Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Rescue Team DX: Smooth sailing (as expected)

15 hours in; my run so far is placid and uneventful, in the nicest possible way. I mean, I knew exactly what to expect from RTDX: I knew I was going to have a blast crawling, I knew I was going to lose myself in rescue missions, and I knew I was going to love that game. The report's over; see ya soon!

Nah, just joking. I resumed my demo save and went crawling with my little Sakura and Pika-Cute; and while I was fully happy with that duo during the demo, I started to have second thoughts as I entered the main game. Not only was the pair identical to the one I used in my run of Explorers of Sky, but Skitty was embarrassingly weak and delicate. However, I've made peace with that choice since — if only because Sakura grew exponentially stronger over the last hours, like any good Skitty should.

 

I made little change to my crawling ways since the beginning. XP is not divided between team members; so I tried accepting all new recrues at first to give me a hand on the battlefield, letting them go when the mission was over. However, leading many 'Mons made battles so slow and tedious that I quickly stopped, preferring to stick with my kawaii duo instead. They currently lounge at lv. 25 and boast efficient Move pools: Thunder, Blizzard, Ice Beam and Double Slap for Sakura and Thunder, Iron Tail, Spark and Fake Out for Pika-Cute. All improvements on Thunder benefit both Sakura and Pika-Cute; I made the most of that feature and boosted Thunder like crazy. Needless to say, that Move is going nowhere and will stay in my arsenal until the end. My duo also boasts two amazing Rare Qualities: Rapid Bull's-Eyes, which makes multiple-hit Moves hit all the time, and Steamroll, which make non-effective and not very effective Moves deal substantial damage. Those Qualities, which also benefit my whole team, single-handedly turned the highly imprecise Double Slap into a tool of 'Mon destruction and virtually erase all Type dynamics — in my favour. 

 

This doesn't mean that RTDX is a cakewalk, though. I used to gorge on it and rush forward recklessly at first; alas, that ingenuous enthusiasm cooled somewhat after the utter defeat I endured in the Sky Tower two days ago. My party was wiped out, along with all my money and my hard-earned items; and I now find myself totally bereft of Apples, Ethers, Berries and other crawling necessities. I have to stockpile them again by tackling Rescue Missions, and level up my team while I'm at it; this is probably going to be a tad boring, and thus I've decided to take it slower and clear just a couple of missions every day to avoid farming burnout.

 

And thus, by an ironic twist of fate, my planned gaming schedule now finds itself reversed: I'm playing Sophie like it's going out of fashion, and taking just small bites of RTDX. But I'm not giving up on it, dear fellow gamers; I'll see you soon with a fresh run report!