Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl - Release 19th Nov 2021

[Codraroll]

I do hope that the nest trailer comes out soon, as we are kinda running out of things to talk about :/

Honestly, I wouldn't expect any news whatsoever until E3 or so. With earlier main series announcements, the first trailer has basically said "these games exist", and then we'd go months without hearing anything. Most of the news tend to come in the month leading up to release.

With new generations, they can drip-feed information spread across a much longer time period. Showcase one or two new Pokémon every month, for instance, or revealing a couple of new characters. In remakes, we already know all the Pokémon and characters in them, so there's not much to surprise us with. There will only be a few tidbits of information that would spark the same level of interest (such as the announcement of new features, or maybe possibly new forms), so they're saving those for special occasions.

 

[Sirya]

When you look at the story behind Dynamax it actually explains a lot about the story of it, and gets very interesting.

- Pokémon.
- Story.

Choose one.

 

[The Mind Electric]

- Pokémon.
- Story.

Choose one.

...Huh? Story seems to be the one thing they consistently do at least decently.

 

[StarFalcon555]

...Huh? Story seems to be the one thing they consistently do at least decently.

Story has never been the main focus for Pokémon. Hell, for the first four gens, it was just a formulaic rehashed "beat all eight gyms while coincidentally saving the world along the way because you just inexplicably always happen to be around when the bad guys are fucking shit up" plot. It wasn't until Gen 5 onwards where they started to put more focus on the story. And even then, the stories of the later gens happen to be wildly inconsistent. We went from the solid story of Gen 5, to the absolute trainwreck of the Gen 6 story, to the masterpiece that was the Gen 7 story, and finally to the potential-filled but underwhelming story of Gen 8. So no, the stories of Pokémon games are not consistent in the slightest.

 

[The Mind Electric]

Story has never been the main focus for Pokémon. Hell, for the first four gens, it was just a formulaic rehashed "beat all eight gyms while coincidentally saving the world along the way because you just inexplicably always happen to be around when the bad guys are fucking shit up" plot. It wasn't until Gen 5 onwards where they started to put more focus on the story. And even then, the stories of the later gens happen to be wildly inconsistent. We went from the solid story of Gen 5, to the absolute trainwreck of the Gen 6 story, to the masterpiece that was the Gen 7 story, and finally to the potential-filled but underwhelming story of Gen 8. So no, the stories of Pokémon games are not consistent in the slightest.

Eh, maybe I just don't have super high standards for Pokémon story, but I don't think any of them are that bad. At least, not the ones that I've played.

 

[Magcargo]

Since we're on the topic of story, I do hope that these remakes improve the story presentation quite a bit. I was watching a few different playthroughs of DP / Platinum and most of the story sections and character interactions felt dull, either due to a lack of unique music, character animations, or "flow" to the conversations. Platinum is certainly better than DP in this regard since the cast isn't as static, but there are still a lot of story segments that feel "off" like when you do the double battle against Flint and Volkner. While ORAS & LGPE don't exactly have the best stories in the franchise, I found that the improved presentation made me care a lot more about the characters in those games than I did in Emerald or Red and Blue. I am hoping that BDSP is similar in this regard.

 

[ThatOneSpork]

I do hope that these remakes improve the story presentation quite a bit.

I strongly agree. Being me, I enjoy games with story in them, even if it's a hidden story. So I do also hope that the remakes have a more fleshed out story, as that would increase interest for a LOT of people.

 

[Zowayix]

I do wonder how they plan to space out the trailers this time. For new generations it's pretty much been

• "Reveal in Feb, <3 month gap>, next big trailer in June/E3, four months of trailers in Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct, release in Nov"

But for games that aren't new generations, it's been more like

• "Reveal in June/E3, <2 month gap>, two months of trailers in Sep/Oct, release in Nov"

Remember when USUM was announced and then we had nothing except "Dusk Lycanroc and Partner Cap Pikachu are new forms" until September?

That's one of the reasons why I was pretty surprised to see a main series announcement(s) this early in the year.

 

[Kurona]

I'm pretty sure this is around the time ORAS was announced, right? I remember them dropping a youtube teaser in march 2014

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

...Huh? Story seems to be the one thing they consistently do at least decently.

Story has never been the main focus for Pokémon.

Nah, it's definitely been a big thing in the newer gens.

That actually makes it worse, because Game Freak is just completely inept at writing stories.

Since we're on the topic of story, I do hope that these remakes improve the story presentation quite a bit. I was watching a few different playthroughs of DP / Platinum and most of the story sections and character interactions felt dull, either due to a lack of unique music, character animations, or "flow" to the conversations. Platinum is certainly better than DP in this regard since the cast isn't as static, but there are still a lot of story segments that feel "off" like when you do the double battle against Flint and Volkner. While ORAS & LGPE don't exactly have the best stories in the franchise, I found that the improved presentation made me care a lot more about the characters in those games than I did in Emerald or Red and Blue. I am hoping that BDSP is similar in this regard.

