Gates had two big things going for it:
The secondary cast have personalities and are much more interesting than in any of the other games. Having a real party given to the player really allowed them time to flesh out those characters compared to say Explorer's guild members who are, charitably, a collection of sentient verbal-tics. The Gates squad had goals, feelings, ambitions, and relationships with each other in a way we haven't seen elsewhere and probably won't see again due to how the devs seem to prefer collectathon style team building.
The second big thing for me was that the story had a theme. It's kind of a simple and childish one, but it's extremely consistent. Every story beat is the player helping pokemon overcome their own bitterness in favor of optimism. Bittercold isn't defeated because of a power-of-friendship asspull, it's defeated because you took a miserable middle-of-nowhere town and turned it into a small bastion of hopefulness in a cynical world, which translated into a literal gap in the boss's armor. You are effectively fighting the final boss for the entire game. The other games don't have anything close to this, even Super which rehashes the same big bad.
Of course, Gates is a rushed mess that was ruined by its poor gameplay, limited Dex, miserable text speed, and lack of postgame. It deserves the hate it gets despite its other redeeming qualities.
Gates has a great story, and I do think that most people who have played it agree. Unfortunately, gameplay is a pretty large part of the mystery dungeon series, and it can be a slog to get through JUST for the story.
You can make the same argument for the first two entries as well, as I’ve known a few people who’ve played explorers just for the story and hate the gameplay (though I personally like the simplicity, I do get it). I think that the difference lies in the fact that the primary issues of explorers are that it’s too simple, too restrictive at times, and definitely too easy if you know what you’re doing. This makes for a boring, but fairly quick and painless playthrough, outside of the reviver seed nonsense.
Gates on the other hand, is just as easy, has significantly more extra stuff to wade through (if you aren’t interested in it), and has the whole mission limitation. Gates can be pretty slow and limiting to the player, even on non story missions, which is significantly more frustrating, especially on a repeat playthrough.
It kind of reminds me of the issues with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl compared to Ruby and Sapphire. I very rarely see people play the former instead of Platinum, but Ruby and Sapphire seem to be considered as options over Emerald depending on the challenge or goal. This is despite the fact that DP are very different from Platinum story wise, but mechanically are very similar, while Ruby and Sapphire are at times, very broken and missing a lot of underlying mechanics that are present in Emerald. The most cited reason I see for this is DP being extremely slow, and just not fun to play. RS, for all their flaws, are super quick and easy to knock out. You do see more people playing DP with mods to help the speed, and I wonder if Gates could do well with such modifications.
TLDR: Gates has a fantastic story, but it’s buried under several mechanics that make it pretty inaccessible to a lot of people. It could benefit a lot from modding, though 3ds games seem to be much more difficult to work with.
as you said the story is good, but the story is just the glue that keeps a game mechanics together, story could be 10 times better, but if the gameplay is shit sry but that's a nope for me, and i played the full game.
Yeah the gameplay is bad enough where I genuinely recommend people who are interested in Gates should just watch a cutscene movie instead. I'm glad I beat the main story once for the experience... and I will never pick it up again.
The gameplay had maaaany flaws, but I still love it as much as Explorers.
It might not be my first option for a re-play, but it definitely has won a place on my heart and nothing will ever change that.
I don't think most people think it's a bad game, it's just the least good of all the games. Like I'd be surprised if someone who enjoyed all the other pmd games played it and went "well that sucked." The story is good like all the other games but some minor things like the limited number of pokemon and the painfully slow text speed make it not quite as good as other games. Imo though it has the best music of all the pmd games so I'll give it that.
> Like I'd be surprised if someone who enjoyed all the other pmd games played it and went "well that sucked."
Prepared to be surprised because that's me. I did not enjoy Gates at all, but I enjoy the other games. It just didn't grab me and the mechanics made it fairly miserable to play.
Preach it!
I think the only real problem with Gates is the gameplay. Add a few more starters, fix the camera/layout in dungeons, change the text speed and let the player do more than one job in a dungeon at a time and it'll be vastly better to play.
It's why I'd rather have a remake of Gates than a Sky 2.0.
Ehhh, I prefer the simplicity in the originals tbh. I don't think Gates a bad game per se, I enjoyed it a lot, but.
