For those who enjoy:
crazy narratives
screaming at RNG
lovable side characters
bawling your eyes out at the credits
existential crisis subplots
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon! The best Pokémon spin-off series! Transformed into a Pokémon (and with amnesia to boot!), it's up to you to solve the mystery of how you ended up in the Pokémon world, and probably save it from an untimely fate in the process! Charming characters and goofy moments are balanced out by attempts at genuinely emotional storytelling. I played the first game when I was nine years old and ever since I've been fruitlessly trying to quantify the impact these games have had on me.
The start of it all, released for both GBA (Red) and DS (Blue). It's lacking the polish of its sequels (and features some downright unfair difficulty spikes), but it's still a charming game--I hold a special place for it in my heart as the first one I played (and the one I've probably played the most!).
Hands down the best PMD game of the bunch, full of memorable characters and one of the most impactful narratives I've ever experienced at the grand old age of eleven years old. Explorers of Sky is the definitive version of the game, with added content over Time and Darkness, but the core of what makes the games great is present in all three. (Collectively, these games tend to be referred to as “PMD2”.)
Gates to Infinity needs to GET OUT OF MY HEAD. Often considered PMD's weakest link, I would not recommend playing this one unless you're wholeheartedly devoted to the series (aka played and really loved all the others). It's impressively tedious and objectively not super well designed, BUT! I can smell potential... there's something worthwhile here that just couldn't be sculpted quite right, as evidenced by the fact that I can't seem to stop thinking about the game.
The last new PMD game in nine years. It definitely feels like a culmination of the entire series, featuring all Pokémon up to Gen VI and being chock full of references to previous games (though newcomers can enjoy it all the same). If you can make it through a lengthy and dull first act, you'll get sent careening through quite the emotional rollercoaster. Full of surprises and a lot of content--I've still not finished the postgame.
A remake of the original games conveniently tossed onto Switch. It irons out the kinks and brings the experience up to speed with modern expectations (lots of quality-of-life changes!), so I'd say that unless you carry some heavy nostalgia for the sprite-based aesthetics of the GBA era or crave a more brutal experience, then this is the definitive way to play the original PMD.
Let's see, what else do these games have? ...Epic music! The series' soundtracks never cease to amaze (though Rescue Team, while having some catchy tunes, is admittedly lacking in the breadth of its successors)--Explorers makes masterful use of recurring motifs, and I carry a soft spot for Gates to Infinity's dungeon themes in particular. These games simply would not hit the same without their killer soundtracks.
I wanna give a special shoutout to FiveNineSquared in particular, whose creative arrangements of Dialga's Fight to the Finish, Don't Ever Forget, and A Wish for Peace I have been playing on repeat for months. It's really amazing to see how these games--PMD2 in particular, since it has the largest fanbase--continue to inspire people so many years after their release. I'd urge you to check out FiveNineSquared's arrangements (plus their original stuff, since it's also great!) if you have a little time, though note that since the three songs I just mentioned all play at PMD2's end, the videos can get a little spoiler-y (and I would urge you not just to play the PMD games, but to do it blind!), so you've been warned.
(Also I just find it funny to see another composer who went through the Musescore to Cakewalk pipeline. If they pick up Reaper next, I'm gonna laugh really hard.)
As for me, I have taken a stab at a couple PMD tracks myself. I'd like to do some more in the future (and might be working on a little something right now), but for now, these two will have to do. Both were made as a way of testing out Musescore 4, and were made possible thanks to Some Body's amazing PMD transcription project.
(Hydreigon sprites by TopKec from PMD Sprite Repository)
A small thing I've always found really appealing about PMD is that each game has a short personality test at the beginning to determine which Pokémon you become. It's a simple way to get you invested in the premise of becoming a Pokémon, and all the combinations made available by the Pokémon on offer give the games better replay value. One of the great things about PMD is that this wide variety of possible teams means that everybody who plays each game has a slightly different experience.
Except... there's one problem. I LIED! Gates to Infinity has no personality quiz (honestly a major reason I never bought the game when it was new). And it only has a disappointing five starters to choose from. Having trouble deciding? Need somebody to tell you which one to pick? Well, you're in luck, as I've cobbled together my own little makeshift personality test for the game, styled after the tests from PMD1 and 2. Enjoy!
But wait, there's more! Five starters is a pretty measly amount... what if there were fifty? What if the test also determined your ✨aura color✨? Well, you don't have to wonder, because below is an expanded (and much more well-coded and presented) quiz that I've dubbed the ULTIMATE PMD Personality Quiz. Is the title self-centered? Maybe a little. But regardless, I hope you have fun with it.