How Pokemon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl Did Not Shine Brilliantly

Pokemon Diamond was my first Pokemon game back in 2007. I want to explore the Sinnoh region on my Nintendo DS. The game felt euphoric and was my safe haven. It was my favorite Pokemon game back then and still is to this date, yes, even after the release of the remakes.

When a 7-year-old kid went to the Distortion World for the first time and saw little elements of 3D animation, he only wished for one thing and one thing only: to play this game in 3d. Nintendo stole and ripped away the wishes of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum diehard fans. How? Let’s talk about it.

The Remakes Feels Like The Same Old Games

Now, why do Pokemon Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond feel like the same originals released in 2007? That is because they are the same games. They are 1:1 copies of the old games with a new art style, similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Sure, you could argue that the new art style is cute and fun to look at, but that is not what we, as a community, wanted.

We wanted to look at least like Pokemon X and Y, released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, to see Sinnoh in 3D. With the more remarkable, more powerful console (Nintendo Switch), they could have done the remake with the visuals and graphics of Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Still, instead, they decided to give the project to some third party to develop.

How Could The Remakes Have Been Better?

Yes, they could have been way better, and yes, they have done it before. First, when Pokemon Gold and Silver got a remake on the Nintendo DS, Pokemon HeartGold, and SoulSilver felt like entirely new games with visual updates, as expected. However, these games had more than just visuals; they had extra content, and the games were tinkered with to make the experience better.

why is bdsp considered one of the worst pokemon games?
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Another example can be taken from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, which were ported to 3DS as Pokemon Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire. These can be considered one of the, if not the best, remakes of any game in the history of video gaming. Pokemon Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire had new features, like the Mega Evolutions, flying through the Hoenn Region on your Latios or Latias (depending on your game choice, respectively).

The game had a whole new chapter and event for the end game that was inspired by Pokemon Emerald, the third better part of the game. You would play Delta episode for 4-5 hours of immersive story to Battle Deoxys on the back of your Mega Rayquaza. These parts were not a part of the original but made the remakes reach the heights of glory they are at today.

If only Nintendo had implemented such things in the Diamond and Pearl series remakes, maybe it would not have been that unfortunate.

Other Problems With The Remakes

As mentioned above, the originals were not done justice by not having a third-person 3d perspective. Aside from that, the remakes lacked Pokemon Platinum’s content. There was no Giratina event and no Distortion world to travel in. The game also lacked the Battle Frontier, which allowed you to test your abilities against the strongest Pokemon trainers in the Sinnoh region.

These elements added depth and longevity to the game, which were missed in the remakes. The remakes did not have Mega Evolutions, something we all were expecting to see our Infernape or Empoleon Mega Evolve and crush the opponent. The game felt short to today’s standards to be charged at 60$.

This could have been avoided if GameFreak had reviewed these projects instead of giving them to ILCA. So, while Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl captured the essence of the originals, they fell short of providing the comprehensive experience expected of a remake.