Pokemon remakes are one of the most anticipated parts of the franchise. There aren’t many, but most of them serve as not only graphically updated remakes, but also mechanical iterations of the current Pokemon generation and expansions to the original games sometimes comparable to the special third releases. Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen brought Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald’s visuals and mechanics back to Kanto, and added new late-game and endgame content. HeartGold and SoulSilver were big hits with fans, thanks to combining everything great about the generation 2 titles with the generation 4 ones. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire even went as far as making the third-generation titles 3D to match Pokemon X and Y.
Fans were left waiting on the expected generation 4 remakes for a while. Pokemon Let’s Go was another take on the first generation, but it took a new approach. Unfortunately, these much-anticipated remakes released as Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. They were a massive step back from previous games, and one of the biggest complaints about them is that they were too faithful in recreating Diamond and Pearl. There was a glimmer of hope in the form of another Pokemon game announced at the same time, however, and that game was Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It came as a shock to many fans, as it was also set in Diamond and Pearl’s Sinnoh region, but in the distant past as the Hisui region. Comparing Pokemon Legends: Arceus and BDSP demonstrates that a remake doesn’t need to keep the same map to impress fans.
Pokemon Legends Reinvented the Sinnoh Region
The Hisui region found in Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a radically different take on Diamond and Pearl’s Sinnoh region. Being set a seemingly long time in the past means that human civilization has not spread throughout the world yet, and even native trainers haven’t adopted Poke Balls for managing their partner Pokemon. Because of this, many of the human settlements and installations found in the fourth-generation games don’t exist. Apart from a few temples, small villages, and a considerably different Jubilife, it’s mostly just the player exploring untamed nature. That’s what allows Legends to break away from Pokemon’s usual formula, however.
Pokemon Legends eschews the standard format of Pokemon games, getting rid of routes, towns, and even the Wild Areas in favor of one hub town and several semi-open world maps. While the shape of Hisui is the same as Sinnoh, and all the ancient caves, temples, and lakes are still around, the layout of every area takes liberties in arranging a play space. The region is designed around Pokemon Legends’ new gameplay loop and mechanics, ensuring that it is a more distinct and memorable experience. The Hisui and Sinnoh regions are clearly linked, but no one will mistake one for the other.
Legends’ Hisui Compares Favorably to the Generation 4 Remakes’ Sinnoh
The true brilliance of the remade Hisui region is more apparent when a rather underwhelming remake of Sinnoh is brought into the picture. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have been criticized for many things, but their aggressive imitation of Diamond and Pearl’s world is one of the most popular complaints. Instead of presenting a Sinnoh remade to resemble Sword and Shield’s Galar region, all the old games’ art assets were simply remade in a similar chibi art style. BDSP look like 3D versions of Diamond and Pearl, right down to repeating the same tree in backgrounds throughout the game. Pokemon Legends caught flack for its trees, but at least it had several kinds per area.
However, it’s not just the visual similarities that make BDSP’s 1-to-1 map recreation upsetting; it’s how the old design fails to accommodate BDSP’s new features. Some new things were introduced in these remakes, including diagonal movement for players, follower Pokemon, and summoned hidden move Pokemon. The last addition is particularly annoying, as dealing with roadblocks without needing a party Pokemon with a specific hidden move makes field skills feel pointless. Coupled with new camera angles focusing on the chibi models robbing otherwise identical cutscenes of their gravity, these features highlight the missed potential of BDSP.
BDSP and Legends’ Similarities Reveal A Better Path
Perhaps the most condemning aspect of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the few new areas they did add. Ramanas Park sports some impressive rooms in the postgame, but long before then is the Grand Underground. The original games’ Underground has been completely rebuilt into six different zones containing many caves. These caves accommodate BDSP’s only non-random encountered Pokemon, and their contents can be further modified by how the player sets up their secret base. This proves everything Pokemon Legends did right with its new map: there is a new sense of discovery, and the environment meshes with new mechanics. If BDSP had more areas like this, it would be better received, even with the same art style and buggy launch.
It’s a shame that fans of Pokemon’s fourth generation will have to dig out Platinum or play the radically different Pokemon Legends for a revitalized Sinnoh, but that’s the cards they’ve been dealt. If Pokemon Black and White remakes are still on the table, then hopefully the Pokemon Company has learned that it needs to dedicate the proper time and resources towards building a familiar but new experience, rather than an old one with some new things attached to it. At any rate, revisiting Sinnoh through Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and seeing its past through Pokemon Legends has been a fascinating experience despite some missteps. With Pokemon Scarlet and Violet now on the horizon, fans are hopeful that Game Freak will continue to iterate on every new Pokemon game and bring their innovations back to old ones.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now for Nintendo Switch.
