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1* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Fans consistently debate on whether or not Guildmaster Wigglytuff's off-kilter, laid back ways are [[ObfuscatingStupidity him deliberately concealing how much he really knows]] or if he's just a GeniusDitz with moments of CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass.
2* AntiClimaxBoss:
3** Unless you're really playing with the worst possible duo to fight that boss, [[spoiler:Kabutops and the Omastar brothers]] in the Brine Cave. They're dramatically hyped-up in-story as "vicious Pokémon" that Chatot and Wigglytuff barely managed to ''survive'' encountering in the past. They also [[spoiler:take out Team Skull effortlessly]]. They all happen to be Rock/Water types, though, so if you or the partner is a Grass type, the battle is pathetically easy. Even some Fire type starters can win the battle without much difficulty, especially if they're able to exploit the Rock type of the enemies, for example, with Fighting-type moves (Focus Punch can deal massive damage to them, if not [[OneHitKill one-hit-kill]] the [[spoiler: Omastar brothers]]). And then there is Discharge with [[SeriesMascot Pikachu]] and Shinx.
4** [[spoiler: Palkia. The God of Space takes you to his own realm to destroy you]]. However, he is easily crippled by the Hunger Seed due to lacking an IQ Skill that most other bosses have to make them immune to it. You'll be able to easily take him down while his attacks deal a measly 1 HP of damage.
5* BaseBreakingCharacter: Chatot. Some admire him for the heroic feat he pulled at Brine Cave and making a pretty good comedic foil to Wigglytuff. Others dislike him for being pretty bossy, strict, and for [[NeverLiveItDown punishing your team for something that wasn't your fault without hearing you out]]; though the latter probably owed more to his anxiety over experiencing [[BewareTheNiceOnes Wigglytuff's]] [[UnstoppableRage rage]] than any genuine anger towards your team, as his subsequent feelings toward the incident after the danger subsides are rather neutral and blasé.
6* BetterOffSold: Most held items provide useful passive buffs for the Pokémon who wears it. Outside of a few niche items, that you won't get until after the main story, there isn't any real reason to keep more than four held items around. They are also pretty valuable for how common they are, so they're generally just a way to get some extra money.
7* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: '''RANDOM LUDICOLO DANCE SEQUENCE!''' Though admittedly, it's only for winning the jackpot in the recycle lottery, rather than a random thing in the story.
8* CatharsisFactor:
9** After you and your partner have been bullied and messed with by Team Skull, it's quite satisfying to see them on the ground and knocked out after getting [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by Guildmaster Wigglytuff after the expedition.
10** Even though he redeemed himself in the eyes of many players through his actions in Brine Cave, it's still hard not to feel at least a ''little'' satisfied when you get to knock out Chatot during the Grand Master of All Things Bad battle.
11* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Riolu and Vulpix are by far the most popular hero and partner pair among let's players and fanartists.
12* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: [[TheChessmaster Darkrai]] serves as the true BigBad. He was responsible for the collapsing of Temporal Tower that lead to the BadFuture, tortures an innocent child with violent nightmares to lure out the PlayerCharacter and their partner, and makes several attempts to assassinate them so he can try his plans again. One of his most heinous acts involves trying to have the heroes willingly [[MurderBySuicide commit suicide]] by tricking them into thinking their existence is threatening the space-time continuum due to time travel shenanigans. A ManipulativeBastard par excellence, he has no regrets for his crimes and wishes nothing more than the complete and utter destruction of the world, just so he can rule the tattered remains.]]
13* CriticalDissonance: Critics gave ''Explorers'' a tepid-at-best reception, criticizing the repetitive gameplay and the presentation in the visuals and sound for [[NewWorkRecycledGraphics recycling the assets]] from ''Rescue Team''. Fans on the other hand have given it CultClassic status for its powerful and moving story, and it is widely considered to be among the best ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' spinoffs.
14* CultClassic: Due mainly to its narrative and a soundtrack brimming with great music, this side-game has almost as many fans as any entry of the main ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series, and it still remains a popular and well-regarded game even years after its debut--if anything, after some [[ContestedSequel Contested Sequels]] in both the main franchise and the ''Mystery Dungeon'' subseries, it's gotten ''more'' popular with time. ''[[UpdatedRerelease Sky]]'' in particular is well-regarded for adding in the Special Episodes, increasing the number of playable Pokémon, and letting players experience the soundtrack whenever they want with the Sky Jukebox.