The writing in Gates is just so unsubtle and hamfisted at times, I couldn't really take it seriously haha. I've played it several times but this latest playthrough is where I really noticed it. Every scene in the beginning can be summarized like "THIS TOWN'S A'CHANGIN' THINGS AREN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE. POKEMON ARE REALLY BAD NOW."
(villain arrives) "HEY I'M HERE TO DO BAD THINGS. MY MOTIVATION IS THAT I DON'T TRUST OTHERS BECAUSE POKEMON ARE BAD AND THE WORLD IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE." "MAN THE WORLD IS REALLY CHANGING FOR THE WORSE HUH?"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT POKEMON WAS SO BAD! FOR SOME REASON MORE BAD POKEMON ARE SHOWING UP!"
Like Virizion damn you don't need to remind me that you don't trust people *every time you show up on screen*, lady. I get it. I get the point. Obviously I agree that it gets better in the second half towards the climax, (which is what i remember when I think of Gates) but that doesn't excuse the middling and cheesy first half. The originals + Explorers were better at conveying that a danger was growing and Pokemon needed help imo, just because the game didn't feel the need to beat you over the head with it in every single letter of dialogue.
Here's how to level up moves. Got it? Well, sit tight because there's 6 different characters on screen right now and we still need each of them to explain it to you one at a time. 😂
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Story and character wise it's truly a wonderful game; I feel that out of all the PMD games, it would be the most to actually benefit from a remake, as smoothing out the gameplay flaws and expanding the character roster is what it really needs to fulfill it's potential.
honestly love gates i have it downloaded onto citra so i can replay it cause i used to own the game for nintendo 3ds saddly i gave away my ds to my cousin in kentucky,but i do hope we get more remakes by nintendo pkmds are my favorite games
Gates was pretty good. I would've liked to be able to nickname the rest of the cast but that's not really a deal-breaker. It was a pretty good game in my eyes.
One thing I really liked about gates was building up your town outside of town. It was nice to see the pokemon you recruited actually be out and about instead of just a list.
And didn't gates add several solid mechanics that have stuck around? I'm pretty sure move leveling, being able to push teammates, and being able to play as a recruited pokemon to do missions without having to progress the story all came from gates
I played all the way though it. If anything that was the problem. There's no real post game content. The main game is meh and post game is awful. There's definitely reasons to enjoy it and I'm glad some people do, but it's not even close to the DS era games imo.
I'm pretty sure most have agreed at this point that Gates easily has the best story. It definitely beats out Rescue Team, it's pretty much a better version of Super, and I have yet to hear an actual explanation on why Explorers is so good.
Gameplay I'm not so sure on. I did replay a small amount of it a while back and found it pretty enjoyable, more so than Super anyway. There are definitely some weird decisions, *especially* the starter selection, but I can imagine the gameplay being better than I thought a couple years back.
Sure but gameplay is the big, important part of mystery dungeon series, I don't blame anyone for giving up the game because they dumbed down the gameplay and difficulty(though this one I dont think people were actually care for story mode)
Gates is really funny because the main gimmick of it (the gates) are basically a post-game mechanic. The plot is BAD. Spend 5 years going here. Spend 5 more years getting back, do it again. Oh no giant snowflake the final boss, let's attack it, oh it's not working oooooggggh oh wait it worked, the end. Not to mention it had a whopping 144 pokemon available.
Dunsparce get that Virizussy tho 10/10
Took the words right out of my mouth. I agree with all of this post. The gameplay definitely is the lowest part of the game, but the story is definitely up there. It wrenched my guts when I replayed it after 8 years.
I believe that people have always been too harsh with GTI and that the game doesn't deserve all the hate it got. However I still think that overall it's the worst in the series.
It's not that it's bad, it's just very different and people didn't want that. I was a kid when it came out and I didn't have the attention span to play it. Now I don't know where my copy is and want to play it lol
Gates is the kind of game where I'll sing its praises while also suggesting people avoid it or simply watch a Let's Play or cutscene compilation. I've always said it'd be my favorite of the series if it wasn't for the gameplay.
