Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

Gates to Infinity and Beyond

In 1980, the computer game Rogue saw its release, leading to the terming of the roleplaying game subgenre roguelike, a chief producer being Chunsoft, responsible for early Dragon Quest games. The Enix, now Square-Enix, series would feature Dragon Quest IV hero Torneko as the star of several subgenre entries, although Chunsoft would produce Mystery Dungeon games with other RPG series such as Pokémon, which saw its first roguelike games on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. A later entry in the subseries would be Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, continuing to sport the signature gameplay of the Game Freak in a roguelike setting.

When starting a new game, the player can choose a Pokémon as the protagonist and a partner as the deuteragonist, each with strengths and weaknesses akin to the mainline series entries. The narrative, akin to older franchise installments, features a faceless and nameless human turned into a Pokémon who must save a world inhabited solely by the beasts while seeking to become human again. Some themes I found relatable, such as gift rejection, and the ending features many sad moments aided by the music, although some tried tropes and predictable plot points exist.

The translation is legible, but issues exist, including occasional grammar errors, unusual item descriptions, and odd commands for maintaining Paradise. The game also overuses ellipses and exclamation points, and akin to most Nintendo RPG translations, the writers lazily used the acronym OK. Furthermore, instead of putting onomatopoeia in parentheses with descriptions of things like huffing and puffing, the translators spelled it out in the text. In the end, the localization has its rough spots.

The gameplay in Gates to Infinity is methodical, with players performing duties in a hub town like purchasing items and managing an adjacent town-in-construction called Paradise, where they can use materials and pay money for various facilities that have features such as growing Oran Berries, which heal a great deal of Pokémon health and can be critical to beating the game towards the end. Another element that comes into play later is the V-Wave system when the weather favors Pokémon of specific types, something the player can take advantage of at times.

Elemental strengths and weaknesses still come to play in this spinoff.

In between town management, the player goes with their partner Pokémon and two other allies, either coming into play because of the story or joining the party when low on health, into the random dungeons. Players can take a finite number of consumable items for each dungeon trip that perform functions such as healing, status ailment recovery, stat increases, inflicting ailments on one or all enemies in a room, and so forth. As the player’s party moves through dungeons, enemies also move; when close, combat can begin, with each party Pokémon able to hit foes with a normal weak attack or choose from one of four abilities that have elements affiliated with them to execute against adversaries, which enemies may be strong or weak against.

Killing enemy Pokémon nets all characters in the player’s party for occasionally raised levels, in which case they gain increased stats and maybe a new ability. One feature that staves off some grinding frustration is that when taking lower-level Pokémon into dungeons, they level up to speed with the higher-level members of the player’s party, gaining respective stat increases and the opportunity to learn new skills. One minor issue when leveling is that the game slowly narrates stat increases due to the fixed glacial text speed.

Each floor has several connected chambers, occasional traps, and items lying about that players can pick up, provided they have the inventory space (which may increase at points depending upon the size of Paradise). Should either the player’s primary Pokémon or their partner die, the game gives the option of using the internet to await rescue from another player, which is pointless given that virtually no one across the world is regularly playing it. Thus, players will need to settle for being taken back to town with a few items and money lost, though luckily, they retain experience.

The gameplay works decently, although some issues include the tendency of ally Pokémon to separate from the party when enemies are in view, which can lead to unfortunate events getting killed by an enemy, with the death of either the player or partner ‘Mon taking players back to the last safe point. There are also many points where the player loses access to town, not to mention some repetition if death comes frequently. The game also doesn’t prevent players from wasting their skills, but in general, the mechanics help more than hurt.

How many roads must a Pokémon walk down?

The control aspect has a few things going for it, such as a fair save system and availability of a suspend save within dungeons so that players can pick up where they left off should they have a busy lifestyle, not to mention the ease of the menus and automaps for each dungeon floor. However, the text speed is sluggish, one cannot view playtime in-game, and the mentioned points of no return occur at times in the story. Ultimately, the developers could have made more effort to increase user-friendliness.

The soundtrack is perhaps the high point of the spinoff, with just about every piece being solid, although there are many silent cutscenes.

The visuals look nice also, with excellent Pokémon designs, good use of 3-D, good colors, and believable scenery. Some dungeon designs can become repetitive, but the spinoff fares well graphically.

Finally, one can make it through in a little over sixteen hours; however, replayability exists with postgame content and the myriad combinations of protagonist and partner Pokémon, although the faults with the gameplay may deter additional playtime.

Overall, Gates to Infinity, regardless of faults that include its average control, generic narrative, and weak translation, can be an enjoyable experience, given its fusion of Pokémon and Mystery Dungeon gameplay, coupled with a solid audiovisual experience and lasting appeal. I lack deep experience with the roguelike RPG subgenre, but I enjoyed the game more than many mainline entries of the franchise and would gladly give other installments of the subseries a look. Fans of the main games familiar with their mechanics will likely get the most out of the spinoff.

This review is based on a playthrough with Oshawott as the main character and Pikachu as their partner.