Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Reviews
Pokémon Shining Pearl effortlessly captures the essence of the classic handheld titles. And while there is plenty of new content and Pokémon to discover, it can’t help but seem stuck in the past somewhat. Frequent random encounters, a bland story structure and a low level of difficulty can quickly drag down the experience.
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.
Pokémon Shining Pearl was a nice way to revisit the Sinnoh region, and would be a great introduction to anyone new to the Pokémon series. For any returning players, the lack of what could be considered a “Legacy Mode,” letting players turn off the full party XP share, can take away from the “challenge” of the game. All around it was plenty enjoyable and definitely made more for fans who want to continue their adventure post-game and hunt shiny Pokémon.
It's a 'remake' of the 4th generation Pokémon games - often called the masterpiece of the series. But I think this is more of a 'remaster'. Although graphics and convenience functions were improved, many of problems from the original were intactly ported rather than fixed. Besides, it is a full-price title. I doubt that the developers really loves Pokémon. It was an important moment to build up Pokémon franchise's era to new heights again, but this work was released as a spin-off which even fans of the franchise are hard to like. It's a shame.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl do the bare minimum to justify their current release. No doubt they add some new features and quality of life elements missing from the originals, but some of these are poorly implemented and many of the problems in the base games remain untouched. Without a doubt it's a good game and another good adventure in this ever fascinating universe, but we expected more from the remake of one of the most popular generations of Pokémon.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
As ILCA’s first project for The Pokémon Company, this is a solid showcase of their skills! The new additions and changes to this version are definite improvements, even if it means a large amount of your journey will be an easy jaunt across the Sinnoh region. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl is a faithful remake of the original game that will surely be a nostalgic trip down memory lane for many of you! So if you’ve either never played the original version or want to relive your time with it, this is an easy recommendation. However, if you’re not a fan of the Pokémon franchise, this game won’t change your outlook, as it plays too safe and doesn’t take too many risks to the established formula.
Without fondness for the original games, you might find Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond less than compelling. With it, though? You’ll be fine as long as your expectations are in check. They’re faithful remakes!
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl do a very good job at fulfilling their primary mission: to bring the fourth generation of Pokémon to the contemporary age. They should have gone further, though, as the lack of creative freedom and clinging to the original formulae happen at the expense of adding new elements. This is not to say that this effort is not a great addition to the Nintendo Switch catalogue, far from that - what made the original games fantastic is still here and there are indeed improvements to some of the original mechanics, but the approach followed was perhaps a tad too conservative for what's expected of a Pokémon remake.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
When those bugs end up being the best way to prepare for the aforementioned battle tower and make up for the lack of QOL features, that’s even more silly, and sadly, does ultimately lead to these remakes not feeling nearly as Shining as they could have been, despite the amount of love and polish in other areas of the game that’ll definitely make these my preferred method of replaying Sinnoh for years to come. Still, I couldn’t help but also wish these just got the extra polish they desperately needed.
These remakes are totally serviceable and a very good time for any Pokémon fan out there. There is however a nagging sense that more perhaps could have been done, especially for fully priced releases. The Pokémon franchise is big, the company behind these games makes millions off of these and yet there is a feeling time and time again that we're not getting the full AAA experience that such selling numbers should warrant, and this is seen very plainly in how technically dated these games look, even if artistically speaking they are still super cute. We are pleased with these remakes for sure, they're jolly good fun... but we're not impressed and this has to change in the future for the franchise!
In the end, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are remakes which are bound to pass without impact. They do a fine job at bringing the fourth generation of Pokémon into a new era, but fall short when it comes to being the definitive version of Sinnoh. It's fine that it's a faithful recreation, but I wish ILCA had gone the extra mile by daring to add things we saw in Platinum. After all, it's not a good thing that a remake leave us yearning for things that a 2009 game did.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl show that not all remakes are worth playing if you have the originals on hand.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are extremely faithful remakes that provide a great entry point to the Sinnoh region for new players and a trip down memory lane for established fans, but a lack of new features or content will leave some players wanting more.
Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl bring Generation IV to Switch, warts and all - along with a new set of strengths and weaknesses.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remake the original Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo Switch. They're still lengthy, fun Pokemon adventures, but not much has been added, and even the remade graphics are showing their age.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have their flaws and are not particularly ambitious remakes, but they’re somehow still fun. I don’t regret the 25 hours I spent with the main story of Brilliant Diamond, and there is enough post-game content to keep me interested for a while longer.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes that stick a lot to the original works, which turns out to be their worst mistake.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl play it safe, faithfully remaking two classic DS games -- at times to a fault.
Its new features may not be truly revolutionary, and it may still have its fair share of repetitive and time-consuming moments, but it’s a faithful take on a well-loved game, and should certainly keep players busy until Pokémon Legends: Arceus arrives in January.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes of good games, with some excellent quality of life changes. But Nintendo has applied those changes inconsistently throughout.