Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl General Discussion

[EmCeeChupi the Undying]

Funnily enough, I also used Absol to catch Uxie but I taught it the TM for False Swipe, which you can buy at Veilstone Department Store. I also paralysed it with Luxray's Thunder Wave. Sleep technically works better than paralysis for catching Pokemon, but I find paralysis more convenient because you don't have to keep re-applying it. I always find that False Swipe + paralysis works very well for catching legendaries.

And almost every Sleep inducing move has terrible accuracy, so they miss 75% (which is luckily a higher chance to land that than a Focus Blast (unless you're Chupi the Raikouchu), Arkoos that move misses 99% of the time)

 

[Puddle]

And almost every Sleep inducing move has terrible accuracy, so they miss 75% (which is luckily a higher chance to land that than a Focus Blast (unless you're Chupi the Raikouchu), Arkoos that move misses 99% of the time)

One thing I love about Butterfree is that its Compound Eyes ability boosts the accuracy of Sleep Powder. But yeah, for the most part I find it a lot easier to just use Thunder Wave once, and then focus on throwing Poke Balls! I'm glad you caught Uxie in the end.

I'd be interested to hear what strategies people used to catch Giratina in this game. I tried to catch it the other day, but had to abort mission because it has Pain Split.

 

[colours]

hey everyone~! hope you all are still having fun with bdsp c:

on my end, i'm trying to make a fun battle tower team. something tells me i should go straight fossils and do cradily/armaldo/aerodactyl (or replace one of those with kabutops), but idk yet. fun idea i've been toying around with, though!

 

[Bolt Strike]

to be fair, if we're hating on the gen 4 games for this, we should also criricize gen 1's Agatha and Lance for this. Agatha uses more poison types than ghost types, and lance has several mons that, although looking like dragons, aren't actually dragon type.

Who said they thought Agatha and Lance's teams were okay? The only reason it's not being brought up is because this is a thread for a 4th gen game. Talk about a 1st gen game like LGPE and I'll criticize them for Agatha and Lance's teams all day long.

Platinum's changes to the Sinnoh Dex and the gym roster were specifically because fans saw the lack of certain types in the game, especially Fire types, and complained about them. Now they decided to ignore Platinum because reasons and, surprise, surprise, the complaints are back. In that respect, it's actually worse. They had the solution to this but they intentionally ignored it.

 

[Norzan]

Platinum's changes to the Sinnoh Dex and the gym roster were specifically because fans saw the lack of certain types in the game, especially Fire types, and complained about them. Now they decided to ignore Platinum because reasons and, surprise, surprise, the complaints are back. In that respect, it's actually worse. They had the solution to this but they intentionally ignored it.

It's one of my main issues with this remake: it's just fixing a lot of what Platinum already fixed but it's also ignoring some of the things Platinum also fixed. So when people say "This remake already has a lot from Platinum" like it's a good thing and i just go "Wouldn't it have been better if Platinum was the base and you could further improve the game?".

All BDSP did was catch up with Platinum, and even it didn't do that very well or at least it didn't go as far beyond making HMs less annoying. Why do we need a remake to play catch up with a third version is my point.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

it's not like the fact that they're remakes of DP somehow meant that they couldn't incorporate stuff from the third version. after all, HGSS incorporated all the changes from Crystal despite being remakes of GS

 

[Bolt Strike]

it's not like the fact that they're remakes of DP somehow meant that they couldn't incorporate stuff from the third version. after all, HGSS incorporated all the changes from Crystal despite being remakes of GS

Exactly. HGSS incorporated Crystal content so the notion of ORAS not incorporating Emerald content or BDSP not incorporating Platinum content because "this is a remake of the first two versions, not the third" never really made sense.

I think the real reason is that they're just being cheap because of the increased cost and development time needed for 3D and hiding behind nostalgia for the first two versions as an excuse for why there's less content. It's the only explanation that makes sense.

 

[EmCeeChupi the Undying]

it's not like the fact that they're remakes of DP somehow meant that they couldn't incorporate stuff from the third version. after all, HGSS incorporated all the changes from Crystal despite being remakes of GS

HGSS and LGPE were the best remakes that had allowed Pokemon to follow you as a feature in them because the Pokemon were
A. To scale (SwSh following Pokemon were to scale as well, but those games had awful following mechanics)
B. Would teleport behind you when a collision is supposed to happen/phase through you when you walk through them
C. Are the same speed as/always 1 tile behind the player

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Exactly. HGSS incorporated Crystal content so the notion of ORAS not incorporating Emerald content or BDSP not incorporating Platinum content because "this is a remake of the first two versions, not the third" never really made sense.

