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What would you have changed about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl?

What would I have changed if I could? Well, there are a few ideas I have in my mind. For example:

  • Including Mega Evolutions.
  • Adding a sub-story in the postgame, like what it's done with Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
    • Adding a new character who acts as an ally in this substory.
    • Adding new enemies for the player and their allies to defeat.
  • Expanding the Pokédex to include Pokémon that were introduced in the following generations (for example, Sylveon).
  • Enabling players to catch Pokémon like Pichu, Pikachu, Eevee and Riolu in the wild.
  • Make it possible to take any Pokémon to the Amity Square.
  • Adding a feature like Pokémon Amie, Pokémon Refresh and Pokémon Camp.
  • Cresselia is still first met at Fullmoon Island but isn't fought in the wild like in the original games.
  • Revamping Lucas and Dawn's default appearances to make them more modern, and giving the chance to unlock the classic styles.
  • Improving character customization.
  • Allowing players to use TMs many times.

What do you think?
 
  • Make TMs multi-use
  • Make the move relearner in Pastoria no longer require Heart Scales
  • Add a fully-explorable Distortion World to the postgame
  • Add the Battle Frontier (I never much liked it, but I'd bring it back for the people who do)
  • Make Darkrai, Shaymin and the Platinum outfit available without events
  • Make trade evolutions catchable in the Underground, like they were in Galar's Wild Area
  • Make all Pokemon from the Platinum Dex catchable in the Underground during the main story, rather than only most of them
  • Add an option to switch off the Exp Share, and/or adjust the level curve to accommodate the Exp Share (my team is overlevelled at the moment)
  • Make special battle backgrounds for the Cycling Road, the cities, and any other areas that lack them. Most of the backgrounds in this game are absolutely stunning, the best we've ever seen, but unfortunately a few battles (most notably the ones against your rival) still happen in blurry voids
  • Make it possible to take any Pokemon into Amity Square (the fact that they didn't do this was one of the biggest disappointments IMO)
  • Make new walking and running animations for some of the slower Pokemon, so that they can keep up with you. It gets a bit distracting when they teleport constantly
  • Ensure that the game is finished before the cartridges are manufactured, so that a day one patch isn't needed
  • And as @silurica mentioned, I'd include Secret Base decorations

Adding onto these, I'd add:

1. Bringing back every single Pokemon for a complete National Dex (I wanna use Deerling on a Pokemon Switch game, dammit!!)
2. Revamp customization so it's like Sword/Shield, with no pre-determined outfits unless you want them.
3. Make Mesprit and Cresselia stay in their locations and not roam around the region, like what ORAS did with Latias/Latios.
4. Add a feature similar to Pokemon Amie/Refresh/Camp.
5. Make Poffin cooking not as tedious, such as how ORAS made making PokeBlocks a lot easier.
6. Brought Looker back.
7. Having the National Dex be unlocked before Victory Road, like what ORAS did after you beat Wallace.
 
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Adding onto these, I'd add:

1. Bringing back every single Pokemon for a complete National Dex (I wanna use Deerling on a Pokemon Switch game, dammit!!)
2. Revamp customization so it's like Sword/Shield, with no pre-determined outfits unless you want them.
3. Make Mesprit and Cresselia stay in their locations and not roam around the region, like what ORAS did with Latias/Latios.
4. Add a feature similar to Pokemon Amie/Refresh/Camp.
5. Make Poffin cooking not as tedious, such as how ORAS made making PokeBlocks a lot easier.
6. Brought Looker back.
7. Having the National Dex be unlocked before Victory Road, like what ORAS did after you beat Wallace.
I agree with these changes except for 3 and 7. Honestly I would have preferred if Latias and Latios roamed Hoenn in ORAS like in Gen III and for the National Dex to be unlocked after the Elite Four like in Emerald, but that would be for a ORAS thread. I especially wouldn't want the National Dex before Victory Road in Sinnoh because of the whole "see every Pokémon in Sinnoh" requirement needs to be improved upon to count all the new evolutions and Legendaries so that the Sinnoh section of the National Dex is as full as the Sinnoh Dex.
 
I would have added Platinum's move tutors. This, no jokes, I actually wanted more than the Battle Frontier. Until BDSP gets Home compatibility, some Pokémon are gonna feel quite lacking in what they can use.
 
