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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness & Time

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Title Screen

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
Explorers of Darkness
Explorers of Time

Developer: Chunsoft
Publishers: The Pokémon Company (JP), Nintendo (INT)
Platform: Nintendo DS
Released in JP: September 13, 2007
Released in US: April 20, 2008
Released in EU: July 4, 2008
Released in AU: June 19, 2008
Released in KR: December 11, 2008


AreasIcon.png This game has unused areas.
DevTextIcon.png This game has hidden development-related text.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
MovieIcon.png This game has unused cinematics.
ItemsIcon.png This game has unused items.
Sgf2-unusedicon1.png This game has unused abilities.
MusicIcon.png This game has unused music.
DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.
SoundtestIcon.png This game has a hidden sound test.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.
PiracyIcon.png This game has anti-piracy features.


ProtoIcon.png This game has a prototype article
NotesIcon.png This game has a notes page

See, this is why server preservation is important.
This game's online features are no longer supported.
While this game's online features were once accessible, they are (as of May 20, 2014) no longer officially supported and online-exclusive features may be documented as now-unseen content.

The sequels to Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team.

See also Explorers of Sky, which is basically the third version with polish and all that.

Hmmm...
To do:
  • Prerelease images, a lot of them have differences in them.
  • So. Many. Rescue Team Leftovers.
  • A metric ton of unused text is still undocumented here.
  • More unused graphics and sprites exist.
  • Add more regions for these AR codes.
  • more debug features are known to exist. see if any of it can still be accessed, and add it.
  • Lots of other misc. stuff
  • A lot of stuff here needs to be checked in Sky for differences, and then added to that page.

Sub-Pages

Read about prototype versions of this game that have been released or dumped.
Prototype Info
Miscellaneous tidbits that are interesting enough to point out here.
Notes
PMD2debugmenu.png
Debug Menu
So many options that they needed their own page.
PMDTimeDarkness-Munchlax.png
Unused Portraits
Rescue Team leftovers galore, as well as some other surprises...
AreasIcon.png
Unused Dungeons
Test Dungeon, dummies... and Bidoof!
PMDTimeDarkness-DebugRoomSubpage.png
Debug Rooms
Do the Mankey Dance.
PMD2TimeDarkness-JudgementSubpage.gif
Unused Moves
Pokémon used is watching!
PMD2PrimalDialgaPortrait.png
Unused Pokémon
Turns out Shaymin was here the whole time.

Unused Music

Alternate Good Night Theme (bgm0071)

An alternate version of the theme that plays before the player goes to sleep. Has a different beat to it. This is placed directly after the used version of the song.

Unused Ending Theme 1 (bgm0092)

A tune reminiscent of the jingle that plays at the beginning and ending of the game. This is internally placed directly after the short tune used in the ending scene where your hero re-appears, so it may be an earlier/alternate version of it.

Unused Ending Theme 2 (bgm0093)

Another unused intro/ending tune. This time the beginning is a bit delayed, and the notes are pitched differently. Again, this is placed alongside the ending jingle, so this may be yet another alternate/early version.

Unused Items

PMD2TimeDarkness-UnusedPlainSeed.png
PMD2TimeDarkness-UnusedPlainSeedDesc.png

There are many spots in the item list that were likely occupied by unused items at some point in development. Unfortunately, it appears that the developers cleaned out the list very thoroughly before the game's release, replacing them all with rather unremarkable placeholder Plain Seed clones. All of these clones are more-or-less the same as one another: They are referred to as a Plain Seed in the inventory, and have the placeholder text "$$$" in both their mini-description and full description. It is edible like the regular Plain Seed item, but when thrown, it deals 1 damage to its target, rather than being eaten. The only one which has anything different is 0x000, which instead has the text "No Information Available." in its full description.

The hexadecimal IDs for all of these placeholder items are listed below. To see them for yourself, use this AR Code (US):

Time Darkness
94000130 FFFB0000
1229AEF4 00000???
D2000000 00000000
94000130 FFFB0000
1229AE34 00000???
D2000000 00000000

Replace "???" with the hexadecimal ID for any of the items, then press Select while in-game to overwrite the first slot of your Treasure Bag with the item.

