BDSP Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl General Discussion

[Johnny Boy]

HM’s are truly a thing of the past. And I’m here for it!

 

[Konja7]

Plenty of new things and changes, my friend. Some are more subtle than others, but they are there.

To each their own. But BDSP is definitely more than just DP in HD, if that's what you're implying.

I think some fans expected bigger changes to justify the purchase.

So far, BDSP seems to have almost the exact same story than DP. The pos-game doesn't seem to be different either.

 

[Sakuraa]

OMG, so much great stuff in the new trailer! I said before that I hoped Amity Square would kind of be like were you go to use Pokemon Camp, and in a way it is! You can walk around with all 6 of your Pokemon and cook them poffins, it's great!

I'm thrilled to see that the Poketch is how you use HMs and I love that we get to surf on best baby Bibarel!

And I was hoping so much that Gym Leaders would use Ball Seals on their Pokemon since it was mentioned that you get seals from Gym Leaders and I shouted with glee that Gardenia had seals on her Roserade's PokeBall!

I'm so excited for these games

 

[Boss1708]

I think some fans expected bigger changes to justify the purchase.

So far, BDSP seems to have almost the exact same story than DP. The pos-game doesn't seem to be different either.

Patience please. There is still another trailer coming in October probably, and besides, we virtually know nothing about the postgame sofar.

 

[KirbyBulba737]

Looks like Gardenia's censored Masters design is now permanent. Not shocking, I suppose.

What do you mean?

 

[Esserise]

What do you mean?

Her black undershirt is slightly lengthened so as to reveal a bit less of her torso.

 

[KirbyBulba737]

Her black undershirt is slightly lengthened so as to reveal a bit less of her torso.

Phoebe still is the same, so IMO it's probably not meant as censhorship.

 

[Alola]

The best thing for me with this trailer was the updated Gym Battle music! It slaps and I've been replaying the precious several seconds of it for a little while now, haha.

That aside, I am very grateful HMs will no longer be a thing; having to make space for the likes of Defog was so cumbersome and annoying; I still have memories of level-up moves I had to forgo due to needing to explore Mt. Coronet. I hope they provide an adequate reason as to why wild Pokémon suddenly help out with this...although if I recall from the Canalave Library:

Long ago, when Sinnoh had just been made, Pokémon and humans led separate lives. That is not to say they did not help each other. No, indeed they did. They supplied each other with goods, and supported each other. A Pokémon proposed to the others to always be ready to help humans. It asked that Pokémon be ready to appear before humans always. Thus, to this day, Pokémon appear to us if we venture into tall grass.

This always stuck out to me as a child, so it's kind of surreal to see them implement the mythology as a vehicle for wild Pokémon clearing obstacles for you while adventuring. A theory, anyway.

And playing with your entire party in Amity Park looks adorable; I'm glad whole party interaction from Sword & Shield found its way into the games. I'm getting more excited with each trailer, admittedly.

 

[BugLoverCody]

Just watched the new trailer - have to say not a huge fan of HM moves making a return after disappearing for a good couple of games now. I kinda thought they'd be a thing of the past, even with new remakes that'd come out. I guess I need a Bidoof, after all

 

[Hidden Mew]

It seems HM's now call a wild Pokemon and they're stored in an app. Thank Arceus. I don't understand why this couldn't be a part of the last Nintendo Direct though. It would have been nice to at least see this there.

I think that they're generally more interested in having Pokemon news drop in trailers like these or in their own Pokemon Directs than being included in general Nintendo Directs. It would have been cool to see the trailers there, but at the same time, they also probably would have been too overshadowed by the Mario movie casting like virtually everything else from that Direct. They still might have some Pokemon news for Nintendo Directs, but I think it will be less common.

I think some fans expected bigger changes to justify the purchase.

So far, BDSP seems to have almost the exact same story than DP. The pos-game doesn't seem to be different either.

I'm not sure how much of a different story we can expect from a remake. Remakes can and have made noteworthy changes to the storyline, but I don't think that was a priority for BD/SP. We also don't know anything about the post-storyline yet since the trailers are still focused on mostly early portions of the games. They've only shown two of the Gym Leaders.

