This review contains spoilers
It's not bad! The original Diamond was the Pokemon game I played the most in my childhood, and for that reason alone I ate up this remake.
The pros: The updated music is lovely, the enhanced challenge on the Elite Four was a welcome surprise, and I grew to really like the chibi aesthetic. The Grand Underground is extremely fun, and it let me round out my team with Pokemon I would almost never use otherwise, just because they happen to be wandering around down there (there is no longer a Fire type drought, thank god). Quality of life improvements with the map (Honey and Berry trackers) and HMs (no more obligatory Bidoofs needed) were extremely nice to see.
The cons: As with the last few generations, I'm not a fan of the constantly on EXP Share, and it's annoying to deliberately avoid trainers in order to have reasonable challenges in the gyms and E4. Performance felt a little choppy at times, but I partially attribute that to my Switch being 4 years old at this point. Moving around in the world is needlessly difficult, and it feels like the player isn't actually on a grid, even when using the d-pad. I frequently accidentally jumped off ledges and had to retrace my steps in caves.
The absolute worst thing in this game is the affection mechanic that makes battles easier. I can live with increased crit chance and increased dodge chance, but my pokemon CONSTANTLY tanking hits with 1 HP in the Elite Four just made the battles more tedious, and their ability to just...will away status effects was hilariously dumb. It was a bad battle design choice that feels like hand holding at best, and cheating at worst.
This was a nice little nostalgia trip, and as I work through the Underground content and the (admittedly meager) postgame, I look forward to global trade opening up and any possible updates and events. From what I have heard of the challenging gym and E4 rematches, I'm excited to try some proper team building in a mainline Pokemon game for once, rather than just throwing my overleveled party at the wall to see what sticks. However, looking for ways to REDUCE my party's happiness is something I haven't sought out before, and it's just a glaring flaw in an otherwise pretty good re-release.
The pros: The updated music is lovely, the enhanced challenge on the Elite Four was a welcome surprise, and I grew to really like the chibi aesthetic. The Grand Underground is extremely fun, and it let me round out my team with Pokemon I would almost never use otherwise, just because they happen to be wandering around down there (there is no longer a Fire type drought, thank god). Quality of life improvements with the map (Honey and Berry trackers) and HMs (no more obligatory Bidoofs needed) were extremely nice to see.
The cons: As with the last few generations, I'm not a fan of the constantly on EXP Share, and it's annoying to deliberately avoid trainers in order to have reasonable challenges in the gyms and E4. Performance felt a little choppy at times, but I partially attribute that to my Switch being 4 years old at this point. Moving around in the world is needlessly difficult, and it feels like the player isn't actually on a grid, even when using the d-pad. I frequently accidentally jumped off ledges and had to retrace my steps in caves.
The absolute worst thing in this game is the affection mechanic that makes battles easier. I can live with increased crit chance and increased dodge chance, but my pokemon CONSTANTLY tanking hits with 1 HP in the Elite Four just made the battles more tedious, and their ability to just...will away status effects was hilariously dumb. It was a bad battle design choice that feels like hand holding at best, and cheating at worst.
This was a nice little nostalgia trip, and as I work through the Underground content and the (admittedly meager) postgame, I look forward to global trade opening up and any possible updates and events. From what I have heard of the challenging gym and E4 rematches, I'm excited to try some proper team building in a mainline Pokemon game for once, rather than just throwing my overleveled party at the wall to see what sticks. However, looking for ways to REDUCE my party's happiness is something I haven't sought out before, and it's just a glaring flaw in an otherwise pretty good re-release.