siiiiiiip*
>It doesn't need a charmanderino
>it doesn't need to look good
YOU ARE HERE
>It doesn't need swarms
>It doesn't need the Trophy Garden
>It doesn't need Amity Square
>It doesn't need the Pokeradar
>It doesn't need the Pal Park
>It doesn't need Pokeseals
>It doesn't need the Gamecorner
>It doesn't need Pofins
>It doesn't need Super Contests
>It doesn't need the Great Marsh
>It doesn't need the Distortion World
>It doesn't need the Battle Frontier
>It doesn't need more than 2 Fire Types for the whole game
>It doesn't matter if Pokemon aren't scaled properly
>It doesn't matter if only Kanto mons get regional forms
>It doesn't matter if the battle backround doesn't match the overworld
>It doesn't matter if the Battle Area is DLC
>It doesn't matter if Mt. Coronet or Victory road are hallways
>It doesn't matter if Barry's animations are reused from Hop or Hau
>It doesn't matter if Rotom is the new Poketch
>It doesn't matter if new gym leader rosters are 3 underleveled Pokemon
>It doesn't matter if the E4 wont have full teams or held items
>It doesn't matter if everything outside the original Sinnoh dex is DLC, aside from a gifted Charmander
>It doesn't matter if several legendaries are gifted to you/captured in cutscenes

>Removed all Platinum content (Trainer teams, Gym layouts, Pokémon variety, E4 Rematch, Battle Frontier, Distortion World, Map/Puzzles, Villa, Improved narrative)
>Removed Secret Base customization
>Removed Game Corner
>Removed 2/3 Contest minigames
>Removed numerous Online Features (GTS, Draw, Egg Spin, Mix Battle, and Platinum’s poffin cook, minigames, WiFi Plaza, and WiFi Club)
>Removed GBA-insert Pokémon encounters
>TMs are finite, but EXP Share is forced, PC is now portable, and HMs are removed
>Level curve is FUCKED as a result of forced EXP share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tUdDSA11xo
>Following Pokémon receive affection buff (increased EXP, dodge chance, crit chance, attack, remove status conditions, and ability to survive moves that would faint you)
>Game is poorly optimized and crashes at random https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=320&v=308IkypGo9A&feature=youtu.be
>Horrendous presentation, trainer models just snap in place
>Music is STILL trash midi, the trailers were doctored
>Copy and pasted animations from XY/SS that aren’t faithful to the DPPt animations
>Non-existent Pokémon scaling
>No Ranked Battles, no new battle modes
>No real new content like FRLG, HGSS, and even ORAS all got
>$60 game (DPPt was $40)
>$50 online (DPPt’s was free)

It’s over. This is the worst mainline Pokémon game ever released.

I honestly don't understand what all the fuss is about with this game. There are specific things that bother me about it like forced easy-mode features like affection bonuses and EXP Share, and I do wish they carried over more stuff from Platinum, but even considering that, this is a great remake and easily one of the best Pokemon games in recent memory. The region looks great and is better than ever to explore thanks to no longer having to load up my team with useless HMs, the remixes are all sick, and the expanded teambuilding options via the Underground are appreciated and a much needed improvement to the meager DP dex. (Although I do wish they did a bit more in that regard - I miss Rotom and Porygon-Z.) I dunno if I can conclusively say this game is BETTER than Platinum, but at the very least, I don't think I'll be going back to that game unless I'm in a really nostalgic mood. For their first game and considering the evidently tight deadline they were up against, ILCA did a great job with this one.

Brilliant Diamond is a faithful remake but it made me realize that Platinum is the way better version.

I really like the artstyle and the QoL additions BUT there are a lot of downsides too. The exp share that is always on ruins the fights a lot, the music doesn't sound great and the Poketch is so weird in the switch version.

Diamond's pacing is not good unfortunately and a lot of pokemon are hidden in the underground, the new underground itself is great though. Team Galatic still is one of my favorite teams.

Overall this is a great game but I just don't get why they didn't remake Platinum.

Diamond and Pearl have always been shit pokemon games. Terrible battle speed that is outpaced by drifting icebergs, HORRENDOUS regional dex with piss-poor pokemon selection, terrible fucking HMs that are used constantly to navigate the overworld, bland locations, jumping the shark outrageously early with legendaries that bend the fucking space-time continuum and a literal "god" pokemon that is just a goat stuck in a fence.

Does the remake fix any of this? Well, a bit. The speed is much nicer for sure, thank christ but everything else I bitched about prior still exists. Ponytas for days on the overworld because the devs literally fucking forgot to make fire pokemon for this gen. Oh boy there's a Houndour/Houndoom in the underground! But some idiot decided to laugh their ass off and still put fucking five hundred Ponyta in there for me to kill before stumbling upon a Houndoom or Camerupt that I couldn't even catch.

In addition, I know this is mostly a "me" problem. But the fact these assholes decided to keep Eevee to post-game after Platinum fixed it makes me want to slap the fucking tazzmission on every single one of those responsible for that decision. Fuck'em.

The overworld movement is ass, you can either stick to the classic grid-based movement that somehow feels clunkier than the old games or use the 3D movement assuming your stick isn't drifting, but now your bus-sized hitbox will get stuck on every obstacle known to mankind making certain narrow passages an annoyance to traverse.

The Poketch makes zero sense to include, because you get it then fumble around to get rid of it cause it takes up the top-right of the screen and then forget about it. Just shows how little thought was put into these games.

The chibi style graphics are fine....at least in the classic view, but for reasons only known to Buddha himself they decided to have the camera give the player whiplash by suddenly zooming into enemy trainers/NPCs and giving you a front-row seat to how low quality the models are. They should've just stuck to the original view, the camera angles are all terrible and their snappy movement makes them even more annoying. The in-game battles look good though thankfully.

