# Chapter Select, [[S6E7 - Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- Here we should buy this five-inch L C D PVM replica for a cool six hundred and thirty dollars. *00:00* It's actually like really neat looking. *00:12* Like it's cute. *00:15* How big is it? *00:17* Five inches *00:18* Why would you buy such a thing? *00:20* Cause it's cute. *00:23* That's it? *00:26* No, I mean it's a tiny monitor. *00:27* There are PVMs that are are that small. *00:29* This you're just not getting that screen quality. *00:32* You're purely buying this for the aesthetic to vibe. *00:34* To vibe piece. *00:40* But if you're doing that, just get a bigger one. *00:42* Or are they like insane? *00:44* A real PVM? *00:46* They're pretty expensive. *00:48* They're stupid. *00:49* Miss the uh the PVM boom *00:50* I don't know anything about old TVs and you know So I'm kind of glad that I don't *00:54* Uh well, you know what? *01:01* You should, if you know, you're out at these sales, see estate sales, college sales, whatever. *01:03* I know like I know some older TV. *01:10* Yeah, for sure. *01:13* If I was to see an old one out and about, I like I'd snatch it up. *01:13* So there there are three tiers of *01:17* old tube TVs. *01:19* There's the consumer CRT, which is what you and I have had. *01:20* It's what I have now *01:25* And there's so whatever you grew up with. *01:27* Then there's PVMs and BVMs. *01:30* Um, I think broadcast video monitor and production video monitor. *01:32* And those just have higher resolution inputs, um, better screens and all that stuff. *01:38* So they were used in studios and security monitors. *01:43* They're the squares, the deep big squares kind of TVs. *01:47* So and so retro game enthusiasts really love those because they have native RGB hookups and *01:51* higher quality component video and you know they just they look better they're they were designed for making movies and TV and games and stuff so *01:57* Um, but then obviously that stuff gets phased out and new stations close their doors, sell off old equipment, colleges, same stuff. *02:08* And then people pick them up and turn around and realize that they're worth something to a niche community. *02:17* So they're very expensive. *02:22* Um everything seems to be worth something. *02:25* To someone. *02:29* Somewhere. *02:30* Mm-hmm. *02:34* My CRT's got some like banding around the edges. *02:35* I think the tube's kind of out of alignment after being moved so many times. *02:38* But I can't find anyone local that would n has the knowledge to repair it. *02:43* I look every few months and I'm not brave enough to open the back of this thing. *02:46* Cause you know these things can kill you, right? *02:55* Old TVs? *02:59* Yeah, so the tube in the back, there's like this cathode electrical thing on the top, and there's a rubber cover over it. *03:01* And if you touch that while it has charge in it, it can kill you. *03:10* Yeah, so these things are actually it wouldn't be the worst way to die. *03:16* He died as we knew him. *03:19* Messing around with old tech junky technology. *03:22* So you know there's a proper way to let it discharge, basically leave it unplugged for *03:26* 48 hours, 24 hours, um, even longer, just let the electricity discharge and then it's it's an and then to have proper safety equipment and it there's no risk. *03:32* Like I've watched videos *03:41* I've thought about it, like to clean it out at least in the back there. *03:43* I'm sure it's so dusty inside that. *03:46* But I've never been so I've never been brave enough. *03:49* To actually go and do it. *03:53* Yeah. *03:55* So *03:55* Uh yeah, I just don't have the chops and I can't find anyone local. *03:57* I'm I'm sure there is someone. *04:02* I just have not found a resource that would list that person. *04:03* Cause I would pay I'd pay someone to come out and calibrate it and *04:06* You know, tune it up. *04:10* I've been touched and What are you gonna play on it though, then? *04:12* Uh well I play all my retro consoles are have hookups to it. *04:16* I guess in my mind, I don't know. *04:20* Yeah, I guess it would just depend on what I'm collecting. *04:23* Because there's some like old PlayStation I'm getting to the point where there's really nothing from older gens that I feel like I need to *04:26* Go back and play on older platforms like OG platforms, especially since I have a Bat Compat PS3. *04:35* Which is Yeah. *04:42* Well all PS3s are compatible with PS1. *04:43* All of them. *04:46* Um play PS All of them? *04:47* All PS3s can play PS1 disc *04:49* Every single one. *04:53* It's PS2 that you have compatibility with. *04:55* So the very first wave of PS3s had hardware-level PS2 compatibility, basically had a PS2 built inside it. *04:58* And then they revise that to be a software backwards compatibility. *05:07* That might be what I have actually. *05:13* Because you have the Metal Gear one, right? *05:15* So it might be the software version. *05:17* Yeah, because I've tried some games on it in the past. *05:19* I've tried some games on it previously, and they get a little wonky for sure. *05:22* Could be. *05:26* I haven't I haven't studied up on my PS3 like or PS2 emulation, I suppose, on PS3 *05:27* In a while, but that's my understanding of it. *05:33* It was hardware first, software, and then none of it. *05:34* But every single PS3 is PS1 compatible, which is so I mean it's simpler, I suppose. *05:37* And you actually get it's funny. *05:43* If you have the physical version of Metal Gear Solid, and then you also own it digitally on PS3, it looks sharper *05:46* when you play it off the disc, then it it's softer on the digital version. *05:55* Yeah, it's it's very the PS3 is just a a very weird machine. *06:01* I'm curious to see what the *06:05* This PS4, PS5 version is gonna look like. *06:08* Oh, I of Mel Gear 1. *06:12* Because they've never done like a proper touch-up on that one. *06:15* Even like in regards to the controls and stuff like that, I don't think they *06:17* Like the all all versions of the game I think still have like circle is like inner and stuff like that. *06:22* So I do uh you're right, I believe that is true. *06:28* The closest I'm aware of, this might be possible on PS3. *06:32* I know it's possible on PSP, which is where I first remaps yourself. *06:36* So that but that's not in the game, that's the software, the hardware. *06:41* And then obviously Twin Snakes, complete remake of the game. *06:45* That's different too, but that's not what this is. *06:48* Yeah. *06:51* So I'm cu I'm curious to see what they do in that one specific. *06:52* I'm a little nervous. *06:55* And I shouldn't be, because they've done really well with the Castlevania collection. *06:57* They've done really good in the conscious collections. *07:00* Something about Metal Gear 1, though, just seems like they have n never been willing to *07:03* Touch that. *07:09* I I don't I don't know. *07:10* They have done good job though. *07:12* Like they even did like the turtle stuff. *07:13* That was them too. *07:15* The Calabunga collection was them. *07:16* Uh that wasn't in-house. *07:19* They that digital clips did the collection. *07:21* I guess I'm saying that's still that's still under their banner though, is yeah. *07:25* So I'm but I'm still a little nervous because *07:30* I am too. *07:33* I'm I'm very I'm worried that Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 are going to be different. *07:34* Because remember that the reason they took them down was those copyrights, like trademarks or whatever, lapsed for the historical footage. *07:41* So I'm wondering if they've like just cut things that they didn't want to spend the money to renew *07:49* I'm curious how they run, what kind of features, what kind of behind the scenes it might have, or if it is just a here's the game. *07:55* Which I mean is *08:06* Sucks, but also is good because there is no way to play that game on modern console hardware. *08:09* You can still buy it on GOG, but you can't *08:15* play it anywhere else. *08:17* Well you could buy it on PS3 still, I suppose, if you really wanted to. *08:20* They talk about this on *08:24* secret symbols pretty often. *08:27* Which I actually caught up on. *08:29* I know you're always like, just abandon the previous episodes. *08:31* On my recent road trip I was able to catch up on it finally. *08:35* Okay, well that makes sense. *08:38* You have so much time. *08:39* So I like burned through like three or four episodes of it. *08:40* I think I'm caught. *08:44* Uh n err no, I think I have the latest episode of Sacred. *08:46* But I did listen to the Garvin and Mumbauer interview. *08:51* No, I have not listened to that. *08:56* I don't really care to listen to them. *08:57* I haven't listened to the previous one and I was kind of curious how their web three ashfall slash now trace war game is going. *09:00* It's *09:07* I think m I think Mumbauer is interesting, but I don't think I think Garvin's a little bit too up his own butt with I got I did get that vibe on Garvin, a smidge. *09:09* Um and Mumbauer feels very much like uh *09:19* Like a West Coast tech bro. *09:24* Like very interested in the latest and greatest and bleeding edge of commerce and stuff. *09:26* And I *09:32* That doesn't always drive with at least my stance on video games, but they do have some interesting philosophical discussion. *09:34* The back half of the podcast is actually all about *09:40* these AI tools and how they are impacting creative work. *09:43* So it was interesting because Garvin apparently is very pro and uses them regularly, which *09:48* I know he couldn't have used them on days gone, but somewhat I think that stuff, honestly, like I'm pretty pro AI when it comes to like *09:55* basic coding functions of games and stuff like that. *10:07* I know a lot of people have mentioned it like that when it's a little bit more than a lot of things. *10:09* Seems pretty cool. *10:11* I've used it in my random work time. *10:13* Mm-hmm. *10:17* Uh *10:17* That goes into games, like that's probably because then that allows this allows the teams to focus more on the creative side of things, I think. *10:18* Um I agree. *10:26* Because a lot of times I think it takes forever in game development to you know come up with an idea, but then it takes forever to *10:28* See that idea in action and get an idea and get it get some sort of notion of whether or not it's something good that they yeah, they should continue to expand on or not. *10:35* And it sounds like AI can at least speed up that process to where you have some stuff in playable states a little bit more quickly. *10:45* Yeah. *10:53* I am anyway. *10:53* I've used it to get out of some writing block jams. *10:55* Like *10:57* You know, I'll have like three sentences, four or five sentences. *10:58* Like, I want to say something like this, but I don't know how to condense it. *11:02* I've used that to like wordsmith my way down and then polish that up. *11:06* Uh and then obviously we use the art, which is a very helpful tool. *11:11* So I think in the context of tools, they're great. *11:17* But when you just try to use it *11:21* To like replace the actual human side of creativity. *11:24* Anything I was gonna say, anything actually creative is where it's like, what do we like the whole secret invasion opening, it's like, dude, you are *11:29* Like I I understood the point of why they did that, but also it looked horrible. *11:38* And it was just like you're you're Disney, your Marvel, just pay *11:45* People to come up with a cool intro sequence. *11:50* Like again, I understand, but see I watched that show. *11:52* And I actually so when I first saw it, I didn't know it was AI. *11:57* Like it it had the the tone or vibe of it. *12:00* But I just you know, it was cool. *12:03* I do think it fits with the the theme of the show though, of having these creatures kind of like *12:05* take, you know, the shape and form of things in weird ways. *12:13* I know it's not strictly about AI, but I did think it kind of fit *12:17* at least the cool idea of Secret Invasion. *12:22* Now is the show good? *12:25* No. *12:26* But I heard it's like truly, truly terrible. *12:27* Terrible. *12:30* It's you and I talked about that a lot. *12:30* Yeah, it's rough, man. *12:32* I I I just finished it to finish it because it was like whatever. *12:34* I needed something. *12:39* But I hadn't laughed as hard as I had at the fin at the finale at anything in a while, so that was pretty good. *12:40* I'll have to start watching. *12:47* I just realized *12:48* Guardians 3's on Disney Plus. *12:50* I somehow didn't even know that, so I'll probably watch that at some point. *12:52* I need to watch Creed 3 at some point. *12:55* I'd like to watch Avatar 2 at some point. *12:57* You need to watch Facts X. *13:00* September 15th on Peacock, sir. *13:04* Oh my god, you're gonna make us wait another month. *13:07* Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal retrospective podcast where we bounce back and forth between a series exploring its evolution, design, and legacy. *13:10* For this season, we are covering the Pokemon *13:19* Franchise. *13:22* My name is Max Robertson. *13:22* I'm joined as always by Logan Moore. *13:23* Hi Logan. *13:26* This game is a brilliant turd, a shining mess. *13:27* I will not have you besmirch the good name of Diamond and Pearl. *13:32* I will not stand for this slander. *13:37* I'm coming right out the gate, making it clear where I stand with this game, which I don't think is much of a surprise because I'm pretty sure in past episodes I've already said, like, I don't really like Diamond and Pearl that much. *13:40* Diamond and Pearl is a very good game. *13:52* But you know what else is good, Logan? *13:55* What's that? *13:57* Our members who support us over a super chapter select where you can get longer episodes. *13:58* more discussion as well, exclusive episodes. *14:05* We may we were just talking about we might be doing one here for Pokemon if Logan will ever play Legends Arceus, which ties directly into *14:08* Diamond and Pearl, so there's all that. *14:17* And does our uh extra bonus video content like for season six here we have our Pokemon battles. *14:18* This uh Diamond and Pearl, this will be our seventh battle. *14:26* So you can check those out and see where we stand in this season-long grudge, which may go past black and white too, as we've talked about maybe *14:30* bringing everything forward to Scarlet and Violet for one last hurrah, or maybe playing the stadium games as well. *14:39* So if all that sounds cool and you'd just like to support the show, you could do so over at listening with superpower dot com for just twenty dollars a year, so *14:45* Head on over to listeningwithsuperpower. *14:53* com. *14:56* And thank you to all our members who do so already. *14:57* Good URL. *15:00* One will have to actually continue to remember exists. *15:02* Yeah. *15:05* Well I was yeah. *15:06* Oh remember exists. *15:07* Oh I know it exists. *15:08* I just thought Yeah, you do, but I I I rem *15:09* If I recall you filled me in late that that was a thing, like, hey, I bought this domain and I was like, What? *15:12* Yeah. *15:17* Domains are so cheap, man. *15:18* They are. *15:20* They are nowadays. *15:21* Max, let's not waste any time this episode. *15:23* Let's get right into our rundown and then because there's a lot I want to say and there's a lot you want to say and I I think this is gonna be one of our more interesting *15:25* sort of back and forth episodes because of where we're both coming from. *15:34* Coming coming from with this