I think the real reason is that they're just being cheap because of the increased cost and development time needed for 3D and hiding behind nostalgia for the first two versions as an excuse for why there's less content. It's the only explanation that makes sense.

i'd say there was a valid reason why ORAS didn't follow emerald as having both teams pull their shenanigans makes little sense when you can only catch one of the legendaries. BDSP, on the other hand, has no excuse to not incorporate the best version of the gen 4 games.

 

[Bolt Strike]

i'd say there was a valid reason why ORAS didn't follow emerald as having both teams pull their shenanigans makes little sense when you can only catch one of the legendaries. BDSP, on the other hand, has no excuse to not incorporate the best version of the gen 4 games.

At best that would affect the storyline, and more specifically the climax. But even then, they could've at least had both teams be a threat but one actually succeed. The gameplay enhancements like the Battle Frontier, Match Call, and the new areas and Pokemon had no excuse not to be there.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

At best that would affect the storyline, and more specifically the climax. But even then, they could've at least had both teams be a threat but one actually succeed. The gameplay enhancements like the Battle Frontier, Match Call, and the new areas and Pokemon had no excuse not to be there.

the new pokemon were only there because they were otherwise unobtainable in gen 3. there was no real reason to bring them back, especially since they were all in the postgame.

other than the battle frontier, i don't recall any new areas tbh. might be because i've only done 1 or 2 playthroughs of this game; i've always preferred RS because Emerald made the story needlessly complex.

i don't remember what match call does and i never cared about the battle frontier, but i can understand why people would want those to return. Masuda has basically said that we're never gonna see the battle frontier again though.

 

[Norzan]

i've always preferred RS because Emerald made the story needlessly complex.

It's not complex in the slightest. If anything it fixed problems with the story like Team Aqua trying to blow up a volcano (how does blowing up a volcano help with their goal of expanding the sea?) or Team Magma having a water base. Plus Groudon being in a underwater cavern makes no sense.

 

[Boss1708]

It surprises me how some people are now implying that the lack of fire types in Diamond/Pearl was a "mistake/oversight" on the developers' part. It was NOT a mistake at all. It was evidently a conscious decision to have DP's Regional Dex the way it was.

Later, when they saw people didn't like that, they changed it in Platinum by expanding the Regional Dex in general (and fire types in particular). And in BDSP, they found another way to accomplish Platinum's Dex expansion, and so they decided to do it via the Grand Underground this time (whether you personally find that satisfactory or not, is another separate issue).

My issue is when people call everything they personally don't like "a mistake". Just because you don't like something it doesn't mean it wasn't intended to be that way.

 

[Norzan]

It was evidently a conscious decision to have DP's Regional Dex the way it was.

Conscious decisions can be later considered mistakes. Just because you didn't considered it when you first did it doesn't meant you won't consider it later.

The fact Gamefreak changed it means they considered it a mistake, or else they wouldn't have changed it.

 

[Boss1708]

Conscious decisions can be later considered mistakes. Just because you didn't considered it when you first did it doesn't meant you won't consider it later.

The fact Gamefreak changed it means they considered it a mistake, or else they wouldn't have changed it.

You're obviously not understanding what I meant by "mistake" here. It wasn't an "oversight", is what I mean.

 

[Almonds]

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but it would have been nice for characters to get new outfits. In HGSS and ORAS the majority of NPCs got new outfits. It might just be aesthetics, but it is always fascinating to see updated designs to characters.

 

[EmCeeChupi the Undying]

While we are discussing our likes and dislike about BDSP, let me share my favorite parts of this game:
Pichu is available early, Smol overworld models, and National dex is easy to obtain (just requires seeing every Sinnoh dex mon first)
And my least favorite parts:
E4 difficulty, Houndoom not learning Dark Pulse by level-up (wtf), single-use TMs, only Gen 1-4 mons, DP dex used, version exclusives exist

 

[Boss1708]

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but it would have been nice for characters to get new outfits. In HGSS and ORAS the majority of NPCs got new outfits. It might just be aesthetics, but it is always fascinating to see updated designs to characters.

That's true, but it's also a double-edged sword. Many of the new redesigns in ORAS were a downgrade, for example (imo).

My point is, sometimes the conservative approach of not giving characters redesigns can be better. Both situations are subjective though.

 

[Norzan]

In a game with customization and also giving the player the option between the old design and the new design, i don't think there's any excuse to not have a redesign.

The problem with ORAS and why it was a hard pill to swallow the new redesigns for Brendan and May is the fact that the game had no character customization.

 

[Boss1708]

You can't customize the gym leaders at your will, like you can customize the PC, so it's an entirely different situation.

If they redesigned the major NPCs and we didn't like the redesigns, we would've been stuck with them regardless.

Personally, I would've liked to see some NPC redesigns in BDSP, but after what ORAS did with some of them, I'm almost glad BDSP were more conservative in this regard.