There's a Pokémon Presents tomorrow - the Pokémon-flavoured version of a Nintendo Direct - and I should be feeling like a kid on Christmas, since the announcement of a remake for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl seems almost certain. But I feel more like a kid on someone else's birthday: wishing I could join in the fun, but feeling like it's not about me.
For the record, I think a remake of Diamond and Pearl makes sense, and it's not like the Pokémon series' first foray onto DS will be without its fans. At the time, I loved it - I had Pearl, and my brother had Diamond, and I'm pretty sure we had a great time. But now, looking back on my memories with the games, all the things I loved most about it came from Ruby and Sapphire, or Gold and Silver. As a result, I can't help but feel like Diamond and Pearl were games that were played safe for a new console, not daring yet to reinvent the formula.
The Pokétch was new and exciting, allowing players to gain access to a ton of cool touchscreen features, like a calculator, a memo pad, a pedometer and the dowsing machine. It even had useful stuff for trainers, like the Matchup Checker, which would allow you to see if two of your Pokémon would breed, a Move Tester for seeing which types are most effective against others, and a Day Care Checker, which lets players see how their Day Care Pokémon are doing without having to schlep all the way back to the Day Care itself.
But the Pokétch was just an upgraded version of Generation II's Pokégear, which had a radio and a phone built in, and Generation III's Pokénav, which let you see the conditions of each Pokémon. Likewise, the Super Contests in Diamond and Pearl were great fun, but they weren't original, although they added new features to the Contests, including dress-up and rhythm minigames, and changed the tactical Appeal round to be more focused on judges. These weren't new additions - they were just spruced-up old ones, made slightly fancier for a new generation.
But one thing stood out amongst all others in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: The Underground, a sprawling network of tunnels and caves that ran under Sinnoh like an ants' nest. It was like an entirely different game, hidden beneath the earth, in which players could excavate treasures with a neat little Battleship-like mining minigame, set up their own underground base, and even try to place traps for other players. There was a capture-the-flag game that you could play - but I never managed to find anyone except my brother to steal from.
When I tired of training animals to fight to the death, it was The Underground that became my sanctuary. I would dig out fossils and shards, rare evolution stones, and valuable items to sell. I decorated my Secret Base with Pokédolls and furniture, ready to welcome the Pokéfriends I did not have. I would bury Spheres - the currency of The Underground - leaving them to increase in value, in order to buy even more Pokédolls.
The Underground has not returned to the Pokémon series since Diamond and Pearl, and neither has Amity Square, the park where you can walk your Pokémon, and even find rare items and accessories - although HeartGold and SoulSilver and Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee let players walk with their Pokémon for the entire game.
I can't say that Diamond and Pearl particularly stands out from the much better, much more innovative Pokémon games that I still count as all-time greats. But remakes are often a way for Nintendo & co. to revitalise and polish up some of the older games with new mechanics, features, and graphics, so the latest remake - if the rumours prove true - is likely to get the same treatment. I just hope The Underground gets as much attention from the developers as I gave it as a kid.
Do you have something to say in defence of Diamond and Pearl? Give us your heartiest disagreements in the comments.
Comments 36
I was one of those kids who didn’t have any DS owning friends, therefore spent hours wandering the Underground alone wondering what the point was. That was fun!
And I bet that it'll probably be the first feature to go in remakes, if they make them. Honestly, I heard how great this area was before, and I wish I got a chance to experience it. Sadly, my 3DS won't read my copy of Platinum, so I'll just have to hope it'll be included in a remake of Diamond and Pearl.
Also, Amity Square was amazing at the time, especially with that soundtrack. I really want to replay Platinum now.
@nessisonett same here
I have fond memories of Gen IV, but then the trauma begins...
wild encounter
Wild Pokémon appears.
Short pause.
Animation,
More short pause.
Attack.
Pause again.
Opposing Pokémon blinks.
Pause again.
Health meter depeletes sllllooooooooooooowwwly.
Pause again.
Pokémon sprite slides out of view.
More damn pausing.
Oh, man, my rose-tinted glasses spontaneously combusted again.
There was a lot to like about the Gen IV games, but it's also the only Gen I can't see myself ever replaying without a remake. Hell, I still haven't played my copy of SoulSilver (I played HeartGold first) because the experience is such a slog. For all of its enhancements, I still prefer playing the original Gen II games.
