This review contains spoilers
The original Diamond/Pearl (DP) were fun games but had some noticeable problems for me. These need to be covered here as ideally a remake would address those issues.
- Slow battles. Slow even in comparison to today's system. The originals were notorious for this. One of the more obvious reasons as to why is that health bars going down from damage or up from healing would take a noticeably long amount of time.
- Limited regional pokedex. This has a few different effects that need to be addressed separately.
Certain Pokémon types are underrepresented, having only two species of each type found in Sinnoh in the worst cases.
You constantly battle trainers using the same Pokémon over and over as a result and some Gym leaders and Elite 4 members teams end up using only two of their dedicated type since there aren’t enough of the type to cover their teams.
You, the player, have limited options if you want to fill your team. The most notable example being that if you wanted a fire type, one of the species is a starter meaning if you didn’t pick Chimchar your only option was Ponyta/Rapidash (without trading).
Over ten new Pokémon from DP, mostly evolutions, weren’t even part of the regional pokedex and were unavailable until the post game which is especially notable as it would have at least partly addressed the Pokémon type diversity issue. In the case of Tangela/Tangrowth they weren’t even available in DP’s post game as they were somehow forgotten in those original games.
- The originals had 8 HM’s and some area’s would need 3 or more. As a result many people had Pokémon dedicated to this. Bidoof/Bibarel being the king as he could learn 6/8 of them. This was not an issue unique to DP but the Sinnoh region is one of the worst offenders.
- Bad pacing from after the second gym to the fifth gym. After the second gym the first city with a new gym you arrive in is Hearthhome City however the gym leader won't battle you yet and requires you to do the fighting and water gyms first. This causes it to take a larger than normal amount of time between the second and third gym and once you do get to the third gym it ends up feeling like you are rushed through gyms 3-5.
Are the Flaws Addressed? Unfortunately the answer isn’t simply yes. The remakes fix some but don't address all of those issues which is a poor choice as most had been addressed before in Platinum (which I’ll get into in the next section).
- Regarding the slowness, fortunately all games after DP fixed the slow battles going forward. That’s not to say the battles aren’t slow now but relative to DP they are not an issue.
- Frustratingly BDSP only partially addressed the issues with the limited regional dex.
One of BDSP’s new features, Pokémon Hideaways in the Grand Underground, does add many Pokémon not in DP’s regional dex before the post game. This does give you a little more variety for the underrepresented types although not too much more. Unfortunately this does not help the NPC’s team issues as their teams are identical to DP.
Many of those Hideaway Pokémon are ones that received new evolutions in the original DP making them available before post game however a few are still missing until then.
- The bad pacing issue I brought up remains identical to the original DP.
- As for HM's. thankfully BDSP took after the newer games which did away with the traditional HM system of needing Pokémon in your party to know the HM to use it. Instead “Hidden Moves” which are a Poketch function are used which call wild Pokémon to use the same function as old HM’s. A great change.
We do need to address the Elephant in the Room, Pokémon Platinum. As I expected after Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (ORAS) these remakes are remakes of the original DP and did not incorporate content from their third version Platinum.
Platinum added a ton of new content and, as I referenced before, had already addressed most of the major criticisms I had of DP like slow battles. The only major issue I had that they did not address was the HM issue.
The Pokémon not in DP’s original regional pokedex that BDSP had added to its Hideaways had all been part of Platinum's updated regional dex. Unlike BDSP, Platinum added some Pokémon BDSP didn’t include there and its new additions were integrated into the wild instead of tucked away in a new game area. Also NPC trainers actually had these Pokémon on the trainers teams so Volkner and Flint no longer had non electric/fire types awkwardly part of their lineups.
Platinum also wisely changed the gym order so that the Hearthhome City gym was third now, cutting that awkwardly long period before marathoning three gyms.
Platinum added a bunch of new content. For example making story changes. There was also the Battle Frontier, an area with 4 new battle facilities for the post game (also the battle tower but that was in regular DP and here in BDSP). I can ignore the lack of Platinum's story changes but I loved this area in Platinum so not making a return again after ORAS teased yet left out its own frontier hurt.
There were a few other issues that bugged me.
To start, the most glaring change that ends up hurting the remakes is the modern implementation of experience share and the inability to turn it off. Exp Share is not inherently a bad idea but Pokémon's current version is flawed in that you will quickly out level trainers and even gym leaders making what were already fairly easy games even easier. If you like that, great, but up until Sword/Shield (SwSh) this was toggleable on/off. The excuse of balancing around it doesn’t work here as they kept all trainers levels identical to the original games that had no Exp Share.
The friendship mechanics in this game gives you huge buffs that let you get more exp, tank what should be KO's and raise your critical rate unless you go out of your way to work against it. It's super annoying and serves to make the issues from Exp Share even worse.
