I don't think I can really fault PMD3 for most of it's glaring flaws because they were almost destined to become an issue the moment they decided to put the game on the 3DS.



As far as sequels go, PMD2 is ridiculously hard to follow, not just because of how good it was, but because of how much circumstantial things the team had going in the games direction. As far as the assets go, PMD2 reused almost everything from the first game that wasn't a environment sprite, game engine included I'd imagine. Added to the fact that gen IV had much less new pokemon in it than the gen V, and the fact that they only had to work on one system instead of two, I'd imagine that the team had much more to work on the story, engine, and just general comtent than they had on the first game.



In addition to that, I'd argue that the story was given a very promising promise to work with regarding the legendary pokemon. Either time or space could be an great concept to use for the backdrop to an epic adventure by itself, but the fact that they had both these and the ideas of darkness and nightmares and several other misclanious legends at their disposal really gave them some good seeds to sow for the plot and setting. Add that to having the prior experience of a past game and you really have a chance to make something great.



(I'm still amazed that EoS actually exists because I've only ever played EoT, and that game already felt full to the brim with content compared to PMD1. Making an extended edition of a game that already felt complete really speaks lengths about how much comtent they had to work with.)



PMD3, however, was always destined to be fighting an uphill battle due to how well (unexpectedly, probably) PMD2 was received. The bar had been set high for the next game, and considering that gen V introduced the most new pokemon to date, plus some degree of hate being generated with the newer pokemon within the community the circumstance was basically against them this time. The system and graphics switch however, made it next to impossible to reach the standard.



The mystery dungeon games have always served as a somewhat of a hype builder for the main pokemon series, always being relesed in the gap between generations. (the original PMD was actually released as a 10th annaversary occasion for pokemon if I recall correctly.) Given that the big draw for Gen VI was the 3D part of it, I really doubt the team had much of a choice in switching to the 3DS. So now, all 400+ pokemon sprites are unusable, the game engine basically has to be rebuilt entirely for the new system, and a ton of resources have to be spent on a new type of graphics system that the team is probably unfamiliar with. New resources leads to tighter budgets, which leads to more cuts, which leads to less content. Boom, can't afford to make all the pokemon, need to add padding to the story to make up for the lack of content, and possibly even have to take advantage of shady DLC scams to break even. The team has way less room to deviate from the formula and sticks to what they know to ensure that the game sells.



In retrospect, I'm actually suprised that the game was as good as it was considering everything it had going against it. I'd actually consider it on par with PMD1. I just wish that the team had tried to take it in a different direction than PMD2, because in the end, it was never going to be able to match it's predecessor. The music tried and succeeded to be epic and grand, but it just didn't match the dungeons and scenarios very accurately for me. The animated cutscenes, while neat, didn't feel worth the individually rendering they probably had to do for each of the five characters, and probably ended up contributing to the limitation of the pokemon anyways. I appreciated the emotional ups and downs of the story, but they tried too hard to apmlify things that really should have been left alone. Your character falls out of the sky for reasons of it looks cool I guess. They tried to make a sub-plot similar to PMD2 where someone has to be left behind even though that doesn't make sense within the game as you've probably recruited tones of pokemon who could hold the fort. The main legendary is trying to protect fate and the future for some reason, just like PMD2, even though there's nothing to that legendary that would ever suggest him filling that role.



Yet, dispite everything, I've logged in 80+ hours, gotten perfect rank, and fully built paridise. I believe I am a fanboy.



If another game is made, I have a strong feeling that it will end up being better than PMD3 based again, on circumstance. They've got a good engine, only 100 or so new pokemon in this gen, and a neat concept to use (Life and destruction... Thinking about it actually makes me a little excited.)



I'd actually be tempted to say that the series could fall into a sort of cycle if it continues. A transitional game, followed my a much more content heavy game, repeat. Regardless, I can only hope that it doesn't end up dead in the water because of development hiccups.