Been a while since I reviewed a Pokemon game, let's give this a go again! Platinum is of course - the definitive Gen 4 experience. It follows in the footsteps of Crystal & Emerald by elaborating on and perfecting many of the ideas put forth by its predecessors. (In this case, Diamond & Pearl.) We can argue all day about the ethics and integrity of the way Pokemon just releases a "better" version of their main releases like a year after they come out - but the fact remains, Platinum is good, and it's the best way to experience Sinnoh.
I like Gen 4 Pokemon a lot. Diamond & Pearl certainly have their flaws, but they have very likable, acceptable flaws. Okay, the battle animations are slow! There's poor type distribution! These are a far cry from the forced Exp. Share and railroady design we'd have to suffer through for the next 10+ years of the series after this. Gen 4 are the last Pokemon games to be truly open in their design until Gen 9. People love Black & White and all, but it doesn't get talked about enough how they started Pokemon's downward-world-design-spiral into linearity. Boxing you into small locations and forcing you to progress there before you can move on, completely eliminating any potential for simple exploration or interesting sequence breaking.
DPP (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) are not quite as open as the Gen 2 & 3 games, but they're open enough to still give you that sense of adventure. The games in particular really open up around when you reach Hearthome City, and then have access to Veilstone and Pastoria City. I've always liked this about them. I like that you can have fun with the order in which you challenge Maylene, Crasher Wake & Fantina, I like that you can visit the Trophy Gardens and the Valor Lakefront as soon as you can make it to Hearthome. I like that you get teased with the route to Sunyshore well before you'll even get there! It's a rare case of Pokemon blocking a place off, and it actually feeling quite cool! You've got enough of the rest of the world open to you, so this builds up some anticipation! When this path finally clears up to you en route to your 8th gym badge, it's a great feeling! It can be done right! It's sensible here!
Of course this is a boon of Gen 4's design as a whole, but Platinum - on top of obviously sharing this design, then fixes or at least improves on basically every little problem Diamond & Pearl had. Battle animations are sped up now! Pokemon type distributions are way better! (There are more Fire types in the game than just the Chimchar line & Ponyta/Rapidash, lmao. Seriously, they had a Fire type Elite Four member in Diamond & Pearl who had two Fire type Pokemon, because that's all he could have! There were no more actually in the game! How does something like that slip past design?) And Team Galactic & Cyrus - who were really pretty shallow and generic are given more screentime with an awesome expanded Galactic HQ segment. I still don't care much for Cyrus as a character at all, but he's at least a bit less forgettable here - largely due to his involvement with one of the other coolest parts of the game; The Distortion World. Goddamn, how did they get this shit to work on the DS? It's like, seriously technically impressive. Giratina's appearance and general presentation towards the end of the game is so sick, maybe the most imposing a legendary Pokemon has ever felt. Capturing this thing almost feels wrong. I feel like I just threw a fuckin' Poke Ball at actual Satan.
On the note of things that I'm astounded worked on the DS, how about that soundtrack, huh? I know it's not a new opinion but Gen 4 Pokemon probably has the best soundtrack of the main games. It's got this serene, evocative, dream-like vibe. So much elegant piano and bluesy woodwind. It gets the idea of a rustic, mountainous region across perfectly. Eterna City and the Lake songs are among the most gorgeous pieces of music Pokemon has yet contributed, and it's no surprise so many people remember these games' OST's so fondly all these years later.
Platinum takes an already good Pokemon game and smooths out most of the edges. It doesn't fix every flaw. Even with more time with Cyrus & Team Galactic I still find them pretty generic, even for Pokemon antagonists. And imo these are the games where Pokemon stories delved into melodrama a bit too much! A few too many world-ending threats and abstract nouns getting thrown around here for my taste. You could also probably make the argument that the Pokemon designs what with stuff like Dialga, Palkia & Regigias start to go a bit far here. (Though I will forever love these games for introducing so many evolutions to previously underappreciated Pokemon. Honchkrow, Magnezone, Mamoswine my beloved.)
Sure, I could have stood for the world to be a bit more open a la Gens 2 & 3 as I always could! But Gen 4 and Platinum get way more right than they do wrong. They look and sound gorgeous, they feel like an adventure with some open and inspired world design, and then Platinum goes ahead and beefs up their already great post-game and Battle Frontier even more. It's just more of a good thing! And it's aged just as well as all of the other games from the golden age of Pokemon.