game. *15:38* Uh again *15:40* Pokemon Diamond and Pro was developed by Game Freak. *15:41* Uh Max and I did play the remakes this time around. *15:44* And those were developed by is it Ilka or Ilsa? *15:47* I think I L C A, I think it stands for like I Love Computer Art is what I was reading up on is what it stands for. *15:51* Let's do that. *16:00* The games originally released on April 22nd, 2007 for the Nintendo DS. *16:01* The remakes launched back in 2021 on Nintendo Switch. *16:05* The original game director was Junichi Masuda. *16:09* The producers of the originals were Hiroyuki Jinai, Gakujiri Nomodo, Hitoshi Yamagami, and Hirowaki Su. *16:12* And then the music was done by Go Ichinose, Junichi Masuda, and Hitomi Sato. *16:22* The Metacritic scores on the original games were an eighty-five out of one hundred. *16:28* You noted that Platinum had a lower score, which is correct. *16:33* Because um what is that Pokemon's name? *16:37* I don't even uh Palkia is worse than Dialga. *16:39* No, um I'm sorry. *16:43* It well yes, that is true. *16:44* Palkia. *16:45* Oh, I'm sorry, that's for that's for platinum. *16:46* Nastro Planum, not Pearl, I'm sorry. *16:49* No, Pearl just has the same uh score. *16:51* Okay, interesting, interesting. *16:54* And then the uh *16:56* I'll just throw this out there. *16:57* The remakes were panned, largely. *16:58* 73 out of 100. *17:00* Now, panned, I sev that's still a passing grade. *17:02* That's a C. *17:05* I th I I do want to just say, I'm not defending the games here, I'm just talking numbers here. *17:06* Seven out of ten is not a bad game. *17:10* I just want to I think that mindset is bad. *17:13* Um a bad game would be like five or a four. *17:16* Now it is a worse score. *17:19* It it's hard because I have that same mindset as you, and that's a mindset I have when I am personally reviewing games. *17:22* Like if I give a game a three or a three and a half or something, I'm like, that's a good score. *17:28* I think I like I en enjoyed l portions of this game. *17:32* Uh I just know that most other gaming outlets, especially those on Metacritic, um anything below a seven is where you start to get into like this game sucks territory. *17:36* A lot of outlets only use seven and above. *17:48* And then why not just do a one out of three scale, I guess. *17:51* I d w numbers are dumb in review scores to begin with. *17:54* I think numbers are good. *17:58* The problem is that people don't use the full scale. *17:59* Like that's *18:03* That's the issue. *18:04* I think I think if we could break our I'll say this. *18:04* The problem actually for us in America is uh our grade system because I think we are we are bred to think that anything below seventy is failing because that's what it is and *18:08* school for us. *18:18* So that's probably where that derives from, I have always believed. *18:20* Um it's a darn education system. *18:24* But yeah. *18:27* Max. *18:28* We'll start with you and your history on this one because I know this is the one that you have an extensive history with. *18:29* I've saved it. *18:37* This is all you have. *18:37* I've seen six episodes of history. *18:38* You have no histories with anything else moving forward, so uh I have a little bit with X, but yeah, you're right. *18:41* This um this is my great return to Pokemon as a as a kid. *18:48* So listeners may remember back at the beginning of the season I was I had Pokemon Blue and I was and the Pokemon cards, the whole deal. *18:54* And my parents thought I was too obsessed with it and made me get rid of it all in a pretty horrific way. *19:02* I had to shred all my Pokemon cards and get rid of the games. *19:07* You Logan, you just found all your old Pokemon cards and I was seeing the cards that I had. *19:11* And it caused me great pain, like actually seeing the cards themselves, because I really haven't seen them. *19:16* Your parents should be forced to pay you in damages because those cards are so expensive now. *19:23* I send them articles when like a Charizard goes for hundreds of thousands of dollars. *19:29* I'm like, yeah. *19:34* Did you have a Charizard? *19:34* Yeah. *19:36* Oh, that's insane. *19:37* Like one of the OG holographic Charizards. *19:38* I remember having a Charizard. *19:42* I cannot speak to if it was OG or holographic. *19:44* I remember having a Charizard. *19:47* I remember she had one of the original sets, like at a minimum. *19:49* Those are about 180 to 200 dollars now, I think. *19:52* That's crazy. *19:55* I remember missing my bus stop in kindergarten because I was trading Pokemon cards with other kids in the back of the bus. *19:56* And the bus driver was furious with me. *20:02* So yeah, I've I so left Pokemon in some time in elementary school and then *20:05* come back here to the Nintendo DS and the release of Diamond in 2007, so I'm 13 years old. *20:11* Uh it was going to be my 13th birthday, actually, that June. *20:18* And I kinda *20:23* Read Nintendo Power, went online, was reading all about it, and made this big portfolio of all these articles to like prove to my parents that I was old enough and mature enough at the ripe young age of thirteen. *20:25* To play Pokemon. *20:39* And this actually also coincided with Zelda and the Phantom Hourglass. *20:40* I was like, I'm old enough to play these games again, because they did the same thing with Zelda, because it had a witch in it. *20:44* And so they said yes. *20:50* And that birthday, a few months later, was like the Pokemon Blowout, where I got not only Pokemon Diamond, but also Pokemon Ranger. *20:53* I specifically asked for because I wanted to get a manaphy. *21:03* And that's the only way at the time to get a manaphy was to play ranger, transfer the egg. *21:07* I remember this. *21:11* I never bit on r I never bit on Ranger personally. *21:13* I think I just Ranger I remember having fun with it, the whole draw circles around it. *21:16* Yeah, yeah. *21:21* Now those I think the third Ranger game is actually quite expensive. *21:21* Yeah, one of 'em's really expensive. *21:25* The first one I know isn't to my knowledge, but one of the things that I don't believe selection is. *21:27* I think the third one is pretty pricey *21:31* So I only played the first one, and then I would actually eventually go on to get Mystery Dungeon, Blue Rescue Team, and then also Explorers of Time. *21:33* So *21:41* You know, this You were going way harder than I was in this era. *21:42* Like I was a Pokemon kid and I wasn't even I I didn't play any of those spinoffs. *21:46* Well, y I was so starved at the time. *21:50* Yes. *21:53* And I the DS was the thing, and I it's probably the handheld I've played the most, and I just was pouring everything into it. *21:53* Now hindsight *22:02* Probably shouldn't have been going to GameStop and buying those older games that I had missed because I would have made a killing. *22:03* Um I would eventually get some of those cartridges later on, but then I'd sell them. *22:10* It's a whole story. *22:14* Uh filled with regret. *22:15* So I'm back and I'm playing Diamond and I'm obsessed with it, right? *22:17* I think the final clock *22:22* was like a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty hours. *22:25* I went all out in this game. *22:28* And once I beat it and you know had my fill with it, then I got an action replay. *22:31* So then I'm in there *22:35* hacking the game and having fun with that so that I'm using like Pokesov to make Pokemon on the computer. *22:37* I even made YouTube tutorials like here's how you do this. *22:44* And I would give Pokemon the crazy moves and abilities. *22:46* So like I really just was living in in Cinema. *22:49* Did these Pokemon tutorials still exist on the internet somewhere? *22:53* Yeah, yeah, yeah. *22:56* I'll throw one in the show notes. *22:57* I'll throw them in the show notes. *22:58* Okay. *22:59* And *23:00* Then platinum would come out a year or two two years later really, which is wow. *23:01* But I remember following the news for that in Japan and I got platinum and I played that a ton too. *23:07* Giratina's cool. *23:11* I still have my Giratina figure that I got for pre-ordering the game. *23:12* I really this was the generation I came back. *23:16* And then I didn't pick up black and white. *23:19* I didn't pick up black and white two. *23:22* I don't know why. *23:24* I did very strange actually. *23:26* Yeah. *23:28* I didn't get heart, gold, soul, silver. *23:29* I think I skipped gold and silver because I was like, I didn't play those games. *23:31* And it would have been the perfect time to play them, right? *23:35* I don't know. *23:37* My brain was just like *23:37* I didn't do it. *23:39* And so I wouldn't come back to Pokemon again until X. *23:40* And I kind of dropped off of that quickly. *23:44* Um, I'm sure we'll discover that in the coming episodes. *23:47* probably maybe why that happened. *23:51* And then really I didn't come I Arceus was the la the last game I played before we did this season of like yeah really digging into and *23:53* Ironically, that's Sinno as well, right? *24:04* So I have this is this is the game I'm most nostalgic for. *24:06* This is the decks I'm most nostalgic for, which I think is actually *24:11* really f funny now having the context of six other games and kind of looking at where Sinnoh sits. *24:16* So *24:22* But it's there is the nostalgia. *24:24* Now coming into the episode, I knew that would be so strong with me, almost like sapphire and ruby were for you to be. *24:26* And so I did try to I wanted to separate that as much as possible because *24:33* Uh there are there are some like Pokemon issues with this game, um, which is interesting to have, but my nostalgia has softened that. *24:38* uh reaction, I think, just personally, but the critical eye sees it and acknowledges it for sure. *24:48* And I'm sure we'll talk about all of this. *24:54* But I'm really curious where you are because *24:55* I would think as a kid, you know, you were playing the Game Boy Advance games, the Game Boy Games, the DS comes out, the logical thing is Pokemon's coming to the DS and it does. *25:00* The Diamond and Pearl, where were you back in 2007? *25:11* What were you doing? *25:14* So I bought these games on day one. *25:15* I was there. *25:17* I had pre-ordered them. *25:18* I was happy. *25:19* Are they both? *25:20* Uh I got diamond, my brother got pearl. *25:21* That's what happened with me and my brother. *25:25* And we got them at GameStop, and they gave us the special edition styluses, and I still have my Dialga ones somewhere. *25:26* You can look this up. *25:34* If you would like. *25:35* They had like they had like a special edition stylist that came with it. *25:36* Um that just had like Dialga at the top of it, like a little Oh my gosh figure of Dialga there at the top. *25:41* So I got that and I was playing it. *25:48* Yeah, I was hyped as can be for this. *25:50* Um and I played through it, uh, got to the end. *25:51* So this is this is the weird thing about Diamond for me. *25:56* So *25:59* Like in the moment I didn't like the first playthrough I didn't really dislike the game and I think I played through it maybe a couple times actually. *25:59* Um *26:07* Did you just send me this? *26:08* Oh yeah, there it is. *26:10* That's it? *26:11* Yeah, that's it. *26:11* That's awesome. *26:13* And then there's a palkier one too. *26:13* So anyway, I I played through the game. *26:15* I liked it. *26:17* I may have played through it a time or two. *26:18* And then because I had been playing everything up to this point, you know, I had all my old Pokemon on my GBA games, and they allowed you to transfer them via the PO PAL Park, which you unlocked at the end. *26:21* of Diamond, which was a whole which is not really a thing in the remakes here that we played. *26:32* Can I just say something really quick? *26:37* Yeah. *26:39* How cool is it that the Nintendo DS would let you put in a Game Boy Advance game and you could link it between the DS cart like you *26:40* You didn't need two systems anymore. *26:46* Like that blew my mind as a kid. *26:48* Not that I use that feature, because I didn't have those games, but I do remember like Mystery Dungeon. *26:51* If you had Fire Red or um *26:56* red rescue team and blue rescue team, the two could talk to each other. *26:58* I just thought that was so neat. *27:01* I uh it was really cool and I liked having I liked being able to get all my Pokemon that *27:02* meant something to me from my Leaf Green and R sapphire runs and my Emerald runs and bring them over *27:08* I wish it wouldn't have limited it to six a day. *27:16* I wish you could've just done a mass import. *27:18* Like I don't know if you knew how that functioned, but you would have to go *27:20* To the park, you would have to have the cartridge in that you wanted to import them from. *27:23* You would have to select six, and then you would have to go catch them *27:27* And then it would say like that's it for today and then you couldn't go back until 24 hours later and then you have to do it again. *27:31* So if you wanted to like massive- You had to catch them? *27:37* Yes. *27:40* Like basically you would just run around in the grass and then they would show up and there was only the option to throw ball. *27:42* And it would catch you. *27:49* And you would just and it would just catch you right away. *27:50* Yeah. *27:52* So but you would have to like catch them. *27:53* And so it was like a long import process. *27:54* And I wish you could have done it more quickly. *27:57* Anyway, so I did all of that and I played, like I said, I played the game a couple times *28:01* I don't know. *28:06* Here's the weird thing about Diamond for me. *28:07* And I wasn't really. *28:09* I don't know what my thought process was here. *28:11* And this is by far the worst thing I've ever done that still. *28:14* haunts me to this day. *28:18* At some point I just was like, you know, I had this diamond cart that had *28:20* dozens and hundreds of Pokemon on it that I had tr trained up across different games, different platforms, different everything. *28:28* I was just thinking, you know *28:35* I'll sell it to GameStop and I traded it in for some reason. *28:36* I don't know why. *28:40* I know why you did it. *28:41* It's the same reason I traded in my Pokemon games, because it was worth 30-40 bucks. *28:42* Yeah, because I'm a kid and I don't have a job and I want the whatever the hot new game is that's about to come out. *28:47* So yeah, that's why I did it. *28:52* But something like I told myself like ah I'm not really into Pokemon and I don't I'm not really into this anymore. *28:54* And that's true. *28:59* I did think the *29:00* post game of Diamond was not great. *29:01* I didn't think there was like much to do compared to Ruby and Sapphire, which just felt so *29:04* I mean maybe this wasn't true at the time, but it just felt like there was so much more to kind of explore and uncover in those games. *29:12* Like we when we played those, like there was the whole, you know, underground areas and the different like *29:18* Like the different uh walls and stuff you could read that are all made out of like there's a lot of like secret stuff in those games that you could just straight up never see. *29:24* Um but there's a lot of that in *29:33* These games too, I guess. *29:36* I d I don't know. *29:37* I was gonna say a lot is there's stuff in here that you totally can skip. *29:38* There's a lot of l legendaries. *29:41* Is Regigaigas in this game or Reg Regigai? *29:43* I believe so, yes. *29:46* I remember *29:47* I think getting them um I think