The IDs are: 0x000, 0x00B through 0x00F, 0x02B, 0x044, 0x062, 0x068 through 0x06B, 0x071, 0x072, 0x074 through 0x076, 0x089, 0x08A, 0x0A6 through 0x0AC, 0x0AF through 0x0B1, 0x0B3 through 0x0B5, 0x0B8, 0x0B9, 0x0C2, 0x0C6, 0x0CD, 0x0DB, 0x0E0, 0x0E2, 0x0EC, 0x102, 0x103, 0x125 through 0x12C, 0x144, 0x153, 0x159, 0x15D, 0x161, 0x168, 0x169, 0X16B, 0x301.

In addition, all items beyond ID 0x3E5 are placeholder Plain Seeds, likely as a result of a failsafe.

Unused Dungeon Tilesets

This game has several dungeon tilesets that were not used. They can be loaded in-game with this Action Replay code (for US versions):

Time Darkness
121B0308 000000??
121B0248 000000??

Replace "??" with the hexadecimal code listed below and enter any dungeon.

Completely Unseen Tilesets

These tilesets do not have a corresponding used dungeon.

Tileset #00

PMD2TimeDarkness-TestDungeonTileset.png
0x00

This is the tileset used for the Test Dungeon.

Tileset #13

Pmde13.png
0x0D

An alternate tileset for Steam Cave.

Tileset #21

Pmde21.png
0x15

An alternate tileset for Quicksand Cave.

Tileset #32 (Sky Peak Summit Pass/Deep Barren Valley)

PmdeSkyPeakSummitPass.png
0x20

An alternate tileset for Sealed Ruin. Was later used in Explorers of Sky for Sky Peak Summit Pass and Deep Barren Valley.

Tileset #41

Pmde41.png
0x29

An alternate tileset for Brine Cave.

Tileset #44 (Southern Jungle)

PmdeSouthernJungle.png
0x2C

An alternate tileset for Hidden Land. Was later used in Explorers of Sky for Southern Jungle.

Tileset #47

Pmde47.png
0x2F

An alternate tileset for Temporal Tower.

Tileset #86

Pmde86.png
0x56

An exact recolor of Waterfall Pond from Rescue Team, which also went unused in said game.

(Source: SilverDeoxys563 from The Spriters Resource)

Unused Water Tiles

Every dungeon tileset in the game has graphics for their respective dungeons' secondary terrain (water, lava, or void). However, a few tilesets are not used with any dungeon that features secondary terrain. This leaves their terrain graphics unused in regular gameplay; however, using the tileset Action Replay code in a dungeon that features any secondary terrain will allow them to be seen. All of these tilesets have their type set to water.

Tileset 14

Pmde14water.png
0x0E

Used in Amp Plains. some of these tiles can be seen in the Rest Area, although not in their true form per se, since the Rest Areas are prerendered.

Tileset 15

Pmde15water.png
0x0F

Used in Deep Amp Plains.

Tileset 17

Pmde17water.png
0x11

Used in Northern Desert 1F-7F.

Tileset 18

Pmde18water.png
0x12

Used in Northern Desert 8F-15F.

Tileset 19

Pmde19water.png
0x13

Used in Quicksand Cave. Some of the tiles can be seen in the Rest Area, although not in their true form per se, since the Rest Areas are prerendered.

Tileset 20

Pmde20water.png
0x14

Used in Quicksand Pit.

Tileset 33

Pmde33water.png
0x21

Used in Dusk Forest.

Tileset 53

Pmde53water.png
0x35

Used in Mt. Travail.

Tileset 82

Pmde82water.png
0x52

Used in Crevice Cave. Some of the tiles can be seen in the Rest Area, although not in their true form per se, since the Rest Areas are prerendered.

Tileset 85

Pmde85water.png
0x55

Used in Shimmer Desert, as well as the Dojo's Poison/Bug Maze.

Tileset 90

Pmde90water.png
0x5A

Used in Lush Prairie.

Also of note is that the Test Dungeon tileset also has secondary terrain, which is unused within its only (already-unused) dungeon.

Unused Text

Unused Control Characters

The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games have control characters which can add graphics to a textbox or alter the text. While many of them are used generously throughout the game, there are a few that remain unseen.

