Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Review

By: Jonah Casel ‘27

The game I’ve been waiting for is finally out, and it’s great! Pokémon fans are happy, I’m happy, and my life is complete. This game is great, an 8/10! But compared to Pokémon Sword and Shield, it’s just ok. (Pokémon Sword is my favorite game of all time, the model of a 10/10 game) Some parts of the game that I liked were the ability to have Pokémon follow you outside of battle, and the Grand Underground, but my favorite feature HAS to be the fact that I only have to see every Pokémon to complete the Pokédex instead of catching all of them! I got the game a week ago, and I’ve already completed it. The national dex is back, and I like the postgame. However, this game is really hard.

Almost every Pokémon in the elite four has a helpful item, and Flint’s Drifblim is an actual demon. This thing has Minimize, Strength Sap, Will o’ Wisp, and Baton Pass. The Developers are evil. And then there is Cynthia’s Garchomp and Spiritomb. They are just really powerful. After I beat the game, I really didn’t find any of the battles challenging, but during the playthrough, I lost quite a few times! After completing the game, you then realize the amount of glitches that are actually in this game.

There are like 8 different duplication methods, a way to get infinite items, a way to walk through walls, and to get a Pokémon that shouldn’t even be in the game yet. In other words, this game is glitchy. If you didn’t know, this game was made by ILCA, and not Game Freak, and I think that they should go back to what they were doing. There is literally a way to turn a non-shiny Pokémon into a shiny one. This game is fun, but I wouldn’t say it’s a good game. There is a way to surf on land!

Finally, I will always remember this game, (Even if it is glitchy) because I caught a random shiny Kricketune during my first playthrough. I named him Sparkle. He is my best friend.