so. *29:48* Dark Rye, Shaman, Rotom. *29:52* Well Dark Eye and Shaman. *29:55* Dark Rye and Shaman. *29:56* They were event public. *29:57* Yeah, they were event stuff. *29:58* But it was like Giratina, Heatran *29:59* Uh Reg Regigus. *30:02* Rudig Regigus, however you say it. *30:03* Arceus, I think uh or was Arceus. *30:06* Arceus was another event, yeah. *30:09* So yeah, like there was like legendaries and stuff like that you could catch post-game, but then there really just didn't seem to be a whole lot else. *30:11* Anyway, long story short, I sold it at some point, and I'm not really sure *30:17* Why? *30:23* Um or wait, no, oh yeah, Ridgie Gagus was Gen 4. *30:24* There it is. *30:28* Um so yeah, I just sold it and *30:29* I I mean the weird thing is I I don't know what my thought process was at the time. *30:33* Again, it probably was just as simple as I would like money and I'm not playing this game anymore. *30:36* Because it then moving forward, it wasn't like I then didn't get, you know *30:41* Heart, gold, and soul, silver, and black, and black and white, black and white too. *30:45* Like I was still buying every it wasn't really until because then I bought X and Y right away and I bought Stun and Moon right away. *30:49* It wasn't until right *30:55* Yeah, no, I bought Sun and Moon right away at launch. *30:58* I just didn't play it. *31:01* I bounced off. *31:02* And then Omega and Ruby I didn't buy at launch, but I got a little later, and then I bounced off that too. *31:04* It wasn't until I guess, yeah, Ultras Sun and Moon I I I I never grabbed. *31:11* Like 'cause then when we get to the field. *31:18* We get to yeah, uh Sword and Shield I've had since launch, but I didn't p I just never played until we did it for this show. *31:20* Um so I've still like had and purchased all the Pokemon games like at or around launch. *31:27* So anyway, I don't know why I *31:33* abandoned shipped on Diamond and sold my cart that had everything on it. *31:35* Cause like that that haunts me now because like we're doing this season, like, and if I still had that cart with like *31:41* 20-year-old Pokemon on it, that would just be so cool to me. *31:47* Yeah. *31:51* Um at the end of the day, it's just *31:51* Whatever, you know. *31:55* Ones and zeros. *31:56* That's all it's. *31:56* Yeah, well yeah, it's just a a freaking a Rayquaza is a Rayquaza, but it's like it would be way cooler if it's the Rayquaza that I was *31:57* fighting the capture in Pokemon Sapphire when I lived in Cordova Drive back in Indian Indianapolis. *32:05* So yeah, I don't know. *32:14* There's like a there's just there's that sort of element to it. *32:15* Anyway. *32:18* No, I totally I totally get that. *32:19* That it's your Pokemon, right? *32:22* And then they're gone because you *32:25* It's like having a dog getting rid of the dog and then you're like, oh man, I wish I didn't get rid of that dog. *32:29* Yeah. *32:34* It in a weird way. *32:36* It's *32:38* There is a nostalgia to it. *32:39* And I think the cool thing is, is I don't think from here on out, really, I'd say I guess the DS era, 3DS era more concretely, with Pokemon Bank. *32:41* But nothing we'll never lose Pokemon again if you keep paying for subscriptions. *32:52* Yeah. *32:58* You like I will never lose *32:59* this batch uh this Torterra this Garchomp like I'll never I'll never sell like s sell the game I don't lose the Pokemon the Pokemon are with me now which I think is *33:03* a really good thing for this franchise to maintain. *33:16* What's funny though is I say all of that and I like kind of reminisce and I'm nostalgic about this game, but *33:19* Once again, as I said at the top of the show, this game is not good. *33:26* And I don't know. *33:30* Let me set this up before we get into kind of your counters. *33:32* Like I wanna I want to broadly *33:36* Paint me the picture. *33:39* I was gonna say I want to broadly explain why I think this game is bad. *33:40* Give me the picture. *33:43* And it is just simply *33:43* This is Pokemon by the numbers to me, this game. *33:47* Like there is nothing unique or original that I feel like this game tries to do whatsoever. *33:50* It very much comes across as the first Pokemon game. *33:58* Like like its main selling point was just we're on DS now and there's new Pokemon. *34:02* And that's like kind of it. *34:08* Um it is crazy to me how little of interest this game *34:11* Like there is just uh uh especially because we played the remakes too. *34:18* And I think on the DS game, you know, like the Pokech or Pokiatch or whatever, the the Pokewatchy Tech *34:22* But I heard someone call it a poke poke etch in a video. *34:29* I'm like, oh, maybe I've said it wrong my whole life. *34:32* Well, it's supposed to be a watch, so it can't be tech. *34:34* Oh. *34:38* And it's ETCH. *34:38* So I think it's PokeyH. *34:40* Etch. *34:41* Pokech. *34:41* Okay. *34:42* Poke H. *34:42* So um Oh, that is infinitely better on the DS where you can actually touch it and it's out of the way. *34:43* Yeah, on the DS it like serves an actual function for that to be there. *34:49* And again, none of those apps in it are like anything revolutionary, but still like that comes across as a little bit more novel and unique. *34:52* And the remakes you can just like you and I both hit it. *34:59* It's like nope, get this out of here. *35:02* Uh I hit it until the end game. *35:04* Yes. *35:07* There's some useful stuff. *35:08* So like but yeah, I I just think the there there is nothing *35:10* interesting about these games whatsoever. *35:18* I think the story is super bland on all fronts. *35:20* I think that and the and I think Team Galactic is one of the most boring factions that doesn't really have a clear *35:23* goal and it doesn't feel like interesting. *35:32* I think the through line of becoming a champion is so boring, it's just typical *35:35* Oh, get a Pokemon and go out and you have a rival. *35:41* It's just they don't do anything interesting in with that compared to previous games, you know, like we mentioned *35:44* A lot like silver and gold where it's like your rival is a criminal. *35:50* Like different things like your rival in this game just has ADD *35:54* Yeah, basically. *35:59* Uh which is a change of pace from one of your rivals in the last game being like a sickly boy. *36:00* So definitely a huge difference. *36:06* Um but just it just it seems like *36:09* I uh on all fronts, there is nothing remarkable about this game whatsoever. *36:13* And that is in tandem with the fact that we could talk about this too in a bit. *36:19* I think the DEX in this game is straight up terrible. *36:24* It's very bad. *36:28* And I and you kind of talked about that with me earlier, about how there are some like glaring holes in this Pokedex. *36:30* Which are very bizarre. *36:37* It's weird. *36:39* Yeah, it's a weird text. *36:39* Um Okay. *36:41* Let's bring it back to the bottom. *36:43* I was gonna say, where do you want to start? *36:45* Like I start I kinda wanna just start with the broad brush strokes, right? *36:46* Just the *36:50* Lack of uniqueness, I suppose. *36:51* One of my first notes I wrote down. *36:55* This is low-key a remake of Gen 1. *36:58* Certainly a template for the beginning here. *37:01* So Yeah. *37:04* It really is. *37:06* They just try to play the hits once again. *37:06* And so as an adult, a nearly 30-year-old man who's playing all the Pokemon games in very close proximity. *37:09* for most cities for the first time, this is so obvious to me. *37:18* It's like, oh. *37:22* But as that 13-year-old who hadn't played Pokemon in s you know *37:25* Yeah. *37:30* It was ripped out of his hands. *37:31* This is I didn't know what I had m missed in the inter intervening years. *37:32* This was like the great comeback. *37:37* So I'm very aware of that dichotomy within myself of just *37:39* These different perspectives. *37:45* But it is the it's not just the skeleton of one. *37:47* It's it's got some of the meat on it still. *37:51* And they kind of just patch some new things there. *37:54* So that is. *37:56* It makes me wonder why they would have done it. *37:57* Three sapphire and ruby were so *38:01* I don't want to say starkly different, because similar. *38:06* I guess the most unique part of it was the geography and the dual the dual villain thing. *38:10* Yeah, well the I was gonna say the geography of that that was what was so jarring coming back to this for me is like a lot of people I you know bash on sapphire and Ruby for the oh too much water and stuff like that and that is like a problem *38:17* There that is a like a legitimate gripe to have with the game, but it does stand out as greatly unique within the context of the larger Pokemon series, that like the whole like eastern side of that map is dedicated to some sort of water exploration. *38:29* This game by comparison has nothing that is unique in that regard. *38:44* No, I'm I'm gonna I wanna push a little bit. *38:50* Were you gonna bring up like the swamps and stuff like that? *38:53* No, no. *38:56* I think having the region divided by Mount Coronet is pretty cool in the way that there are there are differences on each side of the mountain. *38:57* for types uh shellos is probably the most like obvious example like which which side of the m uh mountain are you on get different shellos. *39:06* And I uh I really I love Snow Point City. *39:15* I love that that vertic I love the verticality kind of stretch here. *39:19* In it in the game. *39:23* That is one of the best parts of the game is getting to that area and making your way towards Snow Point City. *39:25* It's really great. *39:30* And I think the I do think probably the most unique and interesting bit about Sinnoh *39:31* Is it's heavily emphasized as like the origin point of the world. *39:39* And they lean into that with Dialga being time and Palkia being space and all this stuff. *39:44* But *39:49* There's like the origin of Pokemon in the mystery of that. *39:49* And that's even more prevalent now with Legends Arceus being out and it's, you know *39:52* It being essentially the the centuries prequel to Sinnoh, there is this world is surrounded in a lore. *39:58* Um, what's that town called? *40:06* Coronet Town *40:08* With the grandmother. *40:09* Yeah, yeah, yeah. *40:12* This I think that I find that more interesting. *40:12* It's more of a *40:16* A global lore instead of just a legendary lore of here's a cave painting of Kyogre and Groudon fighting. *40:19* It's more like here's how our world came together and how the Pokemon came to be, and everyone is talking about it at some point of like. *40:27* I disagree on that front. *40:36* Like I think I think this game's storytelling in terms of its world and how it ties into the legendaries is very, very sparse. *40:38* Um I think previously I'm not talking like specifically about Dialogon Palkia. *40:46* I'm talking just *40:49* the I think the lakes and just it feels like there's history here *40:51* And I I was and I was looking, asking myself, you know, is this history because I'm nostalgic for this gamers there at or because I played Arceus earlier whenever that came out? *41:00* And and that's really cool actually, you know, when you play RCS, you see these callbacks to certain characters and places, like the town the main town in RCS is Jubilife, you know, and that that's where it builds up from. *41:11* So that that, you know, that's just cool on the front. *41:25* But I really do think like there's this everyone just seems to be asking questions about *41:27* where things came from and how they came to be and was it always like this and how do Pokemon interact with the world and like why why is the world the way it is? *41:35* And i i in in that way of Pokemon, it's not like this deep, profound storytelling. *41:44* People are asking. *41:50* Like I did the the Heatran stuff *41:51* uh in the postgame this time around. *41:54* And like uh is it Brock or whatever. *41:56* The kid takes the stone and is like causing earthquakes and stuff and they put it back and there's this *41:59* This lore surrounding the volcano and how it it doesn't erupt and they keep the peace with the environment and the Pokemon and stuff. *42:04* I see *42:11* It's cool that they were tackling the origin and I'm a sucker for prequel storytelling, as anyone who knows me knows, so I'm certainly more biased toward that than *42:12* Something else where, you know, here's a giant fish who made it rain. *42:23* I th oh I like the giant fish that makes it rain. *42:29* Um *42:33* I think that's my problem with this game though is that I do agree with that a lot of those themes and ideas are cool and I just don't think they are taken *42:33* to their furthest extent. *42:43* And I don't think they are leaned into as much as they could be. *42:45* Uh in fact, I think a lot of it is sort of backloaded to the final *42:48* town or two that you get to and then leading up to the eventual confrontation on top of the mountain with Dialga and Team Plasma. *42:54* Like a lot of it is very heavily funneled into the final moments of the sort of overarching *43:02* Th that art within the game's story. *43:07* I noticed that this time around. *43:10* Galac Team Galactic is *43:12* is like not really present in most of the game. *43:15* And they don't really clearly state their vision beyond just sort of being like *43:19* We're here to make a new world. *43:24* Yeah, we just we're here to make a new world, and what does that look like? *43:26* I don't know. *43:29* We're in this Valley Windworks though, and we're gonna scare away the balloon out front. *43:29* Like they don't really *43:34* Like every other group's goals were kind of m stated more clearly from the outset, I felt like. *43:36* With team with Team Magma and Team Aqua, I felt like it was a little bit more clearly defined. *43:44* Team Rockets just *43:49* Bad guys kidnapping Pokemon, which is like much more strength. *43:50* And then T M Aqua's, we're gonna make more water and it's good for Pokemon. *43:58* I'm not saying it's ingenious, but I'm just saying it's I make a new world and it'll be better for people, which I thought that is a actually a distinction. *44:02* He wasn't *44:11* Doing it for the Pokemon. *44:11* That's the thing. *44:12* He takes a bit to even show up. *44:13* Like you start running across the team Galactic people early and you're like, who the heck even are these people? *44:14* Like they don't really they just kinda like appear out of nowhere. *44:20* And it's like well who are d what's going on here? *44:23* Like they they there's really no sort of introduction to them and who they are and *44:26* No one in the world really contextualizes like, oh yeah, there's this group that's been run running around and this is their aim. *44:31* They just kind of *44:38* Show up and you're fighting them. *44:39* And I I I think that I think those that's what I'm saying. *44:42* Like the s the ideas of this story I think could have been much better than what was actually put into the game. *44:45* I think they could have just been flesh fleshed out better. *44:53* I think there's a like a a really interesting core here. *44:57* And I think the the Team Galactic like arc, whatever, however you would describe that *45:00* Well there's always like three arcs in the or there's always like two or three arcs in Pokemon game. *45:06* Or there's there's the legendary arc, there's the the the evil group arc, and then there's the champion arc. *45:09* And so *45:17* With this, I really think the Galactic Arc pick the only pickup in it is when they start terrorizing the three lakes, and