Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and the other one Impressions - When Pokemon was good.

[CriticalGaming]

Pokemon has been struggling of late, namely with the latest outing of Sword and Shield releases. When Pokemon announced it's release on the Switch, people were namely excited about a Pokemon game finally being on a console with more power than a couple of AA-batteries for a change. Unfortunately the game they got was hap-hazard and unfinished feeling. With a vast majority of the Pokedex absent, and animations being fucking lazy, Sword and Shield was a disappointment simply because it was just a DS game that happened to have a Switch launch. People felt like the games were originally supposed to be on the 3DS and Nintendo maybe forced them to step it up to the console for hype and to have something notable on the Switch quickly.

Since then we've not really gotten a new Pokemon experience on the Switch, save for some DLC which explains the nefarious reason as to why a big chunk of the Pokedex was missing from S&S.

Now we have remakes of gen 4, Diamond and Pearl. And they are certainly faithful remakes, with a bit of a different artstyle.

Here is the thing though. The bad animations, and cut corners from Sword and Shield are still here, no improvement has been done in that regard. However you still have was amounts to basically Diamond and Pearl again which were great and they've been uprezzed in a delightful chibi art-style for the overworld characters which is a strange feeling to be playing a chibi game as a 40 year old man, but Pokemon will always have a special place in my gamer heart so I'm willing to over look it.

Diamond and Pearl were good, and they are still good here with a couple of modern improvements like easy running, and access to your boxes anywhere in the world. The game also autosaves now because these games were quite challenging back in the day and there is still an interesting level of difficulty here that newer games desperately lacked for a while now.

So that's really all there is to say honestly. These are good remakes, and worth stepping into if you are looking for a good Pokemon fix on the Switch even if you have already played these ones.

 

[Gergar12]

I got lucky and got an Abra in the tall grass. But yeah the game is good.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

I wouldn’t call Pokémon struggling when it still sells millions of copies.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I wouldn’t call Pokémon struggling when it still sells millions of copies.

Yeah it's the same reason as to why Madden and Call of Duty suck year after year. Why try when you'll make billions anyway?

 

[BrawlMan]

I wouldn’t call Pokémon struggling when it still sells millions of copies.

You're gonna love this.

​

Critical, you've already seen the video, so you have nothing to worry about.

 

[CriticalGaming]

You know there is something to be said for a game that is what it is no matter what.

Funnily enough we bash games like CoD or whatever for being the same thing every time. However with Pokemon there has never been anything else. Other series do try and make changes and do things differently, and yet they feel the same year after year. Yet with Pokemon people sort of expect nothing to change and there is never a complaint about it.

i have never seen anyone complain about Pokemon in that "Oh great 8 fucking gyms and the Elite 4 again. Oh look an evil team trying to do something stupid with legendary pokemon, YAWN." Instead the complaints are always about the quality of the game itself, animations, mechanics, pokemon designs, typing changes.

The formula is good and people continue to like the formula. So you have to admrie them for that at least.

 

[SilentPony]

I wouldn’t call Pokémon struggling when it still sells millions of copies.

Reminds me when Resident Evil 6 was declared a disappointment because it only sold 6 million copies and was one of Capcom's best selling games ever.

 

[meiam]

You know there is something to be said for a game that is what it is no matter what.

Funnily enough we bash games like CoD or whatever for being the same thing every time. However with Pokemon there has never been anything else. Other series do try and make changes and do things differently, and yet they feel the same year after year. Yet with Pokemon people sort of expect nothing to change and there is never a complaint about it.

i have never seen anyone complain about Pokemon in that "Oh great 8 fucking gyms and the Elite 4 again. Oh look an evil team trying to do something stupid with legendary pokemon, YAWN." Instead the complaints are always about the quality of the game itself, animations, mechanics, pokemon designs, typing changes.

The formula is good and people continue to like the formula. So you have to admrie them for that at least.

