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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness are the second pair of games released for the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. All Pokémon up to the fourth generation are present in the games, except for Arceus and Shaymin.

Since the games are direct successors to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red & Blue Rescue Teams, they share a lot of gameplay features with them. The story still revolves around a human who transformed into a Pokémon and lost his memories. As a Pokémon he’ll journey across different dungeons, focusing more on exploration rather than rescuing other Pokémon compared to the previous games.

The gameplay and graphics are almost the same as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team Blue, with the addition of few more Wi-Fi and Dual Screen features.

Official Description

Explore as a Pokémon in a world of Pokémon!
Discover secrets of Time and Darkness and form a team to explore the world!
Send out SOS Mails using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Story

The game starts out with the player transforming into a Pokémon and, after a failed time travel that transports them to a beach, where they lay unconscious. Their Pokémon partner, who was wandering around the beach, finds the player, informing them that they are now a Pokémon.

The partner seems to possess a rare item called the Relic Fragment and wants to uncover the shrouded mystery around it. To do so, they want to join the local exploration club, Wigglytuff’s Guild, who are famous for their countless exploration expeditions. But the partner isn’t so sure about themselves and soon gives up. Suddenly, a Koffing and a Zubat, from Team Skull, appear and steal the partner’s Relic Fragment. The player helps their partner recover the stolen item and after seeing how courageous and self confident the player was, the partner decides to pursue their love for legends and uncover the truth behind their treasured item, by joining the Wigglytuff’s Guild with the player, as a new team.

The newly formed team passes the first days in the Guild by learning about the Treasure Town, in which they have to stay, and the local people. They meet many members of Wigglytuff’s Guild, starting with Wigglytuff itself, a great and kind leader. They then meet an easily angered Chatot, that turns out to be the second Pokémon in command. They soon encounter the rest of the members including Magnezone, Dugtrio, Diglett, Chimecho, Bidoof and Loudred, with each of them having a particular responsibility to fulfill in the Guild.

After meeting everyone and the other exploration teams, they discover that the world is facing a great hazard, as many Pokémon went rogue because of the time disruption and are spreading chaos across the land. Soon the player also discovers that they have a special gift, as they can see both the past and the future when entering in contact with certain items. A Dusknoir, later on explains that it’s an ability called Dimensional Scream. With many new dungeons open, the team starts their quest, helping the Guild with whichever task they are presented.

The quest for the Time Gears:

After the team arrests Drowzee, the player learns from their partner about the legend of the Time Gears. They are said to be very powerful artifacts that maintain the time flow within each region, and removing them would disrupt it and freeze the time in their respective area. As the game progresses, the Guild decides to go on an expedition to the Fogbound Lake. Reaching the foggy area, the player feels the place is familiar, but has no explanations to why. Soon, they encounter Groudon, which they defeat and turns out to be a mere illusion created by Uxie, the lake's guardian.

It is revealed that a Time Gear is located at the center of the lake, and Uxie guards it by erasing the memories of whoever sets foot there. But, as Uxie finds the player is trustworhty, it decides to trust the rest of the Guild members too, and let's them return home without erasing anyone's memory. The team meets with Dusknoir, the renown explorer, who reveals that the phenomenon happening to the player, is an ability they possess called Dimensional Scream. After hearing, the player's full story, Dusknoir promises to help them by any means.

Later on, the word of the Time Gear being stolen spreads within the Guild, and a bounty is set on Grovyle who's said to be the thief. Everyone in the Guild is determined on capturing Grovyle and protecting the rest of the Time Gears. Many Guild members dispatch to find the remaining artifacts and Dusknoir offers its help once again. While searching the Northern Desert, the player's team finds an underground lake, where one of the Time Gears is found, protected by Mesprit. The team defeats Mesprits and tries to explain their intentions, but they are interrupted by Grovyle, that appears appears out of nowhere and beats all the present Pokémon, including Mesprit.

Grovyle then steals the Time Gear and runs away. Mesprit and the player's team barely manage to escape, before they're frozen in time in that area. Upon returning to the Guild's headquarters, the Pokémon feel desperate as they have no lead on when and where Grovyle will show next. But, Dusknoir steps in and explains how Grovyle's next target would be a lake guarded by Azelf. In fact, Mesprit the being of emotion and Uxie the being of knowledge were both guarding lakes where a Time Gear was found. Azelf then, the being of willpower, should likewise be guarding a lake where another Time Gear is hidden. Dusknoir's words return hope to the Guild members. Dusknoir then makes the player touch an item that Bidoof found in the Crystal Cave and which triggers the Dimensional Scream, giving the player vision where Grovyle defeats Azelf. As the Dimensional Scream can show both the future and the past, Chimecho worries that this might be the past and that Grovyle might have already gotten its hands on the Time Gear.

