New games announced: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus

A new Pokémon Presents has just finished airing and announced two new games! The first is Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Pokémon Shining Pearl, remakes of the original Sinnoh games. They are in isometric 3D with a cartoony chibi style similar to Pokémon Let's Go, or the recent remake of the Zelda game, Link's Awakening. The gameplay, however, is faithful to the original games (rather than Let's Go).

Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are being made by ILCA rather than Game Freak, but is co-directed by Junichi Masuda from Game Freak (alongside Yuichi Ueda of ILCA). The games will be released in late 2021.

The second game announced was Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It's also set in the Sinnoh region but a very long time ago, when the Sinnoh regions was still a vast wilderness. The graphical style is similar to Pokémon Sword & Shield and the gameplay appears similar to the Wild Area in those games.

In this game the starters you can choose from are Rowlet, Cyndaquil, or Oshawott - previously from separate generations. The aim of the game is to create the region's first Pokédex. Players will study Pokémon's behaviours and can seamlessly enter battle, to provide Trainers with an immersive experience. It will be released in early 2022.

Here is the full announcement video, which also features a great retrospective of the last 25 years of Pokémon!

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl screenshots

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus screenshots

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