And that's probably a regret in GF part, just like their regret for giving Toxic to everything,
-
Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon
- Thread starter stage7_4
- Start date
My guess is they simply overestimated the value of giving that much power to Knock Off, perhaps assuming more "consumable" items like Berries would be common.
I get a distinct sense Pokemon's design teams just kind of make things up as they go along or don't have the best communication across all fronts (see the wonderful handling of Ghost and Dark type stat vs STAB distribution until the Gen 4 split), so I also wonder if they expected the Gems would still be in the post Gen 5 games. Given how powerful those were they were, they could be assumed common and thus more Pokemon would would lack a Knockable item (Z-Crystals behave in essentially the same way for the individual mons, but with a trigger button instead of mandatory use of the matching move type). If you assume Knock Off to have a more even split of cases for its two BPs, then it averages around 80 BP, which isn't that outlandish for a generally neutral move on mons running it for damage rather than JUST removing items.
Probably they knew about it well enough and just liked the design sense of "you get one VERY strong attack against a given Pokemon, but after that it's jsut a mediocre attack". Might even like having a very punishing move for using items, silly though it may be.
I suspect they continue to like it so much which is why rather than nerf it (make it weaker, make the damage buff less, get rid of the damage buff, etc), likely seeing the change in item landscape if nothing else, in Gen 8 they just limited its distribution.
I suspect they continue to like it so much which is why rather than nerf it (make it weaker, make the damage buff less, get rid of the damage buff, etc), likely seeing the change in item landscape if nothing else, in Gen 8 they just limited its distribution.
ok so this is kind of a weird one and i did post about it once a while back on I think little things that annoy???? not sure tbh but other way I gotta ask again
what did pokecharms trainer card maker mean by this
what did pokecharms trainer card maker mean by this
Mail did block Knock Off but it didn't really matter, as pre-Gen VI Knock Off didn't get a power boost when it removed an item, and having Mail was basically the same thing as having no item except for the Trick immunity.
Was just thinking earlier about how comparatively early on in the series cross-generational evolutions were abandoned.
I can see a quick rebut to that coming: they haven't been abandoned. Gen 8 has given us a slew of them, from species like Obstagoon and Cursola in Galar to the likes of Wyrdeer, Sneasler, and Overqwil in Hisui, and Gen 9 will probably give us more. Cool. But they don't really count. At least, not for what I mean. In conceptual terms it's pretty plain to me that those Pokemon are considered regional variants first, cross-gen evolutions second.
What I'm talking about is the cross-gen evolutions Gen 2, 3, 4, and 6 gave us. Just straightforward "this Pokemon has a new relative now" add-ons like Crobat, Kingdra, Azurill, and Yanmega.
Yes, obviously regional forms weren't a thing back then. But there's no reason it should be either-or. There's ample space for both these things to co-exist, much in the same way as some regional forms are completely distinct evolutionary lines (Grimer, Rattata, Zigzagoon, et al) and others are simply branched evolutions (Weezing, Marowak, Raichu, Exeggutor).
Part of it may have to do with the overall shift in design ethos. Lots of people thought that Alomomola would be a Luvdisc evolution but of course it couldn't have been, because part of Gen 5's modus operandi was to break with the previous gens entirely and do its own thing. And when you're shifting regions it makes sense to come in with a new design team, who will have from-scratch concepts rather than building on the old ones. Gen 2 was designed as a sequel to Gen 1 so naturally it added on. Also, there are less "filler" Pokemon now, in that even weak or single-stage Pokemon tend to have some sort of niche to make them stand out. So there's less need for evolutions.
But still. It's just odd comparing the huge amount of cross-gen evos from earlier gens to now. Every time that the new games arrive and get stripped down by hackers people tend to ask "any new evolutions?" on leak threads and while yes, Scarlet and Violet might bring new evolutions they'll almost certainly be regional ones. But wouldn't it be cool if they just unexpectedly threw something like Thievul or Pincurchin a new evolution too?
I can see a quick rebut to that coming: they haven't been abandoned. Gen 8 has given us a slew of them, from species like Obstagoon and Cursola in Galar to the likes of Wyrdeer, Sneasler, and Overqwil in Hisui, and Gen 9 will probably give us more. Cool. But they don't really count. At least, not for what I mean. In conceptual terms it's pretty plain to me that those Pokemon are considered regional variants first, cross-gen evolutions second.
