What changes in the remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl?

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes of the franchise's fourth generation games, released for Nintendo DS in 2007. As much as the games share the same Sinnoh region, with its little monsters, trainers and plot, there are some new features in the Switch versions. . In the following lines, I show the 7 biggest differences of the new titles in relation to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

• 8 Pokemon Games Available for Nintendo Switch
• 10 must-have Nintendo Switch games

Table of Contents

• 1. Clothing customization
• 2. Pokemon following the trainer
• 3. Grand Underground
• 4. Super Contests
• 5. Improvements from recent generations
• 6. Revenge against coaches
• 7. Ramanas Park

1. Clothing customization

Present in games since Pokémon X and Y, the clothing customization system has been added to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to give trainers more styling options. However, the function is more similar to the one seen in Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. Instead of changing each piece of the look separately, you can just use different complete sets.

Clothes vary in price and there are different styles depending on your character's gender. In addition, as soon as you start the adventure, you can choose the protagonist's ethnicity. These features are purely visual, but they can make a huge difference in player immersion.

2. Pokemon following the trainer

Another feature that has appeared in more recent Pokemon games, and is in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, is the option to let the little monsters out of the Poké Ball so they can follow the trainer. In addition to being aesthetic, this function allows you to increase friendship with creatures in a more agile way.

With a high friendship level, Pokémon begin to receive bonuses during battles. For example, if you and your little monsters are very close, they can survive knockouts, deal critical damage more often, and even evade powerful attacks.

3. Grand Underground

One of the great new features of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is the upgrade of Sinnoh's underground area to the Grand Underground. There, you can mine gems, fragments, evolution stones and many other items. You can also have your own secret base and decorate it with Pokémon statues.

These statues, however, are not just aesthetic. They serve to increase the chance of encountering wild Pokémon of specific types in the new underground areas — the Havens. For example, if you place a Lucario statue in the secret base, fighting monsters will appear more often on the map.

4. Super Contests

Pokémon Contests also got a nice update in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Instead of just showing off the monsters' attacks to a panel of judges, Super Contests now have a rhythmic minigame in which the player needs to hit the music notes at the right time.

The final Contest score is affected not only by the music performance, but also by the visual presentation of your Pokémon. To increase the points, it's worth putting the little monster's Poké Ball in a well-decorated capsule with various effects stickers and choosing the right attack to use in the middle of the performance.

5. Improvements from recent generations

While Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are faithful remakes of classic fourth-gen games, the newer games have improvements from recent titles. You can mention the addition of Hidden Abilities, the implementation of the Fairy type and unique forms for some Pokémon, such as Shaymin, Rotom and Giratina.

In addition, Hidden Machines — or HMs — such as Surf, Fly, Cut and Rock Smash have become Technical Machines — TMs. This means that it is no longer necessary to teach these attacks to Pokémon to advance the story. Now, the HMs are accessed by the Pokétch clock, and a wild creature appears to help and leaves soon after.

6. Revenge against coaches

After finishing the main campaign and becoming the new champion of Sinnoh, you'll be able to battle again against various trainers in the region, including Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Cynthia. These rematches, however, get more and more difficult according to the number of victories.

To give you an idea, in the first fight against champion Cynthia, she uses a team of six Pokémon with levels between 60 and 66. In the second battle, they are the same little monsters, but the levels increase and are between 74 and 78. In the last rematch , she appears with a level 84 to 88 team, trained based on high level competitive matches.

7. Ramanas Park

Finally, Ramanas Park arrives to replace Pal Park in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Pal Park was used to transfer little monsters from past generations to Nintendo DS games. Now, Ramanas Park is a place where you can capture several legendary Pokémon from other regions and face a powerful boss (we won't spoil who it is).

The park has several caves with a pedestal in the middle of them. These pillars summon legendary Pokémon by receiving special plaques for each little monster. There, it is possible to capture the birds of Kanto, the beasts of Johto, the Regis of Hoenn, Latios, Latias, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza and even Mewtwo. Get ready, because the battles are not easy.

Now that you're on top of what's new in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, you can also check out the list of Pokémon exclusive to each version to choose your ideal game.