Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Speculation/Discussion Thread!

[Aryash Bajaj]

Feebas in gen 3 was a horrible design choice. You get no clue where to catch it (the waterfall near the weather institute IIRC). You get no clue how it's position is changed (the trending word in Dewford). Only five tiles with no way to figure out what five tiles. And a low catch rate.

They atleast provided a braille script in the manual for Regis (but getting a wailmer and a relicanth for entering was still very unrelated and just felt like adding conditions to see the players suffer).

And the evolution method is just as stupid. Maximum beauty with a berry that takes a long time to grow and has to be blended perfectly. Then level up the Milotic to the rest of your team's level. It's not even that strong. It has 540 BST. Lower than Arcanine and just 5 more than Swampert, another water type that provides an invaluable ground immunity.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

invaluable ground immunity

I think you meant "eletric" right?

 

[Bus]

This is such BS. I can kinda agree on the first part (even though I've just seen somebody randomly catch on in Emerald during a Nuzlocke of all things), but you can't get the Regi's unless you knew how to read braille.

Who the hell had a Wailord and Relicanth in their team in the correct positions on accident when they found that seafloor cavern?!?

The basement pond is maybe 45 minutes to scour. It literally takes less time then to find and catch a Chansey in Gen1 and is less of a hassle then stuff like daily rotating area specific Great Marsh crap.

I actually did lol. My natural RPG tendencies to explore EVERYTHING when given new options (HM Dive) and catching new things kinda accidentally led to it. I was leading with a Blue Whale (My Diver) and I only had 5 spots; i happened to catch a Relicanth (which naturally took the 6th spot) and then found the cave so I accidentally had what i needed in the right order lol.

 

[Pokemon Power]

Can't help but wonder when the next bit of news for BD/SP will come out. Personally, I'm predicting sometime in April.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Tile specific mechanics should never be a thing unless they're marked in the overworld, as in rustling grass and such. It's way too much of a needle in a haystack otherwise.

Why keep them post-game though, why not let us play with the nice toys during the main story? I don't see any reason not to. Plus, can't you get them during the story on the Isle of Armor?

Because faithful remakes. They seem to view the Dex as part of the nostalgia and don't really mess with it too much. They had the opportunity to expand the Hoenn Dex in ORAS when other games like Platinum and BW2 were doing it too, and everyone was begging for it to happen but nope, just cross gen evos only. Really the Hoenn Dex had significant variety issues too (albeit not quite as bad as DP's 2 Fire types) Phoebe, Glacia, and Drake were stuck spamming duplicates. And they were more than capable of rectifying it in ORAS but they didn't bother because everyone's obviously so nostalgic for poor dex variety. The post game Dex Nav additions were exactly the kind of Pokemon I was hoping they would add to the main game and we could've certainly used them. And if they didn't bother fixing it then, what makes you think it'll be any different in an outsourced game that looks (and probably is) made on the cheap and is described as a "faithful remake"? We're probably not getting anything that wasn't in Platinum's 210 before the credits roll except cross gen evos.

 

[Autobot N]

Tile specific mechanics should never be a thing unless they're marked in the overworld, as in rustling grass and such. It's way too much of a needle in a haystack otherwise.


Because faithful remakes. They seem to view the Dex as part of the nostalgia and don't really mess with it too much. They had the opportunity to expand the Hoenn Dex in ORAS when other games like Platinum and BW2 were doing it too, and everyone was begging for it to happen but nope, just cross gen evos only. Really the Hoenn Dex had significant variety issues too (albeit not quite as bad as DP's 2 Fire types) Phoebe, Glacia, and Drake were stuck spamming duplicates. And they were more than capable of rectifying it in ORAS but they didn't bother because everyone's obviously so nostalgic for poor dex variety. The post game Dex Nav additions were exactly the kind of Pokemon I was hoping they would add to the main game and we could've certainly used them. And if they didn't bother fixing it then, what makes you think it'll be any different in an outsourced game that looks (and probably is) made on the cheap and is described as a "faithful remake"? We're probably not getting anything that wasn't in Platinum's 210 before the credits roll.

They might include Sylveon in the regional dex if they even have Pokemon past the first 493, but there definitely won't be any others

 

[Bolt the Cat]

They might include Sylveon in the regional dex if they even have Pokemon past the first 493, but there definitely won't be any others

Oh right, I meant anything that isn't a cross gen evo. Sylveon and maybe Mr. Rime, that's it.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Oh right, I meant anything that isn't a cross gen evo. Sylveon and maybe Mr. Rime, that's it.

