Let's Play Mystery Dungeon DX, Part 2: Recruitment Drive

Welcome back to my little let's play of Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX! Last where we left off, I was reincarnated as a Mudkip and have been shanghaied into working alongside my partner Bulbasaur as part of a Rescue Team. But as I start to get into the rhythm of doing commissions and going to bed and floating in a strange green realm and having cryptic narration all over me, this time I experience an earthquake. 

And turns out that the earthquake happened in real life as well. Bulbasaur and Mudkip discuss this strange phenomenon before a strange third voice joins in... and out pops Dugtrio! This little gimmick happens multiple times throughout this quest, with characters talking, Dugtrio joining in, and then popping up with bombast. It's... it's not as funny as the game thinks it is, but at least they commit to it. 

Far less funny is that Dugtrio is the parent (parents?) of the Diglett that showed up a couple of in-game days earlier, and he was abducted by a very angry Skarmory and taken to the top of Mt. Steel. And... and that raises some questions as how a bird (a metal bird, but regardless) is able to drag off a whack-a-mole. Unless Skarmory uprooted whatever was underneath that strange soil... which, of course, is not for the audience's eyes. 

Mt. Steel is almost double the length of the previous dungeon, and filled with a more variable typing. As its name implies, we've got the Steel-type Beldum and Aron wandering around, but also a mixture of Fighting and Psychic types -- Tyrogue, Baltoy and Meditite also populate the mountain. It's still not hard per se, but I did actually experience my first fainting at around two or three floors in where a Beldum knocks out my poor Mudkip. In the olden games, this would've been game over since my main character was knocked out! Here, I did have to chomp down on a Revive Seed while the game positions Bulbasaur as the 'main' character, but it's nice to have a bit of a challenge. 

This dungeon also gives me a bunch of new mechanics -- Gravelerocks (not to be confused with Gravelers, who are rocks) are items that I can equip and function as like an extra attacking item. Like pots in Elden Ring! Which is actually quite useful due to the very limited party! It allows some long-distance sniping and preservation of PP, which is neat. I also encounter my first traps, which is similar to the floor traps in some of the multiplayer secret bases from Generation IV, which is a lot less funny in this game. 

Eventually, I do reach the summit and Diglett is stuck across a ravine and panicking. Our big bad boss, Skarmory, swoops in and starts ranting about how he hasn't been able to get a good's night sleep for a long time because he keeps being bothered by the earthquakes. Which... Skarmory, my guy, you're literally a Flying-type! You're immune to Ground-type moves!

Of course, Skarmory refuses to listen, and we get a boss fight at the top of this mountain. Which is... actually not the easiest type matchup for me. Skarmory's Flying-type attacks have an advantage against Bulbasaur, which means that Mudkip has to tank... but Mudkip's Ground-type moves do nothing against Skarmory (Immune! To! Ground!) and Skarmory resists Water. I do have healing items in berries, which means that I take down Skarmory without any casualties on my side. Beaten up by a mudfish and a garlic frog, Skarmory beats a hasty retreat. 

There's a bit of a conundrum as my Rescue Team figures out how to get Diglett past the crevice, but the pair of Magnemite we helped before show up and then use their magnetism to get Diglett across the crevice. Again, how? I guess both Skarmory and Magnemite are able to lift the chunk of dirt that Diglett is attached to? 

At this point, we get the screenshot that Mystery Dungeon is perhaps the most known for, where we do a cutaway back to the town. Diglett is happy and notes that his feet still feel like they're walking on air, and Mudkip, Bulbasaur and Magnemite are all utterly shocked at the mention of 'feet'. "He has them? Feet?" goes the utterly bamboozled Magnemite. 

Dugtrio does his little gimmick of popping up and thanking everyone present, and we get a cute little nod at Generation I's design aesthetic as the Magnemites note that they feel kinship over their similar jointed-trio evolved forms. That's a cute little nod. 

As the Diglett and Dugtrio leave, Bulbasaur realizes that we could do a proper RPG thing and start recruiting people, and asks the Magnemites to join. And the Magnemites seem happy to do so... until they ask where they're going to leave. When Bulbasaur and I are unable to answer, they hover-waddle off. They're not taking anything but perfect working conditions, I can respect them for that. But next up is going to be creating a way for us to get more party members, which I am a fan of! 