What I'm talking about is the cross-gen evolutions Gen 2, 3, 4, and 6 gave us. Just straightforward "this Pokemon has a new relative now" add-ons like Crobat, Kingdra, Azurill, and Yanmega.
Yes, obviously regional forms weren't a thing back then. But there's no reason it should be either-or. There's ample space for both these things to co-exist, much in the same way as some regional forms are completely distinct evolutionary lines (Grimer, Rattata, Zigzagoon, et al) and others are simply branched evolutions (Weezing, Marowak, Raichu, Exeggutor).
Part of it may have to do with the overall shift in design ethos. Lots of people thought that Alomomola would be a Luvdisc evolution but of course it couldn't have been, because part of Gen 5's modus operandi was to break with the previous gens entirely and do its own thing. And when you're shifting regions it makes sense to come in with a new design team, who will have from-scratch concepts rather than building on the old ones. Gen 2 was designed as a sequel to Gen 1 so naturally it added on. Also, there are less "filler" Pokemon now, in that even weak or single-stage Pokemon tend to have some sort of niche to make them stand out. So there's less need for evolutions.
But still. It's just odd comparing the huge amount of cross-gen evos from earlier gens to now. Every time that the new games arrive and get stripped down by hackers people tend to ask "any new evolutions?" on leak threads and while yes, Scarlet and Violet might bring new evolutions they'll almost certainly be regional ones. But wouldn't it be cool if they just unexpectedly threw something like Thievul or Pincurchin a new evolution too?
Last edited:
Probably inspired by feedback from DP (something we know they took pretty seriously considering how Platinum turned out) honestly.
I don't think it entirely coincidental that we went from a generation composed to a ton of cross-gen pokemon to a generation of entirely new pokemon
And after that honestly I think they just wanted a combination of:
1. wanting to do something different. Mega Evolutions, Regional variants, both of these feel like general "what else can we do with old pokemon beyond new evolutions?" To that extent you could carry that theme over to the regional evolutions.
2. With generations trending smaller (likely due to the move to 3D, though they've never commented on it), they want to emphasize more new Pokemon than old. Even in SWSH there was only 6 and LA added another 6 (also Enamorus), so I think it still tracks.
e: And if we want to be cynical regional evolutions leaves open the ability to just cut them moving forward
I don't think it entirely coincidental that we went from a generation composed to a ton of cross-gen pokemon to a generation of entirely new pokemon
And after that honestly I think they just wanted a combination of:
1. wanting to do something different. Mega Evolutions, Regional variants, both of these feel like general "what else can we do with old pokemon beyond new evolutions?" To that extent you could carry that theme over to the regional evolutions.
2. With generations trending smaller (likely due to the move to 3D, though they've never commented on it), they want to emphasize more new Pokemon than old. Even in SWSH there was only 6 and LA added another 6 (also Enamorus), so I think it still tracks.
e: And if we want to be cynical regional evolutions leaves open the ability to just cut them moving forward
I would actually personally argue in terms of the Gen 8 evolutions that Wyrdeer, Kleavor, and Ursaluna count as "regular" cross-gen evolutions in the same vein that Gen 2 and 4's cross-gen evolutions are. Those three in particular are by all means "this Pokemon has a new relative" add-ons to old Pokemon, as they are not evolutions of a regional version of Stantler, Scyther, and Ursaring, but rather a straight up new evolved form of the Stantler, Scyther, and Ursaring we know. I can understand what you're getting at with most of the Gen 8 evolutions not necessarily being in the same boat as older cross-gen evolutions, and for the vast majority of them, that's true that they are regional variants. But there are three who still more or less are in the same boat of "this Pokemon has a new relative now" add ons in the same boat as the likes of Kingdra or Electivire: Wyrdeer, Kleavor, and Ursaluna are more or less that because they are the evolved forms of the original mon themself, and are pretty much the only three "traditional" cross-gen evolutions that have been introduced in years. Granted, it's a small amount compared to Gen 4, but it's something.
Considering one of them is based on using a move, and two of them are item based, it's likely they will remain as permanent new members of their evolutionary lines for all of their future appearances, and I imagine Psyshield Bash will remain a part of Stantler's moveset from here on and the Black Augurite and Peat Block will return in any game that has Scyther and Teddiursa. Granted, the method to evolve them may change, in that Scyther will need to be traded holding the Black Augurite to become Kleavor in a traditional mainline title, and Ursaluna may become "level-up Ursaring while holding a Peat Block under a full moon", and Stantler may just become "level up while knowing Psyshield Bash", but I imagine they will always have the ability to evolve into these new forms no matter what.
