A Very Specific and In-Depth Critique of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl's Art Design

[The following is the extended portion of the "I'm Into This - Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl (...Kind Of)" segment published in the February 2021 issue of HOH Magazine. It's being published here in its unabridged entirety, not because it 'deserves to stand on its own' but because editor-in-chief David Hoh felt it was too long for the 'I'm Into This' segment.]

The announcement of remakes for the Generation IV games, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl versions, were not unexpected. In fact, I'd been expecting them since the originals came to North America in 2007. We'd recently had Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of the original Gen I games; so even being amazed at D/P's graphical improvements on the Nintendo DS, the most cutting-edge Pokémon games yet...I knew in the back of my mind "They're gonna remake these some day." I just didn't know when it would be, or what it would look like.

Until now.

...and it looks like this.

Hmmmmmmmmmm. I'm sorry. Chalk it up to something I "Will Get Used To," but allow me to add to the "dislike" side of the aesthetic debate, that the Pokémon fan community got into the minute footage of these games premiered, as part of a Pokémon Direct presentation on the 25th anniversary of the original Pokémon debut.

The future is full of dull surprises.

Don't get it twisted: I will still buy and enjoy these games. It's important to criticize what you love, is all. Imagine the things you enjoy complexly. You're stronger and cooler when you can comfortably say something like "I really like what WandaVision was doing but the ending felt a little flat to me." It's well-rounded. Like these chibi-ass characters' heads in BD/SP.

I guess I'll just start breaking it down. Johnstone makes a fair point, and while I respect the artistic decision from ILCA (who developed the game instead of Game Freak) to literally just translate the 2D art to a 3D format...that is exactly my whole entire problem with it. I think it's a lazy decision. And not to put the blame at ILCA's feet, but Game Freak has developed every other core series/remake Pokémon game so far, and they've all looked great. Simplistic deduction, but them's the facts. It's a fine decision, but it's lazy compared to every other remake.

Yes, random Instagram post, the in-battle footage looks really good. A truly revamped Sinnoh region experience, bringing the land to life in a bigger and better way. It looks like the Sword and Shield in-battle scenes. But the battle scenery always gets massive graphical expansions as the Gens went on.

My gripe is expressly with the overworld look, which is where more than 50% of the gameplay will be spent. The Duplo player characters and NPCs I don't have an issue with, they're a little too chibi for my tastes, but that's okay. But they're indicative of the problem: they are walking around a 1:1 re-skin of the original graphics. Which is a big let-down! Sinnoh is a region of abundant landscape and bountiful biomes, and the other regions all received great graphical expansion in their remakes. Whereas BD/SP is giving us basically the same thing in 3D with a tilted angle:

Personally, I prefer the aesthetics of the sprite look of these two. The former was designed to work in its 2D boundaries, after all. The 3D just feels superfluous when it's applied to this 2D style, and makes it look like a fan-made design. Sure, the water is more detailed, and so are the trees. But they already did that kind of cosmetic touch-up, in Pokémon Platinum:

top: Diamond and Pearl — bottom: Platinum

Even Gen V, which was on the cusp of the core games' jump to full-on 3D graphics, took the next step in the complexities that sprite graphics could realize in the Pokémon mold:

visual splendor & epic sights of 2010/2012

Let's contrast Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl with the other remakes:

(this is technically a recreation by chipsprites on tumblr,
but it's pixel-perfect)

The first place to start would be the easy putt, comparing the Gen I games to its Gen III remakes. But we'll go a step further and also compare the Gen III remakes to the Let's Go, Pikachu! & Eevee! games that came out on the Nintendo Switch (so Gen VIII I guess? Sources say VII, and they came before Sword and Shield but, same system...) BD/SP will also be on the Switch; this segment is going to seem unfair to BD/SP, but only because a fair comparison reveals its lackluster. Let's take a look at the same plot of land in Viridian Forest:

Obviously there's a huge graphical and artistic leap between the Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance. Even Gen II to Gen III was a huge graphical overhaul that expanded the stylistic boundaries for realizing these worlds, because Gen II was fundamentally similar to Gen I.

The Game Boy Advance to the Switch is another obvious vertical leap. I haven't played Let's Go yet, (from what I understand some of the core mechanics are different, which isn't something I'm enthusiastic about,) but it makes the Kanto region look amazing, which is a triumph. To me, mostly because of its many iterations in more grid-based and low-res games, it hasn't been a very visually exciting region until recently.

Let's take a deeper dive into a few Kanto landmarks that show off how the style has really evolved across the first four generations, in each of which Kanto makes an appearance. From the original games (Red/Green/Blue/Yellow) to the Gen II sequels (Gold/Silver/Crystal) into Gen III's remakes of the originals (Fire Red/Leaf Green) and then Gen IV's remakes of the Gen II games (HeartGold/SoulSilver.) Here is the first area of Victory Road, with images sourced from Bulbapedia:

Gen I vs. Gen III

As you can see, the shape, on a grid level, is identical. The geography is perfectly replicated, but the graphics are more sophisticated and give a better sense of the textures and atmosphere of the terrain. It provides more character to the environment.

