Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl (19th November 2021)

[Glen-i]

25 minutes ago, Sckewi said:

What the heck is with the Egg you get from that Hiker guy? I've been cycling around like a wally for ages and no change. D: Are the egg hatching mechanics different in these games?

Nope, the Pokémon that hatches is one that's notoriously slow to hatch. This is normal.

[Glen-i]

Cynthia and her Milotic can BURN IN HELL!

Boy, that strategy was a rude wake-up call! This is gonna take a rethink with the team I have... She has way too many ways to completely wall me.

[Glen-i]

So I did something I haven't done since Ruby/Sapphire.

I busted out the legendary.

I grabbed the Palkia, grinded it (and the rest of my team) to the level 65-70 range.

Still lost.

Cynthia here would absolutely clown on any other Champion, and it wouldn't even be close!

Edited November 21, 2021 by Glen-i

[Glen-i]

On 19/11/2021 at 5:31 PM, Sckewi said:

Do we have any info on things like Nature mints, bottle caps, Ability Capsules and resetting EVs yet?

Spoiler

Yes, it's all there. But the BP economy has reverted back to Gen 4, much to my horror.

3 BP after the first 7 fights. Good luck grinding 50 BP per mint with that. It'd be easier just to use Sword/Shield to buy mints and transfer the Pokémon over once the HOME update drops.

As you can no doubt tell, I've seen the credits now.

Here's my team.

Spoiler

Normally, I would never use a legendary in a playthrough, but with Cynthia's amazingly competitive team, I have no regrets, and I still had to chug a Max Revive! The Palkia wasn't as useful as I hoped it would be because Milotic had bloody Mirror Coat!

I've always hated Milotic...

 

[Dufniall]

Three Gen1 Pokémon?! Would never have expected that from you.

[Glen-i]

29 minutes ago, Vileplume2000 said:

Three Gen1 Pokémon?! Would never have expected that from you.

Diamond and Pearl's Pokédex selection before you finish the game is really poor! I generally don't like a lot of the Gen 4 Pokémon, so these were the best I could deal with.

In hindsight, I wish I put my design preferences to the side and replaced Rhydon (Which I couldn't evolve, otherwise it'd be a Gen 4 Pokémon) with Roserade. Not having a grass attack was a real detriment for the surprisingly difficult Elite 4.

Rhyhorn/Rhydon isn't even part of the Pokédex! That's one of the extra Pokémon available in the redone Underground section.

It's one of the reasons why quite a few people were rightfully annoyed these remakes didn't use Platinum as the base instead, much better variety there.

I'll save more detailed thoughts for the review I'll write, there's still a bit more for me to look through before I make a final write-up. Wouldn't want me judging before seeing everything it has to offer, like a certain other reviewer...

Edited November 21, 2021 by Glen-i

[Julius]

Alright, credits have just rolled. 

Bested Cynthia and the Elite Four on my first attempt at the League, but it's clear from the start with their Pokémon's type coverage that this is going to go very differently to how the rest of the game will go for most players, which is being overleveled and OHKO'ing 70% of what you come across. To echo @Glen-i's experience with Cynthia using my own words:

HOLY S***. 

That's easily the toughest main story battle I've faced in a main series Pokémon game in a very, very long time; easily the toughest in over a decade, and to be honest, probably the toughest since I took her on back on the original Diamond back in September 2007. Way to put me in my place, shut me up about being ridiculously overleveled (I mean, it was still an issue), and feel like a little kid again. It's been a very long time since I've had to scramble for my Max Revives and Full Restores like that, and there were two occasions where half of my team was knocked out. 

Spoiler

Spoiler

I knew what was coming my way, and I knew Cynthia would open with Spiritomb, but I wanted to be cautious and so opened with Infernape. Immediately the wrong decision, she gets a lucky crit off and I'm already struggling. Swap out a few times, land on Weavile, but then trying to use a Full Restore while moving the Pro Controller from my right hand to my left, I slip and press ZL. Wonderful time to find out that serves as a substitute 'A' button! So I attempted to fully heal a Pokémon that didn't need it, while she swapped out a low health Spiritomb for Lucario. 

