Spin-Off Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Game-play Criticism (Spoiler Free)

[Alola]

The counterpart of the earlier thread, this thread is to discuss any criticisms you have with Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon's game-play. Any features you wanted to see return but didn't? Anything currently used that you find annoying? Something you think that could be improved upon?

For instance, while the "push" mechanic is helpful, I don't like how it is the default option rather than simply sliding past your teammates. I think the mechanics should be reversed. Also, I'm sad that you can't talk to your partner & teammates in dungeons

Remember, this thread is story/plot spoiler free and solely regards criticism for the game play/game mechanics.

 

[sc190191]

If my parter goes the other way from me and gets into a battle I can't get back to help and then frequently end up losing. Just in general it is hard to turn towards an opponent when another team member is the one who starts the battle.

 

[Juliko]

I just don't like the fact that you can't nickname any of the Pokemon you connect with. I wanted to name Deerling Bambi!

 

[Muur]

If my parter goes the other way from me and gets into a battle I can't get back to help and then frequently end up losing. Just in general it is hard to turn towards an opponent when another team member is the one who starts the battle.

Bloody hell I'll miss that once it's released here in 4 years

 

[DarkTouya]

For instance, while the "push" mechanic is helpful, I don't like how it is the default option rather than simply sliding past your teammates. I think the mechanics should be reversed. Also, I'm sad that you can't talk to your partner & teammates in dungeons

You didn't try enough. You can still talk to your partner if you keep pressing "A" when you face them (usally they talk after they make 3 or 4 poses).

 

[Stratelier]

I like how relaxed some of the rules are for your non plot-critical expeditions -- e.g. switch leaders any time and you don't automatically lose if an ally is KO. I also like that if your HP is low then an ally Pokemon will prompt you to use an item instead of taking their turn normally.

But how exactly do they rate difficulty of expeditions again? For example, team up with Axew to take down a Salamence. Difficulty 1 star shouldn't be a problem, right? Except Salamence wallops me for 100 damage a hit, I'm going through reviver seeds like water and can barely even do 10-plus damage to the guy. I did my best, probably totaled 100 damage or so, but certainly not enough, and the team fell. No rescues allowed in that battle either. Time for some level grinding (currently Lv.13-14), and maybe I'll find some replacement Looplets along the way.

Oh, and speaking of rescues, according to Pelipper Island you can take a second team in to rescue your first, i.e. you don't need friend connectivity to do this. That. Is. Awesome.

My secondary team (which I tried the Pelipper quiz repeatedly for) is officially Riolu, Charmander, and Froakie. (A.k.a. the smash bros trio.)

 

[Alola]

You didn't try enough. You can still talk to your partner if you keep pressing "A" when you face them (usally they talk after they make 3 or 4 poses).

That's true, but the fact that said conversation isn't immediate and you may amount to 10+ waves before they finally utter a line of dialogue is still annoying.

I like how relaxed some of the rules are for your non plot-critical expeditions -- e.g. switch leaders any time and you don't automatically lose if an ally is KO. I also like that if your HP is low then an ally Pokemon will prompt you to use an item instead of taking their turn normally.

But how exactly do they rate difficulty of expeditions again? For example, team up with Axew to take down a Salamence. Difficulty 1 star shouldn't be a problem, right? Except Salamence wallops me for 100 damage a hit, I'm going through reviver seeds like water and can barely even do 10-plus damage to the guy. I did my best, probably totaled 100 damage or so, but certainly not enough, and the team fell. No rescues allowed in that battle either. Time for some level grinding (currently Lv.13-14), and maybe I'll find some replacement Looplets along the way.

Oh, and speaking of rescues, according to Pelipper Island you can take a second team in to rescue your first, i.e. you don't need friend connectivity to do this. That. Is. Awesome.

My secondary team (which I tried the Pelipper quiz repeatedly for) is officially Riolu, Charmander, and Froakie. (A.k.a. the smash bros trio.)