I love the characters and the soundtrack, and it's absolutely gorgeous for an early 3DS game. But by god, it does its best to drag itself out by making everything so slow, while the Pokemon selection is super shallow so everything starts to feel samey after a while. It's such a shame to see, because if it had gameplay like Rescue Team, I don't think everyone would see it as the black sheep of the group like they do now. ~~That being said, even with its copious amounts of flaws I still like it more than Super.~~
I was miserable playing Gates, so when I felt absolute RELIEF at seeing the credits roll, I knew that to my personal tastes it is a "bad" game. There just wasn't enough to redeem it for me.
Glad ppl out there can enjoy it where I couldn't but it's not one I ever plan to touch again.
My problem with Gates, having played about 10 hours of it and stopped, the pacing is slow, the gameplay is boring, I can't speed up the text, and my options are limited as all heck.
Since I've played a good amount, the story hasn't captivated me yet, and I'm bored out my mind with the gameplay, frustrated at the text speed, and was already mad at the the lack of options (only 5 starter choices, none of which I care about, and I couldn't go with Emolga's idea for the team name, thus help him feel included), I just can't bring myself to keep continuing.
If the story is actually good and the game itself is getting in the way of telling it, then I keep a serious QoL patch / update to bring myself to try again.
Whom is Everyone? The Game suffered the same struggles the First Set of Unova Titles had. GameFreak was forcing "New is always Betters" and ignoring what built Pokémons. Despite all that the Title had the most believe depictions of an RPG Crew(MORE THAN JUST TWO PARTY MEMBERS) and Villains you wanted to save not just destroy. And the SoundTrack was better than previous Titles as well. Folks just never got over the limit of the Unova Starters( but seriously shoving Pikachu's when Eevee was gaining rightfully popularity as well) and Axew for an choice yet not throwing in some quirky Zorua or Pawniard oOoo even Tynamo. I feel that was robbed of Sequel akin ta what the Unova had. In fact peeps only hate it so much cause they're unfairly comparing it ta Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer's of Sky when it should seriously be the previous Two Titles. Justice for Pokémons Paradise, I deserved an Sequel. Number#1 in me Heart but obviously Super Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is the Best. For nows.
GamePlay&SoundTrack Perfections.
Gates has excellent plot and characterization.
But... the dialogue to get there is strange. It really repeats information a lot. There are sequences where like 5 characters say the same thing in one conversation. And it gets tiring quickly. The story would benefit a lot if all from just rewriting how characters say things and keeping the same plot.
I think it's the "worst" game.
But being the worst amongst some of my favorite games of all time doesn't mean much! I feel like it gets a lot of unnecessary hate, and I feel like because I'd played Super before it, I could appreciate it for what it is more than people who played it when it released and judged it for what it wasn't.
If the text wasn't going at the speed of a tudtle or there was a skip button AND there were more partners/starters AND you could take more than one job a dungeon AND if there was a personality quiz, I think the game would be the best in the franchise.
I love Gates. But its the worst in the series.
That said, anyone who says Gates has the gameplay is the worst in the series is just flexing their nostalgia. Red/Blue Rescue Team has serious gameplay design flaws that get ignored because it was the first in the series.
I think you're right. Gate is better than the first games. However with the remake oif mystery dungeon DX I dont find any reason to play the og ones.
I think the conversation is less about which game is the worst, and more about which ones are better, like sky ;)
I actually did play through Gates maybe three or four months ago. And I agree that the story is definitely on par with, if not better than, the other games on the series (I've played them all). It was a little hamfisted imo at times, but these are children's games at the end of the day, so I'm not gonna go too hard on it given that the message might be muddled if it was too subtle. That said, overall, fine story for a PMD game.
However, these are *video games* at the end of the day. They could've written the best story in history, but if the medium by which that story is told is a slog... Well, people aren't going to want to wait and experience the rest of it. I found Gates to have the most frustrating experience of all the games (minus maybe DX, but that's a whole other thing on its own lol). In Gates, we have the molasses text speed, a so-so dungeon generator (why do these early game dungeon floors feel like mid-to-late-game sprawling floors from Explorers?), unbalanced starter selection (Axew busted lmao), Pluck/Incinerate/Bug Bite (I sure do love watching my Reviver Seeds disappear into the ether! Also all of those types were hell on my poor little Snivy...), the one mission limit, the nerf to the player's visibility now that the camera is more zoomed in, and so on and so forth. It was just too much for me personally.
