Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl: Review

We primarily analyzed Pokémon Brilliant Diamond for this study. The Pokémon Shining Pearl game has a slightly different set of Pokémon to capture, but the two games are essentially similar.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are nearly identical remakes of the original Nintendo DS games from 2007. The plot is straightforward. You play as a young boy who receives his first Pokémon from the local professor, much as in every previous mainline Pokémon game. You then embark on a quest to gather all eight badges while also putting a halt to a nefarious organization. Then you must battle the Elite Four and the Pokémon Champion to become the region’s most powerful trainer.

Rather than taking any major creative risks, the games stay on the safe side. But these games were fantastic back then, and they’re still good now. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, on the other hand, come with certain qualifiers. Continue reading for a comprehensive review of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Also read: God of War (PC) Review

About the game

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond[a] and Pokémon Shining Pearl are remakes of the 2006 Nintendo DS role-playing video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which were released in 2021. The games were developed by ILCA and released by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch as part of the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game franchise. On November 19, 2021, the games were launched. They were revealed with Pokémon Legends: Arceus as part of the Pokémon 25th Anniversary celebrations. They are the first major Pokémon games to be created by a firm other than Game Freak.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s gameplay is identical to that of the original Diamond and Pearl games, as well as prior remakes like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The games have a distinct visual design and are presented in a top-down isometric third-person perspective.

Game Review: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Since the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in 2006, a lot has changed (or 2007 outside of Japan).

The games were the franchise’s first appearance on Nintendo’s cultural juggernaut, the DS platform, and they brought with them two significant advancements. The first was visual, in the form of sprites that occupied both the overworld and fight scenes in ‘2.5D’ (rather than 3D).

The visual style, with its trademark wobbling and jagged edges, may appear obnoxious to today’s gaming audience, but it was a vibrant and thrilling upgrade to the stunning 2D pixel imagery that had made the Pokémon series so popular at the time.

Recommended: Inscryption Review

The addition of online play via the DS’s Wi-Fi connectivity was the second big upgrade. This was a major turning point in the series. Trading and battling your favorite Pokémon are important parts of the game, and you can now do so with others all around the world.

These are some of the reasons why Diamond and Pearl (and their updated re-release Platinum) are some of the most cherished games in the franchise for a generation of fans.

Unfortunately, their 2021 remakes – Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl – are unlikely to be as successful.

In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, you retrace the steps of the original games, which were still stuck in the series’ mold at the time — as opposed to subsequent entries like Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield, which took bolder swings.

You obtain a starting Pokémon from a professor just a few towns away, tour the region while forming a team, face local Gym leaders, complete your Pokédex, thwart an evil organization, and even encounter some deities. For a Pokémon Trainer, it’s all in a day’s work.

The variations between the two versions are minor, with each receiving a handful of unique Pokémon not found in the other.

Plot and character development are still lacking, but that hasn’t stopped the world of Pokémon from attracting fans because of the indisputable power of its fundamental mechanics.

Thankfully, Pokémon’s turn-based system, which is more complicated than it appears, is still alive and well in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. In fact, for many players, the return to a more basic set of tools in these games may be really welcome.

Pokémon’s battle system has been inundated with new elements in recent years, with various degrees of success.

Also Read: Is Jurassic World of Evolution 2 a chaos of Carnivores?

The essential rock/paper/scissors formula, which many players can recall with their eyes closed, is replaced in these remakes by flashier features like ‘Mega Evolution’ and ‘Dynamaxing.’

This cycle is as enjoyable as ever, with the Sinnoh area of the games giving lots of Pokémon to collect and train in order to form a unique team precisely the way you want it — whether it’s testing out new Pokémon or putting together a squad that works well together.

If the original DS games’ simpler mechanical stylings translated well to Switch, the same cannot be said about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s take on those iconic 2.5D aesthetics.

The cutesy, chibi-inspired style of the character designs, as well as the relatively barebones look of the environments, caused quite a stir when the first trailer for the games was released earlier this year, with many fans reacting negatively to the cutesy, chibi-inspired style of the character designs, as well as the relatively barebones look of the environments.

Recommended: Is Battlefield 2042 too glitchy?

The choices chosen by developer ILCA are clearly meant to harken back to the original DS aesthetics, but the bobblehead figures and flat textures lack the jagged appeal of older games when rendered in plastic-like smoothness.

This is most noticeable when the game zooms in on character models for various moments of dialogue, with the stylized designs over-emoting in a way that (while sometimes cute) can feel at odds with the words on the screen – especially when talking to more sinister figures like big-bad Cyrus, whose plan for global destruction remains one of the series’ darkest moments.

At the very least, the places where the remakes strike the new ground are more engaging. The Underground aspects of the original games are expanded in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, with a large maze of interconnecting tunnels full of wealth for players to dig up.

Players may also interact with some rarer Pokémon in these tunnels, which emerge in select zones peppered around the game, as well as create and customize their own ‘hideaways.’ Friends may visit these hidden bases online, and the cosmetic changes players make have an effect on the Pokémon they find in nearby tunnels.

Brownie Read: Check System Requirements for Call of Duty Vanguard

Finally, it’s difficult not to make comparisons between any Pokémon game, especially a remake like this one. The Pokémon Company’s track record of revisiting previous entries shows that the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games not only fail to replicate the enchantment of the originals, but they also fall short.

Fans flocked to games like HeartGold and SoulSilver, as well as the more current Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, because they improved on the originals — either by introducing a fun new features and regions or by redesigning the visual aesthetic to reflect how people remembered their favorite childhood games.

Final Verdict

The remakes of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are exact replicas of the original games. The original Diamond and Pearl were already excellent, but the enhanced quality of life enhancements make the experience much better. Those same characteristics, on the other hand, appear to be inconsistent. At the very least, the decision to not use the ultimate Pokémon Platinum game as a basis is perplexing. This would have avoided the requirement for two different versions of the same game while still including Platinum’s extra material.

Even if you’ve played the originals, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are still enjoyable. More innovative chances, on the other hand, may have made the game stand out even more.