There was that camera shift on the trailer when the player first arrives in Jubilife. So I expect that they'll at least spice things up in terms of cutscene quality.

 

[ThatOneSpork]

That actually makes it worse, because Game Freak is just completely inept at writing stories.

Do keep in mind though that this game is not being made by GameFreak so we have a chance to get some more fleshed out story bits. Thankfully.

 

[Sirya]

...Huh? Story seems to be the one thing they consistently do at least decently.

Is this some kind of inner joke or are we serious?

 

[Zowayix]

I'm pretty sure this is around the time ORAS was announced, right? I remember them dropping a youtube teaser in march 2014

No, that was May. They also spent much of the time in between revealing new Megas.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Do keep in mind though that this game is not being made by GameFreak so we have a chance to get some more fleshed out story bits. Thankfully.

Not happening.

 

[ThatOneSpork]

Not happening.

Well.... I guess not then. At least we do have the chance for other things to happen still I guess...

 

[Imperial Magala]

Real talk, did everyone forget that Let's Go was advertised as a faithfully remake right down to removing abilities and hold items, and still added more story like the rival's Cubone being the one that lost its mother, or Archer showing up as a grunt. I'm not expecting a 60 text box manifesto written by Cyrus explaining every childhood experience that shaped him to who is he today, but there's probably additional story beats that, while minor, give more flavor to the adventure.

 

[Siggu]

The only thing we can really assume from a "faithful reproduction" of Diamond and Pearl is that it will likely not have Platinum content, or at least not as we knew them.

It could have some extra, non-QoL features that expand Diamond and Pearl without interfering on it, more like the storyline adjustments of HGSS and Let's GO, and less like Megas and Primals in ORAS.

 

[ThatOneSpork]

Real talk, did everyone forget that Let's Go was advertised as a faithfully remake right down to removing abilities and hold items, and still added more story like the rival's Cubone being the one that lost its mother, or Archer showing up as a grunt. I'm not expecting a 60 text box manifesto written by Cyrus explaining every childhood experience that shaped him to who is he today, but there's probably additional story beats that, while minor, give more flavor to the adventure.

So your saying we have a chance. But more seriously you have a good point there. I do think that the outsourcing will either make them take large leaps or almost none at all, but I don't know the company so yeah.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Real talk, did everyone forget that Let's Go was advertised as a faithfully remake right down to removing abilities and hold items,

Yo, word? Got a link to that? Not that I'm doubting you, but I wanna share it with other people.

 

[ThatOneSpork]

The only thing we can really assume from a "faithful reproduction" of Diamond and Pearl is that it will likely not have Platinum content, or at least not as we knew them.

A basic example being the man with the signs. He almost definitely will not exist anymore, or at least not in the form we know.

 

[Imperial Magala]

Yo, word? Got a link to that? Not that I'm doubting you, but I wanna share it with other people.

I was referring to the more nebulous claims at always come with remakes. I was more annoyed that people took it as a sign that it would an absolute 1-1 copy and paste, right down to Fairy types being removed. Not even Let's Go went that far and they removed Giga Drain while buffing Mega Drain just to make up for a problem they created.

 

[The Mind Electric]

Is this some kind of inner joke or are we serious?

I'm being serious. Is the idea that someone thinks Pokémon has decent story overall really that hard to comprehend?

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I was referring to the more nebulous claims at always come with remakes. I was more annoyed that people took it as a sign that it would an absolute 1-1 copy and paste, right down to Fairy types being removed. Not even Let's Go went that far and they removed Giga Drain while buffing Mega Drain just to make up for a problem they created.

There's nothing nebulous about their claims on this one.

Story is 1:1, map and scaling is 1:1 to the point even the Jubilife Tiles got reverted to DP. Sure, they can expand on a lot of stuff that isn't related to those, most notably the Dex, and they confirmed that there are at least QoL changes.

I honestly don't expect anything that would mess with those two aspects too much.

I'm being serious. Is the idea that someone thinks Pokémon has decent story overall really that hard to comprehend?

Comprehend? No. Believing is a whole other story tho...

 

[ThatOneSpork]

I'm being serious. Is the idea that someone thinks Pokémon has decent story overall really that hard to comprehend?

I might be the only person to give a straight answer to this, so here ya go. I don't find it hard to comprehend myself, as the story does have some interesting points and such, but the story in pokemon is never the most interesting, mainly due to you still having to get 8 badges to complete the game. The main exceptions being BW and it also looks like Legends Arceus might have an interesting story.

 

[The Mind Electric]

I might be the only person to give a straight answer to this, so here ya go. I don't find it hard to comprehend myself, as the story does have some interesting points and such, but the story in pokemon is never the most interesting, mainly due to you still having to get 8 badges to complete the game. The main exceptions being BW and it also looks like Legends Arceus might have an interesting story.

I suppose I should be more specific. The primary thing I enjoy about Pokémon story is the characters, who I think are generally more complex than people say they are. The actual skeleton of your average Pokémon story isn't that great, but I enjoy the characters and arcs enough that it doesn't bug me much.