Dusknoir calms them, and believes that there's still hope, as he's sure the vision is about the future. The Guild starts searching for the lake, and soon find one in the depth of the Crystal Cave, where they witness Azelf getting defeated by Grovyle. Unlike the other Guardians, Azelf had an emergency measure to protect the Time Gear. Azelf activates a trap that freezes the whole lake, making the Time Gear in its depth unreachable. The annoyed thief then resorts to beating all the Pokémon present, including the player's partner who's heavily injured and almost killed by Grovyle, if not for Dusknoir that appeared and saved it. Dusknoir and Grovyle seem to know each other well, and after the confrontation, Grovyle escapes while Dusknoir chases it.

A few moments later, the rest of the Guild members show up and take the injured Pokémon back the headquarters. There, the player's partner reawakens and tells the other how Dusknoir and Grovyle know each other. An emergency alarm is then rang, and all Guild members meet in the town. They find Dusknoir that reveals that both both Grovyle and itself are from the future, with Grovyle being a dangerous criminal that wants to stop the time and cover the world in darkness. Dusknoir was assigned the task to follow Grovyle who fled to the past and capture it. After hearing Dusknoir's story, everyone decides to lend it a helping hand.

Azelf seems to have a plan in mind. It wants the Guild members to spread the word that the Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf itself, are trying to seal the Time Gear at the Crystal Lake once and for all, and there they'll ambush Grovyle and capture it. Everyone is excited for the plan and wants to join, yet, Dusknoir wants to be the only one that accompanies the trio in their mission. After few days from the Guardians and Dusknoir's departure, good news about Grovyle's capture arrives and how Dusknoir is planning to return with it to the future. To do so, Dusknoir opened a Dimensional Portal in the town's square. Everyone unites there but Dusknoir is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, it appears with two Sableye and Grovyle. Grovyle is slowly escorted the portal and Dusknoir says farewell and heads toward the portal. Surprisingly, before it enters it, Dusknoir grabs the player and their partner and jumps into the Dimensional Portal, that vanishes before anyone else could act.

Escaping the future

The player's team wakes up to find themselves imprisoned somewhere. A few moments later, a group of Sableye working as guards escort the team to another room, and tie the two to poles, along with Grovyle. Dusknoir then appears and orders the Sableye to execute all the three of them. Grovyle which believes that there is a chance for the ropes to break, tries to convince the two to cooperate, so they can run away together.

The ropes indeed break, and together, Grovyle and the player's team defeat the Sableye guards. Grovyle then uses a Luminous Orb, allowing everyone to go somewhere safe. Once they are outside, the player soon learns that they are in the future where the time has been frozen and the whole planet with it. The player's team and Grovyle split up, but just then, more Sableye show up and chase after them. As the partner starts losing hope, the player decides to go back after Grovyle and learn how to go back to the present.

They find Grovyle knocked out by a Spiritomb, which they eventually defeat. Now that it is safe, the Grovyle tells the team the real story; the reason why time is frozen in the future is that the Temporal Tower, controlled by Dialga, the legendary Pokémon of time, collapsed. This caused Dialga to lose control over time and eventually go mad, turning into Primal Dialga. The insane Primal Dialga only seeks to keep history unchanged and frozen, which is why it tries to eliminate the Grovyle and the player's team, by sending its agent Dusknoir after them.

Grovyle's mission was to return to the past, collect the Time Gears and place them into the Temporal Tower to prevent it from falling, thus preventing the whole hazard. Now, Grovyle has to find the time travelling Pokémon, Celebi, and seek its help to return to the present once more. The player who believes Grovyle's story decides to help Grovyle, although their partner was unsure about that, as it still doesn't trust the Pokémon they once believed is a thief. As soon as they meet Celebi, the time travelling Pokémon takes them to the Passage of Time that links several dimensions.

Before they set foot into it, Dusknoir appears along with the Sableye guards. As they get surrounded, they realize that their only option is to fight back, but soon the extremely powerful Dialga appears too, putting an end to their escape. Grovyle still believes there's hope, as it travelled with its human partner before, who might still be in the present. Unfortunately, Dusknoir reveals that Grovyle's partner is in the future with them, and is standing right before them.