I think the fact that Gen 5 itself introduced the Eviolite may also play a factor as to why they haven't introduced any straight up cross-gen evolutions since. Aside from BW1's gimmick being that it is an extremely self-contained experience with just its new roster of mons, the Eviolite is coded to be compatible with Pokemon who can still evolve. Obviously this applied to every previously existing cross-gen mon at the time since by the time of Gen 5, every mon who had a cross-gen evolution was already recoded to be not fully evolved in a prior generation so were instantly compatible with the Eviolite from the start. However, with the advent of this item, this means any mon who was already fully evolved by that point was programmed as "fully evolved" and thus incompatible with Eviolite, and I am not sure how the coding for it works but they might not have wanted to mess with the coding in the scenario that a Pokemon coded as fully evolved gains a new evolution and thus has to be recoded as not fully evolved and thus Eviolite compatible. Maybe they also had apprehensions about how a Pokemon gaining the ability to use Eviolite would have an effect on and influence their viability in the competitive metagames. If a mon who was fully evolved at one point suddenly now has the ability to boost its own defenses, that might be something they feared would make some of them too strong. Of course, this is all speculation, and any possibility could arise, but I do think the Eviolite item existing may have played a part in why fewer traditional cross-gen evolutions have been a thing since: after all, the only one after that in Gen 6 was Sylveon, who was an alternate evolution to one of Eevee's many evolved form, and there was no need to recode a mon to NFE since Eevee was already capable of evolving anyway, and only recently have they bucked the trend by bringing three traditional evolutions with Wyrdeer, Kleavor, and Ursaluna.
Moreover, I also get the feeling that after Gen 2, having cross-gen evolutions in Gen 4 was a thing because that was really one of Gen 4's gimmicks and something they felt was a distinct part of Gen 4's identity. The fact that Gen 4 introduced so many of them and they comprised the bulk of the dex makes me convinced that in addition to the gender differences thing, the new evolutions was a Gen 4 thing mainly and they felt that that's something that makes DPP unique to itself: after all, it was in the region that has a Professor who studies evolution, thus making it a part of Gen 4's gimmicks.
I also wouldn't assume we'd get regional evolutions in Gen 9 either. That seems to be a focus of every other generation mainly, as the only ones that did it in any capacity are 2, 4, and 8 (and 6 I guess if you count Sylveon). The fact that we got regional evolutions in Galar likely was a push towards hinting the existence of a new Sinnoh game (ie PLA) coming next after SwSh, and I don't think that is guaranteed to carry over to Scarlet and Violet. I do think we will get new regional families but I wouldn't be so quick to assume that we'll see new evolved forms to Gen 9's regional forms just yet, they might even try something different considering their weird and bizarre philosophy with rotating ideas and reinventing the wheel ad infinitum with every generation.
To be honest, as green_typhlosion sorta alluded to, in terms of needing an evolutionary relative to feel "complete" most of the really really dire cases were covered in Gens 2 and 4 anyway. With the GS beta we even know that quite a few Gen 4 cross-gens were refurbished from Gen 2 ones that didn't make the cut (Leafeon, Tangrowth, Lickilicky). Like, as much as we complain now about stuff like Girafarig needing something extra, can you even begin to fathom a world where Aipom, Nosepass and Golbat can't evolve? Cuz that's what those mons had to deal with for years after their creation. There's still work to be done (Ledian, Luvdisc and Volbeat/Illumise pls), but for the most part the remaining overly weak in-battle mons can do fine with stat/movepool buffs, e.g. Lumineon getting Roost in PLA. Wyrdeer and Ursaluna both represent the kinds of cases where cross-gen evos are best justified: The former was for a Pokemon that desperately needed a full refresh simple stat/movepool buffs could never accomplish while the latter had a really inspired concept for a predecessor that didn't really "need" an evolution but also doesn't mind it.
There's more I wanted to say but R_N and Scrafty largely covered the extra points I would've made. I don't think the absence of cross-gen evos for a while was ever a response to anything or a loss of confidence in the concept, just Game Freak wanting to focus on other ideas throughout the generations seeing as after Gen 4 most of the heavy-duty stuff was taken care of.
There's more I wanted to say but R_N and Scrafty largely covered the extra points I would've made. I don't think the absence of cross-gen evos for a while was ever a response to anything or a loss of confidence in the concept, just Game Freak wanting to focus on other ideas throughout the generations seeing as after Gen 4 most of the heavy-duty stuff was taken care of.