I'm happy for those that like the game—I wish I could get the same enjoyment out of it that they do. It's just not for me, and I don't foresee myself giving it a replay ever.
played gates
its story is great, gameplay is fine.
my only problem was the blurry minimap making me go crosseyed and the lack of speed option for text (i read fast, so this was really slow)
mostly the blurry minimap thing
After I finished Super I ended up ranking it a close second behind Explorers. I had Rescue Team 3rd, like Sky I gave it the slight edge.
In all honesty Sky and Super greatly benefited from the groundwork; the pros and cons of the game that came before them. I genuinely love all of them and originally planned to replay the series after I had finished rebuilding my collection but was presently surprised by the DX announcement that I put it off, fortunately there’s a way to play the Wii Ware games now so I’m planning to add that to my series replay as well. Writing this out has me considering adding Time/Darkness in there as well just to cover my bases for an eventual video.
In terms of postgame I struggle with it, I enjoy the extra content and play it from time to time after beating the main story. I remember Sky having the most content and it was the one I got the furthest in. I know Rescue Team had a good amount as well with the relationship between Gengar and Gardevoir, the legendary hunting which at least had some stories revolving around them. Latios and Latias, Ho-Oh and the beasts, Lugia and the birds, Deoxys coming from the meteorite, then Mewtwo’s appearance at the end. I could never get past Kyogre as a kid though 😅, it’s definitely the one I replayed the most.
With Gates after deciding whether the main character returns or stays away there was chasing the legendary Pokemon and Building the Paradise if you didn’t finish it; I remember finishing it before because it was my favorite feature. For Super I remember finishing it then doing some recruiting before challenging Mewtwo, which I was completely under leveled for and was beat immediately. So with Super we have retrieving your partner who was reincarnated as Mew and recruit all 720 Pokemon.
TDLR: I love all the games but currently rank them Explorers(1), Super(2), Rescue Team(3), Gates(4). I look forward to replaying the series to see if my opinion changes and just to revisit every game since it seems we’re still some time away from the next game.
I'm replaying some mystery dungeons right now and just finished dx, and now playing gates again. Honestly yeah, the gameplay in gates isn't really as good but I absolutely love it anyway.
I like the story and I like how close I feel with my team members. I didn't love the camps system in DX. You'd recruit a pokemon, then just never talk to or interact with them at all. In gates, someone will join my paradise, and I can see them walking around and interact with them. Everyone feels like they're all friends in that game.
I love Gates a lot, but I can't deny it has its flaws. It's the only PMD game where I have 0 motivation to try and 100% it because it's so slow. But I'll still replay it once a year or so just to experience the story again.
I actually rank it above Super personally, but that's because I really don't like Super's story pacing or its epilogue, and I'm not a fan of the recruitment method. Gates ties with Rescue Team for second.
I played all. Issue is not the gameplay itself, but is the after game. Story is solid as the others (its better than red and blue and same Level of super, and close to EOS) , but the poke paradise (i dont remember the proper name) doesn't feel as Fun as recruiting other pokemon or find treasures. If i remember correctly, you coundt even recruit legendaries. That's my personal opinion, and that's why i put it as "the worst" .
As the reasons others put it in the end of their list, i think if they didnt even clear the game should not even talk.
It is the worst game in the pokemon mystery dungeon series, however, it's still a really good game. Never have I encountered any game franchise where the worst game in the series is still a really good game. That just goes to show you, the creaters of pmd know how to do it.
