How far can appealing visuals/music and a well written story carry a game if the gameplay doesn't match up?
When I was 11, my mother's friend gifted me two Pokemon games- Explorers of Sky and HeartGold. I was immediately hooked to Explorers; it was both my introduction to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and dungeon crawlers as a whole. I never actually finished it, but the story and characters captivated me so much. I felt especially connected to my teammate. It certainly helped that my teammate was my favourite Pokemon at the time, Squirtle, but I had never been so charmed by a character in any other Pokemon game.
With how obsessed I was with Explorers, I wanted to experience its prequel as well: Rescue Team. Two years later, I bought a used copy of Blue at GameStop and was just as enamoured. However, the steep difficulty prevented me from progressing very far. It didn't help that my interest was leaning more towards the new Pokemon games like X and Alpha Sapphire. So, I put Blue Rescue Team and eventually Explorers of Sky down for a good while.
I want to say it was around 2017 when I started a new file on Blue Rescue Team and finally finished the main story. My feelings were far more conflicted by the end, and I wasn't motivated to explore the post game.
As far as gameplay goes, it's difficult for me to appreciate much about Blue Rescue Team. Now, I could ramble about all the baffling design choices and inconveniences that later games fixed. And in all fairness, the more polished mechanics of later games such as larger inventories or the recruit system go a long way in making them more enjoyable experiences. Hell, I'm sure this game would be a lot more tolerable with those improvements. I'm not entirely sure if I would end up liking that product either, though.
My biggest caveat with Blue Rescue Team isn't how horribly unpolished the game is; especially in comparison to later installments. Even at its core, I don't find Blue Rescue Team very fun or engaging. I love turn based RPGs, and I've enjoyed what I've played of dungeon crawlers. Maybe there's some great combination of the genres, but for me, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon certainly isn't. The grid based movement feels super clunky to me for this style; especially considering just moving one step counts as a turn. Every action taken counts as a turn, actually. I find it incredibly tedious to explore these dungeons because of that.
It's even worse when enemy Pokemon are involved. I don't mind the turn based battling when I do want to fight them, but what if I don't? Then I'm forced to endure the game constantly stopping me in my tracks so both my teammates and all the enemies can make their moves. I know it's possible to modify the teammates' AI, but it doesn't stop the whole experience from feeling like a slog to me.
These dungeons being absurdly long doesn't help, either. I don't mind the early game dungeons; they're often around 10 floors at most, which I would honestly consider the perfect amount. But especially around the second half of the game, the dungeons can stretch from 20 to as far as 30 levels! I recall a few dungeons having midway save points, but that didn't help the fatigue I was feeling. I was both constantly terrified from the fear of needing to restart the dungeon and burnt out from trudging through for so long. I know there's a quick save feature, but the punishment for losing is even worse when it's utilized. Which is saying something; because Blue Rescue Team is already super punishing for losing in a dungeon.
As far as I know, the post game dungeons reach levels as high as 99. It doesn't matter how many midway points there were; there's no way I could handle a dungeon that long. I'm honestly shocked this game doesn't save in-between, because literally ever other dungeon crawler/adjacent game I've played has that feature. It's not a quick save either, you can reset as much as you want. Considering how trial and error dungeon crawlers often are due to their random generation, I think allowing the player to reset as much as they want makes perfect sense. Does it make the game easier? Maybe, but to what degree? Just that feature alone would make Blue Rescue Team far more tolerable.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who love Blue Rescue Team's gameplay anyway. Perhaps they adore the challenge that awaits them in the 99 floor dungeons. I think it's amazing that so many people love the PMD series as much as they do. Believe me, I want to love it as well, but the gameplay is simply way too tedious for my tastes. I'll certainly give Explorers of Sky another shot; I remember the gameplay being far more tolerable and the aspects of Rescue Team I did love were enhanced tenfold. My only real hope is that the core of it all won't turn me off from appreciating where it truly succeeds, like Blue Rescue Team unfortunately did.