That's fair. I will just qualify that I haven't played PLA in its entirely so others will be more authoritative on matters pertaining to it than me. I'd been under the assumption that all the new mons in the game were regional variants (except Enamorus of course); to me they all seem like specifically regional evolutions, but future games might clarify that. If they're just straight-up evolutions, then yay and my post is moot.
I was actually wondering if someone was going to mention this as soon as I posted. They do seem to be averse to retconning stuff like this if they can avoid it (I posted a while back about retconning abilities and I think a similar logic applies). I think you might be right on the money.
No, possibly not. I just meant that if we get new evolutions for pre-existing Pokemon at all, they're more likely to be regional ones than otherwise.
Lumineon gets Roost in PLA, what the fuck? (Yes I know it's based on a butterfly fish but it can't actually fly...)
Do any other Pokemon do this? I just learned that this was a thing.
Basically all of the backsprites from Gen 2 do this in Gen 3, but this is the only case I'm aware of for front sprites.
Do any other Pokemon do this? I just learned that this was a thing.
Do any other Pokemon do this? I just learned that this was a thing.
Change colour, or have the same pose in different games?
Gen 2 front sprites that are just recolored Gen 1 front sprites.
Ah, right. No, I don't think there are others. So many of the RBG sprites are bizarre and off-model. And I've just compared all the Yellow sprites to the GSC ones - looks like Exeggutor is the only one, oddly enough. EDIT: Actually no, tell a lie, Butterfree's RB sprite looks pretty identical to its Gold/Crystal sprite.
Last edited:
The sprites for Caterpie and Voltorb are almost exactly the same between Blue and Gold (and by extension Crystal), but I think Exeggutor is the only one where it was the Yellow sprite that was used.
Though, a lot of Kanto Pokémon sprites in Gold have poses very similar to, and quite possibly remakes of, sprites from Blue. Marowak is one example that comes to mind.
Though, a lot of Kanto Pokémon sprites in Gold have poses very similar to, and quite possibly remakes of, sprites from Blue. Marowak is one example that comes to mind.
Voltorb is similar but not quite the same, the eyes are drawn differently. Given the simplicity of its design it's probably a different sprite altogether rather than a copy.
In addition to the ones that others have mentioned, there's also Staryu and Starmie.
Their sprites in Gold/Crystal are basically the same as their sprites in Red/Blue, but with some minor tweaks and updated colors, similar to Exeggutor.
A few of their bits match up but most of them doesn't. They might have used the Gen 1 sprites as bases but Staryu and Starmie also have the Voltorb problem where there's just not a ton of ways to pose them.
Aight time to go sicko mode and make some of y'all depressed.
Ya ever seen BDSP concept art? It sure is something.
Veilstone City
Solaceon Town
misc.
Got it memorized? Good. Now let's ask the question that's on all our minds now.
What the fuck happened to this game?
This concept art doesn't come a smidgen close to being representative of the... to put it diplomatically, rigidly faithful map design and art direction of the BDSP we ended up getting. It's all so much more grandiose and sprawling with details the final game doesn't have so much as a hint of: For example, Jubilife City and Veilstone City depicting Pokemarts embedded into buildings with floors above them. But the most egregious discrepancy lies in the Solaceon Town art, which of all the Pokemon they could've chosen depicts Mareep, a Pokemon that straight up isn't in any known version of the Sinnoh pokedex. It IS obtainable postgame... at Valley Windworks, a location that isn't even close to Solaceon or its surrounding routes geographically. If any of y'all can find a single piece of concept art from another mainline Pokemon game that makes a similar blunder please show it to me ASAP, because right now as far as I'm aware this is an uncharacteristically amateur oversight. A dishonorable mention also goes once again to the Jubilife City art which shows a Tropius casually walking around. Tropius, a Pokemon only in the Platinum dex and therefore not in BDSP's main story, not even in the Underground.
Now, I already know what some might say. "We get it Dramps, BDSP bad, but this is just concept art, it doesn't represent the final game and therefore doesn't mean anything." You can click this link for my intro thoughts on that statement. Now to back up said thoughts!
Pallet Town
Pewter City
Huh, that's interesting. The art for the settlements in LGPE doesn't depict any unrealistic, overly idealized versions of what's in the final game. In fact, it's very much keeping to the grid-based design the product itself sticks to through and through. Almost like the whole point of concept art is to lay down a foundation for the vision the developers seek to realize, for even if they don't get every last bit of minutae down they at least want to reach that general bar of scale and detail, however high or low it is set.