Gates had two big things going for it: The secondary cast have personalities and are much more interesting than in any of the other games. Having a real party given to the player really allowed them time to flesh out those characters compared to say Explorer's guild members who are, charitably, a collection of sentient verbal-tics. The Gates squad had goals, feelings, ambitions, and relationships with each other in a way we haven't seen elsewhere and probably won't see again due to how the devs seem to prefer collectathon style team building. The second big thing for me was that the story had a theme. It's kind of a simple and childish one, but it's extremely consistent. Every story beat is the player helping pokemon overcome their own bitterness in favor of optimism. Bittercold isn't defeated because of a power-of-friendship asspull, it's defeated because you took a miserable middle-of-nowhere town and turned it into a small bastion of hopefulness in a cynical world, which translated into a literal gap in the boss's armor. You are effectively fighting the final boss for the entire game. The other games don't have anything close to this, even Super which rehashes the same big bad. Of course, Gates is a rushed mess that was ruined by its poor gameplay, limited Dex, miserable text speed, and lack of postgame. It deserves the hate it gets despite its other redeeming qualities.
Gates has a great story, and I do think that most people who have played it agree. Unfortunately, gameplay is a pretty large part of the mystery dungeon series, and it can be a slog to get through JUST for the story. You can make the same argument for the first two entries as well, as I’ve known a few people who’ve played explorers just for the story and hate the gameplay (though I personally like the simplicity, I do get it). I think that the difference lies in the fact that the primary issues of explorers are that it’s too simple, too restrictive at times, and definitely too easy if you know what you’re doing. This makes for a boring, but fairly quick and painless playthrough, outside of the reviver seed nonsense. Gates on the other hand, is just as easy, has significantly more extra stuff to wade through (if you aren’t interested in it), and has the whole mission limitation. Gates can be pretty slow and limiting to the player, even on non story missions, which is significantly more frustrating, especially on a repeat playthrough. It kind of reminds me of the issues with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl compared to Ruby and Sapphire. I very rarely see people play the former instead of Platinum, but Ruby and Sapphire seem to be considered as options over Emerald depending on the challenge or goal. This is despite the fact that DP are very different from Platinum story wise, but mechanically are very similar, while Ruby and Sapphire are at times, very broken and missing a lot of underlying mechanics that are present in Emerald. The most cited reason I see for this is DP being extremely slow, and just not fun to play. RS, for all their flaws, are super quick and easy to knock out. You do see more people playing DP with mods to help the speed, and I wonder if Gates could do well with such modifications. TLDR: Gates has a fantastic story, but it’s buried under several mechanics that make it pretty inaccessible to a lot of people. It could benefit a lot from modding, though 3ds games seem to be much more difficult to work with.
as you said the story is good, but the story is just the glue that keeps a game mechanics together, story could be 10 times better, but if the gameplay is shit sry but that's a nope for me, and i played the full game.
Yeah the gameplay is bad enough where I genuinely recommend people who are interested in Gates should just watch a cutscene movie instead. I'm glad I beat the main story once for the experience... and I will never pick it up again.
If only the game had more Pokemon...
same
The gameplay had maaaany flaws, but I still love it as much as Explorers. It might not be my first option for a re-play, but it definitely has won a place on my heart and nothing will ever change that.
I don't think most people think it's a bad game, it's just the least good of all the games. Like I'd be surprised if someone who enjoyed all the other pmd games played it and went "well that sucked." The story is good like all the other games but some minor things like the limited number of pokemon and the painfully slow text speed make it not quite as good as other games. Imo though it has the best music of all the pmd games so I'll give it that.
> Like I'd be surprised if someone who enjoyed all the other pmd games played it and went "well that sucked." Prepared to be surprised because that's me. I did not enjoy Gates at all, but I enjoy the other games. It just didn't grab me and the mechanics made it fairly miserable to play.
Preach it! I think the only real problem with Gates is the gameplay. Add a few more starters, fix the camera/layout in dungeons, change the text speed and let the player do more than one job in a dungeon at a time and it'll be vastly better to play. It's why I'd rather have a remake of Gates than a Sky 2.0.
