Speculation Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky Remake Speculation

[Bolt Strike]

So with the Rescue Team games being remade, that's now opened the door for other Mystery Dungeon games to get remade in the future. The next one in line would be the Explorers games, which first appeared on the DS in 2007 (2008 in the West) as Explorers of Time/Darkness, and later got a third version much like with the main games in Explorers of Sky in 2009. Would you like to see these games remade? What do you think should be included or improved in the remake?

 

[Pyrax]

Red/Blue Rescue Team were remade into one game, so I could see something similar for Explorers. Or at the very least a Sky remake due to the extra content.
That said, Explorers of Darkness is one of my favourite Pokemon games so I would love to see a remake if DX sells well. Imagine Hidden Land, Temporal Tower and the final boss in Switch graphics - I'd buy it day one.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Red/Blue Rescue Team were remade into one game, so I could see something similar for Explorers. Or at the very least a Sky remake due to the extra content.

Yeah, dual versions for Mystery Dungeon seems to be a thing of the past since it hasn't been done since Explorers. Labelling it as a Sky remake and throwing in the extra content seems like the best course of action.

That said, Explorers of Darkness is one of my favourite Pokemon games so I would love to see a remake if DX sells well. Imagine Hidden Land, Temporal Tower and the final boss in Switch graphics - I'd buy it day one.

Oh yeah, there are some locations that would look absolutely stunning in HD. I'm excited to see the ones you mentioned, plus the lakes and the future levels. The future would look downright chilling.

 

[prog rocker]

Yeah, dual versions for Mystery Dungeon seems to be a thing of the past since it hasn't been done since Explorers. Labelling it as a Sky remake and throwing in the extra content seems like the best course of action.

That, and people won't be screwed out of one Pokémon once online stops *glares at Mewtwo and Celebi*

 

[Bolt Strike]

That, and people won't be screwed out of one Pokémon once online stops *glares at Mewtwo and Celebi*

Yeah, that's the thing. Dual versions only really makes sense with a trading system, and it doesn't really make sense to "trade" recruits. If they want to include more communication and multiplayer elements, there are other options that fit the series better such as co-op (why is this not a thing yet?)/teaming up with other rescue teams in other games, or battling other rescue teams (they kind of had something like this in the originals with the Explorer Maze, but IIRC you couldn't actually battle each other, just send your teams over and the other would be controlled by CPUs). But ultimately, Mystery Dungeon is probably better as a single version.

Anyway, some other additions I'd like to see in remakes:

-All content from Sky included in the game including Spinda's Cafe, Sky Peak, the Special Episodes, Riolu and Shinx as starters.
-Arceus now fully appears in the game instead of being a statue
-All cross gen evolutions, Megas, and regional variants. I was especially disappointed the latter wasn't in Rescue Team DX since I'd rather evolve my Pikachu into Alolan Raichu instead of Kantonian Raichu. In this game, they might actually need them a little more since if the only limit themselves to regular cross gen and Megas like Rescue Team it would basically just be Sylveon and Megas, I want to see some more options like Alolan Raichu, Galarian Meowth and Perrserker.
-I want them to elaborate a bit more on Darkrai's motivations. As amazing as Explorers' storyline is with all of the twists and turns, and with Darkrai being the puppetmaster of all of it in the end, as a character Darkrai is a pretty generic villain. He just wants to rule a world of darkness because ???, and that doesn't make for a very compelling character. This might be a bit controversial, but I want them to make Darkrai more sympathetic so that the conflict feels more real, like he's doing something horrible because he feels he has to instead of just being a cliche bad guy. Like maybe something happened to him in his past that made him want to turn the world into darkness? Then it would make more sense for him to suddenly be a good guy when you recruit him, his amnesia at the hands of Palkia would undo whatever changed in him that made him evil and the Darkrai you encounter and recruit wandering around random dungeons is Darkrai's true personality. Just don't fall back on the evil entity schtick they've been doing in recent Mystery Dungeon games, that's getting cliche too.

 

[Silktree]

Isn't remake speculation a little repetitive?

"Yes, I want all the old content and lots of additions from the modern games."

That's the gist of any positive reply, isn't it? Unless you get into story changes, in which case:

Like maybe something happened to him in his past that made him want to turn the world into darkness?

Chunsoft chose not to explain that on two occasions. Let's face it: Any explanation for "I want to rule a dark world" is likely to be more cliche than the vagueness.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Isn't remake speculation a little repetitive?

"Yes, I want all the old content and lots of additions from the modern games."

That's the gist of any positive reply, isn't it?

That's really oversimplifying things. What is added from the modern games and new features can have a major impact on the gameplay. Some of the things I suggested like co-op and battling could really breathe new life into the game and make it more evergreen. New QoL improvements could streamline the game to remove some of the flaws and improve its merits. The specifics of those requests makes the discussion more interesting IMO, I for one am very interested in some of the ways a game like this which is considered a timeless classic in the fandom could be improved even further.

Unless you get into story changes, in which case:

Chunsoft chose not to explain that on two occasions. Let's face it: Any explanation for "I want to rule a dark world" is likely to be more cliche than the vagueness.