Lucario wrecked shop, completely. Again, the type coverage in their movesets is awesome and a little insane, and I was still swapping around just to try to heal folks after Spiritomb. Land on Roserade who is my last Pokémon sporting a full health bar, can finally clean up shop, getting a Giga Drain off on Lucario when it's at a third of its health, then taking out Gastrodon with a OHKO Grass Knot, then Spiritomb with Giga Drain again, taking them all down in consecutive moves. So, we're back on the right track. 

She sends out Milotic and I send out Luxray, and this is the point I use to revive my three downed Pokémon and get everyone fully healed, which I have to juggle with healing Luxray every other turn. That takes a little while to sort out, but afterwards a few Thunderbolts take the Milotic down relatively easily, and this is followed up with Infernape coming in to take out Roserade. 

And then her Garchomp comes out and wrecks of the shop too. Weavile, Staraptor (managed to get it in the red with a Brave Bird before going down to the joint recoil + Rough Skin, and then naturally Cynthia used a Full Restore), and even Roserade went down in quick succession (Roserade went from 170 HP to 1 HP to an Earthquake, and then lost out due to Rough Skin as a result of using Grass Knot). Not going great. My Garchomp is sporting a Quick Claw, so I take the chance and try a Dragon Claw - which lands and manages to take out a good chunk of health, turns out mine is faster anyways. Her next move misses, my next Dragon Claw connects, and it's over. 

Good lord. 

There's a seriously questionable amount of things that this game does poorly for me, but they absolutely nailed the challenge of the Elite Four and Cynthia. Being overleveled the entirety of the game, only to be around or below the Champion's level when the final battle comes (all while not missing a single battle) was insane to see, and made it a fun challenge. And it now means Cynthia gets to haunt another generation of young Pokémon fans, which is great 

I'll give more fleshed out thoughts on the main game a bit later once I've calmed down from that final battle a bit, so for now I'm going to finish up the Dex to unlock the National Dex post-game. Just got the 5 Pokémon left to see (hatching Riley's egg, being shown a picture in a book, and the Lake Guardians), so shouldn't take too long. 

@Glen-i I know you're in the post-game now, but let me know if you still want that Elekid egg,  as I think I'm planning to raid every corner of the Grand Underground soon, so should be able to pick some up to breed! I'll have a lot I want to catch and trade I think (I might even go for at least completing all of the entries in the Sinnoh Dex + Sinnoh evolutions), so might need your help with that and getting some of the exclusives too 

Edited November 21, 2021 by Julius

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

 

@Glen-i I know you're in the post-game now, but let me know if you still want that Elekid egg,  as I think I'm planning to raid every corner of the Grand Underground soon, so should be able to pick some up to breed! I'll have a lot I want to catch and trade I think (I might even go for at least completing all of the entries in the Sinnoh Dex + Sinnoh evolutions), so might need your help with that and getting some of the exclusives too 

Well, yeah, it's exclusive to Diamond, so that would be much appreciated. But I won't be online until Thursday.

Which is probably for the best, because I don't really focus on catching Pokémon until I'm pretty much done on the exploring and battling side of the game. I'm currently doing a lap of the post-game island to determine how well that aspect of this game holds up, although it's a promising start, I've already discovered something that was not in the original games. Something that's quite exciting, but after fighting Brilliant Shining Cynthia, a little terrifying. Once I've finished that, then I'll likely start raiding the underground and filling up the Dex properly. So I'll probably focus on Pearl exclusives for anyone here who chooses Diamond.

[V. Amoleo]

Played up to the third gym so far.  I'm enjoying playing it so I'm glad I picked it up.

What I'm not enjoying is how it's a tilebased map but the analogue stick allows for analogue movement so it feels really awkward to line up.  Thankfully the DPad allows for the 'correct' movement for the map.

Also don't like that at points performance takes a massive hit for seemingly no reason.  I've had points where I just can't click on anything because the game is busy doing something else.  It's very bizzare.  I can still run around but I can't click anything.