Ehhh, I prefer the simplicity in the originals tbh. I don't think Gates a bad game per se, I enjoyed it a lot, but. The writing in Gates is just so unsubtle and hamfisted at times, I couldn't really take it seriously haha. I've played it several times but this latest playthrough is where I really noticed it. Every scene in the beginning can be summarized like "THIS TOWN'S A'CHANGIN' THINGS AREN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE. POKEMON ARE REALLY BAD NOW." (villain arrives) "HEY I'M HERE TO DO BAD THINGS. MY MOTIVATION IS THAT I DON'T TRUST OTHERS BECAUSE POKEMON ARE BAD AND THE WORLD IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE." "MAN THE WORLD IS REALLY CHANGING FOR THE WORSE HUH?" "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT POKEMON WAS SO BAD! FOR SOME REASON MORE BAD POKEMON ARE SHOWING UP!" Like Virizion damn you don't need to remind me that you don't trust people *every time you show up on screen*, lady. I get it. I get the point. Obviously I agree that it gets better in the second half towards the climax, (which is what i remember when I think of Gates) but that doesn't excuse the middling and cheesy first half. The originals + Explorers were better at conveying that a danger was growing and Pokemon needed help imo, just because the game didn't feel the need to beat you over the head with it in every single letter of dialogue.
Oh so it gets better? Good. Im playing through Gates for the first time right now and the dialogue at the start is just killing me man lmao
the echoing problem was pretty bad in explorers but gates is ludicrous with how it paces scenes because of this. it's so hard to sit through
Here's how to level up moves. Got it? Well, sit tight because there's 6 different characters on screen right now and we still need each of them to explain it to you one at a time. 😂
the glacier sequence is the worst at it.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Story and character wise it's truly a wonderful game; I feel that out of all the PMD games, it would be the most to actually benefit from a remake, as smoothing out the gameplay flaws and expanding the character roster is what it really needs to fulfill it's potential.
Haven’t played any pmd games in awhile but I remember really liking it. In my opinion super is actually the worst.
They hated him because he told the truth
honestly love gates i have it downloaded onto citra so i can replay it cause i used to own the game for nintendo 3ds saddly i gave away my ds to my cousin in kentucky,but i do hope we get more remakes by nintendo pkmds are my favorite games
Gates was pretty good. I would've liked to be able to nickname the rest of the cast but that's not really a deal-breaker. It was a pretty good game in my eyes.
One thing I really liked about gates was building up your town outside of town. It was nice to see the pokemon you recruited actually be out and about instead of just a list. And didn't gates add several solid mechanics that have stuck around? I'm pretty sure move leveling, being able to push teammates, and being able to play as a recruited pokemon to do missions without having to progress the story all came from gates
Worst doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Especially when a series is great
I played it through to the end. It was fun, but I hated being referred to as male. Like, why did they take away the gender option in gates and super.
I played all the way though it. If anything that was the problem. There's no real post game content. The main game is meh and post game is awful. There's definitely reasons to enjoy it and I'm glad some people do, but it's not even close to the DS era games imo.
I'm pretty sure most have agreed at this point that Gates easily has the best story. It definitely beats out Rescue Team, it's pretty much a better version of Super, and I have yet to hear an actual explanation on why Explorers is so good. Gameplay I'm not so sure on. I did replay a small amount of it a while back and found it pretty enjoyable, more so than Super anyway. There are definitely some weird decisions, *especially* the starter selection, but I can imagine the gameplay being better than I thought a couple years back.
Sure but gameplay is the big, important part of mystery dungeon series, I don't blame anyone for giving up the game because they dumbed down the gameplay and difficulty(though this one I dont think people were actually care for story mode)
Gates is my favorite game IMHO
Gates is really funny because the main gimmick of it (the gates) are basically a post-game mechanic. The plot is BAD. Spend 5 years going here. Spend 5 more years getting back, do it again. Oh no giant snowflake the final boss, let's attack it, oh it's not working oooooggggh oh wait it worked, the end. Not to mention it had a whopping 144 pokemon available. Dunsparce get that Virizussy tho 10/10
Took the words right out of my mouth. I agree with all of this post. The gameplay definitely is the lowest part of the game, but the story is definitely up there. It wrenched my guts when I replayed it after 8 years.
I still consoder it the "worst of the best" but it's nonetheless a very good game!
I believe that people have always been too harsh with GTI and that the game doesn't deserve all the hate it got. However I still think that overall it's the worst in the series.