To everyone's surprise, the player turns out to be Grovyle's partner. Dusknoir reveals that it merely became friends with the player's team, so it can take them all to the future with Grovyle, and eliminate them together. Upon hearing Dusknoir's words, the partner is shocked, as it once looked up to Dusknoir, which was powerful and had a lot of knowledge.

Now with the truth revealed, the partner informs the others of a great escape plan. Celebi teleports all of them suddenly near the Passage of Time, but Dusknoir was faster, as it gets in front of them blocking the way. Celebi sacrifices itself, by keeping Dusknoir busy and staying behind, while everyone else escapes through the passage.

The Journey to the Hidden Land

The player accompanied by its partner and Grovyle find themselves on the beach, where the player was found. As the partner was about to take everyone to the guild, Grovyle reminds them about its criminal status in the present time and how complicated things can get. The partner then decides to take everyone to its home on Sharpedo Bluff.

There, they rest and when night time came, Grovyle tells the story about itself and its partner; They were both investigating the time freeze in the future and formed a marvelous team. Grovyle's partner was gifted with an ability called Dimensional Screams, which helps locate the Time Gears. This ability is activated only when the human partner has a Pokémon they trust a lot with them. This showed how much the player once trusted Grovyle.

Although they are reunited, Grovyle is still worried about how the Dimensional Screams works in the current time. The three then decide to come up with a plan to recuperate the Time Gears. The partner then tells Grovyle about how the player reacted upon touching the Relic Fragment. Everyone then agrees that there must be a link between the Relic Fragment and the player.

After finishing with the plans, the group sets out to recover the Time Gears, starting with the one located in the Treeshroud Forest. Arriving there, they find the whole area frozen in time and the Time Gear unguarded, which they easily recover. On the same night, the partner tells the other two about the other places that got frozen in time, concluding that the Temporal Tower is starting to crumble. With the trio running out of time, the only option left is to return to the Guild and seek their help.

They do so and tell their part of the story to the rest of the Guild members, who were first surprised but then decide to help Grovyle out. They contact the lake guardians, telling them the truth and recovering the Time Gears they're protecting. Now all they need to do is to place the Time Gears in the Temporal Tower that lies in the Hidden Land. But, as the name suggests, no one knows where the Hidden Land actually is. The Guild master, Wigglytuff advises them to visit Torkoal, who's the elder and wisest Pokémon in town. Torkoal informs them that the Hidden Land appears only for those who found enough "proof", but doesn't know what the proof is.


The Lake Guardians: Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie.

The day after, Torkoal visits the Guild, as it seems that it remembered what the proof was, identifying it as some sort of motif, similar to the one encrypted on the Relic Fragment. Chatot and Wigglytuff soon remember that they've seen motif before, in a cave called Brine Cave. The Guild decides to make an expedition to the cave and Grovyle warns them about the possibility of Dusknoir returning from the future. Once they reach the Brine Cave, the Guild members decide to split up and search the place.

Chatot decides to tag with the player's group and half way they get attacked by Team Skull. The villainous team steals the Relic Fragment and runs away. Chatot chases after them and manages to catch them, but both the Chatot and Team Skull get attacked by a Kabutops and two Omastar. The player's group catches up to them and finds everyone deeply injured by the Kabutops and Omastar. They work together to defeat the attackers, and after doing so Wigglytuff appears with the rest of the Guild.

Wigglytuff gets very worried about Chatot who was once injured by the same Kabutops and Omastar, when they visited the cave in their previous expedition. Wigglytuff pleads for Grovyle and the player's team to continue, while it takes Chatot back to the Guild's headquarters to treat it. At the Guild's base, Wigglytuff reveals to the rest of the Guild that they both were attacked on their last visit to the cave and a Lapras saved them, on the condition that they stop investigating the weird motif they found on the cave's wall, which is the same as the one from the Relic Fragment, and that they never explore the cave again.

But, as the world's fate depended on the exploration, Wigglytuff couldn't keep its promise to Lapras. Meanwhile, the player's group reaches a wall pointing toward the sea, on which the Relic Fragment motif is engraved. The motif shines and resonates to the Relic Fragment getting closer. As the motif shines, a Lapras appears and reveals that it is the gatekeeper of the Hidden Land that is located in another dimension. The Lapras takes the group to the Hidden Land, explaining that it was created by Dialga, that kept it hidden due to its fear that bad and evil Pokémon could reach it.

