Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a remake of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team, and on the surface level it is a wonderful remake. The art is beautifully rendered in an artistic pastel style and there are a great number of quality of life improvements like rare qualities to the game. The characters are charming and funny, and it is fun to interact with other Pokemon in the town square. After a few hours of playing though the repetitive combat mechanics and conflicting genres may begin to wear on the player.
The storyline of the game is one of the oddest things players will ever experience. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon opens with the player (who was once human) having been turned into a Pokemon overnight. This transformation is handled by having players take a personality quiz to determine which Pokemon best suits them. Then players get to choose which other Pokemon they would like to be their best friend and partner. The two then decide to form a rescue team and save reckless creatures who have adventured into dangerous dungeons.
The story is goofy and fits very well with the charming oddity of a typical Pokemon story, but over time it becomes nonsensical. Players will find themselves running through dungeons with no rhyme or reason other than being told their actions will help save the world. This isn't really much of an issue, as most Pokemon games and movies have very little plotline to begin with, and its easy to ignore the plot when helpless Pokemon need saving.
The largest change that fans of the series will notice is that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX has greatly improved the graphics of the title. The original games sported the typical pixel-art style of the Game Boy Advance era, but the remake looks absolutely gorgeous with its painted pastel backdrop and characters. It is by far one of the best looking Pokemon games ever released. On top of this the soundtrack is infectiously catchy, and players will find themselves struggling not to smile as they walk around the town square.
Dungeon-crawling is the main aspect of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, and it is where players will begin to find issues with the game. Combat seems very simplified and to the point in the opening hours of the game. Movement through dungeons is tile based, and every time the player makes a movement so do their enemies. This forces players to think strategically about which direction they will move in as attacks have specific distance requirements.
Players must keep these requirements in mind as they navigate dungeons, especially in the later points of the game. Attacks like Brick Break can only attack the tile directly in front of the player, can't go around corners, and put the character directly in the path of the enemy. Cubone's Bonemerang on the other hand is an effective distance weapon that can hit multiple enemies several times. Other ranged weapons like Razor Leaf can even go through corners to attack enemies.
The issue here is that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX doesn't explain these conditions very clearly. Understanding that Brick Break doesn't attack around corners is a discovery that will ultimately be uncovered through trial and error rather than an in-game explanation. Other moves like Graveler's Magnitude are unnecessarily over-powered and can cause damage to an entire room no matter how far away the Pokemon is. This means that teams without effective ranged attacks can be knocked out in just a few hits by certain enemies.
Pokemon games have almost always stuck to the traditional turn-based combat system that is a tried and true format. Other Pokemon game formats have been experimented with to varying degrees of success, but Mystery Dungeon deviates the most from the Pokemon series. The turn based combat has been mixed with a simplified RTS system that seems intriguing at first glance. This system makes a lot of sense with the dungeon crawling focus that prioritizes handling many enemies at once.
Over time though it becomes apparent that the gameplay mechanics are deeply flawed. By combining traditional Pokemon mechanics with an RTS system it begins to feel like there are two separate games competing for superiority within Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. The game would have been much better suited if it leaned more heavily into the RTS format rather than simplifying it for the sake of Pokemon.
Movement in particular is a travesty in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. Moving teams around dungeons feels extremely stiff and at times unresponsive, particularly with a larger team. If the player encounters an enemy within a tight corridor, most of the time only the first two team members in the line will be able to attack. Sometimes if a player encounters an enemy in an open area though, one of the player's AI controlled teammates will block the door to the room and prevent other teammates from entering to help. This very easily could have been rectified by allowing players to move each team member one square at a time per turn like other more popular RTS games.
Frustratingly, there are no enemy health bars in Mystery Dungeon. This is not much of an issue against regular enemies, as they typically go down in just a few hits. This makes it pretty easy to estimate enemy HP and prioritize attacking or using an item. Boss battles can be infuriating without knowing how many more hits the boss can take. There will be several times that players will continue attacking thinking that the enemy is almost dead, only to take a massive hit that wouldn't have been an issue if the player had healed up first. Not knowing how much health a boss has left leaves players wasting or hoarding necessary items.
Items are an incredibly important aspect of Mystery Dungeon and it can be annoying how scarce they are in the endgame. Most players will spend the majority of the game with more items and money than they know what to do with. This is important because while in a dungeon players must monitor their health, hunger, and the PP of their moves. This means ensuring that their inventory is full of oran berries, apples, ethers, and revive seeds, which is all not to mention the vast amount of other items needed to succeed throughout the game. It becomes incredibly confusing to keep track of what items are necessary and many players will find themselves having to quit dungeons halfway through because they forgot to bring any apples.
The first time that most players will struggle will be during the penultimate dungeon of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, and this is when items will become vitally important. If players aren't the proper level and don't have the right combination of items in their inventory they will quickly find themselves overwhelmed. The kicker here is that losing while in a dungeon will completely clear out all the items and money that the player is currently carrying with them. A few deaths from within a dungeon have the potential of completely wiping out a player's stockpiles of healing and reviving items.
At this point most players would assume that restocking would be a simple matter of walking over to the store and buying a massive amount of items. Sadly, in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX the store carries a limited amount of resources. The only real way to gain more items is to find them in dungeons, so players will have to spend a ridiculous amount of time grinding for items to make another attempt at a difficult dungeon.
The worst aspect of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is that players will spend a lot of their time grinding for items and experience. This isn't anything new for a Pokemon game, but in a standard game the mechanics are much more interesting. Mystery Dungeon on the other hand is repetitive and boring, and players will spend the last few hours of the game wondering what the point is.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a beautifully rendered Pokemon game, but looks are not everything. The opening hours of the game are charming and intriguing, but the mechanics quickly become repetitive. If Mystery Dungeon would be more willing to lean into its RTS elements, the game would be an incredible experience. It is sad to say that the best part is the personality quiz at the beginning to decide which Pokemon players get to be. In its current state Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a clunky uninspired mess.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is available for Nintendo Switch. A Nintendo Switch code was provided for the purposes of this review.