For the Salamence, you should utilize items that inflict status such as Sleeping Wands and or Confuse Wands (you also have access to a Vulpix by that time who can learn Confuse Ray as well as the TM Attract). I think Salamence is meant as a device to reinforce that players will have to utilize skills and resources to take down stronger opponents rather than simply power (in the previous PMD games).

I also think mission difficulty depends more so on the dungeon (length, traps, enemies, room hitting moves, monster house appearances etc) itself rather than simply the mission. But that;s just my current opinion- I may be wrong.

And I didn't know you could do that with the rescue! That's so helpful! I've never been wiped out entirely (although one time I was close) but if it gets to that point, I'll try it out.

 

[Stratelier]

I think Salamence is meant as a device to reinforce that players will have to utilize skills and resources to take down stronger opponents rather than simply power (in the previous PMD games).

I'm aware of that possibility (e.g. first monster house -- I was fortunate that most of the enemy Pokemon dropped in on largely one side so I had a direction to run, and a Petrify Orb on top of that), but -- from a design perspective, you just DO NOT mess around with the one hit kills.

 

[Stratelier]

A little more progress in and it looks like they changed the stats system to be a little truer to the main series. I could never figure out how it worked in previous PMD games, where you always seemed to get the same stat boosts every level and if you evolved a Pokemon this seemed only to give them a fixed buff to their stats. In the battle against Entei, when my team unexpectedly evolved to final forms, my Fenric suddenly had double the HP, even though he still took quite a beating from the legendary.

Also, a funny thing that happened is during that mission where you take Wynaut to battle Primeape, Primeape chose to use Final Gambit. It did a whopping 531 damage -- but left Primeape susceptible to a follow-up KO.

I kinda like how the way you recruit new Pokemon is a lot different this time around. Instead of beating wild Pokemon to a pulp until one randomly asks to join up, Pokemon on your Connection Orb offer you specific "quests" and the reward for completing them is recruiting them. Even if there's only a limited amount of these expeditions, the sheer roster of Pokemon keeps it fresh for long enough. (Though it totally feels weird that I can call on a Lv.50 Salamence despite my main characters only being low-20s. Disc One Nuke much?)

I really, really like how in standard (non plot critical) missions you can make any Pokemon the leader at any time, and you don't instantly lose if one of them gets KO'ed.

 

[Sakuraa]

The push mechanic is defiantly useful. I've used it several times to literally push my partners away from foes to safety. But I really just don't like it all that much. In the beginning of the game I would constantly forget about it and while looking at the bottom screen to see where I was, I'd end up pushing my partner all the way through a hallway instead of going in front of them. And sometimes I'd accidentally push it twice by mistake and dash when I was just trying to switch places. I'm used to it now and am more accepting of it, but it's definitely not one of my favorite features.

I'm not a fan of using the Connection orb to get missions and recruit new members. First of all, it's annoying that I sometimes have to link with certain mons just to get the opportunity to link to mons that I actually want. Second, I just preferred the original knock-out method myself. I also HATE that I can't nickname my teammates. I'm a nicknamer. I like nicknaming Pokemon and not being able to do this for any Pokemon except my partner and I is really annoying. It's especially annoying since we've been able to do so in every previous PMD game.

I'm also not fond of my partners rushing away from me to get items either. It's fine in small rooms, but when I'm in a huge ass room and the items are all the way on the other side, I'm having to chase my partners all the way to the other side just to monitor them and make sure they don't die or wonder off in another direction. That's pretty annoying.

Lastly, I hate that once again, I couldn't choose my gender. I thought it was fine at first since gender pronouns were never used to reference me (except a random Simisage that called me brother, but I kind of shrugged that off), but regardless of that, playing as Pikachu or having an evolution with gender differences shows that you're still always male no matter what and that bothers me. What's even worse is that they brought back the personality test and the option to choose your partner's gender, but there's no question to choose my own gender like in the Rescue or Explorers games. That just confuses the heck out of me. I'd personally rather have my own gender represented in the game over being able to choose my partner's.

Wow, that turned out to be a lot, lol.