Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl revealed with new 2021 trailer

The Pokemon franchise is heading back to the Sinnoh region, as it’s been revealed that Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl remakes are coming to Switch this year.

Pokemon players have been waiting for remakes of the beloved Gen IV games Diamond & Pearl for well over a decade now, as the titles first released on the Nintendo DS console to critical acclaim way back in 2006.

Now, as the games celebrate their 15th anniversary, fans have finally got their wish granted. The new remakes, titled Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, were announced during the Pokemon Presents livestream on Thursday, February 26.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl release date

While there’s no official release date yet, The Pokemon Company have promised that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be released on Nintendo Switch in Late 2021.

• Read More: Open-world Pokemon Legends Arceus game revealed

Typically, mainline Pokemon games are released in October or November, so we’ll have to wait and see if Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl follow the same pattern.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl trailer

The Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl reveal also came with a new trailer, which showed off what the remakes will look like on Nintendo Switch.

While the game features the same turn-based battles as Sword & Shield, it has a 3D chibi art style that looks like a mix between the old-school Pokemon titles and the more recent Let’s Go! games.

The sense of scale from the original games has been preserved, and you’ll be able to travel through all the locations you loved from your first time in the Sinnoh region. Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup will be your starters once again.

Breaking with tradition, the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes are being developed by a company called ILCA, who also worked on Pokemon HOME, in partnership with Junichi Masuda from Game Freak.

The news has come as a surprise to longtime fans, as Game Freak is the studio behind every core title in the franchise so far, dating all the way back to the originals Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow in the 1990s.

Why aren’t Game Freak working on these remakes? Well, they’re working on an epic Sinnoh prequel called Pokemon Legends Arceus, which will feature an open-world feudal Sinnoh for players to explore in 2022.

We’ll update this article as more information, including a release date, is revealed.