Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Reviews
Despite some rough edges, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the best of modern and classic Pokemon.
As far as what a remake/remaster should accomplish, it's hard to view Brilliant Diamond as anything short of an absolute failure.
If you’re a newcomer or an existing Gen 4 fan, you’ll still have plenty of fun with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. There are noticeable quality-of-life improvements, the Grand Underground is enjoyable, battling against friends is always a joy and there remains an entertaining story. Personally, I just think there’s room for improvement.
15 years later the remake of Diamond e Pearl are good entries for a new generation of players, but it lacks important features to most dedicated players of the franchise.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Really, that’s the question at the core of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s identity. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a necessary game, as it doesn’t change things up in a meaningful way. With Legends on the horizon, it might be tempting to skip it all together. What it is is a very familiar and self contained game. With all the interconnectedness of Pokémon GO, Sword and Shield, and Pokémon Home; it’s nice to have something that feels removed and “complete” on its own. That might take a little cognitive adjustment on what “complete” means when it comes to Pokémon, but for me personally I never felt like BDSP was missing anything essential.
As it stands, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are faithful remakes in terms of storyline and post-content material. However, there are real issues here with the game’s level balancing, pared down content and overall user experience that does not go unnoticed. There’s no denying that these games are still enjoyable, especially for youngsters that haven’t experienced the originals. But for veterans yearning for a polished remake, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are a beautiful disaster.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are no revolutions, nor do they alter the idea behind the originals. They, however, have managed to give me lots of fun. Maybe it’s the sentiment, or, maybe, this old-school DS gameplay is just better for me? I recommend Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to all newcomers wanting to start their adventure in this vast world.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearle are a remake of the DS games from 2006. The game has had a major visual upgrade and feels like new. The controls are still simple and self-explanatory. It is also wonderfully nostalgic for the old fan and it will also know how to entertain the newcomers. There is certainly no lack of fun. Diamond & Pearle only differ in a few exclusively findable Pokémon and does exactly what you can expect from a Pokémon game.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Pokemon Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond, despite ignoring some of the original's issues, is a great remake that runs remarkably well and sports excellent visuals.
Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokemon Company have made some odd decisions with pricing their products lately. Unfortunately, for many fans, these remakes were a bad omen that these trends will continue. The series has been criticized as being stagnate, and even going backward with things like Dexit. New and casual players likely won’t notice or care that the quality of the games has gone down with the last couple of releases. However, longtime fans are feeling increasingly disappointed, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have done nothing to assuage that.
Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl bring Generation IV to Switch, warts and all - along with a new set of strengths and weaknesses.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are fine enough remakes for reliving some memories and sharing them with the next generation. But beneath the glow of nostalgia, there's a carelessness about their build that makes them fall short of expectations.
Pokémon is back with two fantastic remakes that are sure to act as comfort food for newer and older fans alike.
Pokémon brilliant diamond and shining pearl presented a wonderful and beautiful improved version with a wonderful world with a three-dimensional drawing style. It was a very beautiful addition to the game. Its biggest drawback was the presence of technical problems in it, but this did not prevent me from enjoying it. It gave me a very nice experience being a fan of Pokémon games and the JRPG genre
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl refreshes the setting, eliminates some of the tiring elements, expands well-known systems, but... The time will come for revolutions. It's a nice, though far too easy, production.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl honor the roots of the source material and elevate it in many ways. Marking a very welcome return to top-down aesthetics, the remakes rescue some of what made Pokémon special a few years ago. Problems that can already be considered structural in the series continue to exist, but hinder them in a less glaring way than in other more recent titles. It's worth remembering Sinnoh on Nintendo Switch and trying to catch all the little monsters again.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Brilliant Diamond lacks ambition and will frustrate fans of Pokémon Platinum more than it pleases. Still, an extremely faithful classic Pokémon remake might be just what we need before Game Freak wildly changes up the formula with 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is an improvement on the DS originals, even if Platinum still has the edge overall. There are some promising signs that developers other than Game Freak, even when under what could be a similar budget, can address some of the concerns fans have. The “chillax” JRPG series is still doing its thing, but there’s a little more challenge on cart if you want it.
If you're in the mood to pick your Starter, defeat the eight gym leaders and then win the Pokémon League, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will scratch that itch of yours. But don't expect more than that. The introduction of Hideways in grand undeground expands pokédex, but lately they're a pain in the ass to cover the fact that these remakes virtually ignore all pokémon platinum enhancements and content.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Overall, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are perfectly decent Pokémon games, but feel like a significant step back when compared to newer titles and the quality of previous Pokémon remakes. It relies too heavily on the Pokémon formula always providing a decent game, but doesn't bring much else to the table.