I’ll admit that my journey with Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was over too quickly the first time around, as I rushed the story and mainly spent time in the Grand Underground. I didn’t really like the direction of the games in terms of being “pure Gen 4 remakes” with little Pokemon Platinum features, a very limited Pokedex before the National Dex, and the chibi characters. What follows is that I never replayed Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl for years after their debut, and only started another playthrough of Pokemon Shining Pearl very recently.
I didn’t want to play these games so badly that I even skipped the Darkrai and Shaymin events in BDSP (which I very much regret). I don’t know why exactly, but I guess I expected a different remake experience that I didn’t get, and that alone was disappointing to me. After a short while came Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and I ended up spending a lot of time with it, which made me decide it was the better Gen 4 Pokemon game anyway. This gave me a good reason to ditch BDSP, and I didn’t look back. But I should have. Now that I’m replaying Pokemon Shining Pearl, I feel like I was too harsh too soon, and these games do have something I feel got lost in the process with 3D, open-world titles.
It’s Officially the End of an Era for Pokemon
Development of the Pokemon games has permanently changed, and for all its pros and cons, it’s unlikely to be a temporary situation.
Why More Future Pokemon Games Should Be Like BDSP
My first thought when deleting my game data and starting a new game, upon entering the world, was that I didn’t remember Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl‘s graphics to be so vibrant. And after about 20 more hours, I fully stand by that. I think the same happened when I played Pokemon Sword and Shield again after a long hiatus, as what I once believed to be middling games are now some of my favorites in the series precisely because of their charm, colors, and more grounded approach.
New Questions Added!
GameRant Quiz
Easy (15s)Medium (10s)Hard (5s)Permadeath (5s)
I Think Pokemon BDSP’s Gyms Are Peak — Sorry, Not Sorry
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl‘s Gyms are still preserving that element of dungeon-like design with cool puzzles, and after playing Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Pokemon Gen 9 for so long, I didn’t even know I missed it dearly. Not only that, but I feel like I was very much longing for the old 2D era of Pokemon with that top-down view, tall grass encounters, and a stricter Pokedex before beating the game. Before BDSP, I returned to Gen 1 with Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, and the feeling only intensified when I replayed Gen 4.
I’m not done with my second playthrough of Shining Pearl just yet, because I’m trying to take things slowly, to the point that I decided to do a shiny-only run where I can use one more shiny Pokemon I catch at full odds after each Gym. I did the same with Pokemon FireRed on my final playthrough, which I haven’t completed yet, because I found just three shinies, including my starter, in a whopping 180 hours played. Luck was not on my side there, but then again, shiny odds in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are abysmal. Thankfully, this is not the case in BDSP.
Anyway, I feel that Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl‘s Grand Underground is one of these games’ hidden gems. Pun intended. It’s very vast and rich in Pokemon to catch, NPCs to meet for that (long and dreadful) Spiritomb quest, loot to collect by digging, and even the cool Diglett event that lets you find shinies and rare items more frequently. This is something I already thought about when first playing through these games in 2021, but it hits differently when the framing is also different.
Comparing Pokemon BDSP With Gen 9 and Beyond
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
By comparison, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which are still among my absolute favorite games in the series, can feel a little too big for their own sake. There is a lot to do and discover, but overworld encounters can take some charm away. Likewise, Gyms are no longer these dungeon-like mazes filled with riddles and puzzles, but rather, they have more straightforward challenges to complete in order to battle Pokemon Gym Leaders. They are more mini-games than puzzles, and while there’s not something necessarily wrong with that, I do feel like a piece of the series’ identity was torn apart.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl: How to Beat Cynthia at the Pokemon League
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl players hoping to beat Cynthia and become Sinnoh’s newest Pokemon Champion are going to have to work hard to do so.
What’s more, it has been two generations of games in a row without meaningful villains. To be honest, I don’t love the villains in Gen 7 either, and I think the best are those in Gen 3, 4, and 6. That said, Chairman Rose and Team Yell are, respectively, a worried man and a band of misfits who want their favorite trainer to succeed, whereas Team Star’s story is about what happens after being bullied in school as loners. I appreciate all these things, but Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl‘s Team Galactic is on a whole other level, like the original games, and I think it contributes to the charm of BDSP to see the universe-themed backgrounds when battling them.
So, if I had to ask for my perfect Pokemon game to follow up on Pokemon Winds and Waves in late 2027, it would have to have these characteristics:
- Charming 2D or 2D-HD JRPG graphics in the overworld, 3D in battle — just like BDSP
- Vibrant colors rather than as realistic as possible — BDSP and Sword and Shield vs. Scarlet and Violet
- Enclosed spaces for Gyms with actual mazes and puzzles — like BDSP and FRLG
- Around 200–250 Pokemon in the base game, with more unlocked with the National Dex — like BDSP and FRLG
- The ability to shiny-hunt starter Pokemon, even if it means stopping your playthrough until you get one
- Either actual villains or characters like Team Yell and Team Star, without the pretense of a villainous team. Better yet, both
With Pokemon Gen 5 remakes not among the Pokemon games in production at Game Freak, according to leaks, there are two options: either remakes are no longer made, or they are going to be outsourced from here on out. Since BDSP were outsourced to ILCA, I do have hopes that more games like them will be made at some point.
Pokemon BDSP Are Not Perfect Games, And That’s Ok
With this, I want to stress that I don’t think Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are perfect. They do have their flaws, and some things about them still make me frown, such as cutting Pokemon Platinum‘s Distortion World and Battle Frontier. However, replaying these games, I felt that kind of underlying spark in Pokemon games that modern titles still have, but in a very transformed way.
Gen 9’s and Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s story was wonderful, in my opinion, and in both cases, it carried the campaign a lot, even in moments when it felt like a slog. Likewise, being fully immersed in a sprawling world is amazing, and I don’t want that to disappear from future games. At the same time, I really miss that charm of small towns with a few houses and NPCs that made interactions matter more often, and I miss the anticipation of random, wild encounters in tall grass. I have high hopes for Gen 10 even if it’s seemingly very different from all this, but a return to that classic formula now and then would make me very happy — and I’m sure I’m not alone.
