Hunter -finally- completed a Sinnoh game... (Gen 4 Review)

[Chase]

Hey guys.....it's been a minute, huh?

 

For most of you, you probably won't remember me - but for the few that do, one of the more infamous things about me was that I was a pretty big downer on Generation 4 - without fairly completing a Sinnoh region game before holding my bias.

 

Well, thanks to I Love Computer Art (ILCA) and Game Freak's finally putting to rest this community's best meme (UNOVA REMAKES WHEN) - Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl released for Nintendo Switch. I own a Nintendo Switch. You guys see where this is going. Time to see if the hype in 2014 was legitimate or if I was right all along.

 

• THE REBORN IS STRONG IN THIS ONE

 

It's pretty plain to see that Diamond and Pearl seemingly have the most evident roots in Pokemon Reborn's development. One of the most plainly used features for me in Reborn was the Explorer's Kit, which originated with this game's first iteration of the Grand Underground. However, what's even more notable is that BDSP has the same tendency to induce backtracking and the satisfying nooks and crannies of exploration that the Reborn region masks better with its varied terrains and locales. The immediate years after Diamond and Pearl must of been very exciting for this community as the game began to ramp up in development. The roots for the game - even today - seem very Sinnoh leaning when compared to other games. Feeling like Reborn is certainly not a bad thing for me, as I find Reborn to be pretty engaging.

 

• THE RIVAL IS BARRY OKAY

 

...sorry....

 

The only thing I knew about your childhood friend Barry was that he was eccentric prior to playing BD this year. *THUD*, "you'll owe me a bajillion pokedollars if you're late", the usual fluff.

 

It does carry meaning - because Barry is a rival that uses his boundless energy to surge ahead of the player consistently throughout the journey, in the same way that Blue or Silver would often have to come back to the player in order to engage with them. When you combine Barry's enthusiasm and his always one-step-aheadism, you have yourself a rival that you might be inclined to wait for the shoe to drop. And it does at Lake Acuity when he fails to defeat Jupiter and prevent the Lake Spirit there from being taken. At least Barry managed to get up that damn snow slope quickly enough to make the attempt! From there, Barry becomes your standard endgame rival, recognizing the trainer that you are, and the steps he needs to slow down in order become like you. He's not my favorite rival, but he could be a whole lot worse.

 

• YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD BIBAREL

 

The PokEtch's most used feature for -every- BDSP player is going to be the PokeRide feature that has been a constant since Alola and was retroactively fitted into this game by summoning (cutely enough) the traditional "HM slave" Pokemon lines of Bidoof and Starly. The effect that this has on the game is generally positive, because it allows your team of six to focus primarily on battling. Sinnoh is notorious for having a heavily HM-dependent Victory Road, and also is the region where you need to use a move slot on Defog to get through a couple areas. Sinnoh also has Pokemon that take quite a bit of developing in order to start finally feeling like powerhouses. For much of the game, you need to use those moveslots to hold whatever STAB moves you possibly can, because some of them are not bound to be all that great as it is. This is a rousing positive for a newer feature in the game.

 

• FAITHFUL IN SPITE OF ITSELF

 

The main draw ILCA was going for was trying to reintroduce what made Sinnoh great in 2014 over re-imagining it, which caused quite a stir when the game was announced on that fateful Pokemon Presents with the classic top down style, samey-buildings, and admittedly-adorable chibi-like characters in the overworld that are very reminiscent of older Pokemon experiences. Thankfully, the graphics aren't the worst part of the games' sticking to their previous identities closer than other remakes have...

 

The story elements are, and that's especially frustrating because there's a little game called Platinum out there that cleanly addresses these issues and Game Freak and ILCA had pre-existing material they could have reached for rather easily. Instead there are two concerns that the game leaves bare. Pacing and a very bland antagonist.

 

Starting with Team Galactic, you have a bunch of mindless idiots committing crimes without having a clue what their leader wants to do. This isn't unique to Galactic, as Flare would essentially do the same thing later on, but again, this was fixed in Platinum with more expository scenes. The issue is further exposed when Cyrus doesn't particularly share moments with his team (which he does in Plat) nor does he get scenes to build up his motivations (which he also does in Plat). Diamond and Pearl Galactic sucked in 2007, and if it weren't for Platinum, they would suck now.

 

Dealing with Galactic in the original games kinda either happened all at once, or didn't happen at all - and that's kinda frustrating because Galactic feels like they are literally everywhere in Sinnoh. You don't really feel like Galactic is doing anything of real consequence until they blow up a lake, and then from that point on you are blistering through the entirety of the Galactic drama in one fell swoop with Volkner, Victory Road, and the Elite Four feeling like a compulsory exercise in beating the game shortly after.

 

Cynthia also feels a bit underutilized in this regard too (which, again, is fixed in Plat) - and while I do think all these pacing gaps help the presence of other characters, namely Barry and Dawn/Lucas, it doesn't really make the experience feel incredibly cohesive from a storytelling standpoint.

 

• THE POST GAME FEELS EXPANSIVE ENOUGH

 

Keep in mind, this is my FIRST Sinnoh experience. Things like Ramanas Park, the Battle Zone, Pokemon Swarms, etc. feel like decent enough areas of post-completion time killing for me. After multiple generations of some battle tower thing being the feature to be, I'm happy with this one - although again. Platinum probably did it better - and it exists.

 

• ARE BDSP THE DEFINITIVE SINNOH EXPERIENCE

 

No, that would be Platinum. However....

 

• ITS IN WITH THE KIDS

 

... Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are excellent "modern" Pokemon remakes with just enough features that newer Pokemon fans have come to appreciate that they make for solid entry points into the Sinnoh experience, particularly because ILCA left so much of it unchanged from the 2007 originals. It has the right combination of new features such as finding roaming Pokemon in the Grand Underground, taking your PC with you on the go, and of course, your friendly neighborhood Bibarel that doesn't take up a spot on your team, and old feelings to remain true to what players in 2007 went through. "sinnoh fetuses" have themselves a game they can share with their children here.

 

As for where it ranks on my now "complete" Pokemon experience? Sinnoh is very middle of the pack. The exploration that I didn't expect from constant backtracking was there, and if you put enough effort into raising your Pokemon, you can end up with some very cool teams here. It just doesn't have anything that made me overly excited about it like some other games did though.

 

 

[Lil' Sunny]

Platinum had a battle frontier with 5 facilities including the tower so yes, it did postgame better.

[Dark Legend]

21 hours ago, Chase said:

 

Well, thanks to I Love Computer Art (ILCA) and Game Freak's finally putting to rest this community's best meme (UNOVA REMAKES WHEN) - Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl released for Nintendo Switch. I own a Nintendo Switch. You guys see where this is going. Time to see if the hype in 2014 was legitimate or if I was right all along.

 

• THE REBORN IS STRONG IN THIS ONE

 

there will never be unova remakes because they already made bw2