Line #75 YMMV/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity


1	* AnticlimaxBoss:
2	** [[spoiler:Kyurem. Despite the fact that he can hit very hard with Dragon Breath, it's a two-turn move which makes it easy for you to avoid it (and your partner too unless it decides to derp around). His only real threatening move is Glaciate: which, although powerful, still needs a turn to charge. He can also be taken down relatively quickly if you have the right moves and/or items.]]
3	** [[spoiler:The Bittercold may also qualify. Sure, it's huge and menacing and from a narrative perspective, it's pretty awesome that you're taking on a huge ice being of death by yourself. But its difficulty is almost trivialized by the fact that its attacks aren't that strong (they rely on secondary effects that can be nullified with a supply of Max Elixirs, and a Health Orb), it can't recover health after defeating you, and losing to it doesn't even force you to go through any dungeon portions. Is it still epic? Yes. But your victory is an inevitability, which unfortunately takes away from the epicness.]]
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
5	** The songs "Hope" and "Despair". "Despair" is a very simple tune that, while somewhat light in pitch, manages to be exactly what its title says and then some, while "Hope" is an uplifting tune that manages to sound both anticipatory and excited at once. The FinalBoss music also deserves a mention.
6	** The song "Great Glacier", accompanying the dungeon of the same name, perfectly encapsulates the feeling of both an epic adventure and an urgent mission to save the world and is considered one of the best dungeon themes in the series. It ended up returning eight years later as the opening portion of the incredible ''Gates to Infinity'' medley that accompanies Oddity Cave in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam Rescue Team DX]]''.
7	** [[spoiler:Kyurem]] has one of the most intense boss themes in the series called [[spoiler:"Clash with Kyurem!"]]. Its orchestral style tells you just how dangerous he's supposed to be, [[spoiler:given his size and the NoHoldsBarredBeatdown you suffered early on in one cutscene.]]
8	** Per the norm for the series, the music in the ending is incredible with the crowning gem being [[spoiler: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-OGKkGXPEg Last View of Paradise]]]]. The music captures the mood of the scene perfectly, especially the piano part.
9	** The game also contains some [[https://tcrf.net/Pok%C3%A9mon_Mystery_Dungeon:_Gates_to_Infinity/Unused_DLC_Packages decent unused remixes of dungeon themes]] from ''Explorers''[[note]]Craggy Coast, Star Cave, and Vast Ice Mountain Peak[[/note]] which, judging by their filenames, would've been used for scrapped DLC dungeons.
10	* {{Anvilicious}}: [[spoiler:Having the embodiment of everyone's negative emotions as the final boss is about as pushy as one can get in saying that negative emotions are bad.]]
11	* BaseBreakingCharacter: [[spoiler:Hydreigon]]. He's either ridiculously awesome and funny, or he's a {{Jerkass}} [[spoiler:for bringing you to the Pokémon world, knowing that you'd have to go back.]]
12	* BrokenBase:
13	** The inability to choose the genders of the main character and partner in the English version of the game caught some flak, being viewed by some as another "step backwards" from previous titles in this series.[[note]]Which had some genders limited to what type of Pokémon you and your partner were. For instance, in ''Explorers of Sky'', only males could be Shinx and only females could be Vulpix, to name two.[[/note]] Even though the genders of the Pokémon are largely [[PurelyAestheticGender irrelevant to the storyline]], the fan base was still broken over whether or not it was necessary to remove the feature (particularly since this would've been the first game that allowed international players to directly choose the genders of the main Pokémon team).
14	** The lack of variety in starters has been complained to no end- Even the first games had the starters from Gen I-III, Pikachu, and some others like Psyduck and Machop. Explorers of Sky had ''21'' overall (19 for the player, and Munchlax and Meowth for partner options), so going from that to a simple 5 seems very underwhelming. The removal of the questionnaire at the start has been debated over, although many agree it's convenient to not have to constantly soft-reset to get the starter you want.
15	* ContestedSequel: While some changes made to the gameplay were well received like the removal of the hunger mechanic and infinite-use [=TMs=], others like the removal of the PlayerPersonalityQuiz and the inability to complete multiple jobs in one dungeon weren't. The ''huge'' number of Pokémon missing (only 144 Pokémon are available to recruit[[note]]For comparison, even [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue the first game in the main series]] has more playable Pokémon (151) than Gates.[[/note]], most of which are from ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'') is also a seen as a huge step down from the previous games, which had almost every Pokémon available.
