Game Freak’s planned Pokemon Black and White remakes for Nintendo Switch will reportedly follow in the footsteps of the underwhelming Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games.
Unlike previous Pokemon remakes, the aforementioned Sinnoh remakes were outsourced to another studio instead of being made in-house at Game Freak. While fans were disappointed with the remakes, sales were still high, and that plan seems to be continuing with upcoming Unova remakes.
Infamous Pokemon insider Pyoro revealed that they have heard that remakes of Black and White were being worked on at a separate company last year. However, this information could be outdated right now.
“I’ve headed of an outsourced unova-related game. The info was from last year so it may turn out to be inaccurate,” Pyoro said. “This is not a leak and should be taken with a grain of salt. I'm just sharing something I’m aware of.”
However, Pyoro’s statements were quickly backed up by another infamous Pokemon leaker: Kelios. In a tweet, the leaker simply posted an image of the Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl trailers saying: “Prepare to experience the brilliance again.”
Obviously, Kelios’ tweet hints that the upcoming Pokemon Black and White remakes will follow the same disappointing trend as Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Hopefully, the remakes will at least stray away from the ugly visuals of the last remake’s overworld.
On the other hand, Game Freak is reportedly working on multiple Pokemon games including Pokemon Let’s Go Johto games as well as the next generation of the series. Additionally, the studio will likely create more games in the Legends subseries in the future following the success of Arceus.
Game Freak has been highly criticised for its recent entries in the series, especially with the huge success of the survival crafting game Palworld. Hopefully, the upcoming Unova remakes will at least be much better than Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. While not bad games, they lack the quality of past remakes in the series.
In the past, Pokemon remakes used to bring older games to newer formulas. For example, Fire Red and Leaf Green took the original games into the then-modern Hoenn visuals and gameplay and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire took the Hoenn games and remade them in full 3D. Unfortunately, the Sinnoh remakes didn’t bring the region into the then-current Galar style.
Game Freak has yet to announce the next Pokemon games, but a new Pokemon Presents should show them off on February 27, 2024.