There is a truth that is worth repeating every now and then: Pokémon tend to be rather adorable. While not true for necessarily every single one of the currently 650 critters featured in the series, it applies more often than not. So, the appeal of a Pokémon game sans humans should be fairly obvious. This brings us to the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon sub-series, which takes that idea and marries it to the popular roguelike genre for a combination that has done well commercially, if nothing else. Now the latest PMD game has arrived in the form of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity and the question remains: Does the game pack enough punch to appeal to gamers en masse or is this one mystery not even a van full of meddling kids and their dog too would even bother touching?

Gates to Infinity opens in the way that all PMD games have to date, with a nameless human being, meant to represent the player, being sucked into a world of Pokémon, whereupon said human becomes a Pokémon themselves. Lacking the ability to return home or even to their proper species, the player character quickly joins up with another fellow Pokémon to form an adventure/rescue team in order to explore various dungeons of a mostly mysterious nature. It is a familiar enough setup to be sure, but then again if there is one thing Pokémon games in general love it is finding a setup that works and sticking to it no matter what. The trick then is not so much the setup itself, but how it is used in the context of the game’s larger story and in the case of Gates that would be very well indeed.

Whereas the story of the first set of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games was fairly basic and the tale spun by the second was almost too complex for its own good, Gates hits just the right balance between the two. The game’s story manages to not only be the best one produced by the PMD sub-series to date, but one of the better ones in the entire franchise, at least as far as the its gaming side is concerned. To be clear, this is still a Pokémon game, so much of the story falls into the category of kid-friendly, but that is not to say there is no nuance present in the game. Friendship and trust are the main themes at play in the title, as players encounter a Pokémon world where everyone has begun to lose hope and faith in one another. It is a remarkably sweet story and the various characters that populate the world tend to be lovable, which makes the world of the game one players will enjoy spending time in.

Little is actually original, but the game has just the right light touch to make it work. This is game that takes itself just seriously enough and no more, which is about right for a story featuring talking Pokémon. The game even manages to inject more cinematic touches with its storytelling than both past Mystery Dungeon titles and even the franchise in general and as a result what might have been an otherwise familiar tale has new life breathed into it. Overall, the confident storytelling and expert localization at play in Gates to Infinity make for a strong addition to the overall game and show there is plenty of life in the classic PMD concept.

Unfortunately, it seems that the developers of the PMD games can never get everything right and this time around it the gameplay front where things suffer the most. To be fair, Gates’ primary gameplay is not so much bad as it is overly simplistic and, for large portions of the game, lacking in challenge. It takes several hours for players to actually gain access to a full party of four Pokémon, but once they do the dungeon delving becomes mostly a breeze for much of the game until far later in the proceedings. Everything about the central gameplay of this title is utterly standard roguelike: turn-based movements across randomized dungeons filled with enemies who move every time a player does. However, in Gates moving also restores health and while the game makes use of the typical Pokemon limited-use PP move system, items that fully restore all PP for an individual mon are cheap and plentiful from the beginning. Additionally, since recruiting more Pokémon to the team simply occurs randomly upon defeating them in combat, there is even less use for the status effect moves than in a mainline Pokémon game.

Combat almost always comes down to closing in on enemies and spamming attack moves until they fall. Challenge tends to come more from giving enemies more health and stronger attacks, as opposed to clever design choices. Also, a number of changes to the way moves work in this game further simplify affairs. For one thing, moves gain experience in Gates and in turn can level up for greater damage, accuracy, PP, etc cetera and a move’s level is shared across all Pokémon who can use that particular move. Unlike the mainline series, players can forget and restore moves however many times they want completely free of charge back at base. Finally, while players can only bring four Pokémon into battle at a time, those left behind at base will all gain equal experience as those out in the field. All of this make the process of building up one’s potentially massive team of recruited Pokémon both less time consuming and easier, but whether or not that is good thing will come down to personal preference. To summarize, combat in Gates is painless, but also often monotonous and exploring the actual dungeons themselves is rarely little better.