you gotta go to each of them. *45:18* And when they blow up, like they actually blow up the lake, they have an actual act of terrorism. *45:29* They succeed in some way. *45:35* I think that's actually pretty neat. *45:36* It's it's a glimpse of the potential that could have been there. *45:39* And you know, what is the see what's the leader's name? *45:43* Do you even remember? *45:49* Cyrus. *45:50* I literally just looked this up because I was like, I'm not gonna think of his name here. *45:50* So Cyrus, you know, he's uh he took *45:55* the three um the lake legendaries and like made a d tortured them, made a do like there's a really kind of evil *45:58* Team Rocket bad to Pokemon kind of energy, but with a more destructive Team Magma Aqua kind of angle to it. *46:05* But it's all rushed and condensed into that. *46:12* Do three lakes and then go to the top of the mountain. *46:15* I think that part's really good, but the rest of Team Galactic is kinda which is a bummer because I remember them being really dope. *46:18* And clearly, that was just 13-year-old Max thinking it was dope. *46:27* But I wish they could have maybe had a bit more of a build-up, a bit more of an active role. *46:32* Yeah. *46:38* I like them actually impacting the environment. *46:39* Wish there was a little bit more of that. *46:42* So this is potential. *46:44* But I will say, you know, we just did ultra sun, ultra moon, and that team rainbow rocket stuff. *46:47* Having Cyrus show up there and be like, I succeeded. *46:55* Is this my new world? *46:57* Like that was kind of That's a great moment. *46:58* Yeah, that's really cool to see that kinda come to fruition. *47:01* I do remember in Platinum. *47:05* They like go into a portal into like this dark realm with Giratina and stuff. *47:07* So there are maybe it's a bit more it maybe it's a bit better in platinum. *47:11* And it's interesting what they did and didn't include from platinum in these remakes. *47:15* Which is a bit Yeah, it's interesting. *47:20* I never played Platinum. *47:23* I'll I'll give these games um like yeah, I l I do like that they incorporate uh *47:25* Is it Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf? *47:32* Uh the three the three like Pokemon. *47:35* I like that they're kind of incorporated into the *47:38* I I I like those interconnecting elements that like there's the three lake uh what are they called? *47:41* Guardians or whatever the heck. *47:45* Spirits. *47:47* The dogs the the birds. *47:48* Well, I was just gonna say I like that they're incorp they're tied in with the larger legendaries, which are Dialga and Palkia, and they have like there's like a sort of interconnectivity between all of them. *47:51* All of them feel like they have even Heatrian, you throw Heatrian or Darkri or Celestia, Shaman, and Arceus. *48:01* There's all some sort of Cresselia, thank you. *48:08* There's all some sort of like guardian *48:12* ancient angle to them, right? *48:16* Darker eye with nightmares, Shaman with grass fields, bringing people together, Arceus is literally the god Pokemon. *48:17* I was gonna say they get they go they go kind of crazy in this game. *48:25* They're like a *48:27* Spa one that controls space and time, one that controls the ground and the the earth itself and stuff, they definitely look kinda *48:28* Primal origin of Earth, which all feeds into Sinnoh being the start of Pokemon World. *48:37* Things those are types of storytelling elements that I love, but I do get that it's *48:45* Well, uh I mean, yeah. *48:51* To kind of maybe well, I don't know if there's anything else we want to say about Stor. *48:53* We can come back to it in a second, but I did want to mention the Pokedex and how we talked about it wasn't that good. *48:56* That is the one thing that I think this Pokedex does very well is *49:00* the legendaries. *49:04* Um the legendaries in this game are expansive. *49:05* There is a lot of cool ones, a lot of very different, unique ones. *49:08* Cool typings to some of them too. *49:14* Like Giratina being a ghost dragon is awesome. *49:15* I really like that. *49:18* Um I wish like it it sucks with the remakes. *49:19* Again, we talked about the remakes and we'll we'll talk more specifically about what we're doing. *49:22* I do want to, yeah. *49:25* Um it sucks that you cannot get Dark Ray and Shaman, to my knowledge, in these or did they do events for them? *49:26* So they did do an event last year. *49:33* But no, no, no, no, no. *49:37* That was the big thing when I saw that direct and was like, we have this event, but and I looked it up, but you had to beat the game and I was like, well, I'm not gonna beat it. *49:39* In time for these events, uh sucks. *49:46* I missed getting, you know, the special card and doing the shaman thing. *49:48* And so while I can't do the events in the game, you still can get those Pokemon. *49:52* Okay, cool. *49:56* In Arceus. *49:57* So if you have a brilliant diamond or shining pearl save data in the end game, in the post-game of Arceus, you can do missions that *50:00* let you catch both of them, which I did do because I've always wanted legitimate darkrai and shaman. *50:09* Yeah. *50:15* And I was able to do that. *50:16* So um totally still accessible. *50:17* Uh you just have to play another game. *50:20* I'll probably do that. *50:24* Yeah, but you'll play it eventually. *50:25* So you can still get them. *50:26* Good, and I've caught them fairly easy. *50:28* They're level 70 each of them. *50:30* So um *50:32* It was I th I actually it was very important to me, it felt like to make sure I did that. *50:33* It felt like a rite of passage for my 13-year-old self to at least *50:39* interact with them in in the game in some way instead of hacking through a I was gonna say well if you're like me you used to like look that stuff up on the internet and like see people like capture themselves doing it and you're like, is this real? *50:44* Can I do this in my game? *50:56* Like *50:57* I would watch people and how they would catch RCS and I'd be like, that's wait, where do you get this flute? *50:58* What the heck? *51:05* And then I'm like trying to figure out how to do that. *51:05* the the port town off to yeah and it's like how do you get in there it's so so cool as a kid. *51:11* Um the lore is good *51:19* To just yeah, I mean to kind of tie off some of the story stuff we talked about, um again, that's my main complaint is I just would've liked more out of this. *51:21* I I think they is *51:29* missed opportunity. *51:31* Everything that is in this game regarding its story, I I will say I do not think is like outright bad by any means. *51:32* It is just very kind of *51:40* It's straightforward in the sense that, you know, there's an evil group. *51:42* They want the legendary Pokemon. *51:47* What do they want to do with it? *51:50* They want to get it for themselves so they can create a new world and blah blah blah. *51:51* Like *51:55* There's really no deviation from past games in that sense. *51:55* Um specifically, you know, like Sapphire Ruby, there's a lot of commonality between the goals of *51:59* Team Galactic and Team Magma and Aqua just as far as we want the legendary so we can control things. *52:06* The world, yeah. *52:13* Change the world in some *52:14* So like in that sense, I I I think just their motives and goals are very uninteresting and boring and I think Galactic fails to stand out. *52:16* Um but like you said, like some of the deeper *52:25* themes and ideas of space and time and origin points. *52:28* That stuff I think is cool and I just would have liked to have seen it included a little bit. *52:32* more. *52:37* Like even like I think about like kind of the beginnings of the game. *52:38* Like why wasn't like like *52:41* Just sprinkling it in a little bit more, because I don't remember these things being sprinkled in throughout the game. *52:46* Like when Rowan gives you the Pokedex, he could say something like, You're about to explore Sinnoh, which is *52:49* The origin point for I want to know about the mysteries of evolution. *52:55* Yeah, yeah, like that's like the the *53:01* Yes. *53:05* I I I don't know. *53:05* Can we just that's what X and Y does. *53:06* Oh gosh. *53:09* That's what X and Y is. *53:11* I thought you were referring to that. *53:12* That's a literally Professor Roan is the professor of evolution. *53:13* He wants to know what the statement is. *53:17* The impetus in X and Y is to we need to figure out what m mega evolutions are all about. *53:18* So Oh my gosh. *53:25* So like that's what I think they could have like tied it in a little bit more to like the Rowan stuff and the stuff with Dawn or what is the character so you played as Dawn or the girl character actually. *53:28* Uh what is the m male character's name if you 'cause I've never done that, honestly. *53:37* Lu Lucas? *53:43* Okay. *53:44* I think it's Lucas. *53:45* Okay. *53:47* Um *53:47* Yeah, like I feel like they could have tied that in a little bit more. *53:48* Rowan in this game is just sort of like there. *53:51* You really *53:55* Um, I don't know. *53:59* There was there there's a way to interconnect these different story beats a little bit more than I think they did. *54:00* Um, it feels very sort of incoherent as a result. *54:07* Segmented for sure. *54:12* Yeah. *54:14* I don't know how you felt about like the gym and champion through line stuff in that front again. *54:15* I don't feel like it's anything *54:21* Super unique. *54:23* Um like I I I don't know. *54:25* Like Cynthia is obviously a character people love at the end of the game and is considered one of *54:27* the best champions ever. *54:31* She's I think she's one of the best that we've I certainly like her more than Steven. *54:35* Certainly from a battle perspective. *54:39* You know, her showing up, just kind of specifically, she kind of shows up throughout your adventure like most champions and is like, oh, go check this out for me, or here, go do this, or give Psydux some medicine. *54:41* I was gonna say, here's some medicine for some Psyducks. *54:51* Go visit my grandma. *54:54* You know, so it's it's but, you know, it's a little interesting. *54:56* She's not as engaged, I think, narratively, as I personally would like a champion to be *55:00* Yes. *55:08* But I think her design is cool. *55:09* You know, the all black, the hair loopies, the whole deal. *55:11* I think she's she's visually pretty cool. *55:14* And she, you know, it's pretty obvious. *55:17* It's like, oh, I'm I'm the champion. *55:19* Just walking around, helping out. *55:21* It's cool there. *55:23* But, you know, wish she could have maybe *55:24* Done more. *55:28* It it feels more like that segmenting. *55:29* I think I was just gonna say these older Pokemon games always felt like they tried to surprise you at the end, like with who the champion was. *55:31* Surprise *55:41* S surprise. *55:41* I'm Steven and I was the champion all along and I never told you. *55:42* And then they do the same thing here in this game with Cynthia. *55:45* I think if they could just kind of like *55:47* come out with that a little bit earlier in the story. *55:50* Like, well, I think that was one of the things we really loved about Sword and Shield was we knew who the champion was. *55:52* The near kind of champion. *55:59* You're kind of like building to that over the course of the game. *56:01* Um they even do it in a cool way with uh like I think of back to *56:05* silver and gold, like you Lance is like pretty present throughout that game. *56:11* And so when you get to fight him towards the end, it's like, this is a you've seen Lance in battle and you know he's very strong. *56:14* And *56:20* Except he's kind of easy to beat because he's only cut dragon type hockey level and just ice em all to death. *56:21* Ice ice ice baby *56:27* But like i you get to see his power like on full display and you r like there there's a couple different games where they do that and otherwise like with Steven and Cynthia Cynthia they're just these kind of like *56:29* Shadowy characters that you don't really know about, and then they sort of surprise you at the end where it's like, I'm actually mega powerful, I gotta chop, fight me. *56:41* She could have been in it a little bit more, and I think they could have had some better scenes with her in it for sure. *56:49* Um, but that doesn't take away from her final fight or anything like that necessarily. *56:53* Yeah, that's the interesting thing about the champion, is like *56:59* they could have very little presence in the game, but if the battle is good, then it's a you know they get like a pass, which is interesting. *57:02* I do uh the rival. *57:11* I want to kind of touch on the rival a little bit. *57:14* He is better than uh oh my gosh, what's the kid's name? *57:17* Will Wally Wally. *57:21* I was gonna say Willie. *57:24* What he's better than Wally *57:26* Wally and May, if you choose the boy character in the previous game. *57:29* But he's not like *57:34* He's terrible dude. *57:37* He's pretty rough. *57:38* He's really graff. *57:39* He he's the typical like I'm going to be the best *57:41* How do you keep beating me? *57:45* He's so one note. *57:47* Yeah. *57:48* It's a it's a real bummer. *57:49* There's like no character development uh that's interesting, like, throughout the course of the game with him whatsoever. *57:51* I do like *57:57* Like even Wally, I would even say, I know you hated Wally, but I would even say there's like Wally has an arc. *57:58* Yeah, Wally has an arc in like actual character development and *58:04* Your rival in this game, which I named uh Ugly Max, was that by the way. *58:10* He uh I do like the physical comedy of him, which I think is kinda hard to do in a 2D game. *58:16* Pseudo 3D. *58:22* He he is very comedic, always running and bumping into people and always shouting that you owe him a million fine he's gonna find you a million dollars. *58:23* Oh, I thought that was cringe. *58:31* I think it's cute in a in a like a goofy kid way. *58:33* Right. *58:36* He's like a kid, yeah. *58:37* Yeah. *58:38* Like I think that's fun. *58:38* I also really *58:40* I'm d maybe it's just because of where we've been we just came off Ultra Sun, but I really respect them not making him the final fight. *58:43* Like after Cynthia, like, oh he sh oh he he just won doing the red and blue thing of like, uh he just won, so now he's the champion. *58:52* Um I really respect that they make you fight right before you go to the Elite Four. *59:00* You can heal up, and then you just do the Elite Four in Cynthia. *59:05* Like that actually feels really good and the right way to handle that. *59:09* And then in the post-game, you run into him *59:15* around the Battle Tower and on um Mount Stark. *59:17* So it's cool that they at least know his place. *59:20* You know, they don't elevate him to utmost importance. *59:26* Yes. *59:32* I I think um just don't have I just don't have much else to say about him, to be honest. *59:33* Like he's very *59:38* The version of that character that you see in the opening minutes of the game is kind of the same version that you're seeing by the conclusion. *59:40* And he also has a really soft team, I have to say. *59:46* to say. *59:48* Like one of the softer. *59:48* Yeah, he's and it takes him a long time to bring them like fully up. *59:50* Yes. *59:54* Like fully involved them. *59:55* It's like he keeps going, like, how do I keep losing him? *59:56* Like maybe because your team sucks. *59:59* Like Wally actually had some kind of like interesting Pokemon on his team that I remember. *01:00:01* Gary or