It is very difficult for me to put myself in this place, where I learn to see with critical eyes one of the sagas that has always brought me the most nostalgia and illusions.
I still remember that accelerated feeling, where for the first time in my life I was able to get my hands on a delivery of our well-known pocket monsters. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to be able to do it the right way, that is, through a Gameboy.
When I was 10 years old, I found myself running home with a floppy disk, holding it with all the care that a child could grant to that little artifact, which for him had a world of possibilities and sensations.
That was how I entered the beautiful world of Pokémon video games, starting specifically with the Johto region and its great delivery, Pokémon Crystal.
Over the years that feeling was having its ups and downs. Basically adult life begins to make you question and rationalize everything you have in your visual range, and why not, the social pressure of not allowing us to enjoy that piece of latent innocence since forever. But there is something that I could never deny, is that Pokémon always manages at some point to take me to that place, to that child full of illusions and without a hint of worries.
After more than 20 years, Pokémon has given us great titles that will be tattooed on our retinas, as well as others that are not worth remembering.
One of these, and one of the most anticipated as well, has just made its exit this November 19, but under the development of ILCA. This small company makes its debut with Shiny Diamond Pokémon and Shimmering Pearl Pokémon. Before this they had only had the opportunity to collaborate in the development of other deliveries, which are still important in their portfolio (NieR Automata, Yakuza 0 and Ace Combat 7 among others).
Sinnoh is still intact
The plot twist of all canon installments, like this one, is the same. Our main objective is to win the 8 gym medals and then challenge the Elite 4 and their respective champion. Once we have defeated them all, we will consecrate ourselves as the Pokémon champion of the region.
In the course of time we will face various enemies that threaten the welfare of the world, and we with just 10 years under our belt, we will have to stop them.
This time we will face Team Galaxy, an organization that aims at all costs to defy quantum laws and generate new forms of energy, regardless of whether the universe itself explodes in their attempt.
As a secondary mission we will have to help Professor Serbal to complete the Region Pokédex and later the National Pokédex.
Finally, as in all releases, we will never find the complete blog and thus supply our digital encyclopedia. This time we can catch different Pokémon depending on the version we play, forcing us to ask for help to complete the Pokédex or dedicate several hours to the mysterious exchange.
After the development of this adaptation, the overwhelming differences will be found in the legendary Pokémon, since each installment will have great differences in addition to its flagship Pokémon (Dialga and Palkia), here is the list of each version:
Shimmering Pearl Pokémon: Lugia, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.
Shiny Diamond Pokémon: Ho-Oh, Suicune, Raikou and Entei.
Graphics that created a new crack
One of the loudest points since time immemorial is the radical change in the franchise’s target audience. What am I going with this? There is no human being, who has experienced Gen 1, who feels a little taste every time we embark on a new installment, AND ESPECIALLY when witnessing the release of a remake.
Game freak long ago it decided (objectively or not) a different audience, within which nostalgic people are not part, or not at least completely. Today adding ILCA to the equation the situation changes to a more.
I think this time the graphic swerve was much more abrupt than the controversial one of Pokemon Let’s Go. We find animations with a childish tint (chibi for those most adept at the anime world), very low contrast colors and even a diluted feeling.
Regarding its sound section, we do not find great evolutions with respect to its ancestor of DS and less being aware that the latter was added in its first patch, hours after its official release. Basically the game was not over when it came out, which left him in check. Game freak as a supervisory company and ILCA’s little experience in large projects such as this development.