Diamond/Pearl/Platinum are some of the most beloved games in the series by fans, and for good reason. To this day, they're debatably some of the most ambitious and challenging games in Pokemon history. The physical/special split was a much needed mechanical change, there's plenty of fun side content to sink your teeth into, and the introduction of Wi-Fi was huge for the series. All us troglodytes could finally play with others in the comfort of our own abodes! I have plenty of respect for Platinum for everything influential it did. ...That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.
Pokemon Platinum is a game that had already gotten worse for me with each revisit. That in mind, I assumed with my hiatus from the franchise that I would be able to enjoy the game with a fresh mindset. After all, I enjoyed my time with older instalments such as Emerald and Crystal. I even had a lot of fun with Blue version, which I never played before! There were definitely moments when I was having fun with Platinum, but the overall experience left me far more frustrated and burnt out than anything.
As much of a low hanging fruit as it is, Platinum really is a slog. And that's not only because it runs on the slowest engine in the series. It often feels like the game is actively designed to slow the player down as much as possible.
To avoid spoilers, I won't be diving extensively into the story, but as a whole I find it incredibly irritating and a waste of time. Most of the characters; particularly the grunts of Team Galactic, speak in such a robotic manner and always state the obvious. I don't know if it was an attempt at being funny, but lines like "You have forced our hand into making a show of force!" or "Tougher than I can put into words, and I know a lot of words!" sound so unnatural and fall flat.
It doesn't help that the grunts don't seem to understand what they're doing; most of their schemes come out of left field and tend to not connect to their end goals in any way. Even the schemes that do relate to their motives like bombing the lakes come out of nowhere because the story does such a poor job building up to these events. The best they do is vaguely hint at what they're doing, but it fails to create any real urgency.
Apparently, the intention of the story was to create a perfect world for everyone. This does tie into Team Galactic's ringleader motive, as he constantly expresses his desire for such. The problem is that he acts like the world they live in is flawed and imperfect, yet Team Galactic are the only ones causing problems.
Nothing is ever expanded upon besides the bullet points, so what could have been an interesting story amounts to saturday morning cartoon villains trying to take over the world. Everything is super showy and over the top to compensate for how shallow the plot truly is. And the real kicker of all? I'm FORCED to sit through this! I can't exactly overlook this game's story when it's constantly forced upon me while I'm playing.
But you know what? Maybe Team Galactic was right about the world being imperfect. After all, Sinnoh might just be the most tedious region to explore if you ask me. It's designed with plenty of branching paths and cities to explore. Yet it's more railroaded than ever. They constantly throw up roadblocks to prevent the player from progressing where they shouldn't, and they feel so out of place. HMs in particular are required more than ever. I often got lost because of how confusing the progression is.
Sinnoh feels like it was designed to be open ended, but rarely takes advantage of all the alternating paths it has. More often than not, when the player has to return to an area, they're required to backpedal through the same path they already explored with hardly anything new to see. It doesn't help that as the story progresses, the next required location is often so far away that flying is practically a necessity. Sure, there may be a few extra items to grab with any newly obtained HMs, but they feel a lot less rewarding with the backtrack being necessary.
This ties more into my biggest grievance with Platinum, but the design of the routes tend to feel unnatural. It's like they threw a bunch of set pieces and items in without much care, and it makes it really hard to believe these are routes the characters in this world would actually walk through. Hell, there are a few routes that rely on obnoxious gimmicks! Swamp that sinks the player in place, snow to trudge through at an incredibly slow pace, etc. It makes already haphazard level design even more agonising.
This all brings me into what bothers the most about Platinum, though. I fail to feel any sense of immersion or connect to the world. As if the artificial characters and haphazard world design weren't enough. I find it difficult to distinguish most of the areas because they tend to blend together. There are some unique areas that I do greatly appreciate, however. Canalave and Sunyshore city in particular stand out to me. I could not tell the difference between a city like Hearthome or Veilstone, though.