whatever Blue always had like *01:00:05* Pretty cool, unique team in those games I felt like. *01:00:09* Um yeah, that's not that is not true here in this game with your rival. *01:00:12* What is his name? *01:00:17* It's just whatever you name him, I guess. *01:00:18* Yeah, I called him a little *01:00:20* I'm not sure if there's a canon name for him. *01:00:22* There's probably a canon name from the show. *01:00:23* There surely is. *01:00:25* Barry. *01:00:27* His name is Barry. *01:00:28* Barry? *01:00:30* Cue the jazz music. *01:00:31* I'm not sure if you wanted to talk uh any further uh about the Pokedex itself. *01:00:33* I figured we could maybe do that since we've already kind of touched on it a bit. *01:00:38* Yeah. *01:00:42* So *01:00:43* This is part of my Pokedex troubles, I think. *01:00:45* Cause when I came to this game at 13, I had no idea what was new or what was old or you know, Gen 2 or Gen 3. *01:00:49* It was all new to me. *01:00:59* So this dex in my brain is is warped where certain ones of these Pokemons really were from *01:01:00* uh Ruby and Sapphire or I mean you probably saw stuff like Crobat and Steelix and you're like, whoa, what's that? *01:01:09* Like I knew what a Steelix was, but he hadn't even been exposed to those things. *01:01:16* Technically in any of the games. *01:01:21* So my brain really struggles with like separating them because to me they're they're all if they weren't red and blue Pokemon, which I did know *01:01:23* They were all diamond pearl plug Pokemon. *01:01:33* So I do but looking at this list, building the team, the 151, like ee *01:01:35* No, I'm like a strong group here. *01:01:41* And we've talked about this huge lack of fire. *01:01:44* Like where's the fire? *01:01:48* This is not *01:01:50* Cool. *01:01:51* There's literally, if you do not choose Infranape as your starter, then your options are Rapidash or Ponyta. *01:01:51* And then what I did for this game, if I if I cause I wanted a fire type, but I didn't want to choose InferNate because I usually choose InferNate, I ended up using a skuntank. *01:02:00* Because it learns flamethrower. *01:02:09* Like there is just like there are huge just glaring holes in this Pokedex. *01:02:11* Once again, like there are no electric types outside of like there's Luxray. *01:02:16* And that's it. *01:02:21* And then there's like Pika and then there's Pikachu, and that's it. *01:02:22* So So that's the the core 151. *01:02:25* But then *01:02:29* They do the thing. *01:02:31* To get the national decks, you have to see all hundred and fifty-one. *01:02:33* Now I don't know if that was a thing in *01:02:38* Ruby and Sapphire, I don't like the originals, cause Omega and Alpha. *01:02:41* That I'm assuming that was the case *01:02:46* And if so, credit where it's due and that's cool. *01:02:49* But since I was doing postgame stuff here in Brilliant Diamond to build my team *01:02:51* I had to run around and see everything. *01:02:58* And this kind of sparked this really I thought this was really cool actually. *01:03:01* You probably felt the same way I felt with Sun and Moon because I did a lot of post-game stuff in those games and I was like, I'm feeling like very compelled to capture things in this game that I haven't. *01:03:08* So w the previous games we played. *01:03:18* Yeah, and so the fire under me was I wanted a Skarmory, which is on Route 227 and *01:03:21* I do you need the national decks to get there? *01:03:27* And so I went through and looked at everything I was missing, compiled a list *01:03:29* And then I loaded up Arceus, went and caught them, because it's easier to just go catch them in that game. *01:03:34* How sad is that? *01:03:40* Well, it's like some of them are just like hidden or Yeah, you can just you can see what you're catching in the *01:03:42* Yeah. *01:03:51* And so then I imported them all over through Pokemon Home, filled my decks up, even brought like Palkia over from RCS so like I saw everything so I could get the whole decks. *01:03:52* And but then unlocking it and then having *01:04:01* I feel like at least this is where my brain taps out too, of like how the 490 Pokemon. *01:04:05* Like, there we go. *01:04:12* That's all the Pokemon I need. *01:04:13* I don't need a thousand. *01:04:14* That seems like too much. *01:04:15* But it it it's cool to have it felt cool to me in this moment to have like the national decks and it actually be everyone from So you did Philly full complete national decks in this *01:04:17* game. *01:04:29* Not a national decks. *01:04:29* That's uh the the regional one, the Sinodex, to get the national decks. *01:04:30* So I haven't checked the numbers, but I'm I'm in the two between two and three hundred I'd have to imagine because I've I had to catch a lot and do a lot, so *01:04:35* Yeah. *01:04:43* Uh but I was really having fun like seeing everything in the game and when you get into the post-game, everything on that island in that big circle with Mount Stark and stuff. *01:04:44* You start seeing the diversity goes way up. *01:04:55* And I also noticed it in the Grand Underground as well. *01:04:58* The diversity spikes, and you're seeing Pokemon. *01:05:02* From all over. *01:05:06* And I think that was that was really cool to me this time around, considering that we've played all the other games up to this point. *01:05:08* So like I really was recognizing *01:05:15* everything I felt actually like I had some Pokemon knowledge for the first time really this season and and that was cool. *01:05:18* So I do think *01:05:26* This is probably just a more broad Pokemon thing, but when when you know the decks and when they bring back the old Pokemon in the right way, it is very satisfying. *01:05:28* To see them and interact with them and catch them and battle them. *01:05:41* And while the Cinodex is pretty weak, *01:05:45* Pretty weak. *01:05:49* I think the payoff of having to fill that see that weak decks to get everyone, and that's where all the cool legendary you know, the extra legendaries we were talking about are hiding. *01:05:50* And just you can get everyone. *01:06:02* And they even bring in, so you know, if you have a deoxys, there's those stones and and is it Vela Stone *01:06:03* I didn't know you could do anything with a deoxys in this game to be honest. *01:06:11* There are four stones over on the right hand side. *01:06:15* Attack form, defense form, speed form, and normal. *01:06:20* So I remember thinking that was really cool as a kid. *01:06:23* Yeah. *01:06:26* So you know, there's uh I never had a deoxys. *01:06:26* So you can change well, I I hacked a deoxys in so I was able to like do all that stuff. *01:06:30* So there's th the world kind of flushes out once you get the national decks and I think that was a way they made it feel bigger *01:06:34* And that was pretty cool. *01:06:42* Um, but yeah, main decks week. *01:06:44* Main Dex is I I mean the thing I want to say about the main decks is just there is a huge lack of *01:06:46* You mentioned variety, but just some of the typings are straight up terrible too. *01:06:54* Like, so you and I did our Pokemon battle earlier. *01:06:59* Um, and I was talking to you about like how Empoleon has got to be *01:07:02* the worst starter Pokemon in the history of Pokemon because it's literally weak to both of the other starter types in this game. *01:07:06* Like *01:07:16* Infernape can defeat it because it's a fight. *01:07:17* Yeah, Infernape can because it has that steel typing, it then becomes weak against Infernape because it's a fighting type, and then it's by default weak to *01:07:19* um Torterra or Turtwig or whatever. *01:07:29* Um so like Empoleon is such a wash in this game, which meant then means *01:07:32* There aren't any other water types to be honest in this game either. *01:07:37* Um like there's the Shellos, uh which is evolves into Gastrodon, and then you have um *01:07:41* Oh, there's one other I'm I'm trying to think of. *01:07:49* I'm scanning the decks here. *01:07:51* Well they add like they add a couple like new baby forms in this game too, like Azural, Mime Jr. *01:07:53* , um stuff like that. *01:07:58* Finion it f Fineon was the one I was thinking of *01:08:00* They also add Mantike is another baby type they add, which baby kick again. *01:08:04* Yeah, Munchlax was introduced in this game as well. *01:08:15* I think was I think Clefo was introduced in this game, but I honestly can't. *01:08:19* I think so, and Hapney. *01:08:23* Happening was as well. *01:08:25* Um Bonsley was as well for Sudobo. *01:08:26* Um, so there's a lot of babies in this big baby energy. *01:08:30* And well the other the other thing I want to say too is that they then go back and expand *01:08:33* This is the one like saving grace of this dex, I think, is the expansions on Pokemon that never evolved previously. *01:08:38* I think all of the ones that they choose to evolve are very cool. *01:08:45* Like A POM all evolving into Ambipom is cool. *01:08:50* Um not saying the the evolve for I don't think Ambipom is *01:08:54* That great of a design Pokemon that just goes from one monkey with a hand tail to a monkey with two hand tails. *01:09:00* But still that's one. *01:09:05* They've got Miss Magius, they've got Honchcrow. *01:09:06* Uh and then I think about the ones later on for *01:09:09* uh like magmortar and electri electrivire and they were really really cool. *01:09:13* Riperion, I think, or Ryperior. *01:09:20* Oh yeah, the big beefy boy. *01:09:23* Yeah, so all the ones from the previous games that end up getting forms are Weavile, Magnezone, Lickalicki, Riperior, Tangrowth. *01:09:25* Electroviar, Magmortar, Togekiss was introduced in this po in this Pokedex as well. *01:09:34* Uh Yan Mega, which is the evolved form of Yanma. *01:09:39* And then uh there is also uh they added the new Eevees evolutions in this too with uh *01:09:43* Leafeon and Glacion. *01:09:50* Oh, and then they added Mamaswine, uh, they added Glysaur, which is the evolved form of Glygor, Glygar. *01:09:52* Uh they then have Porygon Z. *01:09:59* Uh Probopask, Dusk Noir. *01:10:01* Like there's a lot of cool ones that they give new evolved forms of from previous games. *01:10:03* And I really like their new forms. *01:10:08* And see that. *01:10:11* You're saying all of this and it's all coming to me, but all of those are post game. *01:10:12* Yep. *01:10:18* Which is so *01:10:18* I'm hesitant to just say outright bad, but it does add it does add like a post-game incentive of *01:10:21* Like all the new Pokemon are almost locked behind the end game, which is not normal. *01:10:30* Are all of them like *01:10:36* Like Olyphion and Glycyon even locks? *01:10:38* Um no, because you have to go to like a stone in Snowpoint and I want to say the forest. *01:10:41* to like transform them like in in those locations. *01:10:47* The national facts. *01:10:56* Well I was gonna say they're all tied to specific items that you have to obtain *01:10:57* Yeah, like a hyperior and the Rhyperior I know you need like the it's like some like armor um item. *01:11:01* I know for Electrifier you need the Electra *01:11:10* Mag mortar, you need a specific item. *01:11:14* The Pokemon themselves, items aside, are all based off previous designs that would have been in the national decks. *01:11:16* Yeah. *01:11:23* So it's it's weird that *01:11:24* Interesting at the very least that it's all post-game, which kinda adds Dex chasing excitement, I guess, to that post-game, but it does make the front half of the game the core. *01:11:26* not as thrilling from a team building perspective. *01:11:38* Like I d I was dragging this Luxray around the whole game because I didn't *01:11:42* Did not want it, but I needed someone on my team and it was just I love Luxray personally. *01:11:47* It's one of my favorite because I've used it previously. *01:11:53* Yeah. *01:11:57* And I didn't want it on my team this year. *01:11:57* Like if I if I could have got *01:11:59* Like, yeah, that that's what I guess is strange to me. *01:12:00* Like, something cool like Electrovire is awesome. *01:12:03* I would have absolutely had an Electrovire this game if I could have, you know *01:12:07* caught an elicit or an electrobuzz like earlier in the game and like evolved like that's or even MagnaZone, like these things are just *01:12:11* You can't really get them early on in the game. *01:12:19* Um, and it stinks. *01:12:21* Yeah, the core decks itself that like you're able to get as you are doing the gym runs. *01:12:22* Pretty weak for the most part. *01:12:28* There is some, like I don't wanna I don't wanna totally discount the entire decks. *01:12:30* I think for me this time, so because I have played this game two or three times in the past *01:12:34* I have used a lot of the Pokemon that I have liked previously. *01:12:39* Like for instance, I mentioned like that I didn't choose Infernape this time. *01:12:44* It's because I normally choose him. *01:12:47* I've done runs with Torterra as well. *01:12:48* I chose Empoleon just because I normally don't *01:12:50* Choose Empoleon. *01:12:52* There's still a lot of good Pokemon in this deck. *01:12:54* I really like Hippodon. *01:12:57* I really like Drapeon. *01:12:58* I think that's a really cool Pokemon. *01:12:59* I like the two poison types they have in this game. *01:13:01* Uh Drapion and Toxicroak, I think, are both pretty cool. *01:13:02* Yeah, Toxicroak's cool. *01:13:05* Lucario's great. *01:13:06* Uh Garchomp is obviously awesome. *01:13:07* Sorry, I know you're gonna say something. *01:13:10* No, I was just Lucario was kind of the *01:13:12* the face of this game to it especially in the anime and Super Smash for those Brawl replacing Mewtwo. *01:13:14* Like Lucario has become *01:13:22* I mean he was then and it has remained like an icon within the the series. *01:13:25* I actually it just hit me. *01:13:31* Lucario Mega evolution's kind of a *01:13:33* beat in X and Y, right? *01:13:36* Like getting the Lucario and Mega evolving it. *01:13:37* I think that's in the game. *01:13:40* I can't remember to be honest with you. *01:13:42* Lucaria's big and it it came from that's a part of the game I totally skipped. *01:13:44* I never went to the Iron Island this time around. *01:13:49* I just didn't hop on the haunted mansion you can skip and um *01:13:51* So there are like different things. *01:13:59* There are more things. *01:14:00* Like there's in Solos Solicion Town or something. *01:14:01* with a bunch of unknowns in it, and there's like a whole mystery there. *01:14:06* So Yeah, there's definitely more to I I didn't give this game enough credit. *01:14:08* Like the more we talk here, the more we think about there is a lot more to do off the beaten path. *01:14:11* I know I've said earlier in the episode there wasn't a whole lot to the postgame or a whole lot to do *01:14:15* It it probably just doesn't seem like a whole lot in my mind because I played these games for countless hours, so they seem almost like smaller in my head, if that makes any sense. *01:14:20* Because I would just pour massive chunks of time. *01:14:31* But yeah, the core decks, like I think even like the fossil types are pretty cool in this decks as well, even though they are incredibly, incredibly weak. *01:14:33* types I think. *01:14:42* Um just I don't know. *01:14:43* I I I I struggle with rock types sometimes because they're so susceptible. *01:14:44* Vespaqueen we both had on our teams this time. *01:14:50* I think that's a cool Pokemon. *01:14:52* Yeah, she's dope. *01:14:54* Drifloon was another one uh that is a very unique. *01:14:55* Um I I you thought I you probably thought I was gonna use that. *01:15:00* I