Strikerprime

Hello to all my friends and watchers!

So, the latest Pokemon game has been released, Legends Arceus, a few months after the Diamond and Pearl remake came out. Now I made a review about my thoughts about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and much of it was mostly negative. BDSP was in truth just an HD remaster of the original Gen. 4 games and added very little in terms of new content. Despite the severe disappointment, GameFreak for once wasn’t entirely at fault for the game’s mistakes. As BDSP was the first ever core Pokemon game to be developed by another game company, which in this case ILCA. Gamefreak was busy working on their other game, Legends Arceus, which is set in Sinnoh’s distant past. Now like BDSP, I made a post months ago telling my initial thoughts and feelings I had for this game. So now that the game is out and I’ve played it in its entirety, does it meet my expectations? Does it make up for BDSP’s faults or was it just as bad? Did I like this Pokemon game?

Well, my god-honest answer is… Yes! Very much so!

Now I should go ahead and clarify that this game is very different from previous Pokemon games. There’s no gyms, no Pokemon League, there’s not even an abundance of trainers for you to battle. While this may seem severely underwhelming, there is a legit reason. As previously stated, this game takes place in Sinnoh’s distant past. So distant that the region isn’t even called Sinnoh yet, instead referred to as the Hisui Region. This was back before the norms we’re so acquainted with in Pokemon games do not yet exist. In fact, this game shows us some of mankind’s first real interactions with using Pokemon (to the point where they’re a part of our everyday lives in the present). Not only that, but our character pretty much helps in establishing these communal interactions between man and Pokemon. Now the best way the player can go about bridging the world of Pokemon and mankind together is by completing the world’s very first Pokedex, which in this game is not even a highly sophisticated device but rather a literal book or encyclopedia. In addition to completing the Pokedex, you’re also tasked with heeding the call of the literal God of all Pokemon, Arceus. In this game, Arceus is the one who sends you back in time and tasks you with completing the Pokedex as well as helping quell the distortions of space and time that threaten to tear the universe apart. Overall, Legends: Arceus was a quite a different and refreshing take on how to play a Pokemon game.

To better explain my feelings in regards to these games I’ve made a list below of the pros and cons of Legends Arceus. What I like about this game, and what I didn’t like about it.

PROS:

-Now since there are no gym badges to collect or Pokemon League to beat, one might be wondering just what the overall objective is in this game that needs to be completed. Besides the overall story itself in helping to quell the frenzied Noble Pokemon and discovering the truth behind the Sinnoh Legendaries, the main objective of the game is completing the world’s first Pokedex. Sure that’s been a staple in every core Pokemon game, but in each and every one of them it was entirely optional. Here in this game it genuinely feels like an achievement given how this is the first one in history and since Arceus tells you to do it right after the main game ends. That being said, it is a little more tedious and annoying if you actually want to fully complete this Pokedex than previous versions. The reason being is that it takes more work than it usually does. With previous versions of the Pokedex, all you had to do was simply catch or obtain a Pokemon so that its data could be registered in the Pokedex and that was it. Whereas with the Hisuian Pokedex, you not only have to catch Pokemon but you also need to do some other tasks you need to perform as well in order for it to be fully registered in the Pokedex. You may need to give a Pokemon some food a couple times before you actually catch it, or defeat a number of them with a type of move they’re specifically weak to, or more often than not have them use a specific move a number of times. Doing these tasks enough times will fully register a Pokemon’s data in the Pokedex. While many of these tasks do end up solving themselves, most often when trying to catch a particular wild Pokemon or just using a move in order to win a battle, a couple of them are still a bit ridiculous. I guess the bright side of it all is that you only need to do all these tasks if you desire to fully register every Pokemon in the Hisuian Pokedex, because doing so will enable you to unlock the Shiny Charm item which makes Shiny Pokemon appear more often in the wild. You can still catch every Pokemon while not fully registering all of them and technically still complete the Pokedex, just know that you won’t get the Shiny Charm if you do. Oh, and you actually do need to catch every Pokemon in the game if you want to capture Arceus as he won’t appear to you if your Pokedex is incomplete.

The Pokemon of Hisui do not end up disappointing either. Despite this region still being Sinnoh, it turns out there were a lot of different Pokemon that lived here in the distant past including ones from Gens. 5 and 6. The reason we don’t find them there in the present is likely because they’re now extinct. Many of these Pokemon are new regional formes of ones from other regions such as Hisuian Growlithe, Qwilfish, Sneasel, Braviary, Zoroark, Avalugg, and Goodra. They even went and gave regional formes to Typhlosion, Samurott, and Decidueye! But it doesn’t stop there as we’ve even got some brand new evolutions as well; such as Scyther now has the option to evolve into either Scizor or a new Bug/Rock-type called Kleavor, Stantler can evolve into a Normal/Psychic-type called Wyrdeer, Ursaring can now evolve into a Normal/Ground-type known as Ursaluna. Sneasel not only got a regional forme but a brand new evolution to go along with it called Sneasler (which only Hisuian Sneasel can evolve into, whereas regular Sneasel still just evolve into Weavile), Basculin now not only having a new White-Striped forme to go along with the Red and Blue-Striped variants that already exist but also being able to evolve into a Water/Ghost-type known as Basculegion. These were all some awesome new additions and gave several Pokemon that were previously lesser-known some significance. I’m definitely looking forward to being able to transfer and use them once Scarlet and Violet are released.

-Now in addition to the new Pokemon, they have also introduced the concept of Alpha Pokemon. Alpha Pokemon are very much like the Totem Pokemon of Sun/Moon, where they are Pokemon that are two to three times larger than their species normally are, only here there is an abundance of them. With the obvious exception of Legendaries and a few others, almost every Pokemon you can find in the game has an Alpha variant you can catch. Now aside from their increased size and being at a much higher level than the Pokemon in the surrounding area when you find them, there’s not much difference Alpha Pokemon have with regular-sized Pokemon. That being said, I for one love this new aspect as it fulfills a personal peeve I’ve had about the games when it comes to giving Pokemon their sizes. Now if you’ve read any of the Pokedex entries, you’d notice that they have a tendency to give Pokemon some very weird sizes that you’d never would’ve expected. For instance; the Pokedex lists Charizard as being less than six feet tall, Dratini and Furret being up to 5 feet long, and Meowth being just a foot tall. I honestly was never a fan of the weird sizes the Pokedex listed for various Pokemon and personally prefer the sizes Pokemon are given in the anime, as they felt much more appropriate whether a Pokemon appeared either bigger or smaller than what the Pokedex lists its size as being. Now thanks to the concept of Alpha Pokemon being introduced, it just means Pokemon can be all various sizes and not just whatever the Pokedex lists them as and we can even have them appear in this game closer to the sizes they have in the anime. To give an example, I have to look down in order to see a regular-sized Torterra, but now an Alpha Torterra is big enough to where we’re almost on the same eye-level (and that’s just glossing over how much bigger the rest of it looks now)! Did I also mention you can also catch shiny Alpha Pokemon as well?

Speaking of Alpha Pokemon, another part of the game is having to take on various Pokemon that are regarded as Noble Lords. Noble Lords are essentially Alpha Pokemon but ones that are instilled with power from Arceus. But mysterious lightning created by distortions of space and time have been stirred many of these Noble Pokemon into a frenzy and are causing them to attack people and Pokemon alike. Hell, one of the frenzied Noble Lords is the dual axe-wielding Kleavor, and a random NPC in the game mentions how people who have encountered it in this frenized state were nearly killed! So you’re tasked with finding each of these Noble Lords and quelling their frenzied state of minds by battling. Basically they’re like boss battles, but not like the kind of boss battles you’d expect in a Pokemon game where it’s typically a trainer with a powerful team. When you battle the Noble Lords, you have to actually dodge and evade their attacks while throwing balms of food made to calm them down. As you slowly whittle away their energy, you also have brief battles against them with your own Pokemon that play out like normal Pokemon battles would. To put it simply, the battles you have with Noble Lords are more like the boss battles of other video game series. So this was definitely a new experience to have in a Pokemon game. While the Noble Lords weren’t particularly difficult, I did find myself struggling against several of them. Most notably against the Kaiju-sized Noble Lord, Hisuian Avalugg as its attacks could cover large areas giving you very little room for evasive maneuvers.