I get another dream with the ominous silhouette of a Pokemon I totally don't recognize, nope, no siree. In the next morning, Bulbasaur asks me if I actually want to be human again, but the game doesn't really let me do much other than give a proverbial shrug. Bulbasaur and I go back to the Pokemon Square, where Wigglytuff's Camp Corner is up. She explains the recruitment mechanic -- there's some 20-odd habitats that I need to purchase, and whether I can recruit certain types of Pokemon really depends on what habitat I have. Which is such a cool mechanic, by the way -- and a nice little way to  turn the lack of Pokeballs into a grinding mechanic. 

Wigglytuff gives me three camps (Stump Forest, Wild Plains, Sky-Blue Plains) for free. The Magnemites from the Skarmory mission show up and ask if they could join, and good ol' Wigglytuff tosses in a free Power Plant for the Magnemite to join my party. Party member get, bz-bzt!

What happens next is an interesting little cutscene. A Jumpluff begs a Shiftry and two Nuzleafs for help rescuing his friend, but Shiftry refuses to. The locals gathering around the commotion explain to Bulbasaur and I that Shiftry is a bully of a rescue team who refuses to help unless paid royally. And... to be fair, if he was in any other business other than search-and-rescue, I'd actually respect Shiftry -- business isn't a charity, and I have been taken advantage of by so many people who gaslit me with 'people are in need'! But Shiftry is a complete asshole here. 

At which point the ace characters come. Famously featured in one of the covers of the original Rescue Teams come the three badass Pokemon -- Charizard, Tyranitar and Alakazam. Very cool! Alakazam is the spokesman of the team, flanked by two powerful dinosaurs, and without being too confrontational basically scares Shiftry into buggering off and helping Jumpluff's mission. Lombre begins to talk up this gold-team. Charizard can melt mountains! Tyranitar is armoured and unbeatable! And Alakazam? Alakazam has 5000 IQ and apparently memorizes everything in the world. There's a bit as the three badass mofos walk through the city, and Alakazam very briefly makes eye contact with me. I think he recognizes me as an isekai. While all of  this is going on, we're being watched ominously by a Gengar. 

A couple more tutorials follow as I look at the camps, with only Magnemite hanging out in the Power Plant habitat. This is where I can use Gummis, which raises stats and sometimes adds a Rare Quality -- yet another mechanic that essentially acts as a secondary ability. From Mudkip's "Squad Up" ability, I assume Rare Qualities are very specific to the Mystery Dungeon gameplay as opposed to the base game's Levitates and Torrents. 

At this point, I unlock another new dungeon, Oddity Cave, but I go back to Mt. Steel. Essentially at this point I can delve with three-man parties, but since Mudkip and Bulbasaur are compulsory for adventure, I basically can only swap around the third slot. And my runaround in Mt. Steel doing quests finally has some recruits. Interestingly, the recruits just continually follow me, meaning that while I enter the dungeon with three Pokemon, I end up dragging a conga line of like 4 more as I slowly go down the dungeon. Unfortunately, I don't have the habitats to allow Baltoy or Meditite to hang out with me. They're understanding enough to give me some money before they return back to their habitat, though. It's at this point that the game introduces to me the existence of the 'Wigglytuff Orb', which allows me to call Wigglytuff mid dungeon-dive, and purchase a couple of habitats. That is, of course, if I have the poke-gold to do so. That's a nice way to make it not as frustrating as it could've been. 

After a surprisingly dreamless day and some inventory management with Kangaskhan, I venture into the new dungeon, Oddity Cave. Magnemite's insanely long-range Signal Beam is particularly helpful, even if ol' magnets is a bit trigger-happy and constantly runs out of PP for his Signal Beam. Oddity Cave is a bit more brutal!

And throughout my journey through Oddity Cave, I recruited a Zubat, a Nidoran-F, a Rattata, a Weedle, a second Zubat... but there are a fair bit of Pokemon, particularly massive Onix-es that take up multiple squares. And they take down some of my new recruits... and while they do serve as nice body shields against a large enemy, I run out of Tiny Revival Seeds soon enough and the fainted Pokemon are just... gone. It's, again, an interesting mechanic! Having a lot more minions does make going through the dungeon easier since you have more attacking bodies, but it's also so hard to position my heavy hitters where I want them to and to keep some of the Pokemon I want alive. 