thought you I thought you had one of those and an Infernape. *01:15:03* So figured you'd have a Garchomp just because you're a dragon lover. *01:15:06* So that's kind of what I thought, those three. *01:15:12* I did have a driftblem for a large chunk of this game, but I did not end up carrying it through to the end. *01:15:14* I just kind of like fell out of love with it the more I played. *01:15:20* Um and also I imported it from Sword and Shield. *01:15:23* Because you can just go catch one that one. *01:15:29* I was like, oh, the power of Pokemon Home. *01:15:31* Let's go do this instead. *01:15:33* Um and then I don't know if I mentioned it before, but like Spiritomb's really awesome. *01:15:34* Like it's a really cool Pokemon just because it l straight up doesn't have weaknesses. *01:15:38* until they freaking ruin it later with fairy typing. *01:15:43* Fairy typing. *01:15:47* I I struggle with it in this game. *01:15:48* Cause it's a remake, right? *01:15:52* It's not designed with fairy type in mind, sort of. *01:15:54* And it that really frustrated me at a couple of encounters and just like I was like, this isn't *01:15:57* This dex wasn't designed, but but they are also trying to maintain compatibility forward. *01:16:06* So like I get the struggle, but I was a little bit *01:16:13* perturbed that fairy was in this game. *01:16:17* And I if you had if you brought a fairy type on your team, would have been I was actually a little worried. *01:16:19* Yeah, it would like you would have been very cracked, honestly. *01:16:26* So it's especially when fighting Cynthia. *01:16:32* Like Yeah, it's just so I was I was a bit bummed that it was there. *01:16:35* It felt imbalanced. *01:16:40* I uh while we're talking about this, like this game's merits as a remake, I know we were going to bring this up as well *01:16:42* I don't think this is a I don't think this is a great remake. *01:16:50* I I just think there's it's *01:16:54* Well here's the other thing. *01:16:56* Let me let me start here. *01:16:57* Like we talked about how like fairy typing being included is just kind of ruins things to a large degree. *01:16:58* You know what else wasn't included in the original games? *01:17:03* was like the full team EXP share, which I feel like throws all this game has weird I like to me difficulty to *01:17:06* Well, sure, I know, I'm sure you like it and stuff like that. *01:17:16* But it has strange like difficulty swings as a result. *01:17:19* Like I feel like the game's balance was *01:17:23* hard for like in some sense I I I think the game was very easy but then like you get to the end game with the Elite Four and all of a sudden *01:17:26* like the difficulty kind of ratchets up out of nowhere, which is fine. *01:17:35* Like I want it to be a challenge. *01:17:39* Maybe you didn't have as much of a challenge as I did because my team was. *01:17:40* incredibly weak to certain things. *01:17:44* I didn't really struggle through the Elite Four or with Cynthia. *01:17:46* Yeah, I think you probably had a better design team for it. *01:17:50* Again, my team had some glaring holes. *01:17:52* So maybe that was just a me thing. *01:17:55* But I mean, yeah, I I don't know. *01:17:57* I felt like the full team EXP uh didn't really keep things *01:17:59* completely balanced because there was like gym leaders I would get to where I felt like all my Pokemon were eight to ten levels ahead of their own and then I'm getting *01:18:05* later in the game and Cynthia has Pokemon that are higher level than mine. *01:18:14* I I don't know. *01:18:18* It was just kind of felt like it was all over the place, but I don't know if that's attributed to *01:18:18* How I built my team, um, at which stages in the game I got my team, how I imported my Pokemon, because obviously if I'm importing, I'm getting like exp boosts on certain Pokemon and things like that, you know. *01:18:23* So *01:18:35* I don't know. *01:18:36* Like, I don't know if you felt that as well. *01:18:37* No, I felt fairly as far as difficulty in that sort of pacing, um felt fine to me. *01:18:39* And obviously *01:18:46* Being an adult and just having all my Pokemon Share experience just tremendously helps the pace of the game and my ability to stay engaged on a higher level instead of like having to grind out. *01:18:49* you know, gotta bring this one Pokemon up so it's close to everyone else. *01:19:00* So that's just a modern convenience. *01:19:05* I will say *01:19:07* I th this might be a fair a good segue, but um I thought the encounter rate for the wild Pokemon was a bit steep. *01:19:09* Um you take like a step. *01:19:18* Fight and then another step and you'd fight again. *01:19:21* The while I like I was I was getting pretty sick of it. *01:19:24* And then tells aren't your friend *01:19:28* If you're not if there's said repels are your friend. *01:19:31* If you're going through patches of grass that you know you don't want to catch any Pokemon that are in those patches. *01:19:33* Repel away. *01:19:39* Oh, I was repelling quite a bit toward the end. *01:19:40* I think the other thing is is the modern era of Pokemon has *01:19:46* ruined me from Sword and Shield's wild areas to just Scarlet and Violet and Arceus just being the Pokemon are out. *01:19:51* Like *01:19:59* Seeing the encounter and engaging willingly or being caught off guard a little bit and getting, you know, one charges you and you're stuck. *01:20:01* Is just the way Pokemon should be. *01:20:11* Yeah. *01:20:13* And in the upper half of Diamond and Pearl, that is not the case. *01:20:14* It's old school and the random encounters are too high. *01:20:18* But the Grand Underground *01:20:22* Has those types of encounters in this game. *01:20:24* And I think that was way more fun from a hunt Pokemon and catch them perspective. *01:20:27* And I really th I thought maybe the segue to the Grand Underground. *01:20:34* I remember as a kid, the underground was really cool having the secret base. *01:20:39* I'm aware I that was in Scarlet and Ruby, right? *01:20:44* Building a base. *01:20:47* So while while it was new to me, I realized it wasn't necessarily new to the franchise. *01:20:48* But I do think this grand underground here in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, with these zones where you can see the Pokemon and catch them. *01:20:53* And it basically be this kind of dreamy world where just all these generations are mishmashed together, especially in the endgame. *01:21:03* Like if I was a if I was 13-year-old Max playing Diamond and Pearl today, I totally would see myself getting lost down there. *01:21:11* running and catching and trying to, you know, get certain Pokemon and building up my base. *01:21:21* Like 'cause I got hooked on the base building and you add all this *01:21:26* seeing the Pokemon in an environment I think is really neat. *01:21:30* And so I think the Grand Underground was actually pretty cool in this game. *01:21:34* I did not spend a lot of time with it. *01:21:39* I definitely did back in the original, not enough to ever get a *01:21:42* Spiritomb. *01:21:47* But I I I did definitely commit some time to it back in the day. *01:21:50* And I think the new expansive areas where there are actual Pokemon running around that you can catch is a really cool *01:21:54* addition to this game that I appreciated. *01:22:01* Um it's it's like the biggest deviation from the original. *01:22:04* Yeah, and I uh I appreciated it because it circumvented some of the odd ways that you have to get certain Pokemon. *01:22:09* Like I mentioned you asked me if I *01:22:18* We both had Vespa queens on our team and you mentioned if I um if I got my comb bee by slathering honey on a tree and I was like, no, I went to the underground and I caught one down there. *01:22:20* Which is great. *01:22:30* I'm glad I had that option because Lord knows I did not want to wait *01:22:30* for the honey to activate on the trees after the time passed or whatever. *01:22:34* The I did do it. *01:22:39* I did do it on the tree. *01:22:40* But I just saved before saved and waited until I got the one I wanted. *01:22:42* So that's that's the way to do it. *01:22:47* But that would also take a hot minute, I would imagine. *01:22:49* Well it took like ten minutes. *01:22:53* Okay, that's not too bad then. *01:22:54* Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't bad at all. *01:22:56* Um but yeah, I think the Grand Underground was really cool, but the rest of the game *01:22:58* pretty rigid in adhering to the originals. *01:23:04* Yes. *01:23:09* Which is you know, that's always the thing between remake, remaster, and *01:23:09* that sort of discussion there. *01:23:15* To to me, I liked it for the most part. *01:23:17* I think um *01:23:20* I I maybe you have stuff to say about this as well, but I'm I have some beef with the visual design of this game. *01:23:23* Yes. *01:23:30* I was about to bring this up. *01:23:30* Like that is where *01:23:31* Pokemon does not have a like chibi sort of art style to it. *01:23:34* Like it it just *01:23:41* I would I'd push back on that a little bit. *01:23:43* There are certain games that do have that aesthetic. *01:23:45* Maybe, but I don't know. *01:23:51* Like this *01:23:53* So here's my thing with it. *01:23:55* There's there's a large there's a there's a lot we could talk about here. *01:23:57* Yeah go ahead. *01:24:00* Chibi specifically. *01:24:01* I think on the like in the overworld *01:24:02* When you adhere to that style across the game, I think it would have been fine. *01:24:06* I I it looks like a top-down DS game in that way to a degree. *01:24:10* I had a real issue with everyone's talking in their little chibi characters. *01:24:16* And then you'd get in a battle and they're correctly portioned humans. *01:24:22* Yep, yep, yep. *01:24:25* That's what I hate. *01:24:25* That drove me nuts. *01:24:26* That's what I hated as well. *01:24:28* No, no, no, thank you. *01:24:30* It was very darn. *01:24:31* I mean, that's how the older Pokemon games, I guess, were. *01:24:32* Like short little stubby character models that you're working around the world and then they look like normal people. *01:24:36* But *01:24:41* It's that was more orientation of hardware in your brain. *01:24:42* Exactly. *01:24:45* This are like little it's very much feels like they tried to do Link's Awakening *01:24:45* remake on Switch. *01:24:53* Sort of for Pokemon. *01:24:55* But then it's not congruent like and all on all fronts. *01:24:57* Like that that's totally the problem. *01:25:01* Yes. *01:25:03* Yes. *01:25:03* My other big issue with this game, I'm wondering if you share it visually speaking, um, I guess there are two. *01:25:04* They took that *01:25:11* blur that bokeh cranked it all the way up and basically your character is in like one plane of focus and then everything below and behind is just like got smeary blur all over it. *01:25:12* Yep. *01:25:27* I think that just looks really good. *01:25:27* I noticed that in the very like I got accustomed to it as I played, but the Your brain shuts it off, yeah. *01:25:30* The opening like hour or two was very, very jarring and ideally. *01:25:35* Yeah, it's so it's so soft. *01:25:41* And it made me that's probably the part that made me want wish it we could have played the *01:25:43* original DS versions more just because they would have looked crisp and clean and really good. *01:25:49* I think the DS games are the best looking stretch of Pokemon, I think. *01:25:55* Because they took that GBA style, beefed it up a little bit, and then added some 3D stuff, especially a little later. *01:26:00* This is having me excited to play black and white, to be honest. *01:26:07* I d I'll actually And I think the sprites in that game look so good. *01:26:13* Like playing yeah, playing this game made me really excited for black and white. *01:26:17* In black and white too. *01:26:22* And well not only that, but like as we've been recording, I've been like looking over at some of the sprites for some of the Pokemon in this gen too, and they have sleek designs and just this *01:26:23* Transition to Pokemon in 3D has I I don't know if we've talked about this over the course of the season very much, but it's just not *01:26:32* The same. *01:26:40* Appealing. *01:26:41* Yeah. *01:26:42* It did it does not have the same sort of charm to it any longer. *01:26:42* Which is fine. *01:26:47* I've accepted it. *01:26:47* Like I'm not stuck in the past and I am. *01:26:49* I I kinda *01:26:53* Like I I've I've accepted that we've shifted in this direction and I know why we have. *01:26:55* But they just I feel like a lot of the Pokemon have like muted *01:27:00* They they just look like desaturated now. *01:27:05* Like s like these old sprites pop so hard on some of these Pokemon. *01:27:09* And they're just the same colors are not there now with some *01:27:13* of them. *01:27:18* And there's a lot of examples of this that you can pull up and see like side by sides and stuff like that. *01:27:18* The other the last thing, yeah, you you you described properly my issue with the chibi stuff though in this remake is is just that *01:27:25* Old Pokemon games, yes, they look like that because of hardware limitations, not because that was what the developers wanted them to be. *01:27:33* So I I think just creating actual like *01:27:40* character models that looked like, you know, normal people like they do in the actual battle sequences would have been the the path forward in this instance. *01:27:44* Um see I *01:27:53* I imagine it's a bit of a struggle because maybe not. *01:27:56* I re Alpha Sapphire felt this way where it was a little *01:28:01* like a weirdish not straight chibi, but a little weird. *01:28:04* I think Yeah. *01:28:08* I think X and Y ultrasun and Ultra Moon for sure. *01:28:10* Bit more correctly portioned for the system. *01:28:13* Yes. *01:28:14* Yeah. *01:28:15* X and Y you'll find it to be to answer. *01:28:15* our qualms here with what we're saying. *01:28:19* So I think this game though, it either should have stuck Chibi all the way through. *01:28:22* Or I think the cute little chibi Pokemon would have been in at least an interesting art direction. *01:28:31* I don't think that could have worked. *01:28:37* I think it would have only extended to the *01:28:38* human character models. *01:28:40* And they use those in the a lot of the like promotional materials for this game too is the G V designed character models for the player characters or the NPCs and stuff. *01:28:41* My other issue, visually speaking, is tied to gameplay in a way. *01:28:52* Um, because just like Link's Awakening remake *01:29:00* This game is stuck in a eight octagonal grid of movement. *01:29:04* You snap everywhere. *01:29:09* It's snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. *01:29:10* But the world is *01:29:13* Visually just a open 3D space. *01:29:16* But there's just little walls and corners everywhere *01:29:19* And I was just getting constantly stuck in colliding, like trying to walk down a path or around. *01:29:23* I'd accidentally hop over ledges all the time, because if you get just a little too close, you automatically will hop. *01:29:30* I just felt really sloppy. *01:29:35* There's just like a level of slop kind of just thrown over the movement in the world. *01:29:38* Corridors were too tight. *01:29:43* But they didn't look tight because of the visual 3D world. *01:29:45* It's just it it it's a this is a game that was *01:29:49* previously played on a you only had four directions to move in up down left and right and now you have an actual d-pad instead of an analog stick. *01:29:54* Now you