the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers games thrust your hero into a world where the flow of time is governed by relics known as time gears.
time gears, hidden in hard-to-reach locations throughout the world, are responsible for ensuring that time flows as it should: that the wind blows, dew forms and falls, the sun sets and rises again. "Not even the most hardened criminals will touch them," your partner tells you one night: they are that vital to the world.
someone is stealing the time gears.
having joined the Wigglytuff Exploration Guild in an effort to uncover why you've turned into a Pokémon, the plot of Explorers follows you and your partner in your efforts to uncover who is stealing the time gears -- and put a stop to them before the flow of time itself halts, plunging the world into a future of darkness.
one of the most incredible things about Explorers is the sheer size of the postgame. a much tighter and far more intentional narrative than the postgame of Rescue team, the Explorers postgame is basically a full game in and of itself. it builds on story threads introduced during the maingame, and concludes a variety of subplots that you didn't realise you needed a conclusion to.
however, that's not to say that you need to play the postgame; the main game stands alone as a complete story. instead, the postgame acts as a supporting structure that
it's also dark as hell. sure, the main game has its moments of darkness -- quite literally, in regards to the future of darkness -- but the postgame ramps that up to its utmost extreme. a late-game arc involves you and your partner being led to believe that your very existence is threatening the stability of the world, and seriously contemplating suicide because of it.
the postgame also gives you a cute subplot where you and your partner raise a baby Manaphy together! ^u^
PMD Explorers came out at the perfect time for sad terminally-online preteens ... the year was 2009, the internet was still a bit of a wild west, and kids made fan content with a ferocity and dedication unmatched by any other demographic. i have a special place in my heart for the PMD AMVs that popped up all over Youtube, featuring art stolen from other sad terminally-online preteens, and almost universally set to Avril Lavigne. as an 11-year-old i spent a lot of my time online just ... watching Pokémon Mystery Dungeon AMVs.
does anyone even still watch AMVs anymore ??? idk .... still, i wanna catalogue some of them here for posterity and also for if i ever need a nostalgia hit :3
What Hurts the Most - Chiakiro