GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl Coming November 19, Pokemon Legends Arceus January 28

The Pokemon Company has confirmed the release dates for both of its upcoming Pokemon games: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl this year, and Arceus early next year.

4 Comments

The Pokemon Company has announced dates for its three big Pokemon games--the remakes of Diamond and Pearl, called Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will come on November 19, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus will follow next year on January 28, 2022.

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes of the 2006 Nintendo DS games, with updated art style and quality-of-life changes. As part of the announcement, Nintendo also showed off a double-pack releasing on the same day that will include both games.

We noticed in the initial showing that these remakes are more faithful to the originals, featuring a top-down perspective and a similar art style to its DS original. This was divisive among some fans who wanted to see a bigger shift for the updates, and one even reimagined it with new visuals.

Legends: Arceus is a new game set in the Sinnoh region long before Diamond and Pearl take place. You'll be building the region's first Pokedex by catching, surveying, and researching Pokemon. The lack of any mention of battling Pokemon suggests this will be a very different kind of game than the traditional RPG series. Its initial trailer reminded us of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in part due to its sweeping vistas. We also noticed a hidden link between the Arceus starters that pays tribute to the region.

Finally, Nintendo also announced updates to Pokemon Home. A new Catch Calendar feature will let you sort your Pokemon collection by the dates you caught them. It will also let you view your Pokemon in the Pokedex from different angles to get a better look at them.

Both Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus are available to preorder now. For more details, check out our Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl preorder guide and Pokemon Legends: Arceus preorder guide.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 4 comments about this story
4 Comments  RefreshSorted By 
GameSpot has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to toxic conduct in comments. Any abusive, racist, sexist, threatening, bullying, vulgar, and otherwise objectionable behavior will result in moderation and/or account termination. Please keep your discussion civil.

Avatar image for Seymour47
Seymour47

1741

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 7

User Lists: 0

Knowing how Nintendo likes to milk everyone with pokemon games, they will probably now have pokemon exclusive to the individual games as well as the double pack.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Smosh150
Smosh150

3050

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 0

Edited By Smosh150

@Seymour47: Game Freak/The Pokemon Company*

Nintendo may not have that ability. The majority of The Pokemon Company is not owned by them. Their voice does of course carry weight though.

Anyway, who cares if there are version exclusive Pokemon? I did all the exclusive trades for SwSh in less than 30 minutes (Never had to buy Shield). There is an entire subreddit for trades and people are more than willing to do tradebacks. Some just let you keep them because they can catch them again easily. r/pokemontrades is rather safe for trading since they force you to use your friend code and in game name so you screw somebody then you aren't going to be coming back to trade again unless you use another Switch account.

As Wilddog73 mentioned below I'm more concerned about lack of animations or animations with low FPS such as in the Arceus trailer. It doesn't have to be fancy, but jumping in place for double kick and the like is hilariously bad. Then there is short main story, game being too easy (Which is what Nuzelocke is there for if it is), lacking in features for Vs (Spectator for one), half assed features, etc.

Granted we know enough about BdSp considering it is just a remake not even by Game Freak. Arceus is the worriesome one as we only have one trailer and slim details on it.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for darkangel1276
Darkangel1276

44

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@Seymour47: they always have, both games always have some exclusive pokemon that you can't catch in the other, its meant to incentivise trading with other people, but let's be real here, there's a reason they sell the games in a pack lul.

3 • 
Avatar image for wilddog73
Wilddog73

150

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

@darkangel1276: We always thought it was kinda cool, it's the skimping out on animations and stuff we're a little concerned about.

3 •