Oh and what is with that really strange depth of field effect?  Where the top third and bottom third of the screen become overly blurry.  It's not a nice effect at all and it's applied at random.  It's so annoying I'm thinking of dumping the game and switching over to an emulator to disable it.

I commend them on allowing the touchscreen for the Poketch!  I just wish they'd carried it over for all the UI, but that's an annoyance with Sword & Shield too.

My final thought, this is probably on me though, no Pokemon on the overworld is something I'm missing a lot more than I thought I would.

I believe these games have been built from the ground up in Unity so it's a bit of a surprise that so much Sword & Shield-ness is in them.  The battles, the Pokemon/Box UI, the partner Pokemon, etc all act like how they did in Sword & Shield as far as I can tell.  I wonder why ILCA had to start from scratch.

What's with the lack of support for Pokemon Home too?  It wouldn't be too bad if it was free but Home is a paid service.

[Glen-i]

49 minutes ago, V. Amoleo said:

What's with the lack of support for Pokemon Home too?  It wouldn't be too bad if it was free but Home is a paid service.

That's been a thing ever since Bank, mainline Pokémon games just don't allow transfer at launch.

My guess is they don't want people bringing over their Level 100 teams and steamrolling the game.

It will come in time.

In regards to that lack of input problem, I can't say I've ever noticed that happening. @Julius, how about you? Ever not been able to interact with stuff?

Edited November 22, 2021 by Glen-i

[V. Amoleo]

3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

That's been a thing ever since Bank, mainline Pokémon games just don't allow transfer at launch.

My guess is they don't want people bringing over their Level 100 teams and steamrolling the game.

It will come in time.

This hadn’t even occurred to me. Good call!

More things I’ve noticed. They’re not terrible or anything but it seems to show a lack of polish:

The message boxes seem to change between filling the entire width of the screen to only being in the centre of the screen. It’s been done on purpose but I’m not sure why. Maybe Sword & Shield did it too but I’ve only noticed it here.

It’d probably have been a better idea for partner Pokémon to return to the Pokeball when on the marsh land or on those bike only paths. As it is they seem to float on the top which is weird.

Edited November 22, 2021 by V. Amoleo

[Ashley]

never thought @Ronnie would appear in the game

 

[Glen-i]

9 hours ago, V. Amoleo said:

The message boxes seem to change between filling the entire width of the screen to only being in the centre of the screen. It’s been done on purpose but I’m not sure why. Maybe Sword & Shield did it too but I’ve only noticed it here.

Sword/Shield did. It was just a lot more elegant.

Whenever that game used a full width text box (like in battles), it uses a different one then the traditional white rectangle.

Compare that to BD/SP and...

It's the same kind of thing, but you notice it more, because it's just the same normal text box, but wider. This game is ridiculously faithful to the DS games, for better or worse.

9 hours ago, V. Amoleo said:

It’d probably have been a better idea for partner Pokémon to return to the Pokeball when on the marsh land or on those bike only paths. As it is they seem to float on the top which is weird.

This is what happens when you force a strict timeline on a developer that is new to making Pokémon titles. Corners have to be cut, updates have to be applied to finish the game, etc.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Glen-i

[Scratch]

Hmmm I just thought, considering all 493 Gen 1-4 Pokemon are in these, including following Pokemon. They could "relatively easily" re-remake HGSS with the engine from these games.

Whether that's a good idea or not though is a discussion of its own though I guess.  

Edited November 23, 2021 by Sckewi

[Julius]

I've had some time to think about it, so while I've still got a bit of the post-game left, I don't have a review to write like @Glen-i (which I'm very much looking forward to reading - no pressure! ), so I'm fine drawing the line with where I am to talk about the game.

My not at all comprehensive thoughts on the game, to try to sum them up as swiftly as I can:

Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are very rushed and unpolished remakes - I think there might be a very strong argument for them being the most unpolished main series Pokémon games to date, especially considering a sizeable patch is required to access one of the main post-game activities and the actual soundtrack - which in more ways than I can care to count fall short of what I believe are fair expectations for Pokémon remakes. These are not the definitive Sinnoh adventure; that honour still goes to Platinum, with it's well-rounded regional Dex, additional story content and characters, stronger all around level scaling for trainers, and rich post-game content, such as it's Battle Frontier. 