15* DemonicSpiders:
16** Venomoth reprises its role from Rescue Team as an infuriating spammer of Supersonic and Silver Wind, though it appears much earlier this time.
17** Buneary in Foggy Forest can deal 45 fixed damage to you with Frustration, which can easily KO you with only minor chip damage.
18** Anything with Bug Bite, including Combee and Yanmega, can deliver what is functionally a one-hit KO if it eats a Reviver Seed from your inventory.
19** Both Glameow and Purugly can annoy you with status moves like Swagger, Charm, and Hypnosis. They can also take a more direct approach and eviscerate you with Fury Swipes but especially Fake Out, which is pretty much Quick Attack (2-range move) but with a high chance of flinching you and leaving you a sitting duck.
20** Bronzor and Bronzong can't be hit super-effectively with Ground-type moves, and their Heat Proof ability reduces the damage they take, so it can easily survive whatever you throw at it and put you out of commission with Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, or Imprison.
21** [=Porygon2=] and Porygon-Z are infamous for spamming Discharge and Agility, which can potentially end your run right then and there, if you encounter them in a monster house.
22** Both genders of Nidoran in Mystifying Forest can rough you up, simply due to the surprise factor. The dungeon spawns plenty of low-level unevolved Pokémon, especially Grass-type starters, so you'll likely have your guard down... right before Nidoran tanks your strongest hit and wipes out more than half your HP bar with Poison Jab.
23** Speaking of the Nidoran family, Nidoqueen in Concealed Ruins and World Abyss pack the brutal Earth Power, which can strike your whole team for massive damage and lower their special defense, leaving them more vulnerable to the second Earth Power. If you or your partner are either a Fire-type or Shinx in ''Sky'', that will definitely screw you over. It should say a lot that one or two Nidoqueen is more threatening than the [[spoiler: ''Giratina'']] at the end of World Abyss.
24** Starter Pokémon all have excellent stats, but you won't be pleased to hear that once you start encountering them in dungeons like Crevice Cave and Dark Crater.
25** The wild Politoed are okay in the main series games, but here, they may as well be [[TheDreaded The Dreaded]]. There is [[ThatOneAttack one attack]] that they can use to almost ''guarantee'' a defeat: '''[[BrownNote Perish Song]]''', a move that, if it hits, automatically defeats you in three turns. Sure, the attack may have low accuracy, but if you happen to encounter a ''horde'' of these cursed frogs, and they start [[SpamAttack spamming this attack like no tomorrow]], it WILL eventually hit you.
26* EvenBetterSequel:
27** Although both ''Explorers'' and ''Rescue Team'' were received about the same by critics (that is, lukewarm), most fans agree that ''Explorers'' has a better storyline and character development. ''Rescue Team'' had a decent, if slightly unoriginal premise of natural disasters and a rather bland supporting cast. Then ''Explorers'' arrived, with the player's status as a human and their own character being far more important, a more fleshed-out and unique supporting cast, a wider variety of Pokémon as prominent characters even with the expected focus on Sinnoh Pokémon, considerably better game mechanics, and far more expanded post-game content.
28** Doubly so for the ''Sky'' version, which averts the OneGameForThePriceOfTwo elements from ''Time'' and ''Darkness'', brings more starter Pokémon, adds a handful of side-stories for more character depth, and introduced a few aspects that, much to the chagrin of the fanbase, weren't used again in future sequels, like Spinda's Café and the Lookalike items.
29* EvilIsCool:
30** Primal Dialga is widely remembered among the fanbase, particularly after the release of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', which introduced Primal Groudon and Kyogre (Primal in both versions, as oppose to English only), as this opened up the thought of the cover legends of the next set of remakes in line -- the Sinnoh games -- having the Primal forms from this game. [[note]]Primal Palkia doesn't exist, and Primal Dialga is known as Dark Dialga in Japanese, but the fanart alone speaks volumes.[[/note]]
31** [[spoiler: Darkrai.]] In contrast to the [[spoiler: misunderstood NobleDemon from ''The Rise of Darkrai'']], this incarnation of the species is [[spoiler: the true BigBad and a CardCarryingVillain CrazyPrepared MagnificentBastard]].