I hate Diamond and Pearl, but I did enjoy playing in the underground with my brothers. If they do remakes I hope they make them more similar to Platinum, since I never played that version.
The underground was neat and I was glad to see secret bases return, but somehow they just didn’t quite live up to the secret bases of Ruby and Sapphire. That will forever be my favorite feature in any Pokémon game and I’ll forever be bitter towards Pokémon for not continuing to implement and improve it. Imagine being able to make your own place in SwSh and meet up for battles and trades. Hell, I wouldn’t even fault Game Freak for putting out small packs of base items for free and/or paid DLC, like themed sets for a dollar or something.
Hopefully if Sinnoh remakes are announced tomorrow, they bring the Underground and Bases back in full swing. That’s all I hope for
FYI, Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald's Dive feature returned in Black & White and Black 2 & White 2.
I always wished the Underground was in other regions. They should have at least included it in the Johto remakes!
And Clay's Tunnel suggests that Unova would have been a great place to have it involved too. Even Galar - the idea of interconnected Pokémon Dens would have been a really cool way to bring back the Underground and play into the mining culture of Britain.
No, no it's not. The best thing Diamond and Pearl changed/added was the physical/special split.
In gen 1-3 moves were physical(attack Stat) or special (special/special attack stat) based on type. For example, water type attacks were all special. So Pokemon like Gyrados and Feraligatr were horribly handicapped because they had great attack but pathetic special.
The Physical/Special split made it based on move, not type. So a move that physically hit, like a punching move such as Ice Punch, was physical, but beams or energy like Ice Beam were special.
This change benefited basically every Pokemon before and since and the whole series was made drastically better because of it.
Not just Diamond and Pearl's most important change, but I would argue the most important change in the history of the series.
@Heavyarms55 Came here to say this. The split was a long time coming and completely changed viability of dozens of Pokemon. Suddenly Flareon wasn't totally useless!
The Underground doesn't even register, just a bland, slow-paced minigame.
@marandahir Would Thatcher be the leader of Galar’s team in that case?
@Bret I liked the Underground just fine as an item farming mini game. But it's not remotely the best feature in those games.
@Heavyarms55 Yep, the split was absolutely the best change in the entire series. I like Hoenn but it’s very hard to go back to now just due to certain Pokemon being utterly useless. Diamond and Pearl was the first game to have mechanics which mostly made sense without glaring issues and was the first game to have the gameplay as we know it now.
@Heavyarms55 I've never been much of a tactical player - my strategy is "hit them until they go away", so although the split was a good move, it made little difference to me 😅 which is not to say it wasn't good!
@marandahir ah, I didn't find that in my research, cheers for the heads up! Though it doesn't really help that every pokemon game renames all the features from the last one. Pokétch, Pokénav, Pokégear - it's hard to keep track. Wouldn't be surprised if they remade the Underground but called it "the below-zones" or something...
This quote is sadly relatable, "I decorated my Secret Base with Pokédolls and furniture, ready to welcome the Pokéfriends I did not have."
This is honestly how I feel about New Horizons, like none of my friends play that game anymore and my work is really only for personal joy at this point. Does anybody feel the same way?
@KateGray It's not just a competitive thing though. My examples of Gyrados and Feraligatr were deliberate because both Pokemon were horribly held back by the old mechanics. Both have high attack and low special attack but both rely on water moves which were all special prior to gen 4. The split made it so nearly every Pokemon could take advantage of their own stats without being gimped by their types.
Thus would make your plan of smack it until they go away actually work well with just the slightest attention paid to your Pokemon.
No.
The underground was great, but it wasn't the game's greatest contribution to the series. It was stuff like the physical-special split and the online.
With matchmaking similar to the Wild Area, The Underground would be so much fun with Gen 4 remakes!
