Not much to say about it other than it follows the expectations already set. Including some unnecessarily long-winded dialogue (seriously if you try to take on a mission when you need to go somewhere else for a story event, your partner will basically say you need to go do the story thing like 5 times in a row, worded slightly differently).
It was all going so well. And then while I was taking a break from the main story, grinding missions in companion mode, I levelled up my team rank and noticed the next rank was a very large number of points away. Like obviously not intended for completion with the level of missions available. So I finish the game to get the post-game missions and rank up again only to realise the game is no longer rewarding me with extra facilities I can build (one of the biggest benefits to ranking up, along with extra inventory space which also stopped increasing only about 3 ranks in). Long story short, I looked it up and yeah, there's no meaningful unlocks once you've reached platinum rank (other than a single facility where you can plant this games 'rare candies' to grow more at a much higher level). Platinum is rank 4 out of 10. And requires 700 points out of 99,9999. It really felt like the paradise progression stopped dead in its tracks just as it was picking up steam. Obviously there's still loads to build and upgrade, but it still feels like a bummer to know there's no more surprises. No more mini-games to unlock (there's exactly 2, which were cool as hell to unlock, but now feel weirdly out of place).
I might have been able to get past that if there was really anything else to do post-game. PMD have always had basically an entire second story after the credits, but Gates to Infinity has maybe about 2 hours and then you're done with basically all scripted story. Now you can just...recruit every Pokémon and fill up your paradise, I guess? I might have even done that if recruiting Pokémon wasn't some true RNG bullshit. Obviously actually getting them to join you upon defeat is random, but now a lot of them are locked behind these secret areas you only have a chance to visit while going through specific dungeons. So it's RNG on top of RNG. I'm not about to do that, even for a small roster of 144 Pokémon.
Some things that I didn't really like from before are still here, most notably multi-hit moves and AOE moves are still over powered.
Some things are similar but improved (in my opinion), like levelling up moves for increased power, pp and accuracy is still here but no longer require special items (that's definitely how it worked before right?) and just happen with repeated use of that move. This means it's especially good to take Pokémon with the same moves into dungeons to level it up much faster. But you also still can't level up status moves, even just for the pp increases.
Some things are improved, even if they were only minorly annoying before, like no more cutscenes after waking up and before going to bed.
So low expectations going in because the starters and recruitable Pokémon gave off a lazy kind of feel, followed by being humbled by the amount of additions and well thought out features, and back to being let down by the lack of content in the post-game. In many ways I like this more than Explorer's of Sky, and if it just had that games level of stuff to do after beating the story, I'd absolutely put this as the shining diamond everyone says Sky is.
When I started playing it, I actually loved it. As you go through the opening hours and unlock more stuff there's just so many features that I feel really compliment the series well. The V-Waves give a fantastic motivation for changing up teammates regularly, something I never did in Sky because I never cared who I brought into a dungeon other than me and my partner. Having exp given between everyone even those not in the dungeon also helps Pokémon not fall behind until you need them. Though the fact they don't GET the exp until you bring them into a dungeon is very annoying as it often leads to a lot of slow move learning dialogue at once.
They didn't really change dungeons much other than the general 3D visual transition. But a small handful now feature outside areas every other floor, which have very tiny, very simple puzzles, which is kinda cool? It's a baby step in the right direction for making dungeons feel less repetitive and blending together, but it needed to be expanded way more. So dungeons aren't really worse than before, but they're not really better either.
Building up paradise was one of the biggest things I loved while playing the game. The joys of unlocking a new facility and making decisions of which to prioritise. It does somewhat go against the new story direction which forces you into huge stretches of taking you away from the hub area to large dungeon marathons. I'm pretty sure in the entire second half of the game you only return to the games town area once. But they thought of that too and added "companion mode". This lets you take a break from the story and take control of any Pokémon in your team except you and your partner. While doing this you can do as many missions as you want in a row, and build up your paradise, with zero story breaking your stride. It comes with the weird limitation of not being allowed in the town area though, so you do lose out on some features, like the ability to open treasure boxes and spend gold bars. It's a very arbitrary restriction and unfortunately does mean you can never truly get the full game while taking a break from story beats until you've already cleared the story. To contrast, the last game basically had a ton of times that were "the game will only continue if you go to this dungeon", allowing you to ignore that and go to any other dungeon as many times as you wanted. In this game the story is always pushed forward automatically after you clear a mission or two.
