The Escort Mission Pokemon Games - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 

Hey this dusknoir guy seems pretty cool

eyyy, a mystery dungeon video! Honestly, you're right, having the partner Pokemon being defeated while in a dungeon is definitely a big issue in the games. I guess I was lucky in that I didn't experience my main partner being defeated as often, but *actual* escort missions with weak NPCs were more of a pain in the butt. You bringing up that mission with Cresselia gave me nightmare flashbacks lol

I actually completely disagree! Even though swapping tactics, iq and moves every turns in tough fights is really annoying after like 7 turns because you want your partner to use status moves whenever the opponent isn't statussed and back to attacks if it isn't, I recognise that we are a team and if my homie falls, I'm not leaving them back to rot there. After all, who brings *you* to the camp if you fall? That's right, your one and only G. -Well, unless you both got discharged by those stupid Porygons and both died lol-

anyone else just get so emotionally attached to their partner pokemon that you cried every time they died? Just me?

Up to this day reptain is still my favourite Pokemon, just because of mystery dungeon xD Edit: I forgot reptain is the german name, in english the Pokemon is called: Grovyle

Without reviver seeds, this game would be 100x longer 🤣

After playing Rescue Team and Explorers back to back, as far as the partner AI goes, I think Rescue Team's AI is a lot worse. The partner is much less likely to attack when you want them too, while in Explorers it actually feels like they have more of a functioning brain, even if it still feels like they don't do enough.

I actually enjoyed friend areas and missed seeing them in their full glory in the remakes

I know the multiplier for Super Effective moves isn't as severe in PMD, but gosh, it still makes the partner system pretty wild. Revisiting Blue Rescue Team, picking Chikorita as a partner because Chikorita is cute, and then realizing most of the major bosses are Flying-Types was a horrifying experience. Those birds are the worst. I recently played some of the other, non-Pokémon-themed Mystery Dungeon games, and I'll admit it's made PMD hard to go back to. In Shiren the Wanderer, typically, your only penalty for losing a party member is having to do the rest of the dungeon without them.

Wondering when Droomish evolves into Dreloom

I think there's a lot of systematic problems at the core of PMD, but I think these games fall into the category of "so much good stuff that you can get by with the bad".

The IQ Skills are so cute if you think about it because it's like you're growing together

I don't know man. My Partner saved my bacon many times. I'd scarper and leave them to deal with a monster house whilst I desperately searched for the exit. It is most painfully obvious how important they are in Explorers of Sky when trying to get to Arceus. I still haven't beaten that 100 floor dungeon where you start from level 1 with no team and only 8 items. I have tried it at least 20 times and damn it's so incredibly rough. Having no team makes life suck in those games, even if your companion can be annoyingly naive and dumb sometimes. I love having teammates in that game and I'd never want it any other way. I already got normal RPGs and strategy games like Fire Emblem where I can dictate the moves of my full team. Mystery Dungeon is a different vibe.

In Sky specifically, there's a type of post game missions which are the best missions to do, which are the golden chamber missions, which are always escort missions, so I think they did it RIGHT then. In future games, i'm not sure what I think of the game letting you carry on without your partner in future games.

As a young kid, I used an action replay to get me and my partner pokemon to 999 health and to turn off the hunger system and to basically make there be No Challenge to EoT. I somehow still fainted in monster houses sometimes, which shows how much of an idiot kid I was. I digress. Anyway, I do 100% remember being frustrated by my partner dying so much as a kid, before I hacked. When I myself was behaving with AI level strats.

watching this while playing dx lol! also I kinda liked how bad the partner ai was as a kid. although it was frustrating to keep losing to dusknoir over and over again, I did eventually get it and that adrenaline rush was crazy :)

The partner AI can be adjusted with Party Tactics. But the default being the best doesn’t make it good. If your partner can body a dungeon by itself, splitting up to explore a map can lead to great things. But the best thing I’ve learned is the usefulness of making the partner run away when things get dicey. You may need to go find them later which can eat time, but you will still be alive to play.

My partner getting knocked out was the main reason I died as a kid. Explorers of Sky is still one of my favorite games of all time

Ah...I thought you were gonna talk about the actual escort missions in red and blue rescue teams......because those are tedious. But it turns out the whole franchise is an escort mission. Always has been.....

I absolutely love videos on niches in spin off Pokémon games, I think its such an untapped mine of content. Great video !!

Omg yes that boss fight with Darkrai made me hate Cresslia in this game! Who thought it was a great idea to have a physic type fight a dark type. And honestly your partner is about as strong as you so I never had a problem with them minus the harder bosses it didn’t bother me too much.

While I agree on the fact that the partner can be a pain in the butt, you have tons of control over it, and if you use the various options correctly, you can indeed make them more useful. Yes, they mostly feel like a liability, but if you choose them right (like, you pick a partner that would cover your type weakness) they can be life savers. I think the Mystery Dungeon games have far greater problems (such as some broken moves, items, mechanics, or the fact that is 65% luck based) but I still liked to hear your thought about it.

This was an interesting perspective on the games. Its nice this see how good they hold up, despite some of the jank! Thanks for the video :)

Everybody everybody everybody. Don't pick eevee as a partner in sky, that's all.

6:54 Actually that feature was remove in mega mystery dungeon.

You’re right about the partner thing, but once you beat the first half of the story then you can go on Solo missions. I’m a Riolu that hits like a fucking truck.

