Memory Card: How A Pokémon Spinoff Game Shaped Me As A Child

It's a dewy, sunny afternoon in 2012. My mum had come to pick me up from school and she tells me that she had just bought a game for me, a game I would come to hold dear to me to this day - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team.

To summarise, the game involves you (the player) mysteriously waking up as a Pokémon and befriending another, with whom you form a team to rescue other Pokémon. Along the way, you defeat bosses traverse through dungeons, with many perilous twists and turns as you seek to find the mystery of your past life, making for an epic and emotional tale between two strangers turned best friends. It follows the Mystery Dungeon format, which is a subgenre of games where you travel through randomly-generated dungeons that act in a similar manner to a maze, and you progress by finding the stairs to the next floor whilst battling foes in a turn-based style of combat.

As a dumb little kid, this game was a lot to take in. However, as it is a Pokémon game after all, its messages and moments are communicated in a way that children can understand and learn from - and it is done masterfully. The dialogue is rich with a descriptive and varied vocabulary yet still reaches a kid as it can an adult; in fact my own vocabulary blossomed growing up with this game in a way that came much faster than if I had never played it.

Emotionally, this game is a rollercoaster. The adventures and obstacles you go through with your rescue team partner forges and portrays one of the most touching friendships completely unexpected from a spinoff Pokémon game. The attachment nurtured between you and your partner feels almost too real, especially as a child, and accompanied by a soundtrack that tugs at your heartstrings with bit-crushed melodies, you are left with a beautiful experience encompassing the most heart-warming parts of companionship and interpersonal connection. Reflecting on this game today, along with its sequel which is its own topic to discuss in its own right, I truly appreciate what it has done for me growing up.

I think such a display of friendship got to me in a way I wouldn't be able to understand for years to come.