A digital artist has reimagined Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to show exactly how the remakes should have been designed.
You can’t always get what you want, but you can create a trailer for it anyway. This seems to be the philosophy for one artistic Pokémon fan who has reimagined the announcement trailer and created a whole new game concept trailer for the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes to reflect a more modern art style.
The digital artist initially posted the remade trailer in the style of their game concept on Twitter, where they go by @millenniumloops, with the disclaimer that “this is not an actual game”, but simply a reimagining of how they wanted the remakes to be. It’s not the first time a Poké-fan’s creation has taken Twitter by storm, with players often taking it upon themselves to create art depicting their own takes on the franchise.
The trailer redesign comes after the long speculated Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes were confirmed in February as part of Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, alongside the news of the franchise’s first open-world game, Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The announcement trailer received mixed reviews from fans, with many being eager to receive an updated take on the Sinnoh region for the Nintendo Switch.
While the DS game remakes will be featuring a remastered design, there were significant complaints of GameFreak being lazy and producing an underwhelming product.
After the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield for the Switch in 2019, many fans hoped to see this more immersive, contemporary visual style carried across to the console’s upcoming remakes, rather than a more basic design similar to how the Pokémon: Let’s Go games reimagined Pokémon Yellow.
No amount of wishing can change what we’re getting now, but it’s still fun to imagine what the reveal of the remakes might have looked like with an updated style.
Beyond directly reimagining the visuals of Diamond and Pearl, Millenniumloops has now taken their vision a step further and created a video teasing their very own game concept for a Generation 4 Pokémon remake. It’s not just a play-by-play of the trailer this time – it’s a complete reshaping of what the games could be.
The trailer features our familiar friends Diamond and Lucas adventuring all throughout Sinnoh with the help of their companions, showcasing a much more realistic take on travel than the ‘surf’, ‘fly’ or ‘rock climb’ moves we’ve seen before. It then goes on to show off some similar capabilities to Diamond and Pearl, like Pokéball customisation, before demonstrating a proposed Pokémon accessory feature.
With the introduction of the Elite Four, it becomes clear how evolved this game concept is, with a more active combat style than we’ve ever seen before in the franchise (and the Mega Evolutions mechanic is back too). It’s everything I want and can’t have.
Fans who prefer a more realistic adventure teased by these trailers rather than the chibi style of the real remakes will have to wait until early 2022 for the brand new story of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and it’s likely that the development of this innovative new venture for the Pokémon universe is a factor in the less groundbreaking nature of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
However, with the remakes set for worldwide release in late 2021, these blasts from the past will just have to keep you occupied and bursting with nostalgia while you wait.
What Pokemon Fans Wanted vs What We Got (Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl Edition)
Link: https://t.co/SaXQqc0z0O pic.twitter.com/zyXHyna6QA
— sacred (@GucciCanti) March 10, 2021
While the take on Sinnoh reimagined by Millenniumloops definitely won’t be coming to the Switch, it’s still inspiring to see what the artist and game designer created with a week of their free time using models from previous games as well as their own creations. There’s been a whole lot of drama going down in their Twitter replies, proving that there’s truly no way to satisfy the entire Pokémon community, but it’s clear that this vision of what could have been has created quite the impact.
With “dreams of working with GameFreak” in the creator’s bio, it’s not hard to imagine this goal one day becoming a reality. That is, if they don’t get sued by Nintendo first.