Speaking of which, let's also take a look at that caption in the BDSP concept art book. "The images were drawn to share common understanding of the settings' mood, climate and luminosity amongst the development team." Now it's a bit vague and flowery so maybe it's not worth reading too much into, but I still can't help but wonder why this was a needed step. Making art this intricate as a "mood setter" for a supposed Faithful:tm: Remake:tm: insinuates that despite maintaining the top-down grid structure some level of original artistic interpretation of these familiar locales was intended much like LGPE, and yet there's absolutely none of that in the final game because they just ctrl + c'd the DP maps wholesale and put 'em in 3D. The only thing you can argue for on that front is lighting, but did they really need the art team to make such gorgeous pieces to direct them on something relatively simple?
Of course, that rhetorical question is placed under the assumption that from the moment BDSP was conceived it was always intended as a stiflingly safe recreation of OG DP with little new brought to the table. And considering what I've just shown and explained I would be lying if I said I didn't have some doubts about that idea. I mean, come on, let's cut the crap here. We all saw the dismal state of the final game. We all saw the memes about its bugginess and how it needed oodles of patches to fix those up. And now with some extra info we know pretty definitively that development wasn't anything resembling smooth. Is this the production you want to give the benefit of the doubt? Is it such a stretch to suggest that maybe, just maybe some things didn't go according to plan for reasons that we may never really grasp? Because I don't know about you all, but when I look at that Veilstone drawing my heart aches, for I know deep in my soul this isn't the work of someone who knew full and well their vision for this classic location wouldn't come close to being realized.
Ya ever seen BDSP concept art? It sure is something.
Veilstone City
Solaceon Town
misc.
Got it memorized? Good. Now let's ask the question that's on all our minds now.
What the fuck happened to this game?
This concept art doesn't come a smidgen close to being representative of the... to put it diplomatically, rigidly faithful map design and art direction of the BDSP we ended up getting. It's all so much more grandiose and sprawling with details the final game doesn't have so much as a hint of: For example, Jubilife City and Veilstone City depicting Pokemarts embedded into buildings with floors above them. But the most egregious discrepancy lies in the Solaceon Town art, which of all the Pokemon they could've chosen depicts Mareep, a Pokemon that straight up isn't in any known version of the Sinnoh pokedex. It IS obtainable postgame... at Valley Windworks, a location that isn't even close to Solaceon or its surrounding routes geographically. If any of y'all can find a single piece of concept art from another mainline Pokemon game that makes a similar blunder please show it to me ASAP, because right now as far as I'm aware this is an uncharacteristically amateur oversight. A dishonorable mention also goes once again to the Jubilife City art which shows a Tropius casually walking around. Tropius, a Pokemon only in the Platinum dex and therefore not in BDSP's main story, not even in the Underground.
Now, I already know what some might say. "We get it Dramps, BDSP bad, but this is just concept art, it doesn't represent the final game and therefore doesn't mean anything." You can click this link for my intro thoughts on that statement. Now to back up said thoughts!
Pallet Town
Pewter City
Huh, that's interesting. The art for the settlements in LGPE doesn't depict any unrealistic, overly idealized versions of what's in the final game. In fact, it's very much keeping to the grid-based design the product itself sticks to through and through. Almost like the whole point of concept art is to lay down a foundation for the vision the developers seek to realize, for even if they don't get every last bit of minutae down they at least want to reach that general bar of scale and detail, however high or low it is set.
Speaking of which, let's also take a look at that caption in the BDSP concept art book. "The images were drawn to share common understanding of the settings' mood, climate and luminosity amongst the development team." Now it's a bit vague and flowery so maybe it's not worth reading too much into, but I still can't help but wonder why this was a needed step. Making art this intricate as a "mood setter" for a supposed Faithful:tm: Remake:tm: insinuates that despite maintaining the top-down grid structure some level of original artistic interpretation of these familiar locales was intended much like LGPE, and yet there's absolutely none of that in the final game because they just ctrl + c'd the DP maps wholesale and put 'em in 3D. The only thing you can argue for on that front is lighting, but did they really need the art team to make such gorgeous pieces to direct them on something relatively simple?
