Pokémon Brilliant Diamond

Remakes in the Pokémon series have been seriously impressive in the past. Many even still consider HeartGold and SoulSilver to be some of the best games in the entire series. Each of the first three remakes in the franchise used an upgraded version of the engine from the most recent mainline titles at the time, incorporated every Pokémon released up to that point, and added new story content on top of whatever the original had. This led them not only to be improvements of the games they remade but also of the current generation of titles as a whole. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (and Shining Pearl) does none of that. I wanted to get all of that out of the way at the start because, although they didn't live up to series standards, I still ended up having a great time with the Sinnoh remakes. I definitely think that this was the wrong direction for these games to go, but I'm not letting myself be too mad, as I ultimately enjoyed what we ended up getting.

If you have ever played a mainline Pokémon game, especially from the earlier generations, you already know what to expect from Brilliant Diamond. It's the same coming-of-age adventure that has you trying to become the strongest trainer in the region while also taking down an entire criminal syndicate almost singlehandedly. Fortunately, even the clichés are still a lot of fun. I mean, there's a reason that they have been keeping the franchise running for more than two decades. As I explored the Sinnoh region and developed my team, I had the awesome feeling of growth that I love from these games. By the end, I had a team that could take on practically any opponent, and I felt like the world kept opening up even further for me. However, while it was a lot of fun to unlock new places to explore and backtrack to, I never really found myself wanting to do that very much.

Since these remakes didn't alter anything significant about the map compared to the DS originals, a lot of the world feels pretty barren, especially compared to the other mainline games on the Switch. I actually stopped playing earlier than I expected because I just couldn't work up enough of a drive to finish the postgame content. I definitely want to see it eventually, but the work needed to complete the Pokédex just to see a few new areas and collect a few legendary Pokémon wasn't worth it for me. Once the Pokémon Home integration is live, I'll likely complete the dex in one swoop, and then I'll go and check out the rest of the game. For now though, I have seen as much as I need to.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were not the games that people wanted, and their reputation at this point is essentially written in stone. Unfortunately, they still offer a lot of fun that many casual players probably won't ever experience. I definitely felt a lot of the same negativity as others during my playthrough, but honestly that was all far outweighed by my enjoyment of the rest of the game, and hardly weighed down my overall feelings. In the end, Brilliant Diamond was not my favorite mainline Pokémon game on the Switch, but I did enjoy it, and I think it's a good thing that we now have an alternative to just playing more and more Let's Go or Sword and Shield.
The game is available for Switch here (as of 1/29/22): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/pokemon-brilliant-diamond-switch/

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