Lastly, in terms of Pokemon, I cannot express enough how easy it is to actually obtain Shiny Pokemon in this game. This game even gives you a free shiny Ponyta much like the Gen. 2 games offered you a shot at catching a Red Gyarados. Seriously though, the probability of finding a shiny is much higher here than in any previous game (except maybe Pokemon GO on community days) and that probability only increases when you obtain the shiny charm after completing the Pokedex. I hadn’t obtained the shiny charm yet, and I was able to find and capture a shiny Alpha Golduck, a shiny Drifloon, a shiny Magmar, and a shiny Swinub. When you do finally get the shiny charm, it just makes finding them all the easier. Since getting a shiny charm, I’ve been able to fill an entire box (or pasture as they’re called in this game) with Shiny Pokemon including a lot of cool-looking ones like a green Kleavor, a shiny Hisuian Goodra that’s colored like a regular Goodra, and a badass in black Hisuian Braviary! I’m seriously looking forward to when Legends Arceus becomes compatible with Pokemon HOME and I can transfer much of my shiny surplus over to my Sword game with all the shinies that I already have there.

-The landscapes in this game are absolutely amazing! Now since Legends: Arceus is set in the past, there are no routes or other cities and towns aside from Jubilife Village (which eventually becomes Jubilife City). So the region of Hisui is divided up into several areas; the Obsidian Fieldlands, the Crimson Mirelands, the Cobalt Coastlands, the Coronet Highlands, and the Alabaster Icelands. All of these locations look absolutely spectacular! Each location is vast and holds all kinds of secrets like locations in which to locate rare Pokemon. At first glance, they can seem almost too big to explore entirely! But fortunately you gain the help of various Pokemon who can help you move across the landscapes faster. Just like in the Gen. 7 games, you can call upon Pokemon to ride and help you traverse each map (I even love how Professor Laventon references how the whole mechanic is like how people rode around on Pokemon in the Alola region). You can speed across the land on Wydeer, surf across waters on Basculegion, climb steep cliffs on the back of Sneasler, and glide vast areas of land on Hisuian Braviary. Given how bicycles and HM’s don’t exist at this point in time, it only made sense to bring back the mechanic of ride Pokemon from Gen. 7, so it was nice to see it return as I’ve actually grown quite fond of riding around on Pokemon after all the years of playing the Gen. 7 games.

Now in addition to playing through the missions they give you, there are also side missions or requests you can do as well. They can range anywhere from super easy to super tedious, but the bright side is many of them are totally optional and you only have to do them if you’re a completionist who wants to finish everything in this game. However, some of the more tedious requests are necessary for you to complete the game and even the Pokedex, as they will enable you to find and catch mythical Pokemon such as Shaymin, Manaphy, Darkrai (which is only obtainable if you have BDSP save data on your Switch), and even the Forces of Nature from Unova. Plus one even gives you a free shiny Ponyta to catch! Others help expand the number of items you’re able to buy at stores. While these requests seem and feel like unnecessary filler, a lot of them actually end up having great significance to mankind’s relations with Pokemon. When you start the game, many residents of Jubilife village are actually scared of most Pokemon since they know so little about them. But slowly over time and after finishing requests, most of which involve getting certain Pokemon people need, they start warming up to Pokemon and realize they can be a part of their everyday lives. Some of the requests you perform end up having some historical impact as well, as one of them involves catching a Croagunk for a woman named Peselle (who looks very much like Nurse Joy and is coincidentally captain of the Medical Corps) so she can derive medicine from its toxins to help an old man suffering from lower back pain. After completing the request, she’ll mention that if Pokemon can be so helpful in healing others, then maybe one day there can be places that provide medical care to people and even Pokemon. So it was quite interesting in learning and witnessing the overall transition of how mankind was initially fearful of Pokemon to seeing them slowly becoming a part of their everyday lives like they are now in the present.

-In terms of battle mechanics, things are quite different in Legends Arceus than with other core Pokemon games. For starters, Pokemon in the game don’t have abilities (with the exception of Regigigas still having Slow Start and Arceus having Multitype), which means certain Pokemon aren’t as potent as they’d normally be without their abilities helping them out in battle. But since abilities weren’t actually introduced in Pokemon games until Gen. 3, this really isn’t anything new. People are concerned that with everything that’s changed in Legends Arceus means that future Pokemon games will now potentially be like this such as Pokemon no longer having abilities, not being able to hold items, etc. I myself honestly don’t think these drastic changes to the game mechanics will continue with future titles. It made sense why they were implemented for this game since it was set in the distant past when our understanding of Pokemon was not as strong as it is in the present. But unless otherwise stated, future Pokemon games will continue to be in the present. They may keep some things such as being able to catch Pokemon without having to battle them (though they’ll likely limit it so it doesn’t end up making things too easy). But I wouldn’t worry too much about many of the changes made in Legends Arceus becoming permanent. Scarlet and Violet has shown to be including some of these that were introduced in Legends: Arceus, so we’ll just have to wait see how well they end up playing out on a Pokemon game set in the present time.

-You can even catch Pokemon without even having to battle them, you just need to throw a Pokeball at them before they notice you and decide to either flee or attack you. Alternatively, you can throw various kinds of bait to lure them into a position where you can capture them more easily. They even have smoke bombs you can use to temporarily create some cover so that you can closer to a Pokemon without it noticing you are there. This is actually super helpful when it comes to catching particular Pokemon such as Eevee who will turn to run the moment it notices you nearby. It also helps when trying to capture Alpha Pokemon, especially if you’re trying to capture an Alpha that’s stronger than your entire team. To give you an example, I was roaming around the Obsidian Fieldlands with a team of level 30 Pokemon and I stumbled upon a Level 65 Alpha Alakazam! As crazy as it may seem, I was actually able to capture it by not battling it directly.

While we’re on the subject of encountering Pokemon, I should probably mention just how much more dangerous Pokemon are in this game! As I mentioned before, many species of Pokemon will end up attacking if they spot you near them, and they will actually attack your character before you can send a Pokemon out to battle them. If you end up taking enough damage, you’ll end up blacking out and lose a portion of whatever items you had in your bag when you were attacked. Fortunately, when you have access to ride Pokemon like Wyrdeer and Braviary, it’s pretty easy to get away from attacking Pokemon before they can seriously harm you. Just try not to be reckless, unless you want to end up blacking out and potentially lose important items in your bag. Aside from the potential dangers, attacking Pokemon can also be quite annoying to deal with if they notice you while your attention is focused elsewhere like sneaking towards another Pokemon that you plan on catching. Because then you’ll have to deal with the attacking Pokemon first while trying to prevent your intended target from noticing you. They do have an item in the game that’s basically a repel, but it’s not as effective as they are in other core games since the effect of it doesn’t last long. Overall, encountering and catching Pokemon in this game is a whole different experience from what we’re used to.

-The space-time distortions you can encounter in the games were a nice touch as well. These distortions are basically like the anomalies from BBC’s Primeval, where they’re portals that bring Pokemon from the past and/or the future (which in this case would be the present day) to this point in time. They can be pretty fun as they help you catch certain Pokemon you can’t find anywhere else. These distortions were also an intricate method of bringing certain Pokemon such as the Magnemite and Porygon lines into this game since they’re artificially created and thus couldn’t have existed in Sinnoh’s distant past. Though actually capturing Pokemon in distortions can at times be challenging since you will have to battle them to get a chance to catch them, but even then you'll often have to deal with one or two other Pokemon while you’re doing it. Trying to separate the Pokemon you want to capture from the others that show up isn’t much of an option either, as they only stick around for 10-20 seconds before the space-time distortion sends them away and drops a new batch of Pokemon (fortunately they won’t disappear while you’re in the middle of battling them). These distortions are also treasure troves because in addition to Pokemon, they also scatter the area they envelop with rare and valuable items like star pieces as well as evolutionary items. So even if you’ve caught every Pokemon that can only be found in space-time distortions, there’s always a reason to return to them to scoop up all the items that are dropped whenever they appear.

In addition to buying items you need like Pokeballs, Potions, and Revives, you can also gather stuff in the wilds of Hisui such as herbs, stones, and apricots (which were introduced in Johto and are used to make Pokeballs) to make these items yourself. It can at times be tedious if you want to save money, but it doesn’t take too long making enough items for yourself in order to continue on with the game.

