Most of the battles you encounter, including those against boss characters, help allay the repetitiveness and blandness of the dungeons, though not greatly. The gameplay feels only slightly less clumsy and plodding than that of its Mystery Dungeon predecessors, because every action you take, whether it's taking a step, attacking, or equipping an item, still counts as a turn. Given that all combat takes place on a map screen presented in the top-down perspective, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the experience would mimic something like the classic Zelda games; instead, you get a clumsy back-and-forth experience that stalls as you wait for every creature to complete its turn.

However, a few Pokemon franchise additions come to save the day. You can recruit Pokemon you've defeated into your party, and any recruits that exceed your four-member party limit will be sent back to the guild on standby. Each of your party members can learn up to four special moves; and as they level up, they will have the opportunity to forget an old move and learn a new one. So, you're occasionally--if not constantly--getting the opportunity to try out new tricks and abilities against your foes. You can also set the behaviors of all of your Poke-compatriots to do things such as avoid trouble, take an aggressive stance, or consciously refrain from special moves that might be useless in a certain situation. These battle options, as well as the various items you gather, create a nice variety of tactics to draw on when fighting large groups of enemies or threatening boss characters.

Of course, there's also the plethora of familiar Pokemon creatures available for you to discover, and they're all represented in vibrant colors and smooth animations. Nevertheless, it's a shame that the visual presentation isn't more consistent. The set pieces for the town, your guild, and key areas in the story-based dungeons are drawn in a soft, whimsical cartoon style with rich coloring. This is all matched in whimsy by the well-composed, youthful soundtrack, which boasts crisp, varied instrument samples. However, as soon as you step into a dungeon for a mission, you're greeted with a heaping face-full of boredom. Repetitive visuals lack detail and employ wholly uninteresting color schemes, making dungeons look almost monochrome and making the combat seem even more like drudgery than it actually is.