Frustrations and Dungeon boredom make this game not reach its full potential.
User Rating: 7.7 | Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Aka no Kyuujotai GBA
I wasn't really anticipating this game, but my lil bro was getting it, so I checked it out. Wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but still somewhat fun. The gameplay is basic. You have the main team base area and Subworlds (Dungeons) to explore. You have a team of Pokemon, to get your starting Pokemon (You), you don't choose it, instead, you take a quiz to determine personality and get it that way. You then choose a partner to accompany you, then you're on your way. So then you go out and begin your adventure and everything gose from there. In the dungeons, you have specific moves and a normal attack you can use, they work just like the older Pokemon games, but these Pokemon battles are at a much faster pace. You can also collect various items such as money (Poke), gummis to make Pokemon smarter and other items you can use in battle. You usaully go through the dungeons when you do a rescue or just going through it. Rescues are handled pretty well and have good rewards to them, these missions are in infinite quantity. But, the missions are frustrating as all the AI on screen move as you move, this is very annoying because trying to rescue a Pokemon you are supposed to rescue "runs away" from you and it takes a minute just to talk to them. The missions in which you have a client you must protect really suck because of the simple fact that you protect your client, this client AI is mentally retarded and won't follow you and usaully gets itself killed, since all the AI on screen move as you do, the client AI moves as well, this is dumb because it looks like you are on a Easter Egg hunt or something. As a result, these missions really should the avoided unless you want to waste your time for no gain or if you get lucky and actually get your client to the Pokemon you're supposed to rescue. Despite these problems, the game has a decent storyline unlike that of the repetitive older versions. A feature included is that when you die from a mission, you can get rescued by someone else who's more experienced via password or link cable, this is a really cool feature and can help you a lot. This "multiplayer" can be "online" as well because you can exchange passwords on the internet. The dungeons themselves can get very boring especially if your going through that 99 floor dungeon, this is a huge problem associated with the game. In the team base subworld, you can buy friend areas to recruit friends who like those, have a bank system, store items as well as buy them, this works pretty well, except the shop seems pretty limited and you'd probably not be tempted to go.
The graphics for character models are pretty good, its the enviroments that get pretty repetitive. In a large dungeon, the same tiles are used except for the mega huge dungeons which switches tiles after 20 floors or so. Sound is good, considering it is for a GBA, its not that all great though. The attack sounds get very repetitive however.
The replay value is high if you are actually willing to play this game because of its endless missions and the "Gotta catch them all!" theme goes here as well because there are again 300+ Poke buddies and foes to recruit. If you are getting introduced to Pokemon, don't even go here! If you are a Pokemon veteran though and are looking for something new, you should give this a whack at it. But if you are looking for another Pokemon RPG and aren't the most hardcore fan, I'd avoid this at all costs and wait for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. This could have been so much more if its various problems were fixed, but it will have to do! 
