Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team.

Development Timeline#

Before Development

• Tsunekazu Ishihara, who would go on to be president of The Pokémon Company, develops a working relationship with Chunsoft through the making of Tetris 2 + BomBliss.¹
• Ishihara plays Torneko no Daibouken: Fushigi no Dungeon, and ends up impressed by its "depth and quality".

2004

• August 7 - Alleged leaks are posted in a 2channel thread regarding Chunsoft's then-upcoming games, including a Nintendo DS game tentatively titled Fushigi no Dungeon: Pokémon World - Pikachu no Daibouken (Mystery Dungeon: Pokémon World - Pikachu's Great Adventure).²³ The other games included in this post include two Kinpachi-sensei games for the PS2, Homeland and an unreleased GBA entry in the Banshee's Last Cry series.
• October 10 - IGN reports on the Pikachu's Great Adventure rumor.⁴

2005

• August - CoroCoro reveals the duo of games.⁵⁶
• August 21 - Prerelease screenshots are out by this point.
• September 1 - The Japanese release date for both games is revealed by Nintendo. More details about them follow throughout the month.⁷⁸
• October 7 - Build date of the Japanese versions.⁹
• October 19 - Build date of the leaked Ao no Kyuujotai kiosk demo.
• November 17 - Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Aka no Kyuujotai / Ao no Kyuujotai are released for Game Boy Advance and DS respectively in Japan.¹⁰ The DS version also releases in Taiwan.¹¹
• November 24 - Build date of the bugfixed reissue of Ao no Kyuujotai and the leaked debug ROM.
• November 25 - Nintendo publicly acknowledges the Slot 2 save deletion bug in Ao no Kyuujotai and announces a replacement program.¹²¹³
• December 8 - The bugfixed Ao no Kyuujotai begins shipping.¹⁴

2006

• April 28 - Build date of the North American/Australian version of Red Rescue Team.
• May 9 - The English versions of the games are revealed at E3 2006.¹⁵
• May 23 - Build date of the leaked prototypes of the Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team kiosk demos.
• May 29 - Build date of the North American kiosk demo of Red Rescue Team, as well as the North American/Australian version of Blue Rescue Team.
• September 13 - Build date of the European versions.
• September 18 - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team are released for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS respectively in North America.¹⁶
• September 28 - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team are released for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS respectively in Australia.¹⁷
• November 10 - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team are released for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS respectively in Europe.¹⁸

2007

• May 17 - Build date of Parang Gujodae.
• June 25 - Build date of Hwanggeum Gujodae.¹⁹
• August 11 - Pokémon Bulgasaui Dungeon: Hwanggeum Gujodae -Neodo Goldeuraengkeue Dojeonhaja!- is released for Windows in South Korea.
• August 30 - Pokémon Bulgasaui Dungeon: Parang Gujodae is released for Nintendo DS in South Korea.²⁰

References#

Official Perfect Guide Interview#

The games' Official Perfect Guide published by Chunsoft in December 2005 includes a developer interview conducted on November 2nd, 2005, two weeks prior to the release of the games in Japan.

Story#

'...But what does it mean?' This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

Scenario writer Shin-ichiro Tomie describes on pages 401-402 an earlier draft of the story which would have featured Pikachu as the sole main character, which corroborates the tentative title that was allegedly leaked in 2004 (see the above section of this article). It also names the Wanderer Rescue Team feature from Fushigi no Dungeon: Fuurai no Shiren GB2 - Sabaku no Majou as the source of the Rescue Team concept that ultimately became a defining feature of all Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, albeit under several different names.