Of course, that rhetorical question is placed under the assumption that from the moment BDSP was conceived it was always intended as a stiflingly safe recreation of OG DP with little new brought to the table. And considering what I've just shown and explained I would be lying if I said I didn't have some doubts about that idea. I mean, come on, let's cut the crap here. We all saw the dismal state of the final game. We all saw the memes about its bugginess and how it needed oodles of patches to fix those up. And now with some extra info we know pretty definitively that development wasn't anything resembling smooth. Is this the production you want to give the benefit of the doubt? Is it such a stretch to suggest that maybe, just maybe some things didn't go according to plan for reasons that we may never really grasp? Because I don't know about you all, but when I look at that Veilstone drawing my heart aches, for I know deep in my soul this isn't the work of someone who knew full and well their vision for this classic location wouldn't come close to being realized.
Last edited:
This is of course speculation, but in all honesty piecing everything together, especially with the recent announcement that Gen 9's debut games Scarlet and Violet still hitting stores for Holiday 2022 despite PLA coming out earlier this year, I am fairly confident that BDSP in and of itself was an afterthought and was not intended to even exist in the first place, or at least what I'm trying to say is that the BDSP we see today, the "Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl" games we have right now, were not meant to ever be a thing and were a last minute afterthought that they felt they "needed" to do after several factors led to changes in plans.
I think Game Freak originally had plans design Sinnoh remakes that looked more like Sword and Shield as the follow-up Gen 8 games on the Switch, and these concept arts may have been remnants of an intended DP-remake that looked more like Sword and Shield (and actually developed by Game Freak lol), that they were originally planning to do. I remember a rumored leak even before Gen 8 was announced that a person who leaked info said during the Gen 7 days that Gen 8 would be on the Switch and have two games: a base pair of games called Sword and Shield, and then Sinnoh remakes (under a tentative name) following, which if said leak is to be seen as a genuine leak at the time, which could've been true considering they got the Gen 8 games being named Sword and Shield correct, would imply that they had Gen 8 planned out long before it started and to have Sinnoh remakes serve as the second "Gen 8" games.
And then at some point when the time came to actually do the Sinnoh remakes they planned, they likely decided to change direction and turn what would've been the FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS of Sinnoh into a Sinnoh "pre-make": a game set in Sinnoh of past, with a new story and experience. Possibly because they might have thought that the Sinnoh people knew from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum would be unrecognizable in a proper reimagining a la HGSS and ORAS in the modern Gen 8 engine, with a largely grid-based game with an intricate map design that worked specifically with 2D in mind that has, mind you, more routes than Sword and Shield and more landmarks, and they would've had to have some way to incorporate the Wild Area concept into it too without taking what made Sinnoh and ruining it. Given how different the design philosophies of Galar and DPP Sinnoh are there might've been some...issues there. Also perhaps because they wanted to pull their philosophy of surprising people with something new: Game Freak probably thought "Yeah people saw FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS and expect us to do the same for Diamond and Pearl now, but instead we should pull our surprises. Remember how they expected Pokemon Gray back in the Black and White days, but we surprised them with Black 2 and White 2? Or how they expected Pokemon Z but we gave them ORAS instead? Or how they expected Pokemon Stars, but we gave them Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon? Let's do the same this time, since they're all expecting DP remakes, but we should do a Sinnoh 'Pre-Make' instead!". Maybe it was a mix of both of those lines of thought.
Either way, this led to a change in plans and turned what would've been a remake of Diamond and Pearl into a completely new game: a "pre-make" of Sinnoh that does the usual remake job of reimagining an older region in a modern engine and updating the game to modern standards, so reimagines Sinnoh in the Sword and Shield engine and artstyle, while completely altering the experience and gameplay to align with Gen 8, including taking the Wild Area concept from SwSh and turning it into the entire game for this. In other words, it ended up being what we now know as Legends: Arceus. All the while, this new direction for a past-gen revisit allowed them to also take some bold steps and different changes in gameplay that they felt would be fun, with how different PLA's gameplay is from past ones. Instead of a "Diamond and Pearl" remake that would be constrained to align with Gen 8 philosophies, this game would make itself the Gen 8 game but become a totally new experience in doing so, and they figured a Sinnoh in the Gen 8 engine would be very different from Gen 4 Sinnoh anyway, so might as well go all the way with it!