-One thing I loved in particular are all the various characters you meet in Legends: Arceus and how you can tell how they’re ancestors to characters you’ve met in past games. Like how Cyllene is a distant ancestor of Cyrus, Commander Kamado is related to Professor Rowan, and Volo clearly being an ancestor to the infamous Sinnoh Champion Cynthia. Not only that, but they even use Pokemon their descendants end up using. What’s interesting still is the roles many of them take on end being ones we’d never imagine given what we know about their descendants, such as Cyllene being a huge help to us throughout the game and Clover being a member of a villainous gang despite her descendent Candice being a gym leader. Of course the biggest of these twists was how Volo ended up becoming the main villain of the game! Given how Volo was an ancestor of Cynthia and also a huge help to us throughout the games with the items we can buy off of him, I was honestly shocked when it turned out he was actually evil when we sought out Giratina. Turns out he wanted to use Giratina’s lust for vengeance to get to Arceus, as he wanted to gain control of the God of all Pokemon and use it to recreate the universe as he desired. This is the exact same omnicidal goal that Team Galactic’s leader Cyrus sought out when he wanted to control Dialga and/or Palkia. But it was quite unexpected having somebody like Volo turning out to be just as malevolent and with the same goal, even taking it a step further by trying to control Arceus itself. Not only was the reveal that Volo was a villain pretty unexpected but the battle you have with him is anything but easy, and pretty traumatizing to anybody who’s played Gen. 4. What I mean by that is Volo’s battle theme is basically the piano theme you hear in Gen. 4 right before you battle the Sinnoh Champion Cynthia (and for most players, the theme they hear right before they end up getting utterly wrecked if they’re unprepared for her team). But battle themes isn’t the only thing Volo shares with his descendant, he also runs a near identical team as her too! Right down to leading with a Spiritomb. Seriously, if you played Gen. 4, you likely had PTSD when you heard Volo’s battle theme and saw his Spritomb lead. X3

-In addition to meeting characters whose ancestry you knew of, we even got to meet Ingo from Unova. Now if you don’t know him, Ingo was one of bosses of the Battle Subway of the Gen. 5 games. He and his twin brother Emmet ran the Battle Subway and you could face them in battles as final bosses. I actually managed to battle him and his brother a couple times back in Gen. 5 so it was quite the surprise seeing him here. Just like your character, it seems as though Ingo ended up getting transported back in time by Arceus as well and fell through the space-time distortion. He also seems to have lost most of his memory as he doesn’t seem to remember much about his life prior to arriving in Hisui. I genuinely felt bad for the guy as he’s stuck in the past with little memory of what his life was back in Unova. Plus I’m sure his brother is worried sick over where he’s disappeared to. I’m also curious as to when we inevitably have remakes for Black and White, whether it will just be Emmet in charge of the Battle Subway or if Ingo will be back alongside him. I guess only time will tell as to the fate of our spatially time distorted friend. Hopefully Arceus decides to send him back home.

-This game does what BDSP ultimately failed at doing besides introducing new content, expanding the mythos behind the Creation Trio and the God of all Pokemon Arceus. You see the original inhabitants of Hisui were split into two clans, the Diamond Clan and Pearl Clan. Both clans worshiped who they dubbed “The Almighty Sinnoh'' but disagreed on what their lord was truly the master of. The Diamond Clan believed the Almighty Sinnoh controlled all of time, whereas the Pearl Clan believed Sinnoh was the master of space. This disagreement led to great tensions amongst both clans. It’s only until meeting you and then later Dialga and Palkia that the leaders of the Clans realized they were both right. The Almighty Sinnoh did indeed control time and space, the only thing both clans didn’t realize is that there were two of them all along. But it doesn’t end there, as Dialga and Palkia are given brand new formes in this game as well, as they now have their own Origin formes just like Giratina. These new formes of Dialga and Palkia are admittedly quite bizarre, with both more or less resembling some sort of armless centaur with aspects of Arceus. While aesthetically strange, these designs surprisingly make sense lore wise when you read their Pokedex entries in the game. Turns out Dialga and Palkia both were attempting to assume the form of their creator and parent Arceus to channel more power with their shape as The Original One. This implies that they both place and hold a strong sense of duty and respect towards their creator for who and what they are. It would also explain why Giratina’s own Origin forme doesn’t remotely resemble Arceus in any fashion. Giratina’s Pokedex entries state how it has a very violent temper which is what got it banished to the Distortion World by Arceus. This game further expands on that when Volo reveals how Giratina even desired to challenge Arceus for banishing it. So it only makes sense that Giratina didn’t want its Origin Forme to look anything like its creator. But GAMEFREAK didn’t stop there, as they also expanded on the other Gen. 4 Legendaries too. Like how we needed to find the Lake Guardians in order to create the Red Chain. In the D/P games, Cyrus of Team Galactic intended to use the Red Chain to bind Dialga and/or Palkia to his twisted will so he could recreate the entire universe in his image. But here we’re actually using the Red Chain for good, to stop the space-time distortion from tearing the universe apart. Gen. 4 is known prominently for giving us a bunch of different legendary and mythical Pokemon, and this game revealed to us the reason as to why there were so many. Aside from the Noble Pokemon, Arceus also gave one of its elemental plates to each of the other legendaries (which was why we had to go and capture all of them before trying to catch Arceus itself). Turns out each of them were also a guardian all along.

Speaking of legendaries, the battle we have with the Renegade Pokemon, Giratina, is absolutely intense! Not Ultra Nekrozma levels of intensity, but pretty damn close to it! The reason being is that we battle Giratina literally right after we’ve defeated Volo. Meaning the game doesn’t even give us a moment to restore our Pokemon’s health or revive any that fainted from our battle with Volo (who runs a near exact team as Cynthia’s, so you’re definitely gonna be in for a hard time)! So now you’re stuck with challenging a Legendary with a severely weakened team. Oh, and even if you actually defeat Giratina (which isn’t too hard if you’ve got a Fairy-type), it still doesn’t end there. In the throes of defeat, Giratina rises up again, cloaks itself in shadows, and emerges in its Origin forme! Coolest part of all is that its battle theme changes to a remix of the battle theme when you challenge it in the Distortion World in Platinum!

So you now have to challenge Giratina once again in its Origin forme (its also back to full health, so it’s like battling a new Pokemon). I’m not gonna lie, this had to be the second hardest battle I have ever had in a Pokemon game (the first of course being Ultra Nekrozma). You’re forced to challenge this powerful Legendary after your team has been severely weakened from the previous battle and defeat it TWICE! There’s also no way of making this battle go easy for you. You can’t capture Giratina as it’s basically acting under Volo’s command (wouldn’t be the first we’ve had to battle a villain who uses a 7th Pokemon on their team). Worst of all is that if you end up losing the battle (which is very likely given how much of a disadvantage you’re in) you won’t go straight to battling Giratina when you return to challenge it. You’ll have to face Volo’s team of Pokemon again, then battle Giratina in both its Altered and Origin formes! So Gamefreak really did an amazing job at making this battle both super intense and super challenging. Unless you decide to overlevel your Pokemon, things are not gonna go easy for you.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to beat Giratina on my very first try. My battle with Volo left me with only three Pokemon and one of them was severely low on health. I was forced to use one of my remaining Pokemon as a shield while I revived my Sylveon and restored my Samurott’s HP, as they were pretty much the only Pokemon I had that could hurt Giratina. But even then, I struggled as Giratina knew Aura Sphere which could two-shot my Samurott. It was only thanks to a combination of Sylveon’s Dazzling Gleam and the chip damage dealt from Samurott’s Ceaseless Edge that I managed to defeat Giratina in its Altered Forme. When it changed to its Origin forme, things got a lot more difficult as Giratina hits much harder in this forme. I was scrambling between using Max Revives (which ironically I bought from Volo back when I was catching Dialga and Palkia) on Samurott or Sylveon while also trying to damage Giratina with whichever one of them was out. But this thing was relentless and was 2HKOing them with whatever move it used. I also couldn’t revive any of my other teammates since it really wasn’t giving me any chances to do so. I was finally down to just Samurott and Giratina was almost down to half health. Despite my efforts, I was all out of Max Revives, so I genuinely thought I was gonna lose, but I had Samurott use Ceaseless Edge which got Giratina almost down to red and I just waited for it to finish me off. Fortunately for me, Giratina then proceeded to use an Agile Style Aura Sphere (which while still super effective does less damage) which only got my Samurott down to half health. Despite having used an Agile Style move, Giratina wasn’t fast enough to attack immediately after and my Samurott was able to use another Ceaseless Edge to finish it off and win us the battle! Holy crap, was that battle close!

