First things first, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (PMM) is a spin-off of the Pokémon games using Chun-soft's Shiren engine. Basically, a roguelike. The first PMM games were the Red/Blue Rescue Team, released on the GBA (Red) and on the DS (Blue), the only differences being some version exclusive "catchable" Pokémon. The games were very well received (mainly by the Pokémon fanbase), leading to further sequels in the PMM series. Explorers of Sky is the "remaster" of the second PMM games released on the DS: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, having the typical "update fixes" and also changed some gameplay mechanics, rebalanced the difficulty, added more dungeons, etc.
In a roguelike, you transverse randomly generated dungeons, obtain randomly generated loot and battle endless waves of enemies, forcing you to use those items as to avoid dying and get as quickly as possible to the stairs that take you to the next dungeon floor. If you die, say good bye to all those treasures and money you were carrying.
PMM mostly retains all these elements and adds some Pokémon specific features (like evolving) and while all this seems a little overwhelming, PMM is considerably easier than most roguelikes.
Now, unto the game itself. Explorers of Sky is very fun game, full of content and even has a solid story, full of surprising plot twists! You start the game by answering around 5~6 questions and afterwards you get a Pokémon (from a pool of 12 possible results) befitting your answers. Then you choose a partner (again, from a limited number of choices) that will accompany you during the story progression. The story unveils when you clear story specific dungeons although you can freely visit other dungeons to grind levels, clear quests or simply to get more party members or items.
So, here's the deal: I was enjoying immensely the game until I faced the final story boss. First, you can only use your Pokémon and your partner in the last story segment. As in, 15+8+15+11= 49 floors plus the Final Boss. And you can't restock your items between these floors, except for all the items you find during your way to the Final Boss.
While it seems like a lot of floors, they are rather short and the Pokémon there aren't any real threat. Except if you stumble on a Monster House (room that are filled with enemies) and you most certainly will, since the last 8 floors love having them.
My problem isn't exactly this exercise in patience but the horrible gameplay design of the Final Boss. It's completely full of fake difficulty.
Here's the Moves that it uses:
>A ranged special attack that deals immense damage to ALL Pokémon
>A physical damaging attack that may increases it's own attack stat
>A special damaging attack that may increase ALL of the Final Boss's stats, including doubling its turns
>A Dragon type physical attack (that he rarely uses)
On top of this, thanks to its typing, it has NO weaknesses. AND it has a passive skill that randomly nullifies an attack made against it. If this isn't some complete bullshit tier difficulty, I don't know what is.
I managed to defeat it though.On my 4th attempt. I had 4 Reviver Seeds with me, used Sleep Seeds until it put him to sleep (it never sleeps for more than 2 turns though), used a Vile Seed on it and hoped the nullifying passive doesn't kick in more than 3 or 4 times.
The story stills continues though. After this "Final" Boss, there is still more to the story. But I'm too bitter after this to continue, so I'm done with the game for now. I loved the game until now though, the gameplay is fun, the game is colorful, the music is also cute but this Boss left me with a bitter taste. I will, however, pick it up again in the near future for sure, since I want to know what the game has more to offer.
