Shining like Diamonds, Brilliant as Pearls

When Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire released back in November 2002, there was a little bit of controversy in the Pokémon community regarding transferring your Pokémon...and it’s that you couldn’t. The Pokémon you caught in Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold and Silver didn’t have the code to transfer over to the Advance games. Catching them all wasn’t possible any longer.

Game Freak’s solution? Remake Red and Blue into FireRed and LeafGreen.

And thus started the fans’ demand for remaking generations.

It continued with HeartGold and SoulSilver, then came Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby and now…

On the 25th anniversary Pokémon Presents, while short, left a big impact as it revealed what fans have been waiting for since Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby released: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond andShining Pearl. Remakes for the fourth generation of Pokémon games.

 

As a fan who started with that generation and considers it the perfect generation of Pokémon, let me sum up my reaction.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

That was not a scream of horror, that was a scream of...something happy I can’t quite describe. And since I live in Australia, it was 2am and I may have woken up one of my neighbours. Or the entire street.

However, I began to think critically about the remakes and this is my attempt to organise them and express what made the fourth generation what it is and I hope these remakes will do.

For one, they didn’t throw in Dynamax or retroactively put in another gimmick from another game. While Mega Evolution is a fan favourite and it would be cool, I appreciate the amount of restraint used here. The decision to keep the games grounded in its base was probably the smartest move since there are some who regard Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby as worse than the original. I don’t get it, but ultimately to each their own. However, there is speculation that it will borrow something from the Let’s Go games and enable Mega Evolution in the post game, so this might be rendered moot.

Also, they tried to keep the art style of the game to the best of their ability. Out of battles, everything is chibified and looks like the sprites of Diamond and Pearl remade in 3D. It looks fine, not amazing but given Sword and Shield’s lackluster graphics for this day and age I think this was the best direction they could go for. Plus, if you were expecting to essentially be Sword and Shield, that is not happening. You now have Pokémon Legends Arceus for your fill. I didn't expect anything more out of it and at the very least it isn't a Let’s Go game. However, I do kinda miss the old Eterna City Dialga/Palkia statue. Due to how the sprite was designed, it could easily be seen as either Dialga or Palkia, which is cool and unfortunately lost in the transition to 3D. It now looks like the monstrosity I saw in the Pokémon manga.

Look at it's majesty and despair! For this abomination of the gods of space and time have none!

I do have my concerns. For one thing, it’s generally agreed upon that Pokémon Platinum is the best game based in Sinnoh and I very much doubt they’ll release a third version of. It fixed Sinnoh’s major lack of Fire types (There were only two Pokémon evolution lines with it during your playthrough, Chimchar and Ponyta), expanded the story, put in entire new areas called the Distortion World and the Battle Frontier and being able to rechallenge gym leaders in the post-game. I actually hope that they keep some of these features and changes from Platinum since it’s not a one-to-one remake of the game anyways.

I also had an issue with the term “nostalgic” being used to describe the games, because that also means “keeping in the flaws of the original.” A quick glance at the website and a few screenshots claim to “include easy-to-understand, player-friendly conveniences of the modern Pokémon series,” so does that mean HM moves were removed as well? I hope so because Sinnoh was absolutely packed with terrible use of HM moves. For example, there’s a hidden cave beneath Cycling Road that can only be fully explored using Rock Smash. Not only is it big and winding with a high encounter rate, full of trainers who want to double battle, and has items you want to find, there is a character there you have to escort back to the entrance. One use of Rock Smash at the entrance would be enough but holy Arceus is it annoying to use it at every junction of the cave.

Also, there isn’t a bottom screen anymore so more than likely the Pokétch is going to have severely reduced use. It had tons of useful apps like the dowsing machine, being able to see your team at all times, a marking map that indicates where roaming Pokémon are. It won’t be too much of a missing feature, it will most likely be replaced with Key Items, but it was certainly convenient and reduces the amount of time needed to go into your menu.

I'm completely fine with the art style. I have no idea why people are freaking out about it.

It will also likely get a drop in difficulty given the trend of recent titles. Most Pokémon games aren’t supposed to be tough as nails, they’re meant for kids after all, but the fourth generation is considered one of the tougher games in the series. The later half of the game stops pulling punches and Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic, is by no means a pushover. But where most people hit their wall is with the Champion: Cynthia. She is considered one of the hardest champions to date, having an incredibly diverse team with a smart AI and a Garchomp who can single handedly sweep teams of the unprepared. She was included in Pokémon Black and White for a post game battle for a reason. I made my team way too overpowered in Sword and Shield just by trying to catch every Pokémon I found. I was in the late 70s to 80s while the Champion Leon was in the 60s. I hope EXP Share reverts back to its previous version rather than the aggressive and broken version it was in Sword and Shield, or at the very least let me turn it off like in Sun and Moon.

Overall, while eager and happy Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are now a thing, I’m actually quite cautious. It’s been a long time since I’ve played Diamond and Pearl so my memories of the games might be clouded by nostalgia, or because I had no idea what a good team was. But hopefully, it’ll be a return to form for Pokémon Company as I eagerly await its late 2021 release date.

And at the very least, you won’t move slower than a snail for your first hour and health bars won’t act as a timer for your frozen chicken when you one-shot a Blissey.