At the end of this dungeon, none of the five survive the Onix ambush. I'm terrible at this! Sorry, comrades. At the end of the day, I end up with only two new recruits -- Lickitung and Gastly. Except I don't have a habitat for Gastly, and I end up only recruiting a Lickitung with no good moves. Just Lick and Supersonic. Oops!

The next day, we get to meet some villains -- the other antagonistic team featured in one of the covers of the Rescue Team covers -- Gengar is back, and he's got his two cronies, Ekans and Medicham. They introduce themselves as Team Meanies, and pester my mailbox, much to Bulbasaur's chagrin. They note that being a Rescue Team actually affords them some really nice social immunity. They're dirty cops! Gengar gives a bit of a monologue noting that their ultimate goal is... world domination! I like the 'being able to do dirty deeds under the safety of a respected job' angle myself, but this is a children's game at the end of the day. 

Saying that and introducing themselves as the totally-threatening 'Team Meanies', they grab all our requests and bug off, infuriating poor Bulbasaur. Thankfully, Pelipper shows up and drops a bunch of requests. I do go into town, and there are some changes in the gossip. Snubbull is fanboying over the Gold Team (and we can pretend to be one) while Caterpie's moved next to the Whiscash Pond. 

Lombre notes that since the disasters began, none of them have been able to evolve properly. which I thought is a nice way to separate Mystery Dungeon from the original games and to keep the spirit of 'you get reincarnated to a first-stage starter' alive. I do know enough that evolution is a post-game thing... which also helps to keep you constantly feeling on the backfoot compared to fully evolved Pokemon like Gengar or Alakazam.

Next up is another dungeon dive, back to Mt. Steel. This time, I bring a Wigglytuff Orb with me, but only really activate it near the end of the dungeon to make sure I keep the Pokemon I want. Which is to say, I like Baltoy a good deal more than Tyrogue. A Swinub I rescued also has been hanging around throughout the dungeon dive, and his type coverage seems to be useful since my team of Mudkip/Bulbasaur/Magnemite doesn't really have a good answer against Grass-types. Also, lastly, one of the quest-givers, Sunkern, joins me in the post office. I do like the large amount of different ways that Pokemon might be recruited, which would allow moments like my 'oh, none of the Pokemon at the end of the dungeon can stay with my habitats'. It's a nice little crutch mechanic if you keep screwing up, while also not being a too direct 'training wheels', so to speak. 

My little army is growing bigger and bigger, but this is where I'll leave off for today. I'm really enjoying this game a lot,  and while I'm probably not going to go too all-in on the recruitment drive, I definitely am enjoying having more Pokemon to play around with; and the whole 'habitat' thing and the fact that you can lose your fresh recruits if you haven't finalized them in a dungeon does add a nice layer of stakes to this game. 

Random Notes:

• My rescue team is called 'Rocket', because that's what you have to say if someone asks you what your Pokemon Team is. 
• Fairy types are here! I can confirm after fighting a Clefairy. I mean, I'm sure Mystery Dungeon DX has updated rules because most remakes do, but it wasn't a complete guarantee, I feel. The physical/special split, which wouldn't have happened in Generation III when the original Rescue Team games were released, is also included in this game. 
  
• 
  I really, really like the background art for the habitats. I also really like the world map artwork for both the full world (does this place even have a region name?) and the camps. 
• The Kecleons change inventories daily, particularly the purple TM Kecleon. This isn't particularly major, but I felt it's a nice little addition that makes the world really feel a bit more alive and gives some 'chase' items to track down. 
• In one of my journeys into the dungeons, I meet one of the Kecleon shops, who has put a massive carpet across a room and allows me to purchase items mid-dungeon. I know enough about this game to know that if we try to shoplift from the Kecleon, he's going to go full-on Legend of Zelda Cuccoo and summon the entire extended Kecleon clan to beat my ass. 
• I also get some points for completing missions after the Skarmory dungeon. The points increase my rank, and I basically go from Rookie to Normal. 
• There are also a bunch of new held items, like the Defense Bandana, Joy Bandana, Efficient Bandana, etc, but I really don't have a whole ton to say about them.
• Oddity Cave wasn't in the original version of the games, and was originally a Wonder Gift exclusive dungeon. 
• I really do like Magnemite! He already has a fun type coverage with Electric and Steel, both of which being pretty useful, but as mentioned above, Signal Beam is really powerful in this game with the range. I used a Magnezone in my playthrough of one of the Alola games, and I've always found ol' eyeballs to be one of my favourites from the original 151.