have an analog stick so you can move in eight directions. *01:30:02* And it does not always work. *01:30:05* I felt like directions. *01:30:08* Yeah, but *01:30:12* On the DS with a D pad, you could move in eight directions and you just move in eight, you could move in diagonally in on the DS version? *01:30:13* I believe so. *01:30:21* Okay, well maybe you could do that. *01:30:22* Anyway, yes. *01:30:24* The previous game was designed on a grid and now it hasn't, but all the environments are the same. *01:30:25* Yes. *01:30:30* So it feels it's it was very frustrating many, many times. *01:30:30* The bike did not feel good in this game. *01:30:35* I ran mo most of the time. *01:30:37* Yeah. *01:30:39* I was a bit I was a bit bummed. *01:30:39* So the last thing I want to say about this game's merits is a remake. *01:30:42* Like we talked about the underground and how they added some new stuff there. *01:30:46* Other than that, though, there is just really *01:30:49* Like when you remake a game, you want it to keep in c intact, like the sort of core of what the game previously was. *01:30:53* I understand that to a degree. *01:31:01* Um, but I feel like Pokemon games are a bit different in this regard with their remakes where you want them to also add newer elements, and I feel like they have done that with, you know. *01:31:02* Uh Leaf Green and Fire Red, where they're having adding a whole new area is the Sevi Islands and stuff like that. *01:31:13* And Heart Gold and Soul Silver, they're adding uh *01:31:19* I can't think off the top of my head of some of the stuff they added. *01:31:24* The fact that your Pokemon can trail you behind in that game. *01:31:28* Like it's an it's s a small like thing, but there's something unique to those remakes. *01:31:31* Like there's always new little things that they have added in their previous remake. *01:31:34* And this is the most by the numbers Pokemon remake that they have ever done. *01:31:38* There is really nothing new in this game whatsoever. *01:31:44* Besides the Grand Underground the Grand Underground. *01:31:49* Yes, besides some like small stuff with the underground, this is really the most straightforward Pokemon remake I think they have ever made. *01:31:51* And I think some of that is because *01:31:58* they outsourced it to ILCA. *01:32:01* I would imagine that the team that remade this game or did the work on this game felt like they weren't at liberty to, you know *01:32:04* overhaul too many things too much or change a whole lot. *01:32:11* Yeah, or or that's why they were hired, you know, that's why they were brought in to do this. *01:32:17* Hey, don't change too much. *01:32:21* We just wanna *01:32:22* keep this what it was. *01:32:23* But at the same time, that's also to me like it this game needed a couple other newer elements to latch on to and make it stand out. *01:32:24* Because I really did get to the end of this and feel like *01:32:35* there was really no sort of reason for us to have like when we did our um *01:32:38* A Ruby and Sapphire episode, and we had Kim Hawkins on that episode with us, and he played through one of the GVA games. *01:32:46* I believe he played through Emerald. *01:32:52* And that made for an interesting discussion because there was a lot of differences. *01:32:53* between the remakes that you and I played and the version that he played on GBA. *01:32:57* And we talked about some of those things on that episode. *01:33:02* This episode, I feel like somebody could have played this congru like with us and could have played the original DS games, and there's really no changes whatsoever. *01:33:05* Um and I think that's just *01:33:13* Uninteresting, I guess, would be Yeah, it's a bit lackluster, especially in *01:33:17* In a franchise that as you pointed out in their remakes, generally add something. *01:33:25* There's something besides just a visual flare change of different graphics and new hardware. *01:33:30* But also, you know, up until I guess up until Sword and Shield. *01:33:37* Yeah, up until Sword and Shield, there'd be a new iteration of the game out, you know, a year or two later. *01:33:43* Yeah. *01:33:50* Uh yellow, crystal, uh emerald, platinum, platinum, I guess black and white didn't do that. *01:33:51* They did straight sequel. *01:33:59* And then um X and Y didn't have one f infamously. *01:34:00* They skipped Z. *01:34:05* They did skip well Z was in the works, but it it *01:34:06* uh they stop. *01:34:09* It's a whole thing. *01:34:11* We'll talk we might talk about that in the next episode. *01:34:12* But and then sun and ultrasun *01:34:16* And then from here on out, I think we're just getting DLC, which is the logical thing in the modern era. *01:34:19* So it's they always have added stuff, right? *01:34:24* They've always enhanced, refined, game of the year editionified. *01:34:27* their games and then the remakes do a similar thing. *01:34:32* And this one is, like you said, so by the numbers. *01:34:34* And a part of me, that 13-year-old that wants to look back through rose-tinted glasses, is like, ah, this is nice. *01:34:38* One of the notes I wrote was just like, I'm home, like I'm back. *01:34:45* But from a engaging and modern gameplay perspective, it's just *01:34:48* We could have done a little bit more here in not adding fairy type, like adding fairy type was not the thing to do. *01:34:55* Um so *01:35:02* It's a bit of a bummer in that regard, and it makes me slightly nervous. *01:35:05* Because the next one on the slate *01:35:12* is black and white, and presumably black and white too will would follow after that. *01:35:14* Well unless they do like a Let's Go Johto, which they could do. *01:35:19* That's always kind of been floating since Pikachu and Eevee. *01:35:22* Well, I I'll say this. *01:35:25* Like, I know I mentioned up uh earlier that like these games were quote unquote panned. *01:35:27* But to be honest, like these games were very *01:35:31* They were not well received not only by critics, but fans have kind of pushed back on these games as well. *01:35:34* Fan fans have been pushing on Pokemon since X and Y. *01:35:39* They ha they have been, but but but fan the Pokemon community has kind of made it known a lot of the things we've been saying here, like *01:35:42* If we're gonna keep getting remakes in this series moving forward, this is not what we want or what we're expecting. *01:35:48* And I I think those expectations have only been placed on fans. *01:35:56* Because once again, as we've mentioned, they all the other previous remakes they've done have largely been great. *01:35:59* Um, I mean Omega Omega and Alpha, the Ruby and Sapphire remakes were maybe not as great either. *01:36:05* But I thought those games even as somebody who had nostalgia like we're talking about adding new things to games you're already nostalgic for. *01:36:12* I thought those games did great with that. *01:36:18* Like *01:36:20* Yeah, the Delta episode and Yeah, the I I thought those games did did some did some good things in that regard. *01:36:20* Um it's and it's really not true here. *01:36:26* So moving forward with black and white, if they do end up remaking those *01:36:30* They have to put more energy in because it it we're in a time right now, like when we're recording this, and I guess this will be true throughout the entire time that this *01:36:34* you know, season is releasing, but uh like you talked about how the Pokemon fanbase has been pushing back a lot. *01:36:45* Well like Game Freak and the Pokemon Company have like kind of brought this upon themselves. *01:36:50* Like they think of the past couple years of Pokemon. *01:36:54* They have released *01:36:57* the most straightforward bland remake that they've ever done. *01:36:58* They followed that up with releasing new gins, which were completely like *01:37:02* broken at launch and honestly still kind of are to some degrees. *01:37:06* Like like like they're not they're not busted, obviously you can play them, but they do not run well. *01:37:12* They are not high quality video games. *01:37:18* Um with Scarlet and Violet. *01:37:20* And so it they just seem to be cutting a lot of corners and more so than ever before. *01:37:23* It seems like they are trying to cash in on Pokemon. *01:37:29* purely to make money above all else. *01:37:33* And there just needs to be a little bit more love put into this series moving forward with this continual cadence of *01:37:35* remaking old games and creating new entries and you know hopefully like the Scarlet and Violet DLC um *01:37:45* Is good here in the next couple months. *01:37:52* I I know that's kind of off topic with this episode, but anyway, like like they're just *01:37:54* You gotta do better in the future. *01:38:01* And I would prefer if they didn't outsource their remakes moving forward either. *01:38:02* Like ILCL uh ILCA did fine on this one, but they're just *01:38:06* Keep it in-house in the future, I think would be best. *01:38:13* Yeah. *01:38:16* So a couple of tidbits just as far as reception goes. *01:38:17* Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as of September of last year of 22 have sold just shy of 15 million units. *01:38:21* So 14. *01:38:30* 92 million. *01:38:31* Uh put that in a little bit of context. *01:38:32* Scarlet and Violet as of August of 23 have sold uh 22. *01:38:34* 66 million *01:38:40* Uh Arceus has sold 14. *01:38:42* 83 million and Sword and Shield has sold uh just shy of 26 million. *01:38:44* So *01:38:49* It's in line uh with sales. *01:38:52* And then the Pokemon company, I don't know if you saw this, I think you were off that uh that week or you weren't work you were somewhere else working, but uh a little website called comicbook. *01:38:55* com. *01:39:05* Ask the Pokemon CEO. *01:39:06* Um they had addressed, you know, the quality and the release pacing as well there. *01:39:11* So they're aware *01:39:17* I mean, they're astutely aware after Scarlet and Violet and Nintendo actually issued a public apology, which I don't believe has ever happened in the history of Pokemon. *01:39:19* Well, I I wanted to go ahead and throw this out too. *01:39:27* Like I know I mentioned that some fans weren't like thrilled about om *01:39:29* This is not the greatest barometer of all time, I realize that. *01:39:33* But like even Metacritic, if you look at user scores on Metacritic, Omega Ruby sits at Omega Omega Ruby sits at a 7. *01:39:36* 5 user score. *01:39:43* By comparison, Brilliant Diamond is at a five point three, and they are at about similar user scores across the board with both of them. *01:39:44* So *01:39:51* Yeah, I I user scores are I don't it's stupid, I know, but like the i uh what's the last of us part two's review score? *01:39:52* User review score. *01:40:00* It's dumb. *01:40:02* I get it. *01:40:02* But it does kind of it does kind of back up the point I was making that like these are considered the worst remakes of the four remakes they've ever had. *01:40:03* Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. *01:40:10* So um *01:40:11* Yeah, and I only mentioned that. *01:40:12* What was Diamond and Pearl user score? *01:40:14* 5. *01:40:17* 3, I think. *01:40:17* Last was part two, five point eight. *01:40:19* That got that went up. *01:40:21* People people have been fighting in the battlefields on that one. *01:40:24* I think they deleted a lot of the zeros on that one, like a a lot of the review bombing I think they got under control. *01:40:27* Well that's the good they should get it in control in general. *01:40:32* There's one thing though that I do think the remake has done pretty well. *01:40:36* The music? *01:40:40* Yeah, baby. *01:40:41* It's pretty good. *01:40:43* Yeah. *01:40:44* Dude. *01:40:45* This music is amazing. *01:40:48* I this is not this is my favorite. *01:40:50* And this is probably the most nostalgic I'm gonna get. *01:40:53* Yeah, I was gonna say, because this is absolutely not my favorite. *01:40:56* Pokemon soundtrack. *01:41:00* Okay. *01:41:01* Let's let's get something clear. *01:41:02* First of all, forever indebted to you for introducing me to none other than *01:41:04* Carlos Ayn, a. *01:41:10* k. *01:41:12* a. *01:41:12* Insane in the Rain music, uh, in the year that he was doing Cinnovation, his complete jazz arrangement of the entire Diamond and Pearl soundtrack *01:41:13* So there's gonna be a link to that in the show notes as well, alongside the official music both for the DS and these remakes. *01:41:24* But this game has *01:41:30* Banger battle music. *01:41:34* I think that bouncing piano, it just gets me moving, man. *01:41:36* I'm grooving, I'm going back and forth, I'm ready to fight. *01:41:40* I think it's so I think every battle theme *01:41:44* Is a banger in this game. *01:41:47* Cynthia's one of the all-time greats. *01:41:48* Uh I know you didn't really go in the post-game all that much, but that whole collection of route 225 through 228 *01:41:51* It's the same theme for those that little loop back there. *01:41:59* Is awesome. *01:42:02* It's so so good. *01:42:04* There's a mystical quality, which I think ties to the whole lore thing, the way the game opens up with that kind of like *01:42:06* You know the little chime, that chime sound kind of coming through. *01:42:13* I s I love everything in this game. *01:42:16* This is like *01:42:19* I I know this soundtrack so so well and I love it so so much. *01:42:20* And having real instruments this time around *01:42:25* Is awesome. *01:42:28* Snow Snow Point City. *01:42:29* Oh my gosh. *01:42:31* One of the all-time great snow levels. *01:42:33* This is not so this is not my favorite Pokemon soundtrack. *01:42:36* But what I will say about the soundtrack is that the songs that are good are among the best in the entire series. *01:42:40* Across the board, I don't *01:42:50* Across the board, I don't think it has my favorites. *01:42:52* Um, but again, yeah, Cynthia's theme song there at the end is uh is great. *01:42:58* Um some of the route themes. *01:43:04* Uh the uh lake themes, phenomenal, fantastic. *01:43:05* Snowpoint, fantastic. *01:43:10* Like those are those are some of the best, I think. *01:43:11* Snowpo Snow Point's one of my favorites. *01:43:14* And then um *01:43:16* The lake the lake theme is actually probably one of my favorites and it is probably my favorite in the entire game. *01:43:18* Yeah. *01:43:23* Um I think the core battle song, like you were talking about how you love it so much. *01:43:24* Not my favorite. *01:43:27* It's actually much lower on like the battle themes of all the Pokemon games. *01:43:29* I don't care for it that much. *01:43:33* Give me the piano over the trumpet, baby. *01:43:34* Nah, the trumpet baby. *01:43:37* The trumpet from the trumpet. *01:43:38* Let's go. *01:43:41* Uh yeah, I I think this soundtrack is very good. *01:43:42* And that and like you said, I think this game's merits as a remake um did do pretty well when it comes to the uh touched up *01:43:45* the the touched up score this time around. *01:43:55* I didn't felt I didn't feel like they lost any of the uh charm that the original game had. *01:43:57* And in a lot of instances I feel like the newer recordings only *01:44:04* uh made these made these songs better. *01:44:08* Yeah, for the most part. *01:44:13* Um there's something about Cynthia's theme though that I think that's *01:44:14* jam way harder on the origin on the original. *01:44:18* Sometimes I th s those harder songs it's like *01:44:23* When when all you've got is kind of that, you know, chiptune sound library, like they can really just Yeah, the atmosphere itself *01:44:27* The atmospheric songs I think translate really