This is mostly a personal issue, but I also find a lot of the hues used in the overworld incredibly garish. The neon grass in particular was so overstimulating for me that I had to turn my DS's brightness down to the lowest setting. I still don't understand why they used such bright colours like the GBA games did when the DS had backlit screens.
This onion might be spicy enough to get me slaughtered, but... I'll be blunt. I do not vibe with a majority of the brand new Pokemon introduced. Not only do they also tend to use really jarring and overstimulating hues, but there are often so many unnecessary flourishes with their designs that makes them feel way more artificial. A majority of the Pokemon look more like over the top action figures to me than creatures, and it makes it harder for me to feel connected to them. There are a handful that I adore, but a majority are add-ons to older Pokemon I already liked. All in all, it leaves me way less interested in using these new Pokemon they designed for this generation.
I should note that Platinum does make some significant improvements over Diamond/Pearl. The Pokedex in particular goes from one of the worst to one of the best, with plenty of variety and options. On top of that, the engine runs a bit faster and the story adds a few new characters and details that make it a bit more redeemable. I don't think Platinum really fixes any of the core issues, however. I still don't like Team Galactic, I still don't enjoy exploring Sinnoh, and I still don't feel very immersed in the experience.
I'm sure quite a few of these problems could be traced back to some of the older games. Hell, I've seen plenty of people compare its problems to Ruby and Sapphire in particular. I don't think that excuses Platinum, though. If anything, it's even worse, because not only is it repeating those mistakes but it's also doubling down on them. Platinum reveals how desperately the formula needed tweaking. But you know what? If that's what Game Freak needed to polish and improve the formula, then maybe it was for the best. And for those who adore the old formula for Pokemon; warts and all, then maybe Platinum is all they could ask for.
I really ought to focus on Pokemon games I still enjoy rather than the ones I don't, yet I probably have more to say about Diamond/Pearl/Platinum than I do with any other Pokemon game. Sure, it's mostly criticism, but I've never felt so passionate ranting about a Pokemon game. I'll reiterate what I stated in the beginning. I may not enjoy Platinum much any more, but I still have a ton of respect for it. We truly do have a complicated relationship, Platinum and I.
Pokemon Platinum is a game that had already gotten worse for me with each revisit. That in mind, I assumed with my hiatus from the franchise that I would be able to enjoy the game with a fresh mindset. After all, I enjoyed my time with older instalments such as Emerald and Crystal. I even had a lot of fun with Blue version, which I never played before! There were definitely moments when I was having fun with Platinum, but the overall experience left me far more frustrated and burnt out than anything.
As much of a low hanging fruit as it is, Platinum really is a slog. And that's not only because it runs on the slowest engine in the series. It often feels like the game is actively designed to slow the player down as much as possible.
To avoid spoilers, I won't be diving extensively into the story, but as a whole I find it incredibly irritating and a waste of time. Most of the characters; particularly the grunts of Team Galactic, speak in such a robotic manner and always state the obvious. I don't know if it was an attempt at being funny, but lines like "You have forced our hand into making a show of force!" or "Tougher than I can put into words, and I know a lot of words!" sound so unnatural and fall flat.
It doesn't help that the grunts don't seem to understand what they're doing; most of their schemes come out of left field and tend to not connect to their end goals in any way. Even the schemes that do relate to their motives like bombing the lakes come out of nowhere because the story does such a poor job building up to these events. The best they do is vaguely hint at what they're doing, but it fails to create any real urgency.
Apparently, the intention of the story was to create a perfect world for everyone. This does tie into Team Galactic's ringleader motive, as he constantly expresses his desire for such. The problem is that he acts like the world they live in is flawed and imperfect, yet Team Galactic are the only ones causing problems.
Nothing is ever expanded upon besides the bullet points, so what could have been an interesting story amounts to saturday morning cartoon villains trying to take over the world. Everything is super showy and over the top to compensate for how shallow the plot truly is. And the real kicker of all? I'm FORCED to sit through this! I can't exactly overlook this game's story when it's constantly forced upon me while I'm playing.
