And that's it folks - I've beaten the main story for Brilliant Diamond! Victory Road was a bit confusing but nothing outrageous, got my team to Level 60 or so in time to crush Barry with relative ease and take on the final battles! I can't remember too well how they went, but they were definitely more challenging than any other fight I've come up against so far.
Aaron was taken down by Magmortar, Rhyperior, Electivire and Togekiss with no major challenges there except Heracross threatening the 2HKO with Rock Slide on Togekiss. Bertha was destroyed by Roserade, Rhyperior and Empoleon - 4x weaknesses and low Special Defense worked wonders there (plus Rhyperior beat Sudowoodo without major problem). Flint was fairly tricky actually due to Rapidash knowing Hypnosis, Lopunny being surprisingly tanky, Drifblim being faster than Electivire no matter what and Infernape having a Focus Sash? But we made it all the same. Lucian wasn't too bad although Mr. Mime setting up Light Screen was a chore but a combination of Roserade, Magmortar, Empoleon, Electivire and Rhyperior nailed it. Cynthia was also quite challenging, and I had hoped to have my team each take down one of her Pokemon but it wasn't quite meant to be. Rhyperior beat Spiritomb, Roserade beat Gastrodon and Roserade (Empoleon helped with the latter), Electivire beat Milotic, Magmortar beat Lucario despite having to be switched into Aura Sphere and Togekiss was meant to beat Garchomp... but I think it got crit by Poison Jab and was KOed, so Empoleon did the affection "survive on 1HP" thing and KOed back with Ice Beam. And that's it!
I don't really know how I feel about BDSP now that I've cleared the main story? I like that it's a simple fun way to play Sinnoh on the latest console since the original DP is so slow, but it is rather easy with the Exp. Share on all the time for all team members alongside the game not scaling for that. It's a bit like Let's Go in that sense, which is fine (although I thought Let's Go scaled its levels fairly well). It's a very pretty game and I like the chibi art style more than I did when first revealed, but the battle animations are starting to wear on me now a bit in terms of the effort made there (watching Empoleon use Surf and just seeing the whole sprite move upwards as if jumping is bleh). It's just
fine, where SwSh was "good", Let's Go was "decent" and Legends: Arceus I hear is "amazing". So... yeah.
I'm not done with the game at any rate - so much left to do! Which includes...
- Complete the Pokedex (all 493 Pokemon)
- Beat all the gym leaders again
- Clear the Elite 4 & Cynthia on their highest difficulty
- Beat Palmer at his strongest (Singles 49 - I'll be ignoring Masters)
- Compete in a Contest
After that I'm considering the file complete and I will move on to Legends: Arceus, which I've still not played in-depth yet.
Brilliant Diamond Team:
Royal the Empoleon
♂
Level 64 | Hardy Nature | Torrent
Surf / Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Flash Cannon
Bandit the Roserade
♀
Level 63 | Lonely Nature | Natural Cure
Giga Drain / Shadow Ball / Dazzling Gleam / Sludge Bomb
Amaterasu the Magmortar
♂
Level 63 | Calm Nature | Flame Body
Flamethrower / Psychic / Mach Punch / Thunderbolt
Titan the Rhyperior
♀
Level 63 | Brave Nature | Solid Rock
Earthquake / Megahorn / Avalanche / Rock Slide
Virtue the Togekiss
♂
Level 65 | Gentle Nature | Serene Grace
Dazzling Gleam / Grass Knot / Flamethrower / Air Slash
Raijin the Electivire
♂
Level 64 | Rash Nature | Motor Drive
Thunderbolt / Ice Punch / Earthquake / Psychic
Can't speak for how good my team was when every member basically 1-2HKOed everything they battled and I can count on one hand how many times any of them were KOed, but these are some of my favourite Sinnoh Pokemon of all time and I'm glad I got a chance to use them all! Heck Electivire is my favourite Pokemon of all time so using my Raijin was awesome. I have no regrets using this squad, they're rad and I recommend!