As with the vast majority of Pokemon games, the original Pokemon Diamond & Pearl from 2006 featured a variety of exclusive events tied to real-world locations. Basically, you went to a little sweaty shop full of little sweaty gamers and were given a little sweaty code to meet Arceus or Darkrai or little sweaty Manaphy. What’s that, Manaphy’s just out of the water? Sorry - biℱt hard to tell with all this sweat, innit.
Anyway, this was part of a trend that started right back with the original Pokemon games and is still ongoing toda🎃y. Fortunately, Sword & Shieꦉld have slightly revamped things to make events a little bit more approachable, at least outside of Mythicals. In the last month alone, we’ve gotten shiny Zacian and Zamazenta, as well as the Charizard made popular by Global Exhibition champ Leonardo Bonanomi - not bad.
The thing is, more typical events have been 𝔍integrated into Pokemon before, so it’s clearly possible to receive rare and beloved ‘mons outside of Mystery Gift. In HeartGold & SoulSilver, everyone who bought the game was granted access to the original Celebi event from Gen 2. You did💙n’t have to leave your house or spend any extra money - you got the GS Ball, went to Ilex Forest, and were provided with an opportunity to catch Pokemon’s best Mythical. If you disagree with me, I’ll accept Mew or Jirachi as possible alternatives - every other opinion is objectively wrong.
This same idea needs to be implemented into Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl if the Gen 4 remakes are to realise their full potential. We need to get a Lunar Wing and head to Fullmoon Island to catch Cresselia as part of the main game. I want Oak to send us a letter after we storm through the Pokemon League about a mysterious little hedgehog in Flower Paradise. If you read my outrageous 3,000-word t꧂heory on the connection betwee🎉n BDSP and Legends: Arceus last week, you’꧃ll know I won’t be happy with anything less than a full recreation of Pokemon God’s Hall of Origin appearance.
I don’t think Nintendo has anything to lose by adding these types of events into the game. They all already exist, so changing the assets over to the new chibi aesthetic doesn’t involve any more 𝕴legwork than ILCA already has to do elsewhere. On top of that, fans will inevitably be delighted with the opportunity to encounter all of these rare ‘mons. Given that all previous mainline remakes have included a slew of e꧃xtra content, this is a foolproof way of extending the runtime without having to work with all new material. There are, from an external perspective, no apparent downsides.
Because of that, I firmly believe that Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl will incorporate all of Gen 4’s major events, although I’m reluctant to get my hopes up in case they don’t. It seems like an obvious way of winning players over and reminding us of why Gen 4 was so special all those years ago, but it’s also something that could easily go ignored in service of something else - better graphics, new animations, or additional parts to the ♔BDSP Delta Episode equiva🥀lent. If it were up to me, none of these elements would be given as much weight as integrating Mythical events, but then again I’m not the one making Pokemon games, am I?
I feel obligated to admit that Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pea﷽rl will be good with or without integrated events. They’ll sell lots of copies, receive unanimous acclaim from fans, and likely mak🐬e kids all over the world smile when Santy leaves them under the Christmas tree later this year.
If they truly want to brilliantly shine, though - if they want to be held to the same unparalleled esteem of HeartGold & SoulSilver - integrated Myth🌸ical events are a must-have. Here’s hoping we get our hands on a Member Card for Canalave’s locked inn, eh? Put some respect on Darkrai&rsquꦬo;s name.