During today’s Pokemon Presents video event, The Pokemon Company announced remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for Nintendo Switch. Dubbed Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the upcoming Switch games are “faithful remakes” of the original titles, which were first released on the DS back in 2007.
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are being developed by Ilca, which also worked on Pokemon Home. Ilca’s Yuichi Ueda and Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda–who directed the original games–will serve as the remakes’ directors.
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl retain the original titles’ art style, featuring squat characters and buildings in the overworld reminiscent of the original DS games, but with more realistically proportioned characters during battle sequences. According to the presentation, “the sense of scale of the original games’ towns, and routes has been carefully preserved” in these remakes.
Diamond and Pearl are set in the Sinnoh region, where players begin their Pokemon adventure by choosing either Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will launch worldwide simultaneously in late 2021.
Those weren’t the only new Pokemon games announced during the Pokemon Presents broadcast. The Pokemon Company also revealed a brand-new title called Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which likewise takes place in the Sinnoh region, albeit in ancient times. Pokemon Legends is more visually reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, featuring wide-open environments and no transitions to separate battle scenes.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is slated to launch in 2022. Beyond that, The Pokemon Company also shared a new gameplay trailer for New Pokemon Snap during today’s broadcast. For more of today’s news, be sure to check out our roundup of the biggest Pokemon Presents announcements.
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