With a brand-new art style and a few quality-of-life adjustments, developer ILCA brings Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl to the Nintendo Switch and manages to stay true to its 2006 DS roots. With the constant changes and additions that the Pokémon series has gone through, Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are a nice trip back to the simpler days of Pokémon past. Every Pokémon from the original series is included and beautifully rendered in a 3D art style reminiscent of classic Japanese chibi animes.
Starting in the small town of Twinleaf with just a single starter Pokémon, Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl has players adventure through Sinnoh region in hopes of becoming the best Pokémon trainer of all time. In a rather linear format, players will move from town to town and take on rival Gym Leaders in an attempt to collect all eight Gym badges and become the regions' champion. Throughout the adventure, players will uncover a dastardly plot by Team Galactic to harness the energy of evolution and the legendary Pokémon Dialga (Diamond) or Palkia (Pearl.)
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl does not do too much to stray from the original games. There are no added Mega-Evolutions or Pokémon Dynamaxing like what was included in the 2014 Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire remakes. This is a positive for Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, as battling wild Pokémon feels more streamlined with less flash and wasted time. ILCA clearly set out to make a modernized but faithful remake of these two games, and fully succeeded.
Some of the newest additions to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are the simple quality-of-life mechanics that have been added in. Hidden Moves, like Cut or Rock Smash, no longer have to be taught to specific Pokémon to activate them. During battles, the effectiveness stats will be shown underneath each move if players have already fought a specific type of Pokémon. This removes the headache of having to memorize every Pokémon's weaknesses and strengths. There is also an auto-save feature and EXP-sharing between Pokémon is automatic, which removes a lot of the original game's grind. Overall, the choice of addons to Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl only makes the game more enjoyable, and do not feel like they were included unnecessarily.
The best change to the Diamond & Pearl remakes is the newly revamped Grand Underground. Available in the original Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, the Grand Underground has been expanded on with new treasures to discover and new Pokémon biomes to explore. Statues can be unearthed in the digging minigame and placed into the player's secret base, which will increase the spawn rate of specific types of Pokémon. The underground map itself has also been expanded, almost to the size of the entire overworld map, and new Pokémon Hideaways have been added.
These Hideaways act as small biomes which house specific types of higher-level Pokémon in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. No longer will players have to run around in the tall grass hoping to get a specific Rock or Water-type Pokémon, as now they can simply head into the specific biome underground where there will be a plethora of creatures to choose from. The only downside to these sections is that it's almost too easy to over-level Pokémon in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, which could remove the challenge of the Gym Leaders players face throughout the story.
For anyone new or returning to the Pokémon series, Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl is a perfect starting point that bridges the gap between classic and modern Pokémon games. The quality-of-life additions make the game more accessible without making it feel bloated, the art style is simplistic and cute, and the gameplay mechanics will keep players moving through the adventure with ease. For veterans of the series, these versions are an easy recommendation and an excellent recreation of a fan favorite. With only a few exclusive Pokémon between Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, either one is an excellent choice for any player.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are available on the Nintendo Switch. A digital copy of Brilliant Diamond was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.
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