#BDSP is a really stupid acronym TBH

[radramblog]

Some longer thoughts on Pokemon BDSP

I think at this point the absolute vitriol-fest thrown at the upcoming Sinnoh Remakes has largely died down, people moving onto greater things like the upcoming New Pokemon Snap release (I’m probably not buying it) or…whatever it is the #mainstreamPokemonFandom does when they aren’t spewing outrage about trees and dexits. It might be a bit early for me to do this considering the games still don’t have a release date, but I figure with the hype dying down a bit I can afford a few of my own thoughts as to what these games should look like.

Of course, we’ve all been burned before, and I’m not expecting an awful lot. But hey, it’s just my two cents.

I think the first thing that made people immediately bounce off of the BDSP reveal is the artstyle. And, I get it- it’s certainly A Choice. The models look kinda awkward, almost hearkening back to Gen VI’s first attempts at full 3D overworld but with a more deliberate style. The short, round characters look awkward against the more detailed overworld. And the full sized models aren’t especially impressive either- all the previous remakes updated the original’s character designs somewhat, as did third versions Emerald and Platinum, but BDSP doesn’t seem to have made any changes outside of model-ifying them.

And the thing is, I don’t care?

On the one hand, aesthetic in a game obviously does matter, and having the protagonist you’re going to be staring at all game look like that is going to be an issue for people. On the other, I actually really like how the overworld looks. On the other, other hand, I’m really not convinced that the artstyle of this game should make or break it, as it certainly doesn’t for me. Pokemon’s graphics have been arguably behind the curve for like, 8 years now? I remember all the complaints about Sword and Shield’s graphics, and that obviously didn’t kill that game. And like, I don’t want to go for the throat of a game I haven’t played, but, people don’t seem to mind Colosseum and XD’s artstyle from what I’ve seen, and those games kinda look like shit. They do have those dynamic pokemon animations though, and I hope we get to see that in BDSP- those (and that of Battle Revolution) were a result of outsourcing, I believe, and this game is outsourced to another studio.

More importantly, in my eyes, is the gameplay. Doesn’t matter how good the game looks if it plays like garbage. And herein lies the biggest sticking point, and potential blunder, of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Diamond and Pearl are like, easily some of the worst games in the series from a playthrough standpoint.

The pacing is all over the place, with backtracking that seems to be trying to emulate RSE but not quite making it. The level curve is messy, with the Elite Four being such a massive spike that they had to tone it down 4-5 levels on each Pokemon in the intentionally harder third version, Platinum. The regional Pokedex is sorely lacking- while Elite Four Flint’s infamous 2/5 “Fire” team is eminently memeable, Electric Gym Leader Volkner is just as bad (2/4, though he could technically be running…Pachirisu…), and of the 28 new Pokemon related to previous games’ evolutionary lines, 17 cannot be obtained in a regular playthrough. HM use is especially egregious in this game, with 6 of them being mandatory to complete the game (Victory Road alone requires 5) and of the other two, the games’ sprawling map and frequent backtracking basically necessitate Fly while without Defog the foggy parts of the map are absolutely miserable both to navigate and fight through.

How BDSP handles these issues is kinda my make or break with the game. See, a lot of the issues were solved in Platinum, and Heartgold and Soulsilver (the best remakes the series has had) solved much of the issues in GS by taking notes from Crystal and tweaking things in the transition. The thing is, the last remakes we got, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, did not take Emerald’s tweaks in mind, making them substantially worse games than they could potentially have been, and I’m worried BDSP are going to do the same. A particular sticking point for me is the HMs, interestingly- outside of the aforementioned Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire sticking too closely to outdated design, Pokemon for the last 4 generations has had light to nonexistent HM requirements. Black and White only had one mandatory HM use period (Cut in the Dreamyard after Gym 1), B2W2 and XY both only require Surf off the top of my head, and Gens 7 and 8 remove them completely from the game. Because that’s kind of what they are, outdated game design- I think the Alola games handled it best, where the interesting level design these obstacles can lead to is still present but tackling them is less restrictive on your party and is based on progression through the story. That’s the kind of design that makes backtracking interesting, something Gen 8 really lacked in the long run.

The final thing I want to bring up is kinda a combo of two things- postgame and connectivity. One would argue that the Battle Frontier is also outdated design based on development priorities, but it’s removal in ORAS was kind of a kick in the taint to fans- it’s a beloved part of the game, and it not being in BDSP would be a terrible shame. The other thing is whether or not the games will have online connectivity with Sword and Shield as far as trading and battling goes. While I’ve heard quite a few people express doubts that BDSP will do so, I’d be shocked if, unlike every other main series title, competitive battling stayed a primary function of Sword and Shield and BDSP didn’t get it. I’d also be surprised if the games weren’t able to trade with each other, considering that’s been a core facet of the series since day 1- not being able to trade would make Dexit feel more permanent almost, considering many, many of the Sinnoh Dex mons aren’t available to play at the moment, even with the expanded DLC Pokedex in Sword and Shield. In fact, one thing I noticed that leads me to believe that trading between games is absolutely going to happen is related to said DLC dex- namely, that the Crown Tundra added every single Fossil Pokemon to the SwSh Pokedex- except the Sinnoh ones, Cranidos and Shieldon.

 At the end of the day, we’re just waiting for more information to come out for these games either way. I can tell you right now, though, that I’m not preordering them (last time I did that was Y, I think), and whether or not I get them is really going to base around many of these factors.