Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl have been out in the wild for over a week now, and they have already made a pretty big splash with fans of the franchise. The games have proven to be a pretty faithful reproduction of Pokemon's fourth generation, with many new additions that are reflective of how the franchise has evolved since Diamond and Pearl first released. For many of those that spent years begging for a remake of the Sinnoh region, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl seem to have delivered thus far.
Despite Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's early success, however, there is also a sense that something is missing from the game. While additions like Ramanas Park and outfit customizations have added some flavor to the remakes, there are features from Pokemon Platinum and more recent Pokemon entries that are oddly absent. If Nintendo and The Pokemon Company want to extend the games beyond what past Pokemon remakes have done, it could consider a DLC model similar to Pokemon Sword and Shield to make Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl into the ultimate Gen 4 experience.
Expanding Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl's Ramanas Park
One of the first things that Pokemon Sword and Shield did with its DLC was make almost every Legendary in Pokemon's history available for players to catch. This proved to be an excellent move for the remake, chiefly because the lack of classic Legendaries in Sword and Shield was one of the biggest complaints around that game. While Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl offer a fair amount of Legendaries in Ramanas Park, there are some unexplained omissions. With how much work already went into developing the area, expanding on it with even more DLC Legendaries could give a lot of players a reason to keep playing.
Bringing In Features From Pokemon Platinum
Leading up to the release of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, one of the biggest questions was how much content from Pokemon Platinum would be included. Now that the game is out, it turns out the answer was not all that much, as a few features from Platinum are missing from the current game. This is in stark contrast to previous remakes such as Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which went so far as to include all new story content as a way of connecting to Pokemon Emerald.
If Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl did get DLC support, it could bring in these missing features and turn the games into a more comprehensive celebration of Gen 4. Locations like the Distortion World could be added, which could be a great way to provide more background on Giratina, considering how important it is to Gen 4 as a whole. DLC could also add some of Platinum's additional story content, or at least rework it to meld better with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's current vision.
Pokemon Sword and Shield's DLC showed that Pokemon can take on a format that is more reflective of modern gaming trends. While it may seem worrying to see Pokemon take on a development mechanic that can turn predatory, Sword and Shield used its DLC in a way that was mostly satisfying. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl may be faithful to the source material, but both don't have to be completely in the past. There's no plans to bring DLC to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl right now, but it's hard to deny just how much it could expand the Gen 4 remakes.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are available now on the Nintendo Switch.