I disagree. Nothing is more boring and cliche than a villain with no personality and vague motivations of world domination and generally doing bad stuff.

 

[Nicolas721]

• Content from Sky should really be non-negotiable. It would be cool to see at least 1 new additional story episode.
• I would like to see more from Arceus too, but this is the same company that forgot to add Hoopa to Rumble World making that game incomplete forever so I don't have much hope.
• I'd like for Rescue Team Camps to come back, it seems more comfortable than that list.
• Maybe some kind of homage to the tower mechanic from Blazy/Stormy/Light Squad? Or just three dungeons referencing it.
• Like in Super, let Chatot & other NPCs go with you in missions. (If this already can be done in the original game forget this, I can't remember whether it was possible or not).
• More minigames like the one from Digglet.

 

[prog rocker]

I would like to see more from Arceus too, but this is the same company that forgot to add Hoopa to Rumble World making that game incomplete forever so I don't have much hope.

That was Ambrella, not Spike-Chunsoft. Also, Arceus has a higher chance of appearing since those kinds of situations only happen when the Mythical is still unrevealed (which is why SPMD didn't have Volcanion).

Like in Super, let Chatot & other NPCs go with you in missions. (If this already can be done in the original game forget this, I can't remember whether it was possible or not).

No, that was not in the original game.

 

[colours]

ok so, i booted up pmd: sky a while ago just to farm gummies to buff up shaymin and holy shit i realized just how much DX has spoiled me because replaying sky felt like a massive slogfest. and i'm not hating on the game either because it's actually my favourite pmd version, but... the difference is so night and day. now of course, comparing an 11-year old game with something that came out a month ago is hardly fair, but it really puts into perspective the improvements spike chunsoft has made version after version.

that said, if there was an explorers remake, here's what i feel would need to be fixed/changed/kept:

• remove IQ skills. no, seriously. DX has demonstrated that you can have pretty intelligent AI, so there's really no excuse for dumbing them down again for the sake of making gummis more useful. if anything else, gummis can serve a similar purpose to vitamins in DX except they boost a random stat like they always have. let people abuse them if they want, and for the people that don't want to, they can ignore it.

• keep rare qualities but have there be more of them like stair finder or something.

• keep the walking speed of DX cause holy crap the biggest thing that made sky so unplayable for me was that the normal walking speed felt SO SLOW compared to DX. it's so night and day it's not even funny. my memory is foggy of whether or not this was even improved upon in gates or even in super for that matter, but this is a really big deal to me.

• i'd just optimize spinda's cafe a bit so i can feed a pokemon several gummis at once. throw them into a blender and see what happens or something, idk. one at a time was getting kinda annoying, and spinda constantly calling my third party member over felt grating. i'd rather spinda ask me if i wanted to feed them any more gummis before sending them back.

• i like the idea of strong foe pokemon from DX and i think that should be kept. i dont think they should be exclusively shiny, though. i'm not sure how shininess would work as a mechanic if it was more widespread. i'd say decrease the likelihood of shininess for strong foe pokemon and increase it slightly for regular wild pokemon

• use gen 8 learnsets, keep megas, add regional forms perhaps. would be fun to see!

• make evolution mean something. this has bothered me especially in super mystery dungeon because evolution is basically meaningless because you can recruit the evo, anyway. the same holds true in DX to an extent except evolving means slightly more for rarer pokemon that you come across (like fainted 'mons). it just bugs me because why add something like evolution if it's hardly going to be utilized a whole lot? make the stat gains from evolving matter, make more evolved forms of pokemon much more rare to find such that the player would find it easier like 9 times out of 10 to evolve, that kinda stuff.

• the stat gains from leveling up are a joke in DX and that should be fixed. not that levels have ever really mattered in pmd games but like....when you level up and the only stat that changes are speed and hp....come on now.

• for the love of all that is good, fix the animations for some of the pokemon. my biggest gripe with DX so far is that the animation for some pokemon look so janky. i have no idea why vaporeon's tail looks superglued or why altaria moves like it's running a marathon when it's moving at normal speed. it's these little things that kinda bother me. venu's head bobble thing also bugs me a bit. i think shaymin's animation in pmd sky needs fixing too, to an extent cause idk, that strong side to side motion didnt bother me before but it does somewhat now and i hate that it does.

not an exhaustive list but these are the ones that immediately come to mind.

 

[Emelie]

I love PMD2 but I hope that they will put a little more effort into the graphics and animations. Don't make it look too cute. I think the atmosphere in the future is very important because it conveys a feeling of dread and hopelessness.

It would have been nice to have more animated cutscenes. I'm talking about actual anime not just the models jumping around. The fight scene when the protagonists fight Team ACT was probably meant to look epic but it looked funny to me. It would have been better as an animated cutscene.

I don't expect changes in the story but I wish that there was more grey zones. In Sky it was only Dusknoir who doubted himself, maybe it would add a new layer to Grovyle's character if he also had his doubts. Is the conflict truly as black and white as the game makes it out to be?