I like Gen 4 Pokemon a lot. Diamond & Pearl certainly have their flaws, but they have very likable, acceptable flaws. Okay, the battle animations are slow! There's poor type distribution! These are a far cry from the forced Exp. Share and railroady design we'd have to suffer through for the next 10+ years of the series after this. Gen 4 are the last Pokemon games to be truly open in their design until Gen 9. People love Black & White and all, but it doesn't get talked about enough how they started Pokemon's downward-world-design-spiral into linearity. Boxing you into small locations and forcing you to progress there before you can move on, completely eliminating any potential for simple exploration or interesting sequence breaking.
DPP (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) are not quite as open as the Gen 2 & 3 games, but they're open enough to still give you that sense of adventure. The games in particular really open up around when you reach Hearthome City, and then have access to Veilstone and Pastoria City. I've always liked this about them. I like that you can have fun with the order in which you challenge Maylene, Crasher Wake & Fantina, I like that you can visit the Trophy Gardens and the Valor Lakefront as soon as you can make it to Hearthome. I like that you get teased with the route to Sunyshore well before you'll even get there! It's a rare case of Pokemon blocking a place off, and it actually feeling quite cool! You've got enough of the rest of the world open to you, so this builds up some anticipation! When this path finally clears up to you en route to your 8th gym badge, it's a great feeling! It can be done right! It's sensible here!
Of course this is a boon of Gen 4's design as a whole, but Platinum - on top of obviously sharing this design, then fixes or at least improves on basically every little problem Diamond & Pearl had. Battle animations are sped up now! Pokemon type distributions are way better! (There are more Fire types in the game than just the Chimchar line & Ponyta/Rapidash, lmao. Seriously, they had a Fire type Elite Four member in Diamond & Pearl who had two Fire type Pokemon, because that's all he could have! There were no more actually in the game! How does something like that slip past design?) And Team Galactic & Cyrus - who were really pretty shallow and generic are given more screentime with an awesome expanded Galactic HQ segment. I still don't care much for Cyrus as a character at all, but he's at least a bit less forgettable here - largely due to his involvement with one of the other coolest parts of the game; The Distortion World. Goddamn, how did they get this shit to work on the DS? It's like, seriously technically impressive. Giratina's appearance and general presentation towards the end of the game is so sick, maybe the most imposing a legendary Pokemon has ever felt. Capturing this thing almost feels wrong. I feel like I just threw a fuckin' Poke Ball at actual Satan.
On the note of things that I'm astounded worked on the DS, how about that soundtrack, huh? I know it's not a new opinion but Gen 4 Pokemon probably has the best soundtrack of the main games. It's got this serene, evocative, dream-like vibe. So much elegant piano and bluesy woodwind. It gets the idea of a rustic, mountainous region across perfectly. Eterna City and the Lake songs are among the most gorgeous pieces of music Pokemon has yet contributed, and it's no surprise so many people remember these games' OST's so fondly all these years later.
Platinum takes an already good Pokemon game and smooths out most of the edges. It doesn't fix every flaw. Even with more time with Cyrus & Team Galactic I still find them pretty generic, even for Pokemon antagonists. And imo these are the games where Pokemon stories delved into melodrama a bit too much! A few too many world-ending threats and abstract nouns getting thrown around here for my taste. You could also probably make the argument that the Pokemon designs what with stuff like Dialga, Palkia & Regigias start to go a bit far here. (Though I will forever love these games for introducing so many evolutions to previously underappreciated Pokemon. Honchkrow, Magnezone, Mamoswine my beloved.)
Sure, I could have stood for the world to be a bit more open a la Gens 2 & 3 as I always could! But Gen 4 and Platinum get way more right than they do wrong. They look and sound gorgeous, they feel like an adventure with some open and inspired world design, and then Platinum goes ahead and beefs up their already great post-game and Battle Frontier even more. It's just more of a good thing! And it's aged just as well as all of the other games from the golden age of Pokemon.
goodchicken
4 months ago
I've just read your review of Pokémon Platinum Version for the Nintendo DS, in which you praise it's open world design and various improvements upon Pokémon Pearl Version and Pokémon Diamond Version, also for the Nintendo DS. I agree with what you have said and therefore like the review.
Thanks, good chicken