CONS:

There’s really not all that much I have to say in terms of things I disliked about the game. Unlike BDSP, this game was very solid and expanded on the story and mythology of Sinnoh. Granted this game didn’t have every Pokemon in the National Pokedex, but I think that’s to be expected since it’s set in the distant past. I suppose one thing I did find disappointing was once Pokemon Home compatibility was enabled for the game, that certain other Pokemon were not added to the game as well. Now don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not suggesting that the entire National Dex should’ve been added. I was thinking more along the lines of certain regional formes of other Pokemon that already are in the game be added as well. These would include:

The Kantonian Growlithe line, Alolan Geodude line, Kantonian Voltorb line, Galarian Ponyta line, Kalosian Sliggoo and Goodra, Unovan Zorua and Zoroark, both formes of Unovan Basculin, Alolan Raichu, Galarian Mr. Mime, Johtonian Qwilfish, Unovan Lilligant, Unovan Braviary, Kalosian Avalugg, and all the regular formes of the starters final evolutions that you get in the game (Typhlosion, Samurott, and Decidueye).

With Home Compatibility enabling you to transfer any Pokemon from Home that’s available in the game, it only made sense that regional formes should’ve been included as well. Hell, despite cutting the National Dex, even Sword/Shield allowed the regional formes of Pokemon that were in the game to be included. This feels especially weird considering that you can obtain an Alolan Vulpix in the game and be able to evolve it into Alolan Ninetales. I wouldn’t say the reason they didn’t add the other regional formes in was due to the fact the game is set in the distant past, the fact that we can transfer Pokemon in and out of the game makes that a moot point. Whether this ends up changing remains to be seen, though I sincerely doubt it otherwise it would’ve already happened by now. But the lack of being able to transfer additional regional formes into the game does feel strange and overall disappointing.

Another thing that I do find a bit annoying in the game is how sometimes a wild Pokemon will be able to attack twice in a row without using an agile-style move before your Pokemon can even do anything. I’m still not entirely certain why this happens, though I’m guessing that your Pokemon’s speed stat likely plays a factor.

I was a bit bummed out that since this was all taking place in the past, I was hoping there would be more mentions of other historical events. Like in the Johto region how three nameless Pokemon perished when the Brass Tower burnt down only to be resurrected by Ho-Oh into the legendary beasts Raikou, Entei, and Suicune (however, that actually may’ve happened later in history, so maybe it’s best that they didn’t add that). Or maybe have us meet AZ from X/Y since he’d be alive at this time. We’d be able to get a glimpse of the eternal anguish he’d still be suffering from at this point in time, wandering the Earth alone and in despair since his precious Floette left him after he used the Ultimate Weapon to end the Kalos War by destroying both sides that were fighting. Worse still, there’d be nothing we could do to help him, since that is resolved centuries later during the events of X/Y. Now of course I’m not saying he’d have to play a part in the game’s plot or anything (especially in the state he’d be in at this point in time). I’d be more than content with him being just being an easter egg.

As amazing as this game is, it still has a couple bugs and glitches. But hey, no game is ever perfect and truly free of those. The most annoying one was how it was actually impossible to capture the Pokemon Cherrim, which can be problematic since you need to complete the Pokedex. No matter what Ball you threw at it (and Master Balls aren’t in this game) or if you had it paralyzed or asleep with its HP down to red, it still could not be caught. Fortunately this bug has since been corrected, though it seems to have affected players being able to access Cresellia, which has since also been corrected. Now I personally didn’t experience any of these bugs, I got Cherrim by evolving it from a Cherubi I caught earlier in the game and I caught Cresellia before the patch that ended up affecting it was released. The only real issue I really experienced was the one where a Pokemon spawns inside of a rock or similar object during a mass outbreak, but this can easily be fixed by moving away from the mass outbreak area (but not leaving and returning to Jubilife Village) then going back and the seemingly trapped Pokemon will spawn out in the open. But I can understand the frustration people have had with these issues. And let’s be honest, these issues are still really minor compared to the glitches BDSP has had, glitches that could cause you to become trapped in a single spot and force you to revert to a previous save file or giving gym leaders access to Pokemon with moves that are not even programmed into the game thus making them unable to use those moves. That there was very sloppy work on ICLA’s part!

I’ve really had to brainstorm in terms of cons I had about this game because I genuinely loved it. But if I truly had one genuine dislike about Legends: Arceus, I guess it would have to be how it ended. See, the game truly ends (as in no more game progression afterward) when you complete the Pokedex and capture Arceus. Of course; there’s still getting every Pokemon in the Hisui Pokedex to research level 10 so you can then have access to the Shiny Charm. As well completing any other requests you haven’t done yet, or digging up all the Old Verses in each of the five areas you can explore. But yeah, aside from all that, there’s not much else to do afterward. Given how your character was brought to the distant past by Arceus, I was hoping that the game ended with Arceus and/or the Creation Trio sending you back to your own time (and Ingo too, because I genuinely feel bad he got stuck here in the past as well). Then your save file ends and you have a brand new one, it’d basically be like restarting the game. I know that’s something that’s literally never been done before in a core Pokemon game, but I figured this would be an exception given how the game is set in the past. I do see the downsides to it like losing every single Pokemon (and any shinies you’ve managed to collect) being lost forever. But there’d be a way of transferring any of the Pokemon you want to save over to HOME or Sword/Shield before truly finishing the game. I suppose GameFreak not doing this could be seen as a good thing, since it means you can hunt for shiny Pokemon to your heart’s content after getting the Shiny Charm then later transferring your collection to another game once GameFreak makes that possible. But I honestly wanted a proper sendoff to the player’s character since they’re stuck in the past.

CONCLUSION:

Overall, I really loved Legends: Arceus. While the playthrough itself can seem short and doesn’t offer you much else to do in terms of content compared to the other core games, the same was said about Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness for the Nintendo Gamecube, and they both turned out to be both very fun and memorable overall. I was quite disappointed with how BDSP turned out, and that was likely due to ILCA’s being the ones in charge of developing it. Seriously, never let these guys be in charges of remakes again. Especially when Unova's the next Gen. due for remakes in the near future. Gen. 5 had such an amazing story, I'd hate to see it end up in ICLA's incapable hands. That being said, I genuinely consider Legends: Arceus the true Gen. 4 remake as it better celebrates a return to Sinnoh while also further expanding on it like with previous remakes. In conclusion, I can safely say that this game was a welcoming new addition to Pokemon. It was able to get the sour and lacking taste BDSP had out of our mouths by adding all new content and additionally adding to the mythos of the Sinnoh Region. It even went a step further by mixing things up and changing up the game mechanics to fit with the overall theme.

In conclusion, I give Legends: Arceus an 8/10. It wasn't a perfect, but it was a new and refreshing experience and just what we needed after BDSP.

Hello to all my friends and watchers,

Yeah I know, I did it again. I ended up disappearing again for a couple months. But like I said in my last update, things have been super busy for me and I was likely gonna disappear again for a while. Guess that ended up becoming true. I know my apologies are likely starting to sound old, but I really am truly sorry. But I promise this time, things will be different.

While one of the reasons for my absence is stuff going on in my life, the other more main reason is that I have been hard at work with that Pokemon Project that I mentioned in my last update that I started on New Years Day of this year. Yeah, it's taking me a VERY LONG time, but know that I am very near its completion. To let you in on what this huge project is, I decided to perform what is known as a Ribbon Quest in my Pokemon games.