シナリオについては、どういった流れで制作されていったんですか？

富江： じつは、いまのシナリオに落ち着く前に、もう１個別のプロットを書いていたんですよ。人間の世界だけど人間は姿を出さないという、アニメの「ガンバの冒険」みたいな世界観で、たとえばピカチュウたちが貨物船の倉庫に隠れて旅に出る、みたいな感じでした。自分でもノリノリで書いていて、ビジュアルシーンのイラストまで描きましたね（笑）。でも、完成後に改めて見直すと、物語がちょっと走りすぎてるなと思ったんですよ。ダンジョンとダンジョンのあいだに入るイベントシーンが長くなりすぎてしまって、「見てるだけのシーンが長いのはゲームとしてどうなんだろう」という不安が出てきまして。

長畑： たしかに、あの長さのシナリオを実際に作ろうとしたら、容量的にも入りきらなかったですね。

富江： それで、もう少しゲーム性を考えようとしたときに、『風来のシレンＧＢ２』でやっていた「風来救助隊」を思い出して、じゃあ救助隊にスポットをあてた形にしてみようかと。あと、最初はピカチュウがお話の中心だったんですけど、どうせなら主人公のポケモンを選べるほうがいいかな、と思いました。いまして。それなら性格診断みたいなものをやって「キミはこのポケモンだ」と決まるほうがおもしろいんじゃないか。そうすると、ある日突然ポケモンになっちゃったというシナリオだと楽しそうかな……という形で、どんどんふくらませていった感じですね。

川村： シナリオを作るときは、アイデアがどんどんふくらんでいって楽しかったですよね。

富江： ええ。でもね、川村さんからかならず注文が入るんですよ。川村さんは、ポケモンさんのなかで“妄想部長”っていうあだ名がついているぐらい、いろいろとお話をふくらませるんです（笑）。シナリオを渡すと、「これだったら、もっとこんな話とかこんな話もあるといいですね」と言われたりして。

川村：　頼まれてもないのに、自分から言い出すんです（笑）。

富江：　たとえば、エンディングのシナリオを見て、「この展開なら、ゲンガーとサーナイトの話がエンディング後にほしいですよね」とおっしゃるんです。そう言われたら、「それも作らなきゃいけないのか」と思いますよ（笑）。でも、あの２匹の話は「こんなのでいいのかな」とすごく悩みましたね。書きながら自分で恥ずかしがったりして。

Generation IV Pokémon#

As is common for Pokémon spin-offs of the Generation III era, Rescue Team includes cameos for a number of Generation IV Pokémon, prior to the release of Diamond and Pearl. Some of them appear to have been considered for a full inclusion during development, but this was ultimately decided against or denied on account of The Pokémon Company CEO and executive producer Tsunekazu Ishihara. This is mentioned by director Seiichiro Nagahata, on page 404:

そういえば、ルカリオやゴンベなどの新ポケモンは、救助基地や広場で姿を少しだけ見られますけど、ダンジョン内に登場させる予定はなかったんですか？

長畑：　登場させたかったのは山々なんですけど、どんなとくせいを持っていて、どのレベルでどういうわざを覚えるといったデータがまだ決まっていなかったんですよ。一応、「我々が決めていいですか？」と聞いたんですが、石原さんがちょっと怖い顔をしたので、今回はこのままにしておこうかなと(笑)。

On that note, you can see glimpses of new Pokémon like Lucario and Munchlax at the rescue base and in the square. Were there any plans to include them in dungeons?

Nagahata: We really wanted to, but their data (like what abilities they'd have and which moves they learn at what levels) hadn't been finalized yet. Just to be sure, we asked Mr. Ishihara if we could make those decisions ourselves, but he looked so upset that we decided to just leave things as they were for now (laughs).

In the final games, Munchlax is the only Generation IV Pokémon to have an actual Pokémon entry, albeit in a partially unused and unfinished state. This includes some unfinished Pokémon data, as well as a conjectural Level 40 requirement for an evolution to Snorlax. It also includes a number of animations that were intended for use within dungeons.

World Map#

Chunsoft's official Japanese guidebooks as well as all of the games' regular instruction manuals include a pixel art image of an earlier version of the world map. The early map displays some extra detail missing from the final version, which almost certainly got stripped out for the purpose of background tile and palette economy:

• The generic mountains have fewer mirrored elements and are arranged differently across the board. Additionally, the mountains portraying the Northern Range dungeon use distinctive palettes missing in the final map.
• There are more uniquely shaped small islands.
• The water directly surrounding the land uses a darker shade of blue in the early map.
• Lapis Cave's entrance is blue, as it appears in-game within the cutscene background.
• The Great Canyon, Frosty Forest, Sky Tower, Fiery Field, Mt. Faraway, the Desert Region as well as the Badlands Friend Area region use fewer mirrored tiles.
• Mt. Freeze's right face is uniquely detailed, while it uses a mirror of the left face in the final map.
• Wish Cave's entrance is unique, while it shares Western Cave's entrance in the final map.

