Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl are role-playing games developed by ILCA and published by mh:awesomegames:Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the mh:awesomegames:Nintendo Switch. They are remakes of the 2006 mh:awesomegames:Nintendo DS games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. They are a part of the eighth generation of the Pokémon series and the first main installments not to be developed by Game Freak.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Unimpressive graphics, as they look extremely cheap when compared to previous remakes such as the Let's Go games and ORAS, since they try to replicate the original DP games in a 3D art style but completely fail due to ILCA doing a poor job at translating the pseudo-3D graphics of the original into 3D since they look a lot worse than they did previously with cheap character models that look inferior to the 2D character sprites from the DS games.
 * 2) * The Chibi Characters are pretty uncanny, depending on your view.
 * 3) Absolutely little to no changes or additional content from the original DS games whatsoever, as nearly all of the flaws that the originals had are still present, and most of the new content is mostly from both the Let's Go games and Sword & Shield, or either Platinum, which makes the game feel barren at best when compared to the other Pokémon remakes.
 * 4) It doesn't feature any of the post-Gen 4 Pokémon at all, unlike previous remakes, as all of the 493 Pokémon from the original Sinnoh games are the ones that are present in the game since it's meant to be more "faithful" to the originals.
 * 5) * Also like in Sword and Shield, only the aformentioned Pokémon (excluding regional variant) can be migrated from Pokémon HOME.
 * 6) The new difficulty curve implemented into these games is extremely inconsistent at best, as the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members now use more competitive Pokémon teams instead of the regular RPG like teams they originally had, with the abilities are heavily used by the Pokémon themselves and have choice items on them (especially when the Elite Four and Cynthia use "Full Restores", which is also the problem).
 * 7) *However, the game still has the EXP Share as an automatic feature and it can barely be turned off at all, and it makes most parts of the game extremely easy with very little challenge and overall skill to progress through the game.
 * 8) The animations are absolutely lazy at best, as the characters and the Pokémon still move in very static ways when in a battle or are competing in a Super Contest, and some Pokémon's models don't have proper attacking animations (unlike the Stadium games or Battle Revolution) and are mostly recycled from previous games just like Sword & Shield.
 * 9) While it is nice to finally have customization in these games, it is rather limited when compared to the other main series NS Pokémon games.
 * 10) The remastered music is just downright inferior to the original music from the DS games even the cleaner and polished sound than the originals on the DS, especially Cyrus' theme which sounds less threatening than the original theme and makes his entrance feel less intimidating and cool.
 * 11) The Underground Wild Areas, while good, are pretty linear when compared to the Wild Area in Sword & Shield since there aren't a lot of Pokémon around or in them, and feel a bit barren with empty areas and no routes at all, plus most of the Pokémon can easily be encountered were as unlike in Sword & Shield.
 * 12) The frame rate is extremely inconsistent at best and also extremely buggy too, as the characters frames move very choppily and the game tends to drop from 60FPS to 30FPS which can be very distracting for people who are playing the game, and some of the models tend to freeze still because of the frame rate dips, which can cause the game to get glitchy at times too.
 * 13) The Walking Pokémon feature isn't very well-implemented into these games, as the Pokémon tend to fall behind you whenever you run, and also walk rather slowly in comparison to the player, mainly Pokémon such as Onix who have rather poor speed can easily fall behind you and can become easily lost when you run far away from it, which means that if you own or catch an Onix in these games, then it might take longer for it to follow you to where you are, which can get tedious if you use this mechanic on this kind of Pokémon. In HeartGold and SoulSilver and Let's Go, being a game with sprites (or the former) and 3D models (for the latter), the Walking Pokémon are able to catch up with the player.
 * 14) Just like the original Diamond & Pearl, TMs are still extremely limited and can only be used once before their gone which is very tedious as they need to be used for certain parts such as the routes that have a ton of fog that decreases the accuracy of your and the enemies' Pokémon, and put along with the limited use of the move can cause these parts of the game to get even more annoying than they are.
 * 15) The cutscenes look rather awkward with the Chibi models as the models aren't very expressive and look extremely static at best, and the camera tends to be zoomed in way too much on the models and gets very shaky at times too, especially with the cutscenes where you encounter a random NPC, Team Galactic or one of the Sinnoh Gym Leaders, which can make the cutscenes look rather unprofessional at times.
 * 16) The game is a primary example of using nostalgia as the main basis gone wrong, as it shoves in a lot of Sinnoh fan service down people's throats, mainly those who weren't big fans of the DP games, and they barely do anything innovative to make them stand out.
 * 17) Mindy the "Infamous Joke NPC" in Snowpoint City returns in this game since the Generation 4 games (excluding HeartGold and SoulSilver) as she can trade Medicham for a Haunter while holding an Everstone, which lead to further criticism.
 * 18) The Poketch was heavily downgraded from the DS games, as it's now utilized with a menu UI since it isn't on a handheld console anymore and since the Poketch was mostly required on the bottom screen of the DS which actually fitted for the capabilities for the DS since it was a handheld console and was made as a gimmick to utilize the hardware in a creative way.
 * 19) The game is filled with several bugs & glitches that are just as bad as the Red and Blue games, with the game tending to softlock you at certain places in the overworld with the Walking Pokémon and sound glitches even happening at times during some points in the game, and you can even walk through the boundaries at times and glitch into walls too. After a wild Pokémon battle, the player would do a kick, as if a running animation is trying to finish. The Ace Trainer from Pastoria City can get stuck in his Clefairy when the player enters the city.
 * 20) The Global Wonder Station (where the GTS used to be), was initialy inaccessible until an update that released on March 15, 2022 as an NPC blocked the players way to it. In other words, The game was rushed.
