Pokemon BDSP leaks are out… and it isn’t looking good
Last Updated on: 8th November 2021, 03:25 am
I feel it important to mention right out of the gate that everything being discussed online about the Gen 4 remakes has a chance of being faked cause I will get a ton of flak if I don’t mention it. Even so, based on early Pokemon BDSP leaks… these long-awaited remakes look to be underwhelming on multiple levels. From placeholder music, missing models, and more, BDSP looks to have needed another few months to cook before release.
READ MORE: EXP Share usage forced in Pokemon BDSP
The most notable signs of a rushed development come from the music. While true that these games are leaking fairly early, it looks that Pokemon BDSP will come with a Day 1 patch for its official soundtrack. Only two weeks ago, someone uploaded a video showing that the trainer battle theme is worse than that of the original DS games. Regardless of how one feels about the opinion laid out, it has since been proven that the music in the video was real and a placeholder. A finished version can later be heard in a trailer released three days ago, and the link is already timestamped for your listening pleasure.
Some people have uploaded “leaks” of songs like Cynthia’s battle theme or the gym leader themes, though those are notably harder to verify than the above clip, which proves a temporary or placeholder soundtrack. Even if the real, finished soundtrack is to be included on release day, the work being incomplete enough to require a lower quality, temporary soundtrack for review copies is alarming.
READ MORE: New and returning Pokemon BDSP features we’d love to see
The game also appears to have a number of visual glitches that may or may not be patched out before launch. As can be seen below, in the Mars and Jupiter fight on Spear Pillar, the player trainer and rival both are loaded in holding Pokeballs that simply don’t exist. As Mars and Jupiter have theirs, it is hard to tell if this is a rendering issue or something attached to the player and rival models.
While I doubt that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be *bad games*, it certainly looks like the dev team may have been forced to release the game before quality assurance and bug testing was finished. Similar complaints were levied against Sword and Shield upon their release due to the National Dex debate, though few can deny inexcusable issues on the Switch such as time freezing when a player climbs up or downstairs.
Ultimately, it looks as if the Pokemon Company just may be too big to push for things like delays or real quality assurance what with the simultaneous releases of anime, manga, cards, plushes, and figures. When also considering that the games have been proven to use Diamond and Pearl teams for trainers and gym leaders (the infamous two fire type fire elite four-member, flint) and forced EXP Share usage, it is hard to tell who exactly Pokemon BDSP is for. The one-to-one remake keeps the games close to Diamond and Pearl, ignoring a number of well-received Platinum updates and keeping single-use TMs, yet rearranges the soundtrack and uses Gen 8 EXP Share mechanics.
Again, it’s worth taking Pokemon BDSP leaks with a grain of salt, but as it stands… things look to be moving towards the release of a potentially unfinished game that can’t live up to Platinum back on the DS.
