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Sinnoh Confirmed! Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are Coming to the Switch


Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
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9 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

What's an arctic fox got to do with Hawaii? Mostly it's just to give Sinnoh more Fire-types. That, and there's probably some manner of fiery ghost in Japanese mythology. Maybe the Sinnoan Gastly line are associated with lanterns?

That just sounds like the Litwick line now.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Yeah, Vulpix and Ninetales would have been a good choice, especially since one thing they wanted to do with the region was place a greater emphasis on history and myth, so having what is essentially the Kitsune Pokémon would've been a good addition. I can't remember; was Vulpix/Ninetales in Platinum's regional Pokedex?

Platinum expanded the Sinnoh Dex to include the Eeveelutions (such as Flareon), the Magmar line (including the new Magmortar), and Houndour/Houndoom. Vulpix and Ninetales were not included, which I didn't mind, as they already got rep in Hoenn.

Of course, if they want a mischievous fox Pokemon, they could do a Sinnohese version of Zorua/Zoroark.

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1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Platinum expanded the Sinnoh Dex to include the Eeveelutions (such as Flareon), the Magmar line (including the new Magmortar), and Houndour/Houndoom. Vulpix and Ninetales were not included, which I didn't mind, as they already got rep in Hoenn.

Of course, if they want a mischievous fox Pokemon, they could do a Sinnohese version of Zorua/Zoroark.

Ah; thanks.

True; they could use Zorua/Zoroak. 

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I'm worried about these games. Really worried.

The main worry comes from the language used in the trailer, specifically, ''Faithful Remake''. I couldn't care less about the artstyle, it looks fine and i'll probably get used to it fast enough. But I'm worried about just HOW faithful they're staying to Diamond and Pearl. Diamond & Pearl were some of my least favourite Pokémon games period. They had a lot of problems and one thing I was hoping for in the remakes is to solve those, so i'm wondering how much is actually going to be improved in such a 'faithful' remake. 

First of all, the story. The pacing in this game is all over the place. When the game starts, nothing at all is happening and then in the middle everything is happening, and then at the end, nothing happens again. Team Galactic is to put it simply, pretty bad in Diamond and Pearl. Cyrus is honestly the worst character in the entire story. He is all ''I hate the world so I want it to start over'' even though the game had set up no reason for him to feel this way. He talks about strife this and strife that but the only strife we ever see in the game is what is caused by HIS team. Speaking of his team, a lot of things they do makes no sense. Why would Team Galactic want to steal the Bike Shop Owner's weak Pokémon? What exactly do they need the energy from Valley Windworks for? Nothing of it is ever explained, and once things are starting to be explained, shit has hit the fan and Cyrus is going over to Mount Coronet to summon Dialga/Palkia to destroy the world and start anew. Once we beat him and thwart his plans, he simply says ''Ohoho I lost to you but I will return!''. He has learned nothing, nothing is resolved and it felt like the worst conclusion possible. We did all that.. for what? It doesn't help that after this showdown, you never hear from Team Galactic again. Also, how exactly did Cyrus amass this huge following? Practically every other evil team leader has shown great charisma to get followers into their Mafia, Cult, whatever, but Cyrus? We never even see him talk to the regular grunts who just do his dirty work... apparently? A lot of issues that I have with Team Galactic are somewhat fixed in Platinum but honestly it's not quite enough. I wanted the remakes to expand on Team Galactic, but if it's just 'Faithful', i'm afraid they are just gonna copy the text over and call it a day. 

Unfortunately, Team Galactic isn't the only problem. Rowan and Lucas appear throughout the story.. I guess. They do literally almost nothing and might as well not even be there for how little they have to do. Most gym leaders you also only see once and never again, which is part of a wider problem but whatever, and even Cynthia whose battle is great, and very tough, is forgettable aside from her battle because she has literally nothing to do the entire story. Barry is the only one who actually does something in the entire story, but only so much because the plot itself is so empty. I'd almost prefer a plotless game like Gold and Silver if this is the story we are going to get, honestly.

