Do you think BDSP is an underrated Pokemon game?

[Boss1991]

Like every Pokemon game, BDSP has its flaws. But I feel like the flaws of BDSP have been greatly exaggerated by some people, which is unfair. I think BDSP does a lot more things right than wrong, and in general, it is a really underrated game.

What's your opinion? Do you think BDSP is underrated?

 

[Satoshi & Touko]

Nope. I think the games are repulsively overrated. They are not worth playing unless you never played the originals given that they're basically just the same games with some spit 'n' shine.

 

[Boss1991]

I don't see how BDSP can be considered "overrated", given how much a part of the fandom seems to hate this game.

I think it's an underrated game.

 

[Tsukisha]

Eh, not really... I think they're rated in the right way.
Another big flaw to me is how they aren't in any way compatible with Sword/Shield. I did enjoy them, but they seem rushed for the most part.

 

[GLTSRY]

It’s a 2021 game released for 60 bucks that somehow manages to be inferior to Platinum.

I wish I’d have just played Platinum again.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think that they get flack for not being some reimagining of the original games and not having any Pokémon introduced after Gen 4 in the games but BDSP have things that make them worth playing. The Underground and way to get Spiritomb is much better and less aggravating to do since you need to talk to special NPCs now to get Spiritomb and the caverns are visually appealing to look at especially the crystal and lake/pond rooms. The games also made it much less annoying to explore Mt Coronet with HMs being on the Pokétch and thus easier to battle Cyrus at Spear Pillar since you won’t have an HM slave that is taking up valuable space in your party and won’t do much damage to Cyrus’ Pokémon

 

[Boss1991]

It’s a 2021 game released for 60 bucks that somehow manages to be inferior to Platinum.

I wish I’d have just played Platinum again.

I don't think BDSP is inferior to Platinum, personally. Both games have their strengths that the other game doesn't have. And I personally prefer BDSP over Platinum because of no HMs, more challenging Battle Tower, vastly improved Grand Underground, following Pokemon, (some) Trainer Customization, more player-friendly Super Contests, bigger variety of Stickers, Ramanas Park, etc

 

[Pathfinder]

I think people's criticisms of bdsp are fair, but I also think they'll age better than most of the Pokémon switch games because of their art style.

 

[Ishiftyounot]

I don't think the game is rated at all, they're okay but not amazing. Probably the worst remake we've gotten so far - FireRed/LeafGreen updated Kanto quite substantially and added in the Sevii Islands, HeartGold/SoulSilver would be perfect if not for the atrocious level curve and mediocre re-distribution of Johto Pokemon, ORAS I personally don't like much but Mega Evolution + the Delta Episode was great, Let's Go was the first Pokemon game on the Switch and looks amazing (capture mechanics are hit-or-miss though) and then there's BDSP. It has one of the most challenging end-games of any Pokemon game, the post-game rematches were actually decently thought out, the Grand Underground was a reasonable space to include the Platinum-exclusive Sinnoh Pokemon (although excluding some was silly), battles had decent backgrounds, HMs were made no longer necessary and it's 3D Sinnoh but fast! That's where the positives end I think, but there's a few.

Game should have been a Platinum remake but split into two in the spirit of the original DP games, as many have said before.

 

[Auraninja]

In a sense, I feel like they are underrated in that people hate them a bit too much. I didn't think they were amazing Pokemon games, but I did feel like they were entertaining enough. I have a few complaints, but most of that deals with the glitches (though I think those are overstated), the enormous patch after how the game was initially shopped, and on a personal note, the friendship not maxing before 255, making the hax benefits sort of just happen more often over time. I actually used bitter herbs in the Elite 4 just to keep the battles a bit more even over time. A few other minor nitpicks to note, is that you can't decorate a Secret Base like you could in ORAS, and good luck finding the Pixie Plate. Besides that, despite the few changes the game makes, I thought they were good inclusions, like the Grand Underground caverns, the clothing shop, and Ramanas Park. Post game especially lets you dive into a wealth of more content, which was true for the DS games, and it's true here as well. What is different in these titles is that the QoL is so much better. No more 12 seconds for watching Lv. 100 Blissey's health drain, and you don't have to stick lame HMs on Pokemon to get everywhere. I didn't mind it so much in ORAS, but because Sinnoh feels scattered in its HM usage, you have to use them in all different places.

