This isn’t some ragebait take on why two of 2021’s biggest games should have been pushed back to 2022 just because. I’m not talking about Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl’s questionable art direction or pedantically picking out individual frames in “not actually game footage” trailers. I am simply saying that Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl should have been delayed for one very specific reason: you can’t complete the Pokedex at launch.
What’s that? The single objective you’re given at the very beginning of every single mainline Pokemon game is impossible to accomplish? Nah, don’t believe you. There’s no way a developer would bring out a game and say “do this thing you can’t do” in the first five minutes of playtime. And yet - and yet - that is exactly what’s happening with Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. So what gives?
Earlier this week, The Pokemon Company issued a statement saying that various features of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl will be added via post-launch patches. In the modern era of games, this is not necessarily unusual - aside from titles that explicitly label themselves early access, the number of games that launch without being content-complete grows every year. That’s not to mention live-service games, which regularly receive updates, fixes, and a variety of other ongoing changes. If it were something else, I’d probably go to bat for the Gen 4 remakes - I’d happily wait a bit longer for a Delta Episode equivalent or for the new hideaways to be fully integrated into the game.
This particular absence is more insidious. If you’re unsure of exactly what I’m talking about here, TPCi has officially announced that Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl will not have link trades or link battles at launch. In terms of the latter, I’m not too fussed. Aside from a few bouts for bragging rights with my brother, I’d have steered well clear of online battling until I had at least six perfect IV Pokemon anyway - yes, I am one of those annoying competitive losers. No link trading though? In a series that specifically locks version exclusives to opposing entries? You’re having a laugh.
This comes alongside news that BDSP didn’t even have a title screen until a pre-launch update that came out earlier this week, which is objectively hilarious but, you know, fine. Praise Arceus, the games are going to have a title screen. I don’t imagine I’d have particularly cared if they didn’t, but I suppose it’s nice. Gonna have a big nostalgic wahwah when I see Dialga wearing what I can’t unsee as a “Press Start” chain.
The thing is, I’d have thought satisfying the ability to complete the core goal of any wannabe Pokemon trainer should take precedence above pretty much every single element of a Pokemon game that isn’t “put Pokemon in it.” I know most people just beat the Elite Four, trounce the champion, and proclaim themselves as the very best like no one ever was, but some of us weirdo losers actually want to catch ‘em all. I completed the Galar ‘Dex for the second time last week for no reason other than I have brain Wurmple. The one objective I set myself for BDSP was “complete the Pokedex in under a week.” It’s starting to look a bit unlikely that I’ll succeed.
I mean, for all we know “post-launch” could be “30 seconds after the game becomes available.” It could also be a day, a week, a month, or (probably not) a year. Another major point of contention with this problem is how deliberately ambiguous it is. If TPCi was more communicative about the reasons behind this delay, we’d have less of a need to worry about it. The issue, then, is bigger than the absence of link trades - it’s that we have no idea why this absence exists or when it will be made present. The game will apparently support Union Room functionality at launch, but if link trading has specifically been confirmed to be absent, clearly the Union Room isn't a proper substitute for it.
I’ve been excited for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl since before ORAS was even announced. While I like Gen 3 more than Gen 4, I’ve always felt the latter was done dirty by the time it came out, when all of the genwunners were starting to become rebellious teenagers who wanted to impress the person they fancied by slagging the one nerdy (read: actually cool) kid who still unapologetically waxed lyrical about how ridiculous it is that Rayquaza is canonically pronounced “Ray-quayza.” For a lot of people, Diamond & Pearl signalled a low point in the series. In reality, they weren’t too far off the peak, despite the fact Arceus is canonically pronounced “Ark-ee-us” because “Arse-ee-us” has arse in it.
What I mean by the above is that if there’s anyone in the world who wanted these games yesterday, it’s me. I can’t wait for them to come out next week and for trainers all over the world to collectively reevaluate their stance on an objectively brilliant pair of Pokemon games. They’re the Twilight Princess of Pokemon, i.e. one of the best ones that for some baffling reason people posit as one of the worst. In case you hadn’t guessed, I rarely shut up about how great Wolf Link is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lying.
At the same time, I wish Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl had been delayed so the final product wouldn’t be missing a feature as integral to the Pokemon experience as link trading. I truly want these games to do well, which says a lot coming from someone who absolutely does not want to go to bat for products designed to make rich corporations richer. I have so many fond memories of these games that I know other people don’t share but easily could. Sinnoh is filled with joy and mystery and too many bad haircuts. It’s beautiful, chaotic, and impressively sincere in its emphasis on a frankly unbelievable amount of narrative nonsense. Put as simply as possible, it’s excellent. It’s a shame that excellence seemingly wasn’t enough to justify slightly delaying its reintroduction to the world until it was ready to brilliantly shine.
At least the lack of a delay adds weight to my theory that Legends: Arceus is a direct follow-up to BDSP, I suppose.