The game in its design is almost completely at odds with itself. We've mentioned it before, but it needs to be said again: the post-game in this game is accessed through completing the regional Sinnoh Dex, which means seeing 150 Pokémon (not counting Manaphy, which is kind of a New situation), compelling you - if you go in with this knowledge - to battle every trainer you come across to help you complete this objective and get access to the post-game. The problem is that the EXP Share in this game is based on its Gen VIII variant, meaning every Pokémon in your party gains EXP in a battle, but there's no way to turn this off. With the team composition of most trainers in the game being pulled directly from the original games, the number of trainers per location being much higher than in modern releases, and not being updated in any meaningful way to offset this, the game begins quickly unbalanced, and beyond the first gym you're very unlikely to face any real challenge for much of the game. My average team level for much of the game was 8 - 12 levels higher than whatever we were facing, meaning that I could steamroll my way through much of the game, even one-hit KO'ing Pokémon with moves that should be weak against them on several occasions. The Friendship Levels coming over too really don't help this either, as your Pokémon will frequently recover from status effects, dodge attacks, and land critical hits through the power of friendship.

The only real way to get around all of this? Stock up on bitter herbs in Eterna City and use those, as opposed to Potions and the like, throughout your playthrough so that your Pokémon hate you, and also to overhaul your team as soon as you get overleveled. It's a far from ideal solution, to put it kindly. 

I also want to briefly touch on HM's, because returning to Sinnoh for the first time in a while, I forgot just how vital HM's were to the overall experience of adventure in Pokémon games, which is helped massively with this being probably the last non-linear main series Pokémon adventure in many ways. Sinnoh had you running back and forth, flying around, missing little caves under cycling paths or off to the side of Victory Road, whereas almost every main series game since has had you following a straight path or going clockwise or anticlockwise around a map. It's honestly been a bit refreshing, though that's quickly taken away by being told exactly where to go in your menu, which is a massive shame. HM's play into this in a way that I don't really think we've come across since the transition to 3D with X & Y, which is teasing parts of caves or paths that you can't access due to not yet having a HM. I'm sure it's happened, but nowhere near as frequently or as obviously as it happens here. 

Which kind of segues into some of the more unpolished parts of the game. Look, I think ILCA didn't get the time they perhaps needed to really nail these remakes, and I don't want to go crazy talking about unpolished elements, but I actually have some helpful visual aids captured from the game to show what I mean.

The biggest one, as I mentioned last week, is the games being pretty much a tile-for-tile, tile-based remake of the originals. This isn't too much of a problem early on in the game, as there aren't too many narrow paths or puzzles, but this becomes a bit of an annoyance later in the game during some gym puzzles and when going up Mt. Coronet or making your way through Victory Road. This game is clearly built around the left stick rather than using the D-pad, at least from what I've experienced, because there isn't an option to walk diagonally using the D-pad, and I've experienced input lag with the D-pads of both my Pro Controller and Joy-Cons while playing. What happens is you end up sticking to the sides of narrow paths a lot of the time using the left stick, and with regards to the input lag/sticky button I experienced with the D-pad, here's my fourth attempt at trying to go right down this narrow path in Mt Coronet, pressing down once on the D-pad for each step:

This quickly brings me onto another unpolished element which can be seen in abundance in Mt. Coronet: the lack of a rolling animation for boulders using Strength. In the originals they gave the illusion of rolling with the boulders being round and the "shadow" moving across the top, but here...

@V. Amoleo mentioned Cycling Road being a place where following Pokémon can play up. Well here's what happens when you exit the cave underneath:

And here's what happens pretty much every time you need to run down a narrow path with your Pokémon in front of you:

And here's some alarming frame rate:

And here's a clip showing that Pokémon evolution is a lie, they're actually just trading places with their friends by going really, really small while their friend gets much, much bigger! 

