Pokemon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl - What We Know So Far

On Feb. 26, 2021, The Pokemon Company kicked off the 25th birthday of its namesake franchise with one whopper of a YouTube presentation. The company went through the entire history of Pokemon, shouting out every product that sprung up in the two-and-a-half decades since its inception. It also announced an all-new action-RPG called Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Fans will undoubtedly be eager to hear more about that. 

Another surprise, however, came in the form of dual remakes: new takes on Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. They're called Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and they look to be serious efforts at bringing those 2007 titles into the year 2021.

Not a whole lot of concrete information was shared about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but The Pokemon Company did see fit to toss out a few crumbs. With that, here's what is known about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's release date, a look at the game's trailer, and what's been unearthed about gameplay in the remakes thus far.

If you were a fan of the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games, there's a chance you're already itching to get your hands on the remakes. After all, both came out all the way back in 2007, and a lot has changed since then. In terms of a release date for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, there's some good news and some bad news.

The good news is, both Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are set to release in late 2021. The bad news is, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company aren't offering anything more detailed beyond that.

It seems safe to assume these remakes will be a very big part of Nintendo's fall and winter Switch lineup. Nintendo typically treats Pokemon titles with the utmost importance, after all, so fans could see a lot of attention paid to these games during Summer 2021 and leading up to their release. In the meantime, Pokemon fans aren't totally out of luck. New Pokemon Snap is on the way, so players can at least get their fix from that until Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are ready to go.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, like many Nintendo DS games, could only do so much with the graphical horsepower they had available at the time. While many undoubtedly loved those entries in the Pokemon series, putting them next to Sword and Shield really shows how far games have come, and how much Nintendo's hardware has improved. In Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, both Diamond and Pearl are getting what amounts to complete graphical overhauls — out with the sprites, in with the polygons. Nowhere is that more evident than in the game's trailer, which puts the new look of these remakes on full display.

The world Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl take place in is now fully 3D. Players can roam towns full of buildings that are no longer flat. Battles kick off when 3D Pokemon trainers throw 3D Pokemon balls out, revealing 3D Pokemon. If you haven't caught on yet, the addition of a third dimension in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl may be the most obvious change when comparing the remakes to their source material. How much else has been altered, though, remains to be seen.

The first footage fans got for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl seemed mostly concerned with looks. Perhaps that is understandable — these remakes will look drastically different than the original Diamond and Pearl. For that reason, very few details were provided about how gameplay might change, or what Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl might add that didn't exist previously. The remakes will differ in some ways mechanically, however, based solely on the platform they're coming to.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are re-imagined versions of Nintendo DS games. If you owned that system, then you're likely aware that the Nintendo DS had two screens. Diamond and Pearl made use of both. Not only that, but Diamond and Pearl could assume the player had access to touch controls on the Nintendo DS at all times. That isn't a luxury Switch players will have when their console is docked. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are full-blown remakes, so perhaps one can assume they're being built with the Switch in mind. Still, this change may take some getting used to for those who played through the originals.