In the latest Pokémon Presents stream celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary, fans finally saw the reveal of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
These will be remakes of the original generation four titles, Diamond and Pearl, which were released in 2006 and were set in the mountainous region of Sinnoh.
From what we saw in the trailer, it looks like the remakes will be fairly faithful to the original games, along with ditching the full 3D look of recent Pokémon titles and using a hybrid appearance that more resembles the DS-style. This includes chibi character models, a mostly top-down view, and 3D models for NPCs and Pokémon being used in battle.
Related: When will Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl be released?
Game Freak won’t be developing the games itself and has instead tasked ILCA, the developer of Pokémon Home, to tackle the project. Junichi Masuda is still directing the game with the help of ILCA’s Yuichi Ueda.
The game is supposed to preserve the experience of the original Diamond and Pearl, keeping the sense of scale for its towns and routes the same, according to The Pokémon Company. Though the game will feature the “easy-to-understand, player-friendly conveniences” that have been introduced to the series since the games first launched in 2006.
We don’t know much about what new features are going to be added outside of the quality-of-life updates from current games, but more details will be shared in the near future since the game is set to be released later this year.
During the presentation, we also got our first look at a new title called Pokémon Legends Arceus, which is a fully 3D, open-world game that will take place in the Sinnoh region—though the time periods are vastly different. It’ll be released in early 2022 and be a companion title of sorts to the more simplistic and true-to-form Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
