While discussing about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, I'd also like to bring up one of its fascinating aspects, which would be character selection for the main Pokémon "hero" and/or partner. In the first two sub-series, the former was selected by way of a "personality quiz" consisting of several questions taken from a pool of possible ones, and the latter was a direct free choice. In Gates to Infinity, both were made free choices. The quiz method is unique in its own right, especially in contrast to the ordinary direct selection, and going deeper into the two methods, there are more understandings to be made.
The quiz method can be thought of as a way of providing a recommended character by way of moods or feelings that day or moment. In fact, some other games of Japanese origin (distantly related to Pokémon) that use this particular selection method for certain elements call it as such. It thus seems a bit "unfair" or nonsensical to use this method to commit to a character for an adventure that will span many hours, times, and ages beyond the span of a day. The shift to purely direct free choice in Gates to Infinity is thus understandable and sensible from this viewpoint. Though it is possible to "game the system" to select certain Pokémon, one would have needed the resource on the system (and such a resource does exist) yet the results could still be a bit unpredictable due to the question pool.
On the other hand, the direct free choice method caters to practically anyone regardless of mood or feeling, and it satisfies those who like to choose certain Pokémon to play with; I in fact immediately chose Pikachu to play in Gates to Infinity after not having succeeded in getting Pikachu as the main "hero", even though I did choose the Pokémon as a partner instead. The use of this method to choose the partner at least gave things a bit of predictability. For those not exposed to Pokémon, though, which may have been a part of the reasoning for forcing the quiz method instead in the earlier games, a free choice might be a difficult one to make, and this may be admitted to be an "edge" for that method.
In any case, both methods have their warranted usage in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games and need to be perused, particularly for those who are to deal with the games in perfect retro form. One way definitely has a chaos element to it but seems rather suitable for a "mindless" or spur-of-the-moment selection, and the other way suits those who need control and consideration in their selection. In some sense there is no "right" or "wrong" in either way - those are only to be made evident once the Pokémon are chosen and the adventure begins.
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