Now if you didn’t know, Ribbons are little trophies or achievements awarded to your Pokemon for completing a particular task in a game. Be aware they do not affect your Pokemon’s performance in battle whatsoever, they’re purely aesthetic (even though you can’t actually see them on the Pokemon when it’s in battle, you can see them in your Pokemon's summary). But the interesting and frankly underappreciated aspect about ribbons are that your Pokemon still holds onto them even when you transfer up into later games. Since ribbons were introduced in Gen. III, you could give ribbons to a Pokemon you could obtain in a game from that Gen, and it’ll retain those ribbons even if you transfer it all the way up to the most current games. I honestly love this aspect as these ribbons help convey the personal history you’ve had with your Pokemon. Best of all, decorating your Pokemon with ribbons actually helps distinguish it among others. Like if you and your friends all have the same Pokemon of a particular species, you can take great solace in the fact that your Pokemon is truly unique amongst them if its adorned with various ribbons. So basically the goal of this challenge is to get as many ribbons as you possibly can on a particular Pokemon (or multiple ones) throughout the generations, thus making them what is called a Ribbon Master.

So that is what I have been working on all this time. I'm not gonna lie, this Ribbon Quest has been an incredible experience. Every generation I went through brought forth challenges I never expected nor did I really experience back when the games for those generations were first released. So as someone who loves Pokemon and has been a fan of the franchise for as long as I can remember, I was introduced to various aspects of each generation I never really touched before.

Now I'm not gonna disclose any further details about the Ribbon Quest I've been on. Primarily because I'm actually not done with it just yet! I've finally reached the end of my quest in Gen. 8 and it will actually prove to be the most challenging part. What's more is that with Scarlet and Violet around the corner, there will likely be even more ribbons introduced for my Pokemon to collect.

What this is all means is that I'm gonna be gone again for a while. To both complete this Ribbon Quest project and to play Scarlet and Violet when they're released. Like I said in the beginning of this post, I promise that things will be different. First of which is letting you know that I'm gonna be gone while I complete this project that's taken me nearly an entire year to complete rather than leave you hanging. I'm also gonna be posting a few things I've worked on what little free time I've had. It's not a lot, but know that more is definitely on the way by either the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

So until then, be sure to stay tuned! For once my project is finished, I will be posting a whole bunch of more stuff here on DA!

Hello to all my friends and watchers!

Yeah I know, I ghosted DA yet again. But it was unfortunately out of my control this time. As it was due to some medical reasons that came up.

For starters, I ended up getting COVID and I was in bed for a few weeks. Fortunately, I had gotten all the necessary vaccinations months prior, so while it still wasn’t a pleasant experience it could’ve been a lot worse.

The other reason being I had to end up getting surgery. I would prefer to not get into details, as I do not wish to talk about what it was. But it wasn't a great time before, during, and some time after.

So yeah, the past few months haven’t exactly been pleasant. But fortunately it has all passed and I’m feeling much better now. And to show that I won’t be leaving you out on a limb and disappear yet again. I have some updates to share.

I saw Jurassic World: Dominion last night. And overall, I thought it was pretty good. Now I should go ahead and say that the movie is quite different from previous installments. Now that Dinosaurs are widespread across the world, it should be expected that this was gonna end up being some sort of globe trotting adventure. And that’s very much what this movie ended up being.

Since I gave my thoughts on the last two JW films, I’ll be sure to post a review of this film in the next few days. So keep an eye out for that.

Hello to all my friends and watchers!

First off, I hope everybody had a great holiday season and a happy New Year. With the beginning of a brand new year, I figured I’d start things off and enlighten you all as to why I’ve been continuously reappearing and disappearing every couple months.

First off, sorry about that again, I know I made a lot of big talk when I posted what I’ve been up to back in March and when I posted again in May about having plans for what I was going to be doing here on DA now that I was back. Then I ended up pretty much doing nothing and disappeared. Please understand that it was not at all due to laziness or a lack of motivation. The plans I had ended up being changed and postponed, because shortly after I made that post back in May things got a lot busier in my life.

For starters, I had to perform a huge research project over at the Historical Society where I work now. They asked me to find any and all information in regards to a battle that took place during the Revolutionary War right here in our town. This was something I spent months working on. Not only did I have to perform online research, I also had to visit several libraries, nearby colleges, and historical societies in other towns to gather additional information that I could not find online. So that took up a lot of my time, but it was quite an intriguing research project to say the least. I’d go into more detail over what the battle was about, but then I’d have to tell what town I live in and that isn’t something I’m exactly comfortable sharing with online people I barely know all that well. I’ve also been nearing the end of my paid internship with the Historical Society, so I actually won’t be working for them much longer. While that sounds like I’m going to be free more often now, I actually might be back to work soon as I may have just found another job available in my town that I’m currently waiting to hear back from.

Second, there’s been a lot of changes going on in my family. My Mom’s a real estate agent and she just quit the real estate company she’s worked at for over 20 years to go work for a new agency after receiving a job offer from them that from what I understand gives better benefits. So I’ve also been busy helping her move out her old workspace while she gets prepped to transition over to the new real estate agency early next year. She also held a party over at our town’s community center celebrating her new job and I spent a lot of time helping her both prep for that party as well as cleaning up afterwards (and before you ask, nobody got Covid as we took every precaution). In addition to all that one of my cousins is getting married and since we’re very close to his family, my family and I have been helping them plan for the wedding that’ll be in February. I met his fiance during Thanksgiving and she’s great for my cousin. I also had to attend a funeral a few weeks ago as one of my uncles on my mother’s side sadly passed away. It wasn’t due to Covid or anything, it was from a massive heart attack. He was only 64 too, so he was still relatively young. The worst part about this was that it happened literally the day before he and his wife were going to visit us. So it wasn’t the greatest thing to happen for us during the holiday season as we’ve been dealing with this very sudden tragedy.

Third, with everything going on in both my job and with my family. I’ve been spending the time I do have available hanging out with my friends. With Covid-19 severely limiting the amount of time we can see each other (and even shutting down the awesome social center in our town that we would go to), I’ve been hanging out with my friends whenever I can and in any way that I can. We did have a huge party over at my house back in September, though it was a going-away party as one of my best friends who recently got married was moving to Missouri. We still keep in touch, but I do miss him a lot. In addition, I’ve gone to see movies with my friends, played games with them online like Overwatch and Halo (we also held a tournament on Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl that I ended up dominating!), and invited them over to binge watch any series or new episodes on Netflix, Disney+, etc. We also have a tradition of hosting a big party over at my house every New Year that goes on for the entire night. We weren’t able to have it here last year due to Covid and this year as I had to go attend my Uncle’s funeral which was on December 31st. Although one of my friends hosted the party at their house so there still was a party and I was able to go to it after getting home from the funeral. It was a lot of fun overall and I’m happy I was able to celebrate the New Year with my friends again and hopefully I will continue to see them a lot in the future.

So that’s what I’ve been up to for the past few months. I’m sorry if it felt like I ended up ghosting people again, but like I said I ended up being very busy. I do feel bad not being able to post much aside from a handful of things. I haven’t even been able to do any Cryptid Sketches in a long time either, though that was for a couple of reasons. One of them was double checking if subjects I want to sketch are even credible. I know Cryptozoology as a whole is just pseudo science, but I’ve noticed a rise in people posting Cryptids that I can find little to no background information on so it’s a fair bet that they just made them up (and that’s the last thing you want to have happen in what is already pseudoscience). In addition, I listen to a Cryptid TV mockumentary series called Lost Tapes every time I do my Cryptid Sketches. Yes, I know that the show is in no way real and all fake, but listening to it seriously helps me with my sketches. It’s really hard to explain, but I’ve been sketching Cryptids while listening to it since Middle School, so that show has pretty much become my muse when it comes to actually drawing them. But the problem I’m having with it now is that I watched the episodes all on YouTube, and unfortunately they got taken down a few years back due to Copyright issues (I honestly hate myself for not just downloading them all onto my computer when I had the chance, then I could at least have them for myself without any worry of losing them). So I haven’t been able to make any more sketches due to my process being disrupted. I get that the simple solution would be that I can just draw Cryptids without listening to it or just listen to something else, but I’ve tried that in the past and my Cryptid sketches never turned out well when I did (so much so, that I’ve left them uncolored and unfinished). Like I said, Lost Tapes has become my muse when it comes to drawing Cryptids, and you don’t mess with an artist and their muse. So until I’m able to find the episodes again either on YouTube, some other website, or even going as far as getting the whole series on DVD, I’m not gonna be drawing or posting any Cryptid sketches anytime soon. Keep in mind though, that I am doing everything I can to work on a solution because I do miss doing it.