I think a post Gen IV Fire line might sneak in to help the “no Fire types” issue given Houndour isn’t available in Platinum until the mid-point And Magmar is really all you have since Eevee won’t be evolving into a Flareon until the mid way point unless you get extremely lucky and find a Fire Stone in the Underground as Soo as you can go there and neither Pokémon are really that great after you defeat Crasher Wake. Oh and there’s Heat Rotom but Overheat is a real problem with the stat drop.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

I think a post Gen IV Fire line might sneak in to help the “no Fire types” issue given Houndour isn’t available in Platinum until the mid-point And Magmar is really all you have since Eevee won’t be evolving into a Flareon until the mid way point unless you get extremely lucky and find a Fire Stone in the Underground as Soo as you can go there and neither Pokémon are really that great after you defeat Crasher Wake. Oh and there’s Heat Rotom but Overheat is a real problem with the stat drop.

That'd be nice, but it probably won't happen. In their minds, the nostalgia of having the same selection of Pokemon as the original seems to outweigh the issues of not having enough properly distributed Fire types. It's sad that they seem to think that way, but based on how they seem to handle regional dexes in remakes that seems to be how they view the situation.

 

[Locormus]

I think a post Gen IV Fire line might sneak in to help the “no Fire types” issue given Houndour isn’t available in Platinum until the mid-point And Magmar is really all you have since Eevee won’t be evolving into a Flareon until the mid way point unless you get extremely lucky and find a Fire Stone in the Underground as Soo as you can go there and neither Pokémon are really that great after you defeat Crasher Wake. Oh and there’s Heat Rotom but Overheat is a real problem with the stat drop.

What? You can get Houndour before the 4th gym. Houndour evolves at level 24. If they keep the Platinum Dex, but the DP gym order, you'll have a Houndoom that's super effective for Fantina, Byron, Candice, Aaron, Lucian.

Fire/Dark is arguably the most effective type combo in DP-Sinnoh. You'd need something for the early game and Bertha. Volkner is neutral and you can use Dark Pulse for Flint's team (aside from his Houndoom and Infernape).

So an early game pokemon and something that beats Ground and Fire...

I mean Piplup is right there - or Buizel. Add in a Staraptor (works wonders vs. Gardenia+Maylene and has a Ground immunity and a good answer to Houndoom and Infernape with CloseCombat and BraveBird) and you literally don't have to add anything else (aside from Ice Beam on Empoleon).

Oh right, I meant anything that isn't a cross gen evo. Sylveon and maybe Mr. Rime, that's it.

Still don't get why people expect Mr.Rime. Mr.Rime evolves out of the Galar native Mr.Mime. Yes, Persian and Cofagrigus are in the Galar Dex, for which you'll need the vanilla versions of Meowth and Yamask.

But this is like expecting them to put Perrserker in the Kanto dex, just because Meowth has a different regional form with a different evolution. It just doesn't make sense to me when it's supposed to be region specific. Maybe postgame there's a Galar NPC that you can trade a Mr.Mime with, but definitely not wild Galar Mime's in Sinnoh.

I mean this was bad enough when Persian and Cofagrigus were in the Galar Dex, but at least their normal base forms weren't in the wild.

That'd be nice, but it probably won't happen. In their minds, the nostalgia of having the same selection of Pokemon as the original seems to outweigh the issues of not having enough properly distributed Fire types. It's sad that they seem to think that way, but based on how they seem to handle regional dexes in remakes that seems to be how they view the situation.

That's a presumption honestly. Faithful remake could just apply to the way they're reusing the oldschool gridbased design choice (as opposed to the Legends reimagening).

I mean there's a Porygon-Z in footage already. We really need to hold our breath and hope they continue showing Platinum dex exclusives.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

That's a presumption honestly. Faithful remake could just apply to the way they're reusing the oldschool gridbased design choice (as opposed to the Legends reimagening).

We don't know for sure because they've never said anything about why the dexes are so similar in interviews or PR statements, but based on what they've done with the regional dex in past remakes, that seems to be the case. They never add more than a handful of cross gen evos and they've had ample opportunities to do so even after multiple third versions had been providing larger dex expansions to fix variety issues. Platinum, BW2, USUM, the SwSh Expansion Pass have all added significant expansions to their regions' regional dex and availability, but remakes haven't followed that same evolution despite multiple of them coming out after third versions started trending this way (ORAS, LGPE, even HGSS came out just after they started doing this, none of them added more than 10 Pokemon to their regional dex and they were all either cross gen evos or Mythicals). That speaks volumes and strongly implies that they're making a conscious choice to be conservative with remakes' regional dexes, and I don't see that changing with this game. LA is probably more the game to look to for significant dex expansions (and it already seems to be the case, given Spheal's appearance in that game's trailer), BDSP is probably going to be relatively similar.

