Jeez, 5+ pages in a few days. Well, better start with my thoughts on the Direct.
I'm actually going to skip the trailer and focus on the info dump segment first, but then go back to the trailer incase there's anything I noticed that they didn't mention. I'll also be splicing in information from the
main website:
- 0:00: I guess I should start with the obvious thought: THANK ARCEUS IT SHOWED NEW STUFF! Now we can finally put the worry it's a 1:1 remake behind us... mostly.
- 10:29: AND we follow that with the first disappointment: No character redesigns confirmed (can't even say it's nice to see them done in 3D models because Masters beat them to it!). Protags look the same, Rivals look the same, Gym Leaders look the same, Champion looks the same, and villain team boss looks the same. A small part of the fun of the remakes was seeing how they reimagined the protags and notable NPCs, they've done it with all the other remakes so why stop now? Well, I say there's no redesigns... *looks over to Legends: Arceus*. But still, those are ancestors of characters we know, why not also have the characters we know have modern redesigns in the remakes. I just don't get the art direction for this game, is it really because a 3rd party is developing it?
- 10:44: Wait, are they finally going to do something with the shrine in Celestic Town?
- 10:52: Hm, something about Professor Rowan doesn't look quite right as a chibi.
- 10:59: Well I'll give them this, the overworld models are at least expressive in cutscenes.
- 11:48 (Grand Underground): The Underground was one of the locations I was most interested in knowing if they were going to expand upon it, and boy did they! Well, at least one part of it. It looks like the original features (and even sprites) are still there, at least for the digging. When they showed the Secret Base part they only showed Pokemon statues and not any of the other neat things you were able to setup in there. Like, wishing they brought over everything they did for ORAS's Super Secret Bases I know is a false wish, but I hope them showing off the staties doesn't mean that's the only thing you can set up in the Secret Base. The main website doesn't ease this worry, if anything enforces it! Anyway, one thing noted about the Secret Bases is that the orb in it kept changing color, and I may have an idea what it means. Going back to the statues, placing them in your Secret Base plays a pivotal role in the new Grand Underground mechanic: Secret Hideaways! There's actually Pokemon to catch in the Underground (and they're visible on the field instead of random encounters) with some being exclusive to the Hideaways... which I'm guessing is going to be the Pokemon who were not originally part of the DP dex (including the Platinum additions?). Anyway, the main site has a map which shows the layout of the Grand Underground and it looks like there's 6 self-contained areas with their own environment. HOWEVER, if you watch the video, you see the player entering an icy Hideout even though they don't look to be in the upper area. I think the color of the orb in your Secret Base, affected by what Pokemon statues you have, may determine what environment the Hideaways are: blue is water grotto, green is meadow, red is volcanic, gray/white is icy, etc.. Which means Sinnoh may have more Fire-types available and have Ice-types available early on (among other uncommon Types)!
- 12:27 (Capsule Decoration & Stickers): Good to see Seals are back, though now they're being called Stickers? Alright *shrugs*. The site goes into more important detail. In the original games you can only place 8 seals and they activated in order of placement. In BDSP, you can now have 20 Stickers! How it works that after placing them in the Poke Ball Capsule (which can either be done on a 2D grid or a 3D ball model you rotate, nice options to have), looks like when a Pokemon is sent out all the stickers activate and where the sticker is placed on the Capsule has it show up on the modified send out animation. Interesting idea, if its as dynamic as I'm thinking it could be than I can see players spending a lot of time to get their Pokemon's send out looking spectacular.
- 12:50 (Clothing Sets & Player Appearance): Oh, wow, something BDSP is doing better than ORAS: Player Customization! Well, sort of. It's more in-line with Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee's customization where you have entire clothing sets instead of letting you mix & match. But hey, it's more than what ORAS offered to May and Brendan! Also the main site reveals when you start the game you can choose those default 4 skin and hair color (hopefully there's a place where you can change their hair color, though hairstyles look tied to the clothing sets)!