And finally, something that I imagine is tied only to Manaphy but I found funny nonetheless: here's a Manaphy Egg in my PC, and here's Manaphy in my Pokédex before the egg even hatched (I can't remember if this happened in the original - I don't believe it did - but either way, it's very funny). 

There's also the awful Pokétch integration when not playing in handheld, and as far as I can tell the touchscreen doesn't work in battles? I've experienced and seen others experience a whole other variety of issues, but I'll leave it there for now. Point is: this is a very unpolished set of gems. 

I don't want to talk too much about the particulars of the soundtrack yet, like individual tracks and my favourites, but I think overall they've done an okay job with them. A very small pinch of the tracks might be better than the originals, but most of the tracks are very muted and understated when compared with the high energy of the originals. The jazzy feel and core is still there, it's just not capitalised on in the same way soundtracks for previous remakes managed to reimagine or revitalise tracks from their original counterparts. On the whole, there are fan compositions much more interesting and engaging than what we ended up with here. 

And I need to talk more to the feel and look of this game. It's just so...sterile. The overworld and character models look like they've been dragged out of a fan remake in Unity from 2010, which these days would be considered for a low effort mobile port. The depth of field changes from route to route, location to location, and it feels like it's trying to hide an uglier game. Dragging and dropping the look of in-battle models from Sword & Shield, perhaps with a new shader, just creates this jarring lack of cohesion between the overworld and battles. The overworld chibi models look hilariously hideous, helped all the while by their blank-faced appearances, which just contrasts so heavily against some of the better in-battle character animations I remember us seeing in Pokémon games since the move to 3D. Unfortunately, this just happens so infrequently that it's easy to miss, as it is very much concentrated in the home stretch of the main story, from Spear Pillar to the Elite Four and Champion. 

However, all of this being said, I had a fun time with Brilliant Diamond. The original game means a lot to me, and though the look, feel and sound is all a little off, getting to return to Diamond's version of Sinnoh - which I haven't experienced from beginning to end since I was 8 years old, some 14 years ago - has definitely put a smile on my face. After having a very poor experience with Sword (I've yet to go through the DLC, but it just didn't grab me AT ALL), returning to Sinnoh has reminded me of what I like about Pokémon, and got me in the mood to play more, albeit with certain conditions in place (turning battle animations off except for the big climactic battles, etc.). Being overleveled for so much of the game was a serious turn off, but realising that it actually is somewhat needed if there isn't really going to be any rebalancing going on in the long run, to just be around or below Cynthia's level when you reach the Champion's room, and have that final battle be just as lethal and as challenging as it was when I took her on 14 years ago? ILCA were faithful to a fault in other parts of the game, but giving me a seriously challenging Pokémon battle during the main story of a main series Pokémon game for the first time since the summer of 2007 made me feel like a little kid all over again, even if only for a fleeting moment. I still can't believe how gobsmacked I was by the challenge, and just how excited I was during that battle. For me, that made it well worth the price of admission. 

My verdict?

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are the definitive versions of the games they are faithfully remaking: Diamond & Pearl. Those games are just very tough to go back to these days. That being said, Platinum is still by far and away the definitive way to experience Sinnoh if you want a challenge and to feel like you're on an adventure, but if you want a low-stress nostalgic vacation in Sinnoh as someone who played any of those DS games, or for newcomers just a low-stress, entry-level Pokémon game, I think there's a fun time to be had here. It's totally in line with what the current crop of Pokémon games are, and have been since the transition to 3D. 

Regardless of ILCA's timeline for this (which I don't think was particularly long), it is another big step down in effort and polish compared to almost every other core series Pokémon game released in the franchise's 25 year history, and unfortunately continues the decline of the standards set for remakes in this series from definitive versions of stories we know with plenty of additional content - which in many ways make the originals and their enhanced versions obsolete - to faithful-to-a-fault, easy-to-a-fault, subjectively uglier, but on the whole inoffensive remakes. This game is the definition of manufactured, from it's soulless overworld character eyes to its world feeling like it has a layer of cling film wrapped over just about everything. 