Anyway, I thought that this trailer was pretty cool. I figured that the Poketech would stick around given the artwork for Dawn and Lucas. Seeing the upgraded graphics for some of those features was pretty nice. I was initially concerned when I saw another video saying that HMs were returning, but then I was relieved when we just have an app featuring the HMs and we call upon wild Pokemon to use those moves. That is way better and reminds me a bit of Ride Pokemon from the seventh generation. I'm just glad that was finally confirmed given all of the debate around HMs. I also think it makes it extremely clear that the games aren't going to go back to HMs in the traditional fashion. Every main series games since Sun/Moon have found different ways around HMs, including remakes that did have traditional HMs, so I think that will be the standard going forward.

The improvements for Amity Square was quite nice. Being able to walk around with your full team is so cute and it's great that they aren't limiting what kind of Pokemon you can walk with. Having interactions with your whole team is just really great. Making Poffins was pretty fun in the original games, so hopefully it will work well with these games as well. They were still mainly focusing on early content with Gardenia, but they also showed off Riley.

I'm sure that we'll get at least one more trailer in October. I could maybe see them showing one more trailer early November before the games come out, but I could see them having at least one more in October. I don't think that they've shown off the Team Galactic admins yet. They've shown the grunts and Cyrus, although not Chibi Cyrus yet and I want to see how he looks in that design, so they might be saving that for another trailer. I'm also still hoping for a Giratina/Distortion World trailer. That might be hoping for too much admittedly, but I'd really want to see the Distortion World in these games.

 

[Esserise]

That aside, I am very grateful HMs will no longer be a thing; having to make space for the likes of Defog was so cumbersome and annoying; I still have memories of level-up moves I had to forgo due to needing to explore Mt. Coronet. I hope they provide an adequate reason as to why wild Pokémon suddenly help out with this...although if I recall from the Canalave Library:



This always stuck out to me as a child, so it's kind of surreal to see them implement the mythology as a vehicle for wild Pokémon clearing obstacles for you while adventuring. A theory, anyway.

I was thinking maybe they've integrated the Poké Radar into this Pokétch, building on/reinterpreting the Radar's function of "summoning" wild Pokémon, but your answer is cooler.

Just watched the new trailer - have to say not a huge fan of HM moves making a return after disappearing for a good couple of games now. I kinda thought they'd be a thing of the past, even with new remakes that'd come out. I guess I need a Bidoof, after all

HM moves are gone. The way HMs work in this game is more a function of the Pokétch - you select which HM you'd like to use, and a Wild Pokémon in the area answers the call and comes to your aid. It doesn't require anything from your actual party Pokémon.

 

[Boss1708]

For everyone repeating that "BDSP doesn't have enough new content, so why not just replay the originals?" here is all the new content that we know is in BDSP sofar:

1. Expanded Underground with entire brand new areas with overworld Pokemon in them.
2. Secret Bases work completely differently in this game.
3. No HMs.
4. Trainer Customization
5. Following Pokemon in the overworld.
6. You can play with up to 6 Pokemon in Amity Square.
7. Pokemon Super Contests work differently in this game.
8. The amount of Stickers has been greatly improved and now we have the options of 2D style and 3D style.
9. Game differences between night and day and different days of the week.

To add to all of those improvements/changes, I remind everyone that there are probably one or two more trailers to be released yet, so even more new content might be shown there. Especially in the postgame, which we still know nothing about!!!

 

[NotAPassenger]

I was hoping for a new character introduction when Cheryl & Riley we’re shown.

 

[wanderist]

I look away for one second to focus on Monster Hunter Stories and Pokemon news drops and I'm hit in the face with it lol. Just saw these important images showing up on Twitter and was like oh no I missed news.

Glad to see the Poketch is returning, don't know why I didn't think of them using it to replace HMs. Gotta admit I panicked for a sec because I thought you still had to have certain mons on your team for it to work but looks like it works more like the Pokeride in Alola. Cool way to do it. As long as that Poketch isn't constantly on that screen I'm good with this. Still catching up on anything else I missed including Legends info.