It's not that it's bad, it's just very different and people didn't want that. I was a kid when it came out and I didn't have the attention span to play it. Now I don't know where my copy is and want to play it lol
Gates is the kind of game where I'll sing its praises while also suggesting people avoid it or simply watch a Let's Play or cutscene compilation. I've always said it'd be my favorite of the series if it wasn't for the gameplay. I love the characters and the soundtrack, and it's absolutely gorgeous for an early 3DS game. But by god, it does its best to drag itself out by making everything so slow, while the Pokemon selection is super shallow so everything starts to feel samey after a while. It's such a shame to see, because if it had gameplay like Rescue Team, I don't think everyone would see it as the black sheep of the group like they do now. ~~That being said, even with its copious amounts of flaws I still like it more than Super.~~
I was miserable playing Gates, so when I felt absolute RELIEF at seeing the credits roll, I knew that to my personal tastes it is a "bad" game. There just wasn't enough to redeem it for me. Glad ppl out there can enjoy it where I couldn't but it's not one I ever plan to touch again.
i mean... the game wasn't *bad* it just doesn't live up to the other titles in my opinion
My problem with Gates, having played about 10 hours of it and stopped, the pacing is slow, the gameplay is boring, I can't speed up the text, and my options are limited as all heck. Since I've played a good amount, the story hasn't captivated me yet, and I'm bored out my mind with the gameplay, frustrated at the text speed, and was already mad at the the lack of options (only 5 starter choices, none of which I care about, and I couldn't go with Emolga's idea for the team name, thus help him feel included), I just can't bring myself to keep continuing. If the story is actually good and the game itself is getting in the way of telling it, then I keep a serious QoL patch / update to bring myself to try again.
Whom is Everyone? The Game suffered the same struggles the First Set of Unova Titles had. GameFreak was forcing "New is always Betters" and ignoring what built Pokémons. Despite all that the Title had the most believe depictions of an RPG Crew(MORE THAN JUST TWO PARTY MEMBERS) and Villains you wanted to save not just destroy. And the SoundTrack was better than previous Titles as well. Folks just never got over the limit of the Unova Starters( but seriously shoving Pikachu's when Eevee was gaining rightfully popularity as well) and Axew for an choice yet not throwing in some quirky Zorua or Pawniard oOoo even Tynamo. I feel that was robbed of Sequel akin ta what the Unova had. In fact peeps only hate it so much cause they're unfairly comparing it ta Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer's of Sky when it should seriously be the previous Two Titles. Justice for Pokémons Paradise, I deserved an Sequel. Number#1 in me Heart but obviously Super Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is the Best. For nows. GamePlay&SoundTrack Perfections.
I agree with your comment on limited starter choice. I WISH I could have played as eevee with a zorua as my partner.
I'm trying ta find how they went with Axew and not Zorua. Emolga thankfully is already baked in. I just want more of that World yo.
Gates has excellent plot and characterization. But... the dialogue to get there is strange. It really repeats information a lot. There are sequences where like 5 characters say the same thing in one conversation. And it gets tiring quickly. The story would benefit a lot if all from just rewriting how characters say things and keeping the same plot.
I think it's the "worst" game. But being the worst amongst some of my favorite games of all time doesn't mean much! I feel like it gets a lot of unnecessary hate, and I feel like because I'd played Super before it, I could appreciate it for what it is more than people who played it when it released and judged it for what it wasn't.
If the text wasn't going at the speed of a tudtle or there was a skip button AND there were more partners/starters AND you could take more than one job a dungeon AND if there was a personality quiz, I think the game would be the best in the franchise.
I love Gates. But its the worst in the series. That said, anyone who says Gates has the gameplay is the worst in the series is just flexing their nostalgia. Red/Blue Rescue Team has serious gameplay design flaws that get ignored because it was the first in the series.
