I’ve always loved the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games for their amazing stories and animated cutscenes, especially the older titles on Nintendo consoles. The gameplay can be kinda tough and maze-like, where you explore dungeons trying to find the stairs to escape, and the difficulty ramps up unless you have some helpful items like bracelets. I recently played Super Mystery Dungeon and really enjoyed its plot twist and epilogue. But now it feels like there haven’t been new entries in a while. Does anyone know why the series seems to have stopped getting new releases?
5 Answers
Actually, Game Freak doesn’t make the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. They’re developed by Spike Chunsoft, the same team behind the main Mystery Dungeon series like Shiren the Wanderer. So if you’re wondering why Game Freak hasn’t continued it, it’s because they’re not the ones handling it in the first place.
Honestly, Mystery Dungeon games are pretty time-consuming to develop. They require lots of detail in dungeon design, stories, and balancing difficulty. That might be why we haven’t seen new ones recently—the developers might be focusing on other projects that take less time or have bigger audiences.
Spike Chunsoft has been pretty quiet about new Mystery Dungeon Pokémon games. The last big release was about five years ago, and before that, they had a tendency to space out their games by several years. They also work on other non-Pokémon projects, which might slow down the development. Plus, there were some business moves recently (like a near buyout by Sony) that probably shook things up internally. I wouldn’t hold my breath but I’m hoping for a remake like the Explorers of Sky style or maybe a totally new entry sometime soon.
I wouldn’t say they’ve fully stopped—they might just be on a break. The recent global events and production delays probably extended the downtime. The Mystery Dungeon games are a niche but beloved spin-off, so it’s likely they’ll come back around to making another one eventually, maybe when development schedules free up.
If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend checking out Explorers of Sky. It’s widely considered the best in the series, with even richer storytelling and gameplay. If the series picks up again, I hope they build more on what Explorers did!
That makes a lot of sense! The stories felt a bit different from the main Pokémon games, so I guess the quality is thanks to Spike Chunsoft’s expertise.