Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Remakes Announced for Nintendo Switch, Launching WW in late 2021

[KartuneDX]

If your thought was that they'd slowly bring every Pokemon back up to some new animation standard, the problem is just going to present itself again every single time they want to add a new feature. At absolute best, you'd be dealing with a dexit every gen they would be undone by the very end, and it'd just get harder and harder to do as the dex continues to expand.

Even without considering the competitive game, I'm pretty sure a complete dex in a main game is gone for good. Although - you have to wonder why they can't all be in BDSP. There's not really anything going on there that wasn't in USUM.

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The idea is we're already past the largest hurdle in Pokémon of the last decade and that's the full jump to 3D environments, so yeah while more marginal upgrades are possible I'd rather see everything standardized again in the SwSh/Legends art style and maintained for the next decade until the next major creative step.

Imagine they'd have to demake Gen 8 models into Gen 6 sprites for BDSP and subsequent remakes though 😅

 

[mk_68]

Maybe Joe really was onto something when he said the fanbase starts appreciating older games when the new ones come out.

Because shit, this makes LGPE look amazing.

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I mean the guy makes this his job lmao. He interacts with the community so much so it makes sense for him to notice this. Also, people tend to like the games more the moments after they come out (and have actually played it or seen reactions from people who've played it) then in the run up to release. It happens all of the time even with the Let's Go games and Sword/Shield. People had their gripes, but it wasn't as demonstrably negative. That's why the reaction here on Era is ridiculous. Same script, different show.

 

[Multievolution]

Would of been nice if they'd released 3rd gen games (either the remakes or the originals) for the switch today like they did for red and blue on the 3ds, then have them be compatible with these, out of curiosity what's the other side of the globe think of these? I think it's fair to say it's a mixed reception on this board at least

 

[Richietto]

Really hope they tune up the battle graphics before release because at the moment it looks like a worse version of LGPE

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The game lacks any sort of depth. Dawn and Piplup kinda just blend in with the background because there is almost no shadows, DoF, or lighting techniques present.

 

[MegaManTrigger]

Maybe Joe really was onto something when he said the fanbase starts appreciating older games when the new ones come out.

Because shit, this makes LGPE look amazing.

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NOTHING can get me to appreciate XY. But I will admit, my appreciation for Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, and Let's Go has increased after these announcements.

The only thing I'm excited about is Legends.

 

[Defect]

I love it. I hated the transition to the XY style

 

[will0wis]

I'm so disappointed on how bad this looks. And I feel like I'm in the minority (not here, but other places) when saying that.

this was my favorite generation too.

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Word by word, this is how I feel about this game. My favorite generation, the ONE pokémon remake I've actually really really wanted since HG/SS and it's... this thing.

The problem isn't just the graphics (which are laughable for 2021) per se, but why they're the way they are. It's just the utter lack of imagination and effort, the cheapness of the ideas and improvements that are quite shocking to see in such an important and beloved franchise. It's like they don't care about the game.

Worst timeline that not even Dialga can fix.

 

[Serif]

Which then raises the question of why even use this chibi style. You are just giving yourself more work to do...

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Word. In theory I like the idea of having a remastered 2D grid Sinnoh faithful to the original and a 3D recreation of a past Sinnoh, but rewatching the trailer for this I just don't think this particular set of character models will grow on me, even if I like the environments. I never had an issue with the overworld models for XY/ORAS/LGPE.

I guess the models here are shorter than the chibi models for the previous games cause those took advantage of 3D camera views, while this is sticking fully to the 2D top-down perspective so everything's squished for visibility at all times... but we do see some angles from the trailer (like Lucas waddling up to Dawn) where the entire model is visible. So idk.

 

[WrenchNinja]

There goes all my hope. Hitomi Sato and Go Ichinose defined the sound for these games.

Kageyama is the cleanest, most cookie cutter composer ever. Any sense of melancholy that the Sinnoh music was known for gonna be tossed out for absolutely nothing.

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Kageyama made the most melancholy track in the series with Route 10

 

[Rockets]

Hey now, let's not challenge GameFreak to do a worse job, we know they're fully capable of that.

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[Alexhex]

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Yeah I am officially losing my mind. Oras looked fine! Just do that again! It was fine!!

 

[riq]

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My fucking sides

 

[delete12345]

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Now I'm wondering what is the chibi-est video game?

Then again, if in BD/SP, the character's head sizes are a bit smaller, wouldn't it make it better?

 

[EVIL]

oef that artstyle is.. rough. the "Lets go" games are the best looking ones on switch and I simply do not understand why it cant just look like that. the battle characters look okayish, although the rendering is incredibly flat, while the overworld chibi figures are pretty bad looking. I understand maybe trying that faithful recreation, but it simply does not look good. .. Legends is in the same park as this as far as I am concerned. somehow they peaked in their 3d artstyle with the lets go games and now its slowly going down hill. new pokemon snap is the best looking game they showed today.

 

[Maple]

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[Scarlet Spider]

I get what they were trying to go for but...