I complain about pokemon being the same things every entry, or rather I used to, I stopped playing a long time ago, funnily enough around pearl/diamond. I must have sinked well over 1000 hours between the first 3 gen, so I'm just burned out for life on the formula.

I think part of the reason there's not much complains is that the pokemon dev are really not good and I think a lot of people understand that if they tried something else it'd be disastrous anyway, they can barely handle doing the same thing years after years.

 

[BrawlMan]

Funnily enough we bash games like CoD or whatever for being the same thing every time. However with Pokemon there has never been anything else. Other series do try and make changes and do things differently, and yet they feel the same year after year. Yet with Pokemon people sort of expect nothing to change and there is never a complaint about it.

i have never seen anyone complain about Pokemon in that "Oh great 8 fucking gyms and the Elite 4 again. Oh look an evil team trying to do something stupid with legendary pokemon, YAWN." Instead the complaints are always about the quality of the game itself, animations, mechanics, pokemon designs, typing changes.

I don't know what you mean by "we". I've been complaining about Pokemon's same formula since Crystal. I only started voicing after high school. Almost no one listened or ignored, until they got sick and tired. Or they finally started paying attention.

I complain about pokemon being the same things every entry, or rather I used to, I stopped playing a long time ago, funnily enough around pearl/diamond. I must have sinked well over 1000 hours between the first 3 gen, so I'm just burned out for life on the formula.

Once you go past 2 gens, you are no longer the target audience. Pokemon always reaches another generation of kids and the cycle repeats.

​

Reminds me when Resident Evil 6 was declared a disappointment because it only sold 6 million copies and was one of Capcom's best selling games ever.

You are correct. To add to the context, once word mouth started spreading, the sales dropped off after that 6 million, yet the game had such a mixed reception that Capcom finally started to take a step back and look. Still, numbers such as that I would not call a disappointment unless you went overboard on marketing and budget. But that is not the game's fault obviously, just plain greed. Ironic enough, even though RE7 had better fan and critical reception, it did not make more money than RE6. Especially in Japan. Many Japanese players were disappointed and really miss a lot of the old RE crew. Plus, FPS games are super niche in Japan.

 

[SilentPony]

You are correct. To add to the context, once word mouth started spreading, the sales dropped off after that 6 million, yet the game had such a mixed reception that Capcom finally started to take a step back and look. Still, numbers such as that I would not call a disappointment unless you went overboard on marketing and budget. But that is not the game's fault obviously, just plain greed. Ironic enough, even though RE7 had better fan and critical reception, it did not make more money than RE6. Especially in Japan. Many Japanese players were disappointed and really miss a lot of the old RE crew. Plus, FPS games are super niche in Japan.

Its funny, I love Resident Evil 6. I think its a great action adventure comedy with zombies. Like Shaun of the Dead, as directed by Michael Bay.
Me and my friend helped his dad move a bunch of stuff the weekend it came out, and he bought us each a bottle of brandy as thanks. So we sat down Sunday evening to play, each with a bottle, and played through the entire game that night, getting increasingly drunk and laughing. I remember we got to the Deborah bossfight, and I was pronouncing it "De-BORE-Ah" like it was a Kaiju monster and we started to come up with her theme song. Just a wild, fun night and RE6 was central to it.

RE7 I never liked the look of, because I didn't like the Outlast games. Found Footage to me is a very cheap horror trope, and it just means you don't have to right an ending or proper conclusion. Everyone just dies before they figure out what's going on. And RE7 just looked more of the same.

But I do think I might get Pokemon on my Switch

 

[BrawlMan]

RE7 I never liked the look of, because I didn't like the Outlast games. Found Footage to me is a very cheap horror trope, and it just means you don't have to right an ending or proper conclusion. Everyone just dies before they figure out what's going on. And RE7 just looked more of the same.

