Announced on 26 February 2021 for Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl promised faithful remakes of Diamond and Pearl. Released on 19 November 2021 on Nintendo Switch, they keep that promise to the letter, for better and for worse. Entrusted to the studio ILCA rather than GAME FREAK, they reproduce Sinnoh almost square for square, add a few welcome new features and leave out a good part of what Platinum brought. A look back at remakes that divided fans at launch and that remain, today, the easiest way to discover Sinnoh on a recent console.
Fidelity, openly claimed
The first surprise is visual. On the map, characters adopt a “chibi” style, all roundness, which transposes the Nintendo DS sprites into three dimensions. Towns, routes and even the placement of Trainers faithfully follow those of 2006. The choice was a shock when it was announced; controller in hand, it works better than feared, with real affection for the source material. In battle, Pokémon and Trainers regain normal proportions, in carefully redesigned arenas.
This fidelity has its downside. The adventure follows that of Diamond and Pearl step by step, with the same structure, the same dialogue and the same limits. The Sinnoh Pokédex remains the one from 2006, with its 151 species and a few very prominent families, and Fire-type Pokémon remain rare during the adventure. The elements added by Platinum, the Distortion World and the Battle Frontier first among them, are not carried over. Players who hoped for a remake in the manner of HeartGold and SoulSilver, enriched and reinterpreted, were left disappointed.
Sinnoh, as endearing as ever
What stands out, on the other hand, is how well the region has aged. Sinnoh remains one of the most memorable in the series: an island split in two by Mt. Coronet, towns with strong personalities, from modern Jubilife City to mystical Hearthome City, snowy routes in the north and the sea to the south. The Team Galactic storyline, in which they want to recreate the universe using Dialga and Palkia, keeps its ambition and its mythology: the three lakes and their guardians, Spear Pillar, the ruins and the legends you uncover in libraries along the way.
The starter trio, Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup, remains one of the most popular, and it is a pleasure to meet strong characters again such as Cynthia, Barry or Professor Rowan. The reorchestrated soundtrack faithfully reprises the 2006 themes. For anyone who grew up with the Nintendo DS, the nostalgia is immediate; for newcomers, it is a classic adventure, readable and well built.
The real new features
The Grand Underground is the best idea in the remakes. The 2006 Underground, with its digging and Secret Bases, is still there, but Hideaways are added: large caverns where visible wild Pokémon roam, many of them absent from the surface. They partly make up for the gaps in the Sinnoh Pokédex and make exploration livelier. The Pokémon statues, to be displayed in your base, even influence which species appear there.
Ramanas Park, for its part, replaces Pal Park, which was used to transfer Pokémon from the Game Boy Advance. It becomes a museum of the legendary Pokémon of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn, which you unlock with Mysterious Shards dug up underground. Finally, the Super Contest Show turns Contests into a rhythm game: less deep than the original, but more accessible.
Modern comforts are here too: the Poketch’s Hidden Move app frees Pokémon from their field moves, Amity Square welcomes up to six companion Pokémon, and the Poketch, moved to the top of the screen, can be hidden.
Ball Capsules return as well: you stick Seals on them to give each Pokémon a personalized entrance in battle. The Union Room, accessible from Pokémon Centers, lets you meet other players to trade and battle, and up to eight players can share the Grand Underground. These social features, very present in the original, have been well translated, even if some only arrived with updates.
Uneven difficulty
The Exp. Share, always active, speeds up progression considerably: the whole team earns experience from every battle, and the first half of the adventure goes by without resistance. The end of the adventure is a different league: the Elite Four and Cynthia have been strengthened, with teams designed as if for competitive play; her team is among the most feared in the series, and many players ran into her Garchomp. The gap between a very easy adventure and a very demanding League was one of the topics of debate at launch.
A modest postgame
The postgame is that of Diamond and Pearl: the Battle Zone, the National Pokédex and the legendary Pokémon. Ramanas Park clearly enriches the hunt for legendary Pokémon, but there is no Battle Frontier, only the Battle Tower. The Mythical Pokémon Mew and Jirachi reward players who have save data from Let’s Go or Sword and Shield, and Arceus rewards those with Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
An unfinished release
At launch, the remakes suffered from numerous bugs, some allowing items to be duplicated or walls to be walked through; several updates have fixed them. Expected features also arrived late: online trading and the link with the Arceus of Pokémon Legends: Arceus came with update 1.3.0 in March 2022, and the online Battle Colosseum with 1.2.0. Playing today with the latest update erases most of these flaws.
Reception
The press gave the remakes a mixed reception: an average of 73 out of 100 on Metacritic, 15 out of 20 from Jeuxvideo.com, 8 out of 10 from IGN and 34 out of 40 from Famitsu. The public, for its part, turned out in force: more than six million copies sold in the first week, and nearly 14 million by the end of 2021 according to Nintendo.
Should you play them today?
If you have never played Diamond, Pearl or Platinum and no longer own a Nintendo DS, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the easiest way to discover Sinnoh, its story and its legendary Pokémon. They are playable on Nintendo Switch as well as Nintendo Switch 2, and compatible with Pokémon HOME. If you already know Platinum, however, you will mostly find here a more comfortable but less rich version of the same adventure; Pokémon Legends: Arceus, released two months later, offers a far fresher vision of the region.
Our verdict
Careful, comfortable remakes that let you rediscover Sinnoh on Switch, but that dare almost nothing. A good entry point for newcomers, a disappointment for anyone expecting the equivalent of HeartGold and SoulSilver.
What we like
- A careful, faithful reproduction of Sinnoh
- The Grand Underground and its Hideaways
- Ramanas Park and its legendary Pokémon
- Modern comforts (Hidden Move app, Poketch, companion Pokémon)
What we like less
- Too close to the original, without Platinum's additions
- No Battle Frontier, limited postgame
- Unbalanced difficulty between the adventure and the League
- Numerous bugs at launch