I do like how the game compensated what appeared to be a huge downgrade in missions. You're now limited to only taking one at a time. Seems awful right? No more stacking up 8 missions for one dungeon and getting tons of rewards at once. Well, it kind of is annoying, but the rewards from missions actually matter now, since they're materials for expanding your paradise. In the past game even though I could do 8 missions at once, I never cared what the missions gave me, it was always just something I could basically buy or farm elsewhere. In this game I actually chose my missions carefully based on what material I needed at that specific time. It'd still have been nice to be able to do even just 2-4 at a time, but I'd still rather have the mission choices actually matter over being able to pick 8 random ones for the sake of a bigger payout of less important items.
The story is pretty much on par with Explorer's too. Very similar plot twists and an emotional ending even. Not much to say about it other than it follows the expectations already set. Including some unnecessarily long-winded dialogue (seriously if you try to take on a mission when you need to go somewhere else for a story event, your partner will basically say you need to go do the story thing like 5 times in a row, worded slightly differently).
It was all going so well. And then while I was taking a break from the main story, grinding missions in companion mode, I levelled up my team rank and noticed the next rank was a very large number of points away. Like obviously not intended for completion with the level of missions available. So I finish the game to get the post-game missions and rank up again only to realise the game is no longer rewarding me with extra facilities I can build (one of the biggest benefits to ranking up, along with extra inventory space which also stopped increasing only about 3 ranks in). Long story short, I looked it up and yeah, there's no meaningful unlocks once you've reached platinum rank (other than a single facility where you can plant this games 'rare candies' to grow more at a much higher level). Platinum is rank 4 out of 10. And requires 700 points out of 99,9999. It really felt like the paradise progression stopped dead in its tracks just as it was picking up steam. Obviously there's still loads to build and upgrade, but it still feels like a bummer to know there's no more surprises. No more mini-games to unlock (there's exactly 2, which were cool as hell to unlock, but now feel weirdly out of place).
I might have been able to get past that if there was really anything else to do post-game. PMD have always had basically an entire second story after the credits, but Gates to Infinity has maybe about 2 hours and then you're done with basically all scripted story. Now you can just...recruit every Pokémon and fill up your paradise, I guess? I might have even done that if recruiting Pokémon wasn't some true RNG bullshit. Obviously actually getting them to join you upon defeat is random, but now a lot of them are locked behind these secret areas you only have a chance to visit while going through specific dungeons. So it's RNG on top of RNG. I'm not about to do that, even for a small roster of 144 Pokémon.
Some things that I didn't really like from before are still here, most notably multi-hit moves and AOE moves are still over powered.
Some things are similar but improved (in my opinion), like levelling up moves for increased power, pp and accuracy is still here but no longer require special items (that's definitely how it worked before right?) and just happen with repeated use of that move. This means it's especially good to take Pokémon with the same moves into dungeons to level it up much faster. But you also still can't level up status moves, even just for the pp increases.
Some things are improved, even if they were only minorly annoying before, like no more cutscenes after waking up and before going to bed.