@Heavyarms55
Yeah this was aa huge change to the formula, although some Pokemon (such as Alakzam) actually got hurt a little because of it. No longer could Kazam use moves like Thunderpunch (which was considered purely special for a while). I recall Houndoom didn't like the change either. Gyarados absolutely loved it though, Waterfall suddenly became one of his go-to moves. Gen 4 also really helped pokemon like Scyther by giving him Technician boosted Aerial Ace and such. Flareon had some issues until he learned Fire Fang. Can't remember which game gave him Fire Fang. Feraligatr in HGSS suddenly became god-tier because of Ice Fang and such. Generally though, yeah most Pokemon really benefitted. The Underground was cool and all but there wasn't a whole lot of incentive to actually use it. I seem to remember only using it for heart scales, though I can't remember exactly why. I'm guessing they were needed for something move-set related. The special and physical split was a huge game-changer in a game that was otherwise kind of unremarkable IMO. It was Gen 4's biggest contribution. The Underground for me was just kinda... there.
honestly diamond/pearl is the peak of the mainline pokemon games. they literally have not improved in any meaningful way since then.
Imagine if they don't announce any remakes/ports of Gen 4 tomorrow? Just a thought 😉
@Crockin You can knock out a Pokemon and not wait 45 seconds for the HP bar to drop. Competitive breeding is now not only possible but easy, shiny Pokemon can be obtained without cheating more often than once every 7 playthroughs, IVs can be hyper trained, EVs can be reset, and we no longer need 8 special undeletable moves on our in-game teams... just to name a few things.
So your "literally not improved since" comment is totally inaccurate.
Even just within 4th gen, Platinum improved several things, added more post game, fixed the Pokedex, added distortion world...
The whole Underground thing was completely ruined by not having online support, even though these were the first Pokémon games to have online play.
The only good thing I remember from pearl was the glitch you could walk in the void and catch Darkrai. I got stuck on a wall, pretty much ruined my save. Never played it again since.
with nintendo online subscriptions , no way they gonna miss this chance
I always loved the underground! Occasionally played it with friends but it was also a ton of fun for just when I wanted a break from catching Pokémon. I've always wished they brought it back with online support, would be fun trying to steal flags from other people bases again!
@Heavyarms55 fair enough.Maybe it’s the fact that I do not play competitive pokemon, but as a solo adventure I really don’t see any notable leaps in gameplay design.
@Silly_G playing on a emulator set to 2x speed will definitely help that.
I heavily enjoyed the Underground. Personally, the most amazing thing that could be announced tomorrow would be a re-release of the underground as its own game. I can't stand how they're changing random encounters into being symbol encounters and visible encounters and wish they would make it a toggle in the settings menu instead. Let's go started a horrible precident and I have absolutely no interest in Shield and Sword because of that.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who disliked Diamond and Pearl. I honestly don't even remember exactly why I hated it, just nothing really clicked. At the time, I worried that maybe I was getting too old for Pokemon, but when Black and White was released, I fell in love with the franchise all over again. Yes, I did play Platinum and my thoughts did not change.
I hope a remake comes out and somehow this time, it clicks and I like it.
@Crockin I would agree that much of the single player hasn't improved very much. Though I just recently revisited Diamond and even in single player the game plays almost painfully slow. So that much at least is better.
Have to admit, it was hilarious fun setting up elaborate traps for my cousins while playing capture the flag down there. Like another commenter, I wouldn't rate the Sinnoh secret bases higher than the Hoenn variant (made even better in ORAS), but secret bases in Pokemon games are one of the more fun features they've included. Now with NSO, and with Pokemon being a cultural touchpoint again, the Underground could potentially be rife with activity.
@nessisonett
That's a deep dig. I dig it.
@Heavyarms55 welp, I would say this pokemon legends trailer makes the kind of gameplay leap i'm talking about.
@Onion Alakazam shouldn't complain, I'm pretty sure he had access to thunderbolt in gen 4.
@Octane
You're right but my point was less about thunderpunch specifically and more about the fact that he could learn ALL the elemental punches and use them effectively because they were considered special attacks back then. Thunderpunch was just one example. He did also gain access to Focus Blast and such so it's not like he wasn't that much less broken. I'm just noting that Punching Kazam was no longer a thing after Gen 4. Hitmonchan however loved this change. Punching Kazam was a staple of both Gen 2 and 3 due to how much move coverage he had, with one of his only viable counters being stuff like Chansey or Snorlax so losing that on Gen 4 was a bit of a blow to the spoon dude.
Tap here to load 36 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...