32* FanPreferredCouple:
33** The player character and the partner tend to get paired up a lot, though that goes without saying. Popular pairings include Eevee/Vulpix and Shinx/Riolu.
34** [[HoYay Wigglytuff and Chatot]].
35** [[ObliviousToLove Grovyle]] and [[{{Tsundere}} Celebi]].
36* FridgeHorror:
37** When you first meet her, Celebi makes an off-hand comment about how [[spoiler: Grovyle]] needs to hurry up because she's tired of being stuck in such a [[CrapsackWorld dreary world.]] [[spoiler: Once you learn that Grovyle will be effectively erasing their existence, her words take on a borderline suicidal undertone]].
38** Darkrai's backup plan to smother the world in an infinite and expanding nightmare is very disturbing for several reasons. A Pokémon that cannot wake up will eventually die from malnutrition because they cannot take in any food or water unless they are force-fed, cannot exercise as well which means that their body will slowly self-destruct via atrophy. (First the muscles become useless and then the organs start failing), will eventually die of exposure. (Freezing to death, drowning, hyperthermia, incinerated from falling into lava, is completely defenseless from being eaten alive by predators or scavengers (which in this case, would most likely be Darkrai feeding on the suffering of others) and can actually die from being scared to death. They will become so stressed from the endless amount of fear from being stuck in a nightmare and unable to do anything about it that they'll eventually suffer a heart attack.
39* FridgeLogic: In a world where the sun never shines, the water doesn't flow and the seasons are non-existent, how do the native Pokémon eat and stay alive? Apples, berries, and seeds randomly generate in the future dungeons just as well as they do in the past dungeons. This looks to be some kind of weird GameplayAndStorySegregation, though. This would give inhabitants of the BadFuture some things to eat, but since food still isn't quite plentiful, it's very likely that starvation is an issue for many Pokémon. Notice that in the dungeons in the future, nearly 1/3 of the encountered enemy species are [[FridgeHorror Ghost-type...]]
40* GameBreaker: As one might expect from a spin-off game with hundreds of playable characters, there are several.
41** Perish Song hits every enemy on the floor, but has extremely poor accuracy. However, the latter problem disappears if you have the Sure Shot status, meaning that Smeargle (and Politoed, if hatched with Mind Reader) can completely empty a floor in exactly four turns. Somewhat balanced by the fact that no experience is gained from this.
42** While it takes quite a lot of time and effort to unlock, Smeargle can eventually copy Lunar Dance from Cresselia. This grants infinite PP to any team that contains both Smeargle and Cresselia. It helps that the drawback to using Lunar Dance is far less harsh than it is in the main series (reducing the user's HP to 1 rather than fainting it outright).
43** Certain exclusive items (such as those for Nidorino, Budew, and Wingull) have a chance to restore PP upon taking damage. This seems mildly useful at best, until you realize that it is also triggered by hunger damage, meaning that as long as their belly is zero, those Pokémon have effectively infinite PP. The hunger damage itself can be healed off by using Rest, which also has effectively infinite PP. The cherry on top is that the belly-draining effect of Mobile Scarf becomes irrelevant when using this strategy, so you can easily camp inside walls and beat down on enemies who can't do anything to fight back.
44** The Sky Gem and Fighting Gem double movement speed for their respective types during clear weather. This allows you to kite your enemies by alternating between attacking and moving backwards, never giving them a chance to attack with a close-ranged move. It won't work outside of clear weather, but that can be remedied by equipping a Weather Band.
45** The widely-distributed move Agility is just as broken as it was in Rescue Team. After using Agility, you can perform any action for free, and use Agility again. This can be repeated until you reach quadruple speed, and your teammates will also receive a free action after each use of Agility. In short, you can perform four offensive actions alone and sixteen as a team ''before an enemy can even move''.
46** Ominous Wind is widely hated when encountered on enemy Drifloon and Drifblim, and for good reason: it can strike your entire team, it executes twice thanks to the Unburden ability (it allows them to attack again if they don't have items held), and it has a good chance to increase the user's speed and all the other stats, allowing it to attack with Ominous Wind yet again. Of course, it is just as devastating when you're the one using it. Silver Wind also does a similiar thing, though not with Unburden.
47** As far as items go, bosses are not immune to status effects, which means Blinker Seeds completely snap even Primal Dialga in two.