 * 21) Unlike Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire which had connectivity with Pokémon Bank at launch. Connectivity with Pokémon HOME was not available until 6 months after the game's initial release.
 * 22) *In fact the reason why it took this long is because the developers implemented a new change in which any pokémon that enters a game that's not their game of origins will have their movesets altered.
 * 23) False Advertising:
 * 24) *Porygon-Z was shown using Hyper Beam in the initial trailer, implying that it will appear as part of the Sinnoh Dex, but due to being a faithful remake, it does not appear until the post-game.
 * 25) *In the second trailer, Pokemon can be seen doing their animations in the Pokemon Super Contests, but in the game, they stand still and do nothing.
 * 26) *Also, the trailer includes Poke Capsules that can rotate at any time, but in the game, it cannot rotate, but rather flip the capsules.
 * 27) Padding: Players can only get Mysterious Shards from the Grand Underground, by just digging in spots, which could become repetitive because this is the only way to get them. Yes, there are no other ways to obtain them such as trading spheres for this.
 * 28) No Platinum content was added in the game, such as the Distortion World and Battle Frontier, as both are not included due to being a faithful remake. The Pokétch does not have a previous button, meaning that the player has go around the list of apps to go to the app missed. The Platinum clothes for Lucas and Dawn are only available as an early purchase bonus from the Mystery Gift. The belts from Platinum did appear in the Oreburgh Mine.
 * 29) Most of the game's code is lazily imported from the original Diamond & Pearl games from the Nintendo DS without fixing any of the major problems those games had, and also adding to the fact that these games are on a different engine than the original DS games and are now on a home console, this makes these remakes come off more as remastered HD ports rather than actual game remakes, and the games still function like early DS titles from the mid 2000's, it essentially gives out proof that Nintendo didn't care about the game's quality and just had ILCA port the two Sinnoh titles onto the Nintendo Switch only for profit.
 * 30) * It should also be known that Game Freak gave ILCA very little oversight on these games since they were too busy with Legends: Arceus, so they just lazily decided to minimally port two DS titles from the mid-to-late 2000's with little effort, and considering that these games were only in development for 8 to 9 months, it's likely that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl only served as filler titles for the Holiday Season release slot since Legends: Arceus got possibly delayed to January 2022 just so that Game Freak can give the game more polish and time in development, and it clearly shows.
 * 31) Super Contests have been reduced to generic rhythm minigame that has zero replay value, which is a downgrade from what Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire did with them, since in those titles, they were still fun and fresh and were successfully modernised for newer players, where here, it's mostly just a short minigame in the same vein as Parappa the Rapper, Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution but nowhere near as enjoyable since it's extremely easy and can be completed in only a minute, which ruins the purpose of Super Contests in the original games and makes them unnecessary filler because of it.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The slow pacing from the original games is actually toned down in these games, as the pacing is a lot faster and battles last a lot shorter than they did in the original games, which can be seen as a massive improvement over the originals.
 * 2) The Fairy type was added in these games and some Fairy moves that weren't in the original Diamond & Pearl due to the Fairy type being introduced in Gen 6 and DP being a part of Gen 4, which has made Pokémon such as Togekiss and Gardevoir a lot better in these games than they were in the original Diamond & Pearl, which can be seen a major improvement for these remakes over the originals.
 * 3) This game also introduces Ramanas Park, in which the player can capture Legendary Pokemons (minus Deoxys) by using slates based on cartridges.
 * 4) Some of the new content is great, such as the Underground Wild Areas which, while barren, are very good and solid improvements over the Wild Area in Sword & Shield.
 * 5) The Chibi models, while rather cheap, are pretty cute and can be found adorable by many people who love cute things. Some people such as Gireum Red have argued that it makes the game world feel more exaggerated in comparison to the realistic graphics such as the Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield 's.
 * 6) The DS item allows you to play the DS music from the original games, which is a nice nod to HeartGold & SoulSilver and great fan service for Sinnoh fans, even though it is only available in post game.
 * 7) Some fans of the original DS games might actually love these games mainly due to sticking very close to the originals.
 * 8) Some things that were good in the original DS games are still good in these remakes, such as the story and likable number of characters.
 * 9) They are pretty easy to mod and make rom hacks with, due to them being made on the Unity engine, which is known to make games very easily and hack into for its games, which can let people who don't like these games actually mod them and make them to more their liking, which is a plus that these remakes will get.
 * 10) The Level 100 uncatchable Shadow Giratina battle was a new and interesting take for a superboss of the game. It even uses a remaster of the Giratina battle theme from Platinum, which is one of the few nice nods to the games despite most major Platinum content being removed from these remakes.
 * 11) Players can catch Arceus using the Legends: Arceus save data (Azure Flute for free), by having all 27 missions completed during the Version 1.3.0.

Reception
The games received mixed to positive reviews from several critics but received critical backlash from several Pokémon fans for not changing much from the original games and also for nearly repeating all of their flaws that they had and even making them worse, and also for the Chibi art style for these remakes when compared to the art styles for both the Let's Go games and ORAS, which resulted in fans considering them to be lesser experiences than the originals and easy to skip.

The user score on Metacritic for these games were a 5.2 and 5.5 respectively, with most of the reviews from users being rather negative and criticizing the games for being way too similar to the originals and not improving on their flaws in the slightest, and the cheap looking Chibi art style when compared to other games. Until the game was reverse review bombed by toxic Gen4evers blinded by nostalgia and ignorant to the game's flaws.

Videos
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