- 13:03 (Super Contest Show): Looks like they didn't even bother to try and bring the accessories over *sigh*. This does not bode well for Gen V's Musicals. The main site shows that Contests are still done in 3 parts, the Visual Evaluation which used to be where dressing up your Pokemon got it points is now just a straight-up contest condition check. BOO! Dance Evaluation got redone into a more active rhythm game than it was before, at least what I recall of it. And Move Evaluation is your good ol' Pokemon Contest fair. I'm not really a Contest guy but, like I did in ORAS, and if I decide to get these games, I'll give it a try.
- 13:18 (Union Room): Now, Platinum did have the Union Rooms too so that's not a deconfirmation of the Wi-Fi Plaza... Though if there was anytime to mention it might have been now...
- 13:36 (Walking Pokemon): Oh, they're allowing any Pokemon to walk with you and outside of Amity Square (but what are they going to do with Amity Square then?). But, uh, there's that darn art direction causing problems again. So, the trainers are chibi but not the Pokemon? So you have a "realistic" proportioned Lucario running behind a chibi human character... and we're expected to just overlook that? And, I'm not saying they should have chibi-fied the Pokemon too, what I'm saying is that THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THIS CHIBI ART STYLE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
- 13:41: WHOA WHOA! Planted Berries! Did we know they were bringing that back? I smell the return of the Berry Patch Poketch App!
- 13:42: Hey it's the Hearthome
Church Foreign Building! We going to do anything with that this time around (if not, did you at least keep it quiet inside and the Badges playing the solfeggio so players can compose their own music?).
- 13:43: Say, isn't that lady with the baby the one who notes the stroller is getting heavier and wonders how soon will it be before her baby reaches the age where it'll go on their Pokemon journey and what their Pokemon partner will be?
- (Now I'll be jumping back to the original trailer... actually there's not really much else to comment on, just a few quick remarks...)
- 6:50: You just had to keep the marsh's and snow's travel impediment...
- 8:28: Whoa, what's this theme? Doesn't sound like a remix of the Galactic Encounter or Vs theme.
- 8:47: Guessing this is the setting for the final battle with Cyrus as he's ripping spacetime apart, very appropriate.
- (Also a small tidbit at the end of the Direct)
- 26:52 (No Ranked Battles... Hint Of A Limited Dex?): They tried to sneak this in the end. While Legends: Arceus not having Ranked Battles make sense, BDSP not having Ranked Battles is a pretty notable thing, right? It's all but saying the BDSP is not going to be treated as a competitive focused game, and it may not even be used to hold official tournament competitions. If I had to guess, maybe it has to do with the Pokedex, SDBP isn't going to have all the Pokemon and may infact also be made with a Limited Dex, which if so is also a huge thing that they should be mentioning upfront.
That's all I got to say for today. Glad I got both this and Legends: Arceus trailer overlook done... now I just have the maps to compare & contrast, pages of comments to response to, and now there's a JAPE for the new Pokemon. Guess I got my work cut out for me this weekend, and it ain't even Friday. Seeya tomorrow!...
"So, are you excited for Brilliant Diamond & Shinning Pearl Now?"
Oh, right, probably should answer that. Now, as I said, this is a BIG improvement from what we were originally shown. It's not a 1:1 remake (thank Arceus) and has some pretty cool features, many which are expansion of older mechanics which I like to see. HOWEVER, I'm still not sure if this is enough to sell me on the games. There being no new character designs is a big negative to me, and even if the models are more animated the chibi-style is telling me there's gonna be nothing that new visually to see if you've already played DP before. I'm still waiting to be proven wrong on that point and would be glad to be. Don't worry, I'm over with thinking that BDSP shouldn't exist, seeing the price tag on the original Gen IV games convinced me of that (though there is always simulators *coughcough* who said that, surely I didn't...). But maybe that's just it, GF sees me as part of the old guard and my Sinnoh experience was with the Gen IV games; BDSP is meant to get the younger audience up to speed so that they can put all our focus to Legends: Arceus. It's still a sad fate for the Gen IV remakes, overshadowed by a re-imagination. But at least they're getting some cool stuff... and there's always time for Platinum content to be revealed also been done... and them to surprise us with some new forms for the mascot Legendary trio.
