One of the most funny things about the Pokemon franchise is than it can fit well in any formula you think, be anime, manga, live action (Detective Pikachu), musical videos or mobile games (though those sucks for predatory reasons), and this apply to game genres too like Tactics (Pokemon Conquest), Roguelike (Pokemon Emerald Rogue hackrom), Fight (Smash Bros) or even the dead genre of Mystery Dungeon... Which is what i'm reviewing today.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is a expansion Quality of Life version from Explorers of Time and Darkness, adding new special chapters with iconic characters from this entry like Wigglytuff (when he was a Jigglepuff) or Sceptile, new pokemons to start like Riolu and new gimmicks like recruting more than 3 pokemons in a dungeon by sending one back to the guild earlier, and also it adds the whole post-game story with the Shaymin Sky Village, Graduation, Manaphy arc and the showdown with Darkrai.

The OST is insanely good, the Mystery Dungeon style of gameplay still mix perfectly well with Pokemon mechanics like type matchup, moves effects/descriptions of how they work, a "Pokemon Game Story" really is well done to the point it even talks about death and legacy of lives after they're gone, it has some problems like the Unknown puzzle being a pain in the ass but at the end it's one of the best Pokemon spin-offs, one of the best Mystery Dungeons and one of the few good games left before the franchise lost all the soul/passion it had before.

It is one of my favorite games, my favorite Pokemon game and i can't recommend it enough to the point i replay it at least once per year. Glad there are hackroms coming with their own stories and spins, kinda like Touhou fanworks but in a much less scale.

If i would compare the gameplay of MMBN3 Blue to any other sensation, it would be playing as Zero on MMX6 or SvC Chaos, as Vergil on UMvC3 or DMC V, Akuma on SFII Super Turbo or Tekken 7, Summoner class on Terraria 1.4 version, as Marth or Fox on SSB Meele, Marisa B on Touhou 10 - Mountain of Faith or as Noob Saibot on Mortal Kombat 3... Basically, your own skills are the only limit the game has between a hard fight and killing the bosses as if they're a random enemy of the early game.

The story here is the peak, OST is good as always, the peak graphic before bn4 downgrade onwards, good rivals and characters, some annoying puzzles mostly to having to equip and unequip "Press NCP" every single minute on the NaviCust Program, the peak post-game of all 6 BNs and while MMBN6 has the most creative gameplay, MMBN3 Blue takes the throne as the most fun Mega Man Battle Network game since BN3 White is just a literal inferior version and like i said at the start with those examples, the more you learn to play this game the more broken YOU ARE against everything this game has to offer:

- Geddon + Snake with Atk+30 and Wood+20 chips to delete the enemy before he can even move
- Spamming of VarSword "Elemental Boom" combo to shred everything in your part from the start of the game until the end and even after it in the post-game
- Folderback 11th slot bug to do any wicked strategy your folder has at any time again and again
- Shake chip bug to deal 9999 damage in a single hit
- Flashman and Plantman chip uses to ignore the enemy invulnerability frames like it's Starforce 3 noise gimmick, but way before it
- Program Advanced folders like 2xHero spam, HeatSpread combo with Grass Painel and Prism, LifeSword folder with Yamatoman or the old and nerfed but still good GutsShot spam
- Any multi-hit chip folder with Plantman or Flashman since again, they ignore invulnerability frames like it doesn't even exist
- Tornado folder with a all or nothing attack (more viable on BN5, but still works fine here)
- And of course, the good and old toxic stall combo with Annubis and Rockcube combo but it's funnier doing anything said before than this

And the better thing, in the end those are just a few examples of how you can be the true boss of this game and dominate it with broken yet fun combos you learn as you play more the peak of Mega Man Battle Network series.

The same pattern of OST (which is good), improved graphics from BN4/BN5, a conclusive story after whole 6 entries, a lot of changes on the final game and while BN3 Blue was the peak of gameplay in terms of every strategy being broken and fun like playing with Zero on MMX6, at the end BN6 was the peak of "creativity" gameplay since there's a lot of degeneracy here but you need to know how to set'em up.
BodyGuard with Double Point and White capsule is fun as fvck to delete Bass/Falzar, Sensor + Conveyor combo to stunlock the enemy, Aqua multihit chips with AquaCross on Falzar version, "B" Folder with DoubleHero, TwinLeaders, BodyGuard and LifeSword P.As at the same time, good and old Tornado folder, AirHockey with DrillCross and Snake with Geddon * (and probably TenguCross), you get how many combos this game has to offer.
My only real criticism would be how fucked the USA version is with the cut content, and a personal thing so ignore it but not showing the crew as adults was a missed opportunity to finish this series with a golden key.