A Return to Sinnoh – Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Legends Arceus

The rumors are true ladies and gentlemen and it is just as I predicted.

Two days ago, the Pokemon Facebook page made an announcement that there will be a presentation on new Pokemon games coming out later this year and the next.

Since they were remastering a lot of the older games, my fingers were crossed for Gen. IV to be next. I binge played the hell out of the Gen. III remaster and enjoyed it very much, even if it made things a lot easier than the original, but in my heart what I really wanted was to go back to Sinnoh. Sinnoh’s environment was always my favorite and even served as an inspiration for the starting point of creation of my Dragon Master OC. Even after I completed everything I wanted to do in my original Pearl game, I still found a way to come back and play everyday.

I was right after all, I didn’t catch the livestream, but one trip to the Facebook page I knew now we ARE getting a Diamond/Pearl remaster!

I was swooning like no tomorrow, suddenly feeling like I was a 14-year old girl again who sat in her room for hours playing the original Pearl game. My cat would always join me when I was, she had to listen to me get all fangirlie when I caught Palkia for the first time while she was trying to sleep!

So, my thoughts: this is the first footage we’ve received, everything looks well-polished. I still remember writing my concerns about how if this were to become real, I would have no choice but to buy a Switch to avoid missing out, but other factors eventually led me to get one prior to this announcement.

The new look gives me a lot of nostalgia remembering the days when the Pokemon games were top-down with your Trainer, NPCs, and Pokemon appearing as little sprites in the world until it was time for a battle. It’s like with these remasters, they’re going back to their roots! The graphics are cute and colorful and I have no issues with the chibi design of characters, in fact I think it looks adorable! Aside from that, the battles appear to be much better, just like in Sun/Moon, and I’m also hoping certain cutscenes appear great as well, like when you finally make it to the Spear Pillar and watch as Cyrus tries to shackle Dialga/Palkia to make a new world for him.

I think the devs wanted to put something out for today’s consoles but remain faithful to the original games so they decided not to change it too much, but I’m hoping we get more footage very soon.

It looks like the Underground is back too, I know one of my friends was looking forward to that, some of the towns and cities look much better in this new design, like Floaroma Town appears a lot more welcoming and colorful, and I am also hoping to see what contests will look like as well. I really enjoyed using Pokemon Amie in the 3DS games so I hope that that will be returning as well to work on the Switch. I’m surprised we didn’t see Dialga and Palkia briefly in the trailer but maybe that’ll be something that comes later.

Of course, I always try VERY hard not to read the comments, especially when I want to leave a simple “YAY MY PALKIA IS BACK!! 💜” or whatever fangirl remark I can come up with, but it seems like human nature that I look anyway because I want to know if anyone I know is also excited.

Unfortunately it seems that the fandom is quite divided over the launch, while some people like me are genuinely excited and say the game is totally nostalgic, while for others the graphics is hate at first sight and I’m just disappointed to see that, like calm down pyjaks, you begged for this, now you have it and you want to be ungrateful and upset because it doesn’t look like Sword/Shield, X/Y, OR/AS, or S/M & UM/US?! (Okay maybe I was hoping it would look like that too, but even if it didn’t, I’m still going to play it because it’s my favorite generation.)

Like this is only the first reveal of footage we’ve got and you’re already bitching that it looks horrible to you. I get it, everyone can have an opinion but seriously is it really necessary? The games aren’t even out yet, so just fucking RELAX, there will be more footage revealed soon and what we have now may not even be final. This is why I don’t set my expectations too high when it comes to remasters or brand new games for franchises I love, especially with graphics and gameplay because if I do that I’m more likely to be disappointed. It’s a video game at the end of the day, not life or death.

Anyway, enough of that. Not only are we getting our beloved remasters, we are also getting an open-world game called Legends Arceus which has a completely different approach and takes place in a time long before Sinnoh even became a hustling and bustling place to live. I’ve never played any of the newer Pokemon games yet on my Switch but it could be worth checking out. (I’ve been considering Sword or Shield, leaning towards the former more) Many people are excited for this because back then, the only way you could catch Arceus was through cheats I think. Now Arceus gets its own game which I think it deserves.

The game does look stunning nonetheless and I’ve never obtained Arceus before so I’ll have to see some more footage of the game to decide if I want to play it.

I think I may also check out the new Pokemon Snap! game out this April, although it’s entirely different from what I’ve played, it looks like it might be a relaxing experience.

To close this off, the D/P remasters are called Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and I will be getting the latter because you know me, I’ve always been a Palkia girl! My favorite legendary forever and always, I can’t wait to catch him all over again and see what Spacial Rend looks like in today’s visual effects of Pokemon battles!

I always thought I was done with playing most Pokemon games because of how some of the latest installments made the games easier, but I guess I just wasn’t opening my mind enough and I’ve always been an optimistic gamer! I think when I chose to get a Switch, it made me have a change of heart.

Happy Pokemon Day everyone! What reveal excites you the most?

👽Emily