Dust off your beret and charge up your Poketch, because the Pokemon franchise is heading back
to Sinnoh.
Not only are we getting the long-awaited Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes in the form of Brilliant
Diamond and Shining Pearl, but we’re also getting a brand new open world game set in
feudal Sinnoh, Pokemon Legends Arceus.
Fans have been clamouring for Diamond and Pearl remakes for years now, so it’s not
surprising that Game Freak are finally answering their calls.
Both the remakes and Legends Arceus are a deliberate attempt to appeal to nostalgia,
which, according to longtime series producer Junichi Masuda, is a core tenet of the Pokemon
experience.
In an interview in 2019, he said: “I think we always try to avoid, if we can,
having people guess what we’re gonna do next, but… it’s always fun doing like
the remakes and revisiting things that you’ve done, doing a new take on it.
But at the same time, we always want to make new things.
So, it’s kind of [about] finding that balance but we’re kind of torn between the two all
the time.
So just try to think about what people might want at a certain time.”
As a new take on an older game, the newly announced titles certainly fit this description,
and it’s likely that some plans for the new games were already in the works when Masuda
made this statement.
That said, the Pokemon Company’s history of utilising nostalgia goes back long before
this.
In fact, the entire series is built on revisiting happy memories from the past.
As we noted all the way back in our very first video, Game Freak founder Satoshi Tajiri first
came up with the idea for Pokemon when he was daydreaming about his own childhood, exploring
the countryside and discovering new bugs.
Similarly, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire were inspired by Junichi Masuda’s childhood by
the coast.
So, when the developers at Game Freak work to create new Pokemon games, they’re always
driven by a sense of nostalgia – including their own nostalgia for previous games.
Said Masuda: “I don’t think we’re focused exclusively
on making all new stuff.
I think it’s important – the nostalgia factor is one thing – to give these memories,
this content, another chance to shine for new players.
And as a player myself I enjoy that kind of thing, as well.”
When developing these remakes, Game Freak don’t like to simply create a graphical
update of an older game: they try to incorporate new gameplay elements to help make each remake
unique in its own way.
Following their work on Diamond and Pearl, Game Freak took many of the games’ new functions,
such as online play, and applied them to their Gold and Silver remakes.
This cycle now continues as elements from Sword and Shield are making their way into
Legends Arceus.
When speaking about a previous Pokemon remake, Shigeru Ohmori made it clear that the team
at Game Freak is just as interested in moving the series forward as they are with revisiting
the past.
He said: “We challenge ourselves to create new gameplay
every time we develop a new Pokémon game.
I believe such effort is received very well by the players.”
Perhaps the most fascinating element of the new announcement is the fact that, for the
first time, the Pokemon remakes will be handled by a second studio.
ICLA LTD are developing Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which is a significant
step towards addressing fan complaints about Pokemon Sword and Shield.
The Pokemon Switch games are often compared negatively to titles like The Legend of Zelda:
Breath of the Wild, but the difference in quality is in large part because Game Freak
are perpetually caught in an annual release schedule for new games.
The Pokemon Company puts out a new game – or, rather, a pair of versions of a new game – every
year.
With ICLA handling Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Game Freak essentially have an extra
few months to work on Legends Arceus, which means that they’ll be able to put a little
more love and polish into the title.
Whether this extra development time will pay off remains to be seen, but if The Pokemon
Company is happy to show off their new Sinnoh prequel at this point, it suggests that they’re
confident their new project will bear fruit.
It’ll be a mix of nostalgia for the original Diamond and Pearl, and a nice change of pace
for a series that has previously always stuck to the same vague time period and story arc.
We’ll have to wait and see whether the new games live up to fans’ expectations.
Because there are two new Sinnoh remakes on the horizon, there’s double the chance that
at least one of them will be well received.
Or, fans will be twice as disappointed.
We’ll have to wait and see.