Also, the new concept for Amity Square is adorable. Basically a Poke-camp like thing I guess.

For everyone repeating that "BDSP doesn't have enough new content, so why not just replay the originals?" here is all the new content that we know is in BDSP sofar:

1. Expanded Underground with entire brand new areas with overworld Pokemon in them.
2. Secret Bases work completely differently in this game.
3. No HMs.
4. Trainer Customization
5. Following Pokemon in the overworld.
6. You can play with up the 6 Pokemon in Amity Square.
7. Pokemon Super Contests work differently in this game.
8. The amount of Stickers has been greatly improved and now we have the options of 2D style and 3D style.
9. Game differences between night and day and different days of the week.

To add to all of those improvements/changes, I remind everyone that there are probably one or two more trailers to be released yet, so even more new content might be shown there. Especially in the postgame, which we still know nothing about!!!

Honestly stuff like this is all I really needed to begin with. Sinnoh games were already pretty good besides me not liking Team Galactic much and the game being too slow and grindy for me, my main concern with the remakes were always mainly QOL things. I could understand more of the rage if Legends wasn't coming though. I myself would have preferred a SWSH-style remake, but I'm happy with the road they're taking as of right now. This stuff and the fun I'm pretty sure I'll have with the game is the only thing I really need to justify my purchase.

That said, I know that's not the same for everyone. This just isn't enough for some people even if there are new tidbits coming, and that's fair enough. Just wish some people would understand that just like this game ain't it for them, the DS games weren't that great for others instead of claiming we can just play the DS games. I have Platinium and have played it, I will take this over it any day.

 

[Esserise]

9. Game differences between night and day and different days of the week.

I'm pretty sure that was there in the originals.

Additionally, I think saying Secret Bases "work completely differently" is pretty charitable - you still just dig a hole in the wall and plunk some items down in there. The only difference is that the items you place also influence the Pokémon you'll encounter in Hideaways. Well, that, and as of right now it seems like there's actually less to decorate your base with, as there's no sign of non-statue furnishings, nor traps or a capture-the-flag minigame. I mean I guess that makes it academically true that they do indeed work pretty differently, but it's not for the better.

And then with Super Contest Shows, it's hard to say that they're any meaningfully different; they've just been tweaked to accommodate the fact that the games are in 3D now. Something like Dress Up would be a lot harder to execute in 3D with 500 creatures.

Besides, any competent DP remake would logically include the Pokétch, Super Contests, the Underground, and Ball Seals anyway just as a matter of principle, given that all previous remakes strove to retain most of the hallmark features from their respective original games. So it's not terribly surprising that people aren't going to give these games a huge amount of credit for doing things that meet the bare minimum of expectations for a Pokémon remake.

That all being said, yeah, there definitely is new content as well and I imagine there's probably still a bit more we have yet to see, and it's also quite nice to see that BDSP are addressing a number of the longstanding criticisms of the original DP (the Underground is visually boring as shit, Pokémon selection sucks, HM overload; inevitably by virtue of being a Switch game, BDSP will also run like buttered lightning in comparison, even to Platinum). It's kind of funny, in that it's like the anti-HGSS: They didn't cram in heaps of new side stuff (and I would argue that they don't overtly need to here, since base Sinnoh already has a lot of features compared to base Johto which has a lot of little bits and bobs of interest but nothing particularly deep), but they actually are trying to fix the base game's fundamental issues. I think for a lot of people, that + nostalgia will be plenty of reason to check out these games, and I think the segment of the audience that is inclined to fire up an emulator to play an older version of Sinnoh with the same old issues it's always had, just because it might have two or three feature leads over BDSP, instead of just playing the modern revamp that's readily available and glossy and new, is perhaps not especially large. I really don't mean that as a diss against those players; obviously there's a market for retro gaming or else Nintendo wouldn't have just announced their N64+Genesis Expansion Pack for Switch Online - all I'm saying is that for like 90% of the prospective buyers, BDSP are probably bringing exactly what they need to: A polished rendition of a nostalgic game with none of the old headaches and a number of cute and fun little additions.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Thank you, Arceus! HMs are a thing of the past! Granted, when I first saw the HM moves I got a bit worried. I thought that it was back to the same old song and dance with HMs again. Not to mention the PC had a Bibarrel in the party in one shot so that alarmed me for a moment. Then the lightbulb went off and I sighed in relief. Not only is this method the best of both worlds, but it truly symbolizes that HMs have gone extinct, and for that I cheer for joy.

