Reviews from

in the past


i remember telling myself for years the reason gen 4 remakes were taking so long to happen was because they were going to make it perfect

This game did a number on the Pokémon fanbase and now they're completely fucking scared of remakes.

The original Sinnoh games are some of the fondest memories I have in gaming, and some of the very first video games that engaged me enough to care about the medium on a deeper level. Over the next several years I watched as every other beloved entry in the series received its long awaited remake. HeartGold and SoulSilver were fantastic entries that I would argue were so successful in their execution that they exceeded the quality of the original games. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire could have done more in certain key areas, particularly with the upsetting lack of Emerald-based content, but they were still fun games that captured the spirit of the originals with some fun new ideas that gave the remakes merit to stand on their own. Naturally, when it was time for my favorite games in the series to get their turn in the remake spotlight, I was ecstatic to see the direction they would take in their reimagining efforts. The final product after years of eager anticipation failed to meet almost any of my expectations.

Unlike the remakes that came before it, Brilliant Diamond is basically a 1:1 adaptation of its original counterpart, proving that sometimes being /too/ faithful is a detriment to the final product. The game still operates on the square-based grid tile system the originals used when using the D-Pad, but the joystick allows for "free roam" that was thrown in with no regard for how it would break certain key puzzle sequences in the game that relied on the square-based grid's limitations. The game's delicate leveling balance wasn't accounted for in any respect, the mandatory EXP share giving no players no real incentive to ever switch off of their lead team member and creating a scenario where you can essentially solo the entire game with one or two mons at the helm and feel no repercussions. The affection mechanic works against the player as well, being another mandatory addition that decides that your lead party member can arbitrarily tank multiple attacks that would otherwise absolutely kill them and giving players even less of a reason to ever switch Pokemon or make any thoughtful plays. Follow Pokemon are scaled to the trainer jarringly, often off-proportion, and almost always lag behind the player character moving at modest speeds and resort to immersion-breaking teleporting around everywhere to compensate. Other returning features, like the Poketch app, were thoughtlessly added for the sake of inclusion and work on the absolute bare minimum level of functionality, completely disregarding convenience and general usability. The game's mysterious lack of touch screen in handheld mode could have been one such instance where the Poketch would have made sense in a modern setting, but alas.

More subjectively, the game's artstyle just doesn't click with me or recapture the sharp, pixel aesthetic it tries to replicate with those awkward chibi models. Everything looks "off" and its made worse because the game has a strange penchant for having these cinematic camera angles in cutscenes now that highlight how unflinchingly emotionless the characters are. Sinnoh deserved better, we all deserved better, and the only thing of note from these releases in my eyes is that it made the original games even more impressive. The remixed music slaps too, I guess.

I fell asleep twice playing the first half of the game. It felt like a soulless cash grab.

Um remake medíocre justo de uma das melhores gerações. Não adiciona nada de interessante, tira conteúdo e variedade do jogo original e ainda é extremamente ultrapassado se comparar com o Legends Arceus que saiu no mesmo ano


forgot i played this until i beat violet lol..

left off right before the elite four and i don't see myself coming back but im basically done soooo
this game is the biggest kick in the balls ever!! i was so excited for sinnoh remakes and Bam.
its the same exact game yet it looks worse and is stripped of Platinum Content. yeah the grand underground is there but it feels like that was squeezed into the game the same way smash bros tosses in clones at the end of development except it stinks

in a vacuum this game isn't that bad but im kinda sick of having to look at this series that way in order to not absolutely despise the games

I know people hated this game. But I think this game is fine its a diamond and pearl remake and nothing but that. I like the new features added to it to improve the game as a whole but I haven't finished dex yet. Also I am fine with the design of this game.

not that bad really. if it had a better art style and more platinum changes it'd be a home run for the series. as it is i guess its the best pokemon game on the switch, not that that is saying very much at all.

update: legends arceus is the best pokemon game on the switch now

fell off at mach 5. only pokemon game ive ever seen go on sale. yall begged for years for that??

i get that the og was prob better and nintendo sucks but i had a lot of fun with this :) my first time beating a pokemon game because i didnt like gaming as a child!

1/23 Look back while editing ratings:
I had a lot of fun playing this. The chibi art-style was fine (funny) and the game itself was cheel. Platinum is a lot better though... really wish that got a remake but whatevs

The third Pokemon release in a row that I've not finished after Sun/Moon, Ultra Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield.

Prior to these remakes, I felt that maybe the series had simply declined, but now, I think it's just that I'm no longer interested in this tired old gameplay loop.