Now, onto what I actually plan on doing here on DA for this year:

• I’ll be posting my Godzilla vs Kong review sometime next month. I would’ve posted it sooner but when my laptop broke a few months back and I had to get a brand new one, I lost a couple of the stuff I had already planned on uploading on DA, including my review for Godzilla vs Kong that I spent hours typing up. So I had to start typing it up again and with everything that’s been going on in my life, I haven’t had time to finish it. But I’m gonna do my best and finish it and post it sometime very soon. Especially with the recent announcement that a new Godzilla TV series set in the Monsterverse is gonna be released on AppleTV. That is something I am absolutely stoked for.

• I planned on posting a review of the Halo games as well in anticipation for Halo Infinite, but things got too busy for me to work on it. I do however plan on posting them sometime later this year with the Infinite game released and a brand new live-action Halo Series coming to Paramount+, now seems like a better time than ever to show my thoughts on this amazing game series.

• In regards to my competitive Pokemon entries… I’m honestly not sure if I’ll continue making more of them or not. Don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love Pokemon. But the decisions GameFreak has made with the current generation like removing Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves as well as a good portion of the National Dex have prevented me from updating all of the competitive entries that I have already made. The new Sinnoh remakes didn’t help either with all the faults they unfortunately ended up having. Gen. 8 did introduce quite a myriad of new and interesting Pokemon, but I’ll need to hold off on making entries for them until some changes are made to the games themselves (whether they are in the current titles or any future ones), and that depends on GameFreak themselves. Hopefully the Legends Arceus game they’re releasing this month and the new content and Pokemon they’re introducing can be brought over to Sword/Shield and/or Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl. Perhaps that may motivate me to make some exceptions and start posting new competitive entries. That’s really all I can say in regards to the matter.

• That being said, I am actually working on a Pokemon project that I literally began on New Year’s day. I can’t say when it’ll be finished due to my workload and what I need to do for the project itself. But I’ll be sure to post what I’ve done as soon as it is completed.

• Since starting my paid internship and setting up my own PayPal account. I’ve actually been very interested in finally asking for commissions and having artists draw some of the work and concepts I myself could never do as well as them. Up until then, I’ve managed to get commissions from people that were just one-time offers (but I am still very grateful for each and every one of them for doing them for me). But I have come up with many interesting concepts and ideas over the years (whether it was with Adventure Time, Pokemon, Transformers, Godzilla, etc.) that I unfortunately was never able to visually produce in artwork nor did I have the money to pay someone to do it. But now that I have the money, I can finally start seeing my work come to life. So with that in mind, expect to see me post more commission work in the future.

Whelp, that’s all for now. I’ve been busy the past few months and unfortunately I’m still gonna be busy for a while. I’ll post what I can whenever I can, but know that I’m probably gonna end up disappearing again for a few months. So until then, stay tuned!

Hello to all my friends and watchers!

Yeah, I know, I’ve been super quiet lately yet again even though I said I was going to be more active. While I can’t get into the details right now (that’s something I plan on explaining in a separate post), please understand that it’s all for legit reasons. I promise, I will fill everyone in on where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. But for now, onto the review.

So, the latest Pokemon games have been released. Remakes of the Gen. 4 games, Diamond and Pearl. Now I made a post months ago, telling my initial thoughts and feelings I had for this game. So now that they’re out and I’ve played it, do they meet my expectations? Was I right in assuming those people who assumed they were gonna be bad were downer debbies? Did I like these Pokemon games?

Well, my god-honest answer is: Yes and no. That’s the best answer I can give. Normally I straight up love a Pokemon game regardless of what it has and what’s been taken away because I could ultimately work with it had to meet my needs. But these remakes were… quite different from anything I’ve played in a Pokemon game before.

To better explain my feelings in regards to these games I’ve made a list below of the pros and cons of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. What I like about the Gen. 4 remakes, and what I don’t like about them.

PROS:

-The Grand Underground now has spots where you can catch wild Pokemon. Not only does this basically mean that Pokemon basically follows the Hollow Earth just like the Monsterverse, but the amount of Pokemon you can find and catch is quite diverse. My biggest fear was that these games would force us to use the regional Pokedex that the original D/P games had. Which, as I expressed in my previous post, was absolutely terrible and had very little type diversity (only one Fire-type option if you didn’t choose Chimchar). But the trailers showed us being able to use Pokemon that were not in that regional Pokedex, so my fears were quickly mitigated. Now technically the BDSP games do use that specific terrible regional Pokedex. But thankfully, we’re given more options to choose from. Thanks to the new wild Pokemon spots in the Grand Underground, we’re able to catch and use Pokemon that are not in the regional Pokedex. Now normally I’m against using Pokemon in a playthrough if they’re not in the game’s regional Pokedex because it feels like you’re ignoring the team options that the game itself has to offer. But I’ll gladly make an exception in Sinnoh’s case considering how bad the D/P regional Pokedex was and the little variety they offer.

-Making the overworld effects of HM moves a feature in the Poketech watch. Now we no longer need HM Slaves when this feature does all the work for us. I do find it funny how in the original DP games how Bidoof was primarily used as an HM slave and a majority of the Pokemon that help with HM moves in BDSP are Bidoof and Bibarel.

-Your Pokemon can come out of their Pokeballs and walk alongside you once again. This was initially introduced in HeartGold and SoulSilver, then reintroduced in Let’s GO Pikachu and Eevee games, and again in the DLC Isles with Sword and Shield. Now it has returned yet again. That being said, they could’ve done a lot better with how they handled them. The Pokemon sizes are off, which isn’t anything new, but now it’s too much to ignore.

-Spiritomb can now be caught much more easily in these games than it ever could in the Gen. 4 games. That was one of the things that annoyed me the most about that Gen, how difficult it was to obtain this Pokemon. Having a limited number of friends interested in Pokemon and not yet having general access to social media to seek out other people, I personally had no way of performing the requirements necessary to get a Spiritomb of my own. Fortunately, I later discovered the GTS and how to use it so I managed to get a Spiritomb from a Japanese trainer. At least this time around, it's be a hell of a lot easier to obtain.

-You can have rematch battles with the Sinnoh Gym Leaders just like you could in Pokemon Platinum. The teams they run are much stronger than they were in Platinum (except for Gardenia, I’d switch out the Cherrim and Sunflora she has on her team with better Grass-types like Carnivine and Tangrowth) and even run hidden abilities and good held items to help them in battle. Volkner, for example, runs a rain team so his Electric-types can spam Thunder without fear of missing! This was something I wish we got in ORAS, but at least the Elite 4 and Champions got upgraded teams when you battle them again. The same thing happens again with the Sinnoh Elite 4 and Champion Cynthia. Speaking of Cynthia, she’s even more difficult to defeat every time you face her and as difficult as that is to believe. First time you face her, she’s running the powerful team she used in Diamond/Pearl. Second time you face her, she now runs the team she has in Platinum. But now there’s a third time you can face her; she still runs her Platinum team but she's replaced Roserade with Porygon-Z with Adaptability (making it an absolute wallbreaker. Oh did I mention now her team is now level 84-88 as well? THAT IS INSANE! Cynthia is regarded as one of the best champions by the fanbase, primarily since her team is both powerful and diverse. Now she’s even more powerful. I myself can testify to that as she was difficult to defeat when I challenged her in Diamond (I actually can’t remember how I ended up winning). I guess the only way she could get even stronger were if Mega Evolutions were added back in and she was able to Mega Evolve her Lucario like in Gen. 7’s Battle Tree (not her Garchomp despite it being her ace, Garchomp is works a lot better without having to Mega Evolve). Seriously though, DO NOT underestimate Cynthia whenever you challenge her. But especially the third time now that her Pokemon are above level 80, you could have a team of level 100 Pokemon and still lose if you don’t know what you’re doing.