I also strongly believe that PLA was by all means supposed to be the intended Holiday 2021 release, and that it was supposed to be released in November 2021 and serve as the 2021 game for the series, with the upcoming Scarlet and Violet serving as the 2022 game. However, it may have been delayed by a few months, probably because the arise of the COVID pandemic in early 2020 threw a bit of a wrench in PLA's development, and so because of that sudden worldwide issue arising the development was hampered by a few months so PLA ultimately got pushed a few months to the beginning of 2022, unable to make it in time for the holidays. Since they couldn't get PLA to release in time for 2021 Holiday season, combined with the vastly different direction PLA was taking compared to FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS, they had to get *something* out there to appease the corporate higher-ups and also sponge the social need for a "remake" since PLA wouldn't immediately register in people's heads as the true Sinnoh revisit a la HGSS and ORAS. So they basically contracted ILCA out to do a hard faithful "remake of Diamond and Pearl" with hard faithful map design, and make everything exactly as it was in DP so that they could say they had something to sponge the need for a Gen 4 remake, and appease the corporate overlords in the Pokemon business machine for the holidays to generate holiday sales, all the while it would absorb the need for a Sinnoh remake and tide fans over until PLA finally released a few months later and revealed itself as the true "Sinnoh remake" in the vein of FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS, the real next Gen 8 after Sword and Shield, and the true 2021 game for the series. This decision likely arose around 2020 after COVID threw a wrench in things and given the business schedule and whatnot they had ILCA do BDSP as faithfully and as hard as possible in around a two-year timeframe, which is likely why the end product ended up being so...well...sloppy...to say the least.
In other words, had things gone as planned for them, this would've been the release schedule over the past few years:
2019: Sword and Shield
2020: Sword and Shield DLC
2021: Legends: Arceus (which is what we ended up getting as our "Sinnoh Remake", but either way this would've been the Holiday 2021 game and the true 25th anniversary project and "BDSP" would straight up never have happened)
2022: Scarlet and Violet
Long story short and a TL;DR, BDSP was very likely an afterthought, the BDSP we know now was created as a last minute decision, DP remakes were originally supposed to look more like SwSh but then turned into Legends: Arceus, which is the real Sinnoh in SwSh style we have now, PLA was supposed to be a November 2021 release but was pushed back due to COVID, they needed to appease the corporate overlords to get a "Holiday release" out there but PLA couldn't make it so they contracted an outside company at the last minute to do a hard faithful "remake of DP" at the last minute and said "remake of Diamond and Pearl" was done within less than 2 years which is why it's as sloppy as it is now. The concept art we're seeing here may have originally been what would've been the DP remakes originally before they turned into PLA, if they are to be indicative of anything, and ended up in the BDSP artbook since that actually...uh...has the locations of modern Sinnoh despite not doing much with them graphically sadly.
I think Game Freak originally had plans design Sinnoh remakes that looked more like Sword and Shield as the follow-up Gen 8 games on the Switch, and these concept arts may have been remnants of an intended DP-remake that looked more like Sword and Shield (and actually developed by Game Freak lol), that they were originally planning to do. I remember a rumored leak even before Gen 8 was announced that a person who leaked info said during the Gen 7 days that Gen 8 would be on the Switch and have two games: a base pair of games called Sword and Shield, and then Sinnoh remakes (under a tentative name) following, which if said leak is to be seen as a genuine leak at the time, which could've been true considering they got the Gen 8 games being named Sword and Shield correct, would imply that they had Gen 8 planned out long before it started and to have Sinnoh remakes serve as the second "Gen 8" games.
And then at some point when the time came to actually do the Sinnoh remakes they planned, they likely decided to change direction and turn what would've been the FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS of Sinnoh into a Sinnoh "pre-make": a game set in Sinnoh of past, with a new story and experience. Possibly because they might have thought that the Sinnoh people knew from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum would be unrecognizable in a proper reimagining a la HGSS and ORAS in the modern Gen 8 engine, with a largely grid-based game with an intricate map design that worked specifically with 2D in mind that has, mind you, more routes than Sword and Shield and more landmarks, and they would've had to have some way to incorporate the Wild Area concept into it too without taking what made Sinnoh and ruining it. Given how different the design philosophies of Galar and DPP Sinnoh are there might've been some...issues there. Also perhaps because they wanted to pull their philosophy of surprising people with something new: Game Freak probably thought "Yeah people saw FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS and expect us to do the same for Diamond and Pearl now, but instead we should pull our surprises. Remember how they expected Pokemon Gray back in the Black and White days, but we surprised them with Black 2 and White 2? Or how they expected Pokemon Z but we gave them ORAS instead? Or how they expected Pokemon Stars, but we gave them Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon? Let's do the same this time, since they're all expecting DP remakes, but we should do a Sinnoh 'Pre-Make' instead!". Maybe it was a mix of both of those lines of thought.