So low expectations going in because the starters and recruitable Pokémon gave off a lazy kind of feel, followed by being humbled by the amount of additions and well thought out features, and back to being let down by the lack of content in the post-game. In many ways I like this more than Explorer's of Sky, and if it just had that games level of stuff to do after beating the story, I'd absolutely put this as the shining diamond everyone says Sky is.
how the hell are you going to have a name as cool as that and turn out to be a boring slog
If you can get past how repugnantly slow text scrolls, since there’s no speed option when playing natively, and even holding B to auto scroll it is still slow, which bogs the unusually tutorial infested earlygame down (seriously, there is a tutorial for getting sand tombed in this game), or how the game’s mechanics are simplified a lot, what with no IQ skills or hunger, as well as its reduced roster of Pokemon, which repeats quite often early on, there is a beautifully heartfelt story here. I think in spite of it being my least favorite PMD to play through, it has one of my favorite casts. The dialogue is extremely charming, and the cast on the whole feels like a large family who are consistently active in the story. There isn’t a single one who’s shafted narratively, and I really appreciate that. And though this plays the weakest, I think the PMD gameplay loop is fundamentally so solid that there’s no way I could dislike the game. It’s just. Terribly tough to sell someone on the earlygame, which is everything people accuse Gen 7 of being, and then some. And yet, once you overcome that hurdle, you’re rewarded with such a brilliant cast. I’m just not sure how to sell someone like that. “Keep playing bro, it picks up 1/3 in” is a tough thing to say, especially when the gameplay remains fundamentally simpler to other entries, and you will notice enemy repetition. But beneath that, you do have a beautiful story and cast elevated by a leitmotif-imbued soundtrack that pulls at your heartstrings. The replay made me like this game more. I understand its status as the “worst” PMD, and am generally inclined to agree outside of the original Rescue Team’s jank, but I’ll also call this game worth your time, just probably if you mod a text scroll fix.
I really can't understand how people think this way about Gates to Infinity. Even though there are caveats it's better than the first game and very close to second in story and character department. They were also actually bold with the ending this time, it's sad and feels stronger compared to other two.
it was fine, the story was a downgrade compared to the other mystery dungeon games unfortunately. the switch to 3d also made it much harder to control, i always found myself getting stuck on walls and having to run back and forth a lot. the pokemon were very cute during cutscenes and stuff though!
[Dammit Larry, You're Hard to Love, But You're Harder to Hate]
Gates to Infinity is definitely the weakest game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchise due to its inconsistency in quality save for one notable aspect. Does this make it a bad game? Well, yes and no. For every good thing I can say about Gates to Infinity, I can point to an equally opposite bad thing.
- "Oh cool, the graphics are in 3D!"
- "But this makes the dungeons feel far less distinct, and characters far less expressive".
- "I love the fact that I don't have to worry about hunger in this game!"
- "But I hate having to navigate the dungeons in this game because the hallways and floors are much less interesting to explore."
- "I love that my party members get experience and eventually level up even if I don't bring them along on missions!"
- "But combat in dungeons is so awful because of the zoomed in camera that I can never even try to generate strategy when I approach a given room in this game."
Every time I think I can award points to Gates, it finds a way to immediately earn a demerit, but every time I think the game does something really really bad, I'm surprised at a cool decision the designers made. The plot is overly simple and reductive in its simplifications of tropes about friendship and trust that we've come to expect from the first two Mystery Dungeon games, but then it uses those predictable tropes to create a plot twits that genuinely surprised me. The dungeons presented a really interesting way to break up the pace of the mystery dungeon layout with the overworld floors, but then these same floors provided little to no challenge and were more or less abandoned beyond one or two dungeons late in the game (not that I particularly enjoyed these breaks in the gameplay, they really didn't fit with the gameplay loo I came to expect from mystery dungeon). The Paradise was ultimately an overcomplicated hub zone that I didn't find myself developing whatsoever just because the game made it nearly impossible to efficiently complete missions, but Post Town, despite being nearly pointless beyond flavor reasons, won me over as a genuinely comfy spot in a video game. And speaking of missions, I found myself really frustrated that I couldn't select many missions at once in the same dungeon (a clear attempt by the game to not allow you to grind), but then at the same time, I found myself feeling relieved that I was finally done with a single mission after 4-6 floors because I really really didn't enjoy the dungeon crawl with more than two party members (but also the game was definitely balanced around you having four party members at once which is cool UNTIL THEY START RUNNING OFF AGAIN). So between all these positives and negatives I sit here struggling to consider how I really feel about this game.