Restoring time

Now they've reached the Hidden Land, Lapras informs them that they need to use the Rainbow Stoneship that lies within some old ruin, so that they can reach the Temporal Tower. The group finds the ruin and is astounded about the different legendary Pokémon pictures drawn over the ruin's wall and demonstrating Groudon, Kyogre, Mew, Dialga and Palkia. The group continues to dwell in the ruins and finds a Temple, on which top, they discover the motif from the Relic Fragment. It seems that the Rainbow Stoneship is the temple itself and that the key to activate it is the Relic Fragment that the partner holds.

As the partner is about to put the Relic Fragment in the activation slot, the group gets ambushed by Dusknoir and its Sableye guards, who capture the partner and try to throw it into a Dimensional Hole. Before they can do so, the Sableye guards get defeated by the player and Grovyle, forcing Dusknoir to fight them too. The two fight Dusknoir while the partner goes to activate the ship. Through their fight, Dusknoir reveals to the player and Grovyle that they'll be both erased from existence as the two of them are from a future that will no longer exist.

Grovyle and the player both know that the greater good is more important, and that their goal was worth dying for. The player, though, still thinks that the partner won't take the news as easily as them, and decides to keep it a secret. The partner succeeds in activating the ship which starts leaving, but before Grovyle and the player get on it, Dusknoir re-attacks the player. At that moment, Grovyle leaves the Time Gears behind, and throws itself with Dusknoir in the Dimensional Hole, sacrificing itself to save the others.

The player boards the ship, without telling a word about their inevitable fate to their partner. The two finally arrive at the top of the Temporal Tower, which seems to be falling apart, and find five different indentations where the Time Gears can be placed. The team gets confronted by the enraged Primal Dialga and will have to face this tough opponent. Managing to somehow defeat it, the partner puts the Time Gears in their required slots. Dialga then returns to its normal state and uses abilities to fix the time disruption.

Dialga then thanks both of the player and the partner and tells them that the world will get back to normal with time, then, escorts them to the Ship so they can return home. While they're on their way, the player starts slowly fading away and the partner gets confused about what's happening. The player says farewell to their partner and tells them about their fate. The partner, in tears, witnesses the player vanishing. Once the partner reaches home, it tells the Guild about the Grovyle and the player's heroic acts and their sacrifices. As the time passes, the world starts getting back to normal, but the partner's sorrow isn't over yet, as it still mourns the player's loss. One day as the partner was walking around the beach, it remembers their adventure with the player and feels some deep melancholy, which makes them collapse physically to the ground crying. The end credit roll. After the credits, Dialga senses their pain from distance, and decides to revive the player, as a way to thank the partner for helping it. Surprised and feeling a sudden great joy, the once crying partner can't believe what happened, as the player appears in front of it, out of nowhere.

After-Credits plot

A lot of time has passed, since the player returned to life and the team had resumed its activities. One day, Wigglytuff informs the player's team that they need to take a graduation test, in which only one team is accepted. Their task would be to visit the Luminous Spring and find the hidden treasure. The Luminous Spring is the place where Pokémon can evolve.

Wigglytuff also adds that the area is inhabited by bad Pokémon led by the Grand Master of all bad things. Before heading to Luminous Spring, the team meets with Ursaring and Teddiursa, who visited the area the year before, affirming that no such thing as a Great Master exists. Both Pokémon decide to tag along with the player's team for the journey. To their surprise, when they reach the Luminous Spring, they get faced by the Grand Master and its minions, who turn out to be Wigglytuff and the rest of the guild members, that they eventually defeat and find the hidden treasure.

The treasure turns out to be a simple Perfect Apple that Wigglytuff placed into a chest. While they were there, the team discovers that Pokémon can evolve in the Luminous Spring once again, as Teddiursa steps into it and evolves into an Ursaring. The player's team try out the spring too, but in vain. A mysterious voice tells them that they cannot evolve yet, as they were the most exposed to the time distortion. Now as they successfully graduated, the player and their partner decide to start independently from the guild, although they'll still share some of their reward money with it, and they make Sharpedo Bluff their new headquarters.

Later, a Mr. Mime tells the people of Treasure Town that the explorer Scizor went missing in Blizzard Island. The player's team decides to investigate the case, visiting the area and finding Scizor frozen there by Froslass. They defeat Froslass and rescue Scizor that gives them "Secret Rank", that turns to be the key to the sevens dungeons, where seven fabulous treasures can be found.