Honestly, I can live with the relative lack of new content with legends on the horizon, but the affection bonuses and the level curve are my two biggest problems with the game. I was way overleveled until Cynthia, who I beat because my Pokémon held on so I wouldn’t feel sad. Thank you Woopy Jr I guess lol, but from a gameplay perspective that really didn’t sit right. Whatever on the exp share, but there’s absolutely no good reason affection bonuses can’t be toggled on or off. I know about herbs but using those hurts me inside lmao

Also, battle frontier. Come on.
 
  • Use the Platinum Dex and further expand that. Add some Post-Gen 4 Pokemon - particularly ones relevant to PLA (including Hisuian/Sinnoese Forms), and all relevant Post-G4 evolutions to existing Pre-G4 Pokemon.
  • Make the in-story level/difficulty curve more consistent. Ease off the difficulty of the Elite Four a bit (at least no held items until postgame), and greatly ramp up the difficulty of the gym leaders and other important trainers.
  • As an extension of the above two, adopt Platinum teams for all important trainers with some Diamond/Pearl Pokemon added. Adopt Platinum teams (in full or part) for better typical consistency, but I wouldn't mind having the odd Pokemon or two as out-of-specified-type counters from Diamond/Pearl if they can fulfill the type theme or synergy. For example with Flint with his Platinum Team + Drifblim from DP, or Volkner's Platinum Team + Ambipom from DP.
  • EXP Share should be optional. Goes without saying.
  • Make affection mechanism tied to Poffins, or some other affection-raising mechanism. Actually, given how Sinnoh (and RL!Hokkaido) is more rural and undeveloped, maybe bring the camping mechanism from Galar? I really liked interacting with Pokemon and other trainers through that.
  • Add some extra substories, worldbuilding, and characters that can tie Sinnoh (and it's story) with other regions. As far as existing characters Post-Gen 4 are concerned, Caitlin, Skyla, Elesa etc (all from Unova and friends with (or at least knows) Cynthia), Professor Sycamore (who was a student of Prof Rowan), and Nanu (Looker's superior) comes to mind immediately. Given the vast natural areas of the region, could there even be a golf course added in the Resort Area for Kahili (visiting from Alola), or a race track added for Grace (visiting from Kalos) too.
  • Adopt the overworld roaming Pokemon from SwSh. While unwanted encouters have always been somewhat of a hassle since Gen 1, running away from unwanted Pokemon battles (whether for Dex collection, or finding the right wild Pokemon for your own Pokemon to train etc) progressively became more of a hassle thanks to Abilities. And there's no real reason why visible wild Pokemon can't be a thing nowadays with good CPU on the Switch.
 
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  • As an extension of the above two, adopt Platinum teams for all important trainers with some Diamond/Pearl Pokemon added. Adopt Platinum teams (in full or part) for better typical consistency, but I wouldn't mind having the odd Pokemon or two as out-of-specified-type counters from Diamond/Pearl if they can fulfill the type theme or synergy. For example with Flint with his Platinum Team + Drifblim from DP, or Volkner's Platinum Team + Ambipom from DP.
I would adopt the Platinum teams in full, only changing them to add newly added Pokémon. Flint doesn't need Drifblim because we already saw Drifblim in Fantina's Gym. And there are a few trainers on routes with Ambipom. I would give Flint a Heatran instead so that that legendary could be seen without having to go to Stark Mountain deep in the post-game's Battle Zone.
 
I would adopt the Platinum teams in full, only changing them to add newly added Pokémon. Flint doesn't need Drifblim because we already saw Drifblim in Fantina's Gym. And there are a few trainers on routes with Ambipom. I would give Flint a Heatran instead so that that legendary could be seen without having to go to Stark Mountain deep in the post-game's Battle Zone.
Yeah, that'll work too. Maybe, as far as story jstification is concerned, we could also state that certain Legendaries like Heatran aren't one-of-a-kind like how they're sometimes implied to be.
 
I would adopt the Platinum teams in full, only changing them to add newly added Pokémon. Flint doesn't need Drifblim because we already saw Drifblim in Fantina's Gym. And there are a few trainers on routes with Ambipom. I would give Flint a Heatran instead so that that legendary could be seen without having to go to Stark Mountain deep in the post-game's Battle Zone.
i'm very much against giving trainers legendary pokemon, except if there's story reasons why they have them like with N or Team Rainbow Rocket. these are supposed to be extremely rare, elusive beasts that people only know from ancient legends. giving a legendary to some random boss trainer would take away some of the magic when you catch one of your own.
 