It's hard not to be let down as someone who got to experience Gen IV on a primary school playground, and through the lens of HeartGold & SoulSilver has dreamed for a long time of what these remakes in the late 2010's or early 2020's could be: walking up to Spear Pillar in true 3D, with control of a left stick, and the pillars towering far above over you, seeing the towns and routes of Sinnoh from above. 

These games could have been so much more, and it's a shame that they weren't, but that I can take some enjoyment from them at all is much more than I was honestly expecting. 

What next for ILCA? 

As I mentioned before, and as @Sckewi mentioned above, I would gladly have this team - with a bit more time, and a bit more manpower - remake HeartGold and SoulSilver as they were, with their additional content and almost exactly like this, just with more attention given to the soundtrack, stronger visual direction (if we've got to see chibi models, at least make them look better than a low effort mobile game!), and a bit more time in the oven. I would much prefer that to Let's Go-style remakes, and I hope TPCi would give them the time to deliver. I'd 1000% be down for a low-stress return to Johto, and I actually think the current EXP Share might help balance the second half of a Glistening HeartGold and Shimmering SoulSilver. In fact, I'd also like to see them remake FireRed and LeafGreen too, again assuming they get more time to execute on it better than they did here. 

My only concern is if they will get that time for such a project. Legends: Arceus is still - somehow - slated for January, meaning that unless there's some DLC for that on the way, there won't be anything related to a core series Pokémon game releasing in the final quarter of a calendar year for the first time since 2015. That's an outcome that's really hard to imagine, so I hope ILCA aren't in a rush and having to churn something out in time for Q4 2022. If it wasn't for the Platinum outfit coming to Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, right now I would genuinely be thinking that a Platinum remake is going to be dropping next November. 

As for whatever is going to happen when it comes time to remake the adventures in Unova, I have no idea. Those are by far the most cinematic and plot-heavy of the main series Pokémon games, so I don't think a remake by ILCA based on their output with these games - much less a chibi set of remakes - would be suitable at all, so either they need a lot of help or Game Freak should take it on. Not to mention, whoever would be handling it, do they go about remaking Black & White and then Black & White 2? Because that would seem like an absurd workload. Heck, at this point, any combination of outcomes is possible: ILCA remaking both B&W and B&W2 in chibi form while Game Freak works on a Legends: Kyurem so that we can see the original dragon Pokémon, but I could just as well see Game Freak making a Black & White 3. So that will be an interesting one to think about for the next few years. 

And if I had to give it a score? 

5.0 / 10

An entire point is down to that Cynthia battle and getting to revisit Sinnoh, warts and all. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Julius

[V. Amoleo]

On 23/11/2021 at 6:11 AM, Glen-i said:

Sword/Shield did. It was just a lot more elegant.

Whenever that game used a full width text box (like in battles), it uses a different one then the traditional white rectangle.

That makes a lot of sense.  I mean it's not a massive issue or anything but it does feel like a lack of polish.  Like you said though, there was very tough time lines on a dev studio who's never lead on a project before.

 

18 hours ago, Julius said:

@V. Amoleo mentioned Cycling Road being a place where following Pokémon can play up. Well here's what happens when you exit the cave underneath:

 

I hadn't spotted that one!  Another partner Pokemon issue, that I found really amusing, involves the beach.  Just before you get there you can talk to a man who says something about leaving footprints in the sand and how Pokemon love to do it too.  Except when you actually arrive, your Pokemon just floats above the sand leaving no footprints.  It felt like a big "d'oh!" moment.  They should have at least cut that line.

 

I've had that weird no interaction bug again a few times.  I thought it was something to do with the day/night time turning over but yesterday it happened well before then.

[Glen-i]

Right, I've started filling in the Pokédex proper, so I'm gonna give a list of Pearl exclusives I have that I'd be willing to trade for various Diamond exclusives once I get a Ditto.

Spoiler

Sandshrew

Magby

Pinsir

Misdreavus

Teddiursa

Seviper

Lunatone

Bagon

Shieldon

Glameow

Palkia (Don't get too excited, I'll only do a trade-back with a Dialga, I bought Pearl for a damn reason, you know?)