But you know what? Maybe Team Galactic was right about the world being imperfect. After all, Sinnoh might just be the most tedious region to explore if you ask me. It's designed with plenty of branching paths and cities to explore. Yet it's more railroaded than ever. They constantly throw up roadblocks to prevent the player from progressing where they shouldn't, and they feel so out of place. HMs in particular are required more than ever. I often got lost because of how confusing the progression is.
Sinnoh feels like it was designed to be open ended, but rarely takes advantage of all the alternating paths it has. More often than not, when the player has to return to an area, they're required to backpedal through the same path they already explored with hardly anything new to see. It doesn't help that as the story progresses, the next required location is often so far away that flying is practically a necessity. Sure, there may be a few extra items to grab with any newly obtained HMs, but they feel a lot less rewarding with the backtrack being necessary.
This ties more into my biggest grievance with Platinum, but the design of the routes tend to feel unnatural. It's like they threw a bunch of set pieces and items in without much care, and it makes it really hard to believe these are routes the characters in this world would actually walk through. Hell, there are a few routes that rely on obnoxious gimmicks! Swamp that sinks the player in place, snow to trudge through at an incredibly slow pace, etc. It makes already haphazard level design even more agonising.
This all brings me into what bothers the most about Platinum, though. I fail to feel any sense of immersion or connect to the world. As if the artificial characters and haphazard world design weren't enough. I find it difficult to distinguish most of the areas because they tend to blend together. There are some unique areas that I do greatly appreciate, however. Canalave and Sunyshore city in particular stand out to me. I could not tell the difference between a city like Hearthome or Veilstone, though.
This is mostly a personal issue, but I also find a lot of the hues used in the overworld incredibly garish. The neon grass in particular was so overstimulating for me that I had to turn my DS's brightness down to the lowest setting. I still don't understand why they used such bright colours like the GBA games did when the DS had backlit screens.
This onion might be spicy enough to get me slaughtered, but... I'll be blunt. I do not vibe with a majority of the brand new Pokemon introduced. Not only do they also tend to use really jarring and overstimulating hues, but there are often so many unnecessary flourishes with their designs that makes them feel way more artificial. A majority of the Pokemon look more like over the top action figures to me than creatures, and it makes it harder for me to feel connected to them. There are a handful that I adore, but a majority are add-ons to older Pokemon I already liked. All in all, it leaves me way less interested in using these new Pokemon they designed for this generation.
I should note that Platinum does make some significant improvements over Diamond/Pearl. The Pokedex in particular goes from one of the worst to one of the best, with plenty of variety and options. On top of that, the engine runs a bit faster and the story adds a few new characters and details that make it a bit more redeemable. I don't think Platinum really fixes any of the core issues, however. I still don't like Team Galactic, I still don't enjoy exploring Sinnoh, and I still don't feel very immersed in the experience.
I'm sure quite a few of these problems could be traced back to some of the older games. Hell, I've seen plenty of people compare its problems to Ruby and Sapphire in particular. I don't think that excuses Platinum, though. If anything, it's even worse, because not only is it repeating those mistakes but it's also doubling down on them. Platinum reveals how desperately the formula needed tweaking. But you know what? If that's what Game Freak needed to polish and improve the formula, then maybe it was for the best. And for those who adore the old formula for Pokemon; warts and all, then maybe Platinum is all they could ask for.
I really ought to focus on Pokemon games I still enjoy rather than the ones I don't, yet I probably have more to say about Diamond/Pearl/Platinum than I do with any other Pokemon game. Sure, it's mostly criticism, but I've never felt so passionate ranting about a Pokemon game. I'll reiterate what I stated in the beginning. I may not enjoy Platinum much any more, but I still have a ton of respect for it. We truly do have a complicated relationship, Platinum and I.
Reddish
7 months ago