When I was 11, my mother's friend gifted me two Pokemon games- Explorers of Sky and HeartGold. I was immediately hooked to Explorers; it was both my introduction to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and dungeon crawlers as a whole. I never actually finished it, but the story and characters captivated me so much. I felt especially connected to my teammate. It certainly helped that my teammate was my favourite Pokemon at the time, Squirtle, but I had never been so charmed by a character in any other Pokemon game.
With how obsessed I was with Explorers, I wanted to experience its prequel as well: Rescue Team. Two years later, I bought a used copy of Blue at GameStop and was just as enamoured. However, the steep difficulty prevented me from progressing very far. It didn't help that my interest was leaning more towards the new Pokemon games like X and Alpha Sapphire. So, I put Blue Rescue Team and eventually Explorers of Sky down for a good while.
I want to say it was around 2017 when I started a new file on Blue Rescue Team and finally finished the main story. My feelings were far more conflicted by the end, and I wasn't motivated to explore the post game.
As far as gameplay goes, it's difficult for me to appreciate much about Blue Rescue Team. Now, I could ramble about all the baffling design choices and inconveniences that later games fixed. And in all fairness, the more polished mechanics of later games such as larger inventories or the recruit system go a long way in making them more enjoyable experiences. Hell, I'm sure this game would be a lot more tolerable with those improvements. I'm not entirely sure if I would end up liking that product either, though.
My biggest caveat with Blue Rescue Team isn't how horribly unpolished the game is; especially in comparison to later installments. Even at its core, I don't find Blue Rescue Team very fun or engaging. I love turn based RPGs, and I've enjoyed what I've played of dungeon crawlers. Maybe there's some great combination of the genres, but for me, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon certainly isn't. The grid based movement feels super clunky to me for this style; especially considering just moving one step counts as a turn. Every action taken counts as a turn, actually. I find it incredibly tedious to explore these dungeons because of that.
It's even worse when enemy Pokemon are involved. I don't mind the turn based battling when I do want to fight them, but what if I don't? Then I'm forced to endure the game constantly stopping me in my tracks so both my teammates and all the enemies can make their moves. I know it's possible to modify the teammates' AI, but it doesn't stop the whole experience from feeling like a slog to me.
These dungeons being absurdly long doesn't help, either. I don't mind the early game dungeons; they're often around 10 floors at most, which I would honestly consider the perfect amount. But especially around the second half of the game, the dungeons can stretch from 20 to as far as 30 levels! I recall a few dungeons having midway save points, but that didn't help the fatigue I was feeling. I was both constantly terrified from the fear of needing to restart the dungeon and burnt out from trudging through for so long. I know there's a quick save feature, but the punishment for losing is even worse when it's utilized. Which is saying something; because Blue Rescue Team is already super punishing for losing in a dungeon.
As far as I know, the post game dungeons reach levels as high as 99. It doesn't matter how many midway points there were; there's no way I could handle a dungeon that long. I'm honestly shocked this game doesn't save in-between, because literally ever other dungeon crawler/adjacent game I've played has that feature. It's not a quick save either, you can reset as much as you want. Considering how trial and error dungeon crawlers often are due to their random generation, I think allowing the player to reset as much as they want makes perfect sense. Does it make the game easier? Maybe, but to what degree? Just that feature alone would make Blue Rescue Team far more tolerable.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who love Blue Rescue Team's gameplay anyway. Perhaps they adore the challenge that awaits them in the 99 floor dungeons. I think it's amazing that so many people love the PMD series as much as they do. Believe me, I want to love it as well, but the gameplay is simply way too tedious for my tastes. I'll certainly give Explorers of Sky another shot; I remember the gameplay being far more tolerable and the aspects of Rescue Team I did love were enhanced tenfold. My only real hope is that the core of it all won't turn me off from appreciating where it truly succeeds, like Blue Rescue Team unfortunately did.