See below for a comparison between the early and final maps. Note that the final map has been cropped slightly for a closer comparison:

The Friend Area map and the alternate world map found inside the upgraded Team Base noticeably bear a closer resemblance to the early full map rather than the final map in shape. The same is true even for the later portrayals of the continent in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon and Rescue Team DX.

Placeholder Portraits Found in Explorers#

The second pair of games in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, Explorers of Time and Darkness, were built on Rescue Team as a base and inherited nearly all of its portraits, a large portion of which remain unused in Explorers. Curiously, this includes a few placeholder portraits that appear to have been created during the development of Rescue Team, but are not found within the data of the original games.

All of the placeholders correspond to story characters from Rescue Team and are numbered, with the exception of Moltres; its single placeholder portrait has been duplicated three times. Most of them have broken palettes and are positioned slightly differently compared to their default portraits.

Korean PC Demo#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Find more data. Keeping track of [https://lostmediawiki.com/Pokémon_Mystery_Dungeon:_Gold_Rescue_Team_-Challenge_the_Gold_Rank!-_(partially_found_South_Korean_promotional_demo_of_Nintendo_DS_game;_2007) this page] may help.

Download Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gold Rescue Team (Executable File) File: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon- Gold Rescue Team (Executable File).zip (1.91 MB) (info)

Download Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gold Rescue Team (Shortcut File) File: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon- Gold Rescue Team shortcut file.zip (1015 bytes) (info)

A demo called Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gold Rescue Team - Challenge the Gold Rank! was released only in South Korea on August 11, 2007. Unfortunately, the demo is considered lost as the official download was removed between April-May 2008. Only two small files from the demo currently remain, along with a number of screenshots and a silent video of the demo in action.

Characteristics#

• It is installed to the directory "C:\Program Files\Pokemon\Dungeon" by default.
• The shortcut file opens the "run.exe" file first, which then opens "pkdikr_build233_final.exe", presumably the demo's filename. If this file is missing, run.exe will throw an error and open a white box before crashing.
• The desktop icon of the demo is the Squirtle icon shared with Blue Rescue Team. A lower resolution variant is used for the taskbar and title bar icons, as well as on the setup executable for the demo.²¹ Additionally, the "run.exe" file uses a low resolution icon of Pikachu.
• The demo runs in a higher resolution of 480×320, a doubling of Red Rescue Team's resolution.
• Compared to Korean Blue Rescue Team, the game only uses a single screen, has a smaller camera size, and uses a thin border width for the hero's name input screen. All of these details match Red Rescue Team instead, which was never released in South Korea until its (non-Korean language) inclusion on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service in 2024.
• Unlike the kiosk demos in the rest of the world, this PC demo allowed the player to go as far as meeting Xatu at the Great Canyon.
• Two applications were used. One is the demo, and the other (the linked executable file) is a frame that displays the rescue forum and tips, which are no longer functional.
• The demo was a whopping ~450-480MB download, with most of the file size coming from audio compressed in an unknown format.²²
• It may have used a unique SOS Mail system, as evidenced by an archived post from the SOS board of the Special Players Site.²³

Menus#

Gold Rescue Team	Final

The top menu in the PC demo includes a unique 패드 설정 Pad Settings option, but the Wonder Mail option is missing. As previously mentioned, the framing matches Red Rescue Team instead.

Frame#

This is a screenshot of the surrounding frame as it originally appeared, showing a list of Friend Rescue requests and an inactive tips section which was set to be enabled in September 2007 (the active tips section can be seen in another screenshot). While both Gold Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team icons are shown on the forum, the presence of SOS Mail leading to a dungeon not accessible to Gold Rescue Team players (Howling Forest (멀리짖음 숲)) and seemingly separate SOS Mail password systems²⁴ suggests the versions may not have been compatible with one another.

Oddities#

• Despite the game's controls being changed for a keyboard, the dungeon controls menu still has the DS controls from Blue Rescue Team.

References#