Yeah, that'll work too. Maybe, as far as story jstification is concerned, we could also state that certain Legendaries like Heatran aren't one-of-a-kind like how they're sometimes implied to be.
They weren't exactly one-of-a-kind in the anime, and the Legendary Birds got Galarian forms. Pyramid King Brandon has Regirock, Regice and Registeel in Emerald whether or not you caught them so the legendaries aren't one of a kind in the games either. To include every Sinnoh Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex and keep the requirement of seeing every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex before unlocking the National mode, there has to be a trainer with a Heatran because Stark Mountain is the in the post-game Battle Zone which is full of non-Sinnoh Pokémon for the National Dex. There's no volcano in Sinnoh's mainland suited for Heatran. Mount Coronet has too many legendaries with Dialga and Palkia on Spear Pillar, Arceus in the Hall of Origin, and in Platinum when you've got an event Regigigas, Regice's room the Iceberg Ruins is in Mount Coronet. And considering how the snowy the peak of Mount Coronet is, that's not a good habitat for Heatran. So Heatran could only really live in Stark Mountain. And to make Stark Mountain accessable in the main story before the National Dex, all those Pokémon not in the Sinnoh Dex would have to be cleared from the path from the Fight Area to Stark Mountain, which is half of the Battle Zone, and with the Pokémon in the National Dex doubled, cutting a post-game area in half to force us to catch a legendary wouldn't be a good idea. So Flint has to have Heatran in my ideal Sinnoh remakes. Otherwise Heatran would once again be a Sinnoh Pokémon barred from it's own regional dex just like in the official Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games. Sure, it and the other Sinnoh legendaries may have been included in the Hisuan Dex which puts the page listing of Pokémon not in any regional Pokédex on the chopping block, but Heatran's a Generation IV Pokémon and not a new Hisuan exclusive Pokémon like Wyrdeer. Heatran and the other Sinnoh legendaries deserve to be in the modern Sinnoh Dex!
 
They weren't exactly one-of-a-kind in the anime, and the Legendary Birds got Galarian forms. Pyramid King Brandon has Regirock, Regice and Registeel in Emerald whether or not you caught them so the legendaries aren't one of a kind in the games either. To include every Sinnoh Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex and keep the requirement of seeing every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex before unlocking the National mode, there has to be a trainer with a Heatran because Stark Mountain is the in the post-game Battle Zone which is full of non-Sinnoh Pokémon for the National Dex. There's no volcano in Sinnoh's mainland suited for Heatran. Mount Coronet has too many legendaries with Dialga and Palkia on Spear Pillar, Arceus in the Hall of Origin, and in Platinum when you've got an event Regigigas, Regice's room the Iceberg Ruins is in Mount Coronet. And considering how the snowy the peak of Mount Coronet is, that's not a good habitat for Heatran. So Heatran could only really live in Stark Mountain. And to make Stark Mountain accessable in the main story before the National Dex, all those Pokémon not in the Sinnoh Dex would have to be cleared from the path from the Fight Area to Stark Mountain, which is half of the Battle Zone, and with the Pokémon in the National Dex doubled, cutting a post-game area in half to force us to catch a legendary wouldn't be a good idea. So Flint has to have Heatran in my ideal Sinnoh remakes. Otherwise Heatran would once again be a Sinnoh Pokémon barred from it's own regional dex just like in the official Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games. Sure, it and the other Sinnoh legendaries may have been included in the Hisuan Dex which puts the page listing of Pokémon not in any regional Pokédex on the chopping block, but Heatran's a Generation IV Pokémon and not a new Hisuan exclusive Pokémon like Wyrdeer. Heatran and the other Sinnoh legendaries deserve to be in the modern Sinnoh Dex!
why not just add a book where you can get the entry like manaphy
 
why not just add a book where you can get the entry like manaphy
Nope. In fact, I would have gotten rid of the book and have the player hatch the Manaphy egg. And I would have Cyrus catch the other box Legendary and battle you with it in the Distortion World before you catch Giratina so that you won't need a book to get Palkia in Brilliant Diamond or Dialga in Shining Pearl. That book is just a cheap way to put free Legendaries in your Pokédex.
 