At this point in time, the only part of the game I can unequivocally vouch for is its soundtrack. Almost every piece of music in this game after the first few dungeons is simply perfect for its respective application. Dungeon themes are filled to the brim with explorative passion and capture the exact feelings of excitement, anxiety, determination, and dread one might feel when exploring places named "Forest of Shadows" or "Great Glacier". I am particularly fond of the musical leitmotif that carries through each Magnagate dungeon (Telluric Path, Kilionea Road and Tyrian Maze) as the same musical notes carry through each piece representing the mysterious ability to travel through the ley lines of the planet. Keisuke Ito absolutely knocks this soundtrack out of the park and makes even the most grueling, unpleasant dungeon crawls slightly more manageable. I had heard the soundtrack long before playing the game, and I found myself struck at just how much I could still enjoy the game having listened to the official soundtrack in a vacuum. There was nothing quite like being ejected from the mysterious Kilionea Road and finding myself potentially without a single reference point in the forest of Shadows, having only my instincts and the music of "Forest of Shadows" playing. What a great feeling.
I struggle to outright recommend this game to anyone beyond those who would care to play every mainline Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game. It has the weakest gameplay loop by far, and its story takes a lot of effort to really take seriously. While it might be the case that I am just too old for what is essentially a YA-literature piece, I just couldn't make myself care about the plights of Emolga and Dunsparce. But then again, I found Virizion's arc to be pretty interesting and I really enjoyed Espeon and Umbreon as characters, as simple as they were. Once again, the duality of Gates rears its two-faced visage. For every good there is a bad, and for every bad, there is a good. This is the Gates to Infinity experience.
Gates to Infinity is definitely the weakest game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchise due to its inconsistency in quality save for one notable aspect. Does this make it a bad game? Well, yes and no. For every good thing I can say about Gates to Infinity, I can point to an equally opposite bad thing.
- "Oh cool, the graphics are in 3D!"
- "But this makes the dungeons feel far less distinct, and characters far less expressive".
- "I love the fact that I don't have to worry about hunger in this game!"
- "But I hate having to navigate the dungeons in this game because the hallways and floors are much less interesting to explore."
- "I love that my party members get experience and eventually level up even if I don't bring them along on missions!"
- "But combat in dungeons is so awful because of the zoomed in camera that I can never even try to generate strategy when I approach a given room in this game."
Every time I think I can award points to Gates, it finds a way to immediately earn a demerit, but every time I think the game does something really really bad, I'm surprised at a cool decision the designers made. The plot is overly simple and reductive in its simplifications of tropes about friendship and trust that we've come to expect from the first two Mystery Dungeon games, but then it uses those predictable tropes to create a plot twits that genuinely surprised me. The dungeons presented a really interesting way to break up the pace of the mystery dungeon layout with the overworld floors, but then these same floors provided little to no challenge and were more or less abandoned beyond one or two dungeons late in the game (not that I particularly enjoyed these breaks in the gameplay, they really didn't fit with the gameplay loo I came to expect from mystery dungeon). The Paradise was ultimately an overcomplicated hub zone that I didn't find myself developing whatsoever just because the game made it nearly impossible to efficiently complete missions, but Post Town, despite being nearly pointless beyond flavor reasons, won me over as a genuinely comfy spot in a video game. And speaking of missions, I found myself really frustrated that I couldn't select many missions at once in the same dungeon (a clear attempt by the game to not allow you to grind), but then at the same time, I found myself feeling relieved that I was finally done with a single mission after 4-6 floors because I really really didn't enjoy the dungeon crawl with more than two party members (but also the game was definitely balanced around you having four party members at once which is cool UNTIL THEY START RUNNING OFF AGAIN). So between all these positives and negatives I sit here struggling to consider how I really feel about this game.
