![]() ![]() Put simply, battles, especially wild ones, go on for way too long. The battle system, which was relatively new back in 2006, is either just as slow or faster to such a minor degree that it’s imperceptible. There are lots of other residual issues from the original games that are for some reason not smoothed out here, too. It’s never particularly egregious, but it’s a constant annoyance throughout the entire game that could have been avoided by making slight dimension changes to objects that already add precious little to the overall aesthetic. Even just getting through a door requires the directional precision of jumping through a flaming hoop. On several occasions you’ll likely push the tenth Strength boulder in a puzzle the wrong way through no fault of your own and have to start over. It’s as persnickety as - if not even more than - Let’s Go. ![]() The art also isn’t conducive to the controls, especially when you’re cycling. Sure, they may be 3D and all-chibid-up, but they’re paradoxically flat - it’s tough to take the weight of Cyrus’ nihilism seriously when he looks like a character pulled from an off-peak Nick Jr. I know so much more about these characters than Shining Pearl is ever willing to acknowledge. As a result, it’s hard to play the new remakes if you’ve already played and loved Platinum. When the original Diamond & Pearl were reimagined as Platinum, Game Freak doubled down on all of Sinnoh’s best characters, giving more screen time to people like Dawn, Cynthia, and Cyrus. This is another area where ignoring Platinum really comes to bite Shining Pearl in the Arceus - I will never say “Ar-kee-us,” in case you missed the joke there. It’s just inconsistent with Sinnoh and its stories, which is more than a little disappointing. I’m not trying to say the art style is awful - hell, I’m not even trying to say I actively disliked it. These enhancements only serve to accentuate how garish a lot of the core design is by comparison. Battles and their accompanying animations exist in a sort of halfway house between Let’s Go and Sword & Shield, while gym layouts have been tastefully refined to make use of the more powerful hardware. This is especially apparent when the visuals are slightly more stylish. I feel like I parrot this once a week, but bigger and brighter is not always better - at the very least, it’s never conducive to preserving intent. The vibrant colours also do the harsh snowscapes of Sinnoh no favours. Without going into too much detail, it’s easy to disengage from the story when characters you know to be austere start smiling with their full teeth. It’s not just a matter of whether you find chibi to be cute or kitsch - Shining Pearl’s art direction completely alters the entire tone of the game. ![]() Despite initially being ambivalent towards the game’s artistic choices, the more time I spent with it, the more perplexed I became. This is as good a time as any to get into the Weedles of each and every element of what makes Shining Pearl shine and, perhaps more often, lose its lustre. Despite the relatively techy pizazz of the Switch and unanimously enduring reverence of Platinum, Shining Pearl is distinguishable from normal Pearl primarily in terms of aesthetic, which isn’t ideal when your art direction is questionable at best. It gave Sinnoh’s best characters more prominent roles in the story, completely revamped how the narrative was structured, and made the region itself feel more like a real place and less like a video game setting. Platinum improved on the original Gen 4 games in every conceivable way. Still, this course begins with a misstep and never turns back. The biggest problem with Shining Pearl is exactly that: it’s very good, but after having beaten the Pokemon League and completed my Sinnoh ‘Dex, 2008’s Pokemon Platinum is still noticeably better.īrilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are faithful remakes of Diamond & Pearl, so the fact they’re not based on Platinum isn’t necessarily surprising. Sinnoh is a gorgeous region teeming with fascinating characters and creative Pokemon designs, to the extent that it would be difficult to reimagine Gen 4 in a way that made it seem anything less than very good. Pokemon Shining Pearl - which is the version I’ve spent the last week playing - is an excellent, clever, and tightly designed game in many ways, but this is mostly because of the excellent, clever, and tightly designed game it’s based on. Related: Why I’m Waiting To Catch Mew In Pokemon Go I am not exaggerating when I say that we got a better Gen 4 remake 13 years ago. Unfortunately, this scene is missing from Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl on account of the fact that they are bafflingly based on the original pair of Gen 4 games, ignoring approximately 100 percent of Platinum's objectively better enhancements. Until then, sleep while you can, Legendary Pokemon of the lake bed." A lone figure stares wistfully across Lake Verity. ![]()
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