BDSP On the fence but might not get this game - change my mind.

[Kit Chan]

I was looking forward to this game for Dynamax and Mega Evolution free pvp with a less overwhelming, but still varied roster, as well as co-op battle tower, contests, secret bases and ball customization.

However I'm disappointed in the complete butchering of the underground just to add a gimmicky way of catching Pokemon that are in the game anyway.

I'm on the fence about the new contests, the rhythm game could be fun, but I hear they can be a bit quick and I worry that latency could ruin online multiplayer contests.

I never quite dug into pvp as much as I wanted to in the original games due to the grind and I really appreciated super training from gen 6, though, I was relying on other people to IV breed for me and pvp revolved around the few Pokemon that can Mega evolve which put me off. Gen 7 added bottle caps, but took away super training and I just failed to get hooked on the Alola games to begin with. So I really hoped this would be like Diamond and Pearl with modern QoL team building changes so people can casually enjoy pvp without either getting steamrolled or waste too much time and mental energy, but instead they did things like making TMs single use again and it costs 80 bp just to teach one Pokemon Earthquake, with only 3bp granted per 7 battles and my brother tells me it's one of the worst games to grind in a while.

My friend tells me that pvp is just gen 1-4 legendaries or get steamrolled, so it's the same homogenized pvp as gen 6

Basically they call these faithful remakes, but they're only faithful to the worst parts of the original that needed QoL improvements and make unwelcome changes to features people wanted remakes for.

Also, I think the Poketch implementation sucks. I don't seem to recall it being a big overlay that blocks my screen in the originals, if they couldn't make it a second screen like the originals, then they should've redesigned it to something that works in a single screen game.

I want these games to play contests, pvp and pve with friends, but it sounds like they've make the grind too difficult for a sane person again and if everyone is just bringing in legendary teams, that's just boring.

 

[Norzan]

but instead they did things like making TMs single use again

I completely forgot about this. Removing one of the genuine best changes from Gen 5 seems completely baffling, specially when every game before these kept that, including remakes like ORAS and the Let's Go games.

with only 3bp granted per 7 battles and my brother tells me it's one of the worst games to grind in a while.

The ironic thing is that they want the games to be faster because apparently people don't have time and attention for a single game these days, and yet make grinding for BP obnoxiously long. Gen 6's changes to the Battle Tower were genuinely great, like how you would get more and more BP the bigger your streak was. But for some reason they changed that and made it considerably slower to get BP in Gen 7 and beyond.

About if you should get the game, no. Not at full price at least, these remakes aren't worth 60 bucks in my opinion. If you can get it second hand down the line, maybe for 30 bucks or less, then it might be worth it.

 

[Kit Chan]

If you can get it second hand down the line, maybe for 30 bucks or less, then it might be worth it.

If I wait too long, then I miss out on the Platinum outfits and Manaphy egg, plus I might feel too far behind other players like my brother to bother catching up.
At that point I might just play it for educational purposes as I'm interested in learning to make games next year and the mistakes that ruined an otherwise good game I was looking forward to would be great to learn from and identify what I would do better.

 

[Welkamo]

I've been enjoying the games so far, and as someone who also really loves Contests, I've been enjoying those a lot with BDSP (causing me to get sidetracked lol). I don't really play competitively, though, so I can't really comment on that.

If this game doesn't seem like your thing, then I say don't get it. I personally enjoy the game, but not everyone does, and not everyone will.

 

[Silktree]

There is no reason to change your mind. A game should be exciting to play.

Who knows. You might feel like playing it down the road, but not because someone pointed out some obscure detail.

 

[SlowGinFizzzz]

I ended up buying Brilliant Diamond simply because I love Sinnoh and wanted to form my own opinion, and yeah it's a cute game and everything, however there's just too much wrong it to justify the price and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna resell it after that one playthrough.

It's just baffling that on the one hand they hardly changed anything to the point where it's basically just the original Diamond/Pearl (NOT Platinum, obviously) in HD. And on the other hand, the few things they did change feel like a downgrade: the whole multiplayer/Secret Base aspect of the Underground is gone, there's no capture-the-flag minigame anymore and all you can do now is catch Pokémon and mine for spheres; the contests are a sad joke now; and even if you don't battle wild Pokémon (and barely catch any) and try to avoid other trainers, you'll still be massively overlevelled because of the always-on Exp. Share unless you have a rotating party of like 15 'mons. Oh yeah, Pokémon are following you again – too bad that not only are the proportions completely messed up, but it will also make your Pokémon withstand attacks that would otherwise defeat them, land like five critical hits in a row, instantly heal their status problems etc. The difficulty (or lack thereof) is just messed up to the point where it's no fun anymore. Also, what they did to poor Ekans is just sad.