Similar reasons, and I just don't care for an RE game in first person. If RE9 is 3rd person, I'll consider buying it. I recommend Evil Within 1 & 2, if you're looking for more spiritual RE game better than 7 and 8. Evil Within 2 hits all the right notes. Evil Within is this odd ball combination of Silent Hill, RE1 & RE4, while EW2 is a better blend of RE2 and RE3 with some Silent Hill thrown in for good measure.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

You know there is something to be said for a game that is what it is no matter what.

Funnily enough we bash games like CoD or whatever for being the same thing every time. However with Pokemon there has never been anything else. Other series do try and make changes and do things differently, and yet they feel the same year after year. Yet with Pokemon people sort of expect nothing to change and there is never a complaint about it.

i have never seen anyone complain about Pokemon in that "Oh great 8 fucking gyms and the Elite 4 again. Oh look an evil team trying to do something stupid with legendary pokemon, YAWN." Instead the complaints are always about the quality of the game itself, animations, mechanics, pokemon designs, typing changes.

The formula is good and people continue to like the formula. So you have to admrie them for that at least.

They changed things up with Pokémon Sun and Moon by taking away the gym system and giving us a much more focus main story. Plus Pokémon Legends Arceus is game freaks first attempt at a open world Pokémon game (well sort of, it’s more like open world zones then an actual open world).

 

[CriticalGaming]

They changed things up with Pokémon Sun and Moon by taking away the gym system and giving us a much more focus main story. Plus Pokémon Legends Arcee’s is game freaks first attempt at a open world Pokémon game (well sort of, it’s more like open world zones then an actual open world).

I have zero hope for that game tbh. With the level of quality of Sword and Shield, I have no real hope for a fully open world pokemon game.

If it's good I will gladly eat crow, and I will obviously be picking it up for an impressions.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

I have zero hope for that game tbh. With the level of quality of Sword and Shield, I have no real hope for a fully open world pokemon game.

If it's good I will gladly eat crow, and I will obviously be picking it up for an impressions.

I did have some issues with sword and shield. Mostly it’s story and gate keeping Pokémon from being captured due to their level. But I do think Legends Arceus looks like it has potential to shake up the formula this time. My only concern that it’s not part of gen 9 but still part of gen 8. But I think it’s own thing and not a real core title.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I did have some issues with sword and shield. Mostly it’s story and gate keeping Pokémon from being captured due to their level. But I do think Legends Arceus looks like it has potential to shake up the formula this time. My only concern that it’s not part of gen 9 but still part of gen 8. But I think it’s own thing and not a real core title.

The bad animations, and cut features from S&S are why I have such little faith. I don't care that the formula is different this time because I believe Arecus is trying to be a different genre of game entirely anyway. It's the overall production value of the game I'm worried about.

 

[bluegate]

Pokemon was only ever good during the Red,Blue,Yellow,Silver and Gold days, anything after that is trash #Nostalgia.

 

[Drathnoxis]

You know there is something to be said for a game that is what it is no matter what.

Funnily enough we bash games like CoD or whatever for being the same thing every time. However with Pokemon there has never been anything else. Other series do try and make changes and do things differently, and yet they feel the same year after year. Yet with Pokemon people sort of expect nothing to change and there is never a complaint about it.

i have never seen anyone complain about Pokemon in that "Oh great 8 fucking gyms and the Elite 4 again. Oh look an evil team trying to do something stupid with legendary pokemon, YAWN." Instead the complaints are always about the quality of the game itself, animations, mechanics, pokemon designs, typing changes.

The formula is good and people continue to like the formula. So you have to admrie them for that at least.

Where have you been during every Pokemon thread ever on here?

 

[CriticalGaming]

Where have you been during every Pokemon thread ever on here?

What do you mean?

 

[Drathnoxis]

What do you mean?

I mean every thread at least a quarter of the posts are complaining that Pokemon is the same thing every time.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I mean every thread at least a quarter of the posts are complaining that Pokemon is the same thing every time.

Really? Huh, must not have been paying attention......is that why they are the same everytime!?