I'll update it as I get more, but that's what I have now.

[Emerald Emblem]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Right, I've started filling in the Pokédex proper, so I'm gonna give a list of Pearl exclusives I have that I'd be willing to trade for various Diamond exclusives once I get a Ditto.

  Glen's Pearly Whites (Hide contents)

Misdreavus

I'll update it as I get more, but that's what I have now.

I have a spare Murkrow. Misdreavous was the one Pearl exclusive I wanted. Probably gonna have to do it tomorrow morning though since I have work in an hour.

[Glen-i]

So there's this NPC that wants to see a Kecleon, because she has amazing taste.

If I remember right, she gives you the Colour Changer Pokétch app.

Problem is, Kecleon is a Diamond exclusive! So, Diamond players can get all the apps, but Pearl players need outside help to do the same!

Someone proper goofed up with that choice!

Edited November 25, 2021 by Glen-i

[Scratch]

I have a question on how exp distribution works in this game.

The best way I can explain my question is with example, I've most likely got the amounts wrong, but hopefully it will make sense.

Let's say I defeated a level 20 Bidoof, no switching Pokemon.

If I had 6 Pokemon on my team, my first Pokemon will get so much exp, let's just say 500, and the others will also get so much (a little less), let's say 300.

But, if when I defeated the Bidoof, I only had 2 Pokemon on my team. Will my first Pokemon still get 500, and the other one 300, or will it be different, like would they both get more?

I hope I've explained the question well enough!

What I'm trying to figure out is if I'm trying to raise a lower level Pokemon up to level of the rest of my team, is there any benefit to removing Pokemon from my team while training (e.g. just having a high level one and the one I'm trying to catch up until if can fend for itself) (and other than my entire team becoming overleveled xD)

Edit: And I've just realised it probably would have took me 5 minutes to test this myself, so sorry about that lol xD. I'll edit this post later with the results if no-ones replied by then!

Edited November 25, 2021 by Sckewi

[Glen-i]

46 minutes ago, Sckewi said:

I have a question on how exp distribution works in this game.

The best way I can explain my question is with example, I've most likely got the amounts wrong, but hopefully it will make sense.

Let's say I defeated a level 20 Bidoof, no switching Pokemon.

If I had 6 Pokemon on my team, my first Pokemon will get so much exp, let's just say 500, and the others will also get so much (a little less), let's say 300.

But, if when I defeated the Bidoof, I only had 2 Pokemon on my team. Will my first Pokemon still get 500, and the other one 300, or will it be different, like would they both get more?

I hope I've explained the question well enough!

What I'm trying to figure out is if I'm trying to raise a lower level Pokemon up to level of the rest of my team, is there any benefit to removing Pokemon from my team while training (e.g. just having a high level one and the one I'm trying to catch up until if can fend for itself) (and other than my entire team becoming overleveled xD)

Edit: And I've just realised it probably would have took me 5 minutes to test this myself, so sorry about that lol xD. I'll edit this post later with the results if no-ones replied by then!

It makes no difference, you'll still get 500 for the Pokémon taking part, and 300 for those that didn't, no matter how empty your team is.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Glen-i

[Glen-i]

16 hours ago, Emerald Emblem said:

I have a spare Murkrow. Misdreavous was the one Pearl exclusive I wanted. Probably gonna have to do it tomorrow morning though since I have work in an hour.

I've got your Misdreavus, try and give me some advance notice for when you're ready to trade, because I might be on Animal Crossing.

[Glen-i]

@Julius, not sure if you already have, but if you have the National Dex, it's well worth your time to go see the development team at Valour Lakefront.

[Glen-i]

 

[Julius]

4 hours ago, Glen-i said:

@Julius, not sure if you already have, but if you have the National Dex, it's well worth your time to go see the development team at Valour Lakefront.

Yeah, first place I went to check just to see what they said after seeing everything in the Sinnoh Dex  great reward, though in handheld mode it sounds awfully...tinny? 

Anyways, haven't been able to play too much this week unfortunately, so will probably spend the weekend focusing on catching more exclusives