Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Review: ‘More recreation than remake’

The Pokemon franchise continues its tick-tock of new entries and remakes with the release of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (official site). In the past, the Pokemon remakes have given us everything the originals did and more. So, when rumors of fourth-generation remakes started making their rounds, I was excited. Who wouldn’t want to revisit Sinnoh with all the visual improvements we saw in Sword and Shield?

Welp, instead of bringing the games up to par with Sword and Shield, for the first time in franchise history, Game Freak farmed a main series entry to an outside studio. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were developed by ILCA, a Tokyo studio that previously worked as a support studio for games like Yakuza 0 and NieR: Automata, and as the developer of Pokemon Home.

To its credit, ILCA did a great job recreating Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, especially given the short development time. However, the studio stuck too close to the originals to make this remake worthwhile.

A visual quandary

The most disappointing (and perplexing) aspect of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the graphics. Past Pokemon remakes have always reflected the graphical styling of the generation. The previous main series remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, moved back to an overhead, slightly-isometric camera. Even so, it retained the same graphical fidelity of Pokemon X and Y. Unfortunately, ILCA didn’t continue the transition to a full 3D world and camera we saw in Sword and Shield. In fact, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl aren’t even made in the same engine, with ILCA opting to use Unity instead of Game Freak’s proprietary engine (which may not have been an option).

The chibi characters in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl capture neither the fidelity we expect in a Switch Pokemon title, nor the soul of the handmade sprites of the original. This is the first time the series has taken a major step backward visually, and I’m not sure why the devs chose to go in this direction other than it was just easier. Instead of exploring Sinnoh in 3D, you’re stuck with the same static overhead camera of the originals. The world itself is the same scale as the originals, which was a technological limitation imposed by the Nintendo DS, but an unexplainable aesthetic choice here.

Visually, there’s no real reason to play Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl over the originals. The recreated environments have a strange, sterile feel to them that wasn’t present before, and the clean, simplistic textures compare poorly to those of the original.

Of course, if ILCA had just been going for this aesthetic, it’d be one thing, but Pokemon battles are graphically on par with Sword and Shield. The whole thing would be less jarring if my chibi character didn’t grow to normal proportions for each fight. Unfortunately, every time I sent a Pokemon out against a foe, I was struck with how much better the game would be if they used the in-battle models and proportions everywhere.

More of (exactly) the same

The oxymoronic aspect of reviewing Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is that it’s by definition a good game. It’s an almost 1:1 remake for the most part, so of course, it’s fun. It’s a traditional Pokemon adventure through a charming land, so it’s hard not to enjoy it. I can’t say I didn’t love another trip through the Pokemon League. However, many of us already took this journey 15 years ago, and questionable decisions prevent this from being the definitive version of Diamond and Pearl.

The biggest strike against the content in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is that most of what was added in Platinum is missing here. You can still get Giratina through an alternate method, but all the post-game story that involved that Pokemon is missing. I’m not sure why this decision was made. It automatically means that Pokemon Platinum is still the best way to experience Sinnoh.

There are some quality of life changes that are welcome. HMs have been moved to the Poketch, which means you don’t have to teach useless moves to your Pokemon. The ability to walk with your Pokemon works outside of Amity Square now, as well. However, Pokemon aren’t shown to scale, which can be awkward. Unfortunately, there are some negative changes too. Exp. Share is now automatically on when the game starts and can’t be turned off. This isn’t a huge deal for many players, but it does decrease the difficulty of an already easy game.

Two locations have seen some significant improvements over the original, though. Pal Park is now Ramanas Park which is a hot spot for capturing Legendary Pokemon. Additionally, the Underground has been upgraded to the Grand Underground, which introduces Pokemon Hideways where wild Pokemon can be encountered. A good chunk of the post-game takes place in these areas (though you’ll need to get the National Dex first), and I enjoyed my time building my secret base and searching for Pokemon I hadn’t caught yet.

Unfortunately, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl miss the opportunity to take care of some of the more annoying aspects of the original. For example, both wild Pokemon and trainer teams lack diversity in the game’s opening hours, which can make things monotonous. It’s not a huge deal, but I got so tired of running into wild Bidoofs and fighting trainers that have Bidoofs.

Also, don’t get excited about bringing any of your catches to Pokemon Home anytime soon. For some reason, these games launched without support for transferring Pokemon to or from Home, and that functionality won’t be available until sometime in 2022.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Review: The final verdict

I think ILCA did an excellent job on recreating the originals, but Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl aren’t great remakes. My gold standard for a game remake is Resident Evil 2. It brought almost every aspect of the original into a modern framework, improved upon it, and added new content. In contrast, these games got a (very) slight graphical upgrade and some quality of life changes. With how closely they follow the originals, these games are more recreations than remakes.

I wouldn’t be as critical if the content from Platinum were included. However, Nintendo expects you to pay $60 for what is essentially the same game that was $40 15 years ago. Even adjusting for inflation, this doesn’t equal out. I’d say to wait and grab these on sale, but Nintendo games never get marked down.

Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokemon Company have made some odd decisions with pricing their products lately. Unfortunately, for many fans, these remakes were a bad omen that these trends will continue. The series has been criticized as being stagnate, and even going backward with things like Dexit. New and casual players likely won’t notice or care that the quality of the games has gone down with the last couple of releases. However, longtime fans are feeling increasingly disappointed, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have done nothing to assuage that.