Many days after that, the requests for the player, informing them that a new dungeon has appeared. Surrounded Sea, as the dungeon is called, is a place filled with rare and exotic treasures. The team explores the dungeon and finds a Wonder Egg when they reach its end. They use a warp tile to escape the dungeon and return home. The day after, the egg hatches and a Manaphy emerges from it. The player and their partner decide to visit Chatot, in order to get more information on Manaphy.

They learn that Manaphy is a very rare Pokémon, which makes them pay extra attention to it. They take Manaphy to the beach, which makes the Pokémon incredibly happy. At night, the Manaphy longs for the beach and more precisely the sea and decides to revisit it alone, while everyone else is asleep.

When the sunrises, the team finds out that Manaphy was missing and goes for its search, finding it keeling on beach's sand. The player's team take Manaphy to Chatot, that informs them how Manaphy are supposed to live in the ocean and that this one is actually sick. In order to cure it, they need to find the Phione Dew in the Miracle Sea. The team urgently explores the dungeon and upon reaching its end, they find six Phione that get scared away by an angered Gyarados.

The team defeats the Gyarados and receives the Phione Dew from the Six Phione. After using the medicine on Manaphy, they entrust it to a Walrein that will take care of it in the sea, where it truly belongs. After doing a few miscellaneous missions, the player's team witnesses the visit of the legendary ranked Team Charm to the Guild. It is the best exploration and treasure hunting team, consisting of Medicham, Gardevoir and Lopunny, with Wigglytuff itself, being one of its former members.

It appears that Team Charm needs the key for a certain dungeon and that Wigglytuff possesses. First, Wigglytuff doesn't recall having it, but few moments later and as they were about to leave, the key is found in Wigglytuff's room. Everyone in the Guild, including the player and their partner, want to explore the dungeon that Team Charm mentioned. Team Charm accepts and lets the player's team tag along with them. Within the Aegis dungeon, they encounter the three legendary gaurdians Regice, Regirock and Registeel, which they defeat and move further.

They are later, confronted by Regigigas, forcing the teams to work together to win against the admirable foe. As the game progresses, a Cresselia visits the player in their dreams and informs them that their very existence, as it is not meant not meant to be, is causing distortion in space. The Team decides to visit Palkia, the legendary Pokémon controlling space, and ask it for answers. But before they leave, Palkia itself visits them and attacks them, transporting the team to the Spacial Rift.

There, they try to battle Palkia and ask for answers simultaneously, but it seems that the legendary Pokémon is trapped in a nightmare. The Cresselia shows up again and tries to use the Palkia to finish off the player's team. Unexpectedly, another Cresselia appears and reveals that the first one was a Darkrai that disguised itself as Cresselia. The Darkrai reveals itself and taunts the player into following it. Although Cresselia warns the team that it's probably a trap, they still accept Darkrai's invitation. Upon reaching the evil Pokémon, they learn that Darkrai is behind everything, includiing the space and time distortions, the Temporal Tower damage and even the player's transformation.

Darkrai's goal is to cover the world in darkness, allowing it to spread to nightmares to all the Pokémon and rule them. The Darkrai then invites the player and the partner to rule at its side and creates an illusion in which the player sees the partner agreeing with Darkrai and accepting its proposal. The player snaps out of the illusion and fights Darkrai with the help of the partner. Getting defeated, the Darkrai tries to flee through a Dimensional Hole. At the same time, Palkia appears and attacks Darkrai, but misses, hitting the Dimensional Hole instead. This causes the Dimensional Hole to malfunction, after the Darkrai goes through it, causing the Pokémon to lose all its memories about its evil past and making them wander aimlessly around the Pokémon world. Although, Darkrai's location is unknown, they know the Pokémon is still alive.

Pokémon

The game features almost all the Pokémon up to the fourth generation, reaching 491 Pokémon, with Shaymin and Arceus excluded. Most of the Pokémon are encountered in the dungeons, while some play major characters role in the game story.

Playable Pokémon

Similarly to the previous game, the player will take a quiz as soon as the game begins, and the Pokémon that they will turn into is determined through their answers.

Partner Pokémon

Unlike the previous games, the player can choose what partner they want from the same list of playable Pokémon, on the condition that the partner be from a different type than the player's Pokémon. For example, if the player gets Charmander as a Pokémon, they can't pick Chimchar, Torchic or Cyndaquil as partners.