CONS:

-Might as well get this one out of the way. I really hate the fact that the Sinnoh Battle Frontier didn’t return to BDSP. I loved playing the Battle Frontier in Emerald as a kid and recently went back and conquered every facility. I even played some of the Gen. 4 Battle Frontier in HeartGold and Platinum. Since getting into playing Pokemon more competitively, I’ve yearned for a Pokemon game to be released that essentially has a Battle Frontier for me to conquer. It could be in the core games or its very own game like Pokemon Colosseum, XD: Gale of Darkness or Battle Revolution, I’d have everything I could ever ask for so long as I could use the Pokemon I’ve bred for competitive play in it. The lack of a Battle Frontier in ORAS was literally the one thing that kept the games from being perfect in my eyes so I was hoping that the Gen. 4 remakes would come through by bringing back their own Battle Frontier. Sadly, they didn’t and just brought back the Battle Tower. It’s still fun and all, but I continue to wish for multiple battle facilities for me to conquer. This isn’t a huge issue with the game itself (at least compared to my other problems with it), just something I personally find annoying. Please GameFreak, I don’t care how you do it or when you finally decide to do it, just please bring back the Battle Frontier or some equivalent of it.

-Probably my biggest gripe with these remakes is the fact that you’re only able to use Pokemon from Gens. 1-4 in them. Meaning you cannot trade nor transfer Pokemon from Gens. 5-8 into Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. I honestly don’t understand the logic behind this decision. The point of a remake of a previous Pokemon game is that it’s supposed to bring us back to a previous region while still adding new features to it. FireRed and LeafGreen did that by introducing the Sevii Islands, HeartGold and Soulsilver did it by giving us the Pokeathlon Dome and bringing back the Safari Zone (one that was also customizable and enabled you to find a myriad of different Pokemon), and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire did it by giving us the Delta Episode postgame, new Mega Evolutions, Primal Reversions, Mirage spots, making various legendaries available, and the DexNav which made finding and catching particular Pokemon in the wild so much simpler. Granted, BDSP sort of gave us that with expanding the Grand Underground and making wild Pokemon appear in there and turning Pal Park into a place where you can catch previous Gen. Legendaries. But there’s still more they could've done. We can’t even use the regional formes of previous gen. Pokemon. This is especially annoying when the Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee games, which are set in Gen. 1, still enable you to use regional formes of Pokemon. So BDSP seriously couldn’t even do this for us? All in all, the simplest thing being what all the other remakes (and most Pokemon games in general) did that they didn’t. And that was making other gen. Pokemon available to find in the postgame, by which I mean Pokemon that didn’t appear in the generation of the original games. FRLG had Pokemon from Gen. 2 you could find in the Sevii Islands. HGSS had a ton of Gen. 3 and 4 Pokemon you could find using both the Safari Zone as well as the Hoenn and Sinnoh Sound feature on the Pokegear. ORAS had Pokemon from Gens. 4-6 you could find using the Dexnav and in Mirage Spots. But that is something that BDSP is severely lacking. Whether this is something that is addressed or is fixed in the future remains to be seen. But I can tell you right now that I really don’t like it.

-Another aspect I didn’t like about these games was how they didn’t update the looks of any character. Now I don’t mean the characters we play since Trainer Customization is available. What I mean is that they didn’t update the looks of your rival, the evil organization, the gym leaders, Elite 4 members or the Champion. They did it in FRLG, HGSS, and in ORAS so why couldn’t they do the same here in these remakes? I mean they seriously couldn’t update the look of Team Galactic and make them look more spacey or sci-fi esque? That’s something all the other remakes did well that BDSP seemingly chose not to do. I’m almost tempted to say that these Gen. 4 remakes are quite literally just the Gen. 4 games with some slight alterations.

-These games are actually quite glitchy and it’s pretty easy to get stuck in a particular place and have no way of getting out unless you turn the game off or even have to restart your entire game (or use the previous save file feature they introduced to help players get out of those situations). Now I realize no Pokemon game has ever been perfect glitch-wise, but there seems to quite be an abundance of bugs in these games than in any previous ones. Now there are patches being released that will fix these bugs, but this much sloppy work is something that has never happened before in a Pokemon game.

-Making Technical Machines (TMs) limited use again. I always hated this feature and having to choose which Pokemon could learn a move I couldn’t teach to any other member of my team. So much so that I put aside my hatred of using action replays and other cheat devices for Pokemon games and used them to give me an unlimited number of TMs for my Gen. 3 and 4 games. I was super glad they made them unlimited in Gen. 5 and kept that an ongoing game mechanic to the present day. Sword and Shield did introduce Technical Records which could only be used once. But at least they were pretty easy to obtain. Now you can obtain every other Technical Machine from Sphere Traders in the Grand Underground, so they are technically unlimited in that aspect. But obtaining them is a whole process as the TMs they sell change daily and it costs quite a lot of spheres to obtain one move, let alone multiple copies when you want to teach the move to different Pokemon. Because obtaining spheres is not as easy as you think when you need a specific amount of a particular kind of sphere to get the move that you want. It’s all a process I’d rather not have to deal with, especially when I just want to teach moves to my Pokemon so that they can have more coverage or just more overall power.

-Speaking of limiting the ways you can teach your Pokemon different moves, the Sinnoh remakes have completely removed the move tutors as well which seriously pisses me off. Now technically this was something that was in Platinum and not the original D/P games, but that’s besides the point. Because move tutors have been a staple in Pokemon games since Generation 2. It’s pretty much become tradition that every second and/or third released Pokemon game of a generation, be it a third version or a remake, they have always added move tutors who can teach your Pokemon moves they wouldn’t normally have access to and are not available as TMs. Sword and Shield sort of breaks this trend by turning a majority of move tutor moves that were available in previous generations into Technical Records and adding brand new move tutor moves in the DLC. But this is still something that could've been brought back in the D/P remakes by making them available via move tutor again! Since the remakes make us only allowed to use Pokemon from Gens. 1-4, it’s the very least they could’ve done. So now I have to wait until BDSP is compatible with Sword/Shield or just Pokemon Home so I can move certain Pokemon over to Sword/Shield and teach them moves there that they don’t have access to here in the remakes. The most annoying thing is that in Platinum, the colored shard items were your way of paying move tutors to teach your Pokemon new moves. Since these shard items are available to find by digging in the Grand Underground, they’re relatively easy to obtain (and you'd need a minimum of 8 shards of a particular color to teach your Pokemon a move in Platinum, so it’s not as burdensome as sphere-collecting in BDSP).

-Since we're on the subject of ways these games have done to limit moves for your Pokemon, a lot of moves that have been around since their debut generation were removed in BDSP. Now this isn’t entirely their fault, since this was something that first started in Sword and Shield. But BDSP didn’t have to go and continue the trend by getting rid of more moves. Feint Attack, Embargo, Heal Block, Refresh, Pursuit, Twineedle, hell even Heal Order that could only be learned by Vespiquen (who’s available in this game). All gone for whatever reason. I mean I don’t have a huge problem with this since I don’t run a lot of the moves that were removed. But many good ones were lost, most notably Hidden Power (the sole exception being Unown, since Hidden Power is the only move they can learn). Now granted Hidden Power was removed when Sword and Shield came out, but in a game that’s seemingly generation-locked with limited TMs, a lot of Pokemon that are available in the D/P remakes ended up suffering more from it. Most notably the Pokemon with incredibly shallow movepools and relied on Hidden Power to have any form of coverage. So many Electric and Fire-types have been hurt by this removal of Hidden Power.

-Pokemon and moves weren’t the only thing cut from BDSP, a lot of good battle items were removed as well, specifically ones that were introduced after Generation 4. That means no Assault Vest to boost special defense, no Air Balloon to make a Pokemon temporarily immune to Ground-type moves, no Safety Goggles to make a Pokemon immune to weather effects and powder moves, no Weakness Policy to sharply boost both attack stats of a Pokemon when it’s hit by a move it’s weak to, and no Heavy-Duty boots that make a Pokemon immune to entry hazards. But the one I’m going to miss the most is that they removed the Eviolite, the item that boosted the defense stats of a Pokemon so long as it’s still able to evolve. This makes the competitive strategies I’ve made for Murkrow, Clefairy, Scyther, Chansey, Rhydon, Porygon2, and Dusclops all useless if I ever transferred them to BDSP (which I obviously won’t). Fortunately though, all the items I listed and more are still in Sword and Shield so at least my Eviolite Pokemon are still viable there.