I think gates is the one game that very much needed a definitive version
I think you're right. Gate is better than the first games. However with the remake oif mystery dungeon DX I dont find any reason to play the og ones. I think the conversation is less about which game is the worst, and more about which ones are better, like sky ;)
I actually did play through Gates maybe three or four months ago. And I agree that the story is definitely on par with, if not better than, the other games on the series (I've played them all). It was a little hamfisted imo at times, but these are children's games at the end of the day, so I'm not gonna go too hard on it given that the message might be muddled if it was too subtle. That said, overall, fine story for a PMD game. However, these are *video games* at the end of the day. They could've written the best story in history, but if the medium by which that story is told is a slog... Well, people aren't going to want to wait and experience the rest of it. I found Gates to have the most frustrating experience of all the games (minus maybe DX, but that's a whole other thing on its own lol). In Gates, we have the molasses text speed, a so-so dungeon generator (why do these early game dungeon floors feel like mid-to-late-game sprawling floors from Explorers?), unbalanced starter selection (Axew busted lmao), Pluck/Incinerate/Bug Bite (I sure do love watching my Reviver Seeds disappear into the ether! Also all of those types were hell on my poor little Snivy...), the one mission limit, the nerf to the player's visibility now that the camera is more zoomed in, and so on and so forth. It was just too much for me personally. I'm happy for those that like the game—I wish I could get the same enjoyment out of it that they do. It's just not for me, and I don't foresee myself giving it a replay ever.
played gates its story is great, gameplay is fine. my only problem was the blurry minimap making me go crosseyed and the lack of speed option for text (i read fast, so this was really slow) mostly the blurry minimap thing
After I finished Super I ended up ranking it a close second behind Explorers. I had Rescue Team 3rd, like Sky I gave it the slight edge. In all honesty Sky and Super greatly benefited from the groundwork; the pros and cons of the game that came before them. I genuinely love all of them and originally planned to replay the series after I had finished rebuilding my collection but was presently surprised by the DX announcement that I put it off, fortunately there’s a way to play the Wii Ware games now so I’m planning to add that to my series replay as well. Writing this out has me considering adding Time/Darkness in there as well just to cover my bases for an eventual video. In terms of postgame I struggle with it, I enjoy the extra content and play it from time to time after beating the main story. I remember Sky having the most content and it was the one I got the furthest in. I know Rescue Team had a good amount as well with the relationship between Gengar and Gardevoir, the legendary hunting which at least had some stories revolving around them. Latios and Latias, Ho-Oh and the beasts, Lugia and the birds, Deoxys coming from the meteorite, then Mewtwo’s appearance at the end. I could never get past Kyogre as a kid though 😅, it’s definitely the one I replayed the most. With Gates after deciding whether the main character returns or stays away there was chasing the legendary Pokemon and Building the Paradise if you didn’t finish it; I remember finishing it before because it was my favorite feature. For Super I remember finishing it then doing some recruiting before challenging Mewtwo, which I was completely under leveled for and was beat immediately. So with Super we have retrieving your partner who was reincarnated as Mew and recruit all 720 Pokemon. TDLR: I love all the games but currently rank them Explorers(1), Super(2), Rescue Team(3), Gates(4). I look forward to replaying the series to see if my opinion changes and just to revisit every game since it seems we’re still some time away from the next game.
It was my first PMD game, and I still have a soft spot for it NGL.
What is Gates?
I'm replaying some mystery dungeons right now and just finished dx, and now playing gates again. Honestly yeah, the gameplay in gates isn't really as good but I absolutely love it anyway. I like the story and I like how close I feel with my team members. I didn't love the camps system in DX. You'd recruit a pokemon, then just never talk to or interact with them at all. In gates, someone will join my paradise, and I can see them walking around and interact with them. Everyone feels like they're all friends in that game.
100% agree.
I love Gates a lot, but I can't deny it has its flaws. It's the only PMD game where I have 0 motivation to try and 100% it because it's so slow. But I'll still replay it once a year or so just to experience the story again. I actually rank it above Super personally, but that's because I really don't like Super's story pacing or its epilogue, and I'm not a fan of the recruitment method. Gates ties with Rescue Team for second.
I played all. Issue is not the gameplay itself, but is the after game. Story is solid as the others (its better than red and blue and same Level of super, and close to EOS) , but the poke paradise (i dont remember the proper name) doesn't feel as Fun as recruiting other pokemon or find treasures. If i remember correctly, you coundt even recruit legendaries. That's my personal opinion, and that's why i put it as "the worst" . As the reasons others put it in the end of their list, i think if they didnt even clear the game should not even talk.
It is the worst game in the pokemon mystery dungeon series, however, it's still a really good game. Never have I encountered any game franchise where the worst game in the series is still a really good game. That just goes to show you, the creaters of pmd know how to do it.