48* GoddamnedBats: Sandshrew and Sandslash, while not posing much of an offensive threat, can be a source of immense frustration if they spawn on a floor with Sandstorm thanks to their Sand Veil ability, which gives them an evasion boost in sand.
49* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Though Dugtrio's longing for the sea was initially seen as him wanting to set out to a place unreachable to him, VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet introducing the Water-type Wugtrio brings to mind the idea of him wanting to be like his convergent counterpart.
50* HilariousInHindsight: [[HilariousInHindsight/{{Pokemon}} Check the main page]].
51* ItWasHisSled: Would you believe that [[spoiler: Darkrai]] is never mentioned until respectably far into the post-game storyline? Rather than be surprising, it's common knowledge among the fandom that not only does he exist, but his entire role in the story.
52* LoveToHate: [[spoiler: Darkrai is quite well liked by the fandom. Helps that he's both cool as well as one of the franchises' most evil villains]].
53* MagnificentBastard:
54** [[spoiler:Dusknoir is Primal Dialga's right-hand man who pursues the player and Grovyle into the past. [[VillainWithGoodPublicity He poses as a friendly explorer]] while using his knowledge of the future in order to pick up information. He successfully deceives Treasure Town into helping him capture Grovyle, thereby dooming the future to paralysis, and even drags the amnesic player back to the future as a precaution. Once Grovyle, the player, and their partner escape, Dusknoir allows them to find Celebi, intending to capture her once she reveals herself. He brings along Primal Dialga to accompany him and the party is barely able to escape him. Despite his ruined reputation, he lies in wait in the past, and forces Grovyle to sacrifice himself by dragging them both back to the future. Once they arrive in the future, he earns Grovyle's trust, and lures him into a trap in an attempt to [[GrandTheftMe hijack his body]]. If it wasn't for [[HeelFaceTurn the conscience he'd developed convincing him otherwise]], Dusknoir's plan would have gone off flawlessly.]]
55** [[spoiler:[[DarkIsEvil Darkrai]] is [[TheManBehindTheMan the true mastermind behind the destruction of Temporal Tower]], which he sabotaged so he could create a world of darkness to rule. When Grovyle and the player traveled back in time to stop it, Darkrai attacked them within the Passage of Time. This separated the two, as well as giving the player amnesia, and transforming them into a Pokémon. After Temporal Tower is saved, Darkrai decided to distort space in order to create a world of eternal nightmares. Disguising himself as Cresselia, Darkrai blamed the player and their partner for the distortions, and convinced Palkia that their deaths would restore everything back to normal. Once his ruse was revealed, he retreats to Dark Crater and puts the player in an illusion to [[WeCanRuleTogether convince them to join him]]. When that fails, he reveals an army of six other Pokémon to help him kill the player. As a final back-up plan, he has a dimensional hole ready for a quick getaway, only being stopped by the timely arrival of Palkia.]]
56* MemeticBadass: The Drifloon line is regarded as gods due to their high viability for [[ThatOneLevel Lv. 1 dungeons]], thanks to [[GameBreaker Unburden]].
57* MemeticMolester:
58** Drowzee was already this in the main series thanks to its Pokédex entries; the mission where you have to rescue a child from him only escalated his status as one. His line is also memetic on its own.
59---> '''Drowzee''': This was all a trick. I deceived you.
60** According to Bidoof's Diary, Croagunk sneaks into the men's bedroom and watches Bidoof sleep while smiling creepily.
61* NeverLiveItDown: Chatot has never fully been forgiven for [[OneSideOfTheStory not allowing the player's partner to explain]] what caused them to not bring back the Perfect Apples from Apple Woods, and punishing their failure for it by [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment starving them for the night]]. This is despite the fact he has some nice moments to the team throughout the game, and even takes a blow when the heroes were about to be attacked in Brine Cave. (Though he never made it clear that it was for the incident, which is why many might still hold a grudge towards him.)
62* OneTrueThreesome: Celebi / Grovyle / Dusknoir is a favorite in some circles.
63* ParanoiaFuel: A conversation with your partner about [[spoiler: killing yourselves]] ends abruptly as the two of you go to sleep. When you wake up, [[spoiler: your partner's bed is ''empty''.]]
