'Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl' Starts Off Hard. What a Relief.
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I am a big Pokémon nerd. I’m also a sore loser, and I have very little humility. So when Pokémon Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond turned out to actually be a Pokémon challenge—relative to other Pokémon games, that is—I was sent reeling. I wanted to personally kick every Pokémon’s ass, and perhaps one day I’ll rank all 900 Pokémon based on which I could fight best. But back to why you're here, for a review of Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond, out Friday. Game Freak managed to do something special with these remakes that few of the Pokémon remakes pulled off: Recreate a true-to-form original Pokémon game, the way old nerds like me remember Pokémon games. Difficulty and all. I never thought I’d have to use Growl again, and I was dead wrong.
This all started with one little asshole turtle, Turtwig, who is the obvious starter choice (how is it possible that this turtle can be so powerful?). There's one main choice when it comes to starters, and unfortunately, while I’ve picked the grass starter for a while now, Turtwig appealed to my brother, who was playing with me, and as you know, family must not pick the same starters. So even though I’m the Professional Gamer, I went with my close second, Piplup (named Pepsi Max; not a sponsor). In my first battle with my rival trainer, he whipped out the little green tank, and after I killed his first Pokémon in one hit, managed to defend himself with just the almighty Turtwig and obliterate the rest of my Pokémon. I am not new to Pokémon; I’ve played every game since Blue; my national dex is complete in Pokémon Home, with countless shinies; hell, just reference my other journalistic endeavors. Needless to say, I'm well on my way to being a Pokémon master, and yet Shining Pearl was giving me a headache. I must be a masochist, however, because I was absolutely loving it.
Truth be told, I haven’t had to use a debuff or buff move in Pokémon, save for online and capturing purposes, in many years. As far as I can remember, the last time I needed to even worry a tiny bit about type advantage or buffing was back in the GameBoy to DS era. That was, until this remake. This is the first Pokémon game in a while to challenge me right out the gate. Whether that's because of my need to rush through or because the game is just plain complicated isn’t totally clear to me. It just feels like old Pokémon. I should clarify that the original Diamond and Pearl were never specifically special to me—my most played were Blue, Gold, and Sapphire—so they didn’t stick with me. Not because they were bad or hard, but because it was during that time that I got the Wii, so I was playing “cool games” like Wii Sports. I had forgotten the starters and region and could hardly remember what new Pokémon had been introduced.
This is all by way of saying I gave zero nostalgia-based advantage to the region this time around. And yet, Game Freak made me nostalgic for a game that I can hardly remember. How? By melding old Pokémon guidelines with new visuals, quality of life changes, amped up (but accessible) difficulty, and a few bells and whistles that aren’t too showy.
The Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond remake has gotten a lot of flack, because it’s Pokémon and anything Pokémon gets mountains of hate for being lazy, or not being exactly what everyone wanted, which is exhausting. While not every complaint is without its merit—like the visual style, which really didn't appeal to me until a few hours into the game—this remake is polished up nicely, and it's the most old-school Pokémon you can play on the Switch, which we desperately needed.
I’m a massive Sword and Shield fan, along with being beyond hyped for Arceus. I love the new stuff. But new Pokémon games have tended toward the mindless, so the return of the thoughtful, turn-based strategy couldn't make me any happier. We finally have a remake that is Pokémon through and through.
But I’m sure this will be hardly a flicker of light in the tunnel of Reddit mud dedicated to shittalking how bad Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond is, so I’ll just go use my Growl in peace.
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