While Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is technically a remake of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team for Gameboy Advance and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team for Nintendo DS, there is plenty of new in this game. Between brand new features, features borrowed from other games in the series, and stunning new graphics, Rescue Team DX definitely feels like a brand new game.
Just how different is Rescue Team DX?
While the core story and premise of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX remains the same as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, the folks over at The Pokémon Company didn't just port the original Mystery Dungeon games to the Switch. They added plenty of new features and reworked some of the old features. They brought in features from later Mystery Dungeon games, like Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. They added amazing new graphics. If I didn't know better, you could have convinced me that Rescue Team DX was a brand new game, not a remake of a fifteen year old game.
New Features:
Starter Pokémon
One of the most significant changes is to how you select your Starter Pokémon and Partner Pokémon. In the original games, players took a personality quiz made up of several randomly selected questions. Each possible answer had points assigned to different natures and depending on what nature you scored highest in and what gender you selected, you would be assigned a Starter Pokémon from 16 possible species. Because the pool of questions was so large and the questions asked were randomly selected, players would often restart the game again and again just to get the Pokémon they really wanted - assuming they had a players' guide with the right answers to cheat from.
While Rescue Team DX still has the personality quiz, players aren't bound by the results. If you don't like the Pokémon you're assigned, you can pick a different one, allowing for your starter to have any combination of Nature and Gender. Now that you have a say in who you play as and who you partner with, the real question is which Pokémon make the best team?
Battle Mechanics
The Mystery Dungeon games have always played more like tactical RPGs than the core games, but Rescue Team DX has had a few upgrades to the battle mechanics. The first new feature is an Auto Mode. By pressing the L Button, the player and their team are moved automatically through the Dungeon until an enemy is approached or the button is pressed again. Additionally, using the A Button now automatically selects the best move against an opponent. Practically speaking, this makes gameplay smoother and quicker. Also added to the automation, Rescue Team DX Auto Saves your progress.
Another change is the size of your Rescue Teams. Players can select up to five additional team members while in a dungeon, for a total of eight Pokémon. This gives players the opportunity to build a much more diverse team, better equipped for the varied opponents they will face in the more challenging Dungeons. However, a bigger party means more to keep track of. The Auto Mode, Auto Select, and Auto Save features all help in managing this larger Rescue Team.
Boosting your Pokémon
While battling other Pokémon in Dungeons is a great way to level up your team, the Mystery Dungeon games have other ways of boosting your Pokémon as well. The Makuhita Dojo is one such tool. Within the Dojo, you can go through practice Dungeons to sharpen your skills and win awesome prizes. However, it works differently in Rescue Team DX. Only one Pokémon can enter the Dojo at a time now and there is a time limit to some Dungeons, but the Pokémon you take to the Dojo gets a lot more XP.
Another change in Rescue Team DX is the Wigglytuff's Camp Corner and the Rescue Team Camps. These use to be the Wigglytuff Club and Friend Areas, places that players can go to recruit new Pokémon for their Rescue Team. In addition to changing the names of these places, as well as the names of some of the individual Rescue Team Camps, the Gummies, which raise a Pokémon's IQ and boost their stats, are no longer held in your inventory. Instead, Gummies are kept in Kangaskhan's Storage until you're ready to use them at a Rescue Camp.
Item Changes
New items have been added to Rescue Team DX, such as the Bank Orb. Other items might work a little differently, like TMs, which can no longer be Recycled. Plain Seeds can be Recycled now and will become Oran Berries or different Seeds. The Friend Bow also got an upgrade in Rescue Team DX - now it can recruit Shiny Pokémon!
Other New Features
There are a few other minor changes made to Rescue Team DX. Players can change the names of their Starter Pokémon, Partner Pokémon, and Rescue Team at any point. Also, early on in the game, a Diglett pops up to create a shortcut from the Pelipper Post Office to the Team Base.
Features from later Mystery Dungeon Games:
While some of the features are brand new, other features in Rescue Team DX have been brought over from other titles in the Pokémon series.
Moves and Pokémon
When Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team were released, the Pokémon games had only made it to Gen III and consisted of 386 Pokémon. Now the franchise is up to Gen VIII and has almost 900 different Pokémon! While Rescue Team DX doesn't have quite so many Pokémon, it does have more than just the first three generations. Over 400 different species of Pokémon are available, including Mega Evolutions, and moves from later generations, such as Foul Play and Charge Beam, are also in the game.
To see which Pokémon can be encountered in Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, our Complete Pokédex can be filtered by game.
Battle Mechanics
A feature brought over from Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, Players can rescue themselves if they are defeated. Also, as mentioned before, Mega Evolution can be used within Rescue Team DX, giving select Pokémon incredible power boosts!
Other Borrowed Features
Some other features include:
- Treasure Boxes, special rewards found in Mystery Dungeons, are opened automatically upon leaving the dungeon.
- Pokémon with two Abilities can no longer have both simultaneously.
- Players can switch leaders by pushing + at any time in any dungeon.
Watercolor Graphics
All of those changes are pretty impressive, but probably the most notable difference in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is in the appearance of the game itself. While the orginal games were great for their time, Rescue Team DX has the most beautiful watercolor-inspired graphics — it's an absolute work of art! Even if you didn't play the originals and lack the nostalgia factor pushing you to pick up this game, the graphics alone are worth it.
Even Pikachu is amazed!
Questions about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX?
Do you have questions about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and how it's different from the originals? Did you catch something we missed? Drop us a comment below and be sure to check out our Complete Pokédex, as well as our other Pokémon Mystery Dungeon guides so you too can become a Pokémon Master!
More Mystery Dungeon guides
○ How to choose your starter ○ All Rescue Team Camps ○ All personality test questions and answers ○ Tips and Tricks ○ Do you have to play as the Pokémon from your personality quiz? ○
