this dude’s reaction is worth a 1000 words, and is the exact same reaction I had. I was devetated from the get go.
Pokemon company absolutely did not care about making a good game. Platinum is a superior game over Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
Changed title you win
i loved bdsp and felt they were direct improvements over the original diamond and pearl. I had no complaints.
alright well in that case, i’ll answer differently
it did not disappoint for me
i also did not play the original (DP/Pt) games and don’t have the desire to play older consoles in general.
I’ve played through BDSP to complete ribbon masters and to set up a shiny Arceus hunt, but the games are a slog to play. The chibi models lack the charm of the old chibi sprites and look ugly. Following Pokemon are downsized battle models that clash with the chibi artstyle unlike in HGSS where they fit right in. Look at Rayquaza to see how ridiculous it looks. I also find the forced affection mechanic to be annoying when it every battle your Pokemon toughs out an OHKO. The games are buggy and feel unfiinshed. Overall, BDSP are very disappointing remakes that neglect to implement the improvements from Platinum and in some ways feel worse than the original DP.
It delivered the bare-minimum experience and nothing more. It felt like the same DP game engine outsourced to a mobile game dev team to update the visuals. Overall I barely remember it to be honest. The original Diamond was probably the game I played the most too.
I don’t think it’s just nostalgia googles. For example, I really enjoyed the Link’s Awakening remake. It’s effectively the same goal of taking a 2d pixel game and updating it with a chibi aesthetic.
I havent played BD or SP but all I know is if Pokemon company puts together a game that looks exactly like the classic ones (2D) with a new story, Im 1000% buying it. And I really dont know who wouldnt. They can call it “Pokemon Classic” or whatever and it would be incredible. Id hoard those for absolutely no reason.
I stopped playing the new games coming out after Sun and Moon (I would replay older games during my break from new games). Only played a few hours of it and did not enjoy it and never finished it. Up until that point I had played all of the new releases when they came out starting with Ruby and Sapphire. I bought a switch around the time this game came out. BDSP was a great way to bring me back into modern games. Yes it was a lower quality remake but was a good bridge in bringing me back to the new main series games.
Yes.
The sprites were the biggest slap in the face I feel. You have all these modern games with modern sprites, with proportioned limbs and faces, and hell, even the in battle models in BDSP have these fully fleshed out sprites that I see as really well done. And then you get stuck with these stupid, squashed models staring you in the face in their 3D not glory. Pixel chibi works because of the medium, these do not belong in the medium they were “remade” in.
It was really disappointing, especially compared to the previous remakes which were top tier
As one who played Pearl probably the most of all my Pokemon games, I actually enjoyed Shining Pearl. I did like the chibi art style they went for, I know that was quite controversial. I do feel though that compared to how excited I was before the game released, I think they missed the mark during the gameplay. It was a good remake it was faithful but, with remakes prior like HGSS and ORAS I expected something a little more.
Yes, and it genuinely makes me so sad. I was so excited for the remakes of the games I played as a kid, and for them to just be outsourced to the B team and then get the bare minimum updates was really disappointing. I still think about it from time to time.
Let it be made clear, BDSP together as TWO games sold marginally better than PLA (ONE game). Factoring in the people who bought both, it’s likely about the same as PLA in terms of actual players, if not less. The question “did it bomb?” requires us to define how we measure success. Sales wise, these games clearly made a lot of money. But they haven’t really aged well.
They released right off the 2020/2021 Pokémon hype, and were the second set of mainline games in Generation 8 following SwSh. Pokemon hype was at a then all-time high, and the internet was basically collectively salivating for Gen 4 remakes and had been for many years at that point. When they were revealed, there were some doubts about the direction of the game and the changes they’d make, but those doubts were pretty much pushed aside as the fervor of Pokemon excitement grew.
Fast forward to release and the games sold well (basically a given for any Pokemon game at this point—the fanbase will eat anything up, so sales can’t really be used as a measurement of success). Public opinion on them shifted almost immediately though, especially when juxtaposed against PLA some 2 months later. Outside of the underground and a couple other small changes, the games were basically 1:1 ports of the originals with a “modern” take on the original art style. The games were not full-blown remakes that offered a brand-new experience by integrating features or aspects of the latest generation’s gameplay/lore like the remakes before them were. Any amount of research online will show you these games disappointed much of the fanbase, with many people now hoping Gen 5 remakes aren’t handled the same way.
My opinion is they are objectively worse versions compared to the originals. They sacrifice a lot of life and soul found within the original style in the 3D translation. Additionally, though the underground was added, the battle frontier was cut—and the team didn’t care enough to remove actual bugs and issues from the original games. The only two positives here are the generation was made available to new audiences, and DP can be played on switch.
From a company perspective, the games were a success. From a consumer perspective, the games were a bomb coated with shiny paint. A low-effort port featuring the same bugs as the original, losing what character it had in exchange for a lifeless 3D imitation of it, while providing less content than the originals, all for 50% more money—in any other franchise this would be dead on arrival, but slap the Pokemon name on it and millions will bend over backwards to preorder.
Yeah it’s crazy when you think about it. This is part of the reason why Crystal is one of the most expensive games nowadays, especially CIB.
My whole BDSP experience can be summed up with “man I wish I was playing platinum instead”
Was it not bold enough?
All remakes have basically been a remake of a prior game adopted to the current generation’s standards(world exploration, fighting mechanics, sound) PLUS a little extra cheddar. BDSP didn’t adopt the SWSH overworld. Was that a mistake?
i think i must be the only person who really enjoyed bdsp. i didn’t make it more than 10 hours into sv or swsh…
I respect most opinions but this is wild to me. I LOVED SwSh and SV
I played through it once and really enjoyed it. After playing it I said I would be fine if they had the same team work on a Gen 5 remake. I would take that back now. After thinking on it for a while after I think I enjoyed because Diamond and Pearl are already good games and that BDSP didn’t do much to elevate the experience of DP like HGSS and FRLG did for their games. They added the underground and removed HMs which were welcome additions but other than that it was basically the same game as DP. I have the DS games. If I had to pick to replay one, I would pick the DS games. I think they have more charm than the remakes despite being slower and having HMs.
Overall, they’re good games because Diamond and Pearl are good games and fall short as remakes compared to the remakes we’ve gotten in the past.
