Fans have criticized the decreasing difficulty of recent Pokémon games, but Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl make battles challenging again. Though Pokémon is a franchise geared towards children, its popularity has continuously captured the hearts and maintained the loyalty of older fans. The first Pokémon game released over twenty years ago, and its success has continued to grow. Unfortunately, as players master the franchise's rudimentary mechanics and Nintendo fails to implement changes, a good portion of the community is left in a stalemate. Thankfully, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl revamped Trainer battles, specifically the difficulty for Elite Four, Champion, and Gym Leader rematches.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes for the acclaimed fourth-generation Pokémon games: Diamond and Pearl. Nintendo overhauled various in-game systems, implemented the new Fairy Pokémon type, and vastly improved the Grand Underground, encompassing massive portions of the game. Additionally, players can compete in Contests while collecting their Sinnoh badges before facing the Elite Four and becoming Champion. Like all mainline Pokémon games, players also face a criminal team hellbent on implementing their authority. While Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl vastly improved many in-game features, it also enhanced battles.
When progressing through Pokémon games, players are often referred to the Elite Four or the Champion as the most challenging battle. Unfortunately, recent generations have frequently undersold the experience in many ways. Pokémon Sword and Shield used Gym Leaders and Rivals they'd already defeated instead of using the Elite Four. Other generations introduced mechanics like choosing the order to fight the Elite Four or lowering the levels of different teams. Thankfully, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remove these mechanics and replaces them with more difficult goals to reach.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Has Great Coverage
The Elite Four and Champion Cynthia are two of Pokémon BDSP's greatest challenges. Cynthia has long maintained her reputation as the most challenging Champion in all Pokémon games (aside from Red in Pokémon Gold and Silver). Her Garchomp has defeated countless teams, regardless of preparations, and her Lucario and Spiritomb offer similar challenges. Thankfully, prepared (or over-leveled players) could secure victories if they divided their resources appropriately. Likewise, players who had developed their parties throughout Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum could enjoy a level of comfort while breezing through the Elite Four on their terms. However, several teams have adjusted to cover Pokémon weaknesses and provide a new challenge to upcoming players.
The dynamic typings of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's Elite Four and Champion teams are compounded using highly effective items. Expert Belts and Flame Orbs are both weapons in Cynthia's arsenal when players face them the first time. Additionally, the Elite Four's Flint has some of the greatest typing coverage of his compatriots. Flint's Infernape has Thunder Punch and Mach Punch, which devastates Water-type and Rock-type Pokémon. Alongside its Focus Sash, these moves make it difficult for players to utilize regular type advantages against his star Pokémon.
Despite being a Fire-type Elite Four Trainer, Flint also has Lopunny and Steelix on his team, whose movesets, abilities, and items negate several obvious counters to his team comp. Each member of the Elite Four participates in this strategy and reaps the benefits by easily defeating underprepared Trainers. While Pokémon Sword and Shield restrained its Gym Leaders to their type and underwhelming movesets, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl enabled its Leaders to explore other strategies (partly due to the lack of certain Pokémon types in Sinnoh). This results in one of the most challenging campaigns to claim the Championship title in recent years.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Makes Rematches Competitive
Though each mainline Pokémon game provides a story campaign, players can also pursue a unique endgame storyline that explores a shorter story and allows players to participate in rematches against Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and the Champion. In previous games, Gym Leaders or Elite Four merely received level boosts or roster swaps with different moves. While this required players to dedicate extra time to level up, it failed to introduce many new mechanics into existing gameplay. Thankfully, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl provide players with a severe challenge if they want to battle each Gym Leader again and conquer the Elite Four as well. While levels are still much higher than players previously faced, Nintendo has given many Gym Leaders (and Elite Four members) professionally competitive builds that need more than high levels to defeat.
Crasher Wake is Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's fourth Gym Leader and receives a substantial power boost after the player clears the Elite Four and claims the Champion title. When players face him in a rematch, he has rearranged his team into a competitive rain team, utilizing Rain Dance and the Swift Swim ability. His moveset has also evolved to combat the usual counters against his water team. Powerful attacks like Ice Fang can eliminate the possibility of an easy Grass-type sweep, while items like Wide Lens and Damp Rock increase the effectiveness of his Pokémon. The difficulty of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's endgame provides players with a tangible goal to work towards that isn't shiny hunting.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl Encourages Strategy
In many Pokémon games, moves like Leer, Trick Room, or Dragon Dance usually don't influence the outcome of many battles. Most players are capable of brute-forcing their way through most battles with little difficulty. This remains true for many early Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl battles. While attacking with type advantage or playing around Pokémon resistances can provide some safety, players cannot acquire victory during Pokémon BDSP's postgame with this strategy. Instead, players must utilize battle items to increase their team's effectiveness in combat. Additionally, adjusting the player's party Pokémon in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl may be required to defeat some of the Gym Leaders, and is certainly needed for the Elite Four and Champion.
After completing the standard campaign of Pokémon games, some players may move towards creating competitive Pokémon teams for BDSP's internet play. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's battles perfectly prepare players for the upcoming challenge of human players by encouraging the development of deliberate strategies. After having defeated the Elite Four and the Gym Leaders prior, players have an established knowledge about different team compositions that may appear in combat, but Pokémon parties are liable to change between rematches. This means that type advantages and resistances are secondary to set-up moves like Trick Room or battle items like Flame Orb that can activate hidden abilities. Additionally, encouraging players to pay attention to Pokémon's IVs or EVs can better serve Trainers in the long run.
While Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl received criticism from fans, it's vastly improved on a significant flaw in recent Pokémon games. Although some may struggle with Pokémon BDSP's postgame difficulty and battle mechanics, teaching the deeper mechanics of Pokémon games can only help fans down the road.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are available now for Nintendo Switch systems.