All of this, plus the inexplicable lack of every little improvement that Platinum introduced, but also the lack of new Pokémon (or any Pokémon past gen. 4, for that matter), Mega Evolution/Dynamax, regional forms (even Let's Go had those!), the weird/annoying implementation of the Pokétch, return of single-use TMs, not letting you use your own Pokémon for HM moves... I don't know, obviously it's your decision, but I know that if I ever want to play through Sinnoh again, I'll just play my old copy of Platinum; in fact, there are even mods of Platinum that basically make it a more complete game than those sad remakes. So yeah, save your money, these games ain't worth it.

 

[dig]

If you've got Platinum and a DS, you're really not missing anything outside of an easy Manaphy egg. .

I enjoy BDSP, but it basically does only exist as a way for young kids to play a Sinnoh game. It only replaces the original DS games in that it's playable on newer hardware.

 

[Nicolas721]

I understand your point about contests since both Gen 7 and 8 have been utterly disappointing about that kind of features. However, it's possible to get that feeling of a Pokemon minigame in some other game, for example, I feel similar things when I play Voltorb flip from HGSS and picross/sudoku.

Regarding events, sometimes the people in charge of marketing want you to think that missing something could be the worst thing to happen, there's actually a whole theory about that, but at the end of the day things aren't as exclusive as they may seem. Manaphy could be obtainable in Legends or transferrable from prior generations, and I doubt any given person would use the Platinum outfits all the time when there's a considerable number of options available.

Finally, I would say that SWSH is much better than BDSP for online battling, since it has more Pokemon and easy training methods.

Those would be the things I consider if I were in your situation, SWSH and Platinum sound like safer options for what you want.

 

[Boss1708]

BDSP really has a lot of effort and love poured into it, and there's a lot of really cool content to enjoy.

The only real problem in BDSP are the glitches and bugs, but those are being fixed with updates as we speak.

It really depends on what you're looking for in a Pokemon game. For me, BDSP checks all the boxes. But for you, that's something you need to decide for yourself.

 

[Almonds]

Personally, a cute 3D upgrade with almost little to no differences from the original DPPt doesn't really justify the price for me as well. I can't help but compare it to ORAS, a game that built on an already established story, lore, and landscape.

• Aside from the Grand Underground, what is new? Being able to catch legendaries has also been available in previous games that it doesn't really feel like a bonus at this point, especially with ORAS adding Deoxys with no prerequisites necessary.
• In addition, I'm disappointed there doesn't seem to be much to do with contests when two major characters - Fantina and the player's mom - are relevant to contests. Jasmine is also in Sinnoh for contests (I don't know if she is in BDSP, though). ORAS added a sidequest with Lisia and gave the Costume Pikachus, and we get a bonus contest competition with Wallace as well and unlock a fun dialogue about his family.
• Customization is cool. But none of the major NPCs got any updated designs. Sure, not all ORAS NPCs got updated designs, but some updated clothing would have been really nice to see.

 

[Neo Blaze]

I'm kinda in the same boat, except I'm not exactly on the fence. BDSP is the first main series Pokémon games I fail to see the appeal of whatsoever. And I really do wish I did. But I honestly fail to see how a game that's almost more like a Switch port than an actual remake, is full of glitches, and on top of that has a subpar and unappealing artstyle (that last one is wholly subjective, I know I know) is worth full price or is even worth my time at all. I'm not sure I would even buy it if it was half price tbh.

Maybe if you had never played Gen 4 before it would be recommendable, but even then I think a lot of people would recommend Platinum over it. I wouldn't worry too much about the downloadable stuff. Those are mainly just marketing ploys and you can get Manaphy in different ways (a Manaphy egg not so much, but ehh).

 

[Norzan]

Personally, a cute 3D upgrade with almost little to no differences from the original DPPt doesn't really justify the price for me as well. I can't help but compare it to ORAS, a game that built on an already established story, lore, and landscape.

As much as i give shit to ORAS for no Emerald Battle Frontier (that tease in the postgame didn't helped), it did a lot more than BDSP to justify its existence and why someone should get it. Plus it asked for 40 bucks, not 60.

 

[Battista]

I just bought Link’s Awakening instead. It’s on sale right now and it gives the chibi experience too.

 

[henrymidfields]

I haven't played DPPt before, and I now think I should just skip this one, given the lack of upgrades I am hearing. I'm not exactly fond of ORAS (I still hate the Hoenn region as a concept/design, ugh...), but at least that one actually had updates to a lot of things to make the remake worthwhile.