This is the sort of game that can make people like it without really knowing why.
Not like the storylines of the main Pokemon games, is it? Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is very different to the main Pokemon games. Instead of being a trainer who has to catch, raise and train Pokemon, you are now a Pokemon, in charge of an exploration team. The Pokemon you are is determined by a series of questions you have to answer at the beginning of the game. After answering these questions, you are told what nature of Pokemon you are most like (for example, bold, timid, lonely etc.), a little bit about that nature, then what Pokemon your starter is in this game out of a possible 16 (all of the starters from the main Pokemon games, plus Pikachu and 3 Normal Pokemon). After that, you get to pick your partner Pokemon out of a random 7 or so, who will be your sidekick. You may think that the storyline in this game is like the storyline in the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but it's not. This storyline has several plot twists in it which might just keep you on your toes.
In this game, you travel through many dungeons. Each dungeon is comprised of several floors, the amount depending on the dungeon and each floor has many different rectangular rooms joined by corridors. On each floor, you must try and find the stairs to progress forward. Dungeons are randomly generated so even if you visit the same dungeon a lot of times, chances are, you won't know exactly where the stairs will be the next time you visit.
But it's not just a simple matter of hunting down stairs. Of course, wild Pokemon will be wandering around the dungeons. When they see you, they'll head towards you, using the shortest route possible. This game is a turn-based one, so enemies won't do anything until you do something.
While enemies are headed towards you, you can try and defeat them before they get close, either by throwing projectile weapons such as Geo Pebbles or Iron Thorns at them, or by using certain moves that will hit Pokemon over a long distance, like Flamethrower or Water Pulse. You can move towards them instead, or just sit there and wait for them to come close. You can also use items, like orbs or seeds, to try and help you in battle. For example, you can throw a Totter Seed at enemy Pokemon to make them confused or eat a Violent Seed to get your Attack and Special Attack up to the maximum level. Occasionally, a defeated wild Pokemon may ask to join your exploration team. At later stages in this game, you can carry far more items than you could in the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, which is good. This was one of the problems I had with the first game.
When you're not exploring dungeons, you will probably be in the local town of Treasure Town, or in Wigglytuff's Guild. These places have many facilities to help you out. In Treasure Town, Kangaskhan Storage is a place to store all the items you don't need, but unfortunately, though your can carry more items with you than in the previous game, you can't store as many in Kangaskhan Storage.
Those items that you don't want or need, though, can be sold at Kecleon's shop, just like the first game. You can go to Duskull's Bank, which just replaces Felicity Bank in the first game, where you can withdraw and deposit your money. There's also an Electivire Link shop, which lets you link moves. Linking moves lets you use multiple moves in one turn. However, every move used will lose 1 PP and if one of those moves runs out of PP, the moves will de-link. Yet another facility that was also featured in the first game is a Marowak Dojo, which replaces the Makuhita Dojo in the first game, where you can battle through a few mazes to train your Pokemon.
There are a couple of new shops in this game. One is a Chansey Day Care. If you get an egg from a mission, Chansey will look after it for you until it hatches. The second is Xatu Appraisal. Occasionally, while exploring a dungeon, you'll get some chest items, like a Deluxe Box, a Sinister Box or a Hard Box. You'll need to take those to Xatu to open them. It's worth it, though, you can get some pretty good items from there.
In Wigglytuff's Guild, you have some bulletin boards listing some jobs that you can take on. One notice board gives you jobs like fighting Outlaw Pokemon. You need to get to the floor of the dungeon that the Outlaw Pokemon is on and they will appear right in front of you so you don't have to search for them. Then you must fight and defeat them. Sometimes, all you have to do is simply defeat the Pokemon, while other times, they will drop an unusable item which you must pick up to complete the mission. The other notice board gives you jobs like rescuing Pokemon in trouble, escorting Pokemon to a certain floor or to their friends in a dungeon or escorting Pokemon to a certain location on a certain floor (like to a locked door, for instance). Some more facilities in Wigglytuff's Guild is a Chimecho Assembly which replaces the Friend Areas in the first game. Here you may assemble your team. There are restrictions on how big your team is allowed to be (four Pokemon, maybe less if some of those Pokemon are big Pokemon like, say, Dialga). There's also an Assembly Post nearer to the place where you leave for exploration for easy access, too. Another feature within Wigglytuff's guild is Croagunk's Swap Shop. Here you can swap a few items for better ones. But you may only swap two items that are for the same Pokemon or for the same Pokemon type. For example, you can swap a Bulba-Claw and a Bulba-Fang in exchange for a Grass-Guard.
Graphics and sound in this game are just as I expected. Graphics are about the same as the first game, bright and colourful and they do the job perfectly. Sound effects in this game are annoying, but the music makes up for it. However, I thought that the first game had some nicer tracks, but then again, I haven't completed the post-story yet since I'm dragging it out slowly. Yes, like the main Pokemon games and the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, you have a post-story, which is good definitely a good thing, since the main storyline in this game made me want to play more to find out what happens next, but once I got near the end, I didn't want it to be over so soon!
There isn't much multiplayer in this game. It's mainly rescuing people who are stuck in dungeons. You can rescue or be rescued over Wi-Fi too, a major improvement over the first game's rescue system. Once I got stuck in a dungeon, sent out for a rescue over Wi-Fi, then returned after having my lunch to find that my team had been saved. You can also download special missions off Wi-Fi, which may unlock things like version-exclusive characters in your game.
All in all, I really enjoyed this game, without really knowing why. I just found it addictive, though it felt like the storyline was too short!