Well, well, well, looks like Amity Square is finally not exclusive to a handful of certain Mons. And you can walk with all six of them!? That'll really satisfy the walking Pokemon groups. I wonder if all of them will pick up things like rare berries and whatnot after 200-ish steps like in the past? That'd be interesting to see. And it appears that making Poffins might actually be easier and more worthwhile now, especially since you can make high-level ones with your Mons in Amity Square.

I gotta say the Poketch returning is great. It was one of my favorite lower screen gimmicks during the DS era because how practical and useful it was. And the fact that the Poketch function is what replaces HMs only makes it better. Bravo, that was a home run. You turned a really great gimmick into something truly amazing.

Yay, I got to see Gardenia! She looks soooooooo cute and spunky! She's one of my favorites. And whattya know? Gym Leaders use Seals! That'll certainly spice up Gym Battles. And the remixed Gym theme is smokin' hot.

Overall a great showing of what these games can offer. Still not super fond of the chibi art style but at this point, with all the new features and QoL improvements I can live with it. Looks like these games will be good after all.

 

[Boss1708]

and I think the segment of the audience that is inclined to fire up an emulator to play an older version of Sinnoh with the same old issues it's always had, just because it might have two or three feature leads over BDSP

We don't even know this for sure. If BDSP has a surprise or two saved for the postgame, the game may even be close to Platinum in terms of content, (well, Battle Frontier aside).

 

[guydee]

Wait, is it confirmed that you can take ANY Pokemon into Amity Square? From what it looked like in the trailer it still has the "cute" restriction. which, fun fact, is actually just Pokemon that have overworld sprites elsewhere in DPPt, with the exception of the starters and those ones only available post Nat Dex.

 

[Sakuraa]

Re-watching the trailer, I noticed Cheryl also uses Ball Seals on her Chansey's ball This gives me hope that we'll see it from a good number of other trainers. I hope it won't be limited to just major characters, but some is better than none at least.

Wait, is it confirmed that you can take ANY Pokemon into Amity Square? From what it looked like in the trailer it still has the "cute" restriction. which, fun fact, is actually just Pokemon that have overworld sprites elsewhere in DPPt, with the exception of the starters and those ones only available post Nat Dex.

Now that you mention it, we do only see the same Pokemon which were allowed previously. I'd be really disappointed if only a few Pokemon were allowed, especially since they all have models so there's no reason to exclude them. Something interesting though is that the artwork for Amity Square shows Eevee which previously wasn't allowed in Amity Square. Maybe they've added other Pokemon which weren't there before?

 

[Esserise]

Wait, is it confirmed that you can take ANY Pokemon into Amity Square? From what it looked like in the trailer it still has the "cute" restriction. which, fun fact, is actually just Pokemon that have overworld sprites elsewhere in DPPt, with the exception of the starters and those ones only available post Nat Dex.

I guess it's true that they haven't actually confirmed it, but like Sakuraa said above, it would be weird if they chose to restrict it since they will probably have overworld models for every Pokémon available. If the original games' limitations were, as you say, determined by which Pokémon had overworld sprites, then there's no good reason to maintain a tiny whitelist of Amity Square entrants if every Pokémon is already supported in the overworld anyway.

The receptionist at the gate does say you can walk with "a cute Pokémon" in the trailer, but that just reminds me of the Celadon Gym's entry requirement in LGPE - you had to show off "a cute Pokémon" there, too, but literally any Pokémon you showed them would qualify.