Unused Color Set Characters

The special characters [CS:A] through [CS:Z] are internally used in the game's messages to change the color of text. The character accepts any capital letter as a valid color, but a few of these letters are never actually used in the game.

The control character itself is just plain text, so one can view these colors by adding the specified control character to any text in the game using a hex editor (just make sure to add [CR] to the end of the string, this resets the color and things can break if it's missing). You can also use the following AR code to see them, but don't save your game with this on, or it will be permanent (US):

Time Darkness
022A333B 5D??3A53
022A3337 435B0000
022A333F 46524354
022A327B 5D??3A53
022A3277 435B0000
022A327F 46524354

Replace "??" with the hexadecimal for any of the listed letters below. This changes your Hero's name to "TCRF", displayed with whichever color you picked. It's worth mentioning that the "Message Color" option in the ADEBUG room has a list of some of the font colors and their usage, which includes some of these unused characters, hinting at what they may have originally been intended for.

Hex Color Notes
0x41 [CS:A] Listed in ADEBUG's "Message Color" as "Identified Item". However, it is not used anywhere else. Its color is the same as [CS:I], which is used for items.
0x4C [CS:L] While this isn't used in normal gameplay, it is present in the unused placeholder Personality Test text, as well as the "Ludicolo" in Lombre's text in the T00P01 Debug Room. This is a green color, although it's ever-so-slightly darker/bluer than [CS:M], which is used for move names.
0x4F [CS:O] Not present in any text in the game, used or unused. This color is unlike anything ever seen in regular gameplay, being a deep mossy green.
0x51 [CS:Q] Not present in any text in the game, used or unused. This color is similar to but ever-so-slightly darker than [CS:Y], which is used for your Hero's name.
0x53 [CS:S] Listed in ADEBUG's "Message Color" as "Multiple Items Selected". However, this is not used anywhere else. While this is the color used for the background when selecting multiple items in Kangaskhan Storage, doing this doesn't change the color of its text.
0x54 [CS:T] Listed in ADEBUG's "Message Color" as "Transparent". However, this is not used anywhere else. This makes the text completely invisible, even if you enter a dungeon and view it with the semi-transparent menu background. Doesn't seem like it'd be very useful.
0x55 [CS:U] Listed in ADEBUG's "Message Color" as "Unidentified Item". However, this is not used anywhere else. Identified and Unidentified items are a mechanic in a few other Mystery Dungeon games, such as Shiren the Wanderer, so this may be an indication that the mechanic was considered for this series as well. This is the exact same color as [CS:F], which is used for recruits.

Developer Emblems

Also present in the files are these two graphics:

PMD2TimeDarkness-MD0UnusedEmblem.png PMD2TimeDarkness-MD1UnusedEmblem.png

The first one is called by the control character [M:D0]. This kanji symbol means "Placeholder", and quite fittingly, it is placed at the beginning of a few placeholder lines of text in the files. The three places where it is used are: the "Event Transmission 1" and "Event Transmission 2" lines, which are placeholder titles for Wonder Mail obtained through events, and the "Did you need something?" string, which seems to appear whenever the game tries to call a message that doesn't exist.

The second one is called by [M:D1]. This kanji means "Unimplemented", and is prefixed to many lines that relate to scrapped features. There are way too many instances of this one to list them all, but some examples are: many of the unused dungeons, many placeholder talking messages for party members, and some error messages. There are also several parts of the move/item/etc. name lists that seem to have been overwritten with several copies of this icon.

While both of these control characters and their graphics still exist in the English version, the graphics themselves can only load into textboxes in the Japanese version. In the English releases, if one of these control characters is present, it will simply be ignored.

Exploration Results

[player] fainted from a debug attack.

Like all the other debug text in this game, this message is colored yellow. Additionally, this is the only surviving mention of a "debug attack".

[player] was deleted for the sake of an event.

Oddly, despite seemingly being a debug message, this text is not colored yellow.

[player] was possessed.

Likely a leftover from the scrapped Possess Orb from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team.

[player] was defeated by a powerful move.

Strangely, this text appears to be repeated a total of 7 times in the ROM.

[player] fainted from trap damage.

All damaging traps have unique messages, so this text goes unused.