 

[doodlebob]

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Unpopular opinion: while the new remake models aren't great, I much prefer not having my player character be a smiling buffoon the entire game. It doesn't make sense for a silent, blank slate protagonist.

 

[Serenitynow]

I just can't get over that eye level scene in the trailer of the male MC walking towards Dawn. Why is his torso so short? Why is his walking animation like that?

 

[doodlebob]

I get what they were trying to go for but...

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The sprite running animation has so much more gusto than whatever chicken dance animation the new model has.

 

[Lark]

What really gets me is the choice to give the extremely squashed character models large and relatively detailed hands with five separately articulated fingers. It's an instance where orb-hands or the like might actually improve the look overall.

 

[takriel]

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Wow. Just wow. Unbelievable. This looks like an early 3DS game in HD. You know what? This looks like a DS game in HD.

 

[Cronogear]

Wow. Just wow. Unbelievable. This looks like an early 3DS game in HD. You know what? This looks like a DS game in HD.

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Don't insult DS games.

 

[Forkball]

It's easy to see why people are disappointed. This is the Diamond/Pearl remake. We aren't getting another. I have no problem with chibi art styles but it needs to have some visual flair. Link's Awakening looked amazing. So does Animal Crossing. Even something like World of Final Fantasy is a good metric. You might not like WoFF's character art but it looks like a modern game. I can't even describe the style BDSP are going for. Maybe rubber bath toys? Is there a hole at the bottom of every character?

The constant stressing of "faithfulness to Diamond and Pearl" has me worried that there won't be many new additions, or Platinum improvements. DP is in my top ten of all time, but the remakes need to strike a good balance of the game's original classic design while implementing modern elements and new additions. I mean the character designs for the trainers are completely untouched while in the past they were changed and updated to modern aesthetics.

 

[HardRojo]

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Oh well... tomorrow I'll forget all about this game hopefully. I can't handle another disappointing cycle of mainline Pokémon news.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Didn't notice at the time but the wifi club is back

 

[EvilChameleon]

The sad part about Japanese game development is the fact that unless they are showing the game off to a Western games journalist, we'll never know why the developers made the decisions they did. They will go unquestioned. Only when the controversy grows loud enough do they grace us with their presence; see the Battle Frontier removal from the Hoenn remakes, or the removal of Pokemon from the Galar games.

Now, this chibi artstyle furor certainly won't grow to the levels of the previous two things I mentioned, but still, we'll never know why they picked this artstyle. Never.

 

[Giga Man]

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Both of these and Let's Go are the right way to do remakes of their respective origin games in terms of graphics. Either replicate the original top-down style with character models and world design that exude that classic Pokemon feel (Let's Go) or make it look as faithful to the original game as possible (BD/SP). The former is what I prefer most, but the latter is preferable to trying to insert an old game into what modern Pokemon games currently looks like.

 

[Maple]

I get what they were trying to go for but...

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The models in the original game actually look...normal. And they fit in with the rest of the world. It's a top-down perspective, but the design of the characters makes them feel "normal" within that world.

With the remakes, the characters just look fucking weird and out of place. The proportions and designs just don't make sense in the context of the rest of the world. Not only that, but the lighting, textures, and rendering of the world is so damn flat and dull. The Switch can do a hell of a lot more graphically than what is being demonstrated in these games.

 

[takriel]

The sad part about Japanese game development is the fact that unless they are showing the game off to a Western games journalist, we'll never know why the developers made the decisions they did. They will go unquestioned. Only when the controversy grows loud enough do they grace us with their presence; see the Battle Frontier removal from the Hoenn remakes, or the removal of Pokemon from the Galar games.

Now, this chibi artstyle furor certainly won't grow to the levels of the previous two things I mentioned, but still, we'll never know why they picked this artstyle. Never.

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"It's easy on children's eyes because it looks like those smartphone games"

 

[Chasing]

This might actually be the first time I see a main pokemon title and think, damn, this looks like crap.

 

[Alexhex]

The thing that sends me is like, sprites are inherently more abstract than models so like, don't just, recreate them 1:1 in 3d? I don't think uncanny valley is the right term here but it's something like that

Idk basically "faithful" is not the right word to use for this remake whatsoever because the shift to 3d changes everything. The overworld characters go from cute representations of what those characters look like in 2d to feeling like they actually are those crunched up little freaks in 3d, even if they are on model

 

[Nairume]

Now, this chibi artstyle furor certainly won't grow to the levels of the previous two things I mentioned, but still, we'll never know why they picked this artstyle. Never.

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At the end of the day, the simplest and most likely answer was that they went with it as the easiest visual style that approximated the original games and wouldn't result in them having to dramatically change things to fit a different style (which is what people in this very thread have been chicken littling over since these remakes were first rumored)

 

[Chrono]

I'm going to be honest. I watched the reveal trailer this morning when I was half-asleep and my brain was convinced that this was a 3DS title. It only now dawned on me that this is for the Switch. This is...disappointing. I mean, even as a 3DS title I thought it looked a bit rough, but the Switch can do so much better than this. :/

 

[Forkball]

"It's easy on children's eyes because it looks like those smartphone games"

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We are nearing closer to the ultimate Pokemon game where you just press a button to hear Pikachu say "Pikachu". The button is also shaped like Pikachu.