 

[rolf: a weird scientist]

Yeah akin to previous remakes I do not expect any changes to the regional dex from the original. Perhaps the postgame will add new pokemon in the same manner the dexnav in combination to the national dex did for ORAS.

But all remakes had all the existing pokemon included in their national dex. Sword and Shield are the only games deviating from this (with questionable reasoning) and have received quite some backlash from it. I see the Diamond and Pearl remakes as their answer to that feedback. It would be an understatement to say that this would affect whether I will be buying the remakes: with dexit still in effect people have a valid point that I could just as well start a new game in my original games.

 

[ebevan91]

I'm hoping we can visit Newmoon Island, Flower Paradise, and the Hall of Origin to battle or capture the mythicals.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

I feel like I'm warming up more for the remakes. I'm still worried that they're going to be 1:1 copies of the originals, but I am looking forward to revisiting the story again and the art style still has a cute charm to it (though I'm hoping they'll fix some of the color & rendering issues). Plus, the art style does give more room for the imagination due to playing homage to the DS looks (which was one thing I liked about the older sprite games), & I'm still looking forward to facing the gym leaders, the E4, & Cynthia (which were some of the hardest trainers in pokemon).

The only thing I hope for is that they'll have more new content and they're not exactly like the original games, as well as DLC for stuff like Platinum & mythical content or Gen 5+ pokemon, but I feel like I'm finally ready to board the BDSP hype train

 

[Divine Retribution]

Yeah I'm not sure whose idea the R/S/E Feebas mechanics were but they were completely silly and tying them to a seemingly completely unrelated mechanic in the trendy sayings make no sense at all. Hopefully they just axe it entirely and make it a rare random encounter.

 

[Locormus]

I feel like I'm warming up more for the remakes. I'm still worried that they're going to be 1:1 copies of the originals, but I am looking forward to revisiting the story again and the art style still has a cute charm to it (though I'm hoping they'll fix some of the color & rendering issues). Plus, the art style does give more room for the imagination due to playing homage to the DS looks (which was one thing I liked about the older sprite games), & I'm still looking forward to facing the gym leaders, the E4, & Cynthia (which were some of the hardest trainers in pokemon).

The only thing I hope for is that they'll have more new content and they're not exactly like the original games, as well as DLC for stuff like Platinum & mythical content or Gen 5+ pokemon, but I feel like I'm finally ready to board the BDSP hype train

I'm probably damaged, but I can't stop reading bdsm instead of bdsp. So I had a very disturbing mental image when I read bdsp hype train. (And yes, 50 shades of grey was a thing, but yeah, better ignored).

Looking at my planned team, I think I'd still be okay with the DP-dex. I'd just miss out on using Togekiss. And you'd basically have Sinnoh games where you'd have no Sinnoh Fairy-types. I know there's Clefable and Azumarill, but I'd rather have an actual Gen4 Fairy in my roster.

 

[British Soul]

One thing I wanted to say regarding the design of Dawn in particular (since no-one has brought it up) is that the bracelet she is wearing in these games resembles the bracelet she wore in the anime, and whilst I'm on the note of cross-media references, I like that the statue in Eterna City takes inspiration from the statue in the Adventures manga.

 

[janejane6178]

One thing I wanted to say regarding the design of Dawn in particular (since no-one has brought it up) is that the bracelet she is wearing in these games resembles the bracelet she wore in the anime, and whilst I'm on the note of cross-media references, I like that the statue in Eterna City takes inspiration from the statue in the Adventures manga.

This bracelet is different from the one she had in the original DP games?

 

[Kansas_Rocks!]

All I'm wondering about is how the Poketch will work. The original games had a heavy focus on it, with all extraneous mechanics put on it. I know we have SwSh, which has the Rotom Phone as the menu and it's just hidden away until you need it, but the Poketch being there at all times whether you wanted it or not is, at least to me, part of the charm of the 4th gen games.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

All I'm wondering about is how the Poketch will work. The original games had a heavy focus on it, with all extraneous mechanics put on it. I know we have SwSh, which has the Rotom Phone as the menu and it's just hidden away until you need it, but the Poketch being there at all times whether you wanted it or not is, at least to me, part of the charm of the 4th gen games.

My guess is you press a button (maybe Y like the Y-Comm) to open it.