Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness: Difference between revisions

The story begins with a cut-scene where the {{player}} is to have been unconscious on a beach due to a time-traveling accident, causing him/her to become a Pokémon. Meanwhile, the partner is nervous about joining the [[Wigglytuff's Guild]], a local exploration club, and gives up early. Walking along the beach, the partner encounters the player, and informs that the player has been turned into a Pokémon. The [[Relic Fragment]] the partner holds is then stolen by {{p|Zubat}} and {{p|Koffing}}, members of {{OBP|Team Skull|Mystery Dungeon}}, which the player helps recover. After a brief exchange, the partner explains their motivation for joining the guild. The player's partner loves legend and lore and their life dream is to find the secret of their personal treasure—a Relic Fragment with a strange pattern on it. The partner, reinvigorated by the player's courage, joins the Guild as a new team with the player.

The player discovers not too long after that he/she has the ability to spontaneously see things in the past and future, but only when touching an object of some kind. This is known as the [[Dimensional Scream]], as revealed later by {{mdc|Dusknoir|2}}.

Meanwhile, the partner succeeds in activating the Rainbow Stoneship, but Dusknoir manages to recover and attack the player before either the player or Grovyle is on board. Just as Dusknoir tries to finish off the player, Grovyle intervenes. In a move of desperation, Grovyle pushes Dusknoir towards the Dimensional Hole, hoping that in his own sacrifice, Grovyle will erase Dusknoir from existence. Dropping the Time Gears, Grovyle pushes Dusknoir and himself through the Dimensional Hole, but not without giving his last goodbye. The partner recovers the Time Gears, and the team proceed on the Rainbow Stoneship, with the player keeping silent to the partner about his/her fate. With a heavy heart, the team head towards Temporal Tower to take on their final mission.

On the way back, the player feels the effects of being slowly erased from existence. The partner notices this, and wonders what is wrong. The player says his/her goodbyes, regretting that the partner was kept in the dark on the player's situation. The player slowly fades out of existence as the partner makes their tearful goodbye. The partner returns home, crying, but knowing that the player has made the partner stronger. Back home, the partner tells the townsfolk and the guild everything—how they had traveled across the [[Hidden Land]], how Grovyle and the player had sacrificed themselves, and how they had saved the world.

Later, {{mdc|Darkrai|2}} (disguised as {{p|Cresselia}}) appears in the player's dreams and tells the player that their continued existence is causing a distortion in space. On the night before going to {{mdc|Palkia|2}} for an explanation, Palkia itself attacks the team, spiriting them away to its domain, the [[Spacial Rift]]. They battle Palkia for answers, but it gets trapped in a nightmare. Darkrai (still disguised as Cresselia) tries to finish off the team using Palkia, but it is stopped by another Cresselia, who reveals that the first was an impostor by the name of Darkrai, who reveals itself to be the one distorting space. Although Darkrai invites the team to stop him, Cresselia thinks it is a trap, because normally Darkrai run away when found, doing its work in the shadows and only coming out to finish the job. The team decides to heed Darkrai's call, and Darkrai reveals his plans, by stopping time or space, the world would stop and be covered in darkness, and all Pokémon would share an everlasting nightmare, in which Darkrai would rule. In addition to this, Darkrai also reveals that he had been responsible for everything right from the beginning, from the collapse of Temporal Tower to the player's very own transformation and memory loss. Darkrai lets the team decide if they want to join him ruling the world in darkness. The player's partner decides that it's useless to resist, so he/she decides to join Darkrai, but it's not real. The player realizes this is just another illusion, and breaks free of it. With the partner back on the player's side, the team battles Darkrai and his minions and wins hopefully. Darkrai attempts to flee through a portal, but Palkia arrives and attempts to stop Darkrai from leaving by unleashing an attack on him. But instead of destroying him, he attacks the Dimensional Hole, thus erasing Darkrai's memories, much like what happened to the player. Darkrai has no more memory of his evil ambitions for good, and wanders the Pokémon world; his location is at that point unknown.