Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (Japanese: ポケモン不思議のダンジョン　空の探検隊 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky) is a game developed by Chunsoft, and is a sister game to. It is the fifth entry in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, an adaptation of the games for Pokémon. The game was first announced in CoroCoro, which released the first details in January 2009. It was officially released in Japan on April 18, 2009 and in North America on October 12, 2009.

The game was released for the Wii U Virtual Console in the United States on June 23, 2016, in Japan on July 20, 2016, and in Australia and Europe on August 18, 2016.

New features

 * Players can now play as four new starter Pokémon:, , , and . and  are no longer playable as the main hero, and  returns from . Moreover, every starter Pokémon, in addition to Meowth and Munchlax, are available as partners.
 * Some of the starter and partner Pokémon can now start with an Egg Move.
 * Players can now play the music used in the game with the Sky Jukebox.
 * 5 Special Episodes are introduced, which can be played beside the main game.
 * Poké stored in Duskull Bank and items stored in Kangaskhan Storage can be used in both the Special Episodes and the main game.
 * There is a new place called Spinda's Café where the following can be found:
 * Spinda's Juice Bar grants access to several exclusive dungeons, and it also allows players to make drinks out of food items.
 * Recycle Shop allows players to exchange excess items for other items. The more items exchanged, the better the items available will be. Players may also trade items for Prize Tickets (more kinds of tickets can be unlocked by a team's rank; for example, Silver Tickets are only available to teams in the Silver rank). Prize tickets can be used in a lottery, where the player gets to choose from three colors for the drawing (red, blue, and yellow). The player can sometimes get rare items this way.
 * The player's team recruits who are currently in the party can now be found in Spinda's Café instead of the crossroads (once it opens).
 * Job requests can also be found here, and can be accepted or rejected by talking to the client to the left of the exit.
 * Dungeons that were previously only attainable through job requests can also be found in Spinda's Juice Bar and the Recycle Shop.
 * There is a new location called the Secret Bazaar which is found randomly in dungeons. It is run by . The bazaar has several stalls found inside.
 * 's stall restores the team's Health Points (HP), Power Points (PP), and fill the belly for 100 Poké.
 * Swalot's Grab Bag Shop gives players Grab Bags for 100 Poké. They may hold useful items inside them.
 * Lickilicky will clean the player's items in their inventory for 100 Poké.
 * Shedinja's gives players a chance to escape the dungeon sooner for 100 Poké.
 * A new location, Shaymin Village, is unlocked after completion of the main game, featuring a tribe of, where the player also allies with Team Frontier to reclaim the trail leading to the top of the nearby Sky Peak mountain. An accompanying Shaymin demonstrates its ability to instantly purify polluted environments, its use of the Gracidea to transform into its Sky Forme, and can be later recruited into the player's party.
 * Players can find a statue of in a new dungeon called . The story here involves a new item called the Space Globe.
 * Players only lose half of their money when defeated in a dungeon, instead of all of it.
 * Tradeable items can be traded for any others now, provided they are available at Croagunk's Swap Shop.
 * Using DS Download Play, the player can send their friends a demo of the game.
 * The and  tribe that was the boss of Amp Plains has been replaced by the  and  tribe. This is possibly due to one of the starter and partner choices in this game being.
 * A new item called the Sky Gift can be obtained in an area consisting of ten dungeons called Sky Peak Mountain Path.
 * ,, and are now found in Southeastern Islands, Inferno Cave, and Treacherous Waters respectivly and are no longer acquired with the Mystery Part and Secret Slab or in Final Maze. These dungeons are unlocked through random challenges in Spinda's Cafe, but the only way to get these challenges is to unlock the Secret Rank.
 * The same applies for, but it can be fought in Sky Stairway instead.
 * Jirachi is now fought in Star Cave, only accessible through Wonder Mail codes or Spinda's Café. The Special Episode "Bidoof's Wish" must be completed first.
 * Occasionally bottles containing job requests will wash up along the . Upon finding a bottle the player has the option to take or reject the request. Rejected jobs remain on the beach until taken. However, if the player wants, they can accept the job and then delete it to remove the bottle.
 * Some of the items found in a dungeon might not be what they seem to be. These items are called Lookalike Items. For example, a blue Berry found in a dungeon might not be of the healing Oran variety, but the damaging Oren.
 * Outlaws may react to the player's appearance. While some just attack as normal, others are located in a Monster House, while others may run away, similarly to if a Foe-Fear Orb was used on them. Their reaction is hinted at by the title and description of the job.

Other minor differences with Time and Darkness

 * When the player robs a in Time/Darkness he says "Robbed! I've been robbed! Catch the thief!". In Sky, he says, "My precious merchandise! Catch the thief!" instead.
 * When the player recruits a Pokémon, and the team is full, it allows the player to choose who he or she would like to send back to the guild, instead of immediately sending the new recruit back. Likewise, the same goes if the player tries to do an escort mission and the team is full.
 * The amount of time it takes to save the player's game is shorter.
 * When saving his or her game, the player can choose whether he or she wants to continue playing or return to the main menu.
 * The ending theme "Memories Returned" has been extended slightly.
 * When the team leader tries to switch places with a teammate while he or she on a terrain the teammate cannot normally walk on, the teammate will warp right back to the player, whereas in previous games it would warp him or her to a random spot.
 * Wonder Mail is replaced with a new format called Wonder Mail S, which is not compatible with Time/Darkness, and making Time/Darkness Wonder Mail codes incompatible with Sky.
 * Money rewards from jobs are now stated as the complete reward before it says that the team received its share of the reward.
 * When money appears in amounts of 1,000 Poké or more, it now includes a comma in the normal place.
 * When the introduction screen for each chapter is shown, there is now an image in the background based on what will happen in that chapter.
 * In the beginning when the game asks if the player has played Time/Darkness, and if the player answers yes, some dungeon Pokémon will have their recruitment rate doubled.

Plot
Being a sister game to Explorers of Time and Darkness, Explorers of Sky has a similar plot with minor differences.

Special Episodes
During the course of the game, players can engage in various scenarios that expand upon the story of some of the different characters.

Blurb
Now you can go beyond darkness...outside the limits of time...to the skies! Be a Pokémon and experience the world in a whole new way! Learn more secrets of Time and Darkness...Journey with your friends on remarkable adventures and save the world!

Playable characters
In the beginning of the game, the player takes a quiz. The answers to these questions determine a nature that decides which Pokémon the player starts with. Certain characters are only available to players of a certain gender. After the player's character is determined, they then choose their partner Pokémon. The partner can be any of the playable characters shown above, excluding the player's character. Additionally, the partner cannot be the same type as the player.

Connectivity
This game is capable of trading items with. Rescues may also be carried out between the three. If a rescue mail is sent from Sky to Time or Darkness, the mail will appear to have come from either Time or Darkness.

Trivia

 * This is the first and only sister game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series.