“Not another Pokemon replay post!” I assume you cry in anguish, promptly scrolling past and continuing to live your life. Well, to that I say:

• It was Pokemon Day yesterday and I have nothing else to write about in February;
• Nintendo recently announced that Nintendo Switch Online Game Vouchers won’t work on Switch 2 games, they’re being awful quiet about their 2025 Switch 1 releases, and I’ve had a spare voucher sitting around on my account for months;
• I wanted to play something requiring minimal attention while bingeing Formula 1: Drive to Survive this past week in preparation for the new racing season, and let’s be honest, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl are the most mindless Pokemon games available on the Switch;
• I actually never got a chance to write properly about BD/SP, because in 2021 I hadn’t yet started my annual Game Re-Releases countdown.

What do you know; another perfect-storm excuse to play through an old Pokemon game and turn a critical – albeit rather quick – eye on it as we go.

Wow, People Hate This One

It’s not hard to find negative opinions about this one: just about any Pokemon YouTuber or writer around seemed to have a sour impression of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl when the games launched in late 2021. As far as I can tell those impressions have either been reinforced or forgotten about entirely almost three and a half years later; despite 15 million copies sold worldwide, there aren’t a ton of softening opinions to be found (yet). And the sentiment is rather easy to explain. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: it’s all about expectations.

The Pokemon Company used to set a pretty regular precedent of remaking older games to keep the series’ momentum going, and they were usually well-received. Gen IV remakes were rumoured among fans for much longer than any prior generation, and that hype was never quelled or addressed in any official capacity. Yet last year’s so-called “Game Freak Gigaleak” revealed that Gen IV remakes may not even have been planned at all until the eleventh hour, as the studio was focused mainly on the relatively fresh series direction represented by Pokemon Legends: Arceus – which conspicuously launched a mere two months after Brilliant Diamond.

As a result those very remakes were the first-ever main series games to be outsourced to a new developer, ILCA, and the lack of development time afforded that studio is sadly plain to see in the end result. Am I here to argue that this product does not feel rushed?

Not at all; in fact nothing less than the number one entry on my 2021 Top Disappointments list was all about the fact that several basic multiplayer features – both local and online – were missing from Pokemon Brilliant Diamond for months after launch. Multiplayer is one of the prime reasons I play the main series Pokemon games, so I was a bit miffed to say the least. And yes, there is a general jankiness to the game’s graphical presentation – camera cuts not linking smoothly, odd text loading delays, and a whole lot of statuesque assets – that betrays the tiny development window.

Here’s The Thing, Though

2021 was a pretty rough time to release such a poorly-planned remake, because the vocal contingent of the Pokemon fanbase was still mad as a bag of bees about the Pokedex cut in prior release Pokemon Sword / Shield, the hysterical hype cycle around a supposed “Switch Pro” had only just finished disappointing people as the Switch OLED Model was barely a month old, and Legends Arceus hadn’t yet launched to restore a bit of hope in series critics. In 2025, we don’t have that context weighing us down.

The, uh, extremely faithful approach to remake visual design on show here is a double-edged sword, because now that neither game is new or burdened with expectations, we can compare them directly. It turns out that if you’re feeling nostalgic and want a quick run through Sinnoh from starter to (gulp) champion, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond is not only meaningfully different from the original Diamond; it’s kind of better in almost every way. Hey, I’ll say it: the game even gives Platinum a run for its money if that story replay is your only goal.

Yes, the jank is still there, but BD offers:

• Much quicker battle animations, text loading, HP bar depletion speeds, and saving operations;
• The most elegant solution to the HM problem (the number 1 Pokemon replay variety killer) ever seen in a Pokemon remake;

• Access to the Grand Underground, which allows for Pokemon you can’t normally catch before the Elite 4 in the original Diamond and meaningfully expands team variety (especially for the Fire type) as a result;
• Fairy types! I know it seems obvious, but unlike, say, the Dark and Steel types in Pokemon Leaf Green (which I revisited last year), Fairy is actually quite well-represented in the Sinnoh Pokedex, to the point where it feels like it was always supposed to be there;
• A bit of basic outfit customisation that goes a long way, and a genuine attempt to lean further into Pokeball stickers throughout the game to make them feel less like an afterthought;

• Genuinely challenging boss fights with proper strategies and stat training, culminating in a champion battle so satisfyingly unforgiving it almost redeemed the whole game for me back in 2021 by forcing me to go back to the drawing board for hours after my first attempt;
• The “modern” EXP Share system – tweaked with level-scaled experience point yields – which massively cuts down on both grinding time and the frustration those tougher bosses can bring;
• Some genuinely stunning bespoke battle backdrops, which Pokemon Scarlet / Violet made me miss dearly;

• The highest-resolution Pokemon experience on the Switch. Say what you want about the rest of the visuals, but from crisp UI to sharp attack animations, this one ain’t blurry.