Either way, this led to a change in plans and turned what would've been a remake of Diamond and Pearl into a completely new game: a "pre-make" of Sinnoh that does the usual remake job of reimagining an older region in a modern engine and updating the game to modern standards, so reimagines Sinnoh in the Sword and Shield engine and artstyle, while completely altering the experience and gameplay to align with Gen 8, including taking the Wild Area concept from SwSh and turning it into the entire game for this. In other words, it ended up being what we now know as Legends: Arceus. All the while, this new direction for a past-gen revisit allowed them to also take some bold steps and different changes in gameplay that they felt would be fun, with how different PLA's gameplay is from past ones. Instead of a "Diamond and Pearl" remake that would be constrained to align with Gen 8 philosophies, this game would make itself the Gen 8 game but become a totally new experience in doing so, and they figured a Sinnoh in the Gen 8 engine would be very different from Gen 4 Sinnoh anyway, so might as well go all the way with it!
I also strongly believe that PLA was by all means supposed to be the intended Holiday 2021 release, and that it was supposed to be released in November 2021 and serve as the 2021 game for the series, with the upcoming Scarlet and Violet serving as the 2022 game. However, it may have been delayed by a few months, probably because the arise of the COVID pandemic in early 2020 threw a bit of a wrench in PLA's development, and so because of that sudden worldwide issue arising the development was hampered by a few months so PLA ultimately got pushed a few months to the beginning of 2022, unable to make it in time for the holidays. Since they couldn't get PLA to release in time for 2021 Holiday season, combined with the vastly different direction PLA was taking compared to FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS, they had to get *something* out there to appease the corporate higher-ups and also sponge the social need for a "remake" since PLA wouldn't immediately register in people's heads as the true Sinnoh revisit a la HGSS and ORAS. So they basically contracted ILCA out to do a hard faithful "remake of Diamond and Pearl" with hard faithful map design, and make everything exactly as it was in DP so that they could say they had something to sponge the need for a Gen 4 remake, and appease the corporate overlords in the Pokemon business machine for the holidays to generate holiday sales, all the while it would absorb the need for a Sinnoh remake and tide fans over until PLA finally released a few months later and revealed itself as the true "Sinnoh remake" in the vein of FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS, the real next Gen 8 after Sword and Shield, and the true 2021 game for the series. This decision likely arose around 2020 after COVID threw a wrench in things and given the business schedule and whatnot they had ILCA do BDSP as faithfully and as hard as possible in around a two-year timeframe, which is likely why the end product ended up being so...well...sloppy...to say the least.
In other words, had things gone as planned for them, this would've been the release schedule over the past few years:
2019: Sword and Shield
2020: Sword and Shield DLC
2021: Legends: Arceus (which is what we ended up getting as our "Sinnoh Remake", but either way this would've been the Holiday 2021 game and the true 25th anniversary project and "BDSP" would straight up never have happened)
2022: Scarlet and Violet
Long story short and a TL;DR, BDSP was very likely an afterthought, the BDSP we know now was created as a last minute decision, DP remakes were originally supposed to look more like SwSh but then turned into Legends: Arceus, which is the real Sinnoh in SwSh style we have now, PLA was supposed to be a November 2021 release but was pushed back due to COVID, they needed to appease the corporate overlords to get a "Holiday release" out there but PLA couldn't make it so they contracted an outside company at the last minute to do a hard faithful "remake of DP" at the last minute and said "remake of Diamond and Pearl" was done within less than 2 years which is why it's as sloppy as it is now. The concept art we're seeing here may have originally been what would've been the DP remakes originally before they turned into PLA, if they are to be indicative of anything, and ended up in the BDSP artbook since that actually...uh...has the locations of modern Sinnoh despite not doing much with them graphically sadly.
This honestly feels like the best "solution" I've seen to this whole conundrum. I myself have also considered the idea of BDSP being a rushjob made as a result of an abrupt change of plans, and this seems to put together all the pieces of the puzzle as best we can with the information available. If we use Lewtwo's proposed BDSP production start date of March 2020 it seems to fit this little timeline fairly snugly considering by that point the delay would've been built in and the decision to abandon a traditional in-house DP remake woulda been finalized.
The only wrinkle is that Game Freak themselves apparently actually adapted to COVID rly well as they were one of the first major Japanese game companies to get their work from home infrastructure fired up fully. Still tho, even with that considered a relatively small delay of 2 months doesn't sound super unrealistic especially considering that some other games got pushed back a year or more by the pandemic.