A faithful remake of the worst mainline Pokémon games. Don't know what anyone was expecting. I had some fun while playing this, but only because I was doing a nuzlocke run. Even so, I haven't booted this up in two weeks and I've had no desire to go back to it.

This game is a disgrace, and solidifies how little TPC cares about their franchise. Looks likes a mobile game. Plays identical to the DS versions. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about these games. Can't believe they put this crap out after the fantastic remakes that were ORAS.

This is the second Pokemon game I have played after Sword (With DLC's) so thats the only Pokemon game I can really compare it to. Honestly it was a bit bland with the amount of Pokemon you can get throughout the game which I think dialled down the fun factor a bit. I liked each of the gyms though and I thought the story was decently good, I think I liked it better then Swords. The rival you make at the start is probably the best and most challenging rival so far, definitely better then god dam Hop. Then we have the Elite Four + Cynthia, which I think were super cool. A great challenge that had me sweating for the first time playing Pokemon (I didn't use Fairy-Type so euston we had a problem with Cynthia). On the whole, I would say this game is pretty good and fun in some places though I'm not a fan of the national decks being unlocked after the main story, I thought that was kind of a dumb move to do in a game.

it makes me sad but i feel like this game is such a scam looking back on every other remake i feel like they brought so many new things to the table and just felt like there own games instead of a reskin i really didn't have fun playin through this one and as someone who has played every pokemon game every year is just more disappointing

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

Beaten: Nov 29 2021
Time: 28 Hours
Platform: Switch

Pokémon Diamond was the first Pokémon game I played, and one of the first games I got into. I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for it, even with some of the admittedly weaker aspects of that generation (the engine is sooooo slooow). I never quite played the wheels off it, but I spent a lot of time chasing legendaries around the map in the post game for sure, which I plan on doing again here. What I was honestly surprised by is how much of my love for this game wasn’t simply nostalgia, but a really triumphant style of world building and (very hot take) a dope pacing curve!

Now, as they all generally are, this remake is a mixed bag. The most obvious point is the art style, but honestly I don’t have a problem with it? Sure it’s a little cheap looking, and uh the character’s legs are way too big and they just look like toddlers when they walk sometimes, but I thought it was generally very charming and pretty accurate to the original, for better or worse.

More of a drag for me was the experience curve. You see, when you battle in this game, experience is awarded to every Pokémon in your party. That’s all well and good, and a huge qol feature for all but the more hardcore fans, but this game really wasn’t designed around a level curve like that. If you keep the same team all game, you’ll be massively overpowered until the very end. Not that it’s the hardest game in the world originally, but this really makes it a cakewalk, and not in the best way. The only saving grace is that it seems like they adjusted the elite four to be muchhh more difficult, so they’ll be just as hard as before!

Other changes are revelations. The best one is being able to access your PC at any time. You can keep a rotating team (which makes the level curve much more sane) real easily, and fill out your evolutions in your Pokédex effortlessly as well. Raising Pokémon has honestly never been this fun! (in the ones I’ve played at least)

The other change and probably the best part is YOUR POKÉMON CAN WALK BESIDE YOU NOW!!!! And they move so naturally and ahhh I love it so much! Hell in the square in Hearthome city you can take YOUR ENTIRE PARTY ON A WALK AT THE SAME TIME. THATS SO NUTS. AND SO VIBES.

And honestly that’s what this remake really gets right for me, despite the missteps. It still feels like Diamond, with all its deep mythology and real lived in world, just with the coziness factor cranked up. As long as you don’t actively hate the visual style, I’d say this is worth picking up!

Y’all are off of your rockers if you say this is better than Sword and Shield

why should i play this game when Platinum exists?

Depois de jogar mais de 200 horas de Scarlet/Violet da vontade de dar 1000 estrelas pra esse jogo, os graficos são muito bonitos e tudo é muito bem polido

Mediocre. its Definitely Pokemon.

Never played the originals, so I really don't have any reference to go off of, but I had a great time. The music is really solid too. I probably won't play it again for years, but that one playthrough was worth it alone.

Fun and entertaining game. By Pokemon standards however, it's a very weak entry. The gen 4 remakes deserved far better than this glitchy, unfinished, watered-down mess of a game.

