Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time/Darkness/Sky

PMD: Explorers of darkness is the first video game I ever owned (I got it and pokemon platinum as a birthday present) and to this day I believe it's the best game involving pokemon there is. It's definitely the prettiest one! (i specify involving pokemon because it's not much of a pokemon game if you define it by gameplay). Most importantly, you get to play as a pokemon!!!!!

Versions:

There's no difference between Time or Darkness story-wise! I think it's just a few items swapped around? if you have the option, pick Sky instead- it has a bunch of bonus content and quality of life improvements! i've recently played it on an emulator and it holds up great! (moment of silence for the Darkness cartridge I had to give away cause i didnt think I'd ever get another DS)

Gameplay

It's a sort of... top-down, turn-based dungeon crawler RPG with an overarching story. Pokemon type knowledge helps avoiding getting your ass kicked, but when I first played i knew like three type advantages and brute-forced the rest.
 

Plot

This game's writing single-handedly raised my expectations for video game writing. I really really love this thing to bits.

It starts off pretty small but the scope grows

So! You wash up on the beach with amnesia, and you only remember two things: your name, and the fact that you are a human. Well, was a human, because currently you are a adorable pokemon (what kind is determined by a personality test. you can take a copy of it here.)

That's right, it's an isekai!!! Arceus Legends is not the first to do it.