64* PlayerPunch: The ending of Special Episode 2 in ''Sky'', ''Igglybuff the Prodigy''. Igglybuff has befriended his loyal, trustworthy master (a retired explorer), they've explored and found heaps of treasure. Then, after they beat a remote dungeon, Igglybuff's friends and parents turn up to reveal that [[spoiler: Igglybuff's mentor, Armaldo, is actually a B-rank outlaw. You can practically see Igglybuff's world ending as Armaldo's taken into police custody. Can be considered a BittersweetEnding as well, due to Armaldo's changes in his behavior hinting that he legitimately wants to clean his slate at the end, after spending so much time with a child like Igglybuff. The ending of the chapter all but spells it out.]]
65* SacredCow: Probably the closest thing to one in the entire franchise, now remembered in fandom as a masterpiece that codified the Mystery Dungeon series as a whole as the best of the Pokémon spinoff lines.
66* SelfImposedChallenge: Most veterans agree that the starter / partner combination of Phanpy / Eevee is the worst combo one could possibly use, due to the former's lack of usable Ground-type moves (apart from Natural Gift) and the latter's crippling Run Away ability. As such, nearly everyone who used this team knew exactly what they were signing up for.
67* SequelDisplacement: While not as bad as some examples of this trope, some believe that ''Explorers'' were the originals and don't know about ''Rescue Team'' or just ignore them. The remake of ''Rescue Team'' may have later rectified this.
68* SpecialEffectFailure: Evolving your hero or partner after the postgame storyline will result in them not having a proper sleeping animation at their bed at Sharpedo Bluff anymore. For some reason, they will walk in place instead. This is extra jarring since ''Rescue Team'' avoided this problem by making the evolved starters use the animation for the Sleep status effect instead.
69* TearDryer:
70** At the end of the main story, [[spoiler:the partner breaks down crying on the beach over the RetGone hero... then after the credits, Dialga decides to bring the hero back, and they have a heartwarming reunion.]]
71** In the Special Episode "In the Future of Darkness", [[spoiler:Grovyle, Dusknoir, and Celebi begin to [[DisappearsIntoLight disappear into light]] due to being [[RetGone erased from existence]]. They bid each other farewell just as the sun rises for the first time and Grovyle and Celebi marvel over it before disappearing. Then they suddenly come back, and Dialga notes that it must have been some being higher than himself, and Grovyle calls out, thanking the Player and the Partner for bringing life back to their world.]]
72* ThatOneBoss:
73** FinalBoss Primal Dialga is notorious for being one of the hardest final bosses in the franchise. His typing is very strong defensively (Dragon / Steel resists just about every common attacking type and is only weak to Fighting or Ground, which are realistically only available through TM); at Level 48, he could easily be more than 10 levels higher than you; he packs a ton of HP and powerful attacks; and he has the Intimidator IQ Skill, which causes every 1 out of 3 of your close-ranged attacks to fail (unless you are Riolu). But, worst of all, he has Roar of Time, a deceptively accurate move that deals absolutely ludicrous damage, is impossible to resist (there are no Steel-type starters) and ''hits the whole map'', meaning he can dish out an instant TotalPartyKill before you can even approach him. The upside to this is that he will leave himself vulnerable for the next turn, but prepare for him to spam it nearly every turn he can. You better hope you brought a ton of consumables and Reviver Seeds, because if you lose you have to clear [[ThatOneLevel Temporal Spire]] again.
74** Palkia in the postgame can be troublesome if he feels like spamming Spacial Rend, which, like Roar of Time, hits the whole map, deals obnoxiously high damage, and, being a Dragon-type move, is resisted only by Steel-types, which neither you nor your partner can be at that point. Unlike Dialga's Roar of Time, however, he doesn't have to spend a turn recharging. In addition to this, he has the usual massive pool of HP, can stop your attacks with Intimidator, and has a single type weakness, Dragon, which no starter Pokémon can readily exploit. Fortunately, Hunger Seeds aren't an uncommon find in Spacial Rift, so you can cheese him out with Hungry Pal if all else fails.