Save Data Formatting

In addition to the "Deleting the saved game data" message, there are also some other messages which cannot normally be seen:

Deleting all saved game data.
Please don't turn off the power.

This message is displayed after selecting "Break data" from the Debug Menu.

Clearing all saved game data.
Please don't turn off the power.

This message is displayed after selecting "Initial product data" from the Debug Menu.

The saved game data has been destroyed.

Seen after selecting "Break data" from the Debug Menu and waiting for it to finish.

The saved game data has been cleared.

Seen after selecting "Initial product data" from the Debug Menu and waiting for it to finish.

Regional Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Check the other versions of the game (EU, KR, etc) and see how they compare

Gendered Hero Text

Hmmm...
To do:
check each instance where your Hero speaks very thoroughly, it's possible I may have missed a few scenes in my search

In the Japanese versions of the game, your Hero has two separate sets of dialogue, which is chosen based on their gender. In the English versions, these two sets are still present in the files, and the functionality that switches the dialogue still works; however, the two sets are almost always identical, meaning that the multiple sets are essentially unused.

That being said, there are a few cases where they are different, but they are incredibly minor and barely change the meaning of the dialogue at all. These examples may either be a simple oversight on the part of the translators, or they may be evidence that the two sets were intended to be more utilized in these versions, but were ultimately kept the same. There are also a few cases in the various debug rooms where the sets differ, but this is most likely a holdover from the Japanese versions of the rooms anyways.

The following lines of dialogue are the only lines where the two sets differ:

  • Any text where your Hero is being referred to in the third-person will switch between "he/him" and "she/her" as needed.
  • within the m01a0702 cutscene in D01P11B, which is the cutscene that plays after first completing Beach Cave:
Male Female
(Whoa! What should I do? I'm getting
recruited out of the blue!)
(Wah! What should I do? I'm getting
recruited out of the blue!)
  • Within the m26a0401 cutscene in P13P01A, which is the ending cutscene:
Male Female
(...All right...)
(Finally...)
(The time has finally arrived...)
(...OK...)
(Finally...)
(The time has finally arrived...)
  • Within the ADEBUG debug room:
Male Female
(I'm disappointed but I'm a boy.)
(I'm a girl...)
  • Within the T00P01 debug room:
Male Female
Who are you?
Everyone: We are...
Everyone: [hero] and [partner]!
[hero]
Male
Who are you?
Everyone: We are...
Everyone: [hero] and [partner]!
[hero]
Female

Japan-Only Unused Emblems

As described above, the developer emblems PMD2TimeDarkness-MD0UnusedEmblem.png and PMD2TimeDarkness-MD1UnusedEmblem.png can only be loaded in the Japanese version; the English version will ignore these control characters if they are in a string.

Friend Rescue Screen

The Friend Rescue screen has a string on it which tells you which game the mail came from. In the Japanese version, the names for each version are only two characters (とき for Time, やみ for Darkness), so they could fit this string on the top-right corner, on the "Title" line. The English names are quite a bit longer, so they were moved further down onto the "Client" line.

PMD2TimeDarkness-FriendRescueJPN.png PMD2TimeDarkness-FriendRescueUSA.png

Shadow Ball's Secondary Effect

The move Shadow Ball is intended to have a chance to lower the target's Special Defense. However, in the Japanese version, the move erroneously lowers the target's regular Defense stat instead. It correctly lowers the Special Defense stat in the US release, although it's worth noting that the official English Prima guide still mistakenly claims that the move affects the regular Defense stat.

Anti-Piracy

The scrambled graphics, in Beach Cave in this case.

Present in the Korean versions, as follows:

  • When starting a new save file, the game will randomly crash at several points throughout the beginning of the game. The currently known points where it may crash are: Selecting a partner, entering Beach Cave for the first time, initiating the Beach Cave Boss Battle, and entering Wigglytuff's Guild for the first time. Based on testing, it appears that the scene where you enter Wigglytuff's Guild in particular will always produce a crash, although this may have just been bad luck.
  • If you instead load the game with a working save file, you may randomly crash when attempting to enter any dungeon.
  • When in a dungeon, the graphics may randomly decide to scramble upon entering a floor. This only lasts for one floor, and does not seem to have any other side effects.