-Another gripe I have is how they resolved Team Galactic in this game. In the original D/P games, Team Galactic ultimately ends with Cyrus leaving never to be seen again after you defeat him. In Platinum, the same thing pretty much happens, only you know where Cyrus ends up as he chooses to remain in the Distortion World after failing to catch Giratina then Team Galactic tries carrying on without him in the post game with Charon, Mars, and Jupiter trying to catch Heatran and threatening to cause Stark Mountain to erupt unless they are paid a hefty ransom. It’s only after defeating them that Mars and Jupiter quit Team Galactic and Charon is apprehended by Looker of the International Police. But in the Gen. 4 remakes, something different happens. Saturn tells you that he’s reorganized Team Galactic into something good, but Cyrus and his subordinates are still around even in the postgame, as you can battle them in the Battle Tower. Typically in a Pokemon game when an evil organization is ultimately defeated by the player, the leader either disbands the group and/or is arrested, or vows to make amends by trying to right the wrongs they caused. With the past evil teams, I was always content with how they each ultimately ended. But Cyrus and his subordinates being allowed to walk away freely after everything they did and Cyrus’s own plan of destroying the universe so he could create his own perfect world? That really doesn’t feel right at all when Cyrus is arguably the most dangerous of the evil team leaders. In Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, he showed absolutely no remorse for his actions even after you defeat him and still vows to create his own perfect world before disappearing. So it just feels seriously weird that somebody like him would still be around in the postgame of the Gen. 4 remakes and end up as someone you can face in the Battle Tower. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I don’t like how everything he set out to do and what he planned on doing after it all failed ends up being so weirdly resolved since he’s now in the Battle Tower. Even if I didn’t know his fate, I’d much rather be content with Cyrus disappearing again a third time (fourth if you count the alternate universe Cyrus you battle in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon).

-I don’t know if anybody’s noticed, but when you’re playing the game it seems to blur the area surrounding you. Like if buildings, trees, bushes, or people were on the very edges of your screen, they’d be blurry for whatever reason. That has never, ever been the case in a Pokemon game and I have absolutely no idea why they decided to implement it. It’s not that it’s a problem, it’s more of an unnecessary addition.

*CONTROVERSIAL CON*

My final problem with the game is how the Elite Four and Cynthia can be too hard to beat. Now I know I said that I actually liked that change in my list of pros, but please just hear me out on this. Battling the Pokemon League in the Sinnoh remakes was indeed a refreshing and fun challenge. I honestly haven’t been on my feet or pushed to my limit in a battle since taking on Ultra Necrozma back. But after some research, I’ve come to realize something rather interesting about the Pokemon the Elite Four and Cynthia use. So it turns out the Pokemon they use are programmed with perfect IV’s, good natures, as well as being perfectly EV trained. What this means is that you’re essentially going up against AI opponents using competitively viable Pokémon. You know all the competitive Pokemon summaries I’ve posted here on DA over the years? Well the Pokemon the Sinnoh Elite Four and Cynthia use against you in Gen. 4 remakes are just as strong as the ones I’ve raised. Cynthia’s Garchomp is as fast and as powerful as mine. So if you used your own Garchomp that you caught and raised against her’s and they’re the same level or even if yours is a few levels higher, her Garchomp is still gonna outspeed and overpower yours because of its stats and nature.

Now look, I’m all one for a challenging Elite 4 and Champion. Believe me, I am. The fact that I’ve raised so many different Pokemon for competitive play be it in a Battle facility or against other people online all convey that I love me a challenging battle. But isn’t giving the Elite Four and Champion League competitively viable Pokémon the first time you challenge them going a bit too far?

Something you should know about me is that despite being a competitive Pokemon player, I don’t let any of that competitive knowledge get in the way when I am simply just playing through a Pokemon game. I use whatever Pokemon I can find or catch to help me get through the game, no matter their nature, EV’s, or IV’s. This is not only the case with me, but virtually everyone who plays a Pokemon game as well, be they competitive or not. When it comes to just beating the game, the competitive viability of the Pokemon you use really doesn’t matter. In the original Sinnoh games; the Elite 4 and Champion did use Pokemon that had near perfect IV’s, but they all had random natures and were properly EV trained much like the Pokemon you’re currently using. So it basically leveled the playing field and at that point any problem you had facing them was your own and not something wrong with the game itself. But now this is the complete opposite case in BDSP as the Pokemon they use have perfect IV’s, are EV trained, and the right nature. Oh and this is all just glossing over the fact that they’re also holding useful items and many Pokemon they use have their hidden abilities to make them even more formidable in battle, neither of which was the case in Diamond/Pearl or Platinum. So the overall difficulty is already through the roof. If they were like this when you challenge the Pokemon League again after beating it the first time, I’d have absolutely no problem with this. But they’re like this even when you challenge them the first time, so the difficulty has risen drastically. Whether you’re a competitive player and can’t currently breed perfect IV Pokémon or just a casual player who doesn’t play competitive Pokémon at all. You’re already gonna be at a serious disadvantage. You could try overleveling your Pokemon so that they’re stronger than the Elite Four and Cynthia’s Pokemon (a strategy I’m notorious for opposing when it comes to playthroughs), but even that’s not going to guarantee you victory when their Pokemon still have better stats in the right areas than yours. What’s worse is that you couldn’t even breed competitively viable Pokemon of your own even if you wanted to since much of the necessary stuff you need to perform it are only available in the post game. What I’m trying to say with all this is that there is actually no way of easing this already difficult challenge no matter how you play Pokemon. Many people can see this as being super fun since defeating this Pokemon league is now more challenging than ever before, and I totally agree with them. But then there’s players who don’t play Pokemon as hardcore or as competitively as others, the ones who play it for fun and likely have no idea the games actually have a competitive field. Everybody plays Pokemon differently, and I fear this drastically increased difficulty may end up being too overwhelming for people who don’t play the game as seriously as others. There could’ve been a simple solution they could’ve done that would’ve ultimately made both parties happy, and that’s bringing back the Challenge Mode mechanic introduced in Black 2 and White 2. Challenge Mode is exactly as it sounds, a way of playing through a Pokemon game that has overall more difficulty. How it works is that the levels of AI trainer's Pokémon will be higher, starting at one level higher and reaching 5 levels higher at the end. The AI of the opponents will also be higher, meaning they’ll start making smarter choices in battle. What’s more is that the Gym Leaders and Elite Four will have an extra Pokémon within their squads, and their other Pokémon will have different movesets and hold items. Now the best part about Challenge Mode was that it was entirely optional. All you had to do was beat the game once and then be able to play through it again on Challenge Mode. So that’s something that easily could’ve been implemented here since the Sinnoh Elite Four and Champion function exactly like it.

CONCLUSION:

Overall, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have a lot more bad qualities than good ones. I can still play them, but let’s just say I have to phone it in a little when it comes to enjoying them. That’s something I never thought I’d have to do in order to play a Pokemon game and I actually hate myself for it. But I honestly feel more bad for my friends. Many of my friends absolutely loved the Sinnoh Region the same way I love Hoenn. I got nearly everything I could’ve asked for when Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released and I was hoping my friends could’ve gotten the same joy I felt with the remakes of the games that they loved so much. Instead, they just got their old games with only a handful of new features. To me, it feels like they were cheated out of getting something genuinely great, something that could’ve given them the same feeling of bliss and satisfaction I got out of ORAS.

Now I bet even more people are furious at GameFreak over their decisions with this game in addition to everything they were already mad with that Sword and Shield did (even though a lot of it has since been mitigated). But for once, the faults of BDSP aren’t entirely GameFreak’s fault. Now these remakes were the first ever core Pokemon games to not be developed directly by GameFreak, they were instead developed primarily by a company called ILCA. Now this company is responsible for developing Pokemon Home, which enables you to transfer Pokemon from Gen. 7 and the popular Pokemon GO app onto it and into the Gen. 8 games, so this company has done work for GameFreak in the past. But in terms of developing a core Pokemon game, I’d say that is something GameFreak should stick to doing themselves like they’ve always done. ILCA took the Gen. 4 games and made them no more than high definition versions of themselves and did even less to improve upon them. Fortunately, the only reason GameFreak even allowed this to happen was because they were primarily working on the Legends: Arceus game that is set to release next year that takes place in Sinnoh’s distant past. And from the trailers and game footage that has been released, it looks like it’ll be everything we wanted out of these remakes and more. So here’s to hoping that it mitigates some of the disappointment BDSP gave, and that Gamefreak never lets someone else make another one of their core games ever again (or if they do, puts it in the hands of a more capable gaming company).

In conclusion, I give the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games a 6/10 (and I am honestly being more generous with that rating than I should be).