75** [[spoiler: Darkrai as the TrueFinalBoss.]] Being the scumbag he is, he traps you in a seven-versus-three battle. While his team consists of [[OlympusMons himself]] and 6 fully-evolved Pokémon, you, on the other hand, have to deal with [[spoiler: Cresselia, who is usually useless, has horrendous AI, and has a weakness to Darkrai, meaning that she will usually run into battle and get herself knocked out in less than three turns.]] The main way to mitigate this is either to stock up on Reviver Seeds or [[spoiler: take out Darkrai as soon as possible, since Cresselia can safely tank the majority of the other minions. This, by the way, is easier said than done, given that Darkrai has Double Team to make him harder to hit.]]
76* ThatOneComponent: On its own, Aegis Cave isn't a difficult dungeon. The real problem comes from the fact that you need to collect Unown Stones (dropped by the Unown in the dungeon) corresponding to the Regi Trio's typings to proceed. Firstly, all 28 Unown spawn, even the ones whose stone has no relevance to the puzzle. Secondly, even if one comes across the right Unown, it isn't guaranteed to drop its corresponding stone anyway, leading to a repetitive slog of the dungeon. If you want to try and recruit the Regis, you also have to go back here to fight them.
77* ThatOneLevel:
78** Temporal Tower (and, by extension, Temporal Spire) may perhaps hold one of the most punishing [[DifficultySpike difficulty spikes]] in recent years, thanks to a myriad of reasons. The final stage of the main story is long as hell and filled to the brim with deadly traps and enemies (most infamously, Porygon's evolutionary line, which will constantly spam Agility and Discharge, and if you or your partner are Water-types, that is a pain). Not to mention it only allows you and your partner in, meaning if either one of the two are any sort of weak to the many traps and strong Pokémonin the dungeon, then [[ForcedLevelGrinding grinding]] for experience or items will be required until a winning combination has been made.
79** Any of the Legendary dungeons, i.e. Bottomless Ocean, Giant Volcano, etc.
80*** In particular, the Sky Stairway. Remember Sky Tower from ''Rescue Teams''? With the annoying Ghost-type Pokémon that can fight your team from the walls, where they can't be hurt? Well this dungeon is the same, but ''[[MarathonLevel longer]]'' and has ''[[CheckpointStarvation no midpoints]]''.
81** Mt. Bristle is the first "hard" dungeon, mostly because you're not quite strong yet. It's not helped by the fact that Drowzee might be a bit of an EarlyBirdBoss, if you get unlucky and his Forewarn ability activates a lot or if you or your partner are weak to Psychic attacks.
82** Treeshroud Forest. It's a very long forest with a variety of Pokémon types (mostly psychic) that hit HARD. And while it's not as long as Hidden Land or Temporal Tower, it's still somewhat long with 20 floors... and there's [[CheckpointStarvation no Kangaskhan Rock]] in the middle of it. You have to brave [[MarathonLevel 20 floors of nonstop barrages of Pokémon and traps]] to get to the end. One can only hope that they still have some items left in their Kangaskhan storage rock at the beginning of the forest, as they had just had the standard chain of dungeons ''without'' a visit to the Hubworld that they tend to have in the PMD series.
83** Dark Crater. For the love of everything that is holy, '''Dark Crater'''. A long, grueling final dungeon with incredibly high-leveled Pokémon, Camerupt that can snipe you from miles away with Earth Power (Arceus help you if you and your partner are a Fire and Electric-type), Hippowdon who'll spawn a Sandstorm to chip at your HP throughout a floor, Ghost-types that can attack from inside the walls where they can't be hit, and evolved Fire-type starters whose Blaze ability can make their already powerful STAB attacks downright lethal, if you fail to take them out in one hit. And this isn't even touching on the worst part -- that's ''[[TheLoad Cresselia]]'', the Pokémon you have to escort through the ''entire dungeon'' who will unhesitatingly throw herself into trouble, and rarely accomplish anything beyond eating up your Reviver Seeds. And that's to say nothing of the boss itself, who comes after 14 floors of suffering that will likely bleed your items dry, and can be read about above underneath ThatOneBoss. All-in-all, Dark Crater combines some of the most brutal elements a dungeon could have, and with [[FireAndBrimstoneHell its general look]], it isn't hard to believe it may very well be the most accurate portrayal of hell in any form of Pokémon media.
84** Quicksand Cave can be brutal for the first time through. Just like Northern Desert, there are two food sources in the dungeon, one of them being [[PoisonMushroom Grimy Food]], which gives you a random negative status effect. Sandstorms regularly appear on certain floors, which allows Sandslash to avoid most of your moves because of Sand Veil. The other half of the dungeon, Quicksand Pit, is even worse, as past a certain points, Hippopotas start to show up, which means guaranteed sandstorms on each floor. And then at the end, you have to fight Mesprit, who despite being only level 18, hits surprisingly hard with her Psychic-type moves, which can also end up hitting even harder if you or your partner are Riolu or Bulbasaur. Bringing lots of food and Reviver Seeds is key to getting through this dungeon without tearing your hair out.
85* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The role of Giratina. You would think that [[spoiler: Giratina would be the game's TrueFinalBoss, what with being a Pokémon on par with Dialga and Palkia, as well as having a pre-established relationship with Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus.]] Obviously, if the game were to have a greater villain, Giratina would be the one, right? Nope, [[spoiler: Giratina is a mere treasure-guarder, while Darkrai, a lesser legendary with the same stat total as pseudo-legendaries, no relation to Dialga / Palkia / Arceus beyond the one movie and no plausible way to overpower the likes of Dialga, is the TrueFinalBoss. To be fair, Darkrai being unrelentingly evil was VERY well-received.]] In fact, when you recruit Giratina and talk to him in Spinda's Cafe, he's a [[DarkIsNotEvil perfectly friendly guy and more than willing to help out in your adventures.]] Not exactly Ultimate Evil material... [[note]]It is, however, worth noting that the release of ''Time & Darkness'' predated that of ''Pokemon: Platinum'' by four months. Prior to the latter's release Giratina was TheSpook, with little information given and its [[spoiler: connection to Dialga and Palkia]] only vaguely hinted at, and was treated in official material as just another minor legendary alongside the likes of Heatran and Regigigas.[[/note]]
86* ToughActToFollow: ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' was always going to have a hard time coming after this one, largely due to the limited selection of Pokémon and weaker gameplay overall, not to mention the mixed reception towards the new 3D graphics.
87* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids:
88** You learn at the end of the game [[spoiler: that you are essentially on a suicide mission]], before that you're almost ''executed'', ''Sky'' sees [[spoiler: Grovyle]] get ''tortured''... basically, everything related to the BadFuture.
89** The player and partner nearly get baited into [[spoiler: ''killing themselves'']] in the postgame story, and one of their friends (who is a [[WouldHurtAChild small child]]) nearly gets trapped in an eternal nightmare.
90* TheWoobie:
91%% ** Bidoof, especially seen in his special episode.
92** The partner. They're a young Pokémon (directly referred to as a kid by some [=NPCs=]) who were bullied by Team Skull, a coward who only got the strength to join the guild from the player, gone without dinner after one mission because of Team Skull and Chatot, [[spoiler: and their best friend / life partner disappears into light before their eyes, leaving them to go home alone, and breaking down several months afterwards after they arrive again at the place where they first met the player. Things seem to be looking up for them when they return, only to have Cresselia (actually Darkrai in disguise) tells them to kill themselves along with the player because they are an anomaly.]]
93** The Player themselves. For starters, they're an amnesiac [[spoiler: from the future]] who has lost their family and turned into a Pokémon. [[spoiler: Especially when finding out they exist only because of a BadFuture and they'll disappear once Primal Dialga is defeated]].
94** [[spoiler: Pretty much ''everyone'' from the BadFuture could qualify. Grovyle for being an idealist who wants to change the past even if it means he won't exist, Celebi for using most of her energy to send Grovyle, the player, and your partner to the present day and risking being murdered by Dusknoir's Sableye. It only gets worse after the post game story where Cresselia (actually Darkrai) asks you and your partner to kill yourselves to save the world, you're hunted by a well-meaning Palkia, and nearly killed by Darkrai in a nightmare when you dare to interfere with his plans.]]
95** Manaphy could also qualify, being a baby who ended up living away from his adoptive parents (you and the partner), and missing the sea despite the fact he enjoys being with you. Fortunately, he returns once he's grown up enough.
96** Azurill as well. He's a small child whose mother is sick, and therefore he and his brother have to take care of all the shopping and household chores. Shortly after being introduced, he gets kidnapped by an infamous outlaw, and much later he [[spoiler: nearly gets trapped in one of Darkrai's nightmares forever]].

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