1:15 Ok, I suppose I see what you say? But full disclosure I was the weakest link when playing. I'd hold a+b during early dungeons to get my partners to fight for me, and I'd proceed to do that the whole game. I was an absolute slacker! And I'd just sorta... funnel any berries/items, into the partner to keep em strong, And it just kept working, and nobody ever really told me to stop, so I just kept doing it. Lol

I think that Super Mystery Dungeon, with the ability to switch to your partner Pokémon throughout more of the game, as well as being able to choose to push or pass through them, made it a better dungeon-crawling experience, especially when it came to getting separated. Honestly, if there was a PMD game where there was an option to control your characters one after the other when there were enemies around, I think that would be ideal.

thankfully there is a mod that allow you to fully control your entire team, its not a necessary, but its good to have more control over your partners

Always keep a teleport orb and rollcall orb on you.

I’m playing Mystery Dungeon right now as we speak, I’m grinding to Master Rank then starting the post game.

Droomish with ANOTHER Banger Video :3

I never really thought of the game this way I got used to controlling the whole party by anticipating how NPCs would move around my character. There's still the odd occasion where they'll pick a fight when you don't want one but its never really a problem

Cyndaquil was the most op of all time. Gimme that whiffer boy

I haven't played a PMD game since Rescue Team was new, but I recall it being braindead easy (postgame was brutal though). The idea of your run being in danger due to your partner's mortality actually sounds kinda thrilling lol. Am I wrong though? Perhaps my childhood self simply grinded a massive amount that it ruined the difficulty curve

Honestly the partner was never an issue for me, it's the mission escorts that are bad. Rescue Team especially since the AI was pretty bad with Vileplume or Slaking escorts iirc

Red/Blue Rescue Team are my favorite non-fan made pokemon games. DX could have beaten them if they kept friend areas in the game I think the escorting kinda fits. You are a human with human intelligence. Pokemon are animals. Of course you're going to know what to do better than them!

The whole rougelite looking after an idiot mechanics actually really shaped my taste as a kid and i now spend too much of my time on dwarf fortress cause of it

Comment for the Algorithmus. Good video. Keep up the good work

Is this why they limited partner Pokémon choice in the original Mystery Dungeon? Having a partner that is a different type from your starter ensures that they are useful to the player. This makes them more likeable escorts.

anybody playing the first two pmd games and having a rough time with bosses, What I do to get past them is make good use of seeds and other items. not just reviver seeds. Blast seeds are good for quick damage early-mid game. Warp seeds can buy you time, even in the boss room. Quick seeds to up your moves per turn. Violent and vile seeds to max out your attack and lower the enemy's defences are a good combo. And there's the obvious stun seed, totter seed, and x-eye seed that can prevent the enemy from attacking. Gravelrocks in the first game are some of the best items you can have if you don't have a ranged move, they do a set 20 damage each time you hit and are good for the earlier bosses in the game. The other thing to somewhat get around the partner's ai is tightly controlling their moves during a bossfight and always making sure the Exclusive Move-User IQ skill is active. This is a basic IQ skill that every pokemon knows right away. You can deselect moves you dont want your partner to use during your turn so they only use what you want. Make sure either you or your partner always knows a move that can prevent the boss from hitting. Smokescreen, sing, thunderwave, etc. If your partner doesn't learn a move like this naturally, its usually pretty easy to find the tm attract in an early dungeon and multiple times throughout your playthrough. Every pokemon can learn this move and in the first game, no pokemon have a gender. (its pretty useful for *you* to know a move like this too tbh.) for multi-enemy bosses and monster houses, its good to have a pokemon that knows ranged moves, and multi-hit moves. moves that can hit the whole room or every tile around you are great for these situations.

I hate the Cresselia and Darkrai quest in explorers of sky, just because Cresselia couldn’t stop dying! Never ended up beating Darkrai.

W for having pikachu as your partner. Best partner ever uwu

i wonder if how much this effects the game depends a lot on who your pokemon is and who the partner is. i don't remember running into this much, and my partner was usually levelling slightly above me, so maybe that's related. (i think i was a torchic and my partner was mudkip?) i do remember hating the specific escort missions though, i avoided them whenever i could haha

Before even watching the video, Cresselia is an absolute bum and a drain on my reviver seeds

Can we get onto another gripe on this other day? Far worse than any of this for me was: Earth Power Nidoqueen PP-Zero Traps

HE DOESNT MISS 🔥🔥🔥

Loving the videos!

Imo Explorers of sky is the best pokemon game

I have been playing mystery dungeon yearly for almost 20 years and the partner ai in vanilla isn't the best I love the mystery dungeon rom hacking scene since they add the ability to press a button and you control the whole party in a boss fight . But these games have flaws still like super mystery dungeon taking grinding away half way through or some the first games escort missions have the escorted pokemon be level 1 in a dangerous dungeon

I like these games, but one thing I kind of don't like about the explorers series is team skull. it's just weird I guess, they're like team meanies from the previous game, but they just don't have depth. they antagonize you for no reason, hell their personality makes me question how they are even in wigglytuff's guild. they force you to lose a mission and you can't do anything about that, I guess its so the other guild members can help you out later. but then at the end they get beat off screen so you don't even get catharsis from their loss. just annoying thing I guess.

I don't mind this all that much but also I go out of my way to take escort missions so my opinion is probably invalid already

I mean no offence but this vid just seems incredibly aimless and pointless. You say you have no control over your partners yet you literally control them and the moves they do. Calling the game a “glorified escort mission” is literally incorrect since you control like 98% of your partner. It seems like you’re upset at certain instances of the game where the partner acts out in way you dislike - and in that case, I understand your frustration but it doesn’t really prove that the game is a “glorified escort mission”, it’s just a part of the game design and it is remedied by other game mechanics

You are the first person I've heard that says the story is the worst part of the series.

As a kid it always pissed me off you couldn't evolve. Like why.