Game Exlusive Pokémon

Like all pair of Pokémon games, each of the game has its own exclusive Pokémon, appearing only in it.

NPC Pokémon

Many Pokémon function as NPCs throughout the game, either helping the player or seeking their demise.

Pokémon Bosses

Gameplay and Features

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers and Time and Explorers of Darkness, both inherit the gameplay of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team Blue, with the game mainly focusing on exploring different dungeons, while the story progresses. Although, the previous game, focused way more on the missions, this pair sheds more light on the exploration factor, with the introductions of an astounding number of dungeons.

Most of the game features are kept the same, except for the removal of the Friend Areas option that was present in Red & Blue Rescue Teams. Additionally, many new features were added, like the Pokémon Eggs that the player can place at Chansey's Daycare, where they will hatch and join their team.

The Treasure Boxes are new items that appear for the first time in the game, and which contain rare items. These chests can be opened by paying a certain amount of money. The Wonder Mail feature has been tweaked in a way to prevent any abuse, as some players used Wonder Mail to cheat. Another great addition is the player's ability to send one of their team members to a friend, allowing the friends team to contain more than four Pokémon and letting them clear dungeons way easier.

Videos

Videos from PMD Explorers of time and Darkness including a collection of unused music discovered in the games files, the opening/intro video and one of the UK TV Commercials. Many more can be found at our channel.

A collection of unused music from PMD: Explorers of Time and Darkness. This music was present in the games data files but never made it to the release version.

The intro / opening video from Explorers of Darkness

One of the UK TV commercials

Trivia & Facts

• The Spatial Rift and Temporal Tower, where Palkia and Dialga appear reside respectively, are named of the Category of the two Pokémon since Palkia is called the Spatial Pokémon, while Dialga is the Temporal Pokémon.
• The names of both places were changed in the Japanese version of the games into Dimension Tower and Sky Fissure.
• The game provides a gender for most of the Pokémon even the legendary ones which are supposed to be genderless.
• The Celebi met during the story is colored pink. While some people believe this is due to it being a female, the truth is it is just Celebi in its Shiny form.
• The Sky Tower, Mt.Freeze, Thunderwave Cave and Mt. Thunder soundtracks from Rescue Teams Blue and Red, are mixed together forming the music theme of Blizzard Island in Explorers of Time and Darkness.

Sales figures

The games had a very successful sales campaign, managing to sell around 862 thousand copies in Japan, 357 thousand in Europe and nearly 500 thousand in the USA, just within the first three weeks of its release. The sales continued to increase further and further, reaching a total of 1.54 million copies sold in Japan, 1.1 million in Europe, 1.6 million in the USA and a Global final number of 4.93 million copies sold all over the world.

 

Review scores

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness were well received and earned good scores on major review websites. Let's take a look at these reviews:

• Craig Harris from IGN thought that the games were fun and challenging but ended up being repetitive at some point. He rated them 6.5/10, the equivalent of "Okay", on the IGN scale.
• Austin Shau from GameSpot thought that the story was very interesting and surprisingly touching, and is overwhelmed by the number of missions and dungeons, stating " There are plenty of optional missions to embark on as well, even after you've completed the story.". But, similar to other reviewers, he believes the games become eventually dull and the problem is probably with the Mystery Dungeon game formula itself. He rated the games 6.5/10, which equates to "Fair", on the GS scale.
• On GameRankings, the games received a good score of 62.39%, over 23 reviews, while it earned a score of 60% on Metacritic, over 29 critics.
• James Burton reviewed the games on behalf of Pokemon Dungeon, scoring them 4 stars out of 5, very good on our scale.

Explorers of Darkness, JP Logo Overall, the games were fairly good, mostly due to the fun and elaborate storylines. Nonetheless, there isn't much variety in the missions and their objectives, and they are still lacking on a multiplayer level, as some Pokémon fans, expected they'd be able to explore dungeons together with their friends, simultaneously, but that wasn't the case.

Media & Artwork

Official Artwork Gallery from PMD: Explorers of Time & Darkness - A gallery featuring many of the prominent Pokémon from the game and some logo art
Box Art from PMD: Explorers of Time including numerous regional variations + editions
Box Art from PMD: Explorers of Darkness including numerous regional variations + editions
Screenshots from PMD: Explorers of Darkness
Screenshots from PMD: Explorers of Time