Nintendo and The Pokemon Company hosted the August 2021 Pokemon Presents yesterday and showcased quite a few new details concerning Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. While the event revealed plenty to look forward to regarding all three games, the most interesting tidbits belong to Legends: Arceus. Unlike Arceus' announcement trailer, the August 2021 Pokemon Presents gave players a very good idea of what to expect from the game, including new lore regarding the Sinnoh — or "Hisui" — region.

This is important because Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl use Sinnoh as their setting, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus takes place long before the events of both games, so any changes and additions that the title decides to make to Sinnoh should affect the two remakes. After all, nothing suggests that Pokemon Legends: Arceus isn't canon to Pokemon lore. In fact, the degree of some of the additions that the Pokemon Presents showcase revealed about Legends: Arceus affect the Pokemon franchise as a whole, not just Sinnoh.

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Sinnoh Region Pokemon Variants

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The August 2021 Pokemon Presents announced that Arceus would introduce new Pokemon evolutions and variations only native to the Sinnoh region — or at least native to the Hisui region, which is just Sinnoh before it became civilized. This reveal basically told fans why they should be excited for Pokemon Legends: Arceus: they'll get to experience new additions to the Pokemon franchise that are on the same level as core-series games. The only problem with this is that the showcase didn't say whether these same Pokemon would appear in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

It seems like common sense that they would, since all three games take place in the same region and play around with canon content. However, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl come out before Pokemon Legends: Arceus. If the remakes featured all of the new Pokemon that Legends plans to introduce, the game would lose a lot of its luster. Thus, it's unclear if Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will contain any of the new Pokemon — even though each game should for the sake of continuity. It would be a wasted opportunity for them not to, considering again, all the games take place in the same region.

Of course, there are excuses the games could use as to why certain Pokemon don't appear in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but to do this for every new Pokemon would be wasteful. For example, Stantler apparently only evolved into Wrydeer due to the harsh living conditions of the Hisui region, harsh conditions Sinnoh probably can't replicate due to being domesticated. This would be a good explanation for why Wrydeer don't appear in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl if the games neglect to use Legends: Arceus Pokemon, but to use this excuse for every other new Pokemon, like Basculegion — who can come about outside of Hisui — just seems forced.

Outside of DLC, there is one way Nintendo can avoid spoiling Pokemon Legends: Arceus while allowing Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to use the game's Pokemon. The publisher could make it so that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl only feature Pokemon that it plans to reveal before Arceus launches. In other words, Pokemon like Wrydeer, Basculegion, and Hisui Growlithe would appear in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but Hisui Growlithe's evolution, Hisui Arcanine, wouldn't appear unless Nintendo plans to reveal its design before Arceus launches.

These Pokemon can appear in an updated version of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's Safari Zone, in an area that preserved a piece of Hisui before it became Sinnoh. If not that, then the new and improved Grand Underground would make a good place for them. Players could obtain special statues that open areas where they appear. Either of these areas works if making the Pokemon findable in the wild makes them seem too common. The point is to simply make it so that Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl acknowledge their existence in an interactive way.

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Galaxy Expedition Team

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The Galaxy Expedition Team is a collective of people from different regions who aim to map out the unexplored areas of the Pokemon world. When compared to brand new Sinnoh Pokemon, the team is a much more subtle addition to Pokemon lore, but an important one nonetheless, especially when it comes to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The organization shares way too many things in common with the remakes' villainous group, Team Galactic, for it to be a coincidence. The details concerning the organization's connections aren't subtle.

Beyond the fact that the pair uses the same naming scheme as well as the same letter fonts and colors for their logo, they also have leaders who share distinctive features. Galaxy Expedition Survey Core Leader Cyllene and Team Galactic Leader Cyrus both have blue hair and no eyebrows; they even share the same scowl. How the two are related remains a mystery, but it wouldn't be hard to believe that Cyllene is Cyrus' ancestor. They even share the "Cy" in their name if it weren't obvious enough.

With this in mind, it's almost a guarantee that the Galaxy Expedition Team has something to do with team Galactic's creation, and if so, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl should capitalize on that. It would be interesting to see the two remakes play around a bit with the new lore, and Nintendo can even use the connection to set up twists and red-herrings in Legends: Arceus. The game should revolve around some kind of central conflict, so using Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to set up the story should be possible.

Nintendo hasn't touched on Arceus' plot too much, but it's hard to imagine that it went out of its way to develop a new battle system and an open-world solely to have players run around and complete a Pokedex that doesn't even scratch the surface of the Pokemon roster. And if the game does have a grand story to tell, the Galaxy Expedition Team is the only place a villainous power can spawn from, at least according to public information currently available at the time of this writing.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl release on November 19 for the Nintendo Switch.

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