[Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl] Who else feels like these remakes are somewhat outdated?

I have been playing this game for a while now. Its nice to be playing a new Pokémon game after running around the Galar trying to fill out the pokedex in Pokémon Sword so much for a change. (I never played the original diamond or pearl)

Let me just say that these remakes of the DS games in my opinion seem like just the original games but on the Nintendo Switch with new graphics and with weird design choices. I don't know how to put this well, but i'm trying hard.

First of all, I would have found the decision of using a chibi art style for the overworld elements and characters a nice touch if it wasn't for the camera zooming in on the characters during certain cutscenes (Like when challenging a gym leader or when you encounter a high ranking member of team plasma). The chibi art style replicates the sprites from the originals fairly well when zoomed out but they look quite ugly when seen up close. I also wanna add that other then the player character, NPCs show almost no emotion whatsoever and just blankly stare straight ahead and only blink occasionally. They don't even have like a little talking animation when you speak to them. They just turn to face you and nothing else. They could have really done a better job with making the characters more expressive other then in battles.

Second, I do like the addition of there being Pokémon hideouts which gives you the opportunity to encounter Pokémon you would otherwise only be able to find when you obtain the national pokedex. But in turn for that, Secret bases can only be decorated with statues which can make Pokémon of a certain type appear in these hideouts more often. But these statues don't seem to be do a good job of making more diversive Pokémon of a certain type appear. Like placing a lot of statues of fighting types only really makes species from the machop line appear more frequently for me. Unless i am not aware of a certain mechanic or another, That's really just what i am often seeing.

I can't really think of any more notable things to mention, But i do not really find this game as enjoyable as Sword & Shield. One good criticism i have is that the music sounds way better and less muttered then the original soundtrack. GBA and DS pokémon music almost never sounded good to me.

I don't think "obsolete" is the right word. I do think maybe "unnecessary" would be the better one. From a standpoint, honestly, everything after HG/SS weren't necessary remakes. And I do agree with people who say "these are just Diamond/Pearl in HD. But obsolete means they're outdated.

I suppose I can agree with the concept of Pokemon remakes is obsolete. They haven't really been needed for well around a decade now. Diamond/Pearl don't have problems with saving, but people wanted them bad enough, I suppose that we just got them.

I wouldn't go as far as to say ORAS wasn't needed - Gen III movepools were generally awful and that was also pre P/S split, which severely hurts a lot of Pokémon - but in general the differences from Gen IV to say, Gen VIII are relatively small.

But even then I wouldn't say BDSP wasn't needed, per se. The Nintendo DS family had its EOL in 2014, to be followed by the Nintendo 3DS family, which was formally discontinued in September of 2020.

This means that in 2021, not only were the Gen IV games out of print by more of a decade - meaning you had to buy them used for exorbitant fees or just pirate the games to be able to play them, if you didn't already have them - but the hardware that could play them (the DS or the 3DS) was outdated itself.

So, while BDSP didn't take large artistic strides as far as I can see from my meager gameplay and information I've seen about the game, it's still there as a way to introduce a new generation of players - There are 15 year olds that were born after DP first dropped! - to Sinnoh.

So I guess it's a matter of perspective like most things. Pokemon nowadays seem to be focusing a lot more energy in targeting the casual kiddy audience, which makes sense from a business perspective.

Nintendo and Pokémon in general never lent themselves to a more hardcore audience, there's a sizeable chunk of the "fanbase" that just kinda hates everything that happened after an arbitrary cutoff (that usually coincides with the last generation they played as a kid for some reason) and non-kid members of the audience will usually consume a lot less merch, which is the main breadwinner of the franchise these days (as in merch nets Pokemon about 3.6 times as much money as the games).

Basically: nowadays remakes are more for cashing in for nostalgia + getting an extra game to tide people over between significant projects + introduce newer audiences to the region than they are to fix the issues of the original games.

Hmm, I agree with Palamon except that everything after HG/SS weren't necessary. I think that's just because they were poorly done lol. Remakes are never necessary, but if you're gonna make it a project of love, that's great! Although I haven't played BDSP yet, they seem to clearly not fit the bill of a project of love and I've heard a lot of different people's thoughts on the games, reviews, etc. What's really obsolete is GameFreak's management.

I agree with certain things you mentioned. The zoom when you're about to enter a battle is super weird, and the stiff movement when characters talk in cutscenes also could've been done better. The chibis themselves are definitely something I got used to over time but I probably never will adjust to things like the weirdly unnecessary pre-battle zoom.

There are some lovely features that make this game a lot of fun, like the Pokémon hideouts, but I think I would've appreciated it more if they took a more ORAS route and improved the game with several new features/additions to make the remake better rather than going mostly-faithful-level remake.

idk if "outdated" is the right word, but yes, the games are too faithful of remakes.

Remakes aren't an inherently unnecessary thing though. As was said earlier, they give people a chance to play a game they never had the chance to before (since finding legit, functioning copies of both the game, the device to play it on, and anything else you may need for a reasonable price can be a bitch sometimes), or to give people who have played it before a fresh way to do so. It also gives the opportunity to fix problems that the original may have had, make improvements, add in substantial new content, etc.

But in the age of emulation and downloading games to your console and eShops and all that, why bother making a "remake" that doesn't do any of that, why not just instead re-release the game or do a remaster?* And then a lot of people feel disappointed with the game because they were expecting more than this remaster posing as a remake, particularly after the previous 3 were real remakes (though honestly it was clear enough early on that this was what we'd be getting, they were not very subtle about it).

*In this specific case, the answer to the question is that they knew people have been expecting DPPt remakes ever since ORAS's release+themain series games effortlessly sell themselves so why put in the extra work and care when it's going to do what you want it to anyway (which is make $$$$)

They're definitely very outdated. This is basically the original Diamond and Pearl with a new coat of paint which doesn't even look that good. The only notable change is having HM use be more convenient, but that's not enough of an update for a $60 remake. Even Pokemon Platinum from 2008 had more features and updates.