Psychic Puppets is a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon ROM Hack (specifically of Explorers of Sky with Red and Blue Rescue Team assets) developed by Adex. This ROM was originally made for the SkyTemple Hack Jam in April 20th of 2022, but has since been updated with more bug-fixes, changes and additions.
The ROM features a socially awkward Mewtwo, who, after isolating himself from the world in Western Cave for a long while, tries to return to civilization and find a friend. However, his combined social isolation (and reputation with those that do know him) has left him a loner, so he resorts to brainwashing a random mon to have as his friend. Hilarity Ensues, except in the latter half.
Tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Features: For those struggling against the Final Boss, they will lose 50 of their total HP for each time the fight ends in a loss to make the fight easier to beat with enough dedication.
- Balance Buff: Blast Seed now deals 100/75 damage to a foe when eaten and thrown respectively, in contrast to the original game's 35/25 damage, which is only retained for boss fights.
- Befriending the Enemy: Mewtwo with Brainwash, allowing him to temporarily gain an enemy Pokémon as an ally. Similarly, Mew has Befriend, which functions closer to standard recruitment in the vanilla game.
- Bookends: The first area Mewtwo starts the game in is Western Cave. That cave is the same area he returns to, with him being fought as the Final Boss in where he starts the story.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The mod' generally Denser and Wackier in comparison to the main Mystery Dungeon series, what with its premise of Mewtwo being a socially awkward Pokémon who commits various antics, and playing with and parodying various tropes used in the games. But once it's revealed that the Pokémon Mewtwo "brainwashed" is actually Mew, things take a turn for the serious with the resulting conflict between both Mew and Mewtwo, the former taking a disguise to prevent an innocent Pokémon from being kidnapped and the latter feeling betrayed at the revelation.
- Challenge Run: Pressure Mode prevents the party Pokémon from using any move more than once per floor.
- Dueling Player Characters: This goes both ways. First with Mewtwo fighting Mewthree (AKA Mew) after the latter flees Luminous Cave out of panic of their identity being exposed, and finally there's Mew fighting Mewtwo as the Final Boss.
- Dungeon Bypass: Western Cave, for those who just want to continue the story and not try a Challenge Run, can bypass the entire 99 floor dungeon by having Mewtwo find and Brainwash a Pokémon with Teleport as soon as the second floor. When revisiting the dungeon as Mew to find Mewtwo, their exclusive move Befriend can be helpful to use different shortcut sections requiring certain Pokémon with different types/moves that allow you to skip multiple floors to descend faster.
- Exact Words: One of the two dialogue options for Mewtwo's partner to say, in response to Mewtwo asking for them to say something, is... "something."Mewtwo: [sweat-drop] Excellent. A comedian.
- Fade to Black: Subverted for laughs. When posing towards the screen as a celebration, the screen then slowly fades to black as a staple of Mystery Dungeon, only for Mewtwo to cut the trope short to ask their partner about their potential relatives/family members.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Xatu's line of dialogue spoken as the Fight Woosh for their Boss Fight occurs.Xatu: It appears waking up today was a mistake.
- Friend to All Living Things: Mew, which is showcased in their one custom move Befriend, allowing them to gain an ally in the enemy Pokémon — not unlike Mewtwo's Brainwash, but distinctly coded as recruiting in contrast.
- Glamour Failure: Mew's disguise as Mewtwo's partner Pokémon seems pretty perfect, but it all falls apart when Mewtwo brings them along to Luminous Cave to evolve them, with the cave refusing to do so because they aren't the Pokémon Mewtwo thought they were.
- Hates Being Alone: Mewtwo, after long residing deep within Western Cave before the start of the game, has developed an adversity to the self-inflicted isolation, to the point of resorting to brainwashing just to have one friend.
- Heavy Sleeper: Mewtwo. While the first instance of him being asleep may just be a special case (given how it lasted for a year), the following morning reveals that he is prone to sleeping in, with it taking until the next morning for him to properly wake up.
- Main Character Final Boss: Mewtwo is the main protagonist throughout most of this ROM hack, but after his partner Pokémon reveals themselves to be Mew in disguise, Mewtwo feels betrayed and subsequently teleports away, transferring the playable role to Mew for the rest of the story. By the time they find Mewtwo at the end, the latter resorts to fighting them — and brainwashing their potential allies — to force them to go away, serving as the last challenge.
- Mind Control: Mewtwo's standout ability, which gets a fair bit of use throughout the ROM.
- Manifests in the dungeons as a custom move called Brainwash, allowing him to control enemy Pokémon to be his temporary ally. The first recommended application of the move by Mewtwo is to find a Pokémon that knows Teleport so he can exit the dungeon without going through all 99 floors (though, nothing's stopping you from taking the long route).
- His goal after being ostracized by the town is to find a random Pokémon in Tiny Woods and befriend them through this method. Subverted, when it's revealed the Pokémon they chose to brainwash is not actually brainwashed to begin with, due to being a transformed Mew who tried to prevent Mewtwo from kidnapping a random Pokémon against their will.
- As a last ditch effort to make Mew go away, he resorts to using Brainwash on Mew's potential allies.
- Mythology Gag: Mewtwo eventually dubs their chosen partner Pokémon "Mewthree," a Pokémon hoax back in the Kanto days.
- No Social Skills: Mewtwo, of all Pokémon, is portrayed in this manner for the ROM hack, wanting to make friends but weirding out the inhabitants of the village with his lack of understanding in conversational cues.
- Sandbox Mode: Playground Mode allows you to freely choose a party member to be whatever Pokémon species chosen.
- Schrödinger's Player Character: A variant with Mewtwo's chosen partner; the Pokémon can be anything that Mewtwo uses Brainwash on in Tiny Woods, which includes a Pidgey, Wurmple or Sunkern. And regardless of who you choose, the Pokémon turns out to be Mew in disguise.
- Shout-Out: Upon selecting the option "My parents gave me up at birth." for the partner mon, Mewtwo declares that despite only knowing them for a few minutes, that he would never give you up, or let you down.
- Skippable Boss: Xatu is fought at the end of Grand Canyon if you fail to collect the eight Sunflower Seeds in the dungeon, but successfully doing so results in Xatu not being fought, since the battle is instigated by Mewtwo asking them for food.
- That One Level: In-Universe. Mewtwo is not keen on going through a 99 level dungeon, with him naturally thinking about resorting to another Pokémon's Teleport to Dungeon Bypass (of course, that isn't stopping the player from trying the entire dungeon if they so wish). Even at the end, exhausted by his fight with Mew, he notes that whatever pain he's in now, the 99 floor dungeon trek through Western Cave is gonna be far worse in comparison.
- Unlockable Content: Two game-modes are unlocked by clearing all 99 floors of Western Cave without using a shortcut: Pressure Mode and Playground Mode.
- Unreadably Fast Text:
- Lombre, upon seeing Mewtwo's "artistic prowess" painting another rescue team's home base, goes on an extended rant about Mewtwo's foolish, only getting his speech cut short by Mewtwo telekinetically tossing them back towards town.
- The partner Pokémon, after revealing their true form as Mew, tries to reassure Mewtwo about their friendship in a manner that makes them constantly talk without stopping, resulting in the text constantly scrolling until leaves them in a flash of teleportation.