Here's a comparison between the trainers from the original game and their updated remake looks.

Meanwhile the DP and BDSP trainers look exactly the same.

Now you can argue that the original designs are better for past remakes, but it at least indicated the developers were using the original game as a base while trying new ideas.

 

[MattB]

If you point out the finer details, sure. But it's not hard to see what people mean by it looks like a 3DS game. Make some minor compromises and it easily looks like something that could be something on a 3DS. You can't say remotely the same thing for something like Breath of the Wild or Odyssey. The point that this looks closer to a 3DS game than most Switch games is pretty blatantly obvious.

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I can use that logic on bravely default 2, the new game in the octopath engine, or an 2d game. Take away the finer details and it can run in a 3ds. This was never supposed to look like a botw or odyssey. Look at how legends even looks. Not the greatest compared to the 2 games you just named and you can see the cut backs even in that game trailer. It's better the game looks like this then SwSh and run like complete ass. Like come on this is just crazy.

 

[WrenchNinja]

If I had to guess, they probably didn't want to make a new design for consistency with PokeMas. Dawn and Barry are in the game already. Lucas isn't though.

 

[Nilou]

Hell yeah! Let's go!

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There's still quite a ways until release for the games so I imagine they'll give the remakes a little more polish in the visuals and the final version will look a little different when it's released.

Now to decide, Diamond or Pearl version...

 

[Giga Man]

We are nearing closer to the ultimate Pokemon game where you just press a button to hear Pikachu say "Pikachu". The button is also shaped like Pikachu.

Here's a comparison between the trainers from the original game and their updated remake looks.

Meanwhile the DP and BDSP trainers look exactly the same.

Now you can argue that the original designs are better for past remakes, but it at least indicated the developers were using the original game as a base while trying new ideas.

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I guess you could say BD/SP are "remasters" in the same way Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy was a collection of "remasters." I'm OK with a remaster as long as there's something new and interesting worth playing over the originals. I mean, they'll likely run far better and smoother than the originals and even Platinum, but you get what I mean.

 

[Arex]

Looks good to me, I actually like the chibi artstyle lol. Reminds me of Harvest Moon.

 

[Axumar]

There's a lot of exaggerated arguements thrown around, but that picture comparing a YouTube quality screenshot Of a battle scene with a direct capture from Let's Go is just hilarious. You can barely see shadow or depth with that quality.

That said, let's go is my favorite looking Pokémon game and that one had a strong reaction from folks calling it a 3DS game. Pokémon really can't catch a break.

 

[Rellyrell28]

Just have Houndour/doom that's all I ask and I'll buy it. That's it

 

[Mediking]

There's still quite a ways until release for the games so I imagine they'll give the remakes a little more polish in the visuals and the final version will look a little different when it's released.

Now to decide, Diamond or Pearl version...

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You've instantly become one of my favorite mods just like that lol

 

[YaBish]

At the end of the day I'm just a little disappointed with the art style. Hope they retain most of the content from Platinum, but I'm not sure how realistic that hope is.

I wish that if they were going for a more stylized look that they were able to do Links Awakening Remake or Triangle Strategy style. The heavy bokeh is really pretty.

 

[Uncle at Nintendo]

I can't believe this; LGPE look like Red Dead Redemption 2 compared to BDSP. It's seriously fucking with my mind, I thought the game looked very bad 3 years ago.

 

[Hikari]

Honestly as much as I hate let's go I think the reaction to this remake is crazy bad. But at least it wasn't this right?

 

[Ovvv]

This is so depressing man. One of my all time favorite games.

 

[AnimaRize]

I can't believe this; LGPE look like Red Dead Redemption 2 compared to BDSP. It's seriously fucking with my mind, I thought the game looked very bad 3 years ago.

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welcome to the pokemon hate cycle you already seen the entrances, oh and there are no exits,

 

[MayorTortimer]

Honestly as much as I hate let's go I think the reaction to this remake is crazy bad. But at least it wasn't this right?

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I would've vastly preferred for it to be in the Let's Go style personally....Let's Go was such a great looking game—crossing my fingers still that they'll do a Let's Go Johto

 

[Stat]

Honestly as much as I hate let's go I think the reaction to this remake is crazy bad. But at least it wasn't this right?

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Let's Go was so underrated and Im so sad people hate it. Other than the "catching mechanics", the fact that any of your Pokemon can ride behind you fully animated was incredible.

Rekindled my love for the series.

 

[Hikari]

Let's Go was so underrated and Im so sad people hate it. Other than the "catching mechanics", the fact that any of your Pokemon can ride behind you fully animated was incredible.

Rekindled my love for the series.

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nah I hated it for real.... it was just too casual for me I understand not many people like them but they didn't need to make Pokemon easier than it already was. And yes I didn't buy it cause the catching....