I guess the other thing I'll note is that Sinnoh is one of my least favorite regions. BDSP were fun enough to warrant the revisit, but a simple remake doesn't make my least favorite region my favorite all of a sudden. Legends Arceus re-imagined the region in Hisui, which was significantly different, but familiar.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

BDSP aren't my favorite games, but I can see some good qualities and see them second to Platinum as the better Sinnoh experience (not counting Legends). Plus, FR/LG left such a bad taste in my mouth when I first played them that it takes a lot for me to consider any other pokemon game "the worst."

Give it a couple decades though and BDSP will have a chunky fanbase crawling out of the woodworks

 

[Ignition]

Eh. BDSP are better than LGPE & SWSH but I still think the criticisms are justified. I’d still rather play Platinum either way.

 

[Shayminslicker]

Yes. BDSP aren't the best Pokemon games to hit the scene, and they're kinda disappointing remake wise, but it's not all bad for these two games if you ask me. In my opinion, these games are harder than the originals. From what I experienced the AI is more competent and the Gym Leaders/Elite 4 actually use competent move sets against you. I'm not even taking the rematch fights into consideration, here. The first fights can be challenging if you aren't prepared for them.

I also love that you are able to customize your character in this game. The options are sort of limited, but it's a welcome addition nonetheless. I could list a lot of other things, but these games have a few things that make playing them worth one's time.

 

[Luthor]

For me it was a lot of fun to play and they did make a few interesting additions. However looking back there are also clear flaws. For example I found the gym leader rematches to be a lot of fun. However a clear flaw was all the TMs were breakable and given that formally HM moves like surf were now breakable (where they were not in diamond and pearl) While you didn't need them to move obstacles out of the way (as these were done by wild pokemon) the fact that they were now single use became somewhat annoying as those moves couldn't be used throughout the game easily by as many pokemon. I don't think it was as terrible as some people claim but it could have been a bit more.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

No, I think it is rated fairly. This seems to be a very lazy and bare minimum remake, worse than every other remake except LGPE (which suffers from many of the same issues but adds a few more due to the mobile influence). The base game is good, but there's so much of the game that's heavily outdated and the game is far from the definitive Sinnoh experience that it should be given that all of the previous Sinnoh games are 14+ years old and no longer accessible. Selling this as a $60 retail game also seems inappropriate when the likes of SwSh, LA, and SV do far, FAR more than BDSP does, this feels like it should be a $20-$30 eShop game instead.

 

[eskchan]

No, I think they deserve it, they're very bad remakes. There are a few miniscule updates, but everything else is either just like the originals, or worse. When they make a remake, it should be the definitive version that you would want to play. There's no reason except Nostalgia to play Red and Blue over Firered or Leafgreen, same for Heartgold and Soulsilver and ORAS. They usually add new content, retroactively add some newer pokemon, overhaul the experience to make it feel more modern, and add some new game mechanics to make things fresh.

But here? There's no reason to play BDSP over Platinum. Platinum has way more content for some reason, Platinum is missing a few quality of life updates, but otherwise is just a superior game. And that's sad. This game is so identical to the originals that it could basically be just a filter for the originals. There's no new pokemon ported back to BDSP, there's not really any new content, in fact it's actually missing content, especially compared to Platinum. It has a few quality of life updates but some things are just straight up less convenient than the originals.

They're okay-ish Pokemon games at best, but straight up bad remakes. There's not a single reason except MAYBE the graphics to play this over Platinum. And even those are meh at best.

 

[Palamon]

They're not overrated. They're not underrated, either. Underwhelming fits best for these games. They were rushed out the door and clearly unfinished. Even Serebii himself had nothing good to say about these games and he owns this website.

So, no. They're neither overrated nor underrated, they're just below average games that released before they were clearly ready.

 

[Ryker101]

Nahh wouldn’t say so

 

[Espeonite]

No it just brought nothing new to the table storywise.

 

[Baggie_Saiyan]

They're rated just fine. One could probably make an argument that FRLG are the worst remakes though, that was 1:1 also but lacked animated sprites, stopped evolutions, restricted transfers until post game and even then required a cumbersome mini quest. People just seem to have nostalgia goggles for them (I'd also argue HGSS is slightly overrated too since it runs off Gen 4's slow af engine, I also think ORAS was ruined Gen 3 with all the mega BS)