0 words for how disappointing this felt. To date I have never regretted buying a game more. Until this atrocity, every mainline game remake was a success that added and expanded to the base game, that recreated important moments while adding new ones and shaking up others to make a new game that felt worth playing. Alpha/Omega Sapphire/Ruby brought the games into a 3D style radically different from their beginnings, added new forms and a functionality that let you ride the legendaries, a cute expanded relationship between the player and the rival, included the additions made in Emerald as a post-game story, etc; these kinds of things that were consistent and set as a standard for remakes. The remake brought an older game up to the current standard of the newest mainline game, usually establishing a kind of relationship between the two so they could be played simultaneously, as seen with HGSS and DPPT or ASOR and XY. BDSP did absolutely none of these. It was a 1 for 1 copy of the original basegame, in a deeply hideous 3D style that lacked any sort of consistency with established Pokemon visuals and instead brought to mind a melty plastic off-brand figurine. Down to every single NPC line, tuft of grass, jagged edges of lakes and landmasses, it was the same as the original. These games came out in 2021, era of Arceus Legends and SWSH, and yet they have nothing in common with the graphics, gameplay or mechanics of either. It was a reskinned game from 2008 released in 2021. They added nothing, did nothing original or even reflective of the generation they were released in; they were essentially a 3D switch port. The only caveat is that they didn't include anything from Platinum, and so in a way actually had less content than the originals. Not to mention Poketch functionality was destroyed by the Switch and the Underground is basically vestigial and pointless, with secret bases now just being ugly display rooms for monochrome versions of Pokemon 3D models. The soullessness of these entries beggars belief.
The entire time I played through it, all I could think was 'why the hell did I buy this? It's uglier, emptier, less functional, and twice the price of the original.' (And for people who argue that Arceus Legends was the true Gen 4 remake, sure - but then why did they release this at all? Why not just market it as a port and not a remake, with a price that reflects just how little effort actually went into this game? We know why! It's Nintendo!)
It felt like a bootleg Pokemon game. I was waiting for this remake for 10 years and every mainline game that got released had me more and more excited for how good this was going to be. Needless to say my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is and continues to be ruined by the existence of this dogshit. I seriously lack words for how much these games made me despise Nintendo. The bar is clipping into the floor.

First Pokemon game I beat and I feel more inclined to share my distaste for the lack luster"remake" this is. Feels cheap and quickly thrown together. Bored throughout until the end. Painfull mediocrity


A baffling series of choices went into making these remakes — not the least of which being the choice to ignore the existence of Pokémon Platinum — and the result is an awkwardly-controlled, poorly balanced, and somewhat sparse Pokémon game that, while still fun (because the core loop of Pokémon is just that good), is appreciably worse than Game Freak's own follow-up to Diamond and Pearl, which was released almost fifteen years ago.

There are a handful of nice changes like the underground is really cool to explore and improves team diversity from the original,the improved HM system is less of a hassle and the bit of character customisation is nice but it was way too faithful for it's own good aside from that
they didn't change the teams of major trainer's like Faulkner,Candice and Flint and pokemon availability still isn't as good as Platnium and while i didn't experince as many bugs as other people they are out there and they straight up shouldn't be
if you want Sinnoh on Switch play Legends Arceus if you want an excellent pokemon remake play Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
If you liked the OG diamond and pearl i guess give it a shot but it's not great imo

This has to be one of the worst remakes for a game ever.
It shipped as a horribly buggy mess without a title screen, finished music, online, cutscenes, or a postgame. It forces an update on the person that just paid $60 for it (the originals on DS were $40) half the size of the game so they wouldnt have to pay to ship cartridges with more storage which also means it will be impossible for someone to buy this game complete when Nintendo stops supporting the Switch's online services.
The art style is in my opinion lazy and uninteresting excused by it being a "faithful remake" despite it not being faithful to the original underground, contests, or game's fucking balancing. BDSP is soooo """"faithful"""" to the point that they just copied over Diamond and Pearl's code to use as a base, but also somehow managed to introduce even more glitches into it too. Also i guess just fuck every single thing Platinum did to make Sinnoh an actually good region because all they include from Platinum is the new Pokemon, but only in the new areas of the underground. They spit in the face of one of my most beloved Pokemon games, taking out any of it's many improvements to the story, characters, post game, and balancing for the sake of faithfulness to the versions of Sinnoh that nobody prefers.
This game is what happens when you barely pay an outsourcing studio to make a whole Pokemon level remake in only 19 months. A complete waste of time for both the developers and players. It hurts me to think that this game sold over 14 million copies, worst case scenario they'll do they same fucking song and dance for Black and White because they know it sells.

Forced Exp Share and Friendship Bonuses hold back what is otherwise a solid remake.