What’s more, those aforementioned multiplayer features missing at launch are now present and accounted for in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond – and additional post-game content is also suddenly there. I for one had no idea the original Darkrai and Arceus events were planned for inclusion in the remake, and I’m thrilled that they showed up – even as a post-launch patch.

Again, I’m not saying people were wrong to be disappointed in the launch of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond; just that it’s worth considering over the original for the serial Pokemon replayers out there.

The Team

This is a Pokemon replay post, so I am contractually obliged to talk about the team I used for this run. I do not make the rules.

Despite Gen IV’s famous wealth of quality starter options, the choice for this run was easy: Piplup has the best special attacking prowess of the trio, and my 2021 run that hit a Cynthia-shaped wall suffered from a serious lack of special attackers. That secondary Steel typing also helped out a ton to keep it alive through thick and thin, ensuring it grew into one of the most consistently capable Pokemon in the squad.

If it wasn’t obvious by now, I was feeling pretty nostalgic during this run, so I thought I’d lean fully into the infamously ‘obvious’ early-game team choices Shinx and Starly. That double-Intimidate core is still funny 17 years on – even though it slows minor battles right down – and I even toyed with adding a Gyarados to make it a triple threat before I realised that was an awful idea.

Even though Luxray remains as sluggish and simplistic as ever, that giant attack stat is always fun to have around, and Intimidate + Volt Switch is a combo for the all-time shithousery books. Staraptor, meanwhile, remains the GOAT of early-game birds: nothing in the last two decades of Pokemon games has yet topped the ludicrous moment this thing learns a 120-base-power Fighting-type move as soon as it evolves. A bird that can melt Rock and Steel-types is a friend indeed in Brilliant Diamond, and the game’s HM hack means you don’t even need to waste a moveslot on Fly; Quick Attack and U-turn can therefore live in the back of Staraptor’s moveset for when creativity is called for.

Speaking of nostalgia, this run was the first time since my original 2007 Diamond weekend that I pulled the old “run around Jubilife City with a Budew until it evolves” trick. Yes, I’ve actually done that twice. Having a Roselia before it learns Magical Leaf – and before the first Rock-type gym – is just too much fun, and that step-counting marathon fit in perfectly with the “mindless” mission statement of this playthrough. A Pokemon with 100 special attack is also a massive early power spike, and even though Roserade isn’t obtainable till Iron Island, it brings its own powerful glass cannon energy that was hugely appreciated in the endgame.

The remaining two slots chopped and changed more than they probably should have for a playthrough that was supposed to be quick, but some of my early and mid-game choices were falling behind or fit poorly in the team – such as the aforementioned Gyarados, or the Lopunny I obtained by running up and down Solaceon with a Buneary during a particularly gripping passage of Drive to Survive. That thing really does not hit as hard as I thought it would; it’s just fast and bulky. In the end, my first-ever in-game Gardevoir proved to be a vital additional special attacker (and anti-Garchomp weapon), and I couldn’t resist the lure of that Lucario you get from the egg on Iron Island.

This team felt a lot more balanced – if a bit less spicy – than what I normally go for on Pokemon replays, but it did face a few unexpected hurdles courtesy of Brilliant Diamond’s extra cheeky bosses. The Purugly AND the Skuntank you fight early on via Team Galactic Admins both did serious damage to my team, as did Gardenia’s Roserade (once my bird was paralysed) and Fantina’s Gengar (Gardevoir does not like Sludge Bomb). Elite Four Aaron’s Drapion also did an absolute number on the gang with it’s fast crit-hacking and relative lack of weaknesses, and Flint’s Drifblim has never been more annoying, but Cynthia’s team was much easier to get through than last time around. Well, until the Garchomp, of course. That thing still requires a bit of luck after a playthrough this rapid.

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Well, there you go; that was actually pretty fun. I would never have thought this was on the cards even a week ago. See what happens when I go too long without a new Pokemon game?