well to the remakes, but it's something yeah, those hard like battle themes I think sound uh better on the *01:44:35* on the sort of chiptune side um with the original DS. *01:44:44* But yeah, largely that is one of the best aspects of these games as remakes and of these games as a whole. *01:44:48* Like again, I'm not saying *01:44:55* Pokemon Across the Board has fantastic music, so if I say I'm not a huge fan of a soundtrack, like Diamond and Pearl's music is still better than *01:44:56* a lot of other video game music. *01:45:05* It is just not it is not my favorite in the same way that I know it is like with yours. *01:45:07* Um there is a generation of kids that kind of grew up with these games that are *01:45:13* I mean you're in a unique situation obviously because you didn't play them for a couple years. *01:45:17* But this is like Zoomers first Pokemon, I feel like, in some way. *01:45:21* Um I'll bump in with the Zoomers. *01:45:26* And I feel like a lot of people from that age group really harp on these these games soundtracks. *01:45:29* I think it's the most powerful *01:45:35* nostalgic like anchor point in any of these games is the music. *01:45:37* Because music in general just has a unique ability to take you back somewhere, right? *01:45:41* Just like a s a s the smell of something. *01:45:45* And *01:45:48* That's kind of like when I wrote like I'm home, it's you know, it's that opening video with the chimes and the like the whole thing. *01:45:50* I totally forgot about that. *01:46:02* Because I hadn't watched that in so long and I was like, oh yeah. *01:46:03* This is how this opens. *01:46:06* Because I was so used to you watch it the first time you boot it up and then you skip past it every single other time you play it. *01:46:07* And so you just that truly was the most powerful part, I think, in bringing me back. *01:46:13* So I was just so exc every town, I'm you know and then a you know, it's also fairly recent in my brain because I was listening to Cinnovation *01:46:19* pretty hardcore w after you had introduced me to it. *01:46:27* So like it's not like I've I hadn't heard these songs in over a d you know, fi fifteen years or I guess *01:46:30* Yeah, fifteen years, geez. *01:46:38* So it's all fairly fresh, so it's it's good stuff, man. *01:46:40* I love spear pillar. *01:46:44* Oh my gosh. *01:46:45* It takes me back to the Brawl days too. *01:46:45* Remember when that was a level in Brawl? *01:46:47* Yes, I do. *01:46:50* Halkia would flip the stage. *01:46:51* There was a ton of like spin-offs now that I think about this too. *01:46:53* Like they had the it was a Pokemon Revolution on the Wii was one of the games. *01:46:56* Yep, that was like the the Coliseum or *01:47:00* There was a lot of spin-offs this era. *01:47:04* Like all the Ranger games, all the rescue team games, all the Trozé, Dash, I think. *01:47:06* There was a lot going on with Pokemon right around here. *01:47:13* Yeah, they really went for it. *01:47:16* Let's talk about this game's legacy. *01:47:18* Close out this episode. *01:47:22* I don't think there's anything else that we've *01:47:23* Not touched on. *01:47:25* Let me say this up front. *01:47:26* So as we've talked about this over the course of this episode, I have softened a bit on my stance with this game. *01:47:28* I do not think this game is all I wanted. *01:47:33* It's not *01:47:35* If I was going to rank everything we've played so far this season, would this be last? *01:47:37* Yeah, probably. *01:47:44* But I don't think it it's not horrible. *01:47:46* I just think. *01:47:50* . *01:47:51* There is not enough unique in this game to have it stand out within the larger series. *01:47:51* And then that combined with the like *01:47:57* Disappointments with the Pokedex, uh, I think is what are the big letdowns for me with this game. *01:48:00* Um, is just that it kind of plays the greatest hits of Pokemon of *01:48:07* There's a there's a a legendary and a and you gotta fight the gyms and there's an evil team and then uh yeah. *01:48:11* So it just *01:48:18* This game could have been much better than it is, and I feel like as the Pokemon franchise's first jump to the DS, there is *01:48:19* more they could have done um from like a mechanic side of things. *01:48:32* Like it really just they they didn't really take great advantage of the hardware and I don't feel like they really *01:48:37* I feel like black and white is where things kind of start to get. *01:48:43* I I don't know. *01:48:48* I just I I like black and white a lot more. *01:48:49* But anyway, um as far as this game's legacy *01:48:51* This is one that's hard for me to kind of like pin a legacy on within the larger scope of the series because I don't really know *01:48:57* These games compared to a lot of others are just kind of there. *01:49:08* I mean, obviously its legacy is that it was the first on the DS, which went on to be a long string of releases across *01:49:11* I mean if you if you're counting the whole DS system of families, like this up until Ultrasun, like that's a string of *01:49:19* Like so many games in there, like 10, 15 games if you're counting all the versions of each. *01:49:27* Um so th th this is a big deal in that regard. *01:49:34* Um *01:49:38* And so yeah, I I don't know, but but I don't think the series itself really grew until some of the later entries that they came out with. *01:49:40* So it's it's hard for me to say that this feels like a turning point for Pokemon overall. *01:49:48* It really just does kind of feel like the franchise's first pivot to new hardware. *01:49:52* Whereas I felt like, for example, with Ruby and Sapphire, not only did it go to new hardware, but they they did some new things with the hardware and stuff like that. *01:49:58* that were a little bit more integral to the game rather than just, hey, what if you chiseled fossils in this wall with your DS pin? *01:50:07* You know, like it w it was all kind of more novelty stuff that they did rather than *01:50:14* being more tied to gameplay. *01:50:20* Um yeah. *01:50:23* I, you know, legacy from a personal angle is just, you know, this is like this is my generation that I identify with. *01:50:25* But in the grand scheme of Pokemon, outside of that DS run that you just talked about, really kicking off *01:50:34* The longest running stretch and platform for Pokemon to be on. *01:50:43* There is uh *01:50:49* The lore of Pokemon, I think, really branches out from here. *01:50:52* Not just because Sinnoh's the start or whatever, but *01:50:56* This is like the middle of the decks, you know, this kind of upper four hundreds. *01:51:02* Now we're in the back half of of this thousands. *01:51:07* And, you know, we got the first this is stretching a little bit, but we got kind of the first new *01:51:11* idea of what Pokemon could be like with Legends Arceus. *01:51:21* And it's built off of the decks *01:51:24* of this game and the the world and the environment and it is kind of leaning into that lore and it *01:51:29* I played Arceus before we really sunk our teeth into this season. *01:51:36* Maybe I was playing Leaf Green around the same time. *01:51:40* I don't exactly remember. *01:51:42* But I don't I hadn't been that excited about a Pokemon game in I guess probably since X and Y just 'cause *01:51:45* I was excited to come back to the series again because I took a self-imposed break for some unknown reason. *01:51:53* And it and but Arceus is actually good. *01:52:00* And *01:52:03* I think that's kind of cool that it extends out of this generation. *01:52:04* And I as you were talking, I was looking at the sales figures of kind of the core games over time. *01:52:09* And um Diamond and Pearl are the b fifth *01:52:15* Best selling Pokemon games. *01:52:18* Yeah. *01:52:20* And then if you take if you take Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, they *01:52:21* They're up there with red, green, and blue, but I guess I'd have to throw in Let's Go Pikachu and stuff with that. *01:52:26* But a lot of people have played this particular generation. *01:52:31* Everybody back in the day like had these games. *01:52:34* Absolutely. *01:52:37* Like everybody I knew who had a DS had one of these games, either Pearl, Diamond, or Platin. *01:52:38* Yeah. *01:52:44* It's it was a strong generation. *01:52:44* And I but I think it it just got *01:52:47* that games got better later on on the DS in particular, like that core DS. *01:52:52* And I'll say this. *01:52:57* Having come back and played, I've enjoyed that. *01:53:00* But I am truly amped for black *01:53:03* MY and black and white too. *01:53:09* I hope you enjoy it dude. *01:53:11* I'll say this though. *01:53:13* A lot of my you can see where I would have been at at this point in time because I never really liked this dex back in the day. *01:53:17* I always thought this dex had problems. *01:53:23* So going from this gen 4 into gen 5 where they were like, everything is new. *01:53:26* We're creating a whole dex that is new, top to bottom, no returning Pokemon. *01:53:32* I thought that was so freaking cool at the time. *01:53:37* And I still think that's cool. *01:53:41* I think that's still awesome. *01:53:43* Like I wish they would do that more often. *01:53:44* I think they lean too heavily on past generations. *01:53:46* Whereas black and white have always shown me that like if they just go into full creative mode, and again, people give those games crap, I know, because not every Pokemon's design knocks it out of the park, but like conceptually, I think they should do that more. *01:53:50* Because this Diamond and Pearl does have problems with its decks, as we've talked about in this episode, but um I just yeah, their creativity was way cooler, and I just think the vibe that that black and white have *01:54:03* is way more unique as a result. *01:54:16* Like I like those games a lot and I'm I'm very much looking forward to playing them as well. *01:54:18* On my amateur. *01:54:24* One more quick quick thing about Legacy, and it's not something we really would have brought up or thought to have brought up, but it just hit me. *01:54:27* These were also the first Pokemon games to go online. *01:54:34* Trade with friends, battle with friends all over the world. *01:54:37* Yeah, it's true. *01:54:40* And really the ability to keep your Pokemon all the way back from the GBA to today. *01:54:43* Wireless trading, would have been a little bit more than that. *01:54:50* Wireless trading is possible because of the DS. *01:54:52* Yeah. *01:54:55* Like that you could you finally didn't have to, you know *01:54:59* buy Leaf Green and Fire Red and get a trade a wireless trading uh thing. *01:55:02* Dongle thing, yeah. *01:55:08* Or a link table or yeah. *01:55:09* It's *01:55:11* A lot of the a lot of the barriers of Pokemon were broken down with these games, but that's by proxy of what the DS allowed for. *01:55:12* Um that's a that's a cool thing in in that regard for sure. *01:55:20* Yeah. *01:55:23* And I just I really think it's so *01:55:24* flippin' neat that someone you like Logan, if you hadn't sold it, you could have still you could have brought those Pokemon up into Scarlet and Violet. *01:55:27* Like it's technic and at the end of the season you've talked about it and I want to do it too. *01:55:35* Migrating the Pokemon over, doing the great Pokemon home import, and bringing everything up that you can bring up. *01:55:42* And even with the 3DS and the virtual console there. *01:55:50* uh rest and PC shop, you know, there's Pokebank integration in those virtual console versions of gold, silver, red, blue, yellow, and and crystal. *01:55:53* So *01:56:03* truly is all unlocked with the DS and you know diamond and pearl play a factor in that. *01:56:04* Yeah, I'm uh looking forward to doing my mass *01:56:10* Export once we get to the end of the season. *01:56:13* Maybe I should start doing it as we approach. *01:56:15* Otherwise that's going to be should start. *01:56:17* Yes, once I get them over to Switch, it'll be a faster process, but actually you know what the you know what the problem is? *01:56:23* Is like black and white are kind of the linchpin to get them *01:56:29* Ported to black and white too, right? *01:56:33* You have to have that to get to the 3DS. *01:56:35* I don't think it's black and white too. *01:56:37* I think it's I think it's the first black and white games work too. *01:56:39* But those are the linch pins. *01:56:43* uh to get everything to 3DS I believe. *01:56:45* Yeah. *01:56:48* You've gotta go through black and white. *01:56:48* So it's gonna be uh *01:56:51* We can do it together, buddy. *01:56:53* I guess I could do that though because I did buy um both. *01:56:55* I did buy all ver I have all versions of black and white and black and white too. *01:56:59* Um and I'm going to play the ones I *01:57:03* bought or whatever that I spent copious amounts of money on for the season. *01:57:06* Good. *01:57:11* Good for you. *01:57:11* Which is it which segues into our membership sponsorship or our membership plug here at the end. *01:57:12* Please uh subscribe to our membership program so that I can afford these insanely expensive video games. *01:57:17* Thank you. *01:57:23* Yes, you can. *01:57:24* Um Sure, we'll take it from there because I think that does do it for *01:57:26* Pokemon, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Platinum. *01:57:30* We'll clear Platinum a bone. *01:57:34* So thank you to our members who support us directly and help finance keeping the show, keeping the lights on. *01:57:36* And uh helping Logan buy these games. *01:57:43* He now has a complete DS set, so good for him. *01:57:46* Castlevania is looming as well, just kind of on the horizon. *01:57:49* So uh thank you to our members. *01:57:53* You can get access to longer episodes, exclusive bonus videos like our Pokemon battles for this season, and uh exclusive episodes we may *01:57:55* Do one for Legends Arceus here. *01:58:04* So that could be an exciting episode for members as well. *01:58:06* So thank you all for supporting us. *01:58:10* You can learn more by heading over to listening with superpower. *01:58:12* com. *01:58:15* As for the show, you can follow it on Twitter at ChapterSelect and go over to chapterselect. *01:58:16* com and see all of our past seasons there and future seasons as well. *01:58:23* For Logan, you can follow him at Moreman12 and his writing over at comicbook. *01:58:28* com. *01:58:32* And myself at Max Roberts143 and all my writing over at maxfrequency. *01:58:33* net, as well as my other show, the Max Frequency Podcast. *01:58:38* So you can check all of that out. *01:58:41* Thank you all so much. *01:58:42* And until next time, adios. *01:58:44* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:58:47* Chapter Select is supported by you. *01:58:50* You can gain access to longer episodes and bonus content by going to chapterselect. *01:58:53* com forward slash join. *01:58:58* This episode was research, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:59:00* Season six is hosted by Logan Moore and myself. *01:59:04* Season six is all about Pokemon. *01:59:08* For more on the season, go to chapterselect. *01:59:10* com forward slash season six. *01:59:12* You can follow the show at Chapter Select and check out previous seasons at chapterselect. *01:59:15* com. *01:59:20* Yeah, it's just hold on. *01:59:23* Do you hear that? *01:59:25* Yeah, that's Slade. *01:59:27* He's having a bad dream. *01:59:28* Oh, he's asleep? *01:59:30* He's asleep. *01:59:32* I just assumed he was barking at someone. *01:59:35* No, no, no, he's yelping in his sleep. *01:59:37*