So it is good thing then that the game has plenty of compelling reasons to play outside of its central gameplay. In addition to the previously discussed story, GtI has a number of side-elements that help make up for its more bog-standard combat/exploration. Chief among these is the home base, aka Pokémon Paradise, established by the player and their partner Pokémon early on in the game. This “paradise” is actually a massive and sprawling amount of land picked up on the cheap by the partner Pokémon mainly because of the wild, overgrown state it is in. After players form a full team they also secure the services of a carpenter and his two apprentices and with enough money and the right materials they can turn the land into a paradise in fact as well as name. Once that is done, players begin building over forty different facilities ranging from dojos for every type of Pokémon and fields for growing berries and the like to more unusual examples like one that lets players engage in a surprisingly fun mini-game that can pay big dividends or a shop that helps players access secret detours in the dungeons that are filled with extremely powerful enemies and equally high-level rare treasures.

Facilities can then be further upgraded and even given different colors and all of this adds up to a great reason to keep playing Gates. They can also be the key to helping players tackle the game’s hardest challenges and what room for customization in play style there is in GtI firmly are linked to what facilities are built. However, the only reliable way to get the needed aforementioned materials is completing various side-quests called requests. Each request fills an entire in-game day and after a number of in-game days go by Gates’ main plot will generally resume and often send players on longer and more involved quests into newly revealed areas. This gives the game a nice rhythm as it cuts between base building and plot progression and each generally lasts just long enough to help prevent too much monotony from setting in at any given moment.

However, should a player want to set aside the plot for a time and just focuses on building facilities the game features Companion Mode wherein players switch control from their main Mon to one of their teammates for as long as they want. This is also a nice way to experiment with controlling other Pokémon since during the story mode players are always forced to control their main character and include their partner Pokémon on the team as well. Companion Mode even allows for special dungeons that players can tackle only with friends but this mode’s unfortunate limitation to local play-only prevented me from trying it out. Players can also unlock extra dungeons via both AR technology and DLC, the latter of which takes a similar approach to Fire Emblem in that it mostly focuses on letting players gain money or experience.

Overall, the out-of-dungeon content in Gates to Infinity goes a long way to making up for its more blander gameplay elements, but there is another reason to keep playing through this latest PMD title: its production values. GtI marks the first time the PMD sub-series has gone full 3D with its visuals and the results are nothing less than flat-out gorgeous. The game has the look of a cartoon brought to life with large, colorful character models backed by strong animations and diverse, appealing backgrounds for all the non-dungeon environments. This is not to say the dungeons look bad per se, but they do tend to suffer from that sense of “seen one, seen them all” that is often prevalent in games with randomized environments. Still, the game is not afraid to back off from the randomized elements when it matters and overall this is the kind of game that is always a pleasure to look at. Aurally, the game continues Nintendo’s reluctance to embrace full voice acting, but at least the music and sound effects are equally well done to help make up for this. The former in particular features a good mix of original tunes and remixed versions of classic Pokémon beats and its clear some real care was taken in regards to this aspect of the title.

Gates to Infinity is without a doubt the most simplistic and easy of all the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. Spike Chunsoft have clearly gone out of their way to streamline the series’ gameplay and have come very close to crossing the line of going too far in this direction. Still, Gates does manage, if only just, to stay on the correct side of that line more often than not and while it might be the most simplistic PMD game it is also the most charming. The game does do an excellent job of creating vivid and memorable characters to populate its appealing Pokémon-filled world and if the story is very kid friendly overall that is by no means a bad thing. Indeed, when combined with the game’s impeccable visuals what is left for players who can set aside their need for overriding challenge is a title that they will likely want to get lost in. This is a sweet, good natured game that embodies everything that has made the Pokémon franchise such a hit with kids and adults alike over the years.

Pokémon: Gates to Infinity may not be the best game the franchise has ever produced, but those looking for a pleasant way to while away the hours on the 3DS could do far worse. Poke-maniacs in particular will find it the perfect meal to hold them over until the real feast of X and Y arrives later this year.

A copy of the game was purchased for review purposes and played for about 30 hours. The title is a 3DS exclusive.

Also, feel free to follow the reviewer on Twitter @bigred_13 please if you feel so inclined.