Definitely my least favorite Pokémon Mystery Dungeon I've played thus far. I'm glad I got through it, but I'm not sure if I'll ever return to this entry. Lets dive into the review.

1. Plot and characters I actually like the story here. It kept me engaged for the most part and it was emotional as most of these games are. I wouldn't put it above EOS, but I think I liked it more than PMD Red and Blue Rescue Team's story (I haven't played Super Mystery Dungeon yet). There isn't much of a post game here though, unfortunately. That's ok though. By the time the credits had rolled I had had my fill of the game. The characters are well established (except maybe Keldeo who comes in at the last minute), and I like that they each got their own time to shine throughout the story. I played as Axew and my partner was Oshawott. The player character and partner were the main focus, but the side characters were written really well in this game.

2. Music As with any entry in this series, the music is good here. I need to go back and listen to the full OST to pick out my favorites, but there were definitely a few that caught my ear throughout this adventure.

3. QOL changes I like the way moves are laid out now is better than before. I don't miss the hunger system at all. Still wish they did a bit more QOL changes, but maybe those come in Super and Rescue Team DX.

4. Gameplay/Combat Mixed bag here. The combat is pretty standard for a mystery dungeon game. I like the way you can level up individual moves now, and team attacks are fun. I felt a little OP using Axew with dual chop. When I got access to learn Dragon Dance it was game over for most enemies. The ability to stack three Dragon Dances on top of each other and then dual chop was just absurd but kind of fun. The game wasn't too challenging, though Munna's boss fight took me a few tries. Other than one boss fight, I didn't really struggle in the game. The "core team" you get to use throughout the story is also well rounded out in terms of their moves. As for the dungeons and their designs: they suck. I don't remember the previous games having such long hallways/segments. I know they're "randomly generated", but they felt very similar through the whole adventure. I dreaded going into dungeons, and when I was forced to do optional requests, I always chose requests with low floor requirements. The dungeon designs and gameplay are just not fun here unfortunately. I hope one day this series really branches out and tries new things in terms of it's core gameplay. I get that it's a dungeon crawler, but I want more unique dungeons. Paradise is a fun addition in this game, albeit I have no desire to continue playing to build it up further. It gave off animal crossing vibes, and I think it was a cool foundation. I would love for a future mystery dungeon game to expand on this further, or even a full fledged town/city building Pokémon game. I think that could be really cool. I didn't upgrade all of my facilities to the max, or even prepare all the land, but that's just because I'm done with this game. If I had more incentive to keep playing, I would be all over this feature.

5. My #1 Complaint Text. Speed. It's the slowest text speed I have ever encountered in a video game. There's no way to speed it up, and it's just draggggggsss onnnnnn. The dialogue in this game is also frustrating at times. Characters explain easy to understand concepts/things 2-3 times. Poor dialogue in addition to slow text speed really drags this game. The story is good don't get me wrong, but the dialogue is just too explanatory at times.

That's about it as far as things that I could think of to write about in this review. Probably won't revisit this game, and if I do it won't be for years to come. Glad it's off the backlog. I plan on playing Super Mystery Dungeon next, but not for a while. I need a break from Mystery Dungeon after this entry. I think I'm going to try out Pokémon Conquest next. I also have Guardian Signs as the final entry in the Ranger series to play. Thanks for reading!