TM's Starting in generation 5 were infinitely reusable like HM’s had been since generation 1. This remake is the first game in the series since then to go back to them being single use. The game does give you multiple of some TM's at points and you can get more of all TM's by new methods. That is definitely better then the originals at least but still a clear step back for one of the series best QoL changes. SwSh already took a half step back in this by still having reusable TM's but also have TR’s which were the old single use style which were used as grindable rewards for raids. After that and moving further in that direction by only having them in this single use grindable form here makes me worry that this is what the games are transitioning to for more future releases.
All that said, the game isn't without things to praise.
For the first time a Pokémon game actually engages with mechanics like IV's, EV's and hold items for NPC trainers. Not to say its never been done before. See the originals giving gyms aces berries, Pier's Obstagoon in SwSh having EV investment, and Cynthia's Pokémon had perfect IV's previously. But this is the first time I can think of that the main games has taken advantage of all at once to this extent. Gyms, your rival, and team admins have more EV's invested, higher IV's, and more hold items as you get further in the game. Until the Cynthia who has perfect IV's and fully properly invested EV's and well picked items. Its a shame that the Exp Share and friendship mechanics undermines this as this is something I've long waited for them to do. The one saving grace is that even with those working against this the Elite 4 and Cynthia are still fairly tough.
I do like this version of the Battle Tower over the original. Specifically I like the change so that you'll face trainers like gym leaders and the stat trainer as bosses at points in the tower in addition to Palmer. Makes it seem a bit more interesting for me. I will note that there are no multi battles as in the original battle tower though. While that wasn't something I enjoyed I know others feel differently.
Although this game doesn't have the location in the Survival area where you'd rematch what gym leaders were there once a day like in Platinum, rematches are still in these remakes. In fact they are better here. They get full teams now, perfect IV's, full EV's, higher levels then ever. They can be battled once a day and don't rely on whoever shows up in the survival area now.1
The Elite 4 also have a rematch again with their Platinum teams but also take it a step further with a second rematch which can actually be brutal. Like gym leaders they get Full teams now, perfect IV's, etc. Cynthia here is easily the toughest NPC they've ever made.
Also there are more Pokémon available to catch in these games then there were in the originals or platinum. All the non-event legends are available in some form and things like poke radar and underground hideaways in the post game hold many older Pokémon that would have been unavailable in the originals. It's just a shame they made the choice to not include any Pokemon from later generations.
It's also worth mentioning the games do bring with it the various QoL changes made over the four generations since the originals, for example I appreciate things like breeding improvements and hyper training that weren't present originally.
Ultimately I think the games adherence to what DP did and things like Exp Share and the friendship mechanics keep this game from greatness. It's a stronger remake then I expected at least with some redeeming factors, and still a better game then Let's Go or SwSh, but I'll always be thinking about what we could have gotten if they even at least took a few cues from Platinum to fully address the biggest issues.
- Slow battles. Slow even in comparison to today's system. The originals were notorious for this. One of the more obvious reasons as to why is that health bars going down from damage or up from healing would take a noticeably long amount of time.
- Limited regional pokedex. This has a few different effects that need to be addressed separately.
Certain Pokémon types are underrepresented, having only two species of each type found in Sinnoh in the worst cases.
You constantly battle trainers using the same Pokémon over and over as a result and some Gym leaders and Elite 4 members teams end up using only two of their dedicated type since there aren’t enough of the type to cover their teams.
You, the player, have limited options if you want to fill your team. The most notable example being that if you wanted a fire type, one of the species is a starter meaning if you didn’t pick Chimchar your only option was Ponyta/Rapidash (without trading).
Over ten new Pokémon from DP, mostly evolutions, weren’t even part of the regional pokedex and were unavailable until the post game which is especially notable as it would have at least partly addressed the Pokémon type diversity issue. In the case of Tangela/Tangrowth they weren’t even available in DP’s post game as they were somehow forgotten in those original games.
- The originals had 8 HM’s and some area’s would need 3 or more. As a result many people had Pokémon dedicated to this. Bidoof/Bibarel being the king as he could learn 6/8 of them. This was not an issue unique to DP but the Sinnoh region is one of the worst offenders.
- Bad pacing from after the second gym to the fifth gym. After the second gym the first city with a new gym you arrive in is Hearthhome City however the gym leader won't battle you yet and requires you to do the fighting and water gyms first. This causes it to take a larger than normal amount of time between the second and third gym and once you do get to the third gym it ends up feeling like you are rushed through gyms 3-5.
Are the Flaws Addressed? Unfortunately the answer isn’t simply yes. The remakes fix some but don't address all of those issues which is a poor choice as most had been addressed before in Platinum (which I’ll get into in the next section).
- Regarding the slowness, fortunately all games after DP fixed the slow battles going forward. That’s not to say the battles aren’t slow now but relative to DP they are not an issue.
- Frustratingly BDSP only partially addressed the issues with the limited regional dex.
One of BDSP’s new features, Pokémon Hideaways in the Grand Underground, does add many Pokémon not in DP’s regional dex before the post game. This does give you a little more variety for the underrepresented types although not too much more. Unfortunately this does not help the NPC’s team issues as their teams are identical to DP.
Many of those Hideaway Pokémon are ones that received new evolutions in the original DP making them available before post game however a few are still missing until then.
