Last week, The Pokemon Company held a livestream event that showed off what’s coming to the world of Pokemon throughout 2021. I tuned in, thinking that we’d probably get loads of Trading Card Game news, some new DLC for Sword and Shield, and that’s about it. How wrong I was. The absolute highlight of the whole event had to be the announcement of the next Pokemon remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. These are, of course, remakes of Diamond and Pearl, the last games I played through properly before moving away from the series.
As you can see, the games are slated for a late 2021 window. I reckon they’ll probably be aiming for the holiday season window, with a couple of new limited edition Switch consoles to boot. We’ll have to see how accurate that turns out to be later this year.
These games were the first true new entry to the mainline Pokemon series for Nintendo DS. They showed players just how drastically different the series could be on this console. There was a lot of excitement around them when they launched, and with good reason. They pioneered a lot of the features that still exist in the games today. Online connectivity was a big part of the games, and the new Pokemon they introduced have become some of the favourites in recent years.
The look that the developers are going for her is great. It blends the camera of the original with the new battle system we’re used to seeing in Sword and Shield. It’s a lovely combination of the two that pays homage to where the series began without taking too much away from it. I think most Pokemon fans will be happy to see what’s happening with these games.
The only thing we don’t know is what these games will add to those that they’re based on. We could get some new Pokemon, and maybe the regions will be linked with Galar in some way. It’s hard to say what The Pokemon Company will do, since they like their regions to be very much separate. One thing is for sure though, this is what Switch fans need to get them through 2021 with something to look forward to.