Adopt the overworld roaming Pokemon from SwSh. While unwanted encouters have always been somewhat of a hassle since Gen 1, running away from unwanted Pokemon battles (whether for Dex collection, or finding the right wild Pokemon for your own Pokemon to train etc) progressively became more of a hassle thanks to Abilities. And there's no real reason why visible wild Pokemon can't be a thing nowadays with good CPU on the Switch.
I agree with all your points, but particularly this one. LGPE’s map was basically tile for tile and it had overworld Pokémon, so there’s no reason BDSP couldn’t have too. Would’ve gone a long way. Random tall grass encounters just don’t do it for me anymore
 
I agree with all your points, but particularly this one. LGPE’s map was basically tile for tile and it had overworld Pokémon, so there’s no reason BDSP couldn’t have too. Would’ve gone a long way. Random tall grass encounters just don’t do it for me anymore
i personally prefer what they did in SwSh, where there's both overworld pokemon and pokemon hidden in the tall grass. for some pokemon like wurmple, you shouldn't see them when they're in the grass, as they're too small for you to notice them, whereas others like Medicham absolutely should stand out.
 
Others have probably said it and I'm just too lazy to check, but I would've put in ALL the Platinum content into these games. DP were pretty bareboned but Platinum was a vast improvement. Things like Shard Move Tutors, early access to Rotom, trainers with Platinum teams, the Villa, rematches at the Battleground with Stat Trainers/Gym Leaders, Looker, Platinum Dex Mons (while, yes, there are some in the GU the fact that certain evolution items, like the Razor Fang and Protector, are not available until post-game while the Mons that are associated with them are accessible as soon as you get the Explorer Kit was just bad game design and purely dumb), maybe even tweak the story to include the Distortion World (or at least give us a real trip to the Distortion World post-game instead of that special "room" where you fight the shadow of Giratina Origin). Basically anything from Platinum outside of a few Mons in the GU to add some more meat to the game's main story.

Oh, also, make TMs reusable like they've been for the past few gens. That was purely dumb. If they wanted one-use TMs they could've taken a page from SWSH and made easy access TRs alongside reusable TMs so we'd have plenty of options to choose from. That was one of SWSH's biggest strengths, as the amount of teachable moves was practically doubled as a result. At least they made finding extra copies of TMs easier, what with the GU and the other additions but that was still not a bright move regardless.
 
-I'd fix the infamous troll trade in Snowpoint - that was just a really nasty trick
-Feebas should have been easy to find (like it was in OR/AS), and Poffins should have been made easier to bake
-Some of the Trainers on routes should have used Pokemon with Hidden Abilities, like the Double Team on Route 210 with a Raichu and a Gyarados could have used a Lightning Rod Raichu
-I'd bring back Return/Frustration, make Hidden Power a TM again, and add a large number of Move Tutors for moves like Aqua Tail, Knock Off, Throat Chop, Signal Beam, Scorching Sands, Poltergeist, the elemental punches, Heat Wave, Earth Power, Wild Charge, Superpower, and Dual Wingbeat
-I'd bring back the Platinum Battle Frontier, but have it award Battle Points after each battle, not after beating seven Trainers
-Platinum Dex should have been included, with no Gym Leaders/Elite Four members using Pokemon outside of their specialty type
-I'd make Decorations for Secret Bases like plushies and furniture usable like they were in the originals
-Generation V-VIII Pokemon should have been obtainable
-I'd make Thunder Stone unusable on Magneton, and Leaf Stone unusable on Eevee
-I'd have you use your own Pokemon for cutting down trees, surfing, flying, moving boulders, etc, not some random wild Pokemon that have no connection with the player character.
 
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The effects of the Shiny Charm. Like, seriously, in this game, it only affects breeding. For that, I would sweeten the Shiny Rates to almost Legends Arceus.
 
I would like to change the chibi style, but keep the world style, kind of like Let's Go did.
 
I would like to change the chibi style, but keep the world style, kind of like Let's Go did.
The world styles are indeed good with crisp details but i hate overworld encounters that can chase you into a forced battle This includes
-Gen 5 Dust Clouds
-Gen 6 Ariados and Woobat/Swoobat in caves.
-Gen 6/7 shadows that trigger encounters in areas Venipede near the Kalos castle and Fearow Shadows hovering over grass like Poni Meadow
Visible Gen 8 overworld pokemon like Sneasel that chase you when you're just travelling.
Isle of Armor Sharpedo (These have caused be so many of these battles while i was cruising between dlc islands looking for those Alolan dittos.)

I dunno if Let's Go had those but only the Grand Underground in BDSP has potential pokemon that chase you. But the games need some sort of overworld chase repels
 
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