Next, half-step back to look at Gen II: different grid structure, but same basic geography: that giant J is still the bulk of this floor. The main thing, improved mostly by the expanded color palette of the...Game Boy Color... is the atmosphere. The entrance looks light. The cave looks dark, feels cold.

(click the images to expand)

And finally, let's contrast them all with Gen IV. Here, you can see the J shape remains, but the whole ground has been revamped: there's a bridge, as height/depth is played with and there's more descent into the cavern than all previous iterations. It's got more atmosphere than Gen III while using more natural coloring than the more monochromatic/impressionistic Gen II look, but keeping that essence of being in a dark damp cave. The stairs on the right of the J still lead to a dead-end, but the Strength puzzle is up across the top of the ridge.

It does what a good remake should. It makes the room more vivacious and a lot larger, which is exciting design, because if you grew up with G/S/C, you were older/larger yourself by the time the remakes came along; by also giving the area in HG/SS a growth spurt, the designers are able to evoke a scale that matches what you remember. Because if you went back to play G/S/C, by virtue of the older graphics alone they would feel smaller than you remember. By scaling up for a remake, it reinvigorates the excitement (for returning fans, but it also, obviously, keeps things fresh for newcomers.) It realizes what the original, more-limited designs were dreaming they could evoke.

Gen I vs. Gen III

Let's also talk about this building; the Pewter City Museum of Science. As you can see, in Gen I it was as most other buildings were: simply-designed. It's just 'building, but big.' In Gen III, they designed a unique model to give it a specific fidelity. In fact, you could even infer what kind of building it is without the sign out front.

Gen II vs. Gen IV

The Gen IV design is actually more a remake of Gen III's design than Gen II's; giving a consistency between FR/LG and HG/SS which also, yes, adds more realism through graphical design improvements like depth and shading, that were part of Gen IV's advanced capabilities.

And then, naturally, they made it look even bigger and better-er for the Switch. Basically, the translation from 2D sprite overworlds to 3D, higher-definition overworlds we grew to expect was stuff like this:

 

And of course:

That's a reasonable expectation from where I sit! It looks the same, just bigger and richer. More alive.

The Ruby and Sapphire remakes are an idilic example of improving the "feel" of the environments, but keeping the general geometry and geography the same. Everything is laid out more or less the same, but scaled-up with an improved sense of verisimilitude to a lived-in world.

It's more realistic, but I'll stress I'm not talking about realism. This series was never about pushing graphics or designs to hyper-realistic levels* like, say, Crysis (I think; I don't actually know anything about Crysis, my understanding is that it's more of a tech demo than a game you can buy or play.) Pokémon games are meant to be cartoonish and somewhat simplified, but you see what I mean. The graphics merely serve the aesthetics and art design. Which is why using the Switch's graphics on the Diamond and Pearl aesthetics and art design (for the overworld) in an exactingly duplicated way seems lazy, and is unexciting. 

this scenery just comes alive to me, it's unreal, but it evokes a lush, dynamic nature.
It's also much larger in proportion to the player character than in the original games.

in Gen VI with X and Y, Game Freak utilized the Z-axis perspective
to add a [thematic and literal] depth to the breadth of the environment

Let's Go looks and feels in-line with the Gen VI games' overworld designs, while taking the graphical next-step. I realize I haven't even mentioned Gen VII's Alola games, so let's segue to some Gen VIII screenshots by showing some from Sun and Moon and/or Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, because you can really see where Sword and Shield took the baton:

As you can see, really pushing the vastness of the landscapes. Here's the world Sword and Shield built:

The Galar region looks stupendous. Seeing it made me indescribably jazzed at the mere concept of visiting a Sinnoh that looked like that. Instead, it's this:

Pokémon's core games are always "more of the same." But that's what I like about them. That's my opinion. To me, these games are about taking on similar adventures but in different regions with different Pokémon. I love that. A familiar routine that also has flexible variety; it's comforting and great. But this art style choice feels like "more of the same" in a stunted way, so I can't help but criticize. It reminds me too much of the originals' visuals. They didn't evolve.

(dat sunset lighting in Eterna City tho)

The Pokémon world is a reliable constant that satisfies something in me in a major way. And I know I'll still get that from the amazing in-battle vistas, the remade music, and yes, even the escapism from this weird 1:1 Tiny Overworld in BD/SP. I can feel it already starting to 'be gotten used to' as I'm writing this.

