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- Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are faithful remakes
- Pure Pokémon experience, colorful and atmospheric, good endgame, accessibility additions
- Cons
- When Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced early this year, we were promised faithful remakes. Eight gym battles, badly dressed villains, hundreds of trainers and the grand finale to win the Pokémon League. We all know what it means, but always hope for more. After many hours in the revamped Sinnoh region, we can confirm that the promise has been fulfilled, but the hope has not.
With every generation of Pokémon games comes a generation of (young) adults who are convinced that this is the ‘real’ Pokémon experience. All generations seem to agree on one thing: Everything used to be better. It is therefore not very surprising that Nintendo regularly releases revised versions. The previous remakes all proved that nostalgia sells. However, this impact may differ. While SoulSilver and HeartGold still have a permanent place in our game cabinet, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl quickly end up in the moving box after finishing.Old and newWhen a game relies as heavily on nostalgia as these remakes, it has to grab attention in another way. Otherwise it will be difficult to end up on wish lists with a new audience. By this we mean players with little to no Pokémon experience, but also those who have dropped out after years of fanatic play. For them, these kinds of remakes could just mean a return to the franchise. That is something that developer Ilca has understood well, because Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl radiate fun. The mix of a Chibi-esque overarching world and three-dimensional combat feels like new, while keeping the charm of old-fashioned Pokémon games.From the moment you wake up in your bedroom, to the moment you come face to face with Cynthia in the Pokémon League, everything feels familiar. You experience the same adventure as before, only the paths you walk feel a lot less trampled. In addition, the remakes contain a number of changes that should make your agony as a Pokémon Master more bearable.
Enjoy safely
For example, the Pokétch summons wild pokémon to perform HM-bound attacks for you and can become party pokémon at any time swapped with box pokémon. A spot in the party for Bidoof therefore no longer needs to be reserved. Furthermore, the autosave function prevents unnecessary loss of progress and lost players can always fall back on the hints in the pause menu. These kinds of logical developments, which have already been added to the past games within the franchise, ensure a more pleasant gaming experience.Even if it’s not a graphical masterpiece, the polished game world of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl catches the eye. In addition, everything runs just that little bit better, so you lose yourself even faster in the Sinnoh region. That ensures that you can keep your focus longer, so that after beating the Pokémon League you still have enough energy to enjoy the endgame. There’s still plenty to do then: you can spend hours wandering the Great Underground, looking for special places where rare Pokemon run loose, hunt legendary Pokemon and challenge all trainers again.
You experience the same adventure as before, only the paths you walk feel a lot less trampled‘Improvements’- When Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced early this year, we were promised faithful remakes. Eight gym battles, badly dressed villains, hundreds of trainers and the grand finale to win the Pokémon League. We all know what it means, but always hope for more. After many hours in the revamped Sinnoh region, we can confirm that the promise has been fulfilled, but the hope has not.
Conclusion
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl do little new, but therefore also little wrong. The atmospheric remakes offer a faithful Pokémon experience with some subtle (and less subtle) changes to the formula. You should not expect more from it.
Bad controls, accessibility additions