Diamond and Pearl are bad, but a remake could've made it a lot more stomachable and BDSP only makes it slightly better while introducing other problems making it feel like a weird two steps forward with one step backwards. Unfortunately the streak of lack of effort continues in the modern age of mainline Pokemon entries.

This is a graphical upgrade to one of the better Pokemon generations, but instead of adding or expanding anything, or even just adding the stuff from Platinum, it was made to be extremely loyal to DPPt, and that is extremely disappointing. The Pokenav is obnoxious unless you are in handheld, the cutscene zooms are hilariously awful, and the shift from chibi to normal size is jarring to say the least.

The updated OST is nice, and the Gym Leaders + Elite 4 had strategies which is a small improvement. The Grand Underground is still fun, but making it the only way to get Platinum-added Pokemon before you beat the main game is straight up obnoxious.

My advice is to stick with Platinum unless you don't have a system that can play it, as even the small upgrades are not worth the full price on one of the most boring remakes Pokemon has had to date.

Am I blinded by nostalgia? Perhaps I could be but I genuinely am having really fun with this game. On release night, here I am looking around my room at 3am in the morning, surrounded by my really close friends. Diamond and Pearl on DS was our first group Pokémon experience and here we are still playing and hanging out all night, hours flying by easily. Don’t think there’s a game that could bring us close together like Pokémon does. In our adult life, sometimes we can have a hard time keeping up with everyone, so I’m very grateful that Pokémon is something we can all do together.

When people talk about this game, one of the first words mentioned always seems to be 'nostalgia'. But playing through this remake, I didn't really get a sense of nostalgia at all. With the way they interpreted the original game's style, it kinda feels like looking at a game I've already played through a microscope and seeing all the dirt on it. On the bright side, Sinnoh is still Sinnoh, the most atmosphere-rich Pokemon has ever been, with authentic references to folklore and religion, and the villains are still pretty cute new world order obsessed 2000s cult analysis parodies, and some of those bigger routes are still a joy to explore! The game's quality is preserved, at the very least, although there are some places that feel like direct downgrades, like the visuals, the contests, interacting with the poketch, and especially the music, but there are some upgraded spots too. Being able to experience the game's online in 2021 without hassle is also pretty nice. And I think the Grand Underground is pretty cool, it's like if you split up the Wild Area into being shaped like a Zelda dungeon. They also gave a lot of important trainers really good AI and movesets, fighting competitive strategies in the middle of my campaign made me feel like I was playing a ROM hack. But the real kicker is this game's dedication to be faithful to Diamond and Pearl specifically. Even field encounter sheets and trainer teams are copied straight over, only with movesets edited. I didn't realize how much better Platinum was until I played this game, and I don't even really understand why the developers were so dedicated to avoid that game. Going into it, I assumed it was a budget cut decision, but the way it was ignored, even for simple lines of script like route encounters, confused me so much I didn't even realize the Pokemon I wanted to use weren't in the main-story campaign until I read through Serebii. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes dedicated to not being the best version of Sinnoh. What's the point of a remake if the game is too scared to even be the best version of the game it's remaking?

I ended up settling on the number 3.5 as my rating because it's what felt fair to rating the game as a video game, and not a remake. Sinnoh is a really good place, with a lot of really good content. This is reasonably still the biggest Pokemon region ever, even with the engine cleaned up so exploring it doesn't feel so slow. The only thing I'm left to say about it is that this game is only really worth playing if you want to feel involved in the Pokemon community's current online networks, or if you physically cannot play Pokemon Platinum. If you missed some aspects of modern Pokemon, I'd recommend playing Renegade Platinum, the definitive quality-of-life cleanup ROM hack. I know comparing fan works and real games sounds sketchy, but a fanmade remake largely made out of minor script changes shouldn't be so uncontestable from a huge company's retail price product. I can't say I didn't enjoy my time with the game, at the very least. And I'll probably play a bunch more, just because I like Sinnoh's post-game that much. I've even seen this game turn some heads that previously weren't as receptive to the Gen 4 games, due to its faster gameplay. Though, on the other hand, these games were made in Unity, which means that they remade the Pokemon engine in Unity as fast as possible to get this game finished. They're the glitchiest Pokemon games since the first Pokemon games. But with Sinnoh's retained quality, they're also the best Pokemon games since the good Pokemon games. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the most confusing remakes I've ever played.

EDIT 2 MONTHS LATER: i think i was way too nice to this game, it's just so redundant in comparison to other games it has no reason to exist. Sorry Brilliant Diamond I will never play you to completion again

The game is more Pokémon so it’s literally fine.

The art style is really fun, the game itself is really cute and it’s extremely faithful to the original with some QOL improvements. However, it’s faithfulness truly hold it back from being a really good remake.

But seriously. It’s fine. If you want more Pokémon, it’s more Pokémon. It’s no masterpiece but it’s fun.

It sure was a faithful diamond and pearl remake.

I like it, very much better than og DP from what i can tell, but it still retains some pretty weird ass pacing in the pokemon you fight, general difficulty, and i think how some things are done (mainly with pastoria city), and a lot of weird specific things like TMs being limited usable items (then again they do come with multiples so that's fine), and HMs (though it's handled pretty well so no complaints aside from flash and defog, flash isn't one but i hate it anyways.)

I think it's just really neat issues aside, and i think if you want to see what Diamond and Pearl are like, play these. Though it did make me really want Platinum to get the remake treatment cuz i think it does a lot better than DP, but whatever, i like this.

My team was:
-Infernape (Ignis)
-Mew (Sirien)
-Lucario (Oren)
-Roserade (Haven)
-Floatzel (Jet)
-Honchkrow (Gio)

P.S.: I think this playthrough really made me appreciate Floatzel and Mew a whole lot more.