Like, really, it looks fine. It's not terribly underwhelming. But it is depressingly whelming. It should've been so much more. I should be marveling at a brand new rendition, achieved simply by copying of the aesthetics and scope of Sword and Shield. Every other remake matches the look of the other current-Gen games, and I guess I took that to be part of the 'promise' of remakes. But it's a different studio this time, so there was a different vision. And while I respect that...it feels like someone else doing a version of something, rather than a dev team revisiting and revitalizing terrain they've covered before. So it feels like a compromise.

And I know graphics are subject to change between any game's trailer and its release. That's how they fool ya. But it's not to the extent of a full art design overhaul. So it's still mostly-fair to critique.

And speaking of incomplete trailer graphics full art design overhauls, Game Freak
is working on a different kind of game set in the Sinnoh region, Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Its trailer premiering right after the BD/SP trailer almost as a preemptive salve to offer what we would feel ILCA's game utterly lacks: it is more graphically in-line with the other recent core series games. But, there's a catch; it can't just be the same as BD/SP. So it's set in the past, centuries before the Pokémon world we are used to playing in.

Fuck it, I'm in! That's an awesome concept! I love the world of Pokémon a bit more than my own; I'm very excited to get to see some of its history first-hand, and to get to wander the beauty of the Sinnoh region prior to human settlement. Shut up and take my money. No complaints about Legends: Arceus.

My only complaint about Legends: Arceus is that we didn't get Diamond and Pearl remakes from Game Freak tho. Why not give this one to another studio, or do this a few years after typical D/P remakes? But, at the end of the day, I'm glad this wasn't an 'either, or' scenario. I'm Eterna-lly grateful we're getting both.

Now, to do one last thing that's completely unfair, I'm going to share a fan-edited screenshot:

It's one I've seen around the 'net that I can't find a source for, and whoever dash-slapped an article together over at Gamer Ant (I hope I'm parsing that right) couldn't be bothered to track down and source it themselves. And they presumably got paid for that shoddy work. (But that's par for the course in games journalism.)

Outlines are (presumably, what do I know) a kind of binary decision with 3D graphics: do you use them, or not? In this case, ILCA decided not to. Which is fine. You can make it work both ways. This speculative art-edit just kinda shows that, within the choice to do a 1:1 overworld, giving it an outline [whether brushstroke-style like the image, or not] helps change it, aesthetically, into something more different.

With prior gens, outlines were partly for clarity on the 3DS-level graphics in Gens VI and VII, but Sword and Shield still used them for a reason.

Not as pronounced, but still there!

Let's Go, however, doesn't use them. But this is the point where I cannot critique the footage from the BD/SP trailers. I can beef with the 1:1 overworld, because that's certainly set in stone. But the lighting and shading in the trailer may just be unfinished. Take a look at Koga in this screenshot from Let's Go: 

And then look at a character model (Barry) from the BD/SP trailer:

what's wrong with your face?

The shading and lighting looks weird. But that might just be unfinished. So it's not a worthy critique. Here's a side-by-side of Dawn from the trailer and official [i.e. finished] promotional artwork:

Again, kind of an unfair thing to compare, since promo art, even in the same artistic medium, will differ from the game. But she looks just fine in the art; the blending of the colors on her face show its shape better, without the need for outlines. I'll chalk this particular artistic oddity to "unfinished business."

You can't criticize a game effectively from its marketing material.  People seem to forget that in the knee-jerk responses to what they see in trailers. It's important to keep that in mind, folks. So it's not a matter of "outlines or no outlines." There is no one way that's "right" or "best." The style looks fine, even if that weird face-shading is final. My only gripe is with the overworld, and its scale.

I have a hard time answering "which region is the most beautiful?" I can't pick favorites like that, I'd live in 'em all. But in my imagination I kinda think it's the Sinnoh region? It's the most like the climate I live in: with its winter, calm forests, fields and lakes. Although doing this screenshot deep-dive, I've really seen that, compared to the original D/P/Pt, the other regions have (since) fleshed out their splendor and beauty. Sinnoh's overworld isn't as pretty as I remember it, or picture it, in the actual games (as opposed to depictions in the anime or other official artworks.) But I know the potential for a more realized Sinnoh beauty is there. Since remakes had just become a thing a few short years before Diamond and Pearl, I've waited the longest to see them get remade. What would a freshly revamped Sinnoh look like?

And we're kinda getting that in Legends: Arceus, but that's a different era. I wanted remakes of Diamond and Pearl to blow my mind the way Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire did. Like HeartGold and SoulSilver did (whose art style made a compelling argument that Johto is the most beautiful region. It even has winter, calm forests, fields and lakes.)

At the end of the day, It's just an awkward bummer. Like banging your funny bone, it feels strange but that feeling will fade. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus should serve us all of my -- our -- Sinnoh Region Remake needs. I just really wanted ice cream cake. Not ice cream and cake.

[source]

That's all it boils down to.

*Although Detective Pikachu was decently well-balanced in that respect, and while I'm on the subject, I'd love two dozen sequels that are more or less "It's a ____ movie but with Pokémon."