Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team

About This Game

Gameplay

The player starts out as a human who turned into a Pokémon, which can be one of sixteen Pokémon (Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Meowth, Psyduck, Machop, Cubone, Eevee and Skitty) and is determined by a personality quiz taken at the beginning of the game. The player chooses a partner Pokémon between the remaining Pokémon, excluding the last six stated above and the Pokémon of the same type. The game is mission-based with many jobs, which can be found on the bulletin board, requested by mail, or initiated through story events, and include rescuing Pokémon, delivering items, and escorting clients. If the player successfully completes a job, they receive a reward, and Rescue Points, which increase a team's rank. These jobs take part in dungeons, of which the layout is randomized. The objective is to either finish a job, or go through all the floors to find the exit. In the dungeon, there are wild Pokémon that battle with the player's team. These battles are turn-based, and take place in the dungeon map.

History

Prior to this game, Chunsoft's products were considered mediocre, even if few games showed signs of recovery such as Torneko's Great Adventure 3 Advance: Mystery Dungeon and 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate! in 2004. During the development of Rescue Team, Kouji Malta, one of the programmers for these two games, and contributed previously on EarthBound and Shiren the Wanderer 2, stated the company went through bad business performance, as employees from Chunsoft would leave the company progressively. First revealed in August 2005, the Japanese release date was announced in September. More details were released later that month, showing information about the gameplay and plot.