Introduction

There is speculation that Nintendo will hold a Pokémon Direct on February 27, the 25th anniversary of when the first games launched on the Game Boy. As the first Pokémon Direct of 2021, Nintendo may reveal the remakes of Diamond and Pearl. As someone who loved Platinum, I should be excited that the Gen 4 remakes are close to becoming a reality, right? In actuality, it's quite the opposite.

My favorite Pokémon games all came from the time the franchise was still using 2D sprites. They were Platinum, HeartGold & SoulSilver, and Black & White 2. Each one had their unique charm. Platinum had the Distortion World and the Battle Frontier; HeartGold & SoulSilver were fantastic remakes of the original Gold & Silver that not only contained the Johto region, but also the Kanto region; and Black & White 2 had a very good story for Pokémon games.

The Regression from 2D to 3D

However, ever since Game Freak, the developer of the mainline games, moved to 3D models starting with X and Y, the series has become very stale. The games became much easier, removing the sense of challenge that the old games had. In spite of the expansive appearance of the 3D environments, maps felt very linear and corridor-ish, not allowing for much exploration.

At the time, I was willing to give Game Freak the benefit of the doubt. They were transitioning from 2D to 3D, so they had to make a lot of assets from scratch including Pokémon models and animations. Unfortunately, as more information about Sword and Shield came out up until their release, I knew there was a big problem: Game Freak has become extremely complacent.

First, there was the controversy surrounding the lack of the National Dex. When directors Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori were asked about the reason behind the exclusion in an interview, they said that they were creating new Pokémon models and battle animations from the ground up. That would've been an understandable reason, but dataminers revealed that models of old Pokémon from previous games were straight out reused. This caused a lot of outcry from the fanbase and the #Gamefreaklied hashtag trended on Twitter.

It didn't get better when Sword and Shield launched. People pointed out at the poor animation-work of the games and the bad graphics compared to the Nintendo Switch's other exclusive RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Heck, some have gone out of their way to mod the games to do the job that Game Freak could not. They managed to improve the graphics without performance penalties as well as fixing the follow Pokémon feature:

Is There Even Any Hope for a Competent Remake?

The most frustrating part is that there is no incentive for Game Freak to even put in the effort to improve the games. Sword and Shield have already sold over 20 million copies and the developers make extra money from all the DLC. They are raking in tons of money and you'd think that they would invest that into better models and animations, right? Well, that was what I thought before Sword and Shield came out and obviously, that did not come to fruition.

It's quite a shame, too. Part of me badly wants the Diamond and Pearl remakes to happen as Platinum was one of my favorite games. On the other hand, considering how Sword and Shield came out, I am absolutely terrified that Game Freak will botch the remakes and churn out a pair of underwhelming products. It also does not help when directors Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori have straight out misled the customers on why there would be no National Dex.

If only the mainline games have the soul of the upcoming Pokémon Snap, but unfortunately, that will likely remain a pipedream for years to come...