At this point in time, the only part of the game I can unequivocally vouch for is its soundtrack. Almost every piece of music in this game after the first few dungeons is simply perfect for its respective application. Dungeon themes are filled to the brim with explorative passion and capture the exact feelings of excitement, anxiety, determination, and dread one might feel when exploring places named "Forest of Shadows" or "Great Glacier". I am particularly fond of the musical leitmotif that carries through each Magnagate dungeon (Telluric Path, Kilionea Road and Tyrian Maze) as the same musical notes carry through each piece representing the mysterious ability to travel through the ley lines of the planet. Keisuke Ito absolutely knocks this soundtrack out of the park and makes even the most grueling, unpleasant dungeon crawls slightly more manageable. I had heard the soundtrack long before playing the game, and I found myself struck at just how much I could still enjoy the game having listened to the official soundtrack in a vacuum. There was nothing quite like being ejected from the mysterious Kilionea Road and finding myself potentially without a single reference point in the forest of Shadows, having only my instincts and the music of "Forest of Shadows" playing. What a great feeling.
I struggle to outright recommend this game to anyone beyond those who would care to play every mainline Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game. It has the weakest gameplay loop by far, and its story takes a lot of effort to really take seriously. While it might be the case that I am just too old for what is essentially a YA-literature piece, I just couldn't make myself care about the plights of Emolga and Dunsparce. But then again, I found Virizion's arc to be pretty interesting and I really enjoyed Espeon and Umbreon as characters, as simple as they were. Once again, the duality of Gates rears its two-faced visage. For every good there is a bad, and for every bad, there is a good. This is the Gates to Infinity experience.
Genuinely the best cast from one of these games. They do manage to be more than one note for most of it and the game doesn't repeat itself as much as explorers. Partner is also a complete and true bro tbh
Now the actual dungeon design and gameplay is a mess when you have guest party members constantly outlevelling any of your own. Even though most locations have two times less the floors of explorers and rescue team, it still feels the same length due to how so much of GTI is narrow corridors in dead ends.
Now the actual dungeon design and gameplay is a mess when you have guest party members constantly outlevelling any of your own. Even though most locations have two times less the floors of explorers and rescue team, it still feels the same length due to how so much of GTI is narrow corridors in dead ends.
Very underrated game and the story seems to me to be the second best of the pokemon mysterious world, also hydreigon is god as a character and the music is very good it is true that the pace of the game is tedious and the bosses are not very memorable but the ending seems to me the best of the saga and the message it also gives:
Characters:6
History:8
Rhythm: 4
Final grade:5
Characters:6
History:8
Rhythm: 4
Final grade:5
This game is a legit masterpiece to me. The gameplay is fun, the story is amazing, it's emotional, and the characters are just amazing. I'm sorry if society can't see this game for the overhated under appreciated masterpiece that it is.
Also I think this goes without saying but this game is the reason why Emolga is my favorite Pokémon. He's the best character in the series to me.
Also I think this goes without saying but this game is the reason why Emolga is my favorite Pokémon. He's the best character in the series to me.
Bro I went to Walmart on Black Friday as a kid and tried to get this game, I had exactly 30 bucks I think and this game was traditionally 40 with a sticker on it for 10 dollars off on Black Friday. When we brought it up to the counter the evil lady there told us the sticker deals were only until like 8am that morning despite no signs in the building saying that. I was fucking devestated, and ended up never getting this game. Maybe one day man.
was too hard for 7yr old me so lent it to my friend and never got it back
:(
really awsome
extremely overhated, i do feel like it needed more content and it is kinda undercooked but holy shit i love this game's story and soundtrack. wish it was harder tho it's so easy to get through.
the text speed being slow is really annoying (although didnt matter that much to me on a first playthrough) however in replays i use a mod to have it actually be a reasonable speed.
the text speed being slow is really annoying (although didnt matter that much to me on a first playthrough) however in replays i use a mod to have it actually be a reasonable speed.
i played this game a lot and remember almost none of it and thats probably not a good sign