The other bad issue I have with D&P is just the bad design choices. Sinnoh as a region is quite badly designed imo, with lots of routes and towns that look practically the same, and lots, and LOTS of backtracking, often through areas you just traversed, a lot of those when Fly isn't available yet! If you're going to make such a big region like Sinnoh, at least make the routes fun to explore, and don't make me go back so many times when you could have used the space in such a region much better. 

Other design issues like the dex kind of sucking balls also plague the game. At least Pokémon should hopefully be learning better movesets, but that doesn't solve the issue of the Pokémon available being... bad? There are 2 fire types, and only one of those can be found in the wild, and Ponyta isn't a good earlygame Pokémon. Heck, it doesn't even evolve until level 40, and EVEN in Gen 8, it doesn't learn many good moves until then either! The strongest fire-type move it learns until it evolves is Flame Wheel, for goodness sake. Please, let this not be the only Fire type we have to work with if you didn't choose Chimchar.

Overall, a lot of these problems were somewhat addressed in Platinum, but I honestly believe it can be done better, which is why i'm so worried about how this game is going to turn out. The fact that it looks like they are not gonna redesign any of the characters or locations of this game is NOT the sign of confidence i'm looking for.

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Hopefully the battles won't be slow again. That was honestly the number one issue with DP since it would crop up far more often than a weak story or barely-present NPCs. That, and the dearth of Fire-Types.

The good news is, if there are any issues with BDSP, they can at least distribute patches to fix those issues now.

4 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

That just sounds like the Litwick line now.

Not like Litwick's line are the only Pokemon allowed to be Ghost/Fire. And they're based on candles and chandeliers rather than lanterns per se.

Edited by Lord_Brand
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Wow, alot of people really dislike the lack of Fire type Pokemon in D/P, huh? 

I personally always choose Chimchar, so I dont mind it at all. 

Edited by lightcosmo
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I hope the keep the GTS, with additions from later gens. Instead of removing it and relying on the app. Though this is likely very unlikely 😕

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51 minutes ago, Zanarkin said:

I hope the keep the GTS, with additions from later gens. Instead of removing it and relying on the app. Though this is likely very unlikely 😕

I didn't even think about that one. I was willing to go for Pokemon Bank, but now they want me to pay for another storage application... on top of the cost of my Switch Online membership. Not really feeling beholden enough to Gamefreak to make that commitment. Maybe I'll treat the remakes as a standalone experience, I dunno.

On 2/28/2021 at 3:15 PM, Lord_Brand said:

Hopefully the battles won't be slow again. That was honestly the number one issue with DP since it would crop up far more often than a weak story or barely-present NPCs. That, and the dearth of Fire-Types.

The good news is, if there are any issues with BDSP, they can at least distribute patches to fix those issues now.

Not like Litwick's line are the only Pokemon allowed to be Ghost/Fire. And they're based on candles and chandeliers rather than lanterns per se.

First: dearth is a wonderful word.

Second: Yeah the battle-slowness seemed like a "first game on new hardware" kinda problem. The remakes will neither be the first Pokemon game on the Switch, nor the first incarnation of Sinnoh, so I foresee them fixing this.

Third: Lampent is literally a lantern, haha. Or lamp, but close enough. Anyway, I would like to see more Ghost/Fire types! But what we're talking about is, another three-stage Ghost/Fire line, with high Special Attack, good speed, and not-so-great bulk, based on similar concepts. Like, if they instead did a Ghost/Fire regional Duskull line (it already has a flame inside its head, right?), with good bulk, low speed, and cool physical options, then I would totally be game.

On 2/28/2021 at 2:39 PM, Michelaar said:

Why would Team Galactic want to steal the Bike Shop Owner's weak Pokémon?

If this series has taught me anything, it's that evil teams specialize in weak Pokemon.

On 2/28/2021 at 2:39 PM, Michelaar said:

There are 2 fire types, and only one of those can be found in the wild, and Ponyta isn't a good earlygame Pokémon. Heck, it doesn't even evolve until level 40, and EVEN in Gen 8, it doesn't learn many good moves until then either! The strongest fire-type move it learns until it evolves is Flame Wheel, for goodness sake. Please, let this not be the only Fire type we have to work with if you didn't choose Chimchar.

