I make no exaggeration when I claim that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is the single best piece of media to come out of the Pokémon franchise. If someone with absolutely no prior exposure to Pokémon asked me for one game to play, I would without hesitation recommend this one. I don’t think I can ever begin to articulate how much of an impact this game has had on who I am today... so needless to say, I really love this game.
As a sequel, PMD2 expands effectively on all the concepts introduced by its predecessor. Kinks are ironed out, systems are expanded, and you’re thrown into a whole new world to explore, complete with the single best Pokémon narrative and a cast of characters that it’s difficult not to fall in love with. There’s a plethora of new items (that can finally be used easily on your partners as well!) and more space to hold them all to allow for more strategic gameplay—I remember the game being really difficult for me as a kid, but with a bit more experience, knowing how to prepare can make things much easier (...and it might’ve helped that I had a partner who knew Blizzard this time around). If there’s anything that could be bashed about PMD2 in comparison with the original, it might be that it expands a little too much—more to prepare means more time spent preparing. If the game were ever remade (WE’RE ALL BEGGING), a couple quality-of-life additions could go a long way... Mostly the ability to withdraw items from Kangaskhan Storage and accept job requests without having to keep running back and forth across Treasure Town would be nice (plus a more streamlined way to toss stuff out when your storage fills up...).
Narratively, PMD2 sticks with me as one of the most memorable games I’ve ever played, and is once again a notable improvement over its predecessor. There’s an ebb and flow to narrative momentum as different arcs begin and conclude, but the overarching story permeates it all much more effectively, and the chapter structure gives the push and pull of narrative tension a more natural feeling than Rescue Team. There’s no moment where the game feels like all narrative momentum is dropped and it has to scramble to figure out what to do, so... that’s good! There’s plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested, the climax builds excellently, and the ending holds a continued propensity to choke me up better than any other game.
The gameplay remains not exactly the core appeal of PMD, though it’s, uh... still fairly enjoyable? You’re not going to fall in love with PMD because of the gameplay, to put it simply. The pixel art is gorgeous, the music is fantastic, and as mentioned, the characters and narrative are great as well. There’s a million reasons to love this game—the gameplay isn’t bad, but it’s not one of them.
Every aspect of PMD2 culminates into an experience that leaves a lasting impression, and one I’m sure has permanently altered my brain chemistry. There’s something about this game that is indescribably beautiful to me, and there’s a reason I keep coming back to it over the years. If you have any passing interest in Pokémon, please do yourself a favor and sit down and give this game a shot. And play it blind! I promise you won’t regret it.