16	* DemonicSpiders:
17	** You may find some rare Pokémon in early dungeons (starting with Klang in Desolate Canyon) that are always found sleeping. Try to attack them, and you're very likely to miss your attack or deal no damage. These Pokémon are at a way higher level than the rest of the dungeon, and if it's one of your first times running it and you accidentally wake them up (especially easy with a Team Attack), '''RUN''', as they'll wreck through your team and your Reviver Seeds incredibly quickly. Avoid them like the plague until you get to a much higher level.
18	** With the appropriate V-Wave, thanks to the power boost, any Pokémon could be fit for this trope. A V-Wave that is super-effective against Pokémon in your party can make you eat through your Oran Berries and Reviver Seeds faster than you can realize.
19	** The Volcarona and Klinklang in the final dungeon:
20	*** Volcarona can use Quiver Dance to raise their stats, including doubling their speed, which gives them an extra turn. They can use it to close in your party...or just raise their stats again. Their Silver Wind attack hits you and all your allies as long as you're in the same room as Volcarona, even if you're several squares away. And Silver Wind has a chance of [[RunningGag raising all of Volcarona's stats...]][[OverlyLongGag including its speed, giving it an extra turn...]]
21	*** Klinklang can triple (!) their speed at any given moment, giving them two extra turns to wreck you with. Their Steel-type gives them ten resistances and one full immunity, and they take very little damage from physical attacks. They come packing a move to lower your special defense by two levels, and if two or more are in the same room, their Plus/Minus ability combination raises their damage output. And they can use Discharge to attack you from anywhere in the room, just like Silver Wind, only trading the chance of stat boosts for a chance of paralyzing you instead.
22	* DifficultySpike: Dungeons discovered using the Magnagate function tend to feature trap tiles and Monster Houses, unlike most dungeons explored during the main story. Woe unto you if you step into one before you get access to the "Tactical meeting" command.
23	* EndingFatigue: [[spoiler:The battle against the final boss, the Bittercold. First, there's a four minute cutscene after leaving Kyurem behind and reaching the Winds of Despair before you fight the first stage of it. Then, after the first stage, another five minutes of cutscene before the second stage. Then after beating the Bittercold's second stage, the final cutscenes along with the credits before returning to the main menu are around ''36 minutes long''. So that's around 45 minutes of cutscene after beating Kyurem, and that's not counting the two parts of the Bittercold.]]
24	* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: Gates to Infinity is often lambasted for TheyChangedItNowItSucks in several aspects of the gameplay, yet the story is widely seen as on par with the other ''Pokémon Mystery Dungeon'' titles, with some even considering it one of the best stories in the franchise.
25	* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Is [[spoiler:the Bittercold threatening the world with destruction and the Voice of Life (i.e. nature) crying out against it]] a metaphor for climate change?
26	* FakeDifficulty: The Sunken Treasure minigame will make you want to throw your 3DS across the room at least once. The idea is that you tilt the 3DS to direct the Starmie. Unfortunately, this will often not go to plan due to some kind of fuckup in the 3DS -- at times, the Starmie will just not move, and you'll have to practically turn the 3DS upside down to make it move, when the damn thing will move at all. And while you can press the A button to reorient it, [[GuideDangit the game does not tell you this]].
27	* FanPreferredCouple:
28	** Just like in the main series, Umbreon and Espeon get shipped together a lot, which actually counts as IncestYayShipping (as they are siblings here).
29	** Dunsparce and Virizion are still shipped despite the Official Couple [[spoiler: Emolga and Virizion]] coming true since Dunsparce and Virizion had a lot of ShipTease moments that many fans were disappointed/angry that it didn’t came true.
30	** The player character and the partner, as per tradition. Oddly enough, [[HoYay they're both canonically male]], which is a first for the Mystery Dungeon games. This only applies to the versions outside of Japan; in the Japanese version you could still choose gender of the partner and the player character is referred to with gender-neutral pronouns. Why this was altered, no one knows.
31	* FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler:Everyone is automatically enamored by Virizion, who really doesn't want to be popular. This makes the fact that she ends up with Emolga in end make sense considering that he was the only guy that wasn't initially infatuated with her.]]
32	* FridgeHorror: In [[spoiler:summoning a long series of humans to their world in an attempt to defeat the Bittercold, Hydreigon]] is basically throwing lives at his problem until it's dealt with.
33	* FridgeLogic: [[spoiler:Hydreigon explains that he called out to many humans and brought them all into the Pokémon world to fight the Bittercold. After Munna and co started defeating the humans and sending them back, leaving the player as the only one left, why didn't he just call out to more humans, or bring the original ones back as soon as he could?]]