I won't hear of this Ponyta slander. This horse has 85 Attack and 90 Speed, stats comparable with most middle evolutions (and some fully evolved Mons). Flame Wheel is a solid main-game move - perfect accuracy, 25 PP, and 90 power after accounting for STAB. The lack of coverage is a little disappointing - I wonder whether the game will use Gen VIII's TM/TR system, move back to Sinnoh-style TMs, or something else entirely. Anyway, I agree that we need more Fire-types (like Platinum offered), but my little flaming pony can hold its own in battle.

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On 2/28/2021 at 2:39 PM, Michelaar said:

Team Galactic is to put it simply, pretty bad in Diamond and Pearl. Cyrus is honestly the worst character in the entire story. He is all ''I hate the world so I want it to start over'' even though the game had set up no reason for him to feel this way. He talks about strife this and strife that but the only strife we ever see in the game is what is caused by HIS team. Speaking of his team, a lot of things they do makes no sense. Why would Team Galactic want to steal the Bike Shop Owner's weak Pokémon? What exactly do they need the energy from Valley Windworks for? Nothing of it is ever explained, and once things are starting to be explained, shit has hit the fan and Cyrus is going over to Mount Coronet to summon Dialga/Palkia to destroy the world and start anew. Once we beat him and thwart his plans, he simply says ''Ohoho I lost to you but I will return!''. He has learned nothing, nothing is resolved and it felt like the worst conclusion possible. We did all that.. for what? It doesn't help that after this showdown, you never hear from Team Galactic again. Also, how exactly did Cyrus amass this huge following? Practically every other evil team leader has shown great charisma to get followers into their Mafia, Cult, whatever, but Cyrus? We never even see him talk to the regular grunts who just do his dirty work... apparently? A lot of issues that I have with Team Galactic are somewhat fixed in Platinum but honestly it's not quite enough.

I admit that it's been a very long time since I played Diamond and I'm working from memory, but I'll do what I can to answer the questions:

It's mentioned multiple times early on in the game that Team Galactic grunts are stealing people's Pokémon; there's even one grunt you can talk to who looks at you and goes (and I'm paraphrasing), "...Your Pokémon are too strong for me to attempt to steal without it being a hassle; I won't bother you". The Bike Shop owner is just one potential victim. As for why they're stealing Pokémon, I honestly don't remember, but I'm pretty sure there was an explanation.

As for the energy from Valley Windworks being stolen, isn't that to power the machine they use for holding the three Lake Legendaries so they can create the Red Gem?

 

Also, to be fair to what happens after beating Cyrus, this was their first time writing an Evil Team that is both a) actually evil, and b) has an evil plan with intentionally very high stakes. Team Rocket was just a Pokémon mafia, Team Magma and Aqua were well-intentioned extremists who believed Hoenn's landscape needed to be reshaped and they fail to realize what they're messing with until it's too late. This is the first main-series Pokémon game where the evil plan is something you would expect from the villain of a Legend of Zelda game or other high-stakes fantasy epic. 

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11 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I admit that it's been a very long time since I played Diamond and I'm working from memory, but I'll do what I can to answer the questions:

It's mentioned multiple times early on in the game that Team Galactic grunts are stealing people's Pokémon; there's even one grunt you can talk to who looks at you and goes (and I'm paraphrasing), "...Your Pokémon are too strong for me to attempt to steal without it being a hassle; I won't bother you". The Bike Shop owner is just one potential victim. As for why they're stealing Pokémon, I honestly don't remember, but I'm pretty sure there was an explanation.

As for the energy from Valley Windworks being stolen, isn't that to power the machine they use for holding the three Lake Legendaries so they can create the Red Gem?

 

Also, to be fair to what happens after beating Cyrus, this was their first time writing an Evil Team that is both a) actually evil, and b) has an evil plan with intentionally very high stakes. Team Rocket was just a Pokémon mafia, Team Magma and Aqua were well-intentioned extremists who believed Hoenn's landscape needed to be reshaped and they fail to realize what they're messing with until it's too late. This is the first main-series Pokémon game where the evil plan is something you would expect from the villain of a Legend of Zelda game or other high-stakes fantasy epic. 

Oh I know it's mentioned that they are stealing Pokemon, but the fact that they stole the Bike Shop owner's weak Pokémon for literally no explanation (If there is one, I must have missed it) and do a whole lot of nonsense just makes them so annoying. About the energy, that makes sense to me, thanks for that explanation.

About your point about what happens after beating Cyrus, I would have appreciated that more if something actually comes of it, but it doesn't. The story practically ends there at Spear Pillar, with about 10 hours of more game with nearly no plot happening afterwards. And yeah, Cyrus does a lot of messed up stuff and is certainly evil alright. But to me, that is just part of what makes him so boring to me. He is just a saturday morning cartoon, evil no feelings villain with no motivations explained by the game until Platinum came along for damage control and even then, there is no strife in the Sinnoh region as he says that isn't directly caused by his team's work that we bore witness to. 

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1 hour ago, Michelaar said:

Oh I know it's mentioned that they are stealing Pokemon, but the fact that they stole the Bike Shop owner's weak Pokémon for literally no explanation (If there is one, I must have missed it) and do a whole lot of nonsense just makes them so annoying. About the energy, that makes sense to me, thanks for that explanation.

About your point about what happens after beating Cyrus, I would have appreciated that more if something actually comes of it, but it doesn't. The story practically ends there at Spear Pillar, with about 10 hours of more game with nearly no plot happening afterwards. And yeah, Cyrus does a lot of messed up stuff and is certainly evil alright. But to me, that is just part of what makes him so boring to me. He is just a saturday morning cartoon, evil no feelings villain with no motivations explained by the game until Platinum came along for damage control and even then, there is no strife in the Sinnoh region as he says that isn't directly caused by his team's work that we bore witness to. 

I suppose; I can't remember if there was a specific stated reason either, but if there wasn't, I guess I just figured that he was just another victim of the Pokémon theft; nothing particularly special except for also being the shop owner.

You're welcome for the explanation for the energy. I remember playing through Pokémon Y, getting to the part involving Team Flare and a power plant and thinking something along the lines of, "Really? I know this game has something of a 'greatest hits' vibe like Fire Emblem Awakening, but did you really have to rip-off Diamond/Pearl/Platinum with the evil team stealing electricity to fuel a machine that's part of their evil plan?"

That is a good point. I guess that didn't really bother me because, after that, it's just the 8th gym and the elite four left, and it made sense to me to have no other major plots happening during that stuff.

As for Cyrus, yeah; his evil plan didn't seem to have any real presented motivation, but for me, to quote Arnim Zola, "The sanity of the plan [was] of no consequence, because he [could] do it!" For me, the motivation didn't matter so much because he compensated for it by being a serious and effective villain. The fact that so much more of his plans and schemes were in the forefront, with stuff like the lake being blown up and storming the base to rescue the Lake Legendaries, the fact that the schemes were all building towards the big showdown (unlike with previous generations where the team was a recurring for but they either had no overarching plan or they weren't the real threat once their plan was in action) and that the player goes through so much in the quest to stop him: raiding the base, ascending Mt. Coronet, fighting the elite goons alongside your rival, and then facing Cyrus (if I recall correctly; I can remember fighting him in Platinum but I can't remember if you fight him in Diamond/Pearl) was, to use a commonly-overused word correctly, epic. Don't get me wrong,

Platinum was definitely an improvement in the story area; I'm just saying that the stuff the story did well (the buildup, the feeling of going through an epic narrative, etc.) was enough for me to look past the issues. 

Edited by vanguard333
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I do hope the Platinum additional characters such as Looker (who technically made Recurring appearances after Platinum), Charon, and the Elite Four Members return to Brillant Diamond and Shiny Pearl since HeartGold and SoulSilver did brought Eusine back, but FireRed and LeafGreen didn't bring back the Team Rocket Trio and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire didn't bring back Juan and the Elite Four.

As for the overall trailer Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shiny Pearl, I do like the Chibi Styled and keeping the overworld layout in Brilliant Diamond and Shiny Pearl. I do think they might need some tweeking with the lighting and maybe polish the animation more along with Legends: Arceus as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Did Sinnoh go through some warming? I noticed in the trailer there is a lack of snow in the starting area, and I wonder if its going to be added or not. I kinda like the snowy look the first town... I mean it doesn't really feel like that big a deal if they forgo it but I hope they add it back.

 

Edit: 😮 apparently the Diamond and Pearl versions did not have the snow.

Edited by Zanarkin
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1 hour ago, Zanarkin said:

Did Sinnoh go through some warming? I noticed in the trailer there is a lack of snow in the starting area, and I wonder if its going to be added or not. I kinda like the snowy look the first town... I mean it doesn't really feel like that big a deal if they forgo it but I hope they add it back.

 

Edit: 😮 apparently the Diamond and Pearl versions did not have the snow.

Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure I misremembered it as having snow as well. I was also like, "Why isn't the male protagonist wearing a winter coat? Why's he wearing short sleeves?" Then I checked and the winter coat was only in Platinum. Similarly, the rival's striped shirt was long-sleeved in Platinum and short-sleeved in Diamond/Pearl.

The funny thing is that they wanted the Sinnoh region to be distinctly cold and temperate compared to the previous three regions since they based Sinnoh on the Island of Hokkaido. The Platinum version definitely reflects that better aesthetically than Diamond/Pearl did. Personally, for a Diamond/Pearl remake, I would've had the protagonists' outfits be something in-between their Diamond/Pearl versions and their Platinum versions, but, personally, I would've gone for a Platinum remake rather than a Diamond/Pearl remake because, as much as I enjoyed Diamond as a kid, Platinum is easily the superior version in gameplay, aesthetic/atmosphere and story.

Speaking of story, one thing I really liked about Platinum especially was how involved the champion Cynthia was in the plot. She was mysterious, but she had clear goals and agency. She explained a lot of the region's lore to the player, but in a way that felt natural and didn't feel like an info dump. She'd appear every now and then and help you out, but she didn't stick around too long; keeping things relatively enigmatic. When it came time to face her as the champion, it had a lot more weight. If they add in the Torn World stuff as postgame content like the Delta Episode of OR/AS did for the Emerald story content, I'm just concerned that the plot will still be Diamond/Pearl plot and stuff like Cynthia's involvement and the Torn World won't have the same weight. 

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1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Speaking of story, one thing I really liked about Platinum especially was how involved the champion Cynthia was in the plot. She was mysterious, but she had clear goals and agency. She explained a lot of the region's lore to the player, but in a way that felt natural and didn't feel like an info dump. She'd appear every now and then and help you out, but she didn't stick around too long; keeping things relatively enigmatic. When it came time to face her as the champion, it had a lot more weight. If they add in the Torn World stuff as postgame content like the Delta Episode of OR/AS did for the Emerald story content, I'm just concerned that the plot will still be Diamond/Pearl plot and stuff like Cynthia's involvement and the Torn World won't have the same weight. 

I'm always really sad that gamefreak likes to focus on making remakes of the first two versions as opposed to just a remake of the third one, which usually is the better one. It wouldn't really stop them from making two versions either if thats what they really care about. The story wouldn't take too much of a hit in terms of having different pokemon available.At least i wouldn't think so. Though I can't remember Platinum's story too well, nor do i know Diamond/Pearl's story.

I also agree with you that Platinum's colder aesthetic/atmosphere is far better.

Edited by Zanarkin
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1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Personally, for a Diamond/Pearl remake, I would've had the protagonists' outfits be something in-between their Diamond/Pearl versions and their Platinum versions,

I could see a good compromise if they have the characters change into their Platinum outfits for the Snowpoint area. Would be a neat thing to do.

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26 minutes ago, Zanarkin said:

I'm always really sad that gamefreak likes to focus on making remakes of the first two versions as opposed to just a remake of the third one, which usually is the better one. It wouldn't really stop them from making two versions either if that's what they really care about. The story wouldn't take too much of a hit in terms of having different pokemon available. At least i wouldn't think so. Though I can't remember Platinum's story too well, nor do i know Diamond/Pearl's story.

I also agree with you that Platinum's colder aesthetic/atmosphere is far better.

Yeah; it is sad. I didn't mind it too much in the case of OR/AS, but that's probably because I never played Emerald.

The most significant divergence in Platinum's story compared to Diamond/Pearl is that Cyrus uses the Red Chain to control both Dialga and Palkia, so the Lake Legendaries aren't able to counteract the Red Chain. Cyrus' attempt to remake the world, however, causes enough distortions to tear open a hole to the Torn World, out of which Giratina emerges, disrupts the evil plan and drags Cyrus in. However, the hole remains, and that will destroy the world if it isn't sealed, so you and Cynthia jump into the hole. You fight Cyrus one more time, fight and capture/defeat Giratina, and you restore things back to normal before being teleported to the entrance of the weird cave where you find Giratina in Diamond/Pearl.

Thanks. The fact that I'm remembering Platinum more than Diamond despite having more nostalgia for Diamond should say enough.

 

19 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I could see a good compromise if they have the characters change into their Platinum outfits for the Snowpoint area. Would be a neat thing to do.

That could work, though if they do that, could they add snowshoes to make walking through the snow less annoying?

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2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I could see a good compromise if they have the characters change into their Platinum outfits for the Snowpoint area. Would be a neat thing to do.

I'm hoping that there's some degree of character customization - even if it's just a few outfits to pick from (rather than the "mix-and-match" we've seen in the last few main series games). I'd love to see the colder-weather Platinum outfits come back - as you say, they'd be great for Snowpoint, and also for the Mount Coronet summit. One change, though - let Dawn wear some tights, girl's legs must be freezing!

Other outfits we could see? Well, you dress differently in the Super Contests - maybe by winning a contest, you get to wear that outfit in the overworld, and into battle? Perhaps talking to the Clowns in Jubilife could net you a clown costume? And it'd be rad to see outfits modeled after certain NPCs, like Cyrus or Cynthia, once you defeat them.

I don't see any of this as particularly likely, but I'm allowed to dream, aren't I?

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  • 8 months later...
On 3/12/2021 at 8:54 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I'm hoping that there's some degree of character customization - even if it's just a few outfits to pick from (rather than the "mix-and-match" we've seen in the last few main series games). I'd love to see the colder-weather Platinum outfits come back - as you say, they'd be great for Snowpoint, and also for the Mount Coronet summit. One change, though - let Dawn wear some tights, girl's legs must be freezing!

I'm not sure how much tights would aid in insulation; she'd need more layers, I would think. Though I guess if she has several layers of tights, that might work.

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2 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

I'm not sure how much tights would aid in insulation; she'd need more layers, I would think. Though I guess if she has several layers of tights, that might work.

They could be thermal leggings, perhaps? Anything is better for cold weather than exposed skin, honestly.

4 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Well, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have released. I haven't played them, nor do I intend to do so.

I didn't either - the "always on" EXP share was a deal-breaker for me. Which is a shame - some of the stuff they're doing (Grand underground, trainer customization, HM call service) definitely look to improve upon the originals. That said, there doesn't seem to be enough different to justify playing these games over the originals.

For my part, I'm actually replaying Platinum as we speak. It's not a speed-run per se, but I am trying to rush relative to most of my playthroughs (5 hours in, and I've already made it to Hearthome). Hopefully, I'll finally beat this game that I've picked up and set down too many times over the years!

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4 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I didn't either - the "always on" EXP share was a deal-breaker for me. Which is a shame - some of the stuff they're doing (Grand underground, trainer customization, HM call service) definitely look to improve upon the originals. That said, there doesn't seem to be enough different to justify playing these games over the originals.

For my part, I'm actually replaying Platinum as we speak. It's not a speed-run per se, but I am trying to rush relative to most of my playthroughs (5 hours in, and I've already made it to Hearthome). Hopefully, I'll finally beat this game that I've picked up and set down too many times over the years!

Yeah; from what I've seen, these aren't really much better than the originals. For me, the deal-breaker was twofold:

1. The visuals. I see people who defend the visuals say either, "It's faithful to the original" or "It's like the Link's Awakening remake and you liked that". My response to the first is that it really isn't; it is on the surface, but there's little depth to it from what I've seen. It honestly detracts from a lot of what Diamond, Pearl and Platinum were trying to achieve with their art style; the rival doesn't seem to come across as nearly as impatient or hasty as he did in the original for an example, and the cold, history-rich atmosphere of the Sinnoh region also takes a hit. My response to the second argument is that I liked Link's Awakening's art style because it had a ton of charm and attention to detail and it fit both the atmosphere of the game and its main plot twist; the Diamond and Pearl remakes' art style has none of those things going for it.

2. The lack of any of the improvements Platinum made to the 4th gen. I am someone whose first Pokémon game that I owned was Diamond and I really enjoyed it, and even I admit that Platinum was a massive improvement in a number of key ways, and the Diamond and Pearl remakes don't seem to have any of those. Why would I buy a remake that doesn't have any of what Platinum added? Even ORAS bothered to add the postgame Delta Episode to add in at least some of the improvements Emerald made over Ruby and Sapphire, and Platinum was a far bigger upgrade to Diamond and Pearl than Emerald was to Ruby and Sapphire.

 

Good job. I'd love to replay Platinum, but my 3DS has been dead for months and I lost the charger.

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I am currently playing through the game and i'm still having fun, but I am also at the point where I start to get annoyed. The main cause for that is the forced exp share and I can't really say I did't see that one coming.

On the bright side I ended up around the same level as Gardenia's strongest pokemon. So that was not too bad...on the other hand the random trainers are getting outpaced really quickly. I'm not on route 209 and my team of level 25/27 pokemon are mopping the floor with trainers who have pokemon ranging from around level 15/19. At this point the difficulty goes from breezy to unengaging.

I did hear it would get better somewhere and I hope thats the case. Because fumbling around with the box and constantly switching in and out is a extra hassle I don't care for.

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Man i so wanted to buy this game after the leaks and the patch... but no battle frontier means this is a big ass nope for me. We already know this won't be the main venue for online battling, why couldn't there be an actual post-game for PvE? Then again I'm not surprised because gamefreak has a thing against the battle frontier.

If they remake platinum, or better yet the platinum rom hacks (ive read this game was made in unity so it apparently will be a lot easier to make rom hacks of it), that will be worth playing.

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4 hours ago, Zanarkin said:

Man i so wanted to buy this game after the leaks and the patch... but no battle frontier means this is a big ass nope for me. We already know this won't be the main venue for online battling, why couldn't there be an actual post-game for PvE? Then again I'm not surprised because gamefreak has a thing against the battle frontier.

To their (limited) credit, there appears to be some semblance of a postgame. Ramanas Park will allow for catching previous-generation legendaries, and they're bringing back Gym Leader rematches, too. That said, it's a genuine shame the Battle Frontier never made it beyond Gen IV. Even as each generation tried to "reimagine" the Battle Tower (in the Subway, Maison, and Tree), none offered the same amount of options.

4 hours ago, Sasori said:

On the bright side I ended up around the same level as Gardenia's strongest pokemon. So that was not too bad...on the other hand the random trainers are getting outpaced really quickly. I'm not on route 209 and my team of level 25/27 pokemon are mopping the floor with trainers who have pokemon ranging from around level 15/19. At this point the difficulty goes from breezy to unengaging.

That's the biggest problem with introducing a new EXP scheme to an old game. The base game (and its levels) is balanced around a certain amount of EXP gain per battle. By multiplying the EXP gain, the challenge of the original game is totally compromised. I can understand the attempt to alleviate grinding, but the modern EXP share just takes it overboard.

On 11/21/2021 at 8:19 PM, vanguard333 said:

. The visuals. I see people who defend the visuals say either, "It's faithful to the original" or "It's like the Link's Awakening remake and you liked that". My response to the first is that it really isn't; it is on the surface, but there's little depth to it from what I've seen. It honestly detracts from a lot of what Diamond, Pearl and Platinum were trying to achieve with their art style; the rival doesn't seem to come across as nearly as impatient or hasty as he did in the original for an example, and the cold, history-rich atmosphere of the Sinnoh region also takes a hit. My response to the second argument is that I liked Link's Awakening's art style because it had a ton of charm and attention to detail and it fit both the atmosphere of the game and its main plot twist; the Diamond and Pearl remakes' art style has none of those things going for it.

From what I've seen, I'm not especially bothered by the "chibi" art style. My disappointment is moreso that the Pokemon's 3D models haven't improved much since XY. Sure, they've gotten higher-resolution, but they aren't as expressive as what the 3D console games (i.e. Colosseum and XD) offered. Where's my Eevee doing backflips before attacking? Or my Jigglypuff, deflating into a flat sheet upon defeat?

On 11/21/2021 at 8:19 PM, vanguard333 said:

2. The lack of any of the improvements Platinum made to the 4th gen. I am someone whose first Pokémon game that I owned was Diamond and I really enjoyed it, and even I admit that Platinum was a massive improvement in a number of key ways, and the Diamond and Pearl remakes don't seem to have any of those. Why would I buy a remake that doesn't have any of what Platinum added? Even ORAS bothered to add the postgame Delta Episode to add in at least some of the improvements Emerald made over Ruby and Sapphire, and Platinum was a far bigger upgrade to Diamond and Pearl than Emerald was to Ruby and Sapphire.

I don't think it's overly harsh to say that the DP Regional Dex was the single-worst regional Dex of any game. Two lines each of Fire- and Electric-types? What were they thinking? You're adding Gastrodon, so why bring back both Quagsire and Whiscash? There's a lot of Bug-types, but most of them (Wormadam, Mothim, Kricketune) falter in the long-run.

The Platinum Dex, on the other hand, I consider one of the best Regional Dexes. They added just 60 Mons, but they really fixed the problems of the originals. Magmar and Electabuzz families, the Eeveelutions, and strong Bugs like Scyther/Scizor and Yanmega. At the same time, there were still few enough that Mon continuity exists between routes, and you could expect to encounter the whole Dex in the main playthrough. Compare to XY, whose regional identity suffers IMO to the overwhelming Dex - mostly borrowed from prior generations.

Long story short, seeing BDSP not bring back (to my knowledge) stuff like gift Eevee, or catchable (overworld) Ralts, is a real head-scratcher. And it cuts down on the options opposing trainers bring, reviving infamous teams like Flint's and Volkner's.

Edited by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Clarification.
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1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

From what I've seen, I'm not especially bothered by the "chibi" art style. My disappointment is moreso that the Pokemon's 3D models haven't improved much since XY. Sure, they've gotten higher-resolution, but they aren't as expressive as what the 3D console games (i.e. Colosseum and XD) offered. Where's my Eevee doing backflips before attacking? Or my Jigglypuff, deflating into a flat sheet upon defeat?

I don't think it's overly harsh to say that the DP Regional Dex was the single-worst regional Dex of any game. Two lines each of Fire- and Electric-types? What were they thinking? You're adding Gastrodon, so why bring back both Quagsire and Whiscash? There's a lot of Bug-types, but most of them (Wormadam, Mothim, Kricketune) falter in the long-run.

The Platinum Dex, on the other hand, I consider one of the best Regional Dexes. They added just 60 Mons, but they really fixed the problems of the originals. Magmar and Electabuzz families, the Eeveelutions, and strong Bugs like Scyther/Scizor and Yanmega. At the same time, there were still few enough that Mon continuity exists between routes, and you could expect to encounter the whole Dex in the main playthrough. Compare to XY, whose regional identity suffers IMO to the overwhelming Dex - mostly borrowed from prior generations.

Long story short, seeing BDSP not bring back (to my knowledge) stuff like gift Eevee, or catchable (overworld) Ralts, is a real head-scratcher. And it cuts down on the options opposing trainers bring, reviving infamous teams like Flint's and Volkner's.

I know what you mean; one of the main advantages of 3D models over 2D sprites is that you can give 3D models a lot more expression. And yet, if anything, the models in the Diamond & Pearl remakes somehow seem less expressive than the 2D sprites.

Indeed; it is annoying that they didn't bother to incorporate any of those improvements that Platinum made.

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