- The bad pacing issue I brought up remains identical to the original DP.
- As for HM's. thankfully BDSP took after the newer games which did away with the traditional HM system of needing Pokémon in your party to know the HM to use it. Instead “Hidden Moves” which are a Poketch function are used which call wild Pokémon to use the same function as old HM’s. A great change.
We do need to address the Elephant in the Room, Pokémon Platinum. As I expected after Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (ORAS) these remakes are remakes of the original DP and did not incorporate content from their third version Platinum.
Platinum added a ton of new content and, as I referenced before, had already addressed most of the major criticisms I had of DP like slow battles. The only major issue I had that they did not address was the HM issue.
The Pokémon not in DP’s original regional pokedex that BDSP had added to its Hideaways had all been part of Platinum's updated regional dex. Unlike BDSP, Platinum added some Pokémon BDSP didn’t include there and its new additions were integrated into the wild instead of tucked away in a new game area. Also NPC trainers actually had these Pokémon on the trainers teams so Volkner and Flint no longer had non electric/fire types awkwardly part of their lineups.
Platinum also wisely changed the gym order so that the Hearthhome City gym was third now, cutting that awkwardly long period before marathoning three gyms.
Platinum added a bunch of new content. For example making story changes. There was also the Battle Frontier, an area with 4 new battle facilities for the post game (also the battle tower but that was in regular DP and here in BDSP). I can ignore the lack of Platinum's story changes but I loved this area in Platinum so not making a return again after ORAS teased yet left out its own frontier hurt.
There were a few other issues that bugged me.
To start, the most glaring change that ends up hurting the remakes is the modern implementation of experience share and the inability to turn it off. Exp Share is not inherently a bad idea but Pokémon's current version is flawed in that you will quickly out level trainers and even gym leaders making what were already fairly easy games even easier. If you like that, great, but up until Sword/Shield (SwSh) this was toggleable on/off. The excuse of balancing around it doesn’t work here as they kept all trainers levels identical to the original games that had no Exp Share.
The friendship mechanics in this game gives you huge buffs that let you get more exp, tank what should be KO's and raise your critical rate unless you go out of your way to work against it. It's super annoying and serves to make the issues from Exp Share even worse.
TM's Starting in generation 5 were infinitely reusable like HM’s had been since generation 1. This remake is the first game in the series since then to go back to them being single use. The game does give you multiple of some TM's at points and you can get more of all TM's by new methods. That is definitely better then the originals at least but still a clear step back for one of the series best QoL changes. SwSh already took a half step back in this by still having reusable TM's but also have TR’s which were the old single use style which were used as grindable rewards for raids. After that and moving further in that direction by only having them in this single use grindable form here makes me worry that this is what the games are transitioning to for more future releases.
All that said, the game isn't without things to praise.
For the first time a Pokémon game actually engages with mechanics like IV's, EV's and hold items for NPC trainers. Not to say its never been done before. See the originals giving gyms aces berries, Pier's Obstagoon in SwSh having EV investment, and Cynthia's Pokémon had perfect IV's previously. But this is the first time I can think of that the main games has taken advantage of all at once to this extent. Gyms, your rival, and team admins have more EV's invested, higher IV's, and more hold items as you get further in the game. Until the Cynthia who has perfect IV's and fully properly invested EV's and well picked items. Its a shame that the Exp Share and friendship mechanics undermines this as this is something I've long waited for them to do. The one saving grace is that even with those working against this the Elite 4 and Cynthia are still fairly tough.
I do like this version of the Battle Tower over the original. Specifically I like the change so that you'll face trainers like gym leaders and the stat trainer as bosses at points in the tower in addition to Palmer. Makes it seem a bit more interesting for me. I will note that there are no multi battles as in the original battle tower though. While that wasn't something I enjoyed I know others feel differently.
Although this game doesn't have the location in the Survival area where you'd rematch what gym leaders were there once a day like in Platinum, rematches are still in these remakes. In fact they are better here. They get full teams now, perfect IV's, full EV's, higher levels then ever. They can be battled once a day and don't rely on whoever shows up in the survival area now.1
The Elite 4 also have a rematch again with their Platinum teams but also take it a step further with a second rematch which can actually be brutal. Like gym leaders they get Full teams now, perfect IV's, etc. Cynthia here is easily the toughest NPC they've ever made.
Also there are more Pokémon available to catch in these games then there were in the originals or platinum. All the non-event legends are available in some form and things like poke radar and underground hideaways in the post game hold many older Pokémon that would have been unavailable in the originals. It's just a shame they made the choice to not include any Pokemon from later generations.
It's also worth mentioning the games do bring with it the various QoL changes made over the four generations since the originals, for example I appreciate things like breeding improvements and hyper training that weren't present originally.
Ultimately I think the games adherence to what DP did and things like Exp Share and the friendship mechanics keep this game from greatness. It's a stronger remake then I expected at least with some redeeming factors, and still a better game then Let's Go or SwSh, but I'll always be thinking about what we could have gotten if they even at least took a few cues from Platinum to fully address the biggest issues.