Review: POKEMON BRILLIANT DIAMOND Could Use Some More Polishing
A few weeks ago, The Pokémon Company and ILCA released the long-awaited remakes of the fourth generation games: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The originals are well-beloved with a healthy chunk of the community saying it’s the best. I have very limited experience playing the original Pearl over a decade ago, and I appreciated it, but I remember next to nothing about it. Nintendo was kind enough to provide me with a review code, but due to my lack of nostalgia and experience with the original games, I won’t be able to do many straight comparisons.
Overall, BDSP are divisive. For young players, these are going to be really awesome. For older and more hardcore players, they’re going to find a lot of problems with it. ILCA did a pretty good job of remaking the games and implementing a lot of modern quality-of-life improvements and modern standards for modern Pokémon games. These very changes are what will divide the community. The Exp. Share mechanic in modern games that automatically provides experience to your entire party after every capture and battle is enabled and cannot be disabled. There’s also the implementation of moves telling you in a battle if they’re effective, super effective, etc. before you select it. In addition, HMs are now handled through the Pokétch and so you do not need an HM slave. These are just some examples of the changes made and I think some of these are great (like the way HMs are handled) while others could be changed to be better for everyone (like providing an option to turn off Exp. Share).
In addition, the games feel extremely easy. I haven’t had to grind my Pokémon at all and I’m easily defeating every foe in 1-2 hits. I’m constantly 2+ levels ahead of any given trainer depending on which member of my team you use as a reference. It’s a walk in the park. If you’re looking for a Pokémon game that challenges you and makes you really think about combat, this is not the game for you.
There are some good things about BDSP though. I think the games look very nice. The graphics look pretty good and I personally enjoy the chibi aesthetic used for the overworld. I love that you can have Pokémon walk around with you after a certain point. This is always a fantastic feature and it’s made extra nice by letting you choose which team member instead of just using the team member in a specific slot. The downside is that the Pokémon tends to move very slow and just using your Running Shoes makes it so you easily leave them behind and they have to be teleported back to your side. I wish they just made the Pokémon more able to keep up with you.
Pokémon Contests make a return in BDSP! I don’t know how they were in the original games, but in these remakes they’re essentially a rhythm game. You pick one of your Pokémon’s moves that you can unleash once during the contest to help give you a boost, but be careful, because others can chain to your move and end up getting more points. This is fun and very different from the way contests are done in Generation III. I don’t know that I have a preference between the two.
Of course, with contests comes an edible item for Pokémon. In this case, it’s Poffins. You need to go to a special spot to make these items to boost your Pokémon and contribute berries. Then you rotate the joystick in the direction it tells you. You’ll have to change direction several times and make sure you’re not rotating too slow or fast. I personally hate this. I cannot figure out how to not burn my Poffins.
The music for the game is fun to listen to and really gets you feeling like you’re in the world of Pokémon.
The last complaint I want to bring up is that it doesn’t use the Switch’s touchscreen in any capacity. In battle, you can use one-handed controls which is really nice, but I would’ve thought that the touch screen would’ve been an option to use for selecting menu items or as an optional control while making Poffins.
Overall, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are fun remakes, but they’re very divisive and for me, just okay games. I don’t think I would fault anyone for loving these remakes and I can’t fault anyone for not liking them either. It definitely has some wins including nostalgia for many, but it also has its faults.