34	** [[spoiler:The previous humans are implied to be dead, or at least so injured that they can't fight anymore, at least explaining why Hydreigon can't just bring them back.]]
35	* GameBreaker:
36	** Companion Mode can be used not just to complete jobs and train recruited Pokémon, but also to raise the team rank, expand Pokémon Paradise, save up a ton of money, and hoard useful items that are lifesavers in the toughest parts of the main quest (Oran Berries, Reviver Seeds, Pure Seeds, Joy Ribbons, etc.). Those last two are possible because of items and money being automatically put into the Deposit Box upon switching back to the main story. Not to mention that, in this mode, the plot stops completely, meaning there's no time limit to doing all of this.
37	** And, as per-usual, multi-hit moves. Possibly even more so in this game since you can increase the power and accuracy of the moves to where, at the very least, it'll always do two to three hits for around 20-40 damage each even in the early levels. Rollout is a big offender, considering Tepig learns it pretty early [[spoiler:and the penultimate final boss is weak to it.]]
38	** Excadrill. Step one: Swords Dance. Step two: Earthquake. Step three: Everyone dies. If it's sandstorming and your Excadrill's ability is Sand Rush? Double Earthquake and double Swords Dance. Not even ''Flying-types'' are safe. The only real downside is that [[TotalPartyKill it's a bad idea to take other Pokémon along with one.]]
39	** Axew learns both Dual Chop (which once leveled up enough, can do over 90 damage per hit) and possibly the most broken move in the game; Dragon Dance, which increases speed by one stage (which lets you use it again, which lets you use it again), and increases attack by two stages. Once Dragon Dance is learned, the whole game becomes spamming dual chop, and against stronger enemies, getting 3 Dragon Dances, then spam dual chop. Axew’s only real weakness is Ice types, Steel types, and larger groups of enemies (such as monster houses)
40	* GeniusBonus: When first experimenting with the recording capabilities of a Frism, your partner notes that their voice sounds strange when played back. Anyone who has listened to a recording of their voice can attest to the accuracy of this, due to the fact that your voice travels through your skull to get to your ears, as opposed to just through the air.
41	* GoddamnedBats:
42	** ''Pansear''. The wild ones you encounter during the [[spoiler:Hydreigon]] subplot seem to be loaded with the most annoying moves possible. They have Fury Swipes, in a sub-series where multi-hit moves are [[GameBreaker Game Breakers]]. But even worse is Incinerate. Unlike in the main games, where it only affects held berries, here it can destroy ''any'' berry or seed in your bag. Note that the two most useful items in the game (Oran Berries and Reviver Seeds, yes, Incinerate can get rid of your AutoRevive items) happen to be berries and seeds. They also have Yawn, which puts you to sleep, leaving you powerless to stop them ''burning half the contents of your bag''. Oddly enough their evolved form is never anywhere ''near'' as annoying...
43	** Liligant, also encountered during the same subplot. Their Teeter Dance move confuses your entire party unavoidably, and hits everywhere on the floor at once, meaning they don't need to be close or even ''within sight'' to use it. [[spoiler:And given that, at the time, you have a ''level 64'' CrutchCharacter on your side while you're likely to be no higher than 30, confusion could ''very'' easily spell UnfriendlyFire... that will most likely be a OneHitKill.]] And Arceus help you if you don't have the Prevention Team Skill by then (which makes it so only one mon in the team is suffering a particular status ailment).
44	** A minor case of this is Trubbish. They have a nice amount of health points and defense, meaning they won't go down easily and can throw things like Poison Gas to inflict a poison status, meaning auto-healing gets disabled. To make it worse, your are very likely to first meet them in the Glacier Palace, where you can get them with a side of hail.
45	** Vullaby, during and after the Desolate Canyon mission. They aren't hard to beat, but they have Pluck, which does damage while stealing and eating any food a player has -- randomly. If it's an Oran Berry, it'll make the fight a little harder. If it's a Cheri, Pecha or so on, then no harm really done unless the Vullaby just managed to heal itself. But all too often, a Vullaby can devour your only Reviver Seed, or one of your limited Heal Seeds. And if it's [[OhCrap a Blast Seed...]]
46	** Wild Sandile in Telluric Path can carry all of Sand-Attack and Mud-Slap to reduce your accuracy, Bite for ocassional cringes, and Sand Tomb for damage over time. They are particularly prone to use the former two, so if there are no nearby Wonder Tiles, it can make enemies much more annoying to deal with.
47	* HilariousInHindsight: [[HilariousInHindsight/{{Pokemon}} Check the main page]].
48	* InferredHolocaust: Occurs while your team was on their very first trip to the Great Glacier. [[spoiler:The many humans that were called to the Pokemon world by Hydreigon were lured in by Munna's deceptions and viciously beaten back into returning to the human world.]] Emolga tells you that there were many balls of lights in the sky near post town while you were away. [[spoiler:Those balls of light [[FridgeHorror are actually defeated humans]].]]
49	%%* IronWoobie[=/=]StoicWoobie: Virizion [[spoiler:until her reunion with Keldeo and she lets the waterworks flow.]]
50	* JerkassWoobie:
51	** Virizion [[spoiler:starts as this until you learn her entire story and becomes a straight [[TheWoobie woobie.]]]]
52	** Gurdurr [[spoiler:who just like Virizion, becomes a [[TheWoobie woobie]] when you learn his back story.]]
53	** [[spoiler:Munna, who only wanted to live in a peaceful world with her friends, but lost hope and gave into the Bittercold's eventual destruction of the world.]]
54	* {{Narm}}:
55	** [[spoiler:The Bittercold fainted.]]
56	** "(AAAUUUGGGHHHHHH!!!)"
57	** At many points you’ll see characters saying “Hah, hah, hah”. This is meant to be panting, but as a result of it being spelled out, it looks more like the characters are LaughingMad.
58	* NightmareFuel: You know the beautiful lights you can see from the hillside? Do you know what they are? They're actually [[spoiler:the remains of Kyurem's fallen victims being sent back to their own world.]] Keep that in mind when you look at them over the horizon next time.
59	* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Adventure Squad'' beat this game to the punch in two aspects: enemy evolution and not having a personality quiz. Considering [[NoExportForYou it was Japan-only release]], not everyone is aware of this.
60	* PlayerPunch: [[spoiler:We all knew that the player Pokémon would have to leave the Pokémon World, but after that, Hydreigon explains that ''[[UnPerson everyone will forget that you ever existed.]]'' Granted, they do defy fate in the end and remember, but still.]]
61	* ThatOneBoss: [[spoiler:Munna. She comes with six flunkies, outnumbering your party nearly two-to-one. Her {{Mooks}} include four Gigalith; they can resist having their HP reach 0 with their "Tough" skill, effectively making defeating them a LuckBasedMission. Toxicroak can use Revenge to soak up damage and dish it back twofold, and Chandelure is a dedicated annoyance with status effects.]] The battle usually consists of [[spoiler:Munna hanging back away from the party and spamming Calm Mind while her {{Mooks}} gang up on you. By the time you clear a few out and go for her, she's got several Calm Minds under her belt and can spam Psybeam, which hits from across the room and can confuse. With Calm Mind boosts, Psybeam can knock away anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 of your health bar in one go. And that's not factoring that you are guaranteed to have Virizion in your party for this fight; Virizion is weak to Psychic-type moves. Also they are immune to the petrify orb, which normally demolishes bosses.]]
62	* ThatOneLevel:
63	** The Worldcore can come off as this if you are caught off guard. While it doesn't have the monster density other dungeons have, those same monsters just happen to be very powerful. Salamence and Chandelure can hammer you hard, Whirlipede can decimate your stash of much-needed reviver seeds and berries with Bug Bite as well as a combination of poison and Venoshock, and Munna can tank your hits as well as inflict sleep (Yawn) or confusion (Psybeam). Add that this is when there is the mysteriosity setting adding a potentially obnoxious [[LuckBasedMission handicap like strengthening the enemies]] and that only the partner can come the first time. This can spell additional trouble for those who picked Snivy as their partner given a good portion of the monsters have a hefty grass resistance.
64	** [[spoiler:Pretty much every dungeon from the Great Glacier to the end of the main game can count as this.]]
65	* TearJerker:
66	** [[spoiler:The player leaving the Pokémon world. Hearing everyone on the Frism wishing you goodbye and telling you they'll never forget you...]]
67	** [[spoiler:Dunsparce's rejection by Virizion, made especially painful if you've ever been in Dunsparce's position in real life.]]
68	** [[spoiler:Gurdurr's back story.]]
69	** [[spoiler:Seeing your partner's reaction when Kyurem destroys Hydreigon and nearly kills the hero.]]
70	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Several points of contention, with their reception so poor that many of them were dialed back in [[VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon the following game]]:
71	** Only five Pokemon are available as candidates for the hero and their partner: Pikachu, Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, and Axew.
