This year has been a very special one for thePokemonfranchise, as Nintendo and the Pokemon Company are celebrating the 25th anniversary since the series first launched, all the way back in 1996 withPokemon RedandGreen. With titles likeNew PokemonSnap,PokemonUnite, and the upcomingPokemonBrilliantDiamondandShiningPearl— the remakes of the original fourth generation of games — things are pretty hectic. Next year will also kick off with the open-world game calledPokemon Legends:Arceus, and there have been rumors about when theGen 9 gamescould possibly launch, between the tail end of 2022 or in the first half of 2023.
As forPokemon Brilliant DiamondandShiningPearl, they will be the first remake of mainlinePokemongames not developed by Game Freak, as they are instead being made by Japanese studio ILCA Inc., and are confirmed to be faithful to the originals. Ever since the announcement, which had many fans head over their heels about it,Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearlhave undergone graphical changes and improvements. Regardless, with the games set to be a faithful makeover,Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearlshould also seize the opportunity to make improvements to longstanding issues that didn’t feel enjoyable to the playerbase.
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What Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Need to Improve From the Originals
One of the aspects lamented the most aboutPokemon DiamondandPearlby fans is that the games were incredibly slow, both in the story progression department and in the way combat felt, especially at higher levels. The characters themselves move quite slowly through the region of Sinnoh, and whilePokemon Platinumsolved at least the issue with surfing speed, it didn’t do much for the rest. Still, the surfing speed improvements were great, so much so thatPlatinumseemed to have doubled the speed at which bodies of water could be crossed, thus reducing the amount of unwanted wild encounters while traveling, and the frustration of the sluggish movement.
Advancing inDiamondandPearl— and in a way, inPlatinumas well — can feel very slow, with most runs players getting to the first gym much later than in every other game in the series. However, a notable improvement that modernPokemongames feature battles where HP falls at much higher rates than they ever did in gen four games, where it instead became a meme of sorts. Battles that naturally last long can be somewhat painful in the original games, and thusBrilliant DiamondandShining Pearlshould take a much closer look at modern titles instead.
Lastly, there’s thePokedex situation.DiamondandPearlhad arguably one of the most lackluster Pokedexes in the franchise, mostly because of two reasons. The first is that most of the good Pokemon to be found in the games are actually locked until much later, after the Elite Four are defeated and players can access the postgame section. Other great critters are still available earlier, but some of the best ones will keep the players waiting.
The second reason is that, likely due to the climate of Sinnoh, players always found that there was an excessive lack of Fire-type Pokemon in the games, andPlatinumdid only partly fix that. Notchoosing Chimcharas the starter Pokemon almost feels punishing in the sense that the only other choice for a Fire Pokemon is Ponyta, at least until the endgame, where Eevee becomes available and thus also Flareon. Overall,Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearlcould improve the originals by adding a bit more Pokemon to the regional Pokedex, and seep the gameplay up to be on par with modern titles.
PokemonBrilliantDiamondandShiningPearlwill release on August 01, 2025, for Nintendo Switch.
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