72	** Only 144 Pokemon are recruitable, with most coming from the fifth gen -- and not even all of ''them'' are included.
73	** The Hunger mechanic is ''mostly'' removed, only appearing in a few select dungeons. Granted, [[ScrappyMechanic not everyone views that as a bad thing.]]
74	** Individual IQ Skills were replaced with Team Skills, which are found in dungeons and automatically applied to the whole group.
75	** There is DownloadableContent, which is the most consistent way to obtain whichever of the five Hero/Partner candidates you ''didn't'' select.
76	** The option to play as a female character has been ''completely removed'', as has the option for your partner to be female in the international releases. Many girls who checked out the game were not pleased with this.
77	** The Personality Quiz was removed... but like Hunger, this feature isn't really missed by everyone.
78	** You can't befriend very many legendaries. Those who expected to befriend Lugia, Ho-Oh, Reshiram, and Zekrom were very angry about this.
79	** The game is much shorter than its predecessor and doesn't have nearly as much of a post-game arc.
80	** You can only do one job off your job list at a time (as opposed to Explorers and Rescue Team, where in theory you could do eight jobs at one time if you wanted to).
81	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
82	** [[spoiler:Quagsire is briefly mentioned to have once been famous.]] This backstory is never brought up again or elaborated upon.
83	** The partner [[spoiler:having no known family (or at least, he doesn't remember having a family) or friends prior to meeting the main character.]] It's never explained [[spoiler:what happened to his family or why he was orphaned, even in the ''after game''.]] There are also a few people who believe the main characters [[spoiler:trying to bring the player character back to their world]] would have made a great after game plot to the likes of past PMD games instead of [[spoiler:it being resolved after one dungeon and then the only thing else to do afterwards is a bunch of random Legendary challenges.]]
84	* ViewerGenderConfusion: Unlike the ''Explorers'' installment, Pokémon are not assigned official genders, though they are nonetheless referred to with gendered pronouns for familiarity. This includes Virizon, who is regarded as female despite her species being officially genderless.
85	** Many were surprised to find out Emolga was male before the other characters started referring to him using male pronouns, mistaking his initial disdain towards Virizon to be jealousy before the game out into the West. Adding onto this, if you listen closely, in the background, Emolga's gasp sounds clearly feminine.
86	** And then there's the animated trailer to the game, which clearly shows that the partner is female (it's a Pikachu, who has the heart-shaped tail associated with females of that species). Arceus only knows how awkward it must have been for all the people who saw that first, only to find out the partner can only ever be male in-game[[note]]In the international release. In the Japanese version, while you could choose the gender of the main character and partner, the dialogue referred to them with gender-neutral terms[[/note]]. The fact that you get to name him first before his gender is revealed doesn't help things...
87	* VindicatedByHistory: At launch, Gates to Infinity was blasted by fans and critics alike for [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks the changes it made from previous Mystery Dungeon entries]], with [[SequelNonEntity the removal of a vast majority of Pokémon]] being a major point of contention. As the years went on, though, and Pokémon games starting around the Nintendo Switch era began embracing [[VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndEevee roster]] [[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield cuts of]] [[VideoGame/PokemonBrilliantDiamondAndShiningPearl their own]] (including the remake of [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam the first Mystery Dungeon title]]), many prior detractors looked back at the game and begun to acknowledge its more positive aspects, particularly the game's story. Nowadays, while Gates isn't considered the definitive entry of the Mystery Dungeon titles, the game is looked at more warmly than it was when it first came out.
88	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: General opinion is that, for being a game released so early in the 3DS' life span, it really showed off what the 3DS was capable of at the time. The most notable of which is the [[spoiler:the Rainbow of Hope. ''ESPECIALLY'' with the 3D effects on.]]
89	* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids:
90	** [[spoiler:The world is literally drowning in despair and housing an EldritchAbomination using that despair to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. [[SarcasmMode This game is totally for kids, what are you talking about?]]]]
91	** Also [[spoiler:the main antagonists are, at the end of the day, a suicide cult fed up with all that despair.]]
92	* TheWoobie:
93	** Your partner, which is par for the course in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
94	** '''Dunsparce''', in ''every'' aspect of the trope.
95	** [[spoiler:Virizion goes from JerkassWoobie to this when you learn her entire story with Keldeo.]]
96	* {{Woolseyism}}: The identity of the final boss, [[spoiler:the Bittercold]]. In the Japanese version its name was